Manufacturing consent (of at least 41% of the public)

Let me ask you something. From reading this Washington Post op-ed, without doing any other research, would you have known that editorial's author, Christine Shipman, was part of the infamous Office of Special Plans working for Douglas Feith (himself being infamous for peddling bogus links between Iraq and al Qaeda) and one of the principle architects of the bogus intelligence used to sell a war with Iraq to the American people? (h/t The Progressive Daily)

"A more complete understanding of Iraq's relationship with al-Qaeda will emerge when historians can exploit the numerous seized documents free from the politics of the Iraq war."

For fuck's sake. It's July 2007 and this rotted administration is still trying to fraud the American public with the same bullshit propaganda. This is an insult to every citizen in the republic, it is an insult to reason, and an assault on reality.

Why in [insert deity of choice]'s name is the Washington Post helping the Bush administration help fabricate a reality more amenable to it's ideological worldview/political interests.

What was it Joseph Pulitzer said again?

"Every issue of the paper presents an opportunity and a duty to say something courageous and true; to rise above the mediocre and conventional; to say something that will command the respect of the intelligent, the educated, the independent part of the community; to rise above fear of partisanship and fear of popular prejudice." - Joseph Pulitzer, letter to the editor of New York World (1911)

The Washington Post needs to rise above fear of partisanship and expose Christine Shipman for who she is, that being, someone who helped orchestrate one of the greatest frauds perpetrated against the American public in United States history.

The same cabal that created shadow institutions within our government to circumvent and override our democratic institutions is now attempting to use the same propaganda tactics that led us on this disatrous course in the Middle East in the first place to revive this dying presidency. But now their is a twist, not only are administration shills like Shipman attempting to still conflate Iraq with al Qaeda, but the administration has been trying to create the perception that the insurgency in Iraq is the result of heavy Iranian influence, thus the White House and its neoconservative hawks can link their insane desire for war with Iran to the "war on terror."

But it's not just the Washington Post, as demonstrated by Glenn Greenwald today who writes a post showing New York Times reporter Michael Gordon to have acted as nothing short of a stenographer reciting - uncritically - the allegations of military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Kevin J. Bergner - who just arrived in Iraq 3 weeks ago and was sent there by President Bush - that Iran has engaged in activities that constitute an act of war against the United States of America.

What is wrong with our press corps? Are they this blind? Do they not see that this administration has apparently gone insane and is determined to set us on a course that could quite possibly doom this democratic republic? We are only 4 years removed from the press having helped this administration fraud 70% of the American public into believing invading Iraq was about fighting al Qaeda ... and yet our major press institutions seemed to have hardly learned any significant lesson, nor do they act as if that weighs on their conscience.

Which is a shame, for as Joseph Conrad said, "all a man can betray is his conscience." If they haven't betrayed their conscience, then they will have no difficulty betraying the American people. Again.

Let's hope that our nation can find its conscience before it is too late.