Posted on 04/29/2020 7:57:17 AM PDT by Kaslin
A recent article written primarily by a medical doctor in Alabama claimed that, “The way in which the media has pushed fear nonstop amounts to psychological warfare against this country.” He added, “If it hasn’t occurred to you that we have heard one story and essentially one story alone for literally two months, well, that should have aroused suspicion.” Is this doctor correct? Or is the media doing its best to be responsible in the midst of an unprecedented crisis?
I’m quite confident that nothing I write here will influence what the media is doing for two reasons. First, who am I that massive media organizations should listen to me? Second, fear sells and money talks.
That being said, the question remains: Is the media responsible in its reporting, helping its audience to act wisely during a pandemic? Or is the media using fear tactics to get more viewers, listeners, and readers? And if the latter is true, does this amount to sustained psychological warfare?
Obviously, “the media” is a such a generalized term that almost anything good or bad can be said about it. But if we focus on the major, secular voices on TV, we can fine tune both our questions and our answers.
One of the secrets of psychological warfare (called psywar by the military) is to try to convince enemy troops that surrender is sweet, that it is better to capitulate than to continue to fight, that defeat is inevitable.
In keeping with this, an Air Force colonel shared with me that during World War I, psywar pamphlets were airdropped among the German troops.
Shortly after the end of the war, Field Marshall Paul von Hindenburg, the Chief of Staff of the Kaiser’s Army, complained: “In the shower of pamphlets which was scattered by enemy airmen our adversaries said and wrote that they did not think so badly of us; that we must only be reasonable and perhaps here and there renounce something we had conquered. Then everything would soon be right again and we could live together in peace, perpetual international peace. As regards peace within our own borders, new men and new Governments would see to that. What a blessing peace would be after all the fighting. There was, therefore, no point in continuing the struggle.” (From the USAF Special Operations School: Psychological Operations.)
And what were the results of this strategy? Military historian Stanley Sandler writes: “As German Army discipline wavered or broke, these leaflets became responsible for defections on a large scale. Not surprisingly, Adolph Hitler termed Allied military psywar ‘psychologically efficient.’”
Today, we are not having pamphlets dropped on us from the sky in order to break our spirits. But we are hearing a constant flood of bad news. Of distressing and depressing news. Of fearful statistics. And we are reminded daily of the danger of violating the status quo.
Does this mean that all these media outlets are ill-intentioned and motivated only by financial gain? Certainly not.
Does this mean that the talking heads all share a nefarious agenda and are under some hidden, central control? Not at all.
Does it mean that none of them are trying to do some good? Absolutely not.
But it does mean that, for whatever reason, we are basically being told that COVID-19 is the only story out there, that America is a real mess, and that things could get even worse in the days ahead.
Really now, is all of that meant to be helpful? Encouraging? Useful?
Or, to approach this from a different angle, ask yourself this: If the goal of the media was to help Americans function in a healthy and hopeful way during this difficult time, would their reporting be the same?
Doing a daily talk radio show, and with lots of interaction with the public on social media, I have been sounding a “fear not” message for the last two months. Yes, the virus is very serious, but it’s not the end of the world, and there’s no need for panic.
At the same time, I have had to counteract the attitude of fear and panic that arises by being subjected to day and night negative reporting. (Add in partisan politics, and you have a real toxic mix.) And in order to starve our fears and feed our faith and our practical wisdom, we cannot sit glued in front of the TV or computer screen.
But this is part of the vicious cycle of 24-hour news networks. The same stories get repeated endlessly, seriously undermining our ability to think for ourselves. Are we not getting brainwashed by it all?
But there’s another angle to consider, and that’s the angle of control.
Dennis Prager recently wrote that “the ease with which police state tactics have been employed and the equal ease with which most Americans have accepted them have been breathtaking.”
Could this have happened without the media’s incessant, fear-producing drumbeat?
Prager pointed to four principle signs of a police state, one of which was, “A Mass Media Supportive of the State’s Messaging and Deprivation of Rights.”
He explained, “The New York Times, CNN and every other mainstream mass medium — except Fox News, The Wall Street Journal (editorial and opinion pages only) and talk radio — have served the cause of state control over individual Americans’ lives just as Pravda served the Soviet government. In fact, there is almost no more dissent in The New York Times than there was in Pravda. And the Big Tech platforms are removing posts about the virus and potential treatments they deem ‘misinformation.’”
Recently, YouTube removed a viral video by two medical doctors in California who disputed the state’s safety recommendations.
According to YouTube, “We quickly remove flagged content that violate our Community Guidelines, including content that explicitly disputes the efficacy of local healthy authority recommended guidance on social distancing that may lead others to act against that guidance.”
In other words, disputed opinions offered by medical doctors (in this case, emergency room doctors) will be banned.
Does this concern you? What might be banned next? Can you not assess the information for yourself and make an informed choice?
A colleague with a massive Facebook page (I can’t share more details at this moment) had a viral post removed because a so-called fact checker deemed it false. Yet the content was entirely spiritual in nature.
So, not only do we have the 24-hour droning drumbeat of fear-based, often sensationalistic reporting, but we have a dangerous form of censorship as well.
Does that constitute a form of psychological warfare? You can decide for yourself.
Yes they are.
The media is on the same team as the dimrats and the Chicoms.
All three have a vested interest in getting rid of President Trump.
The other team is President Trump and us.
If we are so feeble as to follow idiot news media then we deserve to follow them over the cliff.
I don’t even have to read the article to answer “YES” to this.
The Ministry of Propaganda has been doing that for decades.
Is the Media Engaging in a Form of Psychological Warfare Against America?>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
They are liberal fascists !
And this question should have bee front and center in 2008.
The MSM dp nopt engage in news. They engage in jingoistic propaganda designed to look like news.
And it causes a lot of suffering. That’s psychological warfare.
Does the pope wear a funny hat? :)
I discovered monday that the difference between me and the freepers that are angry with me for not taking this virus seriously is that I don’t have TV and have seen zero PSA’s while they are constantly inundated with them.
One of us is being brainwashed. The other is not.
Actually, "the media" is just 6 big companies and they apparently coordinate their messaging so that all can promote a single "Narrative". Which is OrangeManBad.
HEADLINE: Is the Media Engaging in a Form of Psychological Warfare Against America?
ANSWER: MOST EMPHATICALLY YES! (And even more so in Kanadahar!)
Next question, please.
Someone should make a list of all the psyops memes the mainstreaming media has been employing. THE AMERICAN PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW THE TRUTH!!!
Conservatives really need to start developing our own social media technology.
We’ve been too much at the mercy of being de-platformed.
Would be nice if there was a Freerepublic version of Youtube out there.
“Is the Media Engaging in a Form of Psychological Warfare Against America?”
Is that a rhetorical question?
But of course!
Well said!!
Yes they are.
I went over to CNN,MSNBC to see their bias, and I was really stunnned at homw nuts they are, along with their scare mongering.
How anyone can watch those two channels is really beyond me as it is all doom and gloom. No wonder the left are really ignorant and clueless.
bfl. Absolutely.
Fox News is part of the Ministry of Propaganda.
How about the castigating of non-mask wearers by the likes of Gayle King on CBS this morning. They are “shaming” and inciting panic.
I am willing to wait until May 15th for wide scale REOPNING OF THE ECONOMY. After that, I think we’ve done our part to flatten the curve and perhaps it will require wide scale massive protests against the media and the dems.
The media is doing the Democrats bidding. For that matter, so is Tyson, and Dr.Fauci. The ONLY reason Tyson took out a full page ad to warn of a meat shortage was to scare people into another hoarding frenzy the media could then blame on Trump by screaming people are starving.
The predicted civil war has arrived and it doesn’t resemble the previous war at all, but it’s real.
Once again, the Democrats started it, and the goal is the destruction of the nation.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.