Rove: Reporters slam politicians to save selves

[CatWoman]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Presidential adviser Karl Rove said Saturday that journalists often criticize political professionals because they want to draw attention away from the "corrosive role" their own coverage plays in politics and government.

"Some decry the professional role of politics. They would like to see it disappear," Rove told graduating students at the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management. "Some argue political professionals are ruining American politics -- trapping candidates in daily competition for the news cycle instead of long-term strategic thinking in the best interest of the country."

But Rove turned that criticism on journalists.

"It's odd to me that most of these critics are journalists and columnists," he said. "Perhaps they don't like sharing the field of play. Perhaps they want to draw attention away from the corrosive role their coverage has played focusing attention on process and not substance."

Rove told about 100 graduates trained to be political operatives that they should respect the instincts of the American voter.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/07/29/rove.journalists.ap/index.html?section=cnn_topstories

[ShockediSay]

1. Politicians slam reporters to save selves, stupid!!! ... n/t

[Rufus T. Firefly]

2. Yeah, no need for the press.

The "instincts of the American voter" will do fine; the press just gets in the way with facts and whatnot.

[CatWoman]

3. he's such a putrid lump of flesh

:nuke:

[BrklynLiberal]

5. One of the most accurate descriptions of him I have ever read.

:thumbsup: :hi:

[msongs]

4. stupid media should call him out on this one: challenge him to a duel

cuz obviously rove has had his buttons pushed and is getting mad, then trying to get even.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/howarddean2008.htm

[CJCRANE]

6. How does he do that?

Project his own faults onto others. Everything in his little speech is the opposite of the truth.

It's truly remarkable how he can do that so naturally. He should be the neocon president not *
(who sometimes flubs his lines by accidentally telling the truth:"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful,
and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.")

[CatWoman]

7. see Josh Marshall's take on Rove's bolivating:

It's not necessary to parse the substance of Rove's fatuous comments. We all know how preposterous any of this is coming from Rove. And it's certainly not the first time the GOP has attacked the media as a way of working the refs, which is exactly the purpose of those particular remarks.

But I am struck by Rove's remarks as another example, among many in recent months, that most of the reliable campaign themes the Republicans have employed in the last two decades are no longer viable. National security policy is in a shambles, the federal budget is a wreck, and the GOP's reputation for bringing mature and competent managers to government may take a generation to rebuild. Thematically, only social issues still resonate. That leaves the GOP with two main tactical weapons: demonizing opponents personally and shooting the messenger.

Over the next four months, we will see blistering negative attacks on Democrats of a ferocity and corrosiveness that will make Swift Boats look like the Love Boat. And we will see a continuation of what started in the spring, an unprecedented attack on journalists and journalism, using not only the rhetorical flourishes favored by Rove, but the powers of the state via investigations, subpoenas, and the invocation of state secrets.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/009247.php

[CJCRANE]

9. Ah, "shooting the messenger", I see now.

That's the only way Rove and his operatives can survive in a so-called "free society", by using their own freedom of speech to try and destroy freedom of speech.

[Cocoa]

8. magnetic poetry

he takes the truth and rearranges it.

[madmusic]

10. Projection as propaganda:

Psychological projection
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Psychological projection (or projection bias) is a defence mechanism in which one attributes ("projects") to others, one’s own unacceptable or unwanted thoughts or/and emotions. Projection reduces anxiety by allowing the expression of the unwanted subconscious impulses/desires without letting the ego recognize them. The theory was developed by Sigmund Freud and further refined by his daughter Anna Freud.

According to the theories of Sigmund Freud, it is a psychological defense mechanism whereby one "projects" one's own undesirable thoughts, motivations, desires, feelings—basically parts of oneself—onto someone else (usually another person, but psychological projection onto animals, inanimate objects - even religious constructs - also occurs). The principle of projection is well-established in psychology.

To understand the process, imagine an individual (Alice, for example) who feels dislike for another person (let's say Bob), but whose unconscious mind will not allow her to become aware of this negative emotion. Instead of admitting to herself that she feels dislike for Bob, she projects her dislike onto Bob, so that her conscious thought is not "I don't like Bob," but "Bob doesn't like me." In this way one can see that projection is related to denial, the only defense mechanism that some argue is more primitive than projection. Alice has denied a part of herself that is desperate to come to the surface. She can't flatly admit that she doesn't like Bob, so instead she will project the dislike, thinking Bob doesn't like her. Another, and an ironic, example is if Alice were to say, "Bob seems to project his feelings onto me."

Peter Gay describes it as "the operation of expelling feelings or wishes the individual finds wholly unacceptable—too shameful, too obscene, too dangerous—by attributing them to another." (Freud: A Life for Our Time, page 281)

The concept was anticipated by Friedrich Nietzsche:

"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."
— Beyond Good and Evil

The philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach based his theory of religion in large part upon the idea of projection, i.e., the idea that an anthropomorphic deity is the outward projection of man's anxieties and desires.

Psychological projection is the subject of Robert Bly's book A Little Book on the Human Shadow. The "Shadow"—a term used in Jungian psychology to describe a variety of psychological projection—refers to the projected material.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_projection