When Good News is Catastrophic

"Propaganda is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. If the means achieves the end then the means is good." (Josef Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda and National Enlightenment, 1933) Propaganda can be as blatant as a swastika or as subtle as a joke. Its persuasive techniques are regularly applied by politicians, advertisers, journalists, radio personalities, and others who are interested in influencing human behavior.

Propaganda messages can be used to accomplish positive social ends, as in campaigns to reduce drunk driving, but they are also used to win elections or to sell malt liquor. Regardless of the ends, it is the means that count. Call it twisting the truth, or spinning an agenda, or by whatever euphemism, it is still propaganda.

Propagandists love short-cuts -- particularly those which short-circuit rational thought. They encourage this by agitating emotions, by exploiting insecurities, by capitalizing on the ambiguity of language, and by bending the rules of logic.

It works. Just listen to the way the network news reporters frame their stories. For example, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates a quarter-point at their recent meeting. CBS News' reporter Anthony Mason reported, “The era of cheap money is over.”

Mason then offered this gloomy forecast: “Your credit card interest rate will be rising. So will adjustable rate mortgages. And say goodbye to those zero percent auto loans.”

Mason concluded: “Either way, this era of low interest rates is beginning to appear in the rear view mirror. And economists say it could be decades before we encounter another one. Anthony Mason, CBS News, New York.”

On the NBC Nightly News, reporter Anne Thompson located the Taylors, a couple with a home equity loan and $25,000 in credit card debt. Thompson warned: “And mortgage rates, while not directly tied to what the Fed does, are already up nearly a percentage point since March, a worry for the Taylors who are in the market for a new house.”

First, what do the propagandists hope to accomplish? In this particular case, it is the defeat of the Bush administration. The Bush administration's vulnerabilities are diminishing, and that has the liberal media worried. Remember the famous 'Bush lied' charge regarding Iraqi efforts to obtain 'yellowcake' uranium from the Nigerians?

Turns out to be true, although that story has been largely spiked by the American media. But the British Financial Times ran a front page exclusive story on June 28 headlined;

The article added, "Intelligence officers learned between 1999 and 2001 that uranium smugglers planned to sell illicitly mined uranium ore, or refined ore called yellow cake, to Iran, Libya, China, North Korea and Iraq. . . .European intelligence officials have for the first time confirmed that information provided by human intelligence sources during an operation mounted in Europe and Africa produced sufficient evidence for them to believe that Niger was the center of a clandestine international trade in uranium."

Another one of Bush's diminishing vulnerabilities is the resurging economy -- something the liberal media is trying to keep as secret as the Nigerian Yellowcake story.

Let's reexamine the propagandists' 'short cuts' by the numbers; 1) agitating emotions; 2) exploiting insecurities; 3) capitalizing on the ambiguity of language; and, 4) bending the rules of logic.

Premise: The Bush administration is doing a lousy job with the economy and America would be better off if John Kerry were president.

Problem: The economy is defying the premise by continuing to expand and grow. Job creation slowed slightly this quarter, but all the leading indicators indicate it is expanding at a faster rate than it did during the heyday of the Clinton administration.

Despite September 11, the war on terror, the war against Saddam Hussein, the cost of maintaining homeland security, the threat of a nuclear Iran, North Korea, Syria and the ongoing security issues in Iraq, the US unemployment rate today is the same as it was when Bill Clinton ran for reelection in 1996. (Clinton won because the economy was doing so well)

The Dow has jumped from less than 8,000 in 2001 to its pre-war levels -- now approaching 11,000.

1) Agitating emotions: “The era of cheap money is over. Your credit card interest rate will be rising. So will adjustable rate mortgages. And say goodbye to those zero percent auto loans. For the first time in four years, the Fed has raised interest rates by a quarter of a point.”

The era of cheap money is over because of a quarter point jump in the Fed rate? Ummm, in 2000, when Bill Clinton was still in office, the Fed rate was 6.5%. The quarter point bump the Fed announced brings the 2004 Federal Reserve prime rate all the way UP to 1.25%. The era of cheap money is OVER?

2) Exploiting insecurities: Your credit card interest will be rising. To highlight this impending economic disaster, CBS hunted down the Taylors -- remember them? They had borrowed up the equity in their home, were carrying $25,000.00 on their CREDIT CARDS and fear they can't afford a new house because the Fed rate jumped a quarter percent to what remains the lowest Fed rate since Eisenhower was president.

With twenty-five grand on the credit cards, a quarter point increase at the Federal level is the LEAST of their problems.

3) Capitalizing on the ambiguity of language: "For the first time in four years, the Fed has raised interest rates by a quarter of a point” and leaving the rest of the statement hanging. (The part about it remaining the lowest rate in four decades, etc, etc.)

4) Bending the rules of logic: CBS' Anthony Mason wrapped his report on the dismal economic outlook in store for America -- thanks to a prime lending rate of 1.25%. "Either way, this era of low interest rates is beginning to appear in the rear view mirror. And economists say it could be decades before we encounter another one."

There is probably no generation in history that should be less receptive to propaganda than this one. Unlike the generation who lived a hundred years ago, or a thousand years ago, this generation knows first hand how deadly is the poison of the propagandist's pen. Propaganda kills.

We saw what Nazi propaganda accomplished. We saw what Soviet propaganda accomplished. We are eyewitnesses to what Islamo-facist propaganda is capable of.

But this generation eats it like candy -- blithely unaware of what the truth is -- or, aware of the truth but preferring to hear cunningly devised fables that suit their personal agenda.

For example, how many Americans would still support abortion if they witnessed a living fetus murdered and dismembered in the womb, before being pulled out in chunks -- in living color, on ABC's Nightly News?

Everybody KNOWS what an abortion is, but they prefer cunningly devised fables like a 'woman's right to choose' while leaving out 'to kill her own baby' because it's easier to support it if you don't keep dwelling on that baby-killing part.

The same can be said for gay rights. If being gay is 'normal', then how come heterosexual couples don't raise their kids to be gay? Gay rights groups call that 'bigotry'. In that one word, you'll find all four elements of propaganda; agitating emotions, exploiting insecurity, capitalizing on ambiguity of language and bending the rules of logic.

Still, knowing all this, we remain the most heavily propagandized and easily brainwashed generation in human history. And we eat it like it was candy.

"And as He sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you." (Matthew 24:3-4)

"But this generation eats it like candy -- blithely unaware of what the truth is -- or, aware of the truth but preferring to hear cunningly devised fables that suit their personal agenda."

Yep! And we can think our public schools for teaching absolutely NO logic or reasoning skills.

Still, knowing all this, we remain the most heavily propagandized and easily brainwashed generation in human history. And we eat it like it was candy.

I hate to be a ray of sunshine on the gloom and doom here but the under thirty crowd is, quite frankly, not buying it.

Your kids are more critical thinkers, more conservative and more moral then your generation was. No, they don't eat it like candy. You are the ones that are buying it.

Not only are they not buying it but they are fighting back too.

I can remember all the counter-protesters of the sixties, seventies and eighties... well, no I can't. Because that generation didn't fight back.

Now however conservatives on campus and other places are making their voices heard. The era of "Just shut up and take it" is over.

Is there more work to be done? Of course! And you know what? It would be nice if some of the older crowd would quit crying at their keyboards and take notice and join us!

I am so sick of "doom, gloom and despair are everywhere" I could throw up. What is wrong with you people? The media is not lying anymore then it used to and because the monopoly is being broken Joe Shmoe knows that they lie. That is an improvment.

For the love of our country "Cheer UP!"

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