By BEN BARTEE – Armageddon Prose
Tal Heinrich, “spokesperson” (the HR term for credentialed propagandist), appeared for a PR job on MSNBC, at which time she was made to earn her paycheck.
Given the usual kid gloves with which Israeli government propagandists are used to being treated in American corporate state media, she likely didn’t expect the level of scrutiny she received.
In some respects, MSNBC didn’t disappoint in its long tradition of toeing the Israeli line, sprinkling in the routine caveats about the evil of Hamas, Israel’s right to self-defense, etc.
It goes pretty well, in fact, for the propagandist upon initial questioning from the resident Eric Swalwell body double (his name doesn’t matter), but then Mika Brzezinski, of all people — nepo-baby of infamous neocon Zbigniew Brzeziński — jumps in with some heaters down the middle of the plate.
The ensuing stammering by the propagandist did no favors to the Israeli position.
“It’s been two months, Tal. A lot of us have been asking this question repeatedly: how it’s possible that so many hours passed before this attack was contained,” Mika asks.
Specifically, it has been widely reported that roughly 7-8 hours (!) passed from the inaugural onslaught until the world-class Israeli military arrived on the scene in a country the size of New Jersey. Make that make sense assuming the national security apparatus was acting in good faith.
“This is a good question,” the propagandist starts. “And we are also asking it… we will share these answers when the time will come.”
Historically, this has been the line from the Bibi regime that has mostly gone unchallenged in the Western corporate media — although, notably not among the outraged Israeli populace itself.
(All of this “we need time to investigate” is merely code for “give us more time to figure out how to lie to you effectively, or else put it off until the news cycle is engulfed by the next crisis and moves on.”)
“But there has to be some immediate answer… It’s beyond a major failure,” Mika presses. “Physically to get to these victims and to this attack could’ve been minutes and it was hours.”
The propagandist stumbles through her tired talking points once more, which doesn’t deter Mika.
“That’s not an explanation,” Mika interjects at the end of the propagandist’s filibuster.
The whole exchange is worth a watch.
In her defense — to the extent government liars deserve any defense — the propagandist can’t come up with any kind of intelligible answer because it’s transparent as the waters of a crystalline Thai beach that there is no answer aside from that the intelligence services and military let it happen, which she is not permitted to admit on American television for obvious reasons.
Another interesting, and related, question is: why has the MSNBC dog Mika been unleashed by her masters on the Netanyahu government? This is a decidedly brand-new development.
I have a theory in this regard that I’ll expound on in the near future.
Ben Bartee, author of Broken English Teacher: Notes From Exile, is an independent Bangkok-based American journalist with opposable thumbs.
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