I learned early on in a corporation that the wisest thing to do with a “pacesetter” executive – you know the demanding guys who insist you do it his way or else – is to listen up when he’s making an overarching strategic or philosophical point. Because you can guarantee with a guy like that, if he's your boss he’ll come back at you later and demand to know what you’ve done to implement his “vision.” So it was with the Bush 43 administration’s premier “pacesetter” SecDef Rumseld, who last year began to wonder aloud about the problems free people faced fighting the war on terror in the 24-7 global media world. Rumsfeld’s breakthrough speech on this new phenomenon was delivered May 25 to the Philadelphia World Affairs Council, followed up by a interview with ABC News, and then a press conference. Rumsfeld was quite naturally already blistered from the instant prison abuse photos on the internet, the web-based murder and recruiting videos from the terrorist enemy, and unending babble of voices spreading lies, half-truths, violent images, and propaganda. And that’s before you even get to the regular political hatchet men, the anti-American aggitators and MSM and its profit-driven, ratings-hungry, amoral, agenda-setting efforts at what now passes for journalism from a “free press.” Said Rumsfeld: “The problem is that, to a large extent, we are in unexplored territory with this unconventional and complex struggle against extremism." Rumsfeld followed up these themes of the unexplored territory in a WJS article July 18 (Roggio), and later in a speech to Johns Hopkins SAIS Dec 5, when he linked the crucial element of American public opinion to the performance of the news media in its coverage of the war. Said Rumsfeld:
Our country is waging a battle unlike any other in history. We are waging it in a media age that's unlike any war that war fighters have ever known. Think of it. This is the first war of the 21st Century. It's the first war to be conducted with talk radio, and 24-hour news, and bloggers, and emails, and digital cameras, and Sony video cams, and all of these things that bring so much information near instantaneously to people. And in this new century, we all need to make adjustments -- government and the media alike. And change is hard -- let there be no doubt. We are all Americans. We are all in this together. And what we do today will not only impact us, but it will surely impact our children and our grandchildren, and the kind of world they will live in.
What are we to do? Last month, on Feb 2, Rumsfeld spoke at the National Press Club. Again, on Feb 17, Rumsfeld spoke about this at the Council on Foreign Relations and later that day in the PBS interview with Charlie Rose:
E-mails and 24-hour talk radio and 24-hour news programs, and the internet and bloggers and all of these things that move information into – near instantaneously all across the globe, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And the fact that the United States government is simply not organized and arranged and structured to cope with that. We're still in the 20th century, in terms of how we deal with it. You have newspapers sitting beside you. … They used to be a dominant means of communication for people, and where they got their information. Today, people have so many different channels where they can get information. And, and we need in government to recognize that if you're engaged in a major battle with major armies and navies competing and air forces competing, that's one thing. The center of gravity of that war is where those battles occur. Today, we're not competing with our major armies, navies or air forces. It's an unconventional conflict. It is irregular warfare. It is asymmetric and the battleground is not so much out there, it is here (he points to his and Rose’s head). It is a matter of will. It is a matter of the public's attitudes about these things. Instead of the center of gravity where the naval war is being fought, the center of gravity is in the capitals of cities all across a nations all across the world and therefore we are going to simply have to figure out ways to get arranged to cope with that. Because it's a totally new environment and a very difficult one. I thought it would be useful for people to think about that.
Indeed. What are we to do? Rumsfeld may have his haters and detractors over his leadership on the War in Iraq, but when a pacesetting executive talks like this, it’s smart to pay attention. The Pacesetter has a point! The MSM is collapsing and its World War 2 and Post War mission of balance and fair play has been corrupted. It has even given up on being balanced in its political reporting. The form and content of even straight news are loaded with the bias of the editors. Under technological and economic assault and changes in markets, many old news outlets are going bankrupt; they are abused by their current management. They have lost their way. The new global media is exploding with new channels of information, yet most are untested and untrusted. How are free people to keep ourselves informed? Who do we trust to find and tell the truth? Stay tuned.
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