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The Government's Control Over the Media

Submitted by SadInAmerica on Mon, 03/31/2008 - 12:11pm."L ook, i f you th ink any A mer ican off ic ial is going to te l l you the truth, then you ' re stup id. Did you

hear that? - stup id." ~ Arthur Sylvester, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public AffairsGovernment officials have a number of ways to influence media content :

The media are dependent upon officials for the largest amount of sourcematerial

The US government provides a number of subsidies to media companies

The government protects media companies from foreign or domestic attack

Officials woo journalists who are compliant

Officials can withhold information

Officials can censorespecially during wartime

Government subsidies media in many ways:

Newspaper delivery rules

Third class postal rates

Special merger rules Public broadcasting subsidies

Spectrum allocation

According to official sources . . .

News organizations depend on official sources for their raw materials andinterpretations of events

Must fill in the white space between the ads Backgrounding

Quotes

Exclusives

White papers

Government controls access:

During war, who is in embedded?

Army control over where they go, who they talk to, what they say, to some

extent

Press releases Press conferences

Who gets called on?

Who isnt invited back?

Press passes Official meetings

Air Force One, etc. What organizations are considered the press?

President vs. Congress (the administration has much greater control over sourcesof information than Congress does):

Loyalty to the president

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Hand-picked assistants

Can remove any leak from inner circle

President is ultimate news source

No alternative for journalists to turn to

Physical access of journalists controlled (White House, Pentagon, State,etc.)

Modern focus on, fascination with, president Use press as a weapon against opposition

Trial balloons off the record

Exploiting Journalists with Incentives to advance Government Agenda:

Career motivations

Journalists get ahead by getting scoops and inside information

Government officials can use this to control press behavior

Media ownership:

Media owners tend to be more conservative than journalists

Media owners are interested in the business climate of the country

longer range view

Have at times been called upon to keep a story out of the public eye

National security

Inappropriate

Political favor

Direct Instruments used by authoritarian governments to influence

the media include:

(1)Ownership of media firms by political elite,.

(2)Control of resources used by the media,.

(3)Taxes on circulation and value-added taxes on newsprint and advertising,.

(4)Extensive government advertising,.

(5)Bribes,

.

(6)Censorship,.

(7)Intimidation, including threat of prosecution, and.

(8)Volence or the threat of violence. These instruments are of two basic types:

.

(a)Coercive actions designed to force compliance, and

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(b)Financial incentives designed to induce compliance.

Modern U.S. Government propaganda devised from Nazi masterminds.

The aim of propaganda is to influence people's opinions or behaviors actively,

rather than merely to communicate the facts about something. An appeal to one'semotionsis, perhaps, the more obvious propaganda method, but there are variedother more subtle and insidious forms. A common characteristic of propaganda is

volume (in the sense of a large amount). For example, propaganda might be used

to garner either support or disapproval of a certain position, rather than to simplypresent the position, or to try to convince people to buy something, rather than tosimply let them know there is some thing on the market. What separates

propaganda from "normal" communication is in ways by which the message

attempts to shape opinion or behavior, which are often subtle and insidiousamong

other characteristics. Individually propaganda functions as self-deception.

.

Propaganda is a particularly effective weapon during or leading up to war. In thiscase its aim is usually to dehumanize and create hatred toward a supposed enemy,

either internal or external. The technique is to create a false image in the mind.This can be done by using special words, special avoidance of words or by saying

that the enemy is responsible for certain things he never did. Most propaganda

wars require the home population to feel the enemy has inflicted an injustice,which may be fictitious. The object is to garner support from the population for awar effort that might normally be less enthusiastically supported.

.

Propaganda is also one of the methods used in psychological warfare (PSYOPS) which also involve false flag operations.

The US mass media reports, the style, content and especially the language, echo

their Nazi predecessors of 70 years ago to an uncanny degree. Coincidence... In

both instances we have imperialist armies conquering countries, leveling citiesand slaughtering civilians.

Both in Nazi Germany and contemporary US, we are told by the mass media thatthe invading armies are liberating the country and "spreading democracy". The

enemy are foreigners, insurgents, or al Qaeda. But never are we told that theIraqis despise the U.S. invaders. Are they not fighting to be a free people? Almost

the entire population of non-Kurdish Iraq is opposed to the US military and itspuppet regime yet the media refer to those defending their country from the

imperial invaders as insurgents, minimizing the significance of a nationwideforce of freedom fighters. We are told that the mounting causalities are a result of

civil war and sectarian violence, despite that the puppet police units are the maintarget of these attacks.

Like the Nazi media, the major US radio and TV networks report that freeing the

city of insurgents includes the systematic murder of friends, neighbors and

relatives. And, securing the city for free elections means terror bombing homes,hospitals and religious buildings by hundreds of jets, missiles, and helicoptergunships.

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Why do Washington and the mass media resort to these tactics? Answer: to

galvanize support with the U.S. population in order to wage a "war of terror" on

Iraqis forcing them into submission while large energy corporation suck theircountry's oil supply dry.

The technique perfected by Goebbels in Germany and practiced in the US is to

repeat lies and euphemisms until they become accepted truths, and becomeembedded into everyday language.

Goebbels was behind the propaganda for Nazi GermanyBelow are some propaganda points based upon"Goebbels ' Pr inc ip les of Propaganda" byLeonard W. Doob

1.Propagandist must have access to intelligence concerning events and publicopinion.

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

a.It must issue all the propaganda directivesb.It must explain propaganda directives to important officials and maintain theirmorale

c.It must oversee other agencies' activities which have propaganda consequences

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

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 enemyto draw the desired conclusions

c.By goading the enemy into revealing vital information about himselfd.By making no reference to a desired enemy activity when any reference woulddiscredit that activity

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

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

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

8.The purpose, content and effectiveness of enemy propaganda; the strength and

effects of an expose; and the nature of current propaganda campaigns determinewhether enemy propaganda should be ignored or refuted.

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

http://ics.leeds.ac.uk/papers/vp01.cfm?outfit=pmt&requesttimeout=500&folder=715&paper=1143http://ics.leeds.ac.uk/papers/vp01.cfm?outfit=pmt&requesttimeout=500&folder=715&paper=1143http://ics.leeds.ac.uk/papers/vp01.cfm?outfit=pmt&requesttimeout=500&folder=715&paper=1143http://ics.leeds.ac.uk/papers/vp01.cfm?outfit=pmt&requesttimeout=500&folder=715&paper=1143http://ics.leeds.ac.uk/papers/vp01.cfm?outfit=pmt&requesttimeout=500&folder=715&paper=1143http://ics.leeds.ac.uk/papers/vp01.cfm?outfit=pmt&requesttimeout=500&folder=715&paper=1143

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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 ownobjective.

11.Black rather than white propaganda may be employed when the latter is lesscredible 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 momentc.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 possessesb.They must be capable of being easily learned

c.They must be utilized again and again, but only in appropriate situationsd.They must be boomerang-proof

15.Propaganda to the home front must prevent the raising of false hopes whichcan 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 anticipatedb.Inevitable frustrations must be placed in perspective

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

19.Propaganda cannot immediately affect strong counter-tendencies; instead it

must offer some form of action or diversion, or both.

[Note: An intelligent person armed with the knowledge of how propaganda workscan easily pick up these techniques being used upon the masses. Once you figure

it out, you will be amazed at how often you are being attacked by it. It's worsethan you think...]