MEDIA-US: "Fascism" Frame Set Up by Right-Wing Press

[Cell Whitman]

The usual media suspects till the field for the “fascist appeasement” frame.

MEDIA-US:"Fascism" Frame Set Up by Right-Wing Press

Analysis by Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Aug 31 (IPS) - The aggressive new campaign by the administration of President George W. Bush to depict U.S. foes in the Middle East as "fascists" and its domestic critics as "appeasers" owes a great deal to steadily intensifying efforts by the right-wing press over the past several months to draw the same comparison.

The Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox News Network and The Weekly Standard, as well as the Washington Times, which is controlled by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church, and the neo-conservative New York Sun, have consistently and with increasing frequency framed the challenges faced by Washington in the region in the context of the rise of fascism and Nazism in the 1930s, according to a search of the Nexis database by IPS. …

Even more striking, the same terms were used in 115 different articles or columns in the Washington Times, compared with only eight in the Washington Post over the same period, according to a breakdown by Nexis.

Similarly, the Washington Times used the words "appease" or "appeasement" -- a derogatory reference to efforts by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to avoid war with Nazi Germany before the latter's invasion of Poland -- in 25 different articles or columns that dealt with alleged threats posed by Ahmadinejad, compared to six in the Post and only three in the New York Times. ….

Thus, the Washington Times published 95 articles and columns that featured the words "fascism" or "fascist" and "Iraq" over the past year, twice as many as appeared in the New York Times during the same period. More than half of the Washington Times' articles were published in just the past three months -- three times as many as appeared in the New York Times.

Similarly, the National Review led all magazines and journals with 66 such references over the past year, followed by 48 in The American Spectator, and 14 by The Weekly Standard. Together, those three publications accounted for more than half of all articles with those words published by the more than three dozen U.S. periodicals catalogued by Nexis since last September. ...

Moon’s propaganda outlet must figure if they point their fingers at others enough, then people won’t notice who the real culprit is. Moon has spent billions pushing the nation hard right and theocratic – he has more than received his money’s worth from his political manipulation tool, the voice of conservatism and the Republican Party, the Washington Times.

"…all the secular forms of ism should disappear. Democracy, too, should disappear. Worst foundation is the democratic system. Party-fighting system. That is not God's concept." (Sun Myung Moon - September 8, 1996 Belvedere -- International Training Center)

From Robert Parry

By the mid-1980s, Moon’s Unification Church had carved out a niche as an acceptable part of the American right. In one speech to his followers, Moon boasted that “without knowing it, even President Reagan is being guided by Father (Moon).” Yet, Moon also made clear that his longer-range goal was the destruction of the U.S. Constitution and America’s democratic form of government. “History will make the position of Reverend Moon clear, and his enemies, the American population and government will bow down to him.” Moon said, speaking of himself in the third person. “That is Father’s tactic, the natural subjugation of the American government and population.”

Behind the Times Who Pulls The Strings at Washington's No. 2 Daily?

By Fred Clarkson

What are the intentions of those who own and control the Washington Times? The Koreagate probe revealed that the Moon organization functions as a highly integrated unit; each component may maintain the appearance of independence as a means towards larger ends. James Whelan believes he was forced out of the paper because he was too independent.

Opposition to constitutional democracy is a theological premise of The Divine Principle, the basic text of Unificationism. Moon's speeches are riddled with contempt for "American-style democracy," which he denigrates as "a good nursery for the growth of Communism." "We must have an automatic theocracy to rule the world," Moon has declared.

Former top UC official Steve Hassan believes that the Washington Times is a "Trojan horse" within the conservative movement. Hassan told EXTRA!, "Conservative politics is glad to have a voice through the Times, but ultimately it has nothing to do with conservatism. It has to do with fascism."

Origin of some of Moon’s billions which he used to finance the right’s rise to power in America and reach his goals.

[grasswire]

1. It's Hillary's vast right-wing conspiracy

They'll never stop trying to destroy America.

[AX10]

2. The "right wing media" also includes the Cabal "News" outlets along with..

the Whitewash Post.

[Cell Whitman]

3. they work together - not to inform but to manipulate people's minds

- conservatism is a cultic movement.

Newt's GOPAC memo was another example of manipulating minds as opposed to selling people on your "ideas'...

It is not a conspiracy - they do it in the open, it's just that people don't understand what they do - how it works...

[silverweb]

4. This is a very important analysis.

The thing I can't stop thinking about is the deliberate corruption of words and concepts used by the left to vilify them. This use of fascism, for instance. If you look at the _characteristics of fascism_, each and every one of them applies to the RW, not to those the RW is attempting to vilify with the term.

This calculated and deliberate subversion of terms is something that we have to loudly and persistently hammer at. Take each of the defining characteristics of fascism individually and demonstrate how it applies to the current administration and the neocons, not we who oppose them.

The RW loves to play semantic games, and use projection and misdirection to smear us.

Don't let them get away with it.

[Cell Whitman]

5. Thanks for the link...didn't Malloy read it once?

I am not sure what this line means in your post

The thing I can't stop thinking about is the deliberate corruption of words and concepts used by the left to vilify them.

But thanks a lot for the link. Didn't Malloy read this before?

I think the left lost a lot of time the last few years by not framing the right as what it is ...exactly what this link of your says...

http://www.veteransforpeace.org/The_14_characteristics_030303.htm

[Supersedeas]

6. rinse repeat and catapult the propoganda enough and even Dimson can get

the RW base to believe that wrong is right, up is down, and 2 + 2 = 5.