Deception and the Mass Media

Awakening to a masochistic impulse last Sunday, I opened the Op-Ed section of my local paper, The Kansas City Star. Throwing caution to the wind, I plunged headlong into the mind-engulfing thicket of sophistry. Running for my intellectual life, I felt the collective breath of the ravening wolves thirsting to rip the jugular vein coursing with the life-blood of my capacity for independent thought. Driven by an insatiable hunger to devour the cognitions of those who strayed from the herd, the voracious pack pursued me with a vengeance. Yet today I was moving with the agility of Brer Rabbit navigating the Briar Patch. Powered by critical thinking and a fierce determination to maintain my noetic integrity, I evaded the ferocious canines’ furious bid to sink their razor-like fangs into the succulent gray matter they craved. Emerging from the tortuous copse, my psyche was bloodied but intact. And more importantly, it remained free.-Jason Miller-

Main stream media was/is undoubtedly the most influential powerful social control the world has ever known. Anyone in power who wants to remain in power, will practice deception through a route of disinformation. And there is no better vehicle to aid the spread of misinformation than the MSM. Right after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the WTC, the Defense Intelligence Agency briefed the media in order to point out some basic methods for testing claims of other nations concerning U.S. atrocities. Shortly after that the Office of Strategic Influence was created and although the name was later discarded by Rumsfeld, the office remains in operation. The use of PSYOP within the media has been used many times before.

We have a war of deception and the more we know about our adversaries and the events that present themselves to us, the better prepared we will be to recognize truth from deception. We have to understand their intentions and capabilities in order to define their limits and recognize their operations. We must utilize as many sources of information and many numbers of collection methods rather than limiting ourselves to a limited number of sources. The more diverse our information sources, the less likely somebody can manipulate and control the information. In other words, the more we know, the more we will be able to recognize and differentiate fabrication from truth. This is why independent media is so important and why we must become our own media.

We first need to learn exactly who owns the MSM. Throughout the years huge corporate conglomerates have amassed media ownership through mergers and acquisitions. Today the MSM is concentrated in the hands of an elite few who couldn't care less about the real people in our world. Their interests reside in the corporate/political corner and this makes them a formidable opponent in the war of the truth. Just take one of the conglomerates for example.

General Electric: General Electric owns NBC, MS-NBC, Telemundo, Bravo, the Sci Fi Channel, Universal Pictures and large stakes in dozens of other media companies. Its television division produces "The Today Show," "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams," "Dateline NBC," "Meet the Press" and "Hardball with Chris Matthews," to name a few.

The more the MSM pools within these corporate giants, the more our democracy exists in name only. Jeffrey Chester has A Ten Point Plan for Media Democracy which touches on just about every conceivable action we can take to fight this corporate media rape. And Robert McChesney, in his pamphlet Corporate Media and the Threat to Democracy, emphasizes the importance of our communication laws and especially the deregulatory measures which have been introduced.

In non-democratic societies those in power invariably dominate the communication systems to maintain their rule. In democratic societies the manner by which the media system is structured, controlled and subsidized is of central political importance. Control over the means of communication is an integral aspect of political and economic power. In many nations, to their credit, media policy debates have been and are important political issues. In the United States, to the contrary, private commercial control over communication is often regarded as innately democratic and benevolent, and therefore not subject to political discussion.

As John Pilger pointed out, it was Tom Paine that warned if the majority of the people were denied the truth and ideas of truth, it was time to storm the "Bastille of words". Perhaps that time has arrived and the people no longer have a choice but to quickly adapt and become media generators rather than MSM consumers!

There is however, one problem which could arise and that should be addressed. When we begin to tear away the veils of untruths and disinformation of which we have relied upon for so long, we could find ourselves in a very uncomfortable position. The problem of which I am referring is cognitive dissonance. When confronted with this dillema, we can either deny these new perceptions, and search for information which will reduce our confusion and bolster our existing beliefs. Or we can recognize the importance of evaluating and researching new information as it arises. This is where manufactured information has the upper hand over the people in my opinion. None of us want to be cut from the umbilical of our belief systems. It's painful, disorienting, and quite frankly, very depressing most of the time.

Truth is merciless and not for the faint of heart. Leaving the security of what we have always believed and counted on as the truth is difficult to say the least. And the power mongers who depend on the MSM and it's disinformation are counting on the masses staying right where they are due to this difficulty and improbability of accepting anything new which goes against what we have been taught to believe. Information manufacturers are already holding a pair of aces in this game, but I'm betting they are going to find out eventually when all the cards have been dealt, they will be holding aces & eights.

We must remember once we make the decision to participate in the quest for the truth and fight injustice associated with misinformation, we must not forgot to search inwardly also. We must know ourselves very well, and keep a constant vigil over ourselves. While those in power are continuously misleading us, the most poweful person that will innevitably deceive us the quickest and the easiest is ourselves!