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Beware the coming propaganda juggernautThe public's money is already being spent to sell privatization -- one P.R. firm is being paid $1.8 million by the Social Security Administration.
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Evidently, the idea is to use the credibility of the Social Security Administration itself to undermine people's confidence in the system. After all, the majority of Americans won't necessarily believe arguments for privatization and against Social Security that emanate from Republican and business front groups. They are far more likely to respond to a warning from the most successful and efficient agency in the government.
Exactly what Bush's minions at the SSA have been up to, aside from writing strategy plans, isn't clear yet. To find out, Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a liberal public interest group, filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the SSA last month. Sloan asked for "records of any contacts between the agency and outside public affairs firms," notably including any dealings with Ketchum and Fleishman-Hillard -- the Washington P.R. giants recently implicated in the administration's pundit payola and news management scandals. Public records show that the SSA already has entered into a $1.8 million consulting contract with Fleishman-Hillard.
The Social Security administrators don't seem eager to disclose their public relations spending. So far, Sloan has received no response at all from the SSA officials who handle FOIA requests, although the 20-day legal deadline for an answer has passed. This week she filed suit against the agency in federal district court in Washington, demanding that the appropriate records be turned over to her. The news that has leaked out about the SSA's public information campaign suggests that messages are being coordinated somewhere. The would-be privatizers of the Social Security system, whether in government or out, have begun by amplifying the "crisis" atmosphere and irrational fears of "bankruptcy" that right-wing groups and politicians have encouraged for many years now. They have lined up phony grass-roots organizations financed by corporate largesse, in this case a retread of an old Richard Viguerie fundraising scam formerly known as United Seniors Association, which was recently renamed USA Next. (As Talking Points Memo revealed Wednesday, USA Next has been operating from the offices of a direct-mail firm that also works for the Republican National Committee -- in other words, for Karl Rove.)
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Link:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2005/02/25/propaganda/index.htmlSo... apparently... WE will be funding the demise of Social Security!!!
:grr::nuke::mad:
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