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Tag(s): Assassination; Guantanamo; Iraq; Media Distortion; Media Mainstream MSM; Media Matters; Media Progressive; Media Radio; Media Right Wing; Media Shills; (more...) Media-News; Pakistan; Suspicion; Torture (less...)
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December 28, 2007 at 19:24:55

The Mindless Mainstream Media

by Amy Fried Page 1 of 1 page(s)

www.opednews.com

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While I was studying social psychology in college, I had the opportunity to have dinner with a famous social psychologist, Robert Abelson, who happened to be the father of a college friend. At the time, I asked him what he was currently exploring, and he said, “Scripts.” Dumbfounded for a response, I smiled politely and changed the subject. As my studies progressed into graduate school, the full impact of his work began to be felt in the field, and I realized what I had missed. The study of scripts - the semi-conscious ideas we carry around about the way events are supposed to unfold - exploded in the field of social cognition. The point of having a script, is to save our brain cells from having to think about each step we take in familiar situations; rather, we just “follow the script.”

Another academic, Ellen Langer, took scripts to the next step, showing how they lead to mindlessness. Langer showed that people will often respond to the structure of a message, rather than to its content - we mindlessly follow the script. When it comes to the failings of the corporate media, others have been eloquent. George Lakoff has shown how the neocons use seemingly neutral phrases that frame a policy position in their favor, and how the media pass on those phrases - e.g., “tax relief.” Media Matters for America demonstrates daily how the MSM unthinkingly pass along the Republican frame. And progressives bemoan the fact that Democrats fail miserably in the framing department (as Thom Hartmann point out, they have the PATRIOT Act and we have SCHIP.)

In the meantime, the media treat each phrase as a given variable, to be shuffled around in various new stories, without questioning the logic of the phrases themselves.

While we progressives wait for Democrats to come up with better frames, or for the corporate media to stop propping up Right Wing frames, what we really need is for these unexamined phrases to be questioned.

Take, for instance, the term “the enemy.” On CNN‘s This Week at War on 12/16/07, Michael Scheuer, former CIA officer, addressed the issue of the destroyed interrogation tapes:

“The information the enemy gave us in those tapes, certainly, we don't want to enemy to know what we know.”

Who, exactly, is the enemy? It’s such a cynically elusive phrase. As long as it goes undefined, it can be used to dehumanize whoever the Administration wishes to strip of any rights whatsoever. Thus, any mistreatment, including torture, is by definition, justified.

Similarly, the term terror suspects is used liberally, with little indication of what such suspicion is based on. In an environment in which George W. Bush alone can designate someone an enemy combatant, and detainees in Gitmo, Iraq, and in black sites are routinely beyond the reach of our justice system, it’s a question that needs to be asked.

This cavalier attitude towards the distinction between the accused and the convicted, allows Mitt Romney to make statements like the following, in response to a question about torture:

“… I want to make sure these folks are kept at Guantanamo. I don't want the people that are carrying out attacks in this country to be brought into our jail system and to be given legal representation in this country.”

The “war on terror” has led to a frenzy of detentions, both in Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay. The International Red Cross determined in 2004 that 70-90% of Iraq detainees were arrested by mistake. A number of seemingly senseless sweeps have also been reported in the case of Gitmo. Yet, Anderson Cooper never asked Mitt Romney in that CNN/Youtube debate who “these folks” were, much less why - in the United States of America - detention alone should be treated as proof of guilt.

Last night, on Rachel Maddow’s radio show, Rachel asked David Bender why Republican candidates seem to be treating the American public as if they were stupid, in their response to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto:

“I think that people look at what happened in Pakistan today and say, ‘Why are supporting this Musharraf guy? Our foreign policy is so screwed up.’”

As long as the media acts like frightened children, allowing Bush to act as Layoff’s “strict father,” telling us who the bad guys are without challenge, Rachel’s hopes will be dashed. It’s not so much that the American people are stupid; they just are being lulled into complacency by the mindless mainstream media.

http://neoconmind.blogspot.com

The author received her Ph.D. in the field of Organizational Behavior, which she now applies to her political writing. She's been an advocate for church-state separation and other civil liberties issues. She writes on the neoconservative mind, women's issues, media, veganism and the Religious Right.

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2 comments

"I am a patriot in the tradition or Mark Twain who stated that 'a patriot is one who supports his country 100% of the time...and the government when it deserves it." As such I am passionate about protecting the rights of US citizens under the Constitution and a believer in the principle of Eternal Vigilance."
Abraham007"I am a patriot in the tradition or Mark Twain who stated that 'a patriot is one who supports his country 100% of the time...and the government when it deserves it." As such I am passionate about protecting the rights of US citizens under the Constitution and a believer in the principle of Eternal Vigilance."

Lost in the "matrix" of the mainstream media

Morpheus: I imagine that right now, you're feeling a bit like Alice. Hmm? Tumbling down the rabbit hole?
Neo: You could say that.
Morpheus: I see it in your eyes. You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he is expecting to wake up. Ironically, that's not far from the truth. Do you believe in fate, Neo?
Neo: No.
Morpheus: Why not?
Neo: Because I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life.
Morpheus: I know *exactly* what you mean. Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I'm talking about?
Neo: The Matrix.
Morpheus: Do you want to know what it is?
Neo: Yes.
Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work... when you go to church... when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind.

Yes, Amy people are slowly waking up to the fact that their "scripts" (mental models of reality) have always been shaped by the media and the powers that be. And, yes, humans do spend a good deal of their "waking" time with the dial set on AutoPilot. The AutoPilot is great when you need to drive or tie your shoes without consciously having to think about each step.

However it is a curse when humans delegate all their powers of critical thinking to "the matrix" of the world model presented to them daily by "the media." People have been seduced into this trap over a long period of time. However the "wake-up" may come with a sudden jolt.

When that comes, it will be important for all of us to remember how much we sincerely love Big Brother.

by Abraham007 (5 articles, 36 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 44 comments) on Friday, December 28, 2007 at 8:28:41 PM