Showing posts with label Fox. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fox. Show all posts

Friday, April 6, 2018

The Big Bad Wolf Comes for Little Red Riding Hood


Totalitarianism feeds on propaganda and the control of information.  My former college psychology professor, Gustave Gilbert, the author of The Nuremberg Diary said that Joseph Goebbels, who had been an unsuccessful writer, “devoted his considerable talents for propaganda to the task of winning over Berlin’s leftists to the cause of Hilterian fascism.” (The Psychology of Dictatorship, 1950).  Ultimately Goebbels served as Reich Minister of Propaganda of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945.  Per Wikipedia, “Goebbels' Propaganda Ministry quickly gained and exerted controlling supervision over the news media, arts, and information in Germany. He was particularly adept at using the relatively new media of radio and film for propaganda purposes.”

Imagine if he had the Internet at his disposal.

Now we have Moscow born, former Trump special assistant, and presently Sinclair Broadcasting’s senior political analyst, Boris Epshteyn, vying for the position of the “Ministry of Truth & Public Enlightenment.”   Sinclair Broadcasting has been quietly buying up local television stations, mostly in Trump country, to spread its conservative propaganda. By now everyone knows of the coordinated “Newspeak” perpetrated by Sinclair’s stations where local “news” anchors were required to read the same statement: The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common in the media. More alarming is that national media outlets are publishing these same fake stories without checking the facts first. Unfortunately, some members of the national media are using their platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda to control 'exactly what people think'


Word for word, all Sinclair stations with local news broadcasters many of whom we have followed through their years, thinking of them as, well, just regular people like ourselves.  Old friends.

One such station happens to be in our viewing area, a CBS affiliate.  They too parroted this statement, as if they were speaking to us, although it was really Boris Epshteyn.  These are friendly faces we’ve seen on air before our morning commutes or once we get home. A Palm Beach Post staff writer, Frank Cerabino, wrote a funny but profound parody of what these local news anchors “really said.”



Ironically, on the surface, the statement IS essentially true, and that is where the danger lies, voiced by an organization which indeed has “an agenda.” The unsuspecting public is but a little Red Riding Hood being toyed with by a big bad Wolf, one who knows exactly what it’s doing.  After all, this is the organization which has pushed the “deep state” conspiracy theory. 

One of the favorite techniques in propaganda is to say it over and over again.  Fox News has been doing it for years.  Now your local news broadcaster may be coming for your mind.  "Oh Granny, what big teeth you've got!"

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

All the News That's Feigned to Print

The Rupert Murdoch owned Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the Rupert Murdoch owned HarperCollins Publishers will sponsor a 10-day book tour by their author, Sara Palin, who is a contributor to the Rupert Murdoch owned Fox News.

The occasion is the publication of her book "America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag," a follow-up to her best-selling "Going Rogue." In addition to those credentials for her inevitable run for the Presidency, Ms. Palin is also the star of her own reality TV show, "Sarah Palin's Alaska." Her daughter Bristol is indirectly campaigning by her appearance on "Dancing With the Stars," another prime time "reality" media production.

In addition to those qualifications, Ms. Palin has a bachelor's degree in communications, having attended a number of colleges in the pursuit of that degree, was a TV newscaster, and served as a mayor of a town of some five thousand people and for a couple of years as governor of Alaska with a population about the size of El Paso, Texas. She resigned her governorship to pursue her interests in self-promotion.

Besides having Rupert Murdoch's News Corp empire as a backer, she owes her political career to John McCain who brought her to the national stage in a desperate act to carry the 2008 presidential election.

Can this "rogue" politician continue to skillfully manipulate public opinion by charisma alone and a friend in high places? And will she continue to supply News Corp with all the fodder necessary for higher ratings, greater circulation and therefore more advertising and sales? A nice symbiotic partnership? You Betcha'

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Friday, September 12, 2008

And the presidency goes to….

Why bother having elections? Seems like we could have a version of the Academy Awards decide the winner – the party which takes the most Oscars wins the election! This way we can recognize what has become central to the election process: mass media persuasion. No longer will we have to bother with the real issues, which have become subordinated to personality and presentation.

“And the Oscar for the best sound bite goes to…”

As Main Street’s political belief is manipulated by the images created by Madison Avenue types, let the big award of the evening go to the slickest national convention, with the supporting awards going to the best TV ads that pander to the emotional issues du jour. Special categories can go to the bloggers and the most forwarded email. As a bonus evening of entertainment before the awards, let MSNBC square off against FOX News with Jerry Springer as the moderator – the candidates themselves would not even be needed!

The electorate’s decision now resembles a consumer decision, not decided on the merits of the “product” but instead on brand image, carefully manipulated by focus groups and emotional advertising. It seems that the entire process has gotten out of hand. How about banning political advertising (and thereby also saving $millions) and solely determine national elections by a series of debates?