# U.S. government's fake-news propaganda is even more extensive than it appeared **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 14, 2005, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-governments-fake-news-propaganda-is-even-more-extensive-than-it-appeared/294497 "2005-03-14T18:49:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-governments-fake-news-propaganda-is-even-more-extensive-than-it-appeared/294497/21 "2005-03-15T02:43:03Z")
> [@jeffh3000](#): > > I think that is the thing. This really isn’t news at all as it really isn’t anything remotely new. Is it bad, sure, but the government has been doing this since mass media has been around. I am more shocked by the suprise that some people seem to have regarding this. This is not a secret. Past administrations have done these things, and it will most likely continue in the future. > > Watch old movie new reels if you have any question in your mind about this. > > People just always seem to assume that it is “someone else” that is experiencing propraganda, rather than themselves. > > When something like media has power, someone will always try to control it. So just because “everybody does it” we shouldn’t be concerned? Yes, all administrations and all congressmen use their official positions to promote their agendas both in deed by passing laws and regualtions and by propaganda. That’s what politics and governing are all about. However to surreptitiously pay a newspaper reporter or columnist to promote your views under the guise of news or the columnist’s own opinion is beyond the pale I think. Even if George Washington, let alone Bill Clinton, did it. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-governments-fake-news-propaganda-is-even-more-extensive-than-it-appeared/294497/22 "2005-03-15T03:04:11Z")
> [@Brutus](#): > > If the reason for the ‘worse coverage’ isn’t liberal bias within the media, then the reason is…? If George W. Bush had in fact done a worse job than John Kerry, then ‘worse coverage’ is what an unbiased media \*should \*produce. You have to prove that this ‘worse coverage’ was not warranted to make your point about bias. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-governments-fake-news-propaganda-is-even-more-extensive-than-it-appeared/294497/23 "2005-03-15T03:18:14Z")
> [@Brutus](#): > > If the reason for the ‘worse coverage’ isn’t liberal bias within the media, then the reason is…? What **Askance** said. Also, it is not necessarily “biased” for the media to hit one candidate harder than another in a particular election. If Carter fared worse than Reagan in the news in 1980, would that be proof of “conservative bias” or “pro-Republican” bias? Or merely a reflection of the mood of the times? Also, as **E-Sabbath** pointed out, it is controversial whether Bush can be considered “conservative.” (And it is also a canard that Kerry is “liberal.”) If you want to show “liberal bias” in the media, you need to show a much more thoroughgoing pattern than could be discerned from coverage of a single election. For instance, in the same year, the same study showed, press coverage of Bush’s most important project, the Iraq War, was not predominantly “negative” despite complaints from some quarters that it was. Would not a liberal press have given us more consistently negative coverage of the war? ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-governments-fake-news-propaganda-is-even-more-extensive-than-it-appeared/294497/24 "2005-03-15T08:20:53Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > What **Askance** said. Also, it is not necessarily “biased” for the media to hit one candidate harder than another in a particular election. If Carter fared worse than Reagan in the news in 1980, would that be proof of “conservative bias” or “pro-Republican” bias? Or merely a reflection of the mood of the times? Also, as **E-Sabbath** pointed out, it is controversial whether Bush can be considered “conservative.” (And it is also a canard that Kerry is “liberal.”) If you want to show “liberal bias” in the media, you need to show a much more thoroughgoing pattern than could be discerned from coverage of a single election. For instance, in the same year, the same study showed, press coverage of Bush’s most important project, the Iraq War, was not predominantly “negative” despite complaints from some quarters that it was. Would not a liberal press have given us more consistently negative coverage of the war? Not really because Neo-Liberalism is just as expansionist as Neo-Conservative. The only thing that really differs between the Liberal elite and the Conservative elite is tactics, and even those tactics are blurring together. Clinton was pretty conservative, Bush isn’t exactly conservative. There are plenty of liberals who have a stake in that war as well. And I think something that is missed a lot of the time when people talk about the liberal media, they aren’t speaking only of news sources. They are also talking about Hollywood and The Music Industry, where propaganda is par for the course. I am interested to see what the result from Ridley Scott’s “Kingdom of Heaven” will be. Ridley Scott has been showing the dark side of the empire for a long time with his movies, so I can’t wait to see what the director of Gladiator, Alien and Blade Runner will do with a Crusades movie. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-governments-fake-news-propaganda-is-even-more-extensive-than-it-appeared/294497/25 "2005-03-15T08:40:00Z")
The Columbia Journalism Review [has an article](http://www.cjrdaily.org/archives/000318.asp) describing how media outlets are paid to distribute these “news stories”. He summed it up in an e-mail posted on [Tom Tomorrow’s blog](http://www.thismodernworld.com/). In a nutshell: –The government hires a PR firm. –The PR firm hires a company to make the Video News Release (VNR), and another to distrubute it. –The distributor pays for time on satellite news feeds for services like CNN, AP, Fox, etc., to distribute the VNR to local stations. The stations pay for the satellite feed. So, through a couple of convoluted steps, the government is paying the satellite feed distributors to spread their propaganda. Some news stations say that they were surprised to find out that these were government-produced stories. No one is free of blame there; the government shouldn’t make the videos look like legit news segments, and the stations should examine what they air a little more closely. ---
**Author:** ![sinical\_brit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/48db29/32.png) [@sinical\_brit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinical_brit)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-governments-fake-news-propaganda-is-even-more-extensive-than-it-appeared/294497/26 "2005-03-15T12:36:26Z")
I dont have any answers coz i dont live in the US, but Q#3 "Is it, from the media’s point of view, unethical? " begs the question, when have the media ever been ethical? Sin ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-governments-fake-news-propaganda-is-even-more-extensive-than-it-appeared/294497/27 "2005-03-16T22:07:33Z")
Now Arnold’s doing it too. From _The Nation,_ [http://www.thenation.com/blogs/outrage?bid=13&pid=2263:](http://www.thenation.com/blogs/outrage?bid=13&pid=2263:) > [@](#): > > Last week the California Governor’s office admitted to sending at least five fake news segments hyping Arnold’s policies to local TV stations under the guise of real news. The mock news spots–sent out to stations in December–promote an end to mandatory lunch breaks for workers, cuts in the number of nurses at hospitals, a revised pay scheme for teachers and stricter tenure track for professors. > > Here’s the Los Angeles Times’ description of the segments: “A written introduction offers suggested opening lines to be read by television news anchors. A state employee, who previously worked as a reporter for a Sacramento television station, is the narrator. Each video includes interviews with advocates for the proposals. The tapes do not acknowledge dissenting views or offer balance as required in news accounts.” > > The video trumpeting the end of lunch breaks–a policy long favored by the business community–includes interviews with a farmer and a restaurant manager. The spot fails to mention that the same manager works for a restaurant chain that donated $21,000 to Arnold’s campaign fund and faces a $10 million lawsuit over its handling of employee lunch breaks. > > The lunch segment ran on at least eighteen local stations. In heavily Democratic California, disguising the reality of his unpopular proposals may be the best chance Arnold has to pass a business-friendly agenda–even if he violates California’s ban on state agencies using “communication facilities…for political, sectarian or propaganda purposes.” ---
**Author:** ![jeffh3000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/34f0e0/32.png) [@jeffh3000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jeffh3000)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2005, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-governments-fake-news-propaganda-is-even-more-extensive-than-it-appeared/294497/28 "2005-03-17T01:08:00Z")
> [@David Simmons](#): > > So just because “everybody does it” we shouldn’t be concerned? Yes, all administrations and all congressmen use their official positions to promote their agendas both in deed by passing laws and regualtions and by propaganda. That’s what politics and governing are all about. > > However to surreptitiously pay a newspaper reporter or columnist to promote your views under the guise of news or the columnist’s own opinion is beyond the pale I think. Even if George Washington, let alone Bill Clinton, did it. No that is not at all what I said. I stated it is certainly bad. My observation is that everyone is acting shocked and surprised, like this has not been going on continuously for years. There is no actual change except the publics perception. That was my sole point. I find this funny as I have been pointing this out for years to people how the government uses media in this regard, and no one ever seemed to care. Now suddenly it is a big deal. Why? because the media saw an oppurtunity to put a spin on a very old story for the sake of creating news(aka ratings). This makes this story in itself not much more than propaganda. It is the unforunate reality of the world in which we live. Something should be done about it, the question is what. ---
**Author:** ![Purd\_Werfect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47c2d/32.png) [@Purd\_Werfect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purd_Werfect)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2005, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-governments-fake-news-propaganda-is-even-more-extensive-than-it-appeared/294497/29 "2005-03-17T01:37:33Z")
> [@David Simmons](#): > > How many posts will it take for someone to come along with, “Well they have to do something to overcome the bias of the liberal media.”? Three, apparently. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-governments-fake-news-propaganda-is-even-more-extensive-than-it-appeared/294497.md?page=1)