Date: Thu, 28 May 1998 07:44:55 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Harry M. Cleaver" <hmcleave-AT-eco.utexas.edu>
Subject: AUT: Communication stream of conspiracy commerce and Heritage Foundation's, Richard Mellon Scaife (fwd)



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 28 May 98 21:47:37 -0700
From: janice <janice-AT-ihug.co.nz>
To: mai-not-AT-flora.org
Subject: Communication stream of conspiracy commerce and Heritage Foundation's, Richard Mellon Scaife

>    Excerpts from the 331-page "Communication Stream of Conspiracy
> Commerce" report issued by the White House counsel's office
>                                 
>          (as selected by editors of The Wall Street Journal)
> 
> Communication Stream of Conspiracy Commerce: The Communication
> Stream of Conspiracy Commerce refers to the mode of communication
> employed by the right wing to convey their fringe stories into
> legitimate subjects of coverage by the mainstream media. This is how
> the stream works. First, well funded right wing think tanks and
> individuals underwrite conservative newsletters and newspapers such
> as the Western Journalism Center, the American Spectator and the
> Pittsburgh Tribune Review. Next, the stories are reprinted on the
> internet where they are bounced all over the world. From the
> internet, the stories are bounced into the mainstream media through
> one of two ways: 1) The story will be picked up by the British
> tabloids and covered as a major story, from which the American
> right-of-center mainstream media (i.e. the Wall Street Journal,
> Washington Times and New York Post) will then pick the story up; or
> 2) The story will be bounced directly from the internet to the
> right-of-center American media, which covers the story;
> Congressional committees will lock into the story. After Congress
> looks into the story, the story now has the legitimacy to be covered
> by the remainder of the American mainstream press as a "real" story.
> 
> Background Reading: The emergence of conservative think tanks and
> their effectiveness at conveying conservative ideas has been
> discussed by a number of publications. The think tanks serve as the
> ideas mill for today's Republican Party. The think tanks define and
> shape the idea's agenda for the party and serve as the training
> ground for this new generation of conservatives. In many ways, these
> Republican think tanks are to today's media age of political
> organizations what the Democratic big city party machines were to
> the New Deal era of political organizations.
> 
> Richard Mellon Scaife: Richard Mellon Scaife is in the vanguard of
> this aforementioned form of this media age political organizing.
> Scaife uses the $800 million Mellon fortune which he inherited to
> fund a virtual empire of right wing newspapers and foundations.
> These newspapers and foundations use their power to control the
> Republican Party's agenda and viewpoints. Scaife, in particular, is
> one of the major backers of Newt Gingrich. Interestingly enough,
> Gingrich's view on Vince Foster seemed to dovetail with Scaife's
> following Scaife's pumping of thousands of dollars into Gingrich's
> GOPAC's coffers.
> 
> The Helen Dickey Example: The Helen Dickey story is a classic
> example of how these right wing foundations and newsletters can use
> the Communication Stream of Conspiracy Commerce to get a fringe
> story into the mainstream. In this case, the right wing British
> tabloid reporter Ambrose Evans-Pritchard reported in London's Sunday
> Telegraph that an Arkansas State Trooper, Roger Perry, had talked
> with White House staffer Helen Dickey about the fact that Vince
> Foster's death [occurred] hours before his death was supposed to
> have become known. From Pritchard, the story received major coverage
> by the Scaife funded Western Journalism Center and the Scaife owned
> Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. From these fringe, right wing
> publications the story found a far wider audience. From the
> internet, right-of-center mainstream papers, including the
> Washington Times and New York Post, covered the Dickey story as a
> legitimate news item. Once these papers covered the story,
> Congressional staffers from Alfonse D'Amato's staff had the needed
> justification to investigate the issue. In turn, the investigation
> of the issue gave the story further credibility and allowed other
> members of the mainstream media to cover the story.
> 
> The Foster Forgery Note Example: In late October [1995], James
> Davidson and the organization which he is president of, the National
> Taxpayers Union (NTU), sponsored a press conference purporting to
> show that the Foster suicide note was a forgery. The press
> conference and the report of the forged suicide note was covered by
> the mainstream media. However, a closer look at the situation shows
> how fantasy can become fact when it is in the hands of the right
> wing Foster conspiracy industry. NTU and Davidson relied upon Ronald
> Rice, a self-described handwriting expert. In fact, Rice is not a
> handwriting expert with the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office
> but, in fact, the head of a hypnotist training school in Boston. As
> for Davidson and NTU has been publishing Foster conspiracy industry
> stories. Furthermore, NTU received a large chunk of its funding from
> Richard Mellon Scaife. Finally, the Independent Counsel's report,
> based on the FBI's findings, has concluded that the Foster note was
> the real thing. Despite all of these facts, the mainstream press
> covered the press conference as if it was a legitimate story.
> 
> David Bossie: Bossie is a key staffer on the Senate Whitewater
> Committee. He is also a former leader and organizer for the right
> wing organization Citizens United. Bossie is known in the media
> community for constantly spinning out anti-Clinton stories. His
> involvement in the Whitewater hearings demonstrate the overtly
> political nature of the hearings. Moreover, Bossie's presence shows
> the close connection that exists between Republican elected
> officials and the right wing conspiracy industry.
> 
> Right Wing Publications: Right wing publications are produced in a
> prolific manner.
> 
> The Internet: The internet has become one of the major and most
> dynamic modes of communication. The internet can link people, groups
> and organizations together instantly. Moreover, it allows an
> extraordinary amount of unregulated data and information to be
> located in one area and available to all. The right wing has seized
> upon the internet as a means of communicating its ideas to people.
> Moreover, evidence exists that Republican staffers surf the
> internet, interacting with extremists in order to exchange ideas and
> information.
> 
>                        Who's Behind All This?
> 
> In order to fully understand the Whitewater story, it is important
> to understand how conservative groups are, and have been, able to
> generate a media frenzy over the Whitewater story.
> 
>                         The Media Food Chain
> 
> The media food chain is the system by which right-wing activists
> feed conspiracy theories and innuendo from the fringes into the
> mainstream media. The "food chain" starts with activists such as
> Willie Horton creator Floyd Brown, Sheffield Nelson and Larry
> Nichols. These activists feed the partisan conservative press,
> publications such as the American Spectator, the Washington Times
> and the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal. The mainstream
> press then picks up on these reports.
> 
>                       The "Blow-Back" Strategy
> 
> One specific "food chain" strategy is the "blow-back." The blow-back
> starts with conservative groups feeding material to the British
> tabloids, such as the Sunday Telegraph. Conservative American
> tabloids and mainstream American media then report on the British
> reports.
> 
> For example, recently the Washington Times reprinted Ambrose
> Evans-Pritchard's Sunday Telegraph response to a Washington Post
> article on Vince Foster conspiracy theorists. Pritchard, who took
> offense to being lumped in with conspiracy theorists, has been a
> leading reporter of various conspiracies - most recently accusing
> Vince Foster of secretly being a spy.. (Washington Times, 7/10/95 and
> Washington Post, 7/4/95)
> 
>                     The Richard Scaife Connection
> 
> In addition to the use of the media food chain and blow-back
> strategies, conservatives have another tie - their source of funds.
> A number of groups that have been peddling conspiracy theories
> (mainly questioning the suicide of Deputy White House Counsel Vince
> Foster) are funded by Richard M. Scaife.
> 
> Richard Scaife is an heir to the Mellon fortune with an estimate net
> worth of $750 million. In addition to his financial support of
> purveyors of Vince Foster conspiracy theories, Scaife also is a Newt
> Gingrich insider - backing many of the groups that support and
> defend Newt Gingrich, including contributing $60,000 to GOPAC and
> $450,000 to the Landmark Legal Foundation.
> 
>   SOURCES WITHOUT CREDIBILITY PUSHING STORIES INTO MAINSTREAM PRESS
> 
> Whitewater is one of many issues originating with sources without
> credibility. There is a discernible pattern in which Willie Horton
> creator Floyd Brown and tabloid "news" organizations have forced
> stories into the mainstream press. Most interesting is the
> "blowback" strategy in which stories are planted in the British
> tabloids and then those stories are reported on in the U.S. press.
> 
>          Whitewater: From Floyd Brown to Wall Street Journal
> 
> 2/94 - The Wall Street Journal's editorial board met with Floyd
> Brown.....
> 
> 3/4/94 - To the Journal's editorial page: After the meeting, the
> Journal devoted nearly half of its editorial page to reprinting
> documents it had obtained from Brown in meeting.
> 
> The Journal reprinted a series of letters between David Hale and
> Paula Casey they obtained from Brown, which it entitled, "Poison,
> Then Recuse" and "Bargaining in Little Rock." [Chicago Tribune,
> 3/27/94; Wall Street Journal, 3/9/94]
> 
> 3/9/94 - From Brown: Brown's "Clinton Watch" published a
> "Whitewater" Fax Bulletin entitled, Special Counsel Robert Fiske
> subpoenaed Clinton administration officials and associates but he
> missed one -- Patsy Thomasson.
> 
> This Bulletin spoke of Thomasson's relationship with Dan Lasater and
> the fact that she searched Vince Foster's office after his death.
> [Clinton Watch, 3/9/94]
> 
> 3/10/94 - To the Journal's editorial page: The next day, The Wall
> Street Journal ran an editorial "Who Is Patsy Thomasson?"
> 
> The article stated that there had been a delay in getting a White
> House pass for her and said, "We suspect that [the delay] had
> something or other to do with her past association with another
> Arkansas FOB, bond trader and drug convict Dan Lasater." [Wall
> Street Journal, 3/10/94]
> 
>         Other Mainstream Press Have Been Influenced By Brown:
> 
> 1994 - From Brown to other mainstream media: Floyd Brown and his
> associate David Bossie claim that "dozens" of members of the
> mainstream press including Time and Money magazines, NBC and the
> London Times have used them for information or interviews. [Chicago
> Tribune, 3/27/94]
> 
> 2/94 - From Brown to other mainstream media: Bossie and NBC
> television producer Ira Silverman were seen together while
> attempting to interview Arkansas S&L regulator, Beverly Basset
> Schaffer. [Chicago Tribune, 3/27/94]



--
For MAI-not subscription information, posting guidelines and
links to other MAI sites please see http://mai.flora.org/



     --- from list aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---