Everything old is new again. One of the advantages of being a venerable organization is that your ancestors have already taken a go at issues and problems recurring today.
Propaganda Review was a Media Alliance magazine that explored techniques of manipulation, our vulnerability to them, and a society obsessed with the engineering of consent.
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
So, with the generous help of William Bowles, we are embarking on the project of excavating as much of Propaganda Review as we can in order to make it available for a bit of context in today’s “fake news” debate.
In this edition, you’ll hear from:
- James Zogby on the perverse distortions in coverage of the Palestinian resistance. “Consider the number of articles about what
the breaking of hands is doing to the souls of those young Israeli soldiers who are subjected to this kind of brutality-they are subjected to the brutality, not the fingers of the hands whose bones they’re breaking. There is far more concern for the souls of the Jews
than for the bodies of the Arabs”. - Barbara Haber on the mythic legacy of previous social change movements on young organizers. “The students were
sharply aware of the power of media imagery to make and
break movements.” - Peter Kornbluh on the Reagan-era State Deapartment’s Office of Public Diplomacy (OPD). “The OPD became a “vast psychological
warfare operation” aimed at Congress and the American people.” - Claude Steiner and Charles Rappleye on propaganda scholar Jacques Ellul. “Citizens crave propaganda from the bottom of
their beings. And propagandists respond.” - Jay Rosen on the follies of conventional election coverage by the press. “In the sheer overkill the press creates, one senses a desperate attempt to affirm public interest in the election ritual.”
- Nina Eliasoph on the perils of polls. “Polls are good for
finding out what people think they should say to pollsters.”
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