Newspeak is Alive and Well

I'm not necessarily what you would call a political junkie, but I do take a great interest in the state of the world and machinations of power. I like to read news sites and blogs in both Canada and the U.S., both from the Right and the Left. And when you read opinions from different perspectives, it becomes quite clear that we are living in the same space but parallel universes where people are choosing either one reality or another, and the chasm is getting wider by the day.

I am very comfortable saying that I am firmly planted on the Left (and there will be plenty of time to elaborate on specific issues on this blog over time), although I show no reverence to any party or philosophy. I'm a practical, issue-by-issue thinker, and I happen to agree with the left side of the spectrum more often than not. I'm biased but not partisan.

As a lefty, I am quite disturbed about the state of the corporate media in the U.S. It is regarded as common knowledge that the news media has a "liberal bias", but that common knowledge is about as valid as that which says you should use butter to treat a burn. There is an excellent book on the subject called What Liberal Media? by Eric Alterman. I'll talk more about it over time, but it explains the mythology, and how the 24 hour cable news era is distinctly to the advantage of the Right. One of his key points is that news outlets often present a liberal truth countered by a conservative lie and call that balance. That is why we should all be concerned about the vetting of facts even more than perception of bias. Bias occurs everywhere, but there is only one set of facts. And it is said that the facts have a liberal bias.

One of my favourite websites is Media Matters for America. They are "a Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media." Please note the term misinformation as opposed to bias, because it's a crucial distinction. Sad to say, the American Right has excelled in practicing the propaganda theories of Joseph Goebbels, most notably, "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it," and, "The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly - it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over" - the dreaded Right Wing Talking Points. In many cases, talking points are repeated so often that they become part of the common language of news commentators and journalists. This is particularly insidious because it leads to journalists parroting a Right Wing opinion without the viewers even realizing they are taking a position. See Here and Here for examples of this. Stay tuned for more gems.

Big Brother is well on the way to making Newspeak the official language of the United States. Are there examples of the Left employing the same techniques on the same scale? It's hard to incorporate nuance into neat little soundbites. But I'll leave that for someone else to present. This is my blog. I'm allowed to be biased.