Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Indianapolis Star Upset Gov. Pence Is Creating State-Run Media Service Modeled After Obama White House Press Service

It really bothers me how much government at all levels spends hiring people to work as public information officers, who I think are better described as disinformation agents since they spend most of the time trying to make us believe everything except the truth about what the government is really doing to us. In the 1970s, the Church Committee uncovered the fact that the CIA had a large percentage of the national media folks we relied upon to provide factual news reporting on their payroll under its infamous Operation Mockingbird Project so the news disseminated to the public was even more tainted.

The Obama White House has taken disinformation to an entirely new level, producing its own stories, photos and videos of the President and his administration's actions on a daily basis, which it expects the White House Press Corp to rely upon as opposed to regular access to the President and key administration officials for press availabilities. If that's not bad enough, various news reports indicate the Obama White House is reviewing and revising press reports prepared by the supposed independent news organizations before they're published or aired.

So I had to chuckle at the reaction of the folks over at the Indianapolis Star today to their discovery that Gov. Mike Pence is launching his own state-run news service modeled after President Obama's White House Press Office called "JustIn." "Gov. Mike Pence is starting a state-run taxpayer-funded news outlet that will make pre-written news stories available to Indiana media, as well as sometimes break news about his administration, according to documents obtained by The Indianapolis Star," the story by Tom LoBianco opens. The Star's political columnist Matt Tully chimes in, "A state-run news agency?" "What in the name of Vladimir Putin is the Pence administration thinking? His administration is calling it "Just IN." But, I'm sorry, that's the last time you'll ever hear me call it that. This is a propaganda outlet, plain and simple."

Excuse me if the only thing that comes to mind is "Casablanca's" Captain Renault's "I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here." If Matt Tully is worried about propaganda, perhaps he should re-read the columns he's written over the past few years. Some of us have a difficult time discerning any journalistic quality in most of what he writes about. One need only read the talking points laid out in the press releases of the various members of the downtown mafia to know what to expect in his columns. He protests a bit too much.

Instead of complaining about Pence's JustIN project, the Star's reporters for starters should be asking questions about why the Bureau of Motor Vehicles has taken the job of making Indiana license plates away from Indiana prison inmates at the Department of Corrections and outsourced it to a California-based company purportedly to save money--$14.4 million over five years to be precise. Seriously? A company called Intellectual Technology, Inc. can really make license plates cheaper than the prison inmates paid no more than a few dollars a day for their work? Why doesn't the BMV tell us why they really want this private company making our license plates? Doesn't it have something to do with intelligence gathering capabilities embedded in the license plates? Ah, yes. More big brother watching over us. More importantly, the private contractor can make big campaign contributions those lowly prison inmates are incapable of making.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mike Pence is a traitor to the Republican Party and the true conservative ideals of individual liberty and has shown by his actions he is a big government statist! Matt Tully has to take much of the blame for Hoosier politicians hubris! His constant kissing of the elites read ends has enabled crap like this to occur!I guess Tully doesn't like to be on the receiving end of corruption! Get used to it Matt you are nothing but a useless hack! Know get used to being the elites punk!

Anonymous said...

Left ideologue Democrat Barak Obama established a Joseph Goebbels-like news dis-information service and now comes non-conservative RINO Mike Pence doing the same.

Conservative Democrats and Republicans will find no POTUS material nor champion of our Founder's America in the short stature and small intellect of this RINO guy warming the Indiana governor chair.

Anonymous said...

The final paragraph speaks the real truth... and exceptionally well.

Anonymous said...

[Importing the comment to the relevant thread]

I think it's a great idea. Since all the media gives us is the state-drafted stories, Pence is cutting out the middle man.

If the media wants to run something, it will have to differentiate itself from what the State gives us.

Tully is crying, because Pence just made his job harder.

The Indiana media has been rendered redundant.

If I want the real news, I come here. The Star isn't going to kick over any stones.

Gary should start a YouTube channel like Russell Brand's Trews.

Anonymous said...

Tully sounds like "But I've been good. I've done everything you wanted. Why are you taking my job away from me?"

I wonder if the Star will simply pare back State coverage to put Pence out of mind. We all know the Star won't return to do doing real reporting on the State, so perhaps silence is their only weapon.

The Star still has a cozy relationship with the Downtown Mafia, so they might devote the paper increasingly to local matters, but how many press releases advocating the needs of the power network do the law firms care to draft, every day?

The Star had a good racket going, and now it's gone. I wonder if a Lake County paper messed things up for everyone? The Louisville Courier sometimes gives better reporting of Indiana's Statehouse than anything you'll find in Indiana.

Pete Boggs said...

"Don't know how lucky you are boys... back in the US... back in the US... back in the U-S-S-R..."

Paul K. Ogden said...

Maybe the most blown out proportion story in the last two decades.

Anonymous said...

I'm also not a fan of the overpaid government publicist types who do nothing but push out propaganda. All we want is the facts - but in politics there's always more to the story. The Tully's of the world are pissed because this site cuts out the middle man and it exposes their half-assed journalism.
This was intended to be nothing more than a one-stop shop for state agency press releases - for folks who don't know they can read the same thing almost verbatim in local media outlets.
Pence should be careful what gets posted though - everything will be poured over by his 2016 opponents who won't hesitate to dig deeper, ask the questions local media should have asked in the first place, and call him out on any BS.

Anonymous said...

Ogden, huh? Did you get a job in the Pence administration, or something?

The criticisms are legitimate.

Anonymous said...

Comrades,
As many of you are aware, Comrade Mike Putin, I mean Pence has created a State run newspaper, called Just IN. This bucks a 200 year tradition that the 4th pillar of our society has provided, a free press. His own party has condemned him on this issue.

What you did not know, is that Comrade Pence has also secretly proposed to change the State song. Undisclosed sources have provided me a copy of this song. Just a note, many have risked their lives to provide me this information.

The link to the song is: Turn up the speakers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U06jlgpMtQs

Anonymous said...

6:29:

I'm sorry, but you're very wrong.

Here is Indiana's anthem:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv5jLsLoYcE