Monday, March 21, 2005
Integrity:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/20/arts/20Rich.html?8hpib
Frank Rich writes: "The enduring legacy of Enron can be summed up in one word: propaganda. Here was a corporate house of cards whose business few could explain and whose source of profits was an utter mystery - and yet it thrived, unquestioned, for years. How? ...." Enron "was fixated on its public relations campaigns." It churned out slick PR videos as if it were a Hollywood studio...."
Rich continues: "If this Potemkin village sounds familiar, take a look at the ongoing 60-stop "presidential roadshow" in which Mr. Bush has "conversations on Social Security" with "ordinary citizens"....As in the president's "town meeting" campaign appearances last year, the audiences are stacked with prescreened fans; any dissenters who somehow get in are quickly hustled away by security goons....the preparations are even more elaborate than the finished product suggests; the seeming reality of the event is tweaked as elaborately as that of a television reality show."
Frank Rich notes above that both Enron and this White House build a case for their cause not by honest discussion, but by slick PR dressed up as reality.
Friends pride ourselves on Speaking Truth To Power. Shouldn't we also demand that Power Speak Truth to us?
Frank Rich writes: "The enduring legacy of Enron can be summed up in one word: propaganda. Here was a corporate house of cards whose business few could explain and whose source of profits was an utter mystery - and yet it thrived, unquestioned, for years. How? ...." Enron "was fixated on its public relations campaigns." It churned out slick PR videos as if it were a Hollywood studio...."
Rich continues: "If this Potemkin village sounds familiar, take a look at the ongoing 60-stop "presidential roadshow" in which Mr. Bush has "conversations on Social Security" with "ordinary citizens"....As in the president's "town meeting" campaign appearances last year, the audiences are stacked with prescreened fans; any dissenters who somehow get in are quickly hustled away by security goons....the preparations are even more elaborate than the finished product suggests; the seeming reality of the event is tweaked as elaborately as that of a television reality show."
Frank Rich notes above that both Enron and this White House build a case for their cause not by honest discussion, but by slick PR dressed up as reality.
Friends pride ourselves on Speaking Truth To Power. Shouldn't we also demand that Power Speak Truth to us?