The Power of Modern American Propaganda
The lack of truth, USSR and USA
An anecdote.. In the USSR, everyone knew they were being fed lies by the media, which was all state controlled. They knew it, but it that doesn’t mean the knew the truth. Totalitarian state propagandists have long known thiss, but they also know that in the absence of other, credible information, the propaganda works.
During the Cold War, some colleagues of my father (a scientist who often traveled to the USSR) came to visit him in Lawrence, KS.
At one point, he volunteered to give them a tour of the town (a university and farm town, home of Kansas University). They got into the vehicle and off they went. After some time, it became clear the guests thought Lawrence was a Potemkin Village — a town constructed to give a false impression about a country, one more favorable than reality — the sort of thing the Soviets did.
They asked to see that bad parts of town (which were pretty slummy by American standards). They were driven there, and they still didn’t quite believe it. Those parts of Lawrence were in the “somewhat dangerous to go to on foot” category.
But to the elite Soviet scientists — all party members — Lawrence’s worst was too prosperous, it didn’t fit their preconceptions.
Having been to Soviet dominated countries, I can understand that — most American slums are prosperous compared to Soviet towns.
Even though they didn’t believe their media, the propaganda — that America was worse economically than the USSR — had sunk in.
Now an anecdote from current times…. A friend was out walking with a neighbor who had had some Biden signs up before the election. When asked, the neighbor said (paraphrased) “If I had known then what I know now, I wouldn’t have voted for Biden. They didn’t tell us what was coming...”
In other words, this person, like many moderates, believed the media that was their only source of information. They never checked out alternative sources, because they had been told by their media, and no doubt, their friends, that “right wing” sources were all lies.
So if you’re on the left — not far left, but a Democrat — think about that.
Yes, Fox News opinion shows are right wing opinion only for the most part — although some do have left wing guests who are given a chance to present their views. But FNN news is near the center of the truth spectrum. And sure, you can find outlets on the right that are just as biased as, say, MSNBC, but it requires a reach to get to them — World News Daily for example.
Most mainstream sources give *only* one side. That side is on the left, and over the last few years as political correctness and “anti-racism” have become more shrill, media are routinely on the left and increasingly radical. Some have token “conservative voices” — people who are former Republicans and will say things slightly to the right of the narrative — but they don’t come anywhere near representing the other side, or the truth.
Consider the canceling —for example, a New York Times editor was thrown out because he allowed a conservative Op-Ed to be posted recently. That sends the message to all: toe the line, don’t allow any thought that’s not on the left, or lose your job. And this is becoming commonplace.
A popular news host, Kari Lake, co-hosted the local news I prefer to watch (Fox 10). She quit recently, saying that she could not longer, in good conscience, do the far left stories demanded by the producers.
So, she left the job (and her show was #1 in the ratings), and probably now will be unhirable in local TV news. Oh, and Fox stations are as much on the left as other TV stations, unlike Fox News. The bias is in the profession, in the producers, in the reporters — pretty much everywhere in the scribbler professions.
Another local reporter has posted a series of stories on the Antifa riots that took place here in August. Those stories could easily have been written by an Antifa publicist! They were completely one-sided, with the Antifa rioters portrayed as innocent people “demonstrating” for “racial justice.” Never once was the word “Antifa” even mentioned. Never did he mention that they marched to the Antifa and BLM favorite ACAB — “All Cops Are Bastards.”
So when you read articles about, say, systemic racism in the US — don’t believe that they are balanced. There may be anecdotes that are true — the US is far from perfect — but the picture painted is very distorted. And this is true of almost all reporting on contentious topics by formerly respectable outlets like the New York Times or Washington Post, or the mainstream media.
And if you believe NPR is giving you a balanced view (and I listen to them daily), you are being mislead. Their monomaniac focus on left wing themes, their use of only left wing interviewees — well, it tells me all I need to know. NPR is propaganda with a soft voice.
Also, know that the best propaganda presents a lot of truth in which lies are buried. In that regard, the Washington Post in particular is no longer quality propaganda, because they have so little truth.
Image by Autor: Diego Vanegas Jaramillo, https://www.flickr.com/photos/23465276@N04/27100711965
