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Edited on Fri Aug-28-09 11:44 PM by RandomThoughts
His statements rarely contain there own credibility, and his own credibility is too low to listen to what he says.
But people should think about some of the other purposes for extreme propaganda. Besides getting a few people angry without information, it does a couple other things.
Extreme propaganda gives a cover for subtle propaganda in many other forms. People say how crazy and how much untruth is on a show, then they turn to manipulations on other shows.
It also fills peoples minds with things to think about so they do not think about how things actually work. Not giving the information for someone to think is part of propaganda, but so is giving them something else to think about.
I am not saying all TV shows are bad or manipulative, but they are, by charter, there to make a profit for shareholders. And that is not always done by being honest and educational. A fake controversy hyped up can get the same or even more ratings then something that is informative. And any information that teaches people some of the limitations of some systems can hurt those systems ability to make profit.
Systems have a cone shaped instruction. The top guy sets a policy, then as it goes to producers it gets added to by bias and also integrity. Then when it goes to script writers again it gets modified, and when the people reading the stories on TV, or pundits talking about the stories get the information they modify it some more.
So there are many journalist that push a content into more informative and more honesty, and some push the content the other way. But the general starting point has some ideologies. And getting in front of the camera usually means people have to match those ideologies.
So when Glenn Beck says what he says he pushes the conversation a certain way. Other journalist might push it differently but many also follow some perceived rules they were taught. Things like take care of friends, perceived credibility is more important then credibility, and many other ideas that are not about education and integrity.
Glenn Beck does suck right wing resources into his world, and people should point out that he is wrong, but also point out where the more subtle, and in some ways far more effective and dangerous forms of propaganda are also trying to modify public opinion.
A brief example of one of the limitations of Capitalism:
In private sector a more efficient business will be more profitable. And more profitable business excel, weaker ones go broke. So if a company pollutes, abuses workers and then lies about it, it makes more profit. So the profit first system leads to worse outcomes for society if companies can get away with it. So societal regulation, and real justice, by governance counteracts that, and that regulation actually gives people that run a company a way to run it without having to do bad to compete. Monopolies, cronyism, deceptive practices are also flaws that can make it hard on people in business, so those things should be addressed by an informed public. (assuming a person does not like those things.)
Capitalism also has many benefits, interestingly I do not even see them mentioned on the news much anymore. I think the idea of actually understanding anything about economic systems, for some media, is bad. Anything that gets someone to think on things can get them to figure stuff out. So they don't even want to talk about anything near the issues, since that might create people thinking about stuff like economic systems.
It does not seem that much of the corporate news speaks about how or why economic or social systems work and what flaws each system has. Some believe knowledge is power, and giving information to anyone shares power in a zero sum gain world of control. So education goes against the person educating by sharing thought in some peoples minds. They actually believe hording the idea of thinking gives them an advantage, especially if what they believe can not be defended by even the system they claim to follow, if someone thinks about it. Many groups do not want people to think. Bad media is part of keeping thinking in crazy land instead of on things that actually effect peoples lives.
I briefly tried to mention some of the flaws of pure Capitalism. Just because they are true. Notice that on many stations where we are told it is news, you hear the words Capitalism, Socialism, Communism, but without going through the education of what each of the systems actually are. Some of the media is not made to educate or inform, but to inflame and control for profit. If you see much of TV as a profit and control mechanism, not a public service for education, it is easier to understand why and what is done.
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