Public Relations

Public relations departments could almost be called,” How to fool the public.”

PR firms regularly assess how much people trust political leaders. Political parties use this information to create political speeches. The more a leader is trusted, the more extreme can be his/her speeches. Public trust is like money in the bank for political parties. It is for this reason that image is so valuable. If the public trusts someone, they are given a cabinet position and their speeches will be publicized (Bush, Powell, Rumsfeld, Rice). If the public doesn’t trust someone, then they become as invisible as possible (Cheney).

Bush read his famous “State of the Union” address, in which he said, “Iraq is a terrorist nation that has weapons of mass destruction and Iraq is making a nuclear bomb.” Bush was trained in how to read a speech, and the vast majority of the American public believed him. Since it has become clear that his speech was based in lies, the PR firms go into “damage control” mode. A plan is created and implemented. The fact that the plan is 90% lie doesn’t matter, as long as the public buys it (see Lies). In order to maintain the façade of trust, the neo-cons and PR firms decide where to shift the blame. That way, it wasn’t Bush’s fault, but somebody else’s fault (see Seeing Through the Image). 

It is truly a testament of the power of public relations that Bush is still trusted. 90% of that speech was fiction created to support the illegal invasion of Iraq (see Propaganda). We attacked Iraq because Bush told Americans that Iraq was planning to attack us. Our attack and invasion has already cost more than $100 billion dollars, over 200 U.S. soldiers have died, over 10,000 Iraqis were killed, and over 30,000 people were wounded. That invasion easily destroyed $50 billion of Iraq’s infrastructure, and caused untold illness and hardship to 20 million Iraqis. These numbers are continuing to increase. Now, according to Rumsfeld, just getting rid of Saddam Hussein is enough of a reason. 

Funny, but the neo-cons knew that “just getting rid of Saddam” never would have gotten any support before the war. Somehow, fictitious information just conveniently turned up. Funny, but Cheney’s energy task force had a map of Iraq, with all the oil fields divided up, back in May of 2001. Funny, but the neo-cons (the military/industrial complex, oil companies, international contractors) are all major donors to Bush’s campaign and are the ones making billions of dollars from this invasion (see Neo-cons). That must be a coincidence. Funny, but lying to Congress, lying to the American people, trying to assassinate foreign leaders, attacking, invading and occupying two countries resulting in the deaths of over 10,000 people all seem like impeachable offenses, if not outright treason. But, all of this must not be true or else certainly something would be done. If nothing is done, then I guess this must be how our government is going to operate. Funny, Clinton lying about having consensual sex in the White House was enough to get him impeached. Lying to Congress and the American public that results in 10,000 plus deaths is much less of a concern than consensual sex. If you understand my sarcasm, then you understand how successful public relations propaganda is at manipulating public opinion and “manufacturing consent” (see Propaganda, Psychology, Democracy). 

Yes, public relations departments could almost be called, “How to fool the public.”