The Propaganda Machine Has Been Upgraded

This post comes from me and me only. I have not verbatimed any news analysis sites or research papers. I'm writing this in hopes of your finding examples as well.

I have a trained eye for both propaganda and psychological warfare. The war with Iraq and terror has produced a plethora of tidbits meant to claim our hearts, our minds, and our conscience within.

Examples:

The recent news release of the stolen explosives in Iraq got my attention. Not only because of its subject, but because of the length of time it took to reach us. News today is exhibited with a frightening fervor that is unprecedented (or un-presidented...lol).

On the same day this story was released, another one broke. Ashlee Simpson got caught lip-syncing on Saturday Night Live. I suppose this is where the "balanced" aspect of reporting comes from. Every scare tactic is balanced with a celebrity or gossip article. This yin and yang has been observed by me since 9/11, the day I began my study of present propaganda. As I observed in a previous post, the night of 9/11 featured a star-studded line-up at an unknown location with no audience. They sang songs with fear in their voices, and I remember thinking through the shock...

Where and Who and Why is this happening? Who could pull off having these celebrities appear out of nowhere? Why did they do it? Where did it occur?

I could think of only one answer...the Government organized it. Only the government could pull off flying/driving these celebrities to an undisclosed location to keep the citizens calm, to give the citizens something else to look at rather than airliners flying into buildings. It was a good tactic. It prevented rioting, looting, and general chaos within our borders. But you could also tell it was contrived and produced in a small studio.

So what, you ask? What difference does this make three years later?

The cultivation has continued slowly but fervorishly. I like to compare current news releases with musical one-hit-wonders. Prior to 9/11, most articles followed the general guidelines of the 5 W's. Who, What, Where, When, and to What Extent. Then, there would be follow-up articles. Reporters would treat their stories as a mystery that needed to be solved. The OJ Trials. Heidi Fleiss. Bill and Monica. All were front-page and center.

Now, press releases are one-hit-wonders. Whatever happened to the Abu Gharib scandal? Whatever happened to The Mushroom Cloud in DPRK? Whatever happened to the train explosion in DPRK? Whatever happened with the train explosion in Spain? The "Whatever Happened's" go on and on...

They've been put on the back burner, or they've been simply thrown out as old news. This could be explained as feeding the public's hunger for new and shocking information, but I think it could be better explained as Government-run propaganda.

It is a scientific fact that fear and pain are an individual's primary motivators. What stories make the headlines post 9/11? Those that involve fear or pain. The sickest supporting data is this:

Each American and foreign beheading has been described to us intricately, whereas each US Soldier's death is vaguely described, if he or she is mentioned at all.

This should be a huge clue-in for us, everyone. Step away from your monitors, flat-screens, and newspapers and think about that. Five honourable United States soldiers could die in an explosion, but if a beheading just happens to take place on that day, which gets the larger font?

The beheading.

It turns us into haters. How could they do that to him or her? Those (expletive)-head-(racial slur)'s. Another human feature agreed upon by psychoanalysts, hate is a by-product of fear. Even on ATS alone, the most-viewed article is the Nick Berg beheading. The fact that ATS is completely un-biased and devoted to citizen participation proves that we have been conditioned to want to see the articles that instill more fear and hatred.

Many unnamed cyber-terrorists have realized this strange facet of Western culture. Nearly all statements and videos are submitted to (surprise!) the media, or to "pro Islamic" web-sites (I hate when the news calls it that). These "Islamic" sites are now making English versions as I write this. We are not dealing with idiots, our terror enemies have studied us for decades, and they have enough funding and American and European-schooled members to create cyber data and terror. I'd guesstimate that 3/4 of ATS members have seen these sites.

As the Government has obviously shown its power to create and hide news, why does it pick-and-choose the grotesque images we have seen? Go to Wal-Mart and try to buy a hardcore rap CD or porn video. Nuh uh. Not there. Walk down a sidewalk and see a newspaper with an individual you do not know about to be beheaded. Yep. That's there.

I believe it was Ms. Cheney who idea'd the stickers for expletive-ridden CD's and cassette tapes. I believe it is Mr. Cheney who idea'd the access and conditioning of images of death. See a pattern yet?

Thanks for reading.
Dot.

edited to add an avatar.

[edit on 26-10-2004 by dotgov101]

Good point about the one-hit wonders. I'm just wondering when the shock value is going to be diminished. People grow acclimated to scenes of death and violence, until news of beheadings and bombings no longer generate interest. The shock value of 9/11 on the American public has been much stronger than it has on the rest of the world, since most of the rest of the world has the cultural experience of massive death and destruction on their homelands.

The US media seems to be made up of both regular reporting, and stories that generate one-hit wonders simply because the story dries up when police find no more clues or the officials say 'case closed.' For example, the Anthrax murders and 9/11. Anthrax murders, the trail 'dried up' when investigators were lead to Fort Dietrich, MD. With 9/11, the case was closed as soon as the planes hit the building: Officials say it was done by Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaida, despite the fact that the buildings obviously suffered controlled explosions, and that 7 of the 19 listed hijackers are alive and well!

Interesting example of a planted story is the California Ricin Scare.

US public being prepped for Ricin Attack

Similar is Attempts to buy vehicles raise suspicions

Timing of the Nick Berg murder story, which looked a lot like it was done right in Abu Graib prison, helped cover interest in the Abu Graib abuses, which were a direct result of the current administration's decisions, and an insight into what happens at secret American camps like Gitmo's Camp X-Ray. Images like these simply don't help America's war aims:






But hey, if people get too fixated on how evil this is, we can always flash this a lot:




Yep, no official sanction of these actions, just the work of one evil little PFC Reservist from Maryland. See, the US never figured that pictures like this would help shame Iraqis into becoming informants or consider the use of females as interrogators on the psyche of the Arab male. She was taking pictures because she was proud of being evil. Besides, females always make easy scapegoats.

And, if any reporters like that pesky Richard Perle get too close to finding the funding for 9/11, we can just use those evil Arabs to cut their heads off, even if the perpetrators are members of the Pakistani ISI. Oops, kind of puts a damper on the investigative spirit of other journalists, eh?

[edit on 26-10-2004 by taibunsuu]

At the time of the post, these are Yahoo!'s "most viewed" photographs:



Are we really supposed to believe that all Yahoo newsreaders most-viewed a squirrel, beautiful women and a guy wearing a beanie?

What's going on??? Either we're all a bunch of 14 year-old boys, or it's propaganda at its grandest.

Dot.

[edit on 26-10-2004 by dotgov101]

These images are currently on Yahoo!'s "ratings" page. In order to rate a photograph, the user must log in and point-and-click it. You can only click once under your screen name.

However, this is not a fool-proof Democratic system. Yahoo! obviously must have the resources to super-rate certain photographs for propaganda purposes. Why would a world-wide audience super-rate candid photographs of John Kerry,a bikini-clad model, and Bette Midler for photographic superiority and content? The only photograph I would rate as being superior is the photograph of Saturn. I hypothesize that the reason these "stock" photographs are there are to balance out the images people are REALLY rating... the images of the injustices in Iraq.

Yeah, but those pages are looked at by computer newbs. Just look at the level of advertising on the AIM page that comes up when you log in. It's pure crap.

Here's the links to the:

Yahoo! Most Viewed News

Yahoo! Most Emailed News

Yahoo! News Ratings

Yahoo! Buzz Index

These are statistics pages, though it's quite obvious they're doctored.

Dot.

Who remembers the infamous 'Wardrobe Malfunction'?
Anyone remember the major issue in Iraq then?

~~~

Rupert Murdoch...name ring a bell?

News Corp.??

~~~

the Govts are only the puppets
the puppet masters pull the strings
even the Skull & Bones have to carve themselves a niche

NWO, PNAC, NATO, EU, NAFTA...et al ? (are only DeVices)
the multitude of news/entertainment portals (are still DeVices)

and this infernal media player 10...is getting shredded very soon..
talk about herding & corraling??

dotgov101, your insights are sharp....
maybe i'm looking at a different piece of the puzzle...?
i often get lost in the larger rainforest, out there.!

Originally posted by Brittany
Who remembers the infamous 'Wardrobe Malfunction'?
Anyone remember the major issue in Iraq then?

Honestly? Without Googling? Not me.

Isn't that pathetic? Yet I consider myself an educated person with a good memory. I'm sure I'm not the only one out there with the same dillemma. Of course, anyone could Google it and respond to your question... but honestly, how many people do remember the events of the war that day?

I apologize to the servicemen and women. . . but I am getting overloaded with the "commercials" in between the actual war reports. Britney. Ashlee. Paris. Martha, Jessica...

I still care very much about what is happening in Iraq and Afghanistan. I also have much respect for the reporters who are able to make it on the front line. I wonder what their feelings would be if the Washington Post sent them all one free Sunday edition. Of course, personally knowing those in the Beltway, the free edition would be packed with positive editorials, and would have all submitted current event articles printed.

But we will never see such things. We'll see who Britney marries next...

Dot.

TODAY'S STUPID HEADLINE:Experts Worry About Missing Iraqi Arms

[edit on 26-10-2004 by dotgov101]