Petraeus Finds Friendly Home for Propaganda on FOX
By SilentPatriot Monday Sep 10, 2007 12:31pm
During his "exclusive" interview with Brit Hume on FOX last night, the objective and entirely trustworthy General Petraeus continued his propaganda blitz for a full hour, with nary an adversarial question about the GAO report or any of the other truly independent (and entirely contradictory) assesments. It's quite fitting that FOX billed the interview as "a briefing for America," because that's exactly what it was: a briefing, an hour-long extension of his Congressional testimony. In this clip, watch Hume prod Petraeus into explaining how the war in Iraq is really a "war against al Qaeda."
Download | play 
Download | play
I don't want (nor do I expect) Hume to berate Petraeus with a credibility-questioning line of inquiry. What I do expect from a so-called straight-shooting journalist is a "fair and balanced" Q&A about the conflicting reports of violence and/or the wisdom of maintaining a military commitment when 70% of Iraqis believe the "surge" has worsened their lives; not someone to help Petraeus point to his colorful charts and ask blatantly leading questions. Then again, we're talking about FOX NEWS and Brit Hume here. It should come as no surprise that FOX landed this "exclusive." As pathetic as our national press is, any other network/journalist would have managed to squeeze in at least a few hardballs.
As Josh Marshall notes:
The "exclusive" is also helpfully interspersed with commercials from the White House-organized pro-Iraq War astroturf group Freedom's Watch.
Matt Stoller and OpenLeft have started an online petition urging the DC Establishment to begin viewing General Petraeus' recent statements through the prism of his long history of inaccuracies. Sign it here and review his record here.
Glenn chimes in: Brit Hume and the Bush administration take propaganda to a new level
Login or Register to post comments.
NO one watches Faux Noise but totally ignorant, uninformed and uneducated individuals.
Back from Iraq:
A fleecing for America
Doggiebobo @ 1:
The Government?
Playing to the audience…
“…and you see this little squiggly line here means good. We have a bunch of good lines like that. This other squiggly line means bad. We don’t have many of these lines. So what we’re doing in Iraq, you see, is really good. That’s what all these lines tell us…”
Thank you for playing…
FOXAGANDA, produced by the RNC.
What else would you expect from the Republican Al Jazeera Network and BushCo's Minister of Propaganda? (my apologies for the demotion Tony Snow)
Funny how the all-important 'balance' always seems to work only in one direction.
It`s FREEDOM`SWATCH to the rescue with the commercials cheering on the war and supporting our troops..On Hardball, when asked the soldier`s name who was in their commercial,Ari Fleischer didn`t know.
How many of you believe commercials anyway?
Why FOX?Why not Katie Couric?
Nothing like pointing out a Powerpoint chart on a Plasma screen television with a wooden stick. Makes you aware of his tech level.
The sad thing is he also found a happy home on NPR. I was listening to the radio while driving home yesterday and there was the story, without a single dissenting voice. All you heard was Petraeus's report being presented as if it was straight news: The Surge Is Working! Violence Is Down! The only other voice in the report was the credulous Ann Gerralds, in bed with, excuse me, "embedded" with the 82nd Airborne, and told us how gung-ho the troops were. Duh! As if the Army is going to embed a reporter with troops who don't toe the party line. NPR must mean "No Problems for Republicans." The same hour featured a report with quotes from Chertoff and Michael McConnel with the latest FEAR FEAR FEAR tactics; the islamojihadosexuals are coming to eat your children unless you let us gut the Constitution! Be Afraid. Again, no dissenting voice at all.
I don't know how long this has been a problem, but these videos are not playable or downloadable now.
3 Question about Petraus' report:
Slide #12. What's the break-down of Iraqi Security Forces Capabilities by Army, Police, and Special Operating Force Battalions? What is a "Special Operating Force"? Are they the men under direction of tribal chiefs? What stops one or more of these tribal chiefs from becoming another Saddam?
Slide #13. How does the proposed reduction differ from Vietnamization?
What are these proposed "cyberspace initiatives" that are critical to success? Are we talking censorship on the Internet?
Links to Petraus' report: Slides and Testimony in PDF format.
Glenn's article points out how strange this was. I saw parts of it and Hume was a facilitator not an interviewer. I guess it's consistent with the right wing theme of "listen to the generals", do not question, there is no chance that he is telling anything but the truth. It turns out there were those "Freedom's Watch" pro war spots running during the breaks in case you didn't understand what Fox and the general were trying to get across. We are winning and we just need to stay at least until the end of this president's term.
If I supported this war, this show would have made me equally uncomfortable. Highly dubious this little war commercial was.
I find it hard even to look at Brit Hume.
.
The "Tilt-O-Whirl" just make me dizzy...
The "Patraeus-go-Round" makes me vomit.
How long can he keep it up before he figures out that we have him figured out? I mean he already knows it, otherwise he wouldn't need to spin it so hard.
I guess what we should be asking our Congress is, "How long must we ride this out for... Until another 4000 have been spun dead?"
.
Dr. Acula @ 5:
This sums it up quite well... I must agree!
Boycott all FOX/News Corp advertisers.
I find it really insulting that an interview of this importance is only taking place on a cable news network (let alone the fact that it is Fox). Shouldn't an interview that is this important be available for all Americans to watch, and not just for those who can afford, or choose, to spend the money on cable? This interview, propaganda or not, should have happened on one of the three major networks for all Americans to see.
Jehosepha Says:
I find it hard even to look at Brit Hume.
Yep, it's like looking at a hemmroid ... and that's all this agent of evil is .. a hemmroid on the asshole of Mr. Evil himself, bush ........... wouldn't it be cool is someone rushed onto the set while hemmroid hume was sniveling forth his evil propaganda and put a whole tube of preparation h on that fucking hemmroid head of his ? now that would be fun ..
fox propaganda/'news' .. the whole fucking lot of them .. including all the pundit pimps who whore for their fuhrer bush .. these pimps being nothing more than cumsluts for the repiglican party .. and of course this must include all the corporate sluts .. the 'media elite' who have made their faustian deals to be among the 'media elite' .. like 'miss' brian williams . tim 'my depends are always too full' russert, charles 'my nose is so brown i can't breathe anymore' gibson, katie 'i love my whitehouse ganbangs' couric, all of them should be charged, tried and convicted for a purposeful criminal fraud committed against the american people. and they should be frogged marched out of the protection of their corporate studios right into the slammer ...
Piiiiiffff! Who would have guessed?!
Login or Register to post comments.