The 14 defining elements of fascism.
No. 6, A controlled mass media.
“Under some of the regimes, the mass media were under strict direct control and could be relied upon never to stray from the party line. Other regimes exercised more subtle power to ensure media orthodoxy. Methods included the control of licensing and access to resources, economic pressure, appeals to patriotism and implied threats. The leaders of the mass media were often politically compatible with the power elite. The result was usually success in keeping the general public unaware of the regimes’ excesses.”
The American right wingers have waged a long campaign against professionalism journalism — denouncing it, infiltrating it, faking it, extorting it, distorting it, planting prostitutes in it and telling every manner of lie about it.
The rescue of Private Jessica, the “enemy attack” slaying of Pat Tillman, the fall of Saddam’s statue, the WDMs — all were lies planted by the Bush administration.
To fake news, they added fake journalists.
They bribed columnists. Local TV stations aired propaganda generated by Bush PR hacks, pretending it had been prepared by real reporters. The $200-an-hour male prostitute “Jeff Gannon,” a/k/a James Guckert, was able to get daily access to the White House press briefings for two years while working for a hack right-wing “news service.” And this is what conservatives are pleased to call the “liberal news media,” while laughing up their sleeves.
What we have is a corporate media overwhelming tilted right, and frightened of even challenging glaring Republican lies. When Rudy Giuliani lied on national television that we had NO domestic terrorist attacks under George W. Bush, ABC's "liberal" coward George Stephanopoulos was afraid even to call him on it.
What we have is a corporate media overwhelming tilted right, and frightened of even challenging glaring Republican lies. When Rudy Giuliani lied on national television that we had NO domestic terrorist attacks under George W. Bush, ABC's "liberal" coward George Stephanopoulos was afraid even to call him on it.
The real mission of the corporate media is to reassure the public about the benevolence of corporate-welfare capitalism and to justify both inequality and the role of the corporation as the exclusive and only acceptable provider of all income and benefits.
"(T)he right-wing mass hysteria is what sociologists call a 'moral panic.' It occurs when a society is undergoing a wrenching transformation," wrote Michael Fumento. "Somebody then comes along and creates a 'folk devil' both to provide an explanation for bad conditions, real or imagined, and a target. Kill the devil; eliminate the bad conditions. But the right has no serious incentive to help solve or ameliorate these problems. Indeed, as with the reelection of Obama, it will benefit from their continuation or worsening."
"(T)he right-wing mass hysteria is what sociologists call a 'moral panic.' It occurs when a society is undergoing a wrenching transformation," wrote Michael Fumento. "Somebody then comes along and creates a 'folk devil' both to provide an explanation for bad conditions, real or imagined, and a target. Kill the devil; eliminate the bad conditions. But the right has no serious incentive to help solve or ameliorate these problems. Indeed, as with the reelection of Obama, it will benefit from their continuation or worsening."
No comments:
Post a Comment