Cross-Posted at Passive Ranting.
The other day, I wrote about Freedomswatch, a new, radically-right version of MoveOn.org.
I've seen their commercials on ABC, usually during the news or Wheel of Fortune, but also at other times during the day. The commercials feature Iraq War veterans (usually wounded) and family members of fallen soldiers and those who died on 9-11, all spouting the same sort of emotionally-charged but logically flawed rhetoric the right has been using for 6 years.
The diary didn't get much attention, but I felt it important enough to dig a bit deeper.
When the group announced it was spending $15 million to force Congress to continue to fund the war. We also were treated to some magically comical words from Bradley A. Blakeman, President of the organization:
"The mission of Freedom's Watch is to ensure a strong national defense and a powerful effort to confront and defeat global terror, especially in Iraq," said Bradley A. Blakeman, President of Freedom's Watch. "Those who want to quit while victory is possible have dominated the public debate about terror and Iraq since the 2004 election. Freedom's Watch is going to change that."
I really want to know what public debate he's been watching since the 2004 election, because it sounds like a very nice one. The debate was rarely "dominated" by "[t]hose who want to quit while victory is possible." Not with the media happily regurgitating talking points and biased anonymous officials, treating their "reports" as fact as they travel down the line from Drudge to the NYT and the WaPo before reaching the quivering jowls of O'Reilly and his ilk. Indeed, our agenda still does not dominate the debate, although we are getting more airtime. We still spend a great deal of our time challenging the neo-con's strangle hold on this debate.
Not really indicative of "domination."
Blakeman, by the by, served as a member of President George W. Bush's Senior Staff as the Deputy Assistant to the President for Appointments and Scheduling. He also is a Senior Advisor for Gordon C. James Public Relations, which was founded by (fittingly) Gordon C. James, another person well-known to conservatives. He served in the White House for Bush's dad.
Bradley also was interviewed by CNN back when that whole Ward Churchill nonsense was going on. He lost his nephew in the 9-11 attack, and he attacked Churchill's words back in 2004. He was again interviewed in 2005, and had this to say:
But I'll tell you, there's nothing this president would have done if he knew for sure that these attacks were going to take place. The fact of the matter is, the United States receives thousands and thousands of threats every day.
And, yes, things probably could have been done a little better, but overall, I am completely satisfied the way this administration has acted prior to 9/11 and post-9/11.
So, the President of FreedomsWatch has long been a Bush supporter, has worked for him, and has long ties to others with conservative agendas. Obviously, this could have been deduced in seconds with one glance at the ads, but it gets better:
Freedom's Watch was organized as a nonprofit organization under IRS rules and is not required to identify its donors or the amounts they give. The group named some of its financial backers but Blakeman said others wished to remain out of the public eye.
Among those publicly behind the effort are billionaire Sheldon Adelson, a fundraiser for Mr. Bush and chairman and CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corp., and conservative philanthropist John M. Templeton Jr. of Bryn Mawr, Pa. Both men have been major contributors to conservative causes. Also backing Freedom's Watch are top Republican donors Anthony Gioia, Mel Sembler and Howard Leach, all former ambassadors in the Bush administration. Former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer is a founding member of the group.
This is a group with some serious neo-con muscle behind it. They put lots of money into getting these ads to run in numerous states and to organize grass-roots support for their message. This is something we need to take very seriously. We need to educate ourselves about this group and its members, as well as where and when the ads run.
Feedback to the networks that choose to run emotionally-charged and propaganda-filled ads is vital. The ads demand that we remove politics from the debate, but it funded by obviously political people, with obviously political agendas. Facts have been abandoned in favor of emotional stories of loss and tragedy. Once again, the Administration that bases its policies on bumper-sticker slogans is using emotion to sway the public.
We need to combat this. I see these ads everyday during prime-time. We can't just ignore them or wave away their importance.
We've seen the effectiveness of these tactics for the last 7 years. This time we need to fight back.