The
Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to
Katrina
[BARGAIN PRICE] (Hardcover)
Mr. Rich's approach in THE
GREATEST STORY EVER SOLD is disarmingly
simple - retell the chronological story of the Bush II Presidency,
focusing on the manner in which the Administration presented and sold
its case to the American public. What emerges, of course, is a pattern
of deceptions and staged events that have resulted in a failed
Presidency (with approval ratings rivaling those of Nixon after
Watergate), a country more polarized than ever, and a lower American
standing in the world than at any time in our history. What also
emerges, however, is a portrait of the mainstream media that for far
too long acted as the President's lapdog, cowed by the aftershocks of
9/11 ("watch what you say!"), panic-stricken over the notion of seeming
traitorous simply by asking a question, and fawning obsequiously over
the Bush Administration out of fear of losing their vaunted access
(failing to recognize the irony of their being used as tools of the
Administration's propaganda program).
Mr. Rich chronicles the Bush Administration's story from 9/11 to
Katrina in great detail, hitting all the well-known low spots (aluminum
tubes, uranium from Niger, Valerie Plame, WMD's, shock and awe,
embedded reporters, Jessica Lynch, Mission Accomplished, "Kenny Boy"
Lay, Jeff (hotmilitarystud.com) Gannon, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth,
Abu Ghraib, Pat Tillman, Cindy Sheehan, Michael (heckuva job) Brown,
etc.) and a few less publicized ones. The entire recap plays like the
political equivalent of a year-ending "Top 100 Musical Hits" show,
bringing back lots of (mostly bad) memories and connecting the dots
across the first five or six years of George Bush's Presidency.
At its heart, Rich blames the
media's desire for access, its
disinterest in analysis, and its fear of being painted as not
patriotic. Since 9/11 the White House has succeeded in silencing those
who offer any competing narrative to its own (remember Bill Maher's
suggestion that we're deluding ourselves if we think cowards fly
airplanes into buildings?) more interested in controlling the story
than winning the war. As with the excellent history of Iraq "Fiasco"
Bush partisans will not give this work a read, nor even consider the
possibility of fault, let alone bad intentions. Even honorable men who
shed blood in war for the country such as Senator's McCain, Graham, and
Warner, find themselves under attack because disagreement for many of
my fellow Americans now seems synonymous with betrayal. Those who
reflexively revile works such as this one should take a deep breath and
hear out his argument. A dose of his rational outrage would be a tonic
for us all.
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