I was watching today’s Democracy Now! which included a segment on the current Newsweek dealio and an interview with Norman Solomon who has recently published a new book, War Made Easy. Excellent interview and discussion regarding the incredible idiocy and hypocrisy of the current flap with Newsweek and the White House. To sum it up, Newsweek published a little article which it then sort of retracted after White House went nutso because of the violence and protests that occurred, they say, in response to the article. Then the FBI releases documents which seem to verify the content of the article: that copies of the Koran were abused in front of prisoners as a part of a larger program of torture.

Meanwhile we can expect the corporate media (including Newsweek) to continue the trend of non-reporting, self-sensorship, and obedience set in place over the past 30 years. The vast majority of “news reporting” will continue to reflect the lies dictated by the masters of state and the profit priority. This is nothing new. The only difference in recent years is that the Bush administration are now caught serving a soup of lies used to wage a pre-emptive war. It’s a gigantic bowl of lies and corporate media has been vigorously lapping it up with no complaint. The resulting belches of violence produced by the war, 1,600+ U.S. soldiers and possibly 100,000+ Iraqi civilians is vast by comparison to the violence following the Newsweek article.

Oh, and let’s remember the cause of this current controversy: the torture of prisoners. The focus of attention should never have been diverted from that but of course that is the point, isn’t it? When you are the aggressor, when you wage a war based on a series of very deliberate lies, you have to be prepared to divert and distract.

Who knew George Bush and co. were such magnificent magicians?

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