The Political Voices of Women

Scott McClellan on White House Propaganda — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at The Care2 Election Blog)

I often watched Scott McClellan when he was White House Press Secretary and wondered if he really believed the words he was speaking. Quite frankly, I wonder the same thing about all of Bush’s press secretaries. It always seemed to me that their job was to convince the press to report what the White House wanted them to, and not necessarily the truth.

The more we learn about how this administration used propaganda as a way to manipulate the press and the people, the more I believe that the White House Press Secretary is simply a cog in the wheel of a well orchestrated propaganda machine. Scott McClellan has now written a tell-all book on his experiences as press secretary, and seems to be confirming that propaganda trumped truth when it came to reporting to the press.

From Politico…

Among the most explosive revelations in the 341-page book, titled “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception” (Public Affairs, $27.95):

• McClellan charges that Bush relied on “propaganda” to sell the war.

• He says the White House press corps was too easy on the administration during the run-up to the war.

• He admits that some of his own assertions from the briefing room podium turned out to be “badly misguided.”

• The longtime Bush loyalist also suggests that two top aides held a secret West Wing meeting to get their story straight about the CIA leak case at a time when federal prosecutors were after them — and McClellan was continuing to defend them despite mounting evidence they had not given him all the facts.

• McClellan asserts that the aides — Karl Rove, the president’s senior adviser, and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the vice president’s chief of staff — “had at best misled” him about their role in the disclosure of former CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity.

David Corn would like to know…Where’s the Apology?

Excuse me for getting a bit huffy. But when it counted there were a few of us in the media who were indeed arguing that the Bush White House was setting new records in presidential deception–especially when it came to Iraq. McClellan, though, was part of the White House’s defense team, pushing back against media coverage that questioned Bush’s rationale for the war and Bush’s serial abuse of facts. Apparently McClellan has seen the light. Well, where’s his plea for forgiveness? If he were truly contrite about his involvement in a deceptive, propaganda-wielding administration, McClellan could demonstrate his sincerity by pledging that all profits from his belated truth-telling will go to charities supporting the families of American soldiers killed or injured in Iraq. For history’s sake, it is good that McClellan is confirming what most Americans (according to polls) have long known: the Bush administration trampled the truth to win public backing for the Iraq war. But as an enabler (witting or not) of that process, McClellan owes the public more than a for-sale account.

Lynn Sweet would like to know…Why didn’t Scott McClellan quite if he thought he was selling Bush Iraq war propaganda?

This is from an article at The Huffington Post…

McClellan draws a portrait of Bush as possessing “personal charm, wit and enormous political skill.” He said Bush’s record as Texas governor and “disarming personality” inspired him to follow him and that his administration early on possessed “seeds of greatness.”

But, McClellan said, Bush’s unwillingness to admit mistakes and belief in his own spin contributed to turning the president into “not quite the leader I once imagined him to be.” He faults Bush for a “lack of inquisitiveness” and “a degree of self-deception that may be psychologically necessary to justify the tactics needed to win the political game.”

Bush “convinces himself to believe what suits his needs at the moment,” McClellan writes.

Ari Fleischer responded to the book today on MSNBC…

This is only the beginning of the story. Tomorrow Scott McClellan will be making the rounds on the morning shows and news programs. I am very interested in hearing these interviews with McClellan, and I will either follow up with more information on this post, or I may just do another post.