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The Tale Wags the Dog as News Becomes Propaganda
Real Clear Politics ^ | March 25, 2021 | J. Peder Zane

Posted on 03/27/2021 6:18:46 AM PDT by ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas


It all seemed so simple. I thought the Trump/Russia hoax would finally force my liberal friends to demand a reckoning from their trusted news sources. As the Mueller Report made clear, the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, NPR and so many others had egregiously and unequivocally misled them for years about the biggest political story since Watergate.
If their favorite outlets could be so wrong about that, shouldn’t they bring a healthy skepticism to the coverage of other issues, from police shootings and “systemic racism” to the threat of “domestic terrorism,” GOP “voter suppression” efforts or President Biden’s trouble navigating stairs?
When I asked a True Believer about all this last week – a man whose scriptures are the New York Times, the New York Review of Books and the New Yorker magazine – my friend told me I should stop watching Fox News.
After I pressed him gently on Russiagate, he told me that Trump had indeed colluded with Putin but that Mueller pulled his punches because he’s a Republican.
That’s when I decided to turn the talk to baseball.

(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: media; msm; propaganda
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If you ask me when we last had a "free press," I would say a long time ago. Maybe never, but in 2016 it dropped all pretense of freedom.
1 posted on 03/27/2021 6:18:46 AM PDT by ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas
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To: ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas

There has never been a totalitarian confrontation in America as there is currently. A generation that refuses to examine history, let alone learn from it, will repeat the cataclysmic events that could have been avoided. That’s also what history teaches us.


2 posted on 03/27/2021 6:29:58 AM PDT by Spok (All free men are equal only in their freedom; everything else is up to them.)
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To: ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas

https://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individuals/walter-cronkite/

In 1968 Vietnam was attacked by the North Vietnamese communists in the Tet offensive. The North Vietnamese attacked the South in the winter of 1968 and suffered heavy losses. The communists lost 48,000 men, America lost 249 men and the South Vietnam lost 500 men.

It was an overwhelming blow to the communists. They were defeated.

Walter Cronkite spent one and a half hours talking to General Frederick Weyand, then the man in charge of the forces in the South of Vietnam around Saigon. Walter Cronkite said:

“Well you’ve got a fine story. But I’m not going to use any of it because I’ve been up to Hue. I’ve seen the thousands of bodies up there in mass graves and I’m determined to do all in my power to bring this war to an end as soon as possible.”

In 1968 there was no CNN or FOX News, we had three network stations, CBS, NBC and ABC. There was no internet and the newspapers had a comment section that was filtered.

Walter Cronkite goes back to the states and releases this comment:

“It seems now more certain than ever,” Walter Cronkite told his audience in a de facto editorial, “that the bloody experience of Vietnam is a stalemate” and that the war was “unwinnable.” Cronkite’s statement and call for U.S. withdrawal helped turn public opinion against the war. It also demoralized American troops and Democratic President Lyndon Johnson, who was said to have declared that losing Cronkite’s support meant he had lost the backing of Middle America.

When Republican President Richard Nixon refused to withdraw U.S. forces from Vietnam, the Democrats used the Watergate scandal to topple his presidency. Cronkite played a key role in the political process that ousted Nixon — chiefly by broadcasting a news story every night on the CBS Evening News under the banner “Watergate.” At the time, Cronkite insisted that he was non-partisan, objective and fair. After his retirement, however, he acknowledged his liberal political views.


3 posted on 03/27/2021 6:40:59 AM PDT by Haddit
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To: ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas

Decent, rational people don’t have “liberal friends”. A liberal can never be a trusted true friend. A liberal is merely another human that you will unfortunately encounter and will have to find a way to deal with such an untrustworthy, core delusuional person.


4 posted on 03/27/2021 6:41:49 AM PDT by allendale
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To: ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas

We have Corporate Media. All part of the Global Government-News-Entertainment Complex.


5 posted on 03/27/2021 6:44:59 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Haddit

Liberals are incapable of self reflection.

And Walt Cronkite was an out and out communist.


6 posted on 03/27/2021 6:45:10 AM PDT by subterfuge (RIP T.P.)
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To: Haddit
The Watergate scandal took place after the US withdrew from Vietnam, but nonetheless, the drive-by media was opposed to Nixon from the get-go. As Edith Efron documented in her book The News Twisters (New York: Nash, 1972), the media was heavily biased towards the Democrats in the 1968 election. When he got in despite their opposition, they worked relentlessly to sandbag his presidency until he was finally driven from office.
7 posted on 03/27/2021 7:24:29 AM PDT by Fiji Hill
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To: Haddit

I remember that. Still can’t stand Cronkite. He was good narrating WW II films on TV such as THE 20TH CENTURY but that was the 1950s.


8 posted on 03/27/2021 7:25:06 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar ((Democrats have declared us to be THE OBSOLETE MAN in the Twilight Zone.))
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To: ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas

I remember the old newspapers when news was news, and politics and opinions were on the editorial pages.

Now the politics and opinions have been worked into the news stories as “news”.


9 posted on 03/27/2021 7:27:31 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar ((Democrats have declared us to be THE OBSOLETE MAN in the Twilight Zone.))
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To: ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas

This is another serious propaganda approach where the media is playing the racial game without offering proof are claiming those few attacks on Asians was done because of their supporting Covid 19. That should get stomped on.

They’re doing this to cover the demons who worked with the CCP who don’t want the CCP to be blamed for creating the CCP 19 virus. Let’s not forget members of the Biden campaign the demons boastfully acknowledged that Covid 19 really helped get Biden in. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3940857/posts The conservative media should refer to it as “The CCP 19 virus not the “China Virus” and demand make the CCP pay by kicking Biden and the CCP out which would happen if that did with a Biden loss.


10 posted on 03/27/2021 7:35:28 AM PDT by mosesdapoet (AKA Lee J Keslin posting in the hopes comments get passed around )
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To: Fiji Hill

Watergate was a Media coup against an elected President.


11 posted on 03/27/2021 7:35:42 AM PDT by marktwain (President Trump and his supporters are the Resistance. His opponents are the Reactionaries. )
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To: marktwain
Watergate was a Media coup against an elected President.

The media succeeded in whipping up mass hysteria over an insignificant matter--just as they are doing today over Wuhan flu.

12 posted on 03/27/2021 7:44:58 AM PDT by Fiji Hill
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To: Fiji Hill
The media succeeded in whipping up mass hysteria over an insignificant matter

The other thing most people don't realize about Watergate is that it basically completed the radicals takeover of the Democratic Party. It was a means to an end for them.

13 posted on 03/27/2021 7:47:25 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas
If you ask me when we last had a "free press," I would say a long time ago. Maybe never, but in 2016 it dropped all pretense of freedom.

We still have a free press; what we don't have is a fair press, as you point out.

The best that I can pinpoint when this happened was in 1968 when Walter Cronkite came out and wanted us to lose in Vietnam. Other major news outlets followed and today they all follow the New York Times.

14 posted on 03/27/2021 7:47:30 AM PDT by libertylover (Many people who want to destroy us have bumper stickers on their cars that say: "Coexist".)
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To: ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas

The first time I noticed how biased the media was, was 1992, during the 1992 election. They were really for Clinton, less for Perot, and hostile to Bush. I thought Bush was the obvious choice, Perot had good ideas, but was a little crackers, and Clinton was an obvious adulterer and should never be near the White House. I was amazed Clinton won.When he was re elected in 1996, I lost all faith in the electorate. Bob Dole was clearly morally superior.


15 posted on 03/27/2021 7:55:22 AM PDT by Forgiven_Sinner (Seek you first the kingdom of God, and all things will be given to you.)
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To: Forgiven_Sinner

I hated Clinton, but if you watched the debates, it’s clear why Clinton won. He looked the most “presidential” of the three, especially when Bush looked at his watch, and looked totally disinterested.


16 posted on 03/27/2021 7:58:41 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas

Hi.

The corrupt corporate media (to include social media) are the propoganda arm of the DNC.

5.56mm


17 posted on 03/27/2021 8:01:09 AM PDT by M Kehoe (Quid Pro Joe and the Ho ain't my president.)
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To: M Kehoe

propoganda

Sheesh.

5.56mm


18 posted on 03/27/2021 8:02:05 AM PDT by M Kehoe (Quid Pro Joe and the Ho ain't my president.)
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To: ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas

The Arts and Communications world has been sympathetic to the Communist cause since its beginnings.

New York theatre, Hollywood movies, and newspaper offices had Soviet allies in place as early as the 19-teens.

The pool has been growing ever since.


19 posted on 03/27/2021 8:02:29 AM PDT by Bratch (The only way men or women can be judged is against the canvas of their own time. - Louis L'Amour)
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To: ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas
The Tale Wags the Dog as News Becomes Propaganda

When has it not been propaganda?

20 posted on 03/27/2021 8:03:13 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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