Can't Find It At Amazon? Orwell's 2004

Wasn't it just a few entries ago we quoted the GOPer propaganda expert saying the real power of negative ads is in defining a story for the "free media", including the phony news outlets? The so-called Swift Boat Vets ads have become the textbook example in just two weeks, as a half million dollar ad buy in a handful of states has become the best known 15 seconds of the campaign, thanks to it being run over and over by rabid right talk shows and journalistically challenged cable news outlets.

For the story of the ad, why the people who appear in it are lying, and who financed it---not just GOPer fat cats, but those with direct ties to the Bushes and especially GW's secretary of cynicism, department of lies, distortions and dirty tricks: Karl Rove--here's a link to the New York Times story of 8/20.

The New York Times %3E Washington %3E Campaign 2004 %3E Friendly Fire%3A The Birth of an Anti-Kerry Ad

For a sickening chronicle of the media's compliance, you can go through the recent archives of
the Daily Howler.

Pack journalism, first exposed as such in Timothy Crouse's 1972 book, THE BOYS ON THE BUS, is weakness enough in the information media upon which a free society depends. So is the usual domination by owners rich enough to own the presses. But then the Fairness Doctrine was thrown out, meaning that rabid right radio could spread lies with no redress. Then TV news became a profit center, and then 24 hour operations on cable, with the emphasis on pretty faces and fast talking provocateurs. Spill all that over a population kept stupid by a combination of social pressure, bad schools, slogan culture and a 25 hr work day, and you've got the makings of Orwell Updated from 1984 to 2004. Big Adolf would be green with envy.