|
DEMOCRACY REDEFINED!![]()
A TvNewsLIES.org ANALYSIS OF
MANTRA MANIPULATION
BY G. W. BUSH AND THE MEDIA
de•moc•ra•cy
- Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives.
- A political or social unit that has such a government.
- The common people, considered as the primary source of political power.
- Majority rule.
- The principles of social equality and respect for the individual within a community.
cap•i•tal•ism
- An economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately or corporately owned and development is proportionate to the accumulation and reinvestment of profits gained in a free market.
CARROTS AND WATERMELONS
If George W. Bush were to hold up a carrot and call it a watermelon, the American news media would immediately begin calling carrots watermelons. That's been an undeniable trend. Equally undeniable is the fact that we have long passed the point when we can trust the American corporate media to report the news. But even more distressing is the fact that we now have reached the point when we cannot even trust them with the English language.
Let’s be very clear here: despite media claims to the contrary, the Bush administration has not put forth a single initiative designed to advance democracy, not in America and not anywhere in the world. In fact, the Bush administration has set in motion programs designed to dismantle our democracy in order that its real goal can be achieved. That real goal is unrestricted capitalism and corporate profit.
Capitalism is fine. Unrestricted capitalism is tyranny. When corporations seek profits with absolutely no concern for the rights and the needs of the people, democracy dies. In this administration, corporate profits supersede all else. In this administration, all legislation is intent upon providing the greatest profits to corporate campaign contributors, and let the people be damned!
Corporate America has been awarded greater freedom of oversight under the Bush administration than every before in history. And for every benefit gained to corporate America, the average citizen in this country has suffered a severe and irreparable loss.
Under Bush Administration initiatives, the American people now have the newly expanded freedom to be unemployed, to be homeless, to be deprived of medical insurance, and to be unable to afford prescription drugs without fear of government interference!
They now have the newly expanded freedom to breathe polluted air, to fear new mercury levels, to see great forests being thinned and pristine lands drilled for oil, and to remain helpless as the planet succumbs to global warming.
They are more free to live with skyrocketing deficits, reduced social programs, exorbitant energy costs, and tax cuts for the wealthy.
They are more free to die in illegal wars, to have their civil liberties disintegrate and see their personal choices invaded by the religious right.
They are more free to be hated by the world community and feared by nations who respected them in the past.
For over four years the corporate media have repeated mantras about freedom and democracy to the American people without regard to the accuracy of the terms they use. The intentional misuse and abuse of language by the Bush administration and by the media it controls have lulled a poorly informed, trusting American people into believing that the capitalism carrot being held up by the Bush administration is actually a big old watermelon of democracy.
Sadly, millions of American television viewers are willing victims of their own undoing. They are not unlike the blinded believers in Jonestown. They eagerly drink from a bottle with a cleverly designed label, never once pausing to read its ingredients. No matter how bitter the taste and no matter how many people may drop to their deaths around them after drinking from the same bottle, they continue to drink.
The trusting public, who long ago relinquished any responsibility to think for themselves, refuse to take even a little time and effort to read the small print. Instead, they accept the information given to them by the news networks. They believe what they are told as an attractive label is flashed on the screen. And they are comforted by the newscasters who tell them not to worry, and just drink up!
Well people, the reality is that there are no laws against anyone using the wrong word or phrase to describe what our government is up to. That’s exactly why current administration has taken advantage of this at every given opportunity. The Bush administration, with the tacit complicity of the media, has relentlessly taken advantage of a nation that does not read labels. It is not as if the ingredients are unavailable for inspection. It is simply that this administration has chosen to live by the mantra and feed it to the media. The media lives by repeating the mantra and the public lives by believing the mantra.
The news media have agreed to air the commercials for each of the Bush administration’s products verbatim. They adopt each designated product name and mantra regardless of how inaccurate or misleading it may be. They then proceed to repeat the mantra again and again until the public is mesmerized. In the end, the strategy works remarkably well and the American people never realize that they know nothing about the product at all.
If the laws that define the accuracy standards in food labeling were applied to our news media, we would have to lock up virtually the entire broadcast news industry at this point.
A GLANCE AT MANTRA MANIPULATION
|
Claimed Product:
|
The War on Terror! – Keeping America Safe!
|
|
Actual Ingredients:
|
Terror tactics designed to create a frightened, trusting public willing to believe that we are hated because we are free. Fear mongering designed to give President full, undemocratic war powers to carry out PNAC plans. All the while the real threat to America’s safety is increasing. The Bush administration’s environmental policies alone are a greater threat to life than any terrorist.
|
|
Claimed Product:
|
The Patriot Act
|
|
Actual Ingredients:
|
Violations of civil rights, due process, habeas corpus and other protections provided by the US Constitution in the guise of security measures. The upset of the vital balance of power in US government, placing unnecessarily greater power in hands of executive branch.
|
|
Claimed Product:
|
Homeland Security
|
|
Actual Ingredients:
|
Selective contracts for the party faithful. Gaping loopholes in cargo, nuclear plant and aviation safety; Chemical industry protected from implementing costly security standards. Cities funded without regard to risk levels.
|
|
Claimed Product:
|
Operation Iraqi Freedom!
|
|
Actual Ingredients:
|
Violations of International Law, Geneva Conventions. Control of Iraq oil reserves and pipelines; prisoner abuse and torture; Indiscriminant killingof civilians; chaos, confusion, continued death and destruction. Construction of largest US embassy in the world; construction of 14 permanent US military bases. Huge profits for Halliburton, Carlyle Group, other US contractors. Note: This product was sold to the public as Operation Protect America from a Threat of WMD yet the public never noticed that the label did not match the sales pitch.
|
|
Claimed Product:
|
No Child Left Behind
|
|
Actual Ingredients:
|
Unrealistic and educationally unsound under-funded testing program; dissatisfied teachers, parents, administrators and students. Huge profits for manufacturers of practice and testing materials. Cuts in state and local funding for implementation of mandated program.
|
|
Claimed Product:
|
Clear Skies
|
|
Actual Ingredients:
|
More time for power plants, factories and refineries to reduce their air pollution. More pollution than allowed in present Clean Air Act. Increased caps on emissions of mercury, nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide. Restrictions on states to call for end of upwind pollution by other states.
|
|
Claimed Product:
|
Healthy Forests
|
|
Actual Ingredients:
|
Severe limits on public participation; provisions for logging industry to cut down trees across 31,250 square miles of National Forests. No protection for homes nor for prevention of shrub land fires on private lands in southern California, the site of more than 90% of all fires in the state.
|
|
Claimed Product:
|
Medicare Reform
|
|
Actual Ingredients:
|
Massive taxpayer handout to drug companies; ban on U.S. government to negotiate lower drug prices for senior citizens. Increases of 18%, to be followed by another 12% in contributions to Medicare coverage by seniors. Continued outrageous costs of prescription medications with only minor discounts.
|
|
These are only samples of the mantra magic used by the Bush administration and promoted by the corporate media. Yet, the fact remains that with a minimum of effort, everyone would be able to see through the mantras. Everyone who chose do to so would be able to read the labels on that tasty drink they are being fed. With only a little time and a little effort the people of this country could actually find out what it is they are imbibing on a daily basis.
How sad it is that so many people do not yet realize that the well packaged drink they have come to enjoy is as poisonous as a concocted mixture of Kool-Aid!
In the past, our news media employed professional journalists, not pretty corporate faces. In the past, news people would attempt to do their jobs with honor and act as sentinel for the truth. Unfortunately, journalism no longer exists on our news networks. Oh, you might stumble across an example of independent reporting once in a great while, but for the most part our news media are the tools of corporate sponsors who act without conscience or integrity.
If Americans read more alternative news, perhaps they would be able to piece together enough information to understand how they are being misled. But this will never happen. The easy way out for most Americans is to turn to the TV as their primary source of information. Unfortunately, TV news networks are largely infomercials for the Bush administration and for their corporate owners. In their desperation for ratings, they have become the most misleading sources of information available today and are at the root of the seriously disturbing disinformation problem in America.
The American public has to wake up. Is CNN the most trusted name in news? Perhaps. But do they deserve our trust? No way, no how. FOX News claims to be fair and balanced. That may or may not be so, but it is also a large part of the problem. News is not always balanced and fairness has nothing to do with journalism when practiced correctly. Accuracy and impartiality were the standards on which journalism once thrived. No more.
The American public also has to fight back. They must learn to recognize the talking points. They must question why every network sings the same chorus. They must look beyond the hype to get the facts and examine the claims being made. They must write the networks, call the producers, and contact the sponsors. They must demand discussion and debate by credible authorities as to the merits of the programs and issues being promoted. They must insist on hearing the pros and cons. It can be done.
If not, the products will sell. If not, the mantras will prevail. And if not, - if the deceptions continue and if the distortions continue to be accepted, there will be absolutely no truth in advertising the policies of this government. And that will be the end of democracy as we knew it, as we still know it, but as it will never be again.
Mouthing the GOP's Words - They have established the precedent that a political party can unilaterally force the news media to change its terminology essentially. Push them hard enough, and the media will render verboten any previously agreed-upon phrase, no matter how widely accepted.
Constructing Public Opinion
How Politicians and the Media Misrepresent the Public - DVD |
