You may have seen the recent Zogby International poll results which conclude: “52% Support US Military Strike in Iran”. You may say to yourself, WT*? I like to find nuance in things like this, but unfortunately, it probably does mean that people have been misinformed about extremely important matters again.
A majority of likely voters – 52% – would support a U.S. military strike to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon, and 53% believe it is likely that the U.S. will be involved in a military strike against Iran before the next presidential election, a new Zogby America telephone poll shows.
The survey results come at a time of increasing U.S. scrutiny of Iran. According to reports from the Associated Press, earlier this month Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Iran of “lying” about the aim of its nuclear program and Vice President Dick Cheney has raised the prospect of “serious consequences” if the U.S. were to discover Iran was attempting to develop a nuclear weapon. Last week, the Bush administration also announced new sanctions against Iran.
That’s rich. They seem to be following the exact same plan they used to drum up the war with Iraq, and most unbelievably, it seems to be working. How on earth can they have any credibility? Why do people still listen to them?
I believe the answer has several components. 1) A certain portion of the population is hopelessly afraid. Bush refers to this as his “base”, and the administration whips them into hysteria pretty easily. 2) The media gets away with blatant bias. Tony Snow recently bragged that people should learn from Fox instead of complaining how successful they are. (He also claims that the White House has a lot of “intellectual vigor” and the president has actually “gotta make some choices”. Whatever, Tony.)
So so far we have a group of suggestible, histrionic, desperately afraid people being completely catered to by media organizations that don’t adhere to journalistic standards and also sleep with the White House. But the Big Reason this all keeps going and going and going is 3) the mainstream press has been delivering Republican scripts for years, and nobody will talk about it. Read Bob Somerby and understand. Nothing will ever change as long as this continues.
Why aren’t neo-cons and Republicans on the defensive? In large part, it’s because they get puffed—and Democrats get jeered—within the sprawling public discussion constructed by the “mainstream†press. Josh is always eager to throw you bones from the world of Fox, and Rush, and Republican scandal. But he has refused to discuss this larger story, going all the way back to the mainstream War Against Gore. And yet, this larger story helps explain the matter that has his reader justifiably puzzled. It helps explain why there’s a good chance that a Republican will get elected next year.
Why are Republicans on the offensive? Duh! Within the boundaries of our “mainstream†discourse, Democrats are quite easy to ridicule—and Republicans are very hard. You can’t explain that if you’ve spent the part decade—as Josh has done—refusing to discuss what happened to Gore. (And to Bill Clinton before him. And to those who followed, including Dean, Edwards, Hillary Clinton.) But let’s say it again: Within the boundaries of our public discussion, Democrats are constant figures of ridicule—and Republicans simply are not. This framework is being extended today, even as liberals like Josh refuse to discuss it. In large part, that’s why it’s easy for scum-bags like Giuliani to go around mocking Big Dems. And that is why it’s much, much harder for Dems to return the favor.
For those who live in the world known to Josh, it’s almost impossible to explain this matter. But let’s consider a bit of what’s happening, right now, in our gong-show “mainstream†discourse.
This is an intellectual scotoma, a blind spot to most people. But once you clear it up, you will notice this bias everywhere.
