Genetically Modified Mouthpieces

In 2003 when I was working as an anchor for a San Francisco television station, anchors and reporters across the country were asked by the White House to refer to the Iraqi invasion as Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF).

We were asked to call the war in Afghanistan Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). Operation Infinite Justice (OIJ) had a rocky start because most of America's Arab allies were offended. Muslims believed only Allah could provide "Infinite Justice."

Even so, with press releases in hand journalists repeated genetically modified words as if their DNA depended upon it.

Genetically modified language is when propaganda wins, journalists sell out and the public loses. It is when words are twisted and massaged and spun until an entire suit of lies is woven to cover the guilty and cloak the truth.

The Genetically Modified language, in the case of Iraq, was full of false bravado and moral superiority, in attempts to turn lies into honorable causes our dear children were willing to go to war for.

But nothing caught on like "The War on Terror." It was a White House propaganda bonanza! Whole networks built their news around swirling "War on Terror" graphics and anchors began stories with "Today in the War on Terror," while most of the world considered Americans the terrorists.

That's when I pulled up lame and refused to dance the destructive dance. Most of us who complained are gone now after some pretty nasty break ups.

Journalists as conduits of mass manipulation. I was too naïve to understand it was nothing new. The lies were as poisonous as the tons of saran, mustard and VX nerve agents President Bush told us Saddam wanted to use on us.

But, as the lies began scrubbing the girl away and the woman's eyes opened, I started seeing the media's complicity in the pain and death that followed. I read every book on propaganda I could find. I quickly learned Genetically Modified language was one of Joseph Goebbels favorite propaganda tools. We dopes got duped.

Even so, many corporate "journalists" eagerly grabbed an American flag pining it to their lapels. Rooting for the war is much easier than asking hard questions to reveal a conflict based on lies and a country led by liars.

Hard questions lead to other hard questions. Linear logic in this case is frightening.

We all wanted desperately to believe the White House Mantras. Many are still repeating subtle propaganda in the name of patriotism on our nightly newscasts today. That's why I am writing this now.

As you most likely are standing in judgment, I offer up this sliver of attempted redemption.

Journalist like most Americans are patriots too, we don't want to believe the government is lying, but as odious as it may sound to the "My Country Right or Wrong" people, finding and revealing those lies used to be our job.

"The Fourth Branch" was created to watch the government and anyone else using lies to gain power and profit at the expense of the safety and security of the American people.

Also, I ask the American public to consider their own role in the Iraqi quagmire.

Five years ago, when President Bush likened Saddam to Hitler in order to justify going to war, questioning the President's motives was considered by corporate America unpatriotic. Corporations exist for one reason: to make money.

Patriotism and genetically modified language delivered to newsrooms directly from the White House was easy. The words were powerful because "War on Terror" not only sounds authoritative, it makes a great graphic! All the polls agreed!

The President's approval rating was high when America invaded Iraq and the media corporations blow toward the money. More viewers = more money. So patriotism was served up instead of unbiased news.

The media corporations began buying anchors and reporters who did not understand their part in the body bags. Anchors, producers and assignment editors who would go along to get alone were hired, and they got to keep their pay checks and health coverage. This is why Disney, Viacom, Westinghouse, G.E., Murdoch and Cox should not own newsrooms. They are often the very ones the press should investigate.

Cognitive journalists can now see that using the White House genetically modified language with unquestioning devotion is one of the many reasons we lost the public trust five years ago.

The Fourth Branch our fore-fathers envisioned is broken. We became stenographers. Does the red-tally light on that newsroom camera lobotomize us? Part of the problem is putting corporate anchors in anchor chairs where reporters should be. Certainly experienced reporters would notice the genetically modified words and their own complicity when it seems completely lost on those covered in layers of lip-gloss.

Now that former Press Secretary and once staunch Bush ally, Scott McClellan is walking toward redemption and has found the courage to speak the truth, the "deer in the headlights" look on his face as he turned in his resignation makes perfect sense. I knew something was up.

Practicing prevarication for a living wears most people down.

Now that the president's approval rating has plummeted, it no longer takes courage to toss the White House pompoms in the trash heap and the genetically modified language with it.

With Bush's approval rating lower than a snakes belly, no commercials will be lost if journalists are brave now, but we have lost more than we ever imagined, "the penultimate loss" nearly five thousand dead American soldiers.

I propose journalists stop repeating Genetically Modified White House language, but they also go a step further. I am about to fall on my sword here, so please open your mind.

On the very day it was leaked that Scott McClellan's book reveals the country went to war based on known lies, the sweetest shiniest, dimple faced, airbrushed Bay Area Murdoch girl began a broadcast by announcing:

"Another American has given his life for his country today."

Here is the falling on the sword part.

I was once that girl, but girls someday grow into women. Today I know that soldier was one of thousands who bravely believed in what the president said and died believing a lie the press helped promote.

I propose to this anchor women and hundreds of others like her, all of whom I imagine to be nice people, read this instead:

"Another American has died in Iraq today, he was a beloved brother and child and he was number 4,084."

Then perhaps follow that with the number of wounded Iraqi veterans 30,329.

In an attempt at truly unbiased journalism, end with the number 1,217.892 Iraqis who have lost their lives.

If this war, as McClellan says, and dozens of other experts have pointed out, was based on a great lie, let's honor those who were brave and noble and willing to believe the lie by bringing them home alive and stop repeating Genetically Modified words that glorify a conflict American journalists could have helped prevent by putting their pompoms down.

Comments

[LynnElizabeth]

Thank you, Leslie! This war has been sanitized by the government, through the media, and I am so angered that this administration has gotten away with these tactics. Think back to the reporting of the Vietnam war: Every night on the evening news the reporters were on the battlefield, and every night we saw the injured, maimed, dying, and dead soldiers being carted off the field on stretchers; we saw the blood, we saw what remained of their limbs dangling off the side of the stretchers, we saw the terror in the soldiers' eyes. At 54 I still have vivid memories of these scenes, and I have made sure my daughters know what (as well as the fact THAT) we were allowed to view during the 60's and 70's.

These brave young men and women deserve nothing less than to be counted, in a big way, each time one of them loses a life, or limb, or cognitive function. For the thousands who return "in tact," most will never be the same after living the horrors of war. This president sent - and redeployed, in many cases - these idealistic young Americans into Iraq with his lies. The lies continue with the compliance of the media.

[tanghorse]

"We became stenographers."

Thank you.

It is like hearing someone who hurt you long ago finally say they are sorry and your heart shifts to give up that grudge. That sounds corny, but that is exactly how I feel. On the day the war in Iraq began, my husband and I went to a restaurant and argued with other patrons about the war. They really believed that Iraq had attacked us on September 11th. Because that's what their government led them to believe. I felt like a pariah for many years and I am so relieved that this is finally starting to come out.

Living in Texas, I remember when Bush beat Ann Richards for Governor and felt at the time that his success was based on name recognition, connections and money. We researched his background at the library at the time and were able to have a head start on realizing that most of us weren't included in his agenda. He has always been a divider, not a uniter.

I appreciate what you wrote, for all of us.

[glesslib]

The entire concept of a "War on Terror" was lost on me from the beginning. Terror is terror. You don't know who you are fighting, where they will appear next or what strategy they will use. So, how can you fight terrorists until the last one is gone? That can never happen, just by the nature of what they do.

We gave extraordinary powers to this president to fight a war that cannot be won "until all the terrorists are gone". That would be an impossible objective to reach, since you have no way of proving that all terrorists are ever gone. So, we gave this president and his those who follow him extraordinary powers forever.

This was something I talked about with my husband back in the frenzied days when we started this mess. He didn't think that would be a problem, that these guys were just protecting the American people. Now, all we have to do is wrest these powers back from an executive branch that is entirely out of control.....that ignores congressional subpeonas, claims the VP is not a part of the executive or the judicial branches of government, that lies to us to reach its own ends.

But it's all good. We'll win the war on terror someday....won't we?

[tompoe]

Not good enough, Leslie. Put the pompoms down, and receive a congratulation. Ask the question, a simple one, and you gain redemption. Ask every chicken hawk, every pretend official, to explain the total lack of compliance to the laws of physics that accompanied the fall of the towers and building #7 on 9/11. A satisfactory answer will quickly lead to other questions that ultimately will bring the war criminals to justice. One question, Leslie. Do you have the courage to ask it?

[Karen80]

I'm not quite sure what you're suggesting here. Leslie has put the pompoms down and is treading into waters few journalists have ever ventured. She's asking the questions journalists employed by corporate-­controlled media are too afraid to ask. Bravo, Leslie.

[ProfessorR]

If you haven't already seen it, you would appreciate Amy Goodman's Independent Media in a Time of War:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6546453033984487696

[HeevenSteven]

Genetically modified language; I like it. Thanks Leslie, keep it up. It seems to me that the majority of Americans are still not aware of how bad our media problem is; and we have the best known and widely respected broadcast network media people like Brokaw, Williams, etc heaping on the obfuscation. I hate to use this cliche, but it's Orwellian.

[Clairvaux]

Great post!

[westwind]

Thank you, Leslie. The conversion and redemption of administration flacks and compliant journalists may be too late to prevent the carnage that has occurred thus far, but truth is always welcome, and if it helps prevent the next big lie succeeding, and causes a greater understanding in society of how this propaganda works, it is a very positive thing.

[AlexHidell]

Scott McClellan's book begs the question now: should Bush be investigated for TREASON. Outing Valerie Plame and her company put lives at risk not to mention destroying an anti-nucle­ar-prolife­ration program the CIA had in operation. I also note that an Obama administration WILL investigate these matters and hopefully, as someone above noted, do a redo of the 9-11 Commission Report's cover-ups for the Bush mal-administration.

Restore the Constitution; restore habeas corpus, restore the Bill of Rights, restore journalism to its rightful place as 'watchdog' of democracy.

[balkanboy]

Hallelujah, Leslie!!! I am glad to find out there are intelligent AND courageous people in this country! Leslie, if you asked the Dubya about gas prices going up - you know what - he might tell you this is the best thing that happened to the American Economy! And we (or the blessed journalists) would have to applaud it! He might even tell you that the nearly 5,000 dead and the 30 thousand injured are a small price to pay for the Victory over Terror.
But has anyone yet defined what constitutes Victory in Iraq? I grew up away form this brainwashing machine in the embraces of another one. So I feel immune to both. And I keep asking my friends, the attorneys, the corporate guys, the yuppies over dinner and beer - Define Victory in Iraq, for me, please!
Could you please ask that question for me Leslie? America will thank us for finding that answer, you know...