In the investigation of how the Pentagon used TV military analysts to sell the Iraq War – thus allowing George W. Bush to “complete the job” left unfinished by his dad – the New York Times also traced the administration’s P.R. theories back to the Vietnam War and to the early days of the Reagan era.

“Many [TV military analysts] also shared with Mr. Bush’s national security team a belief that pessimistic war coverage broke the nation’s will to win in Vietnam, and there was a mutual resolve not to let that happen with this war,” the Times reported in the article by David Barstow.

“This was a major theme, for example, with Paul E. Vallely, a Fox News analyst from 2001 to 2007. A retired Army general who had specialized in psychological warfare, Mr. Vallely co-authored a paper in 1980 that accused American news organizations of failing to defend the nation from ‘enemy’ propaganda during Vietnam.

“‘We lost the war – not because we were outfought, but because we were out Psyoped,’ he wrote. He urged a radically new approach to psychological operations in future wars – taking aim not just at foreign adversaries but at domestic audiences, too.

“He called his approach ‘MindWar’ – using network TV and radio to ‘strengthen our national will to victory.’”

But the danger of “MindWar,” aimed by the U.S. government at the American people, is that it turns inside-out the concept of a democratic Republic in which a well-informed people exercise meaningful control over their government.

Instead, you end up with a duplicitous government using propaganda, fear and intimidation to whip the people into line. Rather than the government being the servant of the people, the people become the servant of the government.

—US News Media's Latest Disgrace

The government refused to learn any real lessons from Vietnam and instead in denial, stamped its feet and whined "Oh pooh! if only less people knew what we were doing over there, we could have warred all the live-long day!" and decided PSYOPS against its own people was a good idea. So, in case it needs to be spelled out one more time, the true purpose of the media was lost long ago. Doesn't matter how many little stories get told well. This machine spreads viscous blood butter all over our eyeballs at one gesture from the spindly, knobby fingers dangling from the Eternal War Room.

Rumsfeld reiterated the heinous idea that the People are but the Sheeple a year or two ago when he affirmed the same mis-priority. In a time of "war," blowback is a fine. It is, in fact, a scenty gift for the US populace to be sucking down with breakfast. Democracy (as even The Decider has asserted) has a decidedly anti-war bent, and these powermongers know they must keep the truth from those they pretend to serve or the death game's over. They enlist the giants of the media in their bloody agenda. Without one qualm in all their being.

We are very used to looking up at these tall, tall structures, these monoliths of our culture, this American media bedrock. We are used to deferring, to imagining their permanence, their dominance over us. But these institutions have a taller shadow than they do a spine. I've heard the big people talking about media, and they forecast massive shifts. They are bleeding revenue. They know the game has changed. The loss of revenue may have a lot to do with why they are becoming tools to a greater degree. And it may be karma for abdicating their purpose. Doesn't matter. The point is, this is why the brand of Citizen Journalism is exploding. From CNN to MTV to smaller outfits, everywhere you look. This is a sea change, believe it. Again, I've heard the thinking going on at the top. This trending is not about style. This is about power.

The time is ripe. The ground is fertile. The people are hungry for sustenance. The overlords have mixed cow grain with our rations and water with our milk and the ratio grows more unfair every day. Enough of us are angry enough that we are hunting and planting our own crops. All hands welcome. As Mister Marley sang, them belly full, but they hungry/a hungry mob is an angry mob/the rain a fall but the dirt it tough/the pot a cook but the food na' nough...