Media and Disinformation

I grew up knowing that my Grandmother and Great Aunt, sisters, had been reporters for Time-Life from about 1940 onward thru World War II. They had a few fantastic stories about that time. My Great Aunt became an accomplished Author and my Grandmother produced some, not really well recieved, Science Fiction. 

And when I was a child we would watch the Evening News on Television. And the most trusted person in news at that time was the CBS News Anchor Walter Conkrite. When he signed off at the end of the program with his "And that's the way it is on DAY OF WEEK and Date" you knew that he had given you the news of the day as clearly and succinctly as was known to him and without any of himself mixed in.

He told you what the news was. He did not tell what to think of the news.

He did have opinions. And, to the best of my knowledge, he only expressed them a few times and clearly labeled them as His Opinion.

And, at that time, the American News Media all followed that formula. They were guided by the Edward R. Murrow way of doing it. You Report the News. You do not Shape the News.

Murrow did have opinions. And he, again to the best of my knowledge, stepped out of reporting to display his opinion once, in a clearly labelled Opinion piece.

All of this was a result of the Fairness Doctrine. And the Fairness Doctrine stated very clearly that you could have an opinion all day. And if you gave your opinion then you had to offer an apposing opinion. And you could NEVER give your opinion as news. Period.

Then Ronald Reagan became President and we got a bunch of people in Congress, both Houses, who "believed" that "Big Government" was bad and had to be eliminated. And they sold that to the American Public because Business really wanted things like the FDA, EPA, Labour Board, the Minimum Wage, and anything else that would impede Enormous Profits, to be gotten rid of and payed huge sums in "Campaign Contributions" to support these people.

And they were all playing a very long game.

In September 1985 Reagan and the Republicans bypassed a bunch of requirements to ram thru Rupert Murdoch becoming an American Citizen. This was done to satisfy the requirements that only US Citizens are allowed to own US Television Stations.

He already had in place a Cable Only, not Broadcast, network known as the Fox Network.

In 1987 the Fairness Doctrine was repealed. In 1988 Rush Limbaugh began his radio show. No coincidence.

And an explosion of Right Wing talk radio ensued over the next few years. Limbaugh was the acknowledged Master of the craft.

And in 1995 the Fox Network became a Broadcast Network as well as Cable and they took off.

What all this did was to put a whole lot of Dis-Information into the Public Sphere. And one of the most pernicious things that Fox and Talk Radio did was convince their followers, and these people are members of a cult, no doubt, that everyone else was lieing to them and they were the only ones to be trusted.

And that is a perfect sign of Propaganda. And it is a nasty sort, designed to make you Fear, Distrust, and Hate your neighbors.

I remember when then Vice President Spiro Agnew started bitching about the "Liberal" media. Why did he harp on that? Because they kept reporting the truth about him which is why he had to resign his office. The "Liberal" media has always been the media of Truth and not Sensation.

And thus we had Gerald Ford picked to replace Agnew as V.P. everybody knowing that Richard Nixon was on his way out we needed a V.P. to credibly replace him.

Gerald Ford was a fine person by the way. I have no ache with him. His only real mistake was in pardoning Nixon instead of letting the legal system play out.

And how did I know they were wrong in accusing the media? Because I listened to my Grandmother and Great Aunt and watched Walter Cronkite. Even at a young age I was interested in things.

So to watch the destruction of what used to be the finest News Services in the World, whether Print, Sound, or Television, by the Propogandist of Hate has been a painful experience. And it has been ongoing for a long time. That is a lot of pain.

And then, to watch Social Media contribute to the spread of Dis-Information, to put it on Steriods and Rocket Boosters, has been even more painful. A tool that could be used for Connection of the whole Human Community instead made into a Tool Of Devisiveness, what a bitch.

So today we have a Society that has been conditioned to not trust anybody, to believe their own "Facts", to mistrust Science and Experts in any field, to only believe what feels good to them, no matter how ridiculous, to believe that their Sacred Opinion is just a valuable as the Experts Trained and Proven analysis, and whom are divided by so many groups, that we are left in these, the lonliest of Times.

We have truly been turned into a Nation of frightened Loners who are told the the Individual is Paramount. While those with Wealth and Power form Groups that control the Media, the Corporations, the Food Systems, and anything else worth while.

We have truly become a Nation of Socialism for the Rich and Rugged Individualism for the rest of us.

And divided by Fear and Hate.

Just as it was designed to be.