Chapter Eight

“We are engaged in an information war, and the United States is losing.” Hillary Clinton was pissed. “During the cold war, we did a great job of getting America’s message out. After the Berlin wall fell, we said fine, enough of that, we’ve done it…we’re done. Unfortunately, we’re not. Al-Jazeera is winning, Iran’s PressTV is winning, Russia Today is winning. The President just said, ‘we can’t allow ourselves to be out-communicated by our enemies.’ ”

“Do these alternative media really pose a threat to US interests?” asked a correspondent for DemocracyNOW!

“We’re the most technologically advanced nation in the world, and slowly but surely, we’ve been trying to take back the airwaves in Afghanistan from the Taliban with the most primitive kind of communication equipment. We weren’t very competitive, but we’ve worked our butts off to make any kind of progress. Meanwhile, these global networks have been literally changing people’s minds and attitudes, and like it or hate it, it is really effective. Al-Jazeera’s viewership has gone up in the United States because it’s real news. You may not agree with it, but you feel like you’re really getting relevant information around the clock instead of a million commercials and arguments between talking heads and the kind of stuff we do on our news that is not particularly informative to us, let alone foreigners.”

“Would you include WikiLeaks in that assessment of alternative media’s power over people?” asked a man from the Young Turks Network.

“Anything WikiLeaks publishes is now subject to federal investigation after they violated our statutes. I would likewise suggest you not believe everything you read,” said Clinton, “especially coming from them.”

“Is that a reference to the government cable where you instructed your ambassadors to effectively spy on foreign diplomats?” asked the same reporter.

“This is the information war,” said Clinton. “The United States may have lost that battle, but it’s not over yet.”