One thing we have to remember is that this war has so far been very short. And the real genius of the new kind of modular big lie is also its dangerous weakness: it operates as a story that individual reporters adjust themselves to and which develops momentum. Given the proper shocking event, or the proper accretion of smaller events, the whole thing can go into reverse. The storyline "The government is constantly lying to us and everything is really a disaster" doesn't have to be built from scratch. It's a framework encoded in audience and reporters alike by our historical experience, and it's waiting to be activated by shock or a feeling of confusion. That's what the Vietnam syndrome was all about.
It's hard to remember now, but in the first two weeks of Afghanistan, when we bombed and bombed and the Taliban laughed, the Vietnam framework of quagmire and innocent death was very visible in mainstream reporting. And I think the overall propensity to believe now is in part based on people getting surprised by how easily victory came and not wanting to be caught again underestimating the genius of the new weapons.
It's not only generals who fight the last war.
Michael