Judy Miller had a bigger role in creating the "Post-911" Heebie Jeebies

[Armstead]

This isn't an inside scoop. Just what I have noticed as an average schmuck.

A lot of the focus on reporter Judith Miller has focused on her role in helping to manufacture consensus for the Iraq War, and her subsequent role in Palmegate.

However, her role in helping to create the perception of a "new world" after the terrorist attacks of 9-11 was larger than that. This was going on in that period between 9-11 and the emergence of Iraq as a major issue.

Remember in those awful months after 9-11 how the Media-Political complex made terrorism seem so immense and scary? It was all about terror attacks, bio-chemical attacks, nuclear attacks -- to the point where you almost had to have a stiff drink before you could even turn on the TeeVee or open a newspaper?

It wasn't just about Saddam. It was just that amorphous threat known as "Terra."

And guess who became a media star during that period? Judy Miller was everywhere in the media, scaring us to death with lurid tales of new diseases being hatched and other frightening threats. She wrote a frightening book on the subject, and whenever there was a panel of "experts" on TV to scare us anew, there was Judy.

I'm not going to put on any tin hats about why she became such a "star" after 9-11. It's quite possible that she was either genuinuely afraid and had an honest sense of urgency. Or perhaps she was merely ultra-ambitious, and saw the selling of fear as her ticket to fame and fortune.....Or perhaps something else was going on behind the scenes.

I don't know. But I do know, that whatever motives or machinations were involved, the scare stories and message of fear of Judith Miller after 9-11 were part of the drumbeat from the Political/Media Complex that totally jerked us around by pressing the collective Anxiety Button and contributing to our national nervous breakdown.

[Armstead]

1. kick

[KittyWampus]

2. Armstead, you're MORE than just the average schmuck (wink, wink)

only kidding.

You're correct that Miller certainly seemed to be part of a concerted effort. How much and how far the corruption goes into Medialand is worrisome.

As to why, that's what I find fascinating to speculate about. The Psychology behind why she did it.

Like Miers, is she:

True Neo-Con believer
Power hungry striving Suck-Up
Eager to please woman

[Armstead]

3. A bigger schmuck than average...(nudge nudge)

I think she's probably a "true believer" but from what I've read from otehr reporters about her she also has personal ambitions and an ego bigger than the moon.

Where that led her, it's difficult to speculate. But unfortunately her proclivity to hype the fear did us all a disservice when we were trying to come to grips with the imp-lications of 9-11.

[KittyWampus]

4. I guess if you are really that ambitious you will become a true believer

sort of a self hypnosis thing...

[SoCalDem]

5. It's all so "boogie-man".. As an adult who has lived abroad, I

"know" that there is no real safety anywhere. As children we expect our parents to protect us from :bad stuff", but once we grow up we should realize that life is a random event, played out in slow motion.

Stuff happens, and luck is often the major component of our "safety".. People who missed a bus on 9-11 lived, while their prompt coworkers died at their desks.

People who chose "House #3" that a realtor showed them in 1994, drowned in their attics, while the buyer of "House #2" got minimal wind damage and a soggy carpet.

For ANY administration to continually harp on terrorism, while blithely reminding people to go to the mall...and pick up some duct tape & plastic while you're at it..well they are as evil as they are stupid.

No one I know is the least bit afraid of being killed by a terrorist, but we all "know" it's possible.. The media and government people who try to keep people scared, are the worst of the worst..

Being afraid of something you have no control over is a total waste of time, and only serves the ones putting out the terror alerts..

As long as there are unhappy, disenfranchised people, there will be terrorism, and it can be anywhere...even in the good ole usa.

[Armstead]

6. I agree...I agreed then

Wgat really got me so mad ws that during the 1990's the message was "Happy Days are Here Forever" and problems were swept under the carpet.

The biggest issue in the news on Sept. 10, 2001 was whether Gary Condit had murdered an office worker.

Then after 9-11, the perceptions created by the Media Political Complex did a 180 degree U-Turn. Suddenly the bright and sunny world was portrayed as a dark and frightening place. It's like suddenly we were expected to become obsessive, as if bio-weapons had just been invented.

There should have been a more balanced view in the 1990's, just as there should have been after 9-11.

That's playing on the emotions is what so unforgivable about the media and reporters like Judy Miller.

[SoCalDem]

7. Yep.. and there was only sporadic mention of how WE have the MOST

nuclear and bio weapons on earth, and we are the ONLY nation who has ever USED nuclear weapons.. but then we are "the good guys" so all is right with the world..

Our press and government never bothered to remind us that there is a consequence to being the bully on the block.. eventually the other kids grow up and may come after us..

[Armstead]

8. We should have had more humilty before 9-11

And more real courage after it.

It's hard to remember how arrogent we had become by the end of the 1990's, with our determination to push "globalization" on the world, whether they wanted it or not.

[BreakForNews]

9. Judith Miller, PlameGate, and the Birds of A Feather

This is about as close as anyone has come to naming Judith Miller as a CIA agent:

"Judith Miller is a reporter for the New York Times. After the invasion, on assignment to cover a U.S. military unit as it searches for WMDs in Iraq, she's given "clearance" by the Pentagon "to see secret information" -- which she "was not permitted to discuss" with Times editors."

"There's nothing wrong with this picture if Judith Miller is an intelligence operative for the U.S. government. But if she's supposed to be a journalist, this is a preposterous situation..."

Recalling that we rcently described the Plame Affair as a contrived scandal, you just got to check this out....
http://breakfornews.com/my/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=175&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

[Armstead]

10. Whether or not she was.....

All of the Judith Millers and their minor league merchants of fear after 9-11 should be ashamed.

Life has never been "safe." We should have been and be more vigilant. That's always been -- and always will be a fact of life.

But in reality we all live with that, and go on with our lives anyway, realizing that the chances of disaster are usually much smaller than the chances of a disaster.

But we should not fogive those people who whipped the US into a frenzy of fear after 9-11, and those who enabled the Millers of the world to dominate the dialogue.

[Ignacio Upton]

11. I remember she was on every segment during the Anthrax scare

She was on CNN, MSNBC, and I think even Fox News. She put out some book about biological weapons (I can't remember if it was before or after 9/11.)