Story Behind Bush Memos

Oh man, this is just too easy — now let’s just see if the so-called liberal media exposes the blatant bias of the originating source behind the “forgery” story.

First, a little background on the Republican Noise Machine, here’s how it works:

1. Talk radio is dominated by conservatives, which is where many of these stories originate. Accordingly, they give some buzz to whatever story they want to play up that day.

2. A network of quasi-news organizations (including right-wing blogs) provide some ink, to put some meat on the story and get things boiling.

3. Cable Network talking heads (i.e., Hardball, O’Rielly Factor, Sean Hannity, Scarborough, Miller, et al.) then pick up the story, once there’s enough buzz behind the story.

4. At this point the mainstream media is forced to run the story, since by now the item is “newsworthy.”

Of course, the so-called liberal media are just a bunch of fucking wimps that are just scared shitless of being labeled “liberal,” so they never expose the tactical conservative dominance of our media industry. Anyhow, I seriously doubt that I can convince many of this (as you know what you know, and are not about to change your mind); however, I just wanted to offer this backgrounder before getting into the suspicious facts behind the source of this story.

1. CNSNews.com runs story [ link ]:

2. Matt Drudge posts a link to the story on his site (note that the DrudgeReport.com website is one of the most widely visited websites on the web):

3. I presume that this story has been getting a lot of airtime in the talking heads circuit (I’ve not tuned in to cable news today, but the model is pretty solid, so I assume that the talking heads have had a field day with this story).

4. At this point the mainstream media (a.k.a., the so-called liberal media) has to pick up the story, since it’s “newsworthy.”

Now, here’s some suspicious info on the source behind this story:

1. CNSNews.com is run and operated by the Media Research Center:

[ Who Is link may not work as its session specific. ]

2. The mission statement of the Media Research Center (MRC) reads:

“On October 1, 1987, a group of young determined conservatives set out to not only prove - through sound scientific research - that liberal bias in the media does exist and undermines traditional American values, but also to neutralize its impact on the American political scene. What they launched that fall is the now acclaimed — Media Research Center (MRC).”

And:

“That moved MRC founder and president, L. Brent Bozell III, to take the necessary steps to develop the MRC’s News Tracking System (NTS), a custom-designed computer database and archiving system that today provides the conservative movement’s now-thriving media personalities and the public alike, with the evidence necessary to confront the liberal media. This one-of-a-kind research operation combines analytical savvy with state-of-the-art computer technology, providing the means to scientifically track the short and long-range trends of any issue in the media. From a $339,000 initial annual budget, the MRC has grown to be the nation’s largest and most sophisticated television and monitoring operation, now employing 60 professional staff with a $6 million annual budget.” [ link ]

3. Moreover, the MRC offers the Drudge Report as one of their trusted sources for information [link]:

Now, many will simply say, Yeah, we gotta stick it to the liberal media, and that’s just what MRC is doing. Well, that rationalization may be sufficient for many, but to me it simply proves the validity of the Republican Noise Machine model and how, in fact, the media is dominated by a strong conservative tactical bias.

As David Brock, author of the Republican Noise Machine noted (and I paraphrase), It’s not important that Republicans get the facts right, it’s only important that they throw up enough mud to cloud the truth.

Now, let’s just see if the so-called liberal media covers this part of the story.