Re: [iwar] A collection of items that have fallen from the public view?

"In the future, every crisis will have its 15 minutes of infamy"
         (with apologies to Andy Warhol)

Several months back, I recall reading an article by Brian Eno on this very
subject. He is credited with coining the term "PropAgenda", and argued (as
I recall) how the current administration has moved beyond the crude
techniques of "propaganda" and spin to the more sophisticated (and
deniable?) "propagenda".

Fundamentally, it is the art of highlighting and/or demolishing
convenient/constructed evil strawmen, in a manner and timing/sequence
designed both to distract the public and, basically, to frame the issues
themselves (thus the debate), as opposed to debating the issues.

By constructing the playing field, you (stealthily) define reasonable play
in advance of the game.

I have long seen this tendency promoted by the endless strings of cop
shows, crime dramas, and sensationalist news coverage. Not that the
administrations are necessarily behind it, but the cumulative effect leads
the populace to the very level of paranoia that they shutter their doors
and windows and avoid eye-contact as they pass one another, reinforcing the
effect of the believed "reality", and ultimately making it real.

____tony____

At 11:42 AM 12/8/2003 -0800, you wrote:
>Yesterday afternoon in a class I was teaching one of the students
>mentioned that the media seems to have lost sight of the case of the
>person in the Whitehouse who leaked the fact that an embasadore's wife
>was a CIA agent.
>
>As I have been thinking about it, there seem to be many items such as
>this that are being strategically ignored by the media - at least in the
>US. Now I don't imagine that this is a conspiracy or anything like
>that, but I thought it might be a good idea to make a little colleciton
>of all the things that should be viewed as major stories but that are
>being pushed off the front page by ... according to my local newspaper
>... "Texas govern'd by Peoples' Will" and "Remembering Pearl Harbor"
>and some sports items. The national news talks about the chaplain that
>is being tried for crimes that John Deutche (remember - he took
>classified home on his laptop a few years back?) actually committed and
>didn't even get arrested for.
>
>As a result I would like to encourage the iwar group to consider what
>techniques are in play that would cause the national and local media to
>emphasize whatever they are emphasizing over things like domestic
>terrorism and traitors in the White House and to discuss them on the
>list.
>
>FC
>-- This communication is confidential to the parties it is intended to
>serve --
>Fred Cohen - http://all.net/ - fc@all.net - fc@unhca.com - tel/fax:
>925-454-0171
>Fred Cohen & Associates - University of New Haven - Security Posture
>
>
>------------------
>http://all.net/
>
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Tony Bartoletti 925-422-3881 <azb@llnl.gov>
Information Operations and Assurance Center
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Livermore, CA 94551-9900

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Received on Mon Dec 8 15:21:10 2003