Sunday, May 7, 2023

The Audacity of Obama's Opacity

Longtime readers of this blog might remember my semi-regular series deconstructing Barack Obama's weekly White House addresses. His tones were so dulcet, his words were so anodyne that it was easy to be lulled into a state of complacency, if not rank stupefaction. Only when you gave the transcripts a close read were you able to suss out the occult message. Many if not most of these addresses were dog whistles to Wall Street and the Military Industrial Complex.

A common theme throughout his reign of Endless Austerity and Permawar was Support the Troops. The gaslighting propaganda got especially heavy during the winter holiday season, when year after year after year, Obama actually compared the sacrifices and hardships of endlessly deployed troops to Jesus Christ being born just to suffer and die for our sins in order to save us.

For me, one of the saddest things about Trump and then Biden succeeding Obama to the presidency was that the weekly presidential speeches went bye-bye. Deconstructing Trump's tweets became the fulltime job of #Resistance, Inc., a/k/a the establishment media, who endlessly debated the real meaning of Covfefe. And what can you possibly deconstruct about Biden, who wears his sociopathy on his sleeve and whose definition of a major press conference is sitting for a softball interview on MSNBC?

So when I heard that Obama had recorded an address last week to the Columbia University School of Journalism to mark the 30th anniversary of the U,N.'s Global Press Freedom extravaganza, I wondered how he'd square his remarks with all the scathing criticism he'd gotten from the Columbia Journalism Review, among other publications.. The CJR called his administration the most opaque, secretive and anti-free press in modern history.

Just back from Spain, where he'd traveled on his pal Steven Spielberg's private jet to catch a concert by their mutual pal Bruce Springsteen, Obama's  remarks, ostensibly geared  to journalism students, were really directed at his squeamish pals in the Military-Industrial complex (MIC), of which Wall Street and establishment media are such integral parts.

But it was a dog whistle in a higher key this time. Thanks  to reporting by The Intercept's Ken Klippenstein, we find out that the MIC acronym has been enhanced into FMIC. I am sad to say that it does not stand for  F-k the Military Industrial Complex. It stands for the  Foreign Malign Influence Center, a shadowy new-ish government agency which oversees propaganda efforts by the Pentagon, the State Department, the intelligence agencies, and the law enforcement agencies. It's a one-stop shop for countering "foreign disinformation." with acceptable domestic government propaganda:

The FMIC is authorized to counter foreign disinformation targeting not just U.S. elections, but also “the public opinion within the United States.

This hiding-in-plain sight government agency is the direct offshoot of the State Department's Global Engagement Center, which Obama himself established by executive order during his last year in office.  The GEC essentially made it perfectly legal for the government to propagandize US citizens. As Klppenstein reveals, the FMIC both centralizes the propaganda efforts and it expands them from State through the full panoply of US surveillance and police agencies, whose previous efforts at propaganda were deemed too disjointed to be effective.

Klipenstein writes,

That foreign governments such as Russia spread lies as part of propaganda to advance their own interests is not in dispute. But the efforts to counter disinformation have now become a cottage industry that critics suggest has grown far out of proportion to the threat.

Therefore, with the scattershot government response to the Janaury 6th capitol riot as the excuse for the latest "state of exception," the new and improved government propaganda shop will  not only counter "foreign" disinformation, it will counter it with a unified proactive Narrative of its own. As long as they can cast all manner of homegrown ills as the product of a foreign bad actor, they can fight Disinformation Over Here so they don't have to fight it Over There. 

And this is where Obama comes in, to lecture the future elite journalistic partners of the EMIC -  students who now pay (or will owe)  about $75,000 a year in Columbia tuition in order to to  become credentialed enough to Disseminate the Discourse in the ever-dwindling collection of news outlets.

Some salient snippets from the Obama video:

"We have to look at ourselves critically and make reforms that allow us not only to survive but thrive."

Obama carefully doesn't specify who the "we" are or what kind of "reforms" he has in mind. Whenever a politician uses the word reform, it usually means something that's good for the rich, and bad for everyone else. They never talk about cutting Social Security and other programs, but only about reforming them. In other words, deforming them. So when Obama talks about reforming journalism, I'm afraid that he's talking about censorship.

"It feels like we're at an inflection point - rising inequality, deepening polarization, and widespread disinformation. (and technical trends like AI). We need to face these trends head-om on, and we need you (his emphasis)to do it."

Because politicians like Obama have failed to face these long-standing, capitalism-engendered problems - which in his world are only trends - the rest of the world is going to shit. You don't need no stinking jobs. All you need is information approved from on high. Only propaganda will set you free.

"That's why it's so important to find creative ways to reinvigorate quality journalism."

If it's quality journalism already, then what's to reinvigorate? He seems to be suggesting new adjectives to make misery look like more fun, or at least entertaining enough to keep the proles glued to the screen in order prevent them from taking to the streets.

"I plan on shining a light on the biggest challenges. That includes revitalizing our political institutions, and coming up with more inclusive and sustainable models of capitalism and creating a stronger democratic (Democratic?) culture. And it also means creating an information environment that reinforces rather than erodes our democracy."

Here we go again with the neoliberal interchangeability between capitalism and democracy. The neoliberal project is fraying around the edges, coming apart at the seams and developing unsightly stains. So the purpose of Reform Journalism is to mend capitalism, add some frills, take it to the dry-cleaners, add some fabric softener,  co-opt the latest outgroup to model it and appear in commercials, expand the identity politics marketplace, and set the acceptable culture narrative.

"One in which we're able to tell a common (emphasis his) story and not just a bunch of separate stories.... These are areas where we have to do better so our democracy stays strong."

Just what we need... one approved story, condensed and toned down to prevent any unseemly outbreaks of independent thought.

"It seems that the only way to get attention is to engage in the kind of opinion journalism that gets people angry, riled up or revengeful. or just creates controversy and gets attention."

 The Columbia School of Journalism offers a course in opinion writing, so somebody had better alert Obama. It simply will not do for any latter-day Ida Tarbells, Lincoln Steffens or Molly Ivenses to get people riled up and mad about dirty politics and racial and social injustice. Everybody just relax. Controversy and dissent in the lower orders are anathema to the tsunami of capitalism which we only imagine is tossing us about before drowning us. Thrill instead to Obama's honeyed tones. Lay back as the golden beneficent drops of government propaganda trickle down upon you. 

6 comments:

  1. When he refers to "quality journalism" he means the kind that pays quality salaries with a "quality" publisher.

    Does Columbia offer a course on Quality Regurgitation? It seems a prerequisite for the advanced stuff.

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  2. I see a few other 'quality' journalists, no doubt some from CSJ, took the time to review President St. Obama's lecture on World Press Fiefdom Day. But I gather copy-editing is no longer required of graduates. 'Malign' is a verb. At least ChatGPT gets THAT right.

    So I assume there was a typo in Yahoo's report on Obama and the FMIC, which I take the liberty of correcting here:

    “ESpoUsing deception in defense of liberty” is the center’s motto, ODNI’s website says. It enjoys access to “all intelligence possessed or created pertaining to FMI [foreign malign information], including election security.”

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  3. Meanwhile ...

    Imagine if Another Bernie Sanders Challenges Joe Biden --
    https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/08/opinion/joe-biden-primary-challenger-foreign-policy.html
    May 8, 2023 ~ by Peter Beinart

    At last check,1625 comments on that article had been posted, included mine (below) with a measly 8 recommendations.
    Quickly scrolling through the leading “readers picks” shows the fawning multitude of those unanimously favor the establishment status quo, just as does the Gray Lady and the rest of the sycophant press owned by a mere handful of mega-corporations.
    Not surprisingly, the article has promptly disappeared from the NYT website.

    Erik Roth
    Minneapolis
    If Merrick Garland would do his job and prosecute Trump, we wouldn't have him to worry about. Meanwhile, Joe Biden has betrayed his base, failed to combat the climate crisis, and has made the world a more dangerous place by bowing to the military-industrial-corporatist oligarchy in both foreign and domestic policy. David Sirota has written in The Guardian how Biden's centrism may doom his re-election. Yet Republican control would be catastrophic. We need progressive leadership. Biden won't provide that. By the way, Carter lost re-election because of Reagan's "October Surprise" treasonous deal with Iran, not because he was challenged in the primary. Gerald Ford lost his because he was never elected in the first place, and wasn't worth electing when he did run. George H.W. Bush lost because his Iraq War was repulsive. Democrats need to have a candidate people want to vote for, not one who is the lesser of two evils.

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  4. voice-in-wildernessMay 12, 2023 at 12:41 PM

    The subject of Obama reminds me to check on the progress of his presidential library. His presidential center is busy with concrete pouring, but it appears that in the sixth year since leaving office, nothing is happening with his library materials. Presumably still in storage in the suburban furniture warehouse. This web site reports that zero pages are available out of an estimated 40 million pages.

    https://www.archives.gov/findingaid/presidential-library-explorer/list/bho

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  5. We used to say that all the bad things started with Reagan - but I am beginning to feel like all the bad things REALLY started with Obama. He is truly a sociopath - so convincing that he is sincere as he steps on all the people who believed in his promises. As much as I detest Trump, at least he wears his narcissism out where we can all see it. Once again, Karen, great essay!

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  6. I'm curious if anyone knows what percentage of Americas and Westerners are turning to bloggers for their news as the MSM clearly can't be trusted to be anything other than stenographers.

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