[cripplecreek]

No the journalists are merely the junior officers carrying out the orders of lilltle known men who are way in the background.

While guys like Lippman and Creel weren't the top ranking guys, they most certainly were the top men in their theater of operations. The MacArthur and Patton of their propoganda war.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

I agree they were top journalists with all the myopia of those individuals who pay attention to day by day activities.

[Tublecane]

The problem with this article id that guys like Lippmann and Bernays were abundantly self-conscious. Do you think any journalist really knows what he’s doing today? I don’t mean people like Dan Rather, who certainly must know he was putting his thumb on the scale. I mean are there any conscious mass manipulators who are shifting the news here and there, rather than a crowd of libs like dogs chasing a tennis ball, moved always in a predictable manner, but nevertheless moved by events instead of the other way around?

Also, media manipulation is one thing, and practical politics another. Not all politics takes place in the public arena. The New Deal was so radically successful because FDR was a political idiot savant, not just because the people had wool over their eyes.