Cloaked in misinformation

By Doug Hagmann —— Bio and Archives May 17, 2013

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What's one of the most effective and expedient methods of taking an incident that is true and making it not only appear false, but outrageously and demonstrably false? You know the kind of false I mean... the "urban legend" type of false, causing anyone who hears about the incident to immediately dismiss it and attack the messengers as conspiracy nuts?

The answer is playing out, in real time, right before all of us, and we all need to understand the methods that are being used to cover the lie. To answer the question, though, is for a government official or agency to take what is true, wrap it in the bait of a larger lie where the larger, more outrageous lie is proven to be untrue. Soon, people don't know what to believe, so they discount the entire story, even (and especially) the kernel of truth covered by the lie. Then, when anyone refers to the incident, they are told that the entire story was proven false. I am referring to the allegations that the Holder Justice Department "wiretapped" the cloakrooms, or the private, "members-only" areas just off the floor of the House and Senate. The story originated with the disclosure that the Associated Press received a letter from the Holder Justice Department last week stating that the government had obtained two months of telephone records that included each incoming and outgoing telephone number and the length of each call for over 20 different lines used by reporters. Additionally, the records also included personal lines for reporters and phones in the congressional press gallery. Since the story broke, some lawmakers and others have gone public to decry the allegations that the Holder Justice Department "wiretapped" the Cloak Room. Wiretapping indicates real-time telephonic surveillance of the phone lines by Holder's agents. Wiretapping is, of course, the incorrect word to describe the DOJ's attack on our separation of powers through the questionable, if not illegal use of his agency's powers in a manner that seems to summon the ghost of J. Edgar Hoover during the darkest of times. The incorrect use of the word wiretapping was about all the tyrannical despots within the Obama regime needed to immediately and forcefully deny that any such surveillance had taken place--and be technically correct. Thus began the clever word games. The truth, however, is even far more disturbing than the big lie. According to one intelligence official close to the situation who provided information specific to this incident, Holder's Justice Department not only attacked the sacred separation of powers through his agency's actions by obtaining the aforementioned telephone records, but what has yet to be disclosed is that all electronic communications data was included in this overreach. According to this source, the records not only included those within the cloak room, but in other areas throughout and within the Capitol. Not in real time, of course, so as to maintain the infamous Nixonian plausible deniability amid the semantics serving to sully the truth. The purpose is to identify the media contacts used by members of the House and Senate as they look for leaks in the house of the people. Do not fall for the redefinition of the word "is," and don't dismiss the lengths to which the Obama regime is going, through Holder's Justice Department, to identify the leaks that just might expose what's really going on behind the scenes. There will be more to follow.