If You Believe the Goverment, ‘You’re Stupid’
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A network television correspondent said, “Surely, Arthur, you don’t expect the American press to be the handmaidens of government.”“That’s exactly what I expect,” came the reply.An agency man raised the problem that had preoccupied Ambassador Maxwell Taylor and Barry Zorthian [a press officer based in Vietnam] — about the credibility of American officials. Responded the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs:“Look, if you think any American official is going to tell you the truth, then you’re stupid. Did you hear that? — stupid.”One of the most respected of all the newsmen in Vietnam—a veteran of World War II, the Indochina War and Korea — suggested that Sylvester was being deliberately provocative. Sylvester replied:“Look, I don’t even have to talk to you people. I know how to deal with you through your editors and publishers back in the States.”
“Look, I don’t even have to talk to you people. I know how to deal with you through your editors and publishers back in the States.”
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– Even if regular people don’t know this story, you’d expect it to be famous within the media — and particularly famous at “60 Minutes.” You might even imagine that “If you think any American official is going to tell you the truth, then you’re stupid” would be spray-painted on the walls of the “60 Minutes” offices. But if the performance of John Miller and his producers on the NSA segment is anything to go by, that is not the case.It’s hard to imagine what more the U.S. government could do to get reporters to distrust it, and all for naught. John Miller likely has an office feet away from someone who’s been told by a top U.S. official that reporters are morons if they believe anything top U.S. officials say. Miller’s response? Believe everything top U.S. officials say. (Of course, given that Miller is recreating Sylvester’s career path, it may also simply be that he agrees with Sylvester on the necessity of the press being handmaidens of government.)– Even if reporters have forgotten this story, you’d expect that it would be Exhibit A for left-wing media critics and repeated so often that it would be common knowledge in those limited circles. Yet the forces of forgetting in the U.S. are so powerful that I’d never encountered it, and I’m probably one of America’s top 25 consumers of left-wing media criticism."
If You Believe the Goverment, ‘You’re Stupid’
Was this the first overt manifestation of a corrupt MSM-Mainstream Media in the USA?
Has it become worse?
As these things tend to grow as they mature, is our press completely gov't controlled?
The Church Senate investigation in the 70s found at least 400 CIA assets in MSM jobs, and is that the same or have numbers increased as budgets have increased and the infectious tentacles of corruption spread?
Do you/we approve of a controlled MSM-Mainstream Media?
Should we avoid MSM-Mainstream Media to seek truth?
Are these MSM-Mainstream Media political and corrupting our process?
DP encourages debate in MSM-Mainstream Media streams and is this a good policy?
