"Learning from the best" : Anita Dunn on 'Absolute Control' of Media

The second link in the opening post is from an extreme rightwing site and is part of a widespread and sustained (and no doubt eventually successful) attack on the Obama as a media/mind control master, (a Svengali with an equally foreign sounding name).
The story recounts the following as O-so-shocking evidence of unheard of political manipulation:      

Quote:

Continued Dunn: "Whether it was a David Plouffe video or an Obama speech, a huge part of our press strategy was focused on making the media cover what Obama was actually saying as opposed to why the campaign was saying it, what the tactic was. … Making the press cover what we were saying."

Glenn Greenwald puts the whole campaign in perspective with his story here:

Quote:

Published on Thursday, October 22, 2009 by Salon.com
What 'Controlling the Media' Really Means
The same media whining over criticisms of Fox was happy to be bullied and controlled by the Bush administration.

by Glenn Greenwald
.....
The Bush Pentagon had a program "to weed out the less reliably friendly analysts" from appearing on television networks.   That would ensure not only that on-air pundits were "carrying water" for the Bush White House, but also that the networks' story choices and coverage of military matters would be shaped by those same water-carriers, since the networks' military analysts "have a huge amount of influence on what stories the network decides to cover proactively with regard to the military. . . . "  It's hardly possible to imagine a more blatant effort to "control the media" than that.  There is nothing the Obama White House has done regarding the media that even comes close.

Whatever else is true, Fox has taken on a political role that is very rare, at least in modern times, for a large American news organization.  Its news coverage is not merely biased or opinionated; there'd be nothing unusual about that.  Instead, it is a major participant -- the leading participant -- in organizing, promoting and fueling protests, including street protests, against the government.  Fox has undertaken a role typically played by media outlets in, say, Venezuela or various unstable, under-developed countries -- sponsoring rather than reporting on protests against the government -- and it is difficult to recall any recent example that is similar.
....

*giggle*