Anyone who thinks we don't have Ministries of Propaganda...

[McKenzie]

read the link. It's from late 2003 as far as I can tell. No doubt the operation will have been wound down and the $200 million operating budget (see article) allocated to other essential government work - the turra alerts of late are undoubtedly real and not propaganda.

Sarcasm apart the possibility that there is a propaganda machine out there, with a huge budget, is bloody frightening.

(There is specific mention of the tie up between the US and the UK propaganda mechanisms which is why I used a plural in the subject line)

One comment in the article struck me as mighty interesting>>>

<snip1>

One of the mistakes, Rendon said, was that while they had taken command of the story, they had "lost control of the context." The problem was the veteran newsmen in the networks: they had "too much control of context," Rendon complained. "That has to be fixed for the next war," Rendon declared.

</snip1>

I wonder which "next war" this Rendon dude was thinking about?

Another interesting snippet (OGC in the extract stands for Office of Global Communications)>>>

<snip2>

Mapping the Ministry of Propaganda, a historic merging of politics, militarism and public "perception management." The Coalition Information Center with offices in the London, Islamabad and the White House started work in mid-2002 (six months before it was officially authorized by an Executive Order). In 2003, the CIC morphed into the Office of Global Communications, staffed by Tucker Eskew, Dan Bartllett, Jeff Jones, Peter Reid. The OGC works closely with the White House Iraq Group, which consists of Karl Rove, Condi Rice, Jim Wilkinson, Stephen Hadley, Scooter Libby, Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin, and Nicholas Callo.

</snip2>

http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/smith_gar_on_us_govt_falsehoods.html

[Poppyseedman]

1. Every war has it share of propaganda feed to the media

for mass consumption.

This has a long history, all administrations have done it, maybe not to this extent, but it is done.

[McKenzie]

3. fully aware of that Poppyseedman

it's the sheer scale of this version that worries me.

[baldguy]

4. This propaganda machine isn't for the war you're thinking of.

For the GOP, the war was to get control of the media, then the government. Thus the "War On Terror" now can and does include every type of opponent of the Republican Regime - from the remnants of al Queda in Afghanistan & Pakistan, to the Iraqi patriots fighting to liberate their homeland, to EU governments withdrawing their traditional support for American policies because of the current insanity coming from Washington, to individuals involved in global mass demonstrations, to American patriots like John Kerry trying to to liberate their country.

If you post on sites like this, if you have an anti-Bush or anti-war bumper sticker, if you read or see the "wrong" kind of news - you are an enemy of the state.

[xchrom]

2. repukes have no problem

with exercising new ideas to stay in power and control information.

now if only demcrats would....