The rise of television news, and its power over the mind, necessitated an agreement among the major networks:
On
most issues, the networks would have to mirror each other’s
coverage. Otherwise, the audience would experience an unacceptable level
of confusion and cognitive dissonance.
This
principle of agreement was basically about the rules of
propaganda---and nowhere was it more evident than in matters of medical
science.
For example, suppose, recently, the COVID PCR test became an occasion for disagreement among NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, and FOX?
Three
networks fell into line with the CDC and the WHO in claiming the test
was accurate and meaningful, while the other two strenuously reported on
the irreparable and fatal flaws in the test. (I’ve exhaustively
detailed those flaws in many articles.)
The
network dissonance would upset a huge apple cart smack in the middle of
COVID “science.” The public wouldn’t know where to turn.
Therefore, the truth of the matter had to take a back seat to conformity. All the major networks robotically echoed the CDC/WHO.
And
the network anchors had to sell the PCR lies. Lester Holt (Lurch/ the
Addams family); David Muir (Sears underwear model); Norah O’Donnell
(student council president); Wolf Blitzer (“smart bombs went right down
chimneys in Iraq”); a collection of shiny suits at FOX; they all had to
pretend they’d looked at more than the opening lines of public health
press releases.
The guiding light of network news is unanimity, and social media have adopted that m.o. as well.
Truth is the first casualty of The News.
Long
before television secured its hold on the public (1923-1928), Edward
Bernays, the father of modern propaganda, wrote: “This is an age of mass
production. In the mass production of materials a broad technique has
been developed and applied to their distribution. In this age, too,
there must be a technique for the mass distribution of ideas.”
“Domination
to-day is not a product of armies or navies or wealth or policies. It
is a domination based on the one hand upon accomplished unity, and on
the other hand upon the fact that opposition is generally characterized
by a high degree of disunity.”
“The
conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and
opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society.
Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an
invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We
are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas
suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical
result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast
numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to
live together as a smoothly functioning society.”
Today, vast numbers of people DO cooperate; they watch the news, which is a virtual construct.
The
network editors, writers, on-air talent, and crews conspire and
collaborate, every day, to fulfill Bernays’ prescriptions for
society. And, for the most part, these plotters are true believers. They
think they’re presenting fact.
This is what habit does to the mind.
The
CIA has played its role in securing network unanimity of coverage. As
soon as the Agency was created, in 1947, it set about researching mind
control (MKULTRA). It planted agents in newsrooms. It followed the
tenets of Bernays.
Human society had to be hypnotized. Otherwise, profound decentralization would occur.
Consider
this simple fact about the PCR test---which any news reporter should be
able to spot in a minute, but doesn’t: a person who tests positive is
called “a case of COVID-19.”
That
isn’t even done with HIV/AIDS. A person who tests positive is called
“HIV positive.” If he develops symptoms, then he’s called “a case of
AIDS.”
Imagine this conversation: “Hi, Phil, how’s your son?”
“He has the flu.”
Oh. Is he in bed?”
“No. He ran the marathon yesterday.”
“What? You said he has the flu.”
“He does. He tested positive for the virus.”
Absurd.
In
1913, political commentator Walter Lippmann wrote: “Ours is a problem
in which deception has become organized and strong; where truth is
poisoned at its source; one in which the skill of the shrewdest brains
is devoted to misleading a bewildered people.”
If the CDC says the sky is falling, all the networks will report it---and will censor the fact that it isn’t falling.
“…in
the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the
broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper
strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and
thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall
victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often
tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to
large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to
fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others
could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously.” Adolph
Hitler, 1925
The distortion of the truth applies to the past as well as to the present. As George Orwell puts it, in 1984:
“The
past, he reflected, had not merely been altered, it had been actually
destroyed. For how could you establish even the most obvious fact when
there existed no record outside your own memory?...To know and not to
know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully
constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled
out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to
use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it,
to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the
guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget,
then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed,
and then promptly to forget it again: and above all, to apply the same
process to the process itself...That was the ultimate subtlety:
consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become
unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to
understand the word ‘doublethink’ involved the use of doublethink.”
Why
all this subterfuge? In order to produce mass uniformity of belief and
consensus. You can be sure that, in the future, the history of COVID
will be transmitted in a way that covers up all the lies and
obfuscations. COVID will be invoked to prove contradictory propositions
(both A and not-A), when it suits the propagandists.
Over
the years, in speaking with mainstream reporters, I’ve gleaned that
some of them are aware they’re on an Orwellian path. They squelch that
perception. But they know they’re a) believing what they report is true
and b) disbelieving what they report.
They
understand they’re parrot-performers on a stage under the lights, and
yet they accept their roles as absolutely authentic reflections of
honesty.
They
rationalize this contradiction in the same way that Edward Bernays did
in 1928: “Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner [by
accepting propaganda as fact] if they are to live together as a
smoothly functioning society.”
Under hypnosis.
Have
you ever seen a first-class hypnotist perform his act? The basic
requirement---he must appear to know exactly what he’s doing. That skill
is paramount.
And this is the standard toward which all television news anchors aspire.
~~~
(The link to this article posted on my blog is here.)
(Follow me on Gab at @jonrappoport)
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