Something everyone should care about...

Something everyone should care about...

...The Bush Administration's Orwellian News Propaganda Fiasco

Was watching the Daily Show, and I couldn't believe what I saw. The government created FAKE news spots that they sent out to TV stations to sell the $540 Billion (Oh whoops, it used to be $400 Billion, but the real figures came after the vote) Medicare program improvements. Is ANYONE else as shocked as me? More importantly: does anyone CARE?

Read and learn: (FREE Registration is required for New York Times)

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/18/politics/18MEDI.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/16/opinion/16TUE2.html (Editorial)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/03/16/EDGVQ5JUJU1.DTL (editorial)
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=22700
http://consumeraffairs.com/news04/medicare_ads.html
http://www.advanceforot.com/common/Newslinks/dailyNewsWatch.aspx#2

Google "Medicare news" or "medicare propaganda" for more articles.

And an excerpt: "In order to sell the complicated and skimpy plan to seniors, the Department of Health and Human Services is paying actors to pose as journalists in bogus TV "news'' reports. Videos have been sent to TV stations, along with government-prepared scripts for news anchors to read. The idea is to make propaganda appear to be unbiased news during prime-time viewing. "

On the Daily Show, I actually saw one of the so-called "news" reports. All I could say is... wow. My concern is that some seniors won't be able to tell the difference between the fake news reports and -any- real news report (hey, it looked real to me!). Does anyone see anything wrong with this?
My problem isn't so much the content of the spots, what they said about the medicare changes was so generic and positive, and lacking any formal facts and figures, that it didn't affect me or sway my opinion in any way (other than this outrage). What MY problem is is that they hired actors to impersonate news reporters, and prepared commentary for anchors, among other things. It doesn't matter whether or not they succeeded in swaying my opinion using fake news reports; it matters that they TRIED.

For those of you who are thinking: "Well i'm only x-teen, why should I care about Medicare?"
If the government thinks they can get away with creating fake news designed to convince seniors that this new medicare program does all sorts of wonderful things... what's to stop them from fabricating news about something that matters to YOU?

I saw that Daily show too, I didn't think even the Bush administration would go that far, although I shouldn't have been surprised after hearing they are trying to reclassify burger flipping as a manufacturing job so it makes their numbers look better :roll: Unfortunately to a lot of people, Bush can do no wrong :x

Bush can do wrong? no fucking way. lol, actually i was a McCain fan, what ever happened to him lol

I think the Republicans are about to disown him since he's friends with John Kerry, but I liked McCain too.