Trivia: The man in the beige sport coat between the camera and Mrs. Obama (on right side; turns head to left briefly) is Hubert G. Locke, retired professor and former dean at the University of Washington. I recognize him as a member of Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels’ Police Accountability Task Force (their first meeting was Tuesday, so he’s fresh in my memory).

Of interest to us: Locke wrote an editorial a couple years ago (“It’s not your father’s America any more”, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 2005-03-05) in which he stated:

“This country is becoming more unrecognizable with each passing day. The government, we’ve learned recently, now packages the news. It provides television stations with hundreds of video news releases made up to resemble actual news reports that give us predigested, Orwellian information designed to convince the public that everything in the nation is being well-managed.

[...]

“Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security issues a doomsday scenario that details the anticipated consequences of a dozen possible terrorist attacks — complete with body counts and economic damage estimates. The department insists it is not trying to scare the public, although how a report that one would hope would receive the most limited and controlled circulation gets “leaked” to the public is anybody’s guess. It just happens, also, to fit well — and not surprisingly — with the antics of an administration that has turned promoting and exploiting public fear into an art form that Joseph Goebbels would envy.”

Comment by phil on August 3, 2007 at 10:48 am