One of the biggest lessons we learn in business is to always remain humble and "never believe your own press". As I have reflected on the disaster that this Country has had to endure under Bush, I am intrigued by just what did go wrong? How could an administration get it so wrong? How could they be so incompetent and, quite frankly, how could they continue in such a vain?
As I think of this, I come to one very clear conclusion and that is that the the Bush Administration has been a master at controlling information, shaping (dare I say creating) information and, yes, flat out lying when the real information did not suit their needs. From the Jeff Gannon incidents to the "swiftboating" to the "Niger yellow - cake" to planting of news stories and "commentators" such as Armstrong Williams, they have always created their own reality.
As Ron Suskind put it when he talked with an administration official who said, "we will create our own reality", the White House had preconceived notions of what it wanted to do (push the religious right agenda, tax cuts for wealthy, taking out Saddam etc.) and they created the reality in which to do this and sell it to the American people.
However, as the remainder of this article will point out, when you do that, you better always remember your story as it can be confusing and contradictory and ultimately non-believable the longer it goes on. Perhaps, the Bush "reality" just collapsed under its own length.
The impetus for this article is my reading of a book called The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina written by Frank Rich of the New York Times. The basic premise of this book is that the "Mainstream Media" (MSM as the Right wing lunatics like to call it) actually supported Bush in the beginning and, in fact, was complicit in the story that the Bush administration was telling. He continually points out in this book where the press, rather than questioning claims of the administration would just acquiesce to a story and assume they had better information. They reprinted stories as if they were press releases from corporations. Whatever the Government wanted to get out to the public, the press was more than willing to comply.
The poster child example of this was Judith Millers'so called reporting during the lead up to the war in Iraq. Numerous times, she just took what the Government gave her and reprinted it almost verbatim. This became very interesting when it became all tied up in the Valerie Plame "outing" of a CIA agent and how the right wing basically left her to rot in jail (Much like they are now blaming the Generals for doing what Rumsfeld told them to do).
But, the Bush administration did not count on the war going so badly and lasting so long. Because of this they had no plan for when they lies ran out. Just like they had no "Phase IV" plan for Baghdad after occupation, they just thought Americans would sit by and continue to take all the lies and twisted truths forever. My guess is that they thought the war would be over and would be a distant memory before people spent time investigating it and other things the Administration is doing. So, because it has lasted so long people have investigated and found huge untruths in the administration spin.
The administration believes their own press and when the press they issue is false, that can be dangerous. One chapter in this book outlines how the spin of the 2004 election was that, based on bad poll questions, the loss in 2004 for Democrats was on the "values" issues. The Democrats needed more values. However, the book points out that the survey showed this was the "majority" issue but it was only 22% of the survey. This means 78% of the respondents answered something other than values. So, the lesson the President derived was that as long as he was seen as the "moral" President and party, the Republicans were to keep power forever. What they learned in 2006 is that the real majority answer to that poll was that national security was the biggest issue (when you aggregate the questions dealing with national security). And, in 2006, the President and his party are now seen as the party which has actually made our national security worse due to a botched Iraq policy, no plan for Iran, Syria and North Korea (all Countries which can do real damage), and the destruction of our Armed Forces by keeping them overstretched.
Voila - Don't believe your own press especially when you are making it up as you go along.
When you read this book and you see the story unfold in one place you can see how the Country has been fooled for over 6 years. We have taken the first step in taking the Country back in 2006. Now, we need to really take it back in 2008.
My challenge to the Media: Do not back down!! Do not give up the fight!! Yes, you make get some facts wrong and you will take hits for that but, directionally, you have been far more right than wrong. The President's strategy is to discredit you so he can replace you with his "own reality". Do not give him that opportunity.
The good news is I think the media has taken the challenge. CNN did a good job in debunking the Ruport Murdoch / Fox News attempt to smear Barack Obama by saying he was trained in a Madrassa. The Press will have to set up war rooms to immediately stop the swiftboating that Fox news and other right win lunatics (including the President and Karl Rove) will dispatch in the 2008 election. It is going to be a bloody war but we must be prepared to fight it.
Democrats Unite! Fight this right wing media creation machine!