propaganda and media

Media Control

Alert!

A case study: The media mangles the latest bin Laden tape for all to see - as the day wears on, you can observe as the story get molded and shaped to suit the War Party,

12 February 2003 -ONE BATTLEFIELD, TWO WARS; Bush and Bin Laden: Brothers in battle against Ba'athist Iraq, Justin Raimondo, antiwar.com

Report on CIA Infiltration and Manipulation of the Mass Media, by Ashley Overbeck
7 August 2002 - WND banned from covering Capitol, by Joseph Farah, World Net Daily
27 July 2002 - CIA Official Calls for "Sending SWAT Teams into Journalists’ Homes", Memory Hole
13 November 2001 - Arab satellite channel's [Al-Jazeera] Kabul office destroyed by missile, by Adnan Malik, AP/Independent [I guess that's the other side to masterful propagandizing - destroy their ability to get their story out!]

"We The People are being lied to. That is a scary reality for the average citizen to have to face up to.

...It is therefore time to take a close look at just how much deception has been used to ignite this war of conquest for the riches of the middle east (1/3 of which lies under Iraq) and the Caspian sea (estimated at $5 trillion, against which the cost of a new World Trade Center is pocket change)." WhatReallyHappened.com

8 August 2002, Secret US Forces Plan Pretext for Clamp-Down, GuluFuture.com

...with the inception of Operation Mockingbird the CIA’s plan was to heavily infiltrate all the major media organizations. And they did just that! The grand old man himself Walter Cronkite revealed the tip of the iceberg by admitting that he had “sometimes” relayed, as news, stories directly handed to him by the CIA. Dan Rather is widely suspected to be a CIA asset as well....

The Bush team knows that all it has to do is concoct the most titanic of deceptions for the American people, maim as many of them as he can, invent some credible enemy complete with a manufactured plausible “back story”, say, of bombing some embassies for example, then after executing the mock, (but very deadly) “terrorism,” on the American people, it becomes simply a matter of trotting out the usual suspects, “discovering, “ the pre-planted, “evidence,” and simply relaying the pre written, pre scripted feeble explanations, incomplete and suspicious excuses and blatantly fraudulent “evidence” and Americans will deny even what they see with their own eyes in lieu of whatever implausible evidence is throw at them by the Bush team or as is the case with 9/11, no evidence at all - They’ll just have to take his word for it. Then Bush has only to sit back and watch as the American population is herded into a corral of fear where they will be kept under tight control while Bush and his buddies loot the treasury in order to “protect” the American people with (mock) technology (made in Republican controlled districts) to imbue the people with the comforting illusion of mock security. It works EVERY time.

An independent press?

Asked to give a toast before the prestigious New York Press Club, John Swinton, the former Chief of Staff at the New York Times, made this candid confession [it's worth noting that Swinton was called "The Dean of His Profession" by other newsmen, who admired him greatly]:

"There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job.

If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. The business of the journalist is to destroy the truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to vilify; to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell the country for his daily bread. You know it and I know it and what folly is this toasting an independent press. We are the tools and vassals of the rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."

So here's a thumbnail list of how to watch out for mendacity and propaganda on your screen once Gulf War Two (or Three if you include the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq conflict) begins. You should suspect the following:

Reporters who wear items of American or British military costume – helmets, camouflage jackets, weapons, etc.

Reporters who say "we" when they are referring to the US or British military unit in which they are "embedded".

Those who use the words "collateral damage" instead of "dead civilians".

Those who commence answering questions with the words: "Well, of course, because of military security I can't divulge..."

Those who, reporting from the Iraqi side, insist on referring to the Iraqi population as "his" (ie Saddam's) people.

Journalists in Baghdad who refer to "what the Americans describe as Saddam Hussein's human rights abuses" – rather than the plain and simple torture we all know Saddam practices.

Journalists reporting from either side who use the god-awful and creepy phrase "officials say" without naming, quite specifically, who these often lying "officials" are.

Edward Bernays, the "Father of Propaganda"

If we understand the mechanisms and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing it ... The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country ... In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons ... who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.

Bertrand Russel

I think the subject which will be of most importance politically is Mass Psychology... Its importance has been enormously increased by the growth of modern methods of propaganda. Although this science will be diligently studied, it will be rigidly confined to the governing class. The populace will not be allowed to know how its convictions are generated.

Joseph Goebbels' Principles of Propaganda

1. Propagandist must have access to intelligence concerning events and public opinion.

2. Propaganda must be planned and executed by only one authority.

a. It must issue all the propaganda directives
b. It must explain propaganda directives to important officials and maintain their morale
c. It must oversee other agencies' activities which have propaganda consequences

3. The propaganda consequences of an action must be considered in planning that action.

4. Propaganda must affect the enemy's policy and action.

a. By suppressing propagandistically desirable material which can provide the enemy with useful intelligence
b. By openly disseminating propaganda whose content or tone causes the enemy to draw the desired conclusions
c. By goading the enemy into revealing vital information about himself
d. By making no reference to a desired enemy activity when any reference would discredit that activity

5. Declassified, operational information must be available to implement a propaganda campaign

6. To be perceived, propaganda must evoke the interest of an audience and must be transmitted through an attention-getting communications medium.

7. Credibility alone must determine whether propaganda output should be true or false.

8. The purpose, content and effectiveness of enemy propaganda; the strength and effects of an expose; and the nature of current propaganda campaigns determine whether enemy propaganda should be ignored or refuted.

9. Credibility, intelligence, and the possible effects of communicating determine whether propaganda materials should be censored.

10. Material from enemy propaganda may be utilized in operations when it helps diminish that enemy's prestige or lends support to the propagandist's own objective.

11. Black rather than white propaganda may be employed when the latter is less credible or produces undesirable effects.

12. Propaganda may be facilitated by leaders with prestige.

13. Propaganda must be carefully timed.

a. The communication must reach the audience ahead of competing propaganda.
b. A propaganda campaign must begin at the optimum moment
c. A propaganda theme must be repeated, but not beyond some point of diminishing effectiveness

14. Propaganda must label events and people with distinctive phrases or slogans.

a. They must evoke desired responses which the audience previously possesses
b. They must be capable of being easily learned
c. They must be utilized again and again, but only in appropriate situations
d. They must be boomerang-proof

15. Propaganda to the home front must prevent the raising of false hopes which can be blasted by future events.

16. Propaganda to the home front must create an optimum anxiety level.

a. Propaganda must reinforce anxiety concerning the consequences of defeat
b. Propaganda must diminish anxiety (other than concerning the consequences of defeat) which is too high and which cannot be reduced by people themselves

17. Propaganda to the home front must diminish the impact of frustration.

a. Inevitable frustrations must be anticipated
b. Inevitable frustrations must be placed in perspective

18. Propaganda must facilitate the displacement of aggression by specifying the targets for hatred.

19. Propaganda cannot immediately affect strong counter-tendencies; instead it must offer some form of action or diversion, or both.

Based upon "Goebbels' Principles of Propaganda" by Leonard W. Doob published in "Public Opinion and Propaganda; A Book of Readings edited for The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues."

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