by Stephen Lendman Blogspot 4/18/06

This essay has a duel purpose. I began it initially to explain how sophisticated and effective the dominant corporate media is in programming the public mindto believe whatever message they deliver regardless of whether it’s true which it rarely is. I chose the title Reeducation 101 – Defogging and Reversing the Corporate Media’s Programming of the Public Mind which I’m now using as the heading of my introductory section. Along with that discussion, I then planned a detailed case study example of how they’re doing it by demonizing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias with a building and resonating drumbeat of invective in advance of the US government’s fourth attempt to oust him. That discussion follows my introductory section.

REEDUCATION 101 – DEFOGGING AND REVERSING THE CORPORATE MEDIA’S PROGRAMMING OF THE PUBLIC MIND

Does any reader of online progressive web sites still watch, listen to or read anything from the corporate media? If so, how do you stand it without having a good supply of stomach soothers and strong headache relief handy. I thought most everyone with enough smarts and common sense understood that this collective institutional juggernaut’s mission is to sedate and seduce us – a sort of one, two punch. They mostly do it with diverting and distracting entertainment. Is that what it’s called? You ‘coulda fooled me with what’s on all my 300 + cable channels I don’t watch except when I go to bed and need something mind numbing to make me sleepy. The only reason I have them all is I live in a building that subscribes to the cable service, and everyone gets them, like it or not.

Except for three classical music channels without talk or commercials I love, everything in their lineup is a vast wasteland, especially what passes for so-called “news and information” by the on-air names you know well and I needn’t list. They’re all an assault on our sensibilities in their all out effort to fog our minds with round the clock propaganda, lies, distortion and sanitizing. What they do isn’t journalism, it’s stenography. And what they don’t report is usually more important than what they do. They know, as does our government, that if all or enough of us understood what’s really happening, not the rot and mush they fill our heads with, there’d be a revolution in the streets. How could the public with full knowledge of what our government is up to ever go along since all of it only benefits the rich and powerful and does it at our expense.

The mind manipulation and thought control comes at us from all directions in print and on the airwaves. In the US (and really the world) the newspaper known as the “Gray Lady” and referred to as “the newspaper of record” leads the way – the New York Times. I call them a US “Pravda.” They’re the closest thing we have in this country to an official ministry of information and propaganda. They’ve been going at it for over 150 years, and nobody does it better or with more influence. Remember Judith Miller and her daily WMD scare reports…..straight from the White House and Pentagon in final copy printable form. The Times calls this “all the news that’s fit to print.” You don’t not want to hear what I call it, but this newspaper has clout around the world. Whatever lead stories they report get picked up and are spread almost everywhere. Especially here on TV where the state of our news, information and trumpeting punditry assault our nerve endings. Those who run it and report on it never met a piece of state propaganda they didn’t love and want to tell us about ad nauseam – in between frequent 5 minute long commercial breaks trying to sell us everything we don’t need and never knew we wanted until they told us.

A noted US media critic once said about them “they have everything to sell and nothing to tell.” And I heard noted British journalist Robert Fisk say on air to an interviewer commenting on the dismal state of our corporate media that “you really have a problem in this country.” He meant the dominant media is so corrupted and complicit with US policies hostile to the public interest and welfare here and abroad that we have a desperate need for an effective antidote to their poison. Amen.

There’s even a flood of material on TV called “video news releases” or VNRs. Now get this. These are all government agency produced propaganda releases or corporate commercials disguised as real news – but you’re not supposed to know it. What they all are is “fake news.” There’s a ton of this stuff all over the airwaves. The TV networks and local stations love ’em because they all come pre-packaged and free of charge, saving all that production time and cost. Then combine that with all the rest of TV news, information and punditry and it’s enough to drive a teetotaler to drink or worse. You have to get away from this stuff, and I’ll tell you how. It’s not that hard – just turn off your TV and cancel your corporate owned newspaper and magazine subscriptions. Call a friend instead, visit a neighbor, talk to your wife or husband, spend time with your kids. You’ll discover a whole new world. You may even get to love it. Also, spend more time online in the right places, like the web site you’re now reading this on, and start to read a little – most important, the right things.

Full article: SteveLendmanBlog