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Chapter Thirteen: Hijacking the Media
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Mass Indoctrination in Communist Countries
2. Communist Infiltration of Western Media
3. Left-Wing Bias Among Media Professionals
4. The Media Takeover by Liberalism and Progressivism
5. The Film Industry: Vanguard Against Tradition
6. Television: Corruption in Every Household
7. The Media: A Key Battleground in a Total War
Conclusion: Bringing Back Responsibility in the Media
References
Introduction
The influence of the media in modern society is enormous and growing daily. It permeates communities of all sizes, from the local to the global. Mass media has evolved from newspapers and magazines to radio, film, and television. With the rise of social media and user-generated content, the internet has greatly amplified the speed and reach of audiovisual communication.
People rely on the media for the latest news and analysis. In an ocean of information, the media influences which information people see and how they interpret it. The media is in a position to influence people’s first impressions on a particular topic, and thus carries considerable powers of psychological priming.
For social elites, particularly politicians, the media determines the focus of public opinion and serves as a rallying beacon for the public. Topics that the media covers become matters of grave social concern. Issues that go unreported are ignored and forgotten.
Thomas Jefferson, father of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States, once summed up the vital duties that the press assumes in society: “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” [1]
As the voice of society, media can be the safeguard of morality or an instrument of evil. Its duty is to report the truth of the world’s major events in a fair, accurate, and timely manner. It must support justice and condemn wrongdoing, while promoting goodness. Its mission goes beyond the private interests of any one individual, company, or political party.
In Western news circles, the media is the guardian of the truth and of the society’s core values. It enjoys the lofty status of “the fourth estate.” Journalists are respected for their expertise and sacrifices.
Joseph Pulitzer, a newspaper publisher and founder of the Pulitzer Prize, said: “Our Republic and its press will rise or fall together. An able, disinterested, public-spirited press, with trained intelligence to know the right and courage to do it, can preserve that public virtue without which popular government is a sham and a mockery. A cynical, mercenary, demagogic press will produce in time a people as base as itself. The power to mold the future of the Republic will be in the hands of the journalists of future generations.” [2]
However, in the midst of mankind’s moral decline, it’s difficult for the media to protect its virtue and perform its duties under the pressure of power and the temptation of money. In communist countries, the media is controlled by the state. These regime mouthpieces brainwash the masses and act as accomplices to communist policies of terror and killing.
In Western society, the media has been heavily infiltrated by communist thought, becoming one of communism’s main agents of anti-traditional, anti-moral, and demonic trends. It propagates lies and hatred, adding fuel to the flames of moral degeneration. Many media entities have abandoned their duties of reporting the truth and guarding society’s moral conscience. It is imperative for us to awaken to the state that the media is in today, and to bring responsibility back to this field.
1. Mass Indoctrination in Communist Countries
From the very beginning, communists have viewed the media as a brainwashing tool. In their 1847 writing “The Communist League,” Marx and Engels asked members to have “revolutionary energy and zeal in propaganda.” [3] Marx and Engels often used terms like “party battlefield,” “party mouthpiece,” “political center,” or “tool for public opinion” in their articles to express the media’s desired character and functions.
Lenin used media as a tool to promote, incite, and organize the Russian revolution. He founded the official communist newspapers Iskra and Pravda to promote revolutionary propaganda and activism. Soon after the Soviet Communist Party seized power, it used the media for domestic political indoctrination. Abroad, it ran propaganda to improve its image and export revolution.
The Chinese Communist Party also regards the media as a tool of public opinion for the dictatorship and a mouthpiece of the Party and the government. The CCP is highly conscious of the fact that “the guns and the pens are what it relies on for seizing and consolidating power.” [4] As early as the Yan’an period, Mao Zedong’s secretary Hu Qiaomu put forward the principle of “Party nature first,” saying that the Party newspaper “has to carry through the Party’s viewpoints and understandings in all articles, every essay, every news report, and every newsletter. …” [5]
Upon establishing its dictatorship, the CCP imposed strict control over the media, including television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and later the internet. It uses them as tools to indoctrinate the Chinese with communist ideology, to suppress dissidents, intimidate the public, and conceal or distort the truth. Media workers are experts in self-censorship, constantly aware that a single error can result in a miserable outcome. Censorship not only permeates the official news channels, but personal blogs and online communities are also monitored and controlled by a vast system of internet police.
There is a contemporary Chinese phrase that vividly describes the role of the media under the CCP’s rule: “I am the Party’s dog, sitting by the Party’s door. I’ll bite whomever the Party tells me to bite and however many times I am told.” This is no exaggeration. Every communist political movement starts with public opinion: The media spreads lies to incite hatred, which cascades into violence and killing. The media plays a crucial role in this deadly mechanism.
During the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, the CCP claimed that the students were violent thugs and so used the army to suppress the “riot.” Following the massacre, it claimed that the army didn’t shoot anyone and that there were no casualties at Tiananmen Square. [6] In 2001, early on in the persecution of Falun Gong, the regime staged the so-called Tiananmen self-immolation incident to frame the spiritual practice and kindle hatred against Falun Gong across China and around the world. [7]
Leading cadres in committees at all levels of the CCP place great importance on propaganda work and field considerable personnel for this task. By the end of 2010, China had more than 1.3 million staff working in the national propaganda apparatus, including about 56,000 in propaganda departments at the provincial and county levels, 1.2 million in the local propaganda units, and 52,000 people in the central propaganda work units. [8] This figure does not include a large number of staff who are responsible for monitoring and manipulating online opinion, such as internet police, moderators, Party-controlled commentators, and others employed in various forms of public relations duty.
Countries ruled by communist parties, without exception, use great amounts of resources to manipulate the media. Years of operation have honed the communist state media into an efficient mouthpiece for their totalitarian masters, using any and all means to deceive and poison the people.
2. Communist Infiltration of Western Media
[Read more in PDF]
Chapter Thirteen: Hijacking the Media
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Mass Indoctrination in Communist Countries
2. Communist Infiltration of Western Media
3. Left-Wing Bias Among Media Professionals
4. The Media Takeover by Liberalism and Progressivism
5. The Film Industry: Vanguard Against Tradition
6. Television: Corruption in Every Household
7. The Media: A Key Battleground in a Total War
Conclusion: Bringing Back Responsibility in the Media
References
Introduction
The influence of the media in modern society is enormous and growing daily. It permeates communities of all sizes, from the local to the global. Mass media has evolved from newspapers and magazines to radio, film, and television. With the rise of social media and user-generated content, the internet has greatly amplified the speed and reach of audiovisual communication.
People rely on the media for the latest news and analysis. In an ocean of information, the media influences which information people see and how they interpret it. The media is in a position to influence people’s first impressions on a particular topic, and thus carries considerable powers of psychological priming.
For social elites, particularly politicians, the media determines the focus of public opinion and serves as a rallying beacon for the public. Topics that the media covers become matters of grave social concern. Issues that go unreported are ignored and forgotten.
Thomas Jefferson, father of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States, once summed up the vital duties that the press assumes in society: “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” [1]
As the voice of society, media can be the safeguard of morality or an instrument of evil. Its duty is to report the truth of the world’s major events in a fair, accurate, and timely manner. It must support justice and condemn wrongdoing, while promoting goodness. Its mission goes beyond the private interests of any one individual, company, or political party.
In Western news circles, the media is the guardian of the truth and of the society’s core values. It enjoys the lofty status of “the fourth estate.” Journalists are respected for their expertise and sacrifices.
Joseph Pulitzer, a newspaper publisher and founder of the Pulitzer Prize, said: “Our Republic and its press will rise or fall together. An able, disinterested, public-spirited press, with trained intelligence to know the right and courage to do it, can preserve that public virtue without which popular government is a sham and a mockery. A cynical, mercenary, demagogic press will produce in time a people as base as itself. The power to mold the future of the Republic will be in the hands of the journalists of future generations.” [2]
However, in the midst of mankind’s moral decline, it’s difficult for the media to protect its virtue and perform its duties under the pressure of power and the temptation of money. In communist countries, the media is controlled by the state. These regime mouthpieces brainwash the masses and act as accomplices to communist policies of terror and killing.
In Western society, the media has been heavily infiltrated by communist thought, becoming one of communism’s main agents of anti-traditional, anti-moral, and demonic trends. It propagates lies and hatred, adding fuel to the flames of moral degeneration. Many media entities have abandoned their duties of reporting the truth and guarding society’s moral conscience. It is imperative for us to awaken to the state that the media is in today, and to bring responsibility back to this field.
1. Mass Indoctrination in Communist Countries
From the very beginning, communists have viewed the media as a brainwashing tool. In their 1847 writing “The Communist League,” Marx and Engels asked members to have “revolutionary energy and zeal in propaganda.” [3] Marx and Engels often used terms like “party battlefield,” “party mouthpiece,” “political center,” or “tool for public opinion” in their articles to express the media’s desired character and functions.
Lenin used media as a tool to promote, incite, and organize the Russian revolution. He founded the official communist newspapers Iskra and Pravda to promote revolutionary propaganda and activism. Soon after the Soviet Communist Party seized power, it used the media for domestic political indoctrination. Abroad, it ran propaganda to improve its image and export revolution.
The Chinese Communist Party also regards the media as a tool of public opinion for the dictatorship and a mouthpiece of the Party and the government. The CCP is highly conscious of the fact that “the guns and the pens are what it relies on for seizing and consolidating power.” [4] As early as the Yan’an period, Mao Zedong’s secretary Hu Qiaomu put forward the principle of “Party nature first,” saying that the Party newspaper “has to carry through the Party’s viewpoints and understandings in all articles, every essay, every news report, and every newsletter. …” [5]
Upon establishing its dictatorship, the CCP imposed strict control over the media, including television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and later the internet. It uses them as tools to indoctrinate the Chinese with communist ideology, to suppress dissidents, intimidate the public, and conceal or distort the truth. Media workers are experts in self-censorship, constantly aware that a single error can result in a miserable outcome. Censorship not only permeates the official news channels, but personal blogs and online communities are also monitored and controlled by a vast system of internet police.
There is a contemporary Chinese phrase that vividly describes the role of the media under the CCP’s rule: “I am the Party’s dog, sitting by the Party’s door. I’ll bite whomever the Party tells me to bite and however many times I am told.” This is no exaggeration. Every communist political movement starts with public opinion: The media spreads lies to incite hatred, which cascades into violence and killing. The media plays a crucial role in this deadly mechanism.
During the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, the CCP claimed that the students were violent thugs and so used the army to suppress the “riot.” Following the massacre, it claimed that the army didn’t shoot anyone and that there were no casualties at Tiananmen Square. [6] In 2001, early on in the persecution of Falun Gong, the regime staged the so-called Tiananmen self-immolation incident to frame the spiritual practice and kindle hatred against Falun Gong across China and around the world. [7]
Leading cadres in committees at all levels of the CCP place great importance on propaganda work and field considerable personnel for this task. By the end of 2010, China had more than 1.3 million staff working in the national propaganda apparatus, including about 56,000 in propaganda departments at the provincial and county levels, 1.2 million in the local propaganda units, and 52,000 people in the central propaganda work units. [8] This figure does not include a large number of staff who are responsible for monitoring and manipulating online opinion, such as internet police, moderators, Party-controlled commentators, and others employed in various forms of public relations duty.
Countries ruled by communist parties, without exception, use great amounts of resources to manipulate the media. Years of operation have honed the communist state media into an efficient mouthpiece for their totalitarian masters, using any and all means to deceive and poison the people.
2. Communist Infiltration of Western Media
[Read more in PDF]