This morning Glenn Greenwald picked up on yet another atrocity from David Broder, this time from a chat in the WaPo, in which a reader asked him why we shouldn’t be impeaching George W. Bush for using propaganda and false information to induce the country into invading another under false pretenses. His answer was a Village Classic:
You’ll have to forgive me, but I am reluctant to see every big policy dispute turned into a criminal or impeachable affair.
Of course not. Now, blow jobs, that’s a different matter.
But then, it might be handy to remember — as we’ve pointed out a coupla times — it is in fact very much against the law to engage in such propaganda. Specifically, it not only violates standard provisions of the Appropriations Acts, it violates the Anti-Deficiency Act.
You could argue, perhaps, that those violations alone do not rise to the level of impeachable crimes. But these laws exist for a specific reason — to keep government from turning its propaganda powers against the American public. This is particularly true for military propaganda and psy-ops operations — which historically have been carefully relegated to the target populations of enemy combatants, not the American taxpayers who pay their salaries.
Not so under Bush. And combined with the fact that, as Glenn notes, this propaganda was used in the perpetration of a moral atrocity that cost thousands of lives, the case for impeachment — for Bush and Cheney alike, thank you very much — grows more powerful.
But first we need to establish the case with evidence and facts. Go here to sign a letter urging Congressional leaders to take action with immediate hearings on the propaganda generals.
Related posts:
- Memo to OK Domestic Use of Military Also Authorized Surveillance
- David Broder Gives Cheney a Big Blow-Job
- Historically Unpopular Former President Says That Popularity Doesn’t Matter
- The US Military Suddenly Discovers International Law–When the Taliban Breaks It
- Memo to Jay Cost: Obama Won a Larger Percentage of the Popular Vote in 2008 than Reagan in 1980
Spotlight
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About Firedoglake
Advanced search
yo
I always think Broder is James Michener!
Afternoon Dave!
Maybe we could come up with some way to impeach the Broderella and remove him from his perch as the supposed “Dean of Beltway Pundits.”
He seems to provide the appropriate level of information and cause everytime he opens his yap.
Michener could write.
It is painful to watch, Broder is a frail old man and is clearly drawn by the forces around him. Really sad.
well, if you’re gonna be picky .. :)
His mug!
Once upon a time he was a good, but not great, political reporter. (He did accurately predict McGovern as the Dem nominee in 1972.) Since then he’s become the model of the Beltway insider.
I wonder if WaPo offered buyouts later this year if Broder would accept. I heard somewhere Dan Balz is taking advantage of one. It would be nice if the Village were to lose a lot of idiots.
Maybe 100 years ago.
They did offer the buy-outs and he did accept but they’re bringing him back under a contract so business as usual.
LOL
Ramsey Clark, Elizabeth Holzman, Congressman Wexler, et al. … are you listening to this?
Even McClellan is getting up to speed with the EVILS perpetrated.
OD’ing on kool-aid too long …. and so many American frogs SO BOILED the capacity to identify MASSIVE ILLEGALITY has seemingly disappeared, especially with the mainstream media on the dark side. And after all, “they” are clunkily, boldly, and pretty much unchallenged retro-activating the laws for their protection thanks to John Yoo, and CONGRESS!!!!
Well, poop. Does that mean we only have to read his crap once in a while instead of every week?
I think there’s an international treaty or two we’ve signed up to that also forbids going to war when there’s no good reason.
Broder is such a slobbering half-wit. It’s amazing he still has a job as a columnist, until you realize that most everyone in DC seems to “think” the same way.
I do remember that but I also remember that he was not overly fond of McGovern and even with his accurate prediction it was more of a concern troll about how could the Dems do this to themselves.
Similar to his response to Carter and Clinton because they were both outsiders as well.
I actually wasn’t seeking affirmation!
Nope, I think it’s all the same schedule and such, just not as direct WaPo0 employee.
I can’t help but remember the comments he made about the Clinton’s not belonging to the Beltway Clique.
Just pullin’ yer chain.
Broder is another one who has stayed too long. Completely out of touch not only with the real world but the changes that have taken place since he was last relevant – if ever.
roger
me too
Yes, all those rubes were screwing up his place.
I think Washington stopped being a small town a long time ago, but you’d never know it from attitudes like Broder’s.
Now that the primary is really over it’s going to be interesting to see how the “upscale” columnists and pundits, e.g. Harwood, Raditz, et al, will cover the two candidates. They had their main story line of a divided Dem party so what do they do now? While we here don’t give them much cred a lot of folks who read and hear their crap do.
I disagree.
The circles that the Politicians and TradMed travel in is very much of a small town with all the gossip and back-biting associated with same.
Oh pooey…you’re being all mean to poor King George the W….he didn’t mean anything bad about lying us into war…he did it to save us all from the evildoers…doncha know…
The funny thing is that Broder has a rep among the press corps as as guy who does his legwork — supposedly spend a lot of time on the ground talking to “ordinary folks”. What’s evident in his work, however, is that like his fellow Village Idiot, David Brooks (who enjoys a similar rep), he’s working from a self-reinforcing sample.
My dad was a pianist in DC during WWII (was on the Arthur Godfrey Show) and after. I went to a lot of Congressional functions with him when I was in high school and it is definitely a social scene unto itself. It was very friendly and congress critters didn’t have a problem interacting with the working folks. I don’t imagine it’s been like that in a while.
Al Franken wins nomination!
http://www.dailykos.com/storyo…..100/531793
Woo Hoo!
That’s great – he will definitely make Boehner cry.
Damn, it’s just getting better and better.
Gonna strap myself in cuz this is gonna be one wild ride.
Fuck you, Disney.
Going along that vein, is it just my intellectual (snicker) evolution or was Broder a lot more coherent once upon a time? I used to think he made sense, but that was, quite literally, decades ago.
I used to really like Broder but seems he was taken over by the pod people.
There was a time when he was a very accomplished journalist.
the case is already established, we know he has condoned torture, we know he has ignored the constitution, we know he has ignored law, we know he has ignored the 4th amendment
we know he thinks he is above our law
all of this is established beyond any reasonable doubt, more “esatablishment” is nothing but howling at the moon
Run Al Run ! *g*
The petition concerns the use of generals by the media to push the case for the invasion of Irak.
I think it means Broder won’t be “reporting” any longer, just “columnizing.” Which means his fabled finger on the pulse of the American voter will be, um, closer to Villager perceived wisdom, if that’s even possible.
I wonder if his new contract includes a health plan?
You have to wonder how much Broder gives away when he says “I am reluctant to see….”
Seems to me he means just that.
I hope he socks
WeinerBoehner in the puss the very first chance he gets …I have a problem with this sentence in the letter:
“By covertly spinning America’s involvement in the war, the Pentagon is in violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of the law.”
Is it a violation of the law or not? It has to be concrete or else Broderbots get away with saying what they say.
What is the law specifically?
He hasn’t been a “reporter” in a long time. He’s been doing only columns for quite some time. But even his early columns were good journalism. Well researched and well written. Now his “common folks” seem to be more the copy boys in the newsroom and such. Given his status among the Village elites I doubt he has much real interaction with workaday folks.
I questioned Broder in a recent WaPo chat after he wrote one of his “voter interview” pieces in which the voters were age 50, 66, 72, 75, and — 24. The 50-year old said her vote was entirely influenced by her dad, who was presumably more in line with Dean Broder’s “sample.”
He replied to my query about this not being a representative sample, rather sniffily, that his interviews at the public library were conducted during the day, when most people of a more representative age group were probably working.
I wondered how he knew I was still in my jammies at noon his time.
Millionaire pundit Broder’s health care is cheap now if he’s 65 or over. He’d be on Medicare. Medicare with a supplemental policy and he’s set for less than $1200.00 a year.
Teh Dean doesn’t care about health care for the rest of us. That’s how some old people vote Republican. Their health care needs are met. They fear that a plan that covers everyone will cost them more or somehow adversely affect their current access.
Wouldn’t something like….manipulation of the media, using taxpayer money, aimed at citizens of the United States by its government via the spread of untruthful propaganda that results in troops being sent into harms way…is a violation of……….blah, blah..
Heh heh. That’s a good (and telling) story.
Broder’s reputation was cemented in 1972 when he wrote about Edmund Muskie crying about a newspaper publisher’s harsh words about his wife — something Dean Broder much later said probably didn’t happen, but was just melting snow on Muskie’s face.
His reputation was built on the principle that the actual story needn’t get in the way of the narrative. And Muskie not being the Democratic nominee rather well served the incumbent’s re-election, as a bonus.
There is a law that specifically prohibits the government using propaganda on the American public but I haven’t looked for it. Gee, give myself another task why don’t I?
I just Googled him and Broder is 79 – finally someone older than me.
Book Salon upstairs with guest Amanda Marcotte.
Older ? Yes !
Wiser ? No !
More media ass covering for Bushco.
It is an absolute violation of the law to use propaganda to sell a war.
Hey – thanks
http://www.prwatch.org/node/7261
Some stuff about the illegality.
Try this for a start.
I’m talking about the wording in the letter linked to above that is to go to Congress. It needs to be more specific or they will squirm and do nothing. JMHO.
Yeah, we’re on the same page. *g*
Cokes!! *g*
Dr Peppers!! I’m boycottin’ Coke products. *g*
You realize of course that if Broder and McCain were commercial airline pilots, they would have been forced to retire years ago. Age IS an issue.
The old Republican shill has been a Medicare and Social Security recipient for 15 years. I wonder if he returns his Social Security check to the government to declare his defiant opposition to the wasteful FDR program.
Here’s the chat:
San Francisco: The median age of those interviewed for your recent column was embarrassing. The youngest, 26, gave you only two sentences. The next youngest, at 49, based her views of the Clintons entirely on her dad’s. The rest were in their 60s and 70s, and yet you called these Democratic voters “typical.” Are you aware that those under 50 can vote? Or were all the young people in Pennsylvania listening to that rappity-hop music on their portable Victrola devices?
washingtonpost.com: What Pennsylvania Voters Are Saying (Post, April 17)
David S. Broder: I was interviewing during the day in Pennsylvania, and I expect many younger people were at work.
Takin’ these creaky ol’ knees upstairs.
Ah, here we go… (PDF warning)
Public Relations and Propaganda:
Restrictions on Executive Agency Activities
You’re correct. There’s a gaping hole in it. Its as if it was put there on purpose for the sake of collegial comportment.
The power to enforce lies with the DOJ. I’m sure they’ll be right on it.
(Do I really need a snark tag for this?)
Dammit.
Here we got with the good old cult of personality. Dave you know full well that the likes of Broder, Brooks and Kristol to name but a few are mere tools of the hegenomny the folks that own just about everything, want the rest, and have filled the airwaves and newsprint of our benighted nation of barely competent readers with rank propaganda designed to keep ‘the people’ busy paying attention to what….
Really doesn’t matter.
What Broder says rarely means much but he sure manages to keep the so called Dems and progressive chasing their tales.
How about who is on the Board of Directors of the WaPo and who they are. I’m tired of reading about tired old fucks who are…
….only doing what their masters tell them to.
Whoa!
Better not check that Senate roster; you will go batshit.
And…
I agree, but you know what they say about an old fool.
In the past, Broder wrote about institutions in a way that helped his readers understand the world they live in.
But now, Broder can’t help his readers make sense of why gas is so expensive, and why groceries are so costly, without better understanding how — and why — the US was drawn into the disaster of the War in Iraq.
Broder is an essayist; he doesn’t want to see evil. Consequently, he can’t explain the institutional duplicity and subversion that let to the Iraq War.
The reporters who can help us make sense of the world today are able to recognize evil. EW, Jane Hamsher, CHS, Sy Hersh, John Walcott (McClatchy), Laura Rozen (War & Piece) are able to see evil and describe its consequences, and then point toward the ramifications. And if you read much of the SSCI reports, it’s quite clear that the underlying storyline is a narrative about what happens when institutions are subverted by ideological purists conspiring to purposes they’re bent on keeping hidden in the dark. That obsession with secrecy, and refusal to openly state one’s activities, are always symptomatic of evil.
Broder’s not a crime writer.
So he can’t explain the world today.
totally OT, just got back home and choosing this thread rather than going OT in the book salon,
but, I just gotta give props to Hillary for her speech today — read pieces of it on the ride home. And right on! Thank you, Hillary. Exactly what we needed.
Digg this Post!
Can’t go OT at Book Salon. No triple crown winner again.
How would he feel about the law if the Republican policy were to kill any and all ‘journalists’, ‘opinion writers’, ‘editorialists’ or ‘news people’ in Washington D.C on the grounds that they’re just disgusting?
Would he write that policy positions aren’t a matter for the law?
After that, ask him how he’d feel if his kid were killed in a war based on a policy if it was later determined the facts didn’t call for war and the action was illegal?
Would he give a damn if it was his flesh killed based on illegal policy?
Is that what you mean?