[lit-ideas] Propaganda in the Headlines
- From: Eric Yost <NYCEric@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 09 Dec 2004 16:41:01 -0500
Below is an excerpt from an AP article. Note the headline:
Anti-Terror Bill Worries Liberties Groups
Reading the phrase "Liberties Groups," evokes more than the ACLU.
"Liberties Groups" sounds like a bunch of hippies who take liberties,
libertines, and liberals.
These "Liberties Groups" are "worried" by the bill. They worry, are
concerned, perhaps they worry too much, and in their worry are made
trivial. Liberties Groups worry too much. They are just "Groups" anyway
and their worry is not that important. After all, the headline doesn't
say that the new bill worries Constitutional scholars, the only people
worrying are a bunch of effeminate, probably decadent Liberties Groups.
What are they worries about? Why, an "anti-terror" bill. How silly of
these decadent groups to worry about that! They should worry about
terrorism, shouldn't they?
Perhaps the headline, NEW BILL MAY THREATEN AMERICAN FREEDOM AND PRIVACY
RIGHTS, was just too direct, and didn't have the trivializing effect the
corporate media wanted.
Eric
_____
Anti-Terror Bill Worries Liberties Groups
By CURT ANDERSON
(c) The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - People indicted on terror charges will have a much
harder time getting free on bail under a provision in the new
intelligence bill. The provision also broadens the government's
authority to spy on terror suspects.
Critics say the enforcement powers, attached to the bill with little
debate in Congress, weaken civil liberties and privacy rights that
already were undermined by the Patriot Act that was approved shortly
after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The new legislation broadens prohibitions against providing material
support to terror groups, makes it a crime to visit a terror camp that
provides military-style training and allows the FBI to obtain secret
surveillance warrants against ``lone wolf'' extremists not known to be
tied to a specific terrorist group. It also makes terrorism hoaxes a
federal crime and toughens penalties against people who possess weapons
of mass destruction.
The Bush administration pushed to include the law enforcement package in
the intelligence measure to augment the Patriot Act, which expanded the
government's surveillance and prosecutorial powers against suspected
terrorists, their associates and financiers.
``We are pleased that Congress agreed that we still needed to improve
our defenses,'' Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo said.
Critics say the provisions escaped close scrutiny because they were
tucked into the massive bill creating a new national intelligence director.
``Overall, it's another threat to civil liberties in this country,''
said Charlie Mitchell, legislative counsel for the American Civil
Liberties Union. ``It's just a continuation of what the administration's
been doing.''
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
- » [lit-ideas] Propaganda in the Headlines
