11/06/2007
Video analysis by my paranoid self (file under propaganda)
While I was away, Jon Stewart posted a clip from The Daily Show dealing loosely with the California wildfires, and media coverage thereof. It's quite funny:
Arnold Schwarznegger is quite a schmuck, no?
However, I would draw your attention to one particular piece of the video - the clip from Fox News "linking" the wildfires to Al Qaeda (about 2 minutes in). It's typical Fox BS; some bimbo casually tossing out the breathless lie, giving the impression of an islamofascist roaming the California wilderness with a match.
As humorous as the Stewart piece is, the Fox clip - strained, stupid, ripe for parody - really caught my attention.
Without overly belaboring the point of endless propaganda and its effect on the national dialogue (or what's left of it), I direct your attention to the film Red Nightmare, a strange fantasy sponsored in the 1950's by the Department Of Defense and hosted by stonefaced Jack Webb.
In the 1950's, the US was awash in crap like this, paid for by the taxpayers, spreading the doctrine that America was under attack by The Communist Conspiracy - which, according to the best authorities, had basically already won the political war through underhanded tactics and a seriousness of purpose the American people did not possess. This film, shown to American troops, would wake them up, you betcha.
It's on YouTube, broken into several parts; they're all below, in order.
Not that different from Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin and the rest of the bottom-feeders; constant lies to keep people afraid and filled with hysteria. The difference now is a matter of degree, but the technique is identical.
"It may be assumed that such a town does exist, deep behind the Iron Curtain." Located next to the Iraqi atomic stockpile, undoubtedly.
Did I mention I was paranoid?