The “Media” Propaganda Factor
by  Col. Bob Pappas, USMC, Ret.

It’s a “mess” all right, and the “media” is right smack in the middle of it if not its engine. If “media” sources would stick to reporting rather than feeding the public what amounts to propaganda (the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person), the public could form a more accurate image events affecting this nation’s future.

Case in point: in a May 14th, 2004 Reuters story, “U.S. Tanks Thrust Into Cemetery in Iraq Holy City,” writer Suleiman al-Khalidi (now there’s a “western” name for you) describes the conflict between 30 year old Muslim Shi’ite cleric al-Sadr’s armed gang, which the article’s writer refers to as “Sadr’s Mehdi Army,” and U.S. forces. [The word “Mehdi” means generally, “divinely guided one,” or the “directed one,” so the Reuters reporter (probably Muslim) writer communicates to Cleric Sadr in “code” that he supports “them” because they are “divinely guided.”]

At one point al-Khalidi unequivocally states about the Abu Ghraib prison scandal: “The affair has shredded U.S. credibility among Iraqis,” which is nonsense among thinking Iraqis, assuming “thinking Iraqis” is not an oxymoron, and which incidentally, is precisely what one would expect among supporters of the defunct regime. If he had written, “…Sadr’s Army” without the modifier “Mehdi” or “…among some Iraqis,” his report would have a bit of journalistic credibility. But those two and other examples in the article put it clearly into the “propaganda” category; it happens thousands of times a day around the world.

That would be fine if there was not a problem with the general public’s ability to discern substance from propaganda; and the “mainstream” media are experts at propaganda beginning with Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister.  It has become increasingly apparent that the “media” is using its journalistic “cover” to not only report but to persuade (read, propagandize) the public. This is evident every time a news story contains editorial commentary or reaches conclusions that are not necessarily in keeping with the facts. On the other hand, editorial, column or opinion page writers, such as the writer of this short commentary have an agenda, a goal to persuade readers in some direction.

In the instant case, the process is to study a given event’s facts and relate them to long standing, proven social principles, ethical values, moral imperatives, law and/or common sense and offer his analysis, opinion, conclusion and/or recommendation. In short he is an American who has defended it, enjoyed its benefits and who is working to preserve it and its great heritage for future generations.

Having noted that, Americans must keep their field of vision clear and focused. This nation is engaged in a struggle for its survival and there are evil forces both abroad and at home that seek its destruction and which are actively engaged in that enterprise.  To the extent that the nation allows those external and internal forces to undermine its institutions of faith, family, community, economy and government it weakens its long-term prospects for survival. For that reason voluntary prayer in public schools and ball games, retention of long standing mottos that remind us of our roots such as, “In God we Trust,” “…under God,” and celebration of Christmas as a National Holiday are not only important, but are some of the vital elements of the national continuum.

As it stands, the U.S. Constitution tolerates Islam, but Islam (not just Islamic “fundamentalists”) inherently does not tolerate the Constitution of the United States. That is fact! Muslims can live and flourish in what many refer to as, “Christian” America, but “Christians,” “Jews,” any other religion, agnostics or atheists cannot live and flourish in any, repeat, any Islamic culture. In an Islamic culture it is “dictatorship” of the Muslim Clerics, or else.

For the pathetic dupes who would vote for John Kerry (thanks to media propaganda), a man who doesn’t have a clue about the middle east, whose real wartime record was to “fight” against his own country during the Vietnam War but who tries to paint himself as a wartime hero, and whose solution to terrorism would be to abrogate American sovereignty to the “international community,” get thine head out of the “dark place;” and for those rational Americans who are asleep, its time to “wake up and smell the coffee!”

Semper Fidelis