Step by step

Posted on August 10, 2004 by Gene

Lawrence Lessig brings up an interesting and potentially very important point about copyrights:

The US president owns neither his words nor his image – at least not when he speaks in public on important matters. Anyone is free to use what he says, and the way he says it, to criticize or to praise. The president, in this sense, is “free.” But what happens when the commander in chief uses private venues to deliver public messages, holding fewer press conferences and making more talk-show appearances? Who controls his words and images then?

Though Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 has grabbed the headlines, another documentary is at the center of this debate. In August, Robert Greenwald will release an updated version of his award-winning film, Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War. Greenwald has added a clip of President George W. Bush’s February interview with Tim Russert on Meet the Press, NBC’s Sunday morning talk show. In the clip, the president defends his decision to go to war – astonishingly unconvincingly.

Greenwald asked NBC for permission to run the one-minute clip – offering to pay for the right, as he had done for every other clip that appears in the film. NBC said no. The network explained to his agent that the clip is “not very flattering to the president.”

In view of the total control of the Bush message by his “team”, this wrinkle is hardly surprising.
If you add up all these tiny little pieces of information, doesn’t it really seem as if the Bush administration is the most fascist in U.S. history? I swear, every one of these tidbits brings to mind the totalitarian tactics of the Soviets, the Nazis, the Fascists, and Chinese Communists, Big Brother…