http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qd4QMODnCc&feature=player_embedded

by Jim Hoover

The above Youtube video connection documents George W. Bush’s total lack of interest in Osama bin Laden in 2006.

Bush’s statement five years ago is of particular interest in light of Barack Obama’s success in ridding us of bin Laden.

What I call “Fabrication Central” above represents part of the effort by Bush allies speaking on Fox, CNN, ABC, CBS and NBC to highlight imagined Bush successes in that sphere. A plethora of conservatives, many from the feckless George W. Bush administration, gave grudging support to Obama, while trying to rewrite history by touting the diligence of the Bush administration’s program to rid us of bin Laden.

Nine of the twelve major guests on political talk shows were conservatives, lauding Bush’s imagined contributions to bin Laden’s demise, including Rudy Giuliani, Dick Cheney, Liz Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Candi Rice. Two of the three Democrats were John Kerry and Tom Donilon, Obama’s national security advisor.

Condoleeza Rice was on CNN Press Room and ABC’s Good Morning America. Donald Rumsfeld talked with Sean Hannity on Fox News and was on the Today Show on Monday. Dick Cheney was on ABC talking to Johathan Karl. They were featured on networks, on cable and in newspapers, giving lip service to Barack, but pointing out “his failures” and how he couldn’t have done it without Bush and company.

For example, Fox News’ Sean Hannity, the great terrorist expert, and Rummy (the Secretary of Defense under Bush who allowed bin Laden’s escape at Tora Bora in 2001) declared, “Without Bush, Bin Laden would not have been killed.”

Ironically, that is probably true, because many suspect that if Bush and Rummy had wanted bin Laden captured, he would not have been available for Obama’s brilliant plan to eliminate him.

With the profusion of conservative heads, we might surmise that the corporate media was trying to deflate the importance of Obama’s accomplishment — with little subtlety — by allowing Dick Cheney to suggest that more torture would have worked better, and by ennobling the words of nine conservatives, many from Bush administration ranks.

Meanwhile, three spokesmen for Obama were quoted sparingly.

How do we account for this imbalance?

Media ownership is concentrated in a few corporate hands with over $300 billion in revenues in 2009. Time Warner, Walt Disney, Viacom, News Corporation (Fox), CBS, and Comcast dominate live visual media, while Clear Channel spews conservative drivel to some 167 million folks on the radio.

These few monolithic corporations function only to make a profit, utilizing the public airwaves for their purposes, while the public interest has been forgotten since Ronald Reagan abandoned the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, a policy that required the FCC to protect the public’s media interests.

Commercially-driven, ultra-powerful mass market media is primarily loyal to sponsors, including advertisers and government. These few companies represent the interests of a minority elite and control the public airwaves of 300 million US citizens.

These same corporations saw more profit and more support among advertisers and sponsors in the media’s promotion of conservative views, inviting 9 conservatives, while installing token forces supporting the present administration.

So currently, conservatives have a 3 to 1 edge on beltway media political talk shows, trying to lessen Obama’s great accomplishment.

The Bush youtube video and the facts help to put the truth in perspective, while a biased media helps to bath the truth in the deceit and hypocrisy of voices from conservatives of the past.

But it is increasingly evident that deceit and hypocrisy are a Republican brand, and the media does help to promote it.