William Randolph Hearst Sr., father of one of the previously mentioned billionaire owners of consolidated media holdings, used not only his California newspapers to spearhead the attack on Sinclair, but his Movie Newsreels as well to smear Sinclair to defeat.
Those who wish to read about this precedent setting event
in much greater detail can refer to an article entitled, How
Hollywood fixed an election, which appeared in the Nov 88
issue of the American Film magazine. Hollywood, thereafter, was
considered a vital and indispensable political tool.
In the 1988 Presidential campaign, Bush's Republican party supporters distributed millions of leaflets stating that all the murderers, rapists, drug pushers, and child molesters in Massachusetts would vote for Michael Dukakis, ...still a powerful brainwashing trick in the 80's. The degree to which a society can be effectively controlled using the media cannot be overemphasized. Mr Bush's TV commercials discrediting Mr Dukakis were practically on a par with those that were used to discredit Upton Sinclair back in 1934.
Unfortunately, the public is already so jaded, that the media manipulators don't even try to conceal the fact that what gets shown on TV as casual interviews are in fact, specially staged and scripted performances filmed by "purposely invited TV film crews", to achieve "predetermined reactions" at "precisely the desired time". They are known in the industry by the euphemism "photo opportunities".
Although photo opportunities used to be private affairs, nowadays they are pre-arranged and stage-managed so well, that everyone gets invited to record the event for their papers or their TV networks.
Even the rhetoric used by our nation's leaders is not their own. Some of the most important words uttered during these sound bites by both Ronald Reagan and George Bush were written by a hired speech writer, Peggy Noonan. What qualifications does she have to write stirring speeches for successive Presidents? Well, it certainly can't be her political convictions, because she used to be a Democrat. But she did work for seven years as a writer and producer for CBS News, and even wrote copy for Dan Rather.
Ms Noonan helped George Bush to see a "thousand points of light", just as she helped Reagan convince the nation that:
"...the freedom fighters of Nicaragua. You know the truth about them. You know who they're fighting and why. They are the moral equal of our Founding Fathers".
Doesn't that kind of bring lumps to your throat?...the variety you would just as soon spit out. {B151}
The reason that the media cooperate so readily and eagerly
in this type of trickery can be traced back to the McCarthy era
in the 50's. Even then the elite were so aware of the media's
potential for influencing public thought, that they took the drastic
step of ridding the media of those who might offer serious criticism
against either the elite or their policies.
During the McCarthy era, anyone working in the industry, whom
the FBI suspected of having socialist leanings was branded as
a Communist, and banned from employment. Many went underground
and continued working under false identities, while others fled
the country. As a result of this purge, Hollywood continues to
be one of the most useful controlled outlets for propaganda. Because
this campaign was carried out so ruthlessly, pro-elite sympathizers
were left to occupy all the key social positions, and especially
with regard to the media.
Incidentally, before I had become aware of the degree of consolidated ownership of the media, I had always wondered how such tight control over the press is managed, and I was given my first clue when on a flight from Tucson one day, I met a newspaper editor who was on his way to an editor's convention. When he mentioned that he used to work for the CIA, a group renown for its covert scheming, I was left wondering how many more of the nation's editors had acquired at least some of their skills from this College of Infiltrating Activists.
An additional, but vital clue concerning media's link with Capitol Hill and the White House came when I learned that Henry Kissinger and Gerald Ford have served together on the board of directors of 20th Century Fox.
You don't need to be a rocket scientist to recognize this inter-relationship of the elite with both the media and Hollywood, as a telltale hint of the complex ways in which the elite achieve their political and psychological objectives. Hollywood's propaganda potential alone is enormous and has been used extensively. What more obvious connection exists between Hollywood and the White House than Ronald Reagan himself. When Reagan needed support for his Star Wars program, up popped movies like Rambo (with Presidential endorsement, ...no less), Rambo II, and Rambo III. Is there an end in sight? Which leads us to the question as to whether there was any conscious intention for the Star Wars movie to help prepare the public for a military space program by the same name.
Not surprisingly, in the 60's era when police were being publicly criticized and looked down upon because of their heavy handed use of force to suppress demonstrations and anti-Vietnam war protests, TV cop shows and movies, and "made for TV" movies started springing up like mushrooms to the ludicrous extent that at one point in time there were more than twenty police promotional films, (TV cop shows), running concurrently. Although Hollywood has a large role to play, newspapers and TV play the biggest role.
Today, the media is as interconnected with the elite's political functionaries as ever. Incidentally, Caspar Weinberger, formerly Ronald Reagan's Trilateral Commission Defense Secretary, is now the publisher of Forbes magazine. {B153} And oh yes, Texan Eugene C. Pulliam, founder and owner of a chain of 7 newspapers died in 1975 leaving his grandson Dan Quayle some media power too.{B154}
Ownership of the media has never been more consolidated, and
the ability to control public thinking has never been more tightly
controlled. Consequently, using the media to get sympathetic politicians
elected in the first place, is a snap. Discrediting "liberalism"
is a snap. Carrying on alliances with dictators (without suffering
any media criticism) is a snap.
For those of you who are still reluctant to think that the so-called "freest media in the world" cooperate with politicians behind the scenes to accomplish just that, let me hand you a bombshell. Think back for a moment to the fact that the Trilateral Commission is virtually operating America. How could this information have slipped the attention of the freest media in the world? (society's watchdog) Very simply. The reason is as shocking as it is revealing.
To help elect Carter, and to be assured of coordinated cooperation of the media when required, the following media kingpins were also included as