Here's a fascinating story written by the writers' coach Roy Peter Clark on the subject of propaganda and the current U.S. presidential campaign.
Yes propaganda, that loaded word we often associate with other brutal regimes and philosophies in different countries and even different times. Clark argues cogently that subtle, and maybe not so subtle, methods of persusion are as alive and well in a democracy as a dictatorship.
Clark, vice-president of the Poynter Institute, rakes out a 1937 leaflet from an organisation called the Institute for Propaganda Analysis, and ticks off the seven points of recognisable propaganda outlined by the group and updates it with reference to the recent tightly-scripted Democratic and Republican conventions.
The parallels are thought-provoking and seemingly obvious yet the point of Clark's article is that, while no journalist likes to admit to being taken in by such techniques, the press corps reports faithfully the tricks being played, with no reference to the underhand methods of persuasion being played on the voters.
No politician, Republican or Democrat, would admit he or she is in the propaganda business. And no journalist I know would admit to being an enabler of the propaganda efforts of a particular political party. Like it or not, every scripted moment of every convention, every syllable of every campaign speech, is an act of political propaganda.[source]
While on the subject of spin, a new website launched this week claims to be the antidote to biased articles. Spinspotter says it monitors and exposes news spin and bias, misuse of sources, and suspect factual support. With both conservative and liberals on the company's board the website claims its anti-spin software tool is a new experience in reading the news.
Can't endorse it I'm afraid as I haven't worked it out yet, but certainly sounds interesting.
Image above: The culmination of the tightly-scripted 2008 Democratic Convention. The Obama and Biden families awash in a sea of red, white and blue. Credit: Dtgwu2005.
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Propaganda? Are you kidding? Try: FRAUD. Everyone knows a candidate promises everything and anything, but is held to no accountability to deliver anything once elected. And in some cases, makes a 180 degree turn once elected. In real life that is called fraud, in presidential campaigning it is just business as usual.
Lance, You tell it like it is....................
marketing=propaganda. The true and authentic purpose of art and music is to build communities . In a healthy culture this is the sole realm of the artist who create it , and have the best interest of the people at heart . This is quality in humans can be harnessed by the greedy as well as anyone else who can pay in our capitalist society . Unfortunately we raise our kids to be ignorant of this . There is a way to distinguish the healthy from the unhealthy . One empowers, the other, convinces you of your powerlessness, seeking domination .
Lance couldn't have said it any better..
Preach on Lance
Hi!
Just wanted to let everyone know that I have decided to run for president! Here are my qualifications:
- I will eliminate taxes!!!
- Everyone gets $10,000 every year for life!!!
- My V.P. is a born again christian!!!
- I will insure your home wherever you live, even if you live at the bottom of a river!!!
- My policy is simple: The U.S. is always right and everyone else is always wrong, so that makes you, the U.S. citizen, alway right!!!
- We will band together and call the U.S. the land of the free!!! Free money!!! Free land anywhere!!! risk free living!!! And above all: Free to be right all the time!!!
So, vote for me and be right!!! or vote for the other guy and be wrong!!!
Right on, Lance.
But the repugnicans have three unfair advantages on the Democrats, and that should entitle the Democrats to use more spin to even out the field.
1)- Gullibility : repugnicans can and do tell any outrageous lie to further their cause because their target clientele is not the most, shall we say, intellectually discriminating.
2)- Best shootists : JFK? Dead meat! Bobby? Whacked! MLK? Geschfinko! But when it comes to repugnicans, George Wallace only bought himself a wheelchair and Reagan didn't even get winged... need I say more?
3)- Not watered down : the Libertarians, that maggot Ron Paul and that old mummy Nader totally sink the Democrat's base even before they have a chance to gather any steam. Talk about having an albatross tied around your neck; they have three!
So I say LEGALIZE THE KKK! That ought to split the repugnicans right down the middle!
Sieg Heil, brothers!
Spitfire
(just kidding, by the way...)
Oh, I forgot:
THE HELL WITH SECULARISM : Create a Jay-sus Party to suck all the Armageddon morons, the snake handlers, the shakers, the mud eaters and the holy rollers out of the repugnican party. And if their propaganda is spoken "in tongues"; they can't ever be accused of lying.
Spitfire
The greatest lie told this campaign season: HILARY ROSEN, DEMBHOLE STRATEGIST, said/stated on WOLF BLITZED, CNN SHOW: "BARACK OBAMA is more popular among JEWISH VOTERS than JOE LIEBERMAN!!!" WHAT??? ROSEN was not struck-by-lightning or evidenced symptoms of seizure-or-stoke immediately after this TITANIC LIE!!! PROPAGANDA - OR JUST OUTRIGHT LIES???!!!
An Palin is a moose-lim