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Thirty-Two Tips For Navigating A Society That Is Full Of Propaganda And Manipulation

mockingbird

Silver Meritorious Patron
Scientology is so influential in the beliefs of members that I spent decades believing the idea that Hubbard provided that all media are always lying about everything and all politicians are also always lying about everything. I must admit it was in some ways easy, because I could ignore the media.

Scientology set me up with certain beliefs, they happened to be untrue and incorrect, sure, but it made life easy because I didn't have to worry about if a politician is lying or if a media source is correct on a study because I just lumped it all into one pile and didn't have to worry about trusting the wrong people, because I only trusted Hubbard and Scientologists. Now, that was worse for my accuracy and correct understanding by a considerable factor. I got to be a few thousand or a few million times more wrong than most people, whether they trust any media or don't simply because I believed in thousands of incorrect ideas that are in Scientology.

In leaving Scientology it seems to be almost unavoidable to find dishonesty and propaganda in media and often from politicians. I don't have to give a moment by moment breakdown to say that if you take the best criticism of many media outlets and individuals you can find examples of times they are slanted or outright dishonest.

It is usually easiest to see this in media that have the opposite to your own political beliefs. Liberals are able to see it in Fox news and Rush Limbaugh. Conservatives can see it in MSNBC ABC and CNN. Some people who are dissidents can see and point it out in ways that the rest of us might not.

I confess it was easy for me to read books on Fox news and to see the use of propaganda techniques there. It has been similar with Rush Limbaugh and Breitbart. There are several excellent books that use good facts and evidence to show how these outlets are dishonest.

Recently I have been exposed to high quality work in my opinion that has shown that MSNBC has a lot of, well dishonest or slanted, content. Similarly The Washington Post, probably the second or third most trusted newspaper in the United States has been similarly exposed. It has produced several dishonest stories recently that were exposed in fine detail and to my knowledge never apologized or printed retractions. The other two most trusted newspapers are The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. The New York Times has been exposed a long time ago by Noam Chomsky and the editors confirmed his claims in part by admitting they are capitalists and pro capitalism. They are also pro war and in several instances pro Israel.

Now, I am not saying that these are all equally dishonest, not at all, but it is disheartening to see solid evidence that in some cases all these sources get things wrong and even if it is pointed out to them they subsequently do not admit it, do not print retractions and do not change what they are reporting in the stories that come after their incorrect reporting is pointed out.

I found an article by Caitlin Johnstone on this issue and think it has a lot of food for thought. I am not saying everything in the article is my opinion but it offers a lot to consider.

Thirty Two Tips For Navigating A Society That Is Full Of Propaganda And Manipulation

https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/0...-that-is-full-of-propaganda-and-manipulation/
 

Enthetan

Master of Disaster
The media is not in the business of delivering Truth. They are in the business of getting people to watch their stuff, so they can deliver eyes to advertisers.

In order to deliver entertaining stories, they need access to interesting people and places. When dealing with places under the control of dictators, that often means saying what the dictator tells them to say. If you rely on the Deep State for leaks for juicy stories, then you better report in ways that keep your most valuable sources happy, so that they STAY valuable sources of juicy leaks.

Example: In the 1930's the NY Times' Walter Duranty was very busy telling people that Stalin’s genocide in Ukraine wasn't really happening. He was an active agent for Stalin's agenda, as the price he paid for being on Stalin's list of people to cooperate with. Further example: CNN covering up for Sadaam Hussein in order to continue being allowed to operate a news bureau there. The list goes on.
 

mockingbird

Silver Meritorious Patron
The media is not in the business of delivering Truth. They are in the business of getting people to watch their stuff, so they can deliver eyes to advertisers.

In order to deliver entertaining stories, they need access to interesting people and places. When dealing with places under the control of dictators, that often means saying what the dictator tells them to say. If you rely on the Deep State for leaks for juicy stories, then you better report in ways that keep your most valuable sources happy, so that they STAY valuable sources of juicy leaks.

Example: In the 1930's the NY Times' Walter Duranty was very busy telling people that Stalin’s genocide in Ukraine wasn't really happening. He was an active agent for Stalin's agenda, as the price he paid for being on Stalin's list of people to cooperate with. Further example: CNN covering up for Sadaam Hussein in order to continue being allowed to operate a news bureau there. The list goes on.
If we look at many media outlets I think they are frankly worse than you are seeing them as.

Fox news operated at a loss for years but didn't change content because Rupert Murdoch has an agenda. Breitbart has lost many advertisers but kept money from billionaires and millionaires coming in because they want that content to keep flowing. MSNBC has advertising from Koch industries and treated the Koch brothers like heroes on Morning Joe. MSNBC also has deep ties to the military and fired their highest rated, most liked and most well known commenter Phil Donahue for opposing the Iraq war. The New York times fired Pulitzer prize winner Chris Hedges for opposing the Iraq war. The LA times similarly fires a respected journalist for opposing the Iraq war.

MSNBC fired a reporter for covering Bernie Sanders when they wanted Bernie to get no coverage and fired another reporter who was winning the ratings battle for his time slot against Fox news and CNN for not being friendly enough to the establishment.

We could spend hours going through examples. Sadly major media have agendas and you either stick with them or you are not employed by them.
 

Type4_PTS

Diamond Invictus SP
If we look at many media outlets I think they are frankly worse than you are seeing them as.

Fox news operated at a loss for years but didn't change content because Rupert Murdoch has an agenda. Breitbart has lost many advertisers but kept money from billionaires and millionaires coming in because they want that content to keep flowing. MSNBC has advertising from Koch industries and treated the Koch brothers like heroes on Morning Joe. MSNBC also has deep ties to the military and fired their highest rated, most liked and most well known commenter Phil Donahue for opposing the Iraq war. The New York times fired Pulitzer prize winner Chris Hedges for opposing the Iraq war. The LA times similarly fires a respected journalist for opposing the Iraq war.

MSNBC fired a reporter for covering Bernie Sanders when they wanted Bernie to get no coverage and fired another reporter who was winning the ratings battle for his time slot against Fox news and CNN for not being friendly enough to the establishment.

We could spend hours going through examples. Sadly major media have agendas and you either stick with them or you are not employed by them.
Yeah, the MSM has major conflicts of interest and really cannot be trusted.

I haven't read that article you've linked to in your OP yet, but I really like Caitlin Johnstone. She's one of the better journalists these days IMO.

The media doesn't just spin the news to align with their agenda, but also censors important stories. A good movie (if you like dramas) that shows a real instance where that happens is "The Insider".
 

programmer_guy

True Ex-Scientologist
Yeah, the MSM has major conflicts of interest and really cannot be trusted.

I haven't read that article you've linked to in your OP yet, but I really like Caitlin Johnstone. She's one of the better journalists these days IMO.

The media doesn't just spin the news to align with their agenda, but also censors important stories. A good movie (if you like dramas) that shows a real instance where that happens is "The Insider".

Yeah, and I add another problem that I suspect (due to news articles written later by the same news source).

I have been very suspicious that, quite often, news reporters are assigned items with too short deadline resulting in "quicky" news articles of low quality.

(This is an additional item to the slant perspective.)
 
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Enthetan

Master of Disaster
Fox news operated at a loss for years but didn't change content because Rupert Murdoch has an agenda. Breitbart has lost many advertisers but kept money from billionaires and millionaires coming in because they want that content to keep flowing. MSNBC has advertising from Koch industries and treated the Koch brothers like heroes on Morning Joe. MSNBC also has deep ties to the military and fired their highest rated, most liked and most well known commenter Phil Donahue for opposing the Iraq war. The New York times fired Pulitzer prize winner Chris Hedges for opposing the Iraq war. The LA times similarly fires a respected journalist for opposing the Iraq war.

MSNBC fired a reporter for covering Bernie Sanders when they wanted Bernie to get no coverage and fired another reporter who was winning the ratings battle for his time slot against Fox news and CNN for not being friendly enough to the establishment.

We could spend hours going through examples. Sadly major media have agendas and you either stick with them or you are not employed by them.
And lets not forget Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim's controlling ownership of the NY Times, Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos ownership of the Washington Post and tech billionaire Marc Benioff's ownership of Time magazine, all of whom have a vested interest in maintaining open immigration to the US. The Koch brothers, although labeled "right wing", oppose Trump because they also need cheap immigrant labor.

The super-wealthy do spend money cultivating influence for future use. They also cultivate people for future use, like making sure a particular bright young man gets into Harvard Law, like in this interview from over 10 years ago.

 

Clay Pigeon

Gold Meritorious Patron
Number Thirty Three (33)

Smoke Pot!!!

Double over laughing when a good grass high strips the naked emporer of his nonexistant clothes!
 
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