Friday, April 07, 2006

[political-research] Bloglines - Bush Media Memo Hoax

Bloglines user SeanMcBride (smcbride2@yahoo.com) has sent this item to you.


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Bush Media Memo Hoax

By Administrator on Uncategorized

I am receiving email indicating the alleged Bush memo dictating what the corporate media reports is a hoax. Soon after reading the article allegedly on the Fox News site, I did a Google News search and the search returned no results—not even the original Fox News article was returned. However, a regular Google search returns several results, all of returned from alternative news sites. Moreover, a search of the Fox News site using their site search function does not return any local results. Additionally, the Associated Press site, where this article supposedly originated, does not mention the article. All of this is highly suspicious.

As of 4:50 PM Mountain Time, the original story URL (www.fox-news.us) points to http://a.wholelottanothing.org/, a blog run by Matthew Haughey, an employee of Pyra Labs, a software company that invented Blogger. Haughey created MetaFilter, a weblog community. I am not sure why the URL now points to Haugley’s site… but read on.

A quick WHOIS database search reveals that fox-news.us is registered to Guerrilla Funk Music in Danville, California. I checked out the Guerrilla Funk Music site and found the following explanation:

Recently a satire piece went out that caught the attention of many, detailing how the Bush Administration and Viacom, among others, colluded to suppress dissent and infuse communities of color with negative and escapist entertainment.

The link can be found here.

It is satire and the link now reflects it as such. The points made in it are valid enough though - there is a huge amount of negativity in entertainment that adversely affects everyone - especially communities of color. All you have to do is pay attention to the music and shows directly marketed for us and sanctioned by large media companies to get the meaning of what we’re saying.

The whole point was to create dialogue, and that’s exactly what has happened. Progressive communities don’t view Fox as credible anyway, and right-wingers will never see things the way we do, so it makes no sense to be concerned about what their perception of us is.

It was a shock tactic intended to make people notice and it worked. Although some people had their toes stepped on, it was worth it. We’ve been saying the exact things detailed in the article in our communities for years but no change seems to ever come of our efforts - they do what they want to do anyway. It’s akin to marching against the war in the streets…but yet we still kill at will.

So a different tactic had to be employed.

And let’s not lose sight of the fact that the success of the dupe underscores why it is necessary to do research on topics prior to endorsing them. www.fox-news.us is not www.foxnews.com. A simple google search or click on the Associated Press link would have revealed this fact. Most people nowadays believe what the want to believe, not what is actually real (like the arguments for WMDs and illegal wire-tapping, etc.).

It’s too bad that the points raised had to be presented in the format of a ‘credible’ source to be taken seriously. Food for thought…

Since my original post on this subject—and I admit taking the bait—is now inaccurate, although I believe my commentary on the corporate media remains valid, I have removed the original post.

Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice—won’t get fooled again.




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