We all knew that the Swift Boaters Against Truth were for Bush. But recently, some hidden ties escaped the Republican's secretive cave and became exposed to the light. Many have thought that the Swift Boat Liars were just an ad hoc organization to help Bush get re-elected. We now know, via The Patriot Project and Taylor Marsh, they have morphed into the well-funded right-wing organization, "Veterans For Truth".
But with the release of 9-11 the movie by Oliver Stone, we are introduced to the Swifties and the Republican's public relations firm who manages their propaganda campaigns.
The original story appeared at The Democracy Cell Project and Fox Is Fake News websites. Fox is Fake News had permission to repost and slightly alter the story on their website.
With their permission I am reprinting some of the pertainent facts here. The full story can be read at either of the two sites listed above.
We know that the media will not follow or publicize this story. We know that we must be the media on this story, as we have been on so many other important stories of our time.
Here are of the some key ideas presented, but I strongly encourage you to read the articles in their entirety
here and
here.
From the blogpost:
A screening in Washington last week, for example, drew members of the Family Research Council, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and the evangelical Wilberforce Forum, along with a producer for William Bennett's radio show, writers for The Washington Times and a reporter for the Web site of Human Events, which first reported the event.
[C]reative Response Concepts has played a prominent role in promoting conservative causes. Heading into the 2005 Supreme Court nomination battles, it advised members of the Federalist Society on how to handle television interviews and was active in promoting the nominations of John G. Roberts Jr. and Samuel A. Alito Jr.
[W]hen the AARP came out against President Bush's plan to overhaul Social Security, the firm went to work for a conservative group that took on the AARP. And it promoted Newt Gingrich's 1994 political strategy, Contract With America.
But it was in the 2004 campaign that Creative Response Concepts made its biggest mark on the political landscape, advising the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which assailed [presidential candidate] Mr. Kerry's Vietnam record as a Navy officer [decorated war veteran] and as a leader of the antiwar movement after he returned home. Its well-funded attacks were among the most damaging blows to the Kerry campaign.
The firm also played a major role that year in assailing CBS -- then a corporate sister of Paramount at Viacom -- for the "60 Minutes" report on President Bush's record in the Texas Air National Guard that led to Dan Rather's resignation as anchor of the "CBS Evening News."
Is Creative Response Concepts involved in the smears against Murtha?
The media hasn't reported one way or the other, but since they didn't report the facts surrounding the Swiftboat organization and its vast array of right-wing funding sources in 2004, we can not look to them to answer this question now.
Given that information that the Creative Response Concepts was the Swiftboat Veterans For Truth's public relations firm in 2004, and there is the newly morphed group, Veterans for Truth now attacking Murtha, we must accept looks at the implications of this anew.
The fact is that we aren't fighting newbies or amateurs; we are fighting well-funded political operatives.
Here's some more facts about CRC:
Below, you can see a partial list of their partial list of their clients. Which ones do you recognise?
Contract With America
Media Research Center
Microsoft Corporation
National Republican Congressional Committee
National Republican Senatorial Committee
National Taxpayers Union
Parents Television Council
PAX Television
Republican National Committee
Time Warner Inc
Universal Studios
Viacom Inc.
Walden Media
The Walt Disney Company
Warner Brothers Television Network
This firm brags about their association with the Parent's Television Council. Read their Strategy & Implementation and their results and see what else you recognise:
The PTC was founded 10 years ago to protect children from being constantly bombarded by gratuitous sex, violence and profanity on television and other entertainment media. Working with the PTC since its inception,CRC was recently tasked with branding the organization as the recognized authority on entertainment decency issues.
Strategy & Implementation
Working with the PTC, CRC developed a program to change the way the Federal Communication Commission addresses complaints about indecency on television. CRC trained local and national spokespeople, publicized PTC studies on indecency, and distributed op-eds written by the PTC. CRC reached out to trade publications, talk radio hosts, print journalists and television producers about the PTC's programs.
Results
Spokespeople for the PTC have been included in stories on NBC's Today Show, ABC World News Tonight, Entertainment Tonight, CBS' Sunday Morning, FOX News, CNN, and MSNBC. Articles about the PTC have run in Entertainment Weekly, Family Circle, Wall Street Journal, Ladies Home Journal, New York Times, and USA Today among scores of other publications. Recently, the PTC was the focus of a cover story in
Time.
You can see by the list above that they are well-funded and well-connected.
Traditional ways a party responds to attacks is no longer going to work.
They proudly claim to have worked for a "President" and they brag about their connection to the RNC and the Republican Agenda. Let's hold them to those affiliation. This brush paints in both directions
Please go to the links to read more about these public relations tigers who willingly eat babies for breakfast.
These are the people we're fighting in order to take back our country from the factions that threaten to ruin democracy.
We can not take them lightly. We cannot ignore them.
We must become fighters ourselves. We must be the media. We must be louder. We must fight more ferociously in exposing them and their tactics to the light of day.
Something else to keep in mind; If it keeps working, they will keep doing it.
Just yesterday, we learned that Exxon hired a professional public relations firm to smear Al Gore and "An Inconvenient Truth" on YouTube. That this firm did not disclose their ties to a professional group is proof that they are still at their old games. It's proof that they have no problem with hiding truth and creating propaganda. And it's clear they will lurk and spew lies wherever they possibly can.
What can we do? We can start to expose these firms, their funders, and their clients.
Who are the other P.R firms out working the smear circuit? Who are their lawyers? Who else is associated with the CRC, RNC, Republicans, and the Swifties? Is the lawyer who filed the lawsuit against Murtha tied up with them? Where do all their connections come from and lead to?
We need to research this and get that information out there.
We need to create our own TRUTH MACHINE and get it rip out there for the public to see for themselves.
Please join me.
There is no other choice.
We must be the media.
[Note: This has been slightly edited since it was originally published for form, grammar and readibility. Spelling errors, you're on your own.]