Hillary’s Propaganda Machine
I ran into an interesting piece in Slate today and thought I’d share it with you:
Politicians don’t call it dissembling, deceiving, or lying. They call it media management, and no administration has practiced this black art better in recent times than that of President Bill Clinton. In his 1998 book, Spin Cycle: Inside the Clinton Propaganda Machine, Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post describes how, after the disastrous first half of the first term, the Clintonites learned how to stage and contain the news by “alternately seducing, misleading, and sometimes intimidating the press.” …
…These lessons weren’t lost on Hillary Clinton, in part because she taught many of them after having endured what she considered two years of press hell. As “co-president,” she already held a “distrust of the press … even deeper than her husband’s” when she arrived in Washington, Kurtz writes. And she acted on it. Shortly after Clinton took office, she proposed evicting the White House press corps from the West Wing and resettling them in the Old Executive Office Building, he reports.
She nursed grudges against specific publications, freezing them out. When the press criticized her—inevitable given her centrality in the White House—she withdrew even more. She thought that the Whitewater affair “had turned her into red meat” and that the Washington Post and its editor, Leonard Downie Jr., were out to get her.
The Clintons learned the importance of knowing how to take a punch, but more essentially, they learned how to change the subject and how to selectively use the White House megaphone to drown out negative stories. Clinton chucked mini-initiatives into the media air, where they worked like chaff to flummox the news radar of the press corps. He and his spokesmen stayed on message to control the agenda, sidetracking unwanted questions with quick, disdainful responses. The goal was to “manage the news, to package the presidency in a way that people would buy the product,” Kurtz writes.
Does he have her pegged, or what?
A little off-topic, but Wednesday I was at the allergist’s office for my allergy shot.
One of the patients in the waiting area started talking about co-pays etc. and then stated if Hillary is elected we won’t be able to afford health care.
There were about ten people in there and everyone started talking and agreeing. Not one–black, white or purple plans to vote for Hillary Clinton. We also agreed we are very disappointed in Lindsay Graham.
Food for thought.
Written by ~J~
Sue Says:
October 25th, 2007 at 2:05 amVisit Sue
Interesting piece J.
Of course we all know that any criticism the Clintons received or are receiving now are a product of a vast right wing conspiracy.
I have never had the pleasure of actually knowing anyone who is supposedly as intelligent as both Clintons who know so little when they are personally challenged.
~J~ Says:
October 25th, 2007 at 4:45 amVisit ~J~
They certainly do have bad memories, don’t they?