Sunday, October 09, 2005

Is Press Cowed By Terror Warnings?

Craig Crawford is columnist for Congressional Quarterly, on-air analyst for MSNBC, CNBC and CBS’ “Early Show” and author of a new book titled, “Attack The Messenger: How Politicians Turn You Against The Media.” He is very skeptical about how the news media seems to take terror warnings at face value despite the pattern of politicians provoking these episodes at suspiciously opportune moments. Is Press Cowed By Terror Warnings?, he asks:
"Even more disturbing to me in yesterday's subway warning was New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's comment that a news outlet had gotten the story two days earlier but agreed to withhold releasing it until the government gave the green light. Perhaps Bloomberg's position on this will turn out to be credible, but his claim that the extra time was needed for law enforcement to handle this threat seems worth questioning.

The result was that a news media outlet was persuaded to join a conspiracy of silence until the government was ready to announce the news, which happened to coincide with White House strategy for Bush's speech and also just so happened to serve as a neat distraction from Rove's latest bad news.

Fear is a powerful weapon, thats why politicians, terrorists, businesses and just about anyone who wants mind control depends on it. Only the the truth can set you free, as the old cliche goes.