Meet the Press et al are State Propaganda Shows
I had an epiphany this morning. Well, not really an epiphany, more like an affirmation. It's certainly not something I've not known for a very long time. But it was kind of an epiphany in that my experience had a certain sudden clearness to it and an "insight into reality caused by a commonplace occurrence".
Or maybe I just want to say something.
My washing machine broke a couple weeks ago. I haven't replaced it yet so I've been going to the local laundrymat to wash my clothes then bring them home to dry. That's what I did this morning. It's a fairly nice laundrymat with a couple TVs on at all times. It doesn't appear customers can change the channel, you get what you get. In this case, the program "Meet the Press" was on.
I have never been one to watch the bullshit political shows on Sunday, or any day for that matter. I've pointedly boycotted all TV news and political shows for about 6-7 years now including local news which does nothing but relay the national lies and false narratives. I simply will not watch. But (alone) in the laundrymat I couldn't help but listen while I was doing my thing. First there was Donald Trump, then there was Loretta Lynch, Dianne Feinstein, and some former Bush Homeland Security official.
The epiphany, affirmation, whatever it was, was very clear. This was nothing but state propaganda. All of it. That is what Meet the Press is about, disseminating official state propaganda. Like I said, I knew that, but then maybe it wasn't so blatantly obvious as this morning when I watched part of a show I've not seen for years and even then only in small bits and pieces maybe ten times in my life. Maybe it's just never been so simple, it is state propaganda, end of story period.
I worked for the federal government for 30 years, still work in a part time mentoring capacity. I achieved a fairly high level, high enough to get involved at the national level and get a good taste of how the government provides information to the public. Watching Meet the Press I envisioned the guests preparing for their Sunday gig, waiting backstage for their turn and how that plays in the overall picture of their particular government programs. The lies and false narratives I heard over the course of thirty minutes was amazing, and nauseating.
I wonder why people watch these shows. It's probably not alot of people relative to the total population. But it's the type of people and the culture it perpetuates that makes it effective propaganda. I can only understand two different views of these shows. They either make you extremely pissed off because of the constant stream of lies, or you absorb the lies and they become part of your being. I can't think of a single reason why any regular citizen should watch them other than to see what propaganda is being peddled. But that can be easily done without watching those shows.
The singular purpose for Meet the Press and the other political shows they have now is to spread state propaganda. It's no different than state sponsored propaganda from Stalin's Russia or Hitler's Germany or North Korean propaganda of present days. They have nothing to do with a free press designed to provide accurate and unbiased information to citizens. They are clearly and brazenly nothing but state propaganda outlets.
We're living it. Right here in the land of the free and home of the brave.
Comments
Kind of a no shit Sherlock thing to many of us,
but it probably can't be said enough.
Honestly a lot of MSM programming in general...
is state Propaganda. Especially the fiction.
(Notice how politicians constantly use fictional scenarios concocted in MSM shows to try to sell a unpopular or abhorrent idea?)
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
True that.
A veritable infestation. Like West Wing or that show about the Secretary of State, which doesn't show that every Secretary of State is automatically a war criminal.
Speaking of shows that wrap the truth in fiction:
"House of Cards" amazing script, amazing screen writers, and excellent actors. It does dwell on the "seedy" side of DC politics. Isn't about time for a change?
The lyrics are copyrighted, so can't copy those. "The Times They Are A Chagin", Bob Dylan
Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. Stephen Hawking
Don't know about "auto war criminal"...
But the CBS series "Madame Secretary" last season really DID seem to have a hard-on for the TPP. The show came in from far center field several times over the course of the series just to plonk for this trade treaty -- which seemed to have nothing whatsoever to do with the fictional plotting going on.
I thought this was odd.
Odd like the shows that touted a car's ability to park
itself or a "useful" cell phone feature right in the middle of solving a crime? They're all selling something.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Yup. See: 24 and "torture" like waterboarding, etc.
OMG, it was disgusting...
Seems more corporate than government propaganda
...but I guess those are really the same thing. I always knew the commercial TV was about selling commercials, but my big sadness is the so called public media and their obvious corporate infotainment approach to news.
How can the sheeple learn anything if big brothers double speak is all they hear? And then you think well we have the internet. And then you hear Google provided positive results when searching about $hillery, twitter shutting down anti $hillery feeds like whichhillary, facebook is in it too.
The media is not just complicit, they directly shape outcomes from reporting WMD's in Iraq to calling the primary election before the last big day of voting.
It's not that people are stupid, they just don't have the information to reach good decisions.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Supreme manipulation.
Well, it's proven thing, we humans can be manipulated, brainwashed, conditioned, you name it and there's a long, long history of techniques and practices to do it.
Today there was a lot about ISIS and whenever I hear a government official or mainstream news person talk about ISIS I automatically know its based on lies. So I kind of tuned it out to better enjoy my day.
Amen in general. And amen on ISIS, Big Al.
Using ISIS is the default position for TPTB. Even if it's not in the script, it's their 'fall back' position. Stuck during an interview, Mr or Mrs Pol? The magic unsticking words are: "But....ISIS!" Anytime they say ISIS, be ready for a lie...and check your wallet.
"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey
I heard some of the program...
while I was fiddling on the 'puter in another room. Hubby had it on. I finally couldn't stand it anymore & asked him what the hell he was watching & why. He replied that it was one of 'those Sunday morning shows and there wasn't anything else on'. Whew! Thankfully, he soon changed the channel to a cooking show.
And, yes, you hit the nail on the head - it IS state propaganda. Radio is just as bad. I drive a lot, and up until recently, WCPT out of Chicago has been my island of sanity. Now, I even have to shut THAT off when Stephanie Miller starts drooling over Hill. Blech! She tries to be fair, but she obviously has not grasped what the movement is about. I might have to go back to audio books for the duration.
Despair is NOT an option!
Meet the Press has been a propaganda faucet, always.
I never really had a problem with that. All nation-states deliver a national fiction that informs future history. When you think about it, C-SPAN does the same thing when it televises Congress. The network, itself, is an operatic from of propaganda. Sometimes propaganda is devised to act as brainwashing. Here, a new historical narrative is structured to "erase and replace" what people actually witnessed. Fear is part of that process.
I have experienced, over the years, different levels of awareness-surprise, like you describe, where it's like seeing the propaganda clearly for the first time. The brain goes, "No way." and the eyes go, "Way, man."
Over the years of watching the US narrative embedded and reinforced, and observing the US "re-memory" program at work — I did see one anomaly. Sometime between the US attack on Libya and the US overthrow of Ukraine's government — a firehose blast of propaganda was turned on the American people and it has continued into the present. The propaganda doesn't even bother to parallel reality. News is largely coming from feedback loops.
That's all I got.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Right you are,
many have noticed that blast around the Libya attack, the Arab Spring time frame. It's been in your face since.
Another WTF while watching
If the moderators and their guests are suppose to be America's best and brightest, boy does that make us a nation of dumb f@cks.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Yes
Media, television, Hollywood propaganda and advertising have taken us to the lowest possible common denominator.
Then they lowered the bar.
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
Minor correction
American propaganda is superior in quality, technical presentation and mass consumption by the viewers.
We're number one! We're number one! We're number one!
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
Number one in all the wrong ways.
Hey, if you can sell toothpaste and spray cheese...
then politics is a cakewalk.
those shows
are reality bubbles in which New York/Washington people gabble to one another. They wouldn't have anything to do with real life, except those people have money and bombs.
It can be instructive, so long as one
realizes that they need to do their homework, in order to 'verify' what they hear.
Of course, you're talking to a fellow federal service retiree who understands government propaganda. And one whose official duties sometimes necessitated assisting the Base Public Affairs Office with 'shaping' the message, after a fiasco involving the military installation, or its personnel.
It's important to read or listen to 'some' MSM reporting, IMO, because if we simply read so-called progressive blogs or websites, my 'guess' is that we would not know that we're slated to take a huge haircut on entitlements this Congress--if the PtB have their way.
Just yesterday, I heard MSM reporters participating in a reporters' round table, point out that there is a bipartisan effort underway to avoid an end-of-the-year Ombudsman bill.
What's the significance of that?
It means that they will likely be able to insert cuts to entitlements, with little or no notice/reporting.
(As opposed to an end-of-the-year 'drama.')
This is 'why' we've heard Dem Party Congresspersons (think Chris Van Hollen, and other fiscal hawks) whine and wring their hands about returning to 'regular order.'
Also, on Friday, I learned from a Congressman interviewed by Host Tim Farley (Midday Edition, POTUS Channel, XM Radio) that they've already passed '3' of the '12' appropriations bills. The target, being--passing all 12, of course.
Now, my task is to find out 'which' bills, and hopefully, what was in them.
One is not likely to pick this up at Salon, etc.
So, although I agree with you on a number of issues, Al, I don't buy into the notion that it is harmful or unwise to view the Sunday talk shows.
(For example, one reason that I've known for almost a year-and-a-half that Bernie is not going to run third party, is because I've heard him say it countless time on the Sunday shows.)
Hey, thanks for the thought provoking essay--which yours always are!
Mollie
In Tribute To 'Barabas'
Please Visit Save Our Street Dogs [SOSD]
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
Good points UL
In the right hands they're safe. In the wrong hands they can hazardous to the health. I do follow the basic mainstream media topics and focus in print, some directly, some indirectly through alternative sources that mention or highlight. You're absolutely right, we do need to know what they're peddling.
I guess with me I can spend less time doing it via print than on the TV, and just watching some of the messengers can give me the willies.
I had a similar epiphany this morning
during Reliable Sources on CNN. Brian Stelter was interviewing a reporter from some outlet (GQ?) about Donald Trump's Press Secretary, a 27-year old recluse named Hope Hicks. Apparently, Ms. Hicks has confounded The Media precisely because she does the job described by her title - she schedules Trump's press availabilities, etc. - but doesn't take a role in shaping message or policy. She's a secretary (predictably, using Trump's Mad Men-inspired definition of the role) who deals with the press, not a spin doctor, and she avoids cameras like the plague.
Neither Stelter nor his guest could fathom how one could simultaneously be both press-averse and a "Press Secretary." It was utterly beyond their comprehension. Seeing their bafflement is what sparked my sudden insight: to them, "Press Secretary" means "Chief Propagandist," the person you go to when you need the Cliff's Notes of a candidate's spin on a given issue; definitely not a mere peon that one e-mails when one seeks to interview the candidate.
Great observation.
Odd that Trump's usage is so much more truthful, as well as simple.
I used to call all Press Secretaries, "The Mouth of Sauron", until Baghdad Bob came along. But now, it looks like he was the one with the last laugh:
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/03/baghdad-bob-and... (There are more nuggets in the article...particularly toward the end.)
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
TV in Public is the 21st Century Loudspeaker
I think the TVs in public places are just like the loudspeakers in Nazi Germany, only better.
I agree with you Big Al.
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
Actually Oligarch Propaganda
to brainwash the masses to vote against their own interest, mass insanity
I haven't watched MTP in a while don't watch msnbc much anymore
Either or CNN... They are all pushing an agenda. I don't like being pushed.
I did watch my local Sunday morning news programs... One of them had former NYC mayor David Dinkins ... He was asked about his support for HRC and the discussion was about our former mayors former endorsement of HRC in 2008... An interesting endorsement since he was the first BLACK mayor of NYC at a time Obama was a candidate...but Dinkins endorsed HER and was asked why. After he pointed out that he did eventually endorse Obama he said he originally endorse HER because "friendship and loyalty"
and that kind of answers the oft asked question of why so many in congress came out very early to endorse her... Why? Loyalty to the current power structure in the DNC
"It's a private club and YOU ain't in it"
- George carlin
Orwell was an optimist