Anatomy Of A Propaganda Blitz - Part 1

[polly7]

12 May 2016

We live in a time when state-corporate interests are cooperating to produce propaganda blitzes intended to raise public support for the demonisation and destruction of establishment enemies.

Below, we will examine five key components of an effective propaganda campaign of this kind.

1: DRAMATIC NEW EVIDENCE

A propaganda blitz is often launched on the back of 'dramatic new evidence' signifying that an establishment enemy should be viewed as uniquely despicable and targeted with 'action'.

The Blair government's infamous September 2002 dossier on Iraqi WMD contained four mentions of the claim that Iraq was able to deploy WMD against British citizens within 45 minutes of an order being given. But senior intelligence officials revealed that the original 45-minutes claim referred to the length of time it might have taken the Iraqis to fuel and fire a Scud missile or rocket launcher. The original intelligence said nothing about whether Iraq possessed the chemical or biological weapons to use in these weapons. The government had turned a purely hypothetical danger into an immediate and deadly threat.

In 2011, it was claimed that the Libyan government was planning a massacre in Benghazi, exactly the kind of action that Gaddafi knew could trigger Western 'intervention'. Investigative journalist Gareth Porter commented:

'When the Obama administration began its effort to overthrow Gaddafi, it did not call publicly for regime change and instead asserted that it was merely seeking to avert mass killings that administration officials had suggested might approach genocidal levels. But the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), which had been given the lead role in assessing the situation in Libya, found no evidence to support such fears and concluded that it was based on nothing more than "speculative arguments".'

In 2013, the Syrian government was said to have launched a chemical weapons attack in Ghouta, Damascus, just as UN chemical weapons experts were visiting the city. It was claimed that Assad had ordered the crossing of Obama's very clear 'red line' for 'intervention' – a war that would have destroyed the Syrian government and quite possibly resulted in Assad's violent death. Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reported on the Ghouta attack:

'The quick announcement that Bashar al-Assad did it is simply not true.'

Western dissidents are subject to continuous smears but also full-on propaganda blitzes of this kind.

3: MANUFACTURING 'CONSENSUS'

A third component of a propaganda blitz is the appearance of informed consensus. The dramatic claim, delivered with certainty and outrage, is typically repeated right across the political and media 'spectrum'. This cross-'spectrum' 'consensus' generates the impression that 'everyone knows' that the propaganda claim is rooted in reality. This is why the myth of a media 'spectrum' is so vital.

While a demonising propaganda blitz may arise from rightist politics and media, the propaganda coup de grace with the power to end public doubt comes from the 'left-liberal' journalists at the Guardian, the Independent, the BBC and Channel 4. Again, the logic is clear: if even celebrity progressive journalists – people famous for their principled stands and colourful socks – join the denunciations, then there must be something to the claims. At this point, it actually becomes difficult to doubt it.

Thus, in 2002, it was declared 'a given' by the Guardian that Iraq still retained WMD that might be a threat, despite the fact that both claims were easily refutable.

In 2007, George Monbiot wrote in the Guardian: 'I believe that Iran is trying to acquire the bomb.' In October 2011, Monbiot wrote of Nato's war on Libya: 'I feel the right thing has been happening for all the wrong reasons.' At a crucial time in August 2013, Monbiot affirmed: 'Strong evidence that Assad used CWs [chemical weapons] on civilians.' He subsequently wrote in the Guardian of the Assad government's 'long series of hideous crimes, including the use of chemical weapons'.

News of the killings of Syrian ministers in a bomb explosion were greeted by the Guardian's Owen Jones with: 'Adios, Assad (I hope).' Jones tweeted that 'this is a popular uprising, not arriving on the back of Western cruise missiles, tanks and bullets'. As was clear then and is indisputable now, Jones was wrong – the West, directly and via regional allies, has played a massive role in the violence. As if reading from the Nato playbook, Jones added:

'I'm promoting the overthrow of illegitimate and brutal dictatorships by their own people to establish democracies.'

This is why the mythology of the 'liberal-left' Guardian and Independent with their handful of noisy, tub-thumping progressives is so important and why we work so hard to challenge it. It is why expressions of progressive support for the Guardian – with occasional articles appearing by Noam Chomsky and others, and with Russell Brand, for example becoming a 'Guardian partner' – are so important.

The public is not for one moment fooled by a hard-right consensus. Agreement must appear to have been reached among 'all right-thinking people', including the 'lefties' at the Guardian.

4: DEMONISING DISSENT

To challenge a propaganda blitz is to risk becoming a target of the blitz. Dissidents can be smeared as 'useful idiots', 'apologists', 'genocide deniers'. Anyone who even questioned the campaigns targeting Julian Assange and Russell Brand risked being labelled a 'sexist', a 'misogynist' and, in the case of Assange, a 'rape apologist'. Even as this media alert was being written, Oliver Kamm of The Times once again tweeted that Media Lens has 'long espoused genocide denial, misogyny & xenophobia'.

John Pilger cited a former intelligence officer who described the government's terror warnings as 'a softening up process' ahead of the Iraq war and 'a lying game on a huge scale'. (Pilger, 'Lies, damned lies and government terror warnings,' Daily Mirror, December 3, 2002) In fact, Blair was perpetrating a form of psychological terrorism on his own people.

Likewise, atrocity claims from Syria clearly peaked as the US drew closer to war in the summer of 2013. After Obama chose not to bomb, it was extraordinary to see the BBC's daily front page atrocity claims suddenly dry up.

In 2012, the pro-Assad 'shabiha' militia became globally infamous when they were blamed for the May 2012 Houla massacre in Syria. In September 2014, Lexis found that in the preceding three years, the 'shabiha' had been mentioned in 933 UK national newspaper articles. But in the twelve months from September 2013 to September 2014 – a time when Western crosshairs shifted away from Assad towards Islamic State - there were just 28 mentions of 'shabiha' (Media Lens search, September 15, 2014). In the last year, Nexis finds just 12 articles mentioning the terms 'Syria' and 'shabiha' in the entire UK national press.

Most people have little idea about the status of WMD in Iraq, about Gaddafi's intentions and actions in Libya, or what Corbyn thinks about anti-semitism. Given this uncertainty, it is hardly surprising that the public is impressed by an explosion of moral outrage from so many political and media 'experts'.

Expressions of intense hatred targeting 'bad guys' and their 'apologists' persuade members of the public to keep their heads down. They know that even declaring mild scepticism, even requesting clarification, can cause the giant state-corporate Finger of Blame to be cranked around in their direction. Perhaps they, too, will be declared 'supporters of tyranny', 'apologists for genocide denial', 'sexists' and 'racists'. The possibility of denunciation is highly intimidating and potentially disastrous for anyone dependent on corporate employment or sponsorship. Corporations, notably advertisers, hate to be linked to any kind of unsavoury 'controversy'. It is notable how 'celebrities' with potentially wide public outreach very often stay silent.

It is easy to imagine that people will often prefer to decide that the issue is not that important to them, that they don't know that much about it – not enough to risk getting into trouble. And, as discussed, they naturally imagine that professional journalists have access to a wealth of information and expertise – best to just keep quiet. This is the powerful and disastrous chilling effect of a fast-moving propaganda blitz.

Full article: http://medialens.org/index.php?option=com_acymailing&ctrl=archive&task=view&mailid=387&key=df27b0797a433cba31390b474180f009&subid=24345-3bd7802e6cee93f978aca952fcd0831b&tmpl=component

[Kip Humphrey]

1. DEMONIZING DISSENT is a definitive indicator for me of propaganda and coveys to me that

A) a hidden agenda is present, and B) the effect of the message takes precedence over democratic freedoms and principles.

[polly7]

2. Yes, that's always a huge tell - even to people like me who need to do a

LOT of research to find out what's true and what isn't. Even on message boards, when you express dissent you're demonized for it. I feel so bad for the real whistle-blowers who have lives ruined.

[bemildred]

5. Yeah, it's the name calling, the use of extreme pejoratives to shut your thinking down.

They seek to instill fear and anger.

[snagglepuss]

3. bkmrk to read later.

[polly7]

4. Jousting With Toothpicks - The Case For Challenging Corporate Journalism

Put more bluntly, the rule that corporations exist solely to maximise returns to their shareholders is 'the law of the land', business journalist Marjorie Kelly comments, 'universally accepted as a kind of divine, unchallengeable truth'. (p.39)

Canadian lawyer Joel Bakan asks us to imagine how we would regard an individual who refused to help the sick and dying unless it made solid financial sense. He argues that such a person would be deemed a psychopath. If readers find the description extreme, they might like to consider the barely believable response of the fossil fuel industry to the catastrophic threat of climate change.

Journalists working for the corporate media are choosing to work for just such an employer guided by the same cold-blooded priorities. So what should our reaction be?

In fact the question is reasonable. If we look around us today - at the devastating Western wars of aggression, at the mass killings fuelled by corporate militarism, at the truly awesome, perhaps terminal, exploitation of people and planet – we are looking at a world being devastated by psychopathic greed. Former New York Times journalist, Chris Hedges, comments of 'the liberal class', the 'quality' corporate media included:

'The liberal class has become a useless and despised appendage of corporate power... as [it] pollutes and poisons the ecosystem and propels us into a world where there will be only masters and serfs.' (Hedges, Death Of The Liberal Class, Nation Books, 2011, p.12)

Journalists are participants in this system. But mere willingness to cooperate says nothing about the motives of the individuals involved. Some are indeed cynically serving greed and power. But others are sincere, attempting to improve and even reform the system from within. Although we don't agree with their strategy, we accept that it is a reasonable position to take, one that may even offer the best hope of spreading progressive views to a mass audience (we are certainly open to the possibility that we are wrong).

In the face of the disaster that has overtaken Iraq in the ten years since the 2003 invasion, a number of journalists have quietly lamented their own performance. The BBC's political editor Nick Robinson writes in his book Live From Downing Street:

'The build-up to the invasion of Iraq is the point in my career when I have most regretted not pushing harder and not asking more questions...' (Robinson, Live from Downing Street, Transworld, 2012, p.332)

The BBC's Jeremy Paxman has admitted of US-UK claims:

'I'm perfectly open to the accusation that we were hoodwinked. Yes, clearly we were.'

The fiercely pro-Iraq war (then) Independent columnist Johann Hari offered a mea culpa under the title: 'I was wrong, terribly wrong - and the evidence should have been clear all along.'

http://medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/alerts-2013/719-jousting-with-toothpicks-the-case-for-challenging-corporate-journalism.html

My question is why these journalists were so hoodwinked when millions of people around the world knew the truth. I'm not sure I believe them.