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.”
A list of all the Sinclair stations, by State, shows the concentration in “flyover” States, with most major cities not represented. Think of their territory as mirroring the Electoral
College.
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!"
