News Small example of American propaganda in the works

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The discussion centers around the military's manipulation of quotes in the context of the Iraq War, particularly a CNN report that suggested the military altered a statement from an anonymous Iraqi civilian to fit different narratives. The change of the term "ISF" to "children" raised suspicions of propaganda aimed at garnering support for the war. Participants express concerns about the military's historical use of propaganda and the current administration's control over media narratives, drawing parallels to past conflicts like Vietnam. There is a critique of the media's role in disseminating potentially misleading information, with references to "fake news" and pre-packaged segments that serve pro-administration agendas. The conversation also touches on the public's diminishing expectations of government transparency and accountability, questioning the ethical implications of such practices. Overall, the thread highlights ongoing concerns about the intersection of military operations, media representation, and public perception during wartime.
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Do I understand that the militaray has stock quotes that are judiciously released and complete fabrications?
 
The impression I got was just that they changed one word from the quote in a later release, not that the quote was fabricated. 'ISF' was changed to 'children.'
 
Their story of a draft being released smelled of cover up to me.
 
loseyourname said:
The impression I got was just that they changed one word from the quote in a later release, not that the quote was fabricated. 'ISF' was changed to 'children.'
As I understand it there were two separate incidents, 1 on July 13th and 1 last Sunday. In both cases the military claimed an 'unidentified Iraqi civilian' said
" 'The terrorists are attacking the infrastructure, the (children / ISF) and all of Iraq. They are enemies of humanity without religion or any sort of ethics. They have attacked my community today and I will now take the fight to the terrorists,' said one Iraqi man who preferred not to be identified."
to tailor the quote to fit the different circumstances the word children was changed to ISF.
The inference being that the military fabricated quotes from fictitious anonymous Iraqis in an attempt to lay claim to support from the Iraqi people in the 'war against terror'
 
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note: I don't mean to make this a bash america for the hell of it thread, though i know the title suggests that.

If you have verifable examples of modern propaganda in places you live post them up, it could be interesting.
 
Well, I live in America and I have some examples. Did you discuss "fake news" last year? It was a NYTimes story, and grassroots action helped make the situation marginally better.

Shall I give more detail or have you "been there done that?"
 
If that non-story is the biggest scandal CNN can muster, then I'd conclude the US military tells
the truth more often than not.
 
pattylou said:
Well, I live in America and I have some examples. Did you discuss "fake news" last year? It was a NYTimes story, and grassroots action helped make the situation marginally better.

Shall I give more detail or have you "been there done that?"
I'd be interested in reading more about his, pattylou.
 
  • #10
During war The Military always spread propagander, its not a new phenomina!
 
  • #11
The military is structured so that it will only release news items that the pentagon wants to hear. It has been going on for a long time. The Vietnam era was no exception, except that in Vietnam we had a lot of Genuine news media people with the troops, who did get the truth out.

The current administartion does not allow that to happen in Iraq. Even to the point that they use bogus reporters to ask questions at presidential news conferences.

Can you say: Grave and gathering danger? The whole facade is about oil. As another poster put it: If the only natural resource in Iraq was broccoli do you really think we would be there.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/iraq.html

Every detail released about Iraq is being micromanaged by Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rove.
 
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  • #12
Antiphon said:
If that non-story is the biggest scandal CNN can muster, then I'd conclude the US military tells
the truth more often than not.

cnn didn't mention anything about propaganda, it was an inference I'd made.

And CNN is nearly as bad as FOX these days with their catering to the lowest common denominator and their "patriotism" (partisanship)

Patty -

Are you talking about the "ready made news" segments? If so what is this grassroots stuff you're talking about? I didnt hear about that.

Anttech - Of course we know its not new, but to me at least its still interesting to observe how the government continues to subvert the public - their methods, etc.
 
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  • #13
Yes --- the ready made news.

This was the NYT article with which MoveON or PEN (I forget which) mobilised many of us:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/13/p...=c040ac38c7b344fa&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland

The FCC issued guidelines partly in response to the deluge of emails that they received as a result. Stations are still allowed to broadcast fake news as segments in their "news" hour, but are required to identify it in some way, as a prepackaged segment. Read here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A51375-2005Apr13? language=printer

The reason for thinking that grassroots helped, was from the first sentience in the FCC report here:

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-05-84A1.pdf
 
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  • #14
antiphon said:
If that non-story is the biggest scandal CNN can muster, then I'd conclude the US military tells
the truth more often than not.
Why look at it in this sort of relative light?? By analogy... If the London police only kill one person wrongfully in the subway, then I'd conclude that law enforcement in the UK is not killing people wrongfully more often not. ? Should this be the defense??

Anttech said:
During war The Military always spread propagander, its not a new phenomina!.

And why on Earth would propaganda being "new" or not, have anything to do with it?

I have high expectations of the military, of the media, of my coutrymen, of myself... Of the President...

And these lame excuses for allowing propaganda are pathetic. It's wrong.
 
  • #15
Antiphon said:
If that non-story is the biggest scandal CNN can muster, then I'd conclude the US military tells
the truth more often than not.
That's ok, I'm sure you would've regardless.
 
  • #16
Smurf said:
That's ok, I'm sure you would've regardless.
They say the best lies always have an element of truth.

Look at Iraq ... Saddam WAS the President. You can't fault them on that one! o:)
 
  • #17
pattylou said:
Yes --- the ready made news.

This was the NYT article with which MoveON or PEN (I forget which) mobilised many of us:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/13/p...=c040ac38c7b344fa&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland

The FCC issued guidelines partly in response to the deluge of emails that they received as a result. Stations are still allowed to broadcast fake news as segments in their "news" hour, but are required to identify it in some way, as a prepackaged segment. Read here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A51375-2005Apr13? language=printer
It's a sad reflection on how people's expectation of standards in gov't has fallen to the extent that even when the Bush admin is caught red-handed with their pants down there is barely a murmer of discontent.

One wonders if this is the vision of America the founding fathers held when they drafted the Bill of Rights supposedly so cherished by republicans.

I suspect many of the original contributors to the document on which America was founded must be turning in their graves at this time. :mad:
 
  • #18
What the hell does the Bush administration have to do with this?!? This was a US military-sourced story. Or two. Well, one and a bit.
 
  • #19
El Hombre Invisible said:
What the hell does the Bush administration have to do with this?!? This was a US military-sourced story. Or two. Well, one and a bit.

Art was referring to the pre-packaged news reported in March, not to the CNN story in the original post.

The pre-packaged news is all pro-administration propaganda.
 
  • #20
pattylou said:
Art was referring to the pre-packaged news reported in March, not to the CNN story in the original post.

The pre-packaged news is all pro-administration propaganda.
Oops. Butt out, El Hombre.
 
  • #21
Antiphon said:
If that non-story is the biggest scandal CNN can muster, then I'd conclude the US military tells
the truth more often than not.
Can you say "willfully ignorant"
 
  • #22
I have a friend who is a prosecuter, he tells me that a drunk driver is caught less than 1% of the times they have driven drunk.

How many times do they make up stories and don't get caught?
 
  • #23
If anyone here works for a company, you will know how people move up in the ranks:

Through the display of loyalty, commitment, achievements, etc. for the purposes of your company.

Every pawn unknowingly sells out to the system. It is not the sprocket, but the system in which the sprocket works.

Due to our need to thrive and survive in our societies, we work for these systems in exchange for a living... how can we not be pawns? how can pawns be expected to want to remain pawns for life? pawns kill other pawns for personal gain... it is a cycle of greed... and the system love a greedy pawn... the hungrier you are, the better your chances of advancing in the system, because that is what the progress of the system depends on.

It is the system (aka the Bush Admin) ultimately. This shoit never happened during the Clinton years. Put a Bush in the Office - and war breaks out... is this just a coincidence?

How can you blame sheep, when sheep wander where the shepherd leadeth them?
 
  • #24
outsider said:
How can you blame sheep, when sheep wander where the shepherd leadeth them?
No No No, the sheep lead now. Get with the times.
 
  • #25
Art said:
The inference being that the military fabricated quotes from fictitious anonymous Iraqis in an attempt to lay claim to support from the Iraqi people in the 'war against terror'

Isn't it odd how perception makes such a difference here? Because it certainly did not say in the article that the quote was fabricated. I just had the impression that the military changed one word of a legitimate quote in a rerelease of the original statement to fit the targeting of children that had occurred after the statement was originally made.
 
  • #26
Smurf said:
No No No, the sheep lead now. Get with the times.

cool poem in the link... thanx...
http://holyjoe.org/poetry/foss3.htm

but it doesn't support the idea that the sheep lead... your poem actually depicts the crooked path and that is the "system" referred to in my post... as per the poem, we all mindlessly follow it... since we are all here discussing these types of matters it is apparent that "the people" are looking to chart a new path...
 
  • #27
It is kind of ironic, but Fox news has the best link on the fake news that is so prevalent with the Bush administration.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,151871,00.html

This type of thing is classical Karl Rove. Whenever anyone tries to speak up about abbererations of this nature the administration spokesmen say:

"We are at war and we must put this type of thing in the past". We must support our troops who are fighting for their country and for the freedom of the Iraqi people. Any one who doesn't is a traitor to America"

In the meantime they just keep piling on the lies and fake video interviews.
 
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  • #28
this is exactly what I mean when I mention yellow press. Bush doubled the budget of this endeavour. It was started by clinton in order to add political underlining to daily news stories, and also to completely make up fake news stories. That way it's almost impossible to tell apart the real stories from the fake ones. The overall purpose of this effort is to condition the people of the nation to have roughly the same feelings, reactions, and mode of thought about a variey of events and ideas that they run across in daily life (many of which are from the actions of our leaders). Also for the people to start using political catch-phrases and rhetoric in daily conversation without really knowing or trying to understand what they mean and how they all link together.

some of the effects of this endeavour:
http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/37/9592
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=155163
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54651-2005Jan6.html

an example of how easy it is to fake a news story and watch millions get fooled:
http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,57506,00.html

An AIM investigation shows that the Clinton administration did the same stuff that bush is doing, although I can't find anything that says the Clinon administration started the particular department responsible, and that bush doubled the budget for it. I have the audio book form of "The Book on Bush: how he misleads the nation" that i listen to while I'm driving, and I remember hearing that particular topic mentioned.
http://www.aim.org/aim_report/2866_0_4_0_C/
 
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  • #29
outsider said:
cool poem in the link... thanx...
http://holyjoe.org/poetry/foss3.htm

but it doesn't support the idea that the sheep lead... your poem actually depicts the crooked path and that is the "system" referred to in my post... as per the poem, we all mindlessly follow it... since we are all here discussing these types of matters it is apparent that "the people" are looking to chart a new path...
It was a joke. I'm fully aware that you could use that poem to support your idea.
 
  • #30
Smurf said:
It was a joke. I'm fully aware that you could use that poem to support your idea.

touche :-p
 

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