Yellow Journalism’s Struggle
This is an article from the Winter 2020/21 issue of Combat Stress
By LTC (RET) Charlie Bass, MD, Ph.D., FAIS
So it is that the weakest candidate the Democrats have ever fielded and who campaigned the least and received the most votes of any presidential candidate in U.S. history – in the most suspicious election America has ever held – was sworn in under the heaviest National Guard force ever to assemble for an inauguration. At 20,000 troops, there are more uniformed and armed forces on peacekeeping duties in our nation’s capital than there are in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. Incidentally, President Trump’s January 6th address, which so inflamed Speaker Nancy Pelosi (noting that she enabled the lethal, destructive rioting through the summer and fall), concluded after rioting broke out in the capitol a mile away from the site of the speech.1, 2, 3
Even the left-leaning NBC news concedes, “Trump’s speech is probably defensible in every court.”4
Accounts from protesters on the ground in D.C. on January 6 paint a picture of peaceful patriotism, unlike how they
were portrayed by the mainstream media.
Thanks to this election effort going largely to American news sources that provided the one-sided political opinions and influences that lionized Joe Biden and demonized Donald Trump, public opinion itself has become far less a factor than personal experience. This political “enlightenment” run by the liberal news media can also be termed “propaganda.”
In the words of another writer from almost a century ago:
“Whatever definition we may give the term ‘public opinion,’ only a very small part of it originates from personal experience or individual insight. The greater portion of it results from the manner in which public matters have been presented to the people through an overwhelmingly impressive and persistent system of ‘information.’ By far the most effective branch of political education, in which this connection is best expressed by the word ‘propaganda,’ is carried on by the Press. The Press is the chief means employed in the process of political ‘enlightenment.’” 5
Returning to the matter of the early-January rioting in the capital, it seems the comments of people on the ground at the time of the rioting are running along largely parallel lines. Rioters disguised as pro-Trump supporters infiltrated an otherwise peaceful gathering and worked their damage in a move reminiscent of the incident in Gliwice, a town near the border between Germany and Poland, of 31 August 1939. Named “Grossmutter gestorben” (Grandmother died) by the Nazis, the false-flag operation was made to frame Polish anti-German saboteurs. That would give the Nazi party a casus bello – a reason to go to war – against Poland. To do this, the Nazis (Reinhard Heydrich of the SS and Heinrich Müller of the Gestapo) executed several Polish prisoners they were holding at the concentration camp at Dachau, dressed their bodies in Polish military uniforms, and laid them around a radio tower from which the Nazis had broadcast anti-German messages in Polish.
The week before the incident, the Nazi leader – Führer – issued the following statement to his generals,
“I will provide a propagandistic casus bello. Its credibility doesn’t matter.
The victor will not be asked whether he told the truth.”6
The next day, a German blitzkrieg advanced from the north, south, and west of Poland. Great Britain and France quickly declared war on Germany, and the Second World War began.
The radio station in Gliwice, Poland, was the scene of a Nazi attempt to frame Poland for provoking war.
Coming back to 2021, President Trump has been the target of the longest political lynching in our nation’s history. The press demonized him early, even before his 2016 election, trying hard to make his domestic affairs seem horrible or to criticize his every action, whether public, political, or personal. The consistent mantra of the press seems to be that no Republican has ever done anything right and no Democrat has ever done anything wrong. In four years of news, has even one story emerged from the major media outlets saying something good and positive about a president who remains immensely popular among his 70+ million supporters?
It might also be said this way,
“…[the Press] would not rest until they had sniffed out some petty item which would be used to destroy the reputation of their victim. But if the result of all this sniffing should be that nothing derogatory was discovered in the private or public life of the victim, they continued to hurl abuse at him, in the belief that some of their animadversions would stick, even though refuted a thousand times. In most cases it finally turned out impossible for the victim to continue his defense, because the accuser worked together with so many accomplices that his slanders were re-echoed interminably.” 7
The playbook that the liberal news media follows today seems to be stated already, thus:
“[The] primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.”8
How many times have we heard the news use the word “baseless” in conjunction with suspicions of voter fraud? From the Texas coast, the media has used the word so many times it sounds like seagulls swarming a plate of french fries. However, the media actually believes that if you repeat a lie frequently, the people will eventually believe it. This is called the “Big Lie.”9, 10
Another tactic we see repeatedly is shouting down of free speech, particularly notable for anyone who has tried to speak on a conservative issue on a college campus in the last four years. Bully gangs appear, shout down the speaker, then portray themselves as the victims. The university security and leadership simply shrug their shoulders and disavow any knowledge of inviting the conservative speaker to the campus. This is analogous to the, “…approach to organized masked black-clad thugs that Italian authorities took to Mussolini’s Brownshirts and Weimar Republic authorities took to Nazi Brownshirts.” Fascist violence is running unchecked and unpunished on America’s college campuses.11
Students at Berkeley, California, protest to block conservative speaker Milo Yiannopoulos in February of 2017.
To implore the reader, please evaluate the source of news information. When you read an article or listen to the news, ask if the news is presented as fair and balanced. Does the story demonize one side or lionize another? Is there even a window open for each voice to be heard?
President George Washington gained a reputation as having an even-keeled approach to government. He would have Alexander Hamilton present his opinions on a political issue, then have Thomas Jefferson present the other side. Alexander Hamilton – the northern industrialist who favored big cities, manufacturing, and rapid growth – would always present a view starkly opposed with that of Thomas Jefferson – the quiet, Southern agrarian who favored conserving the status quo. President Washington showed his political adroitness, managing his cabinet, “…in almost the same way that he had consulted with his staff of generals during the Revolution. He solicited each person’s opinion, opposed as they might be, considered his options, and made a decision.” 12
When hearing a news report, ask, “Am I really getting both sides of the story here?”
These tactics of the liberal news media are all well-known to history and are part of what is now termed “cancel culture” that attempts to wash from memory anything that conflicts with their narrative of how the world should look, much like when the German Student Union (an arm of the Nazi party) burned 25,000 “morally objectionable” books in May of 1933, ushering in the Nazi book burning campaign to suppress thought and to “synchronize” the culture with their twisted ideology.13
Nazis burned books in 1933 Germany as a way of erasing thought contrary to their own agenda.
The current opinion of Robert Unanue, Goya Foods President and CEO would be relevant here. The media tried to demonize and cancel him, with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) denouncing Mr. Unanue after he expressed admiration for Donald Trump’s entrepreneurialism. Incidentally, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rose to her highest honor in December of 2020 when she was named “employee of the month” by Goya Foods after her call to boycott the Goya food label resulted in ten times higher sales, according to Mr. Unanue.14
Robert Unanue, CEO of Goya Foods, was the target of an attempted boycott of his company’s products after expressing admiration for President Donald Trump in July of 2020.
Need more evidence? Ask author Andy Ngô, who faced days of riots outside Portland, Oregon’s, Powell’s bookstore in early January after publishing his book Unmasked about how Antifa plans to destroy American democracy.15
Does is really matter that 350 million Americans and the rest of this planet’s people are being fed false information from the media sources? Does is really matter that every extended quotation in this article and every propagandistic tactic portrayed is either by Adolf Hitler or about him? In the words of Hillary Clinton, “What difference, at this point, does it make?”16 To the reporters and editors of the liberal news media, stop lying to the American people. Yes, the American people can handle being lied to and we’re used to that. We have pretty sophisticated sensors for the lies we hear. However, we must insist that you stop using Adolf Hitler’s book Mein Kampf as a playbook. Doing so insults the American public and denigrates the people of the nation’s press.
To the savvy reader, please remember this. If they can vilify and run down a private citizen who simply has an opinion different from the mainstream, if they can bully people into speech and thought submission, and if they can take away the right to due process and a fair hearing from the President of the United States today, they can take it away from WE THE PEOPLE tomorrow.
Never forget.
References
- Svab, Petr. “Timeline of Events in DC on Jan. 6,” Epoch Times, January 13, 2021. https://www.theepochtimes.com/what-happened-in-dc-on-jan-6-2_3648252.html
Retrieved January 15, 2021.
- Sparks, Ryan (2021). “Local resident gives a first-hand account of Capitol Hill event,” Daily World of Greys Harbor, Washington, January 13, 2021.
https://www.thedailyworld.com/news/local-resident-gives-first-hand-account-of-capitol-hill-event/
Retrieved January 17, 2021.
- Forgey, Quint, “Barr: It’s ‘possible’ Pelosi’s comments endangered federal law enforcement,” Politico Magazine, July 28, 2020.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/28/barr-pelosi-comments-endangered-law-enforcement-384238
Retrieved January 17, 2021.
- Cevallos, Danny, Legal Analyst for NBC News. “Trump’s speech is probably defensible in every court — except, perhaps, the Senate.” NBC News, January 14, 2021.
Retrieved January 17, 2021
- Hitler, Adolf (1925). Mein Kampf. Translated into English by James Murphy in 1939, pg. 77.
Available online:
https://greatwar.nl/books/meinkampf/meinkampf.pdf
Retrieved January 15, 2021.
- Fratus, Matt, staff writer (2020). “How Hitler staged a false-flag operation to justify the invasion of Poland, starting World War II.” Coffee or Die: Black Rifle Coffee Company, Sept. 1, 2020.
https://coffeeordie.com/operation-himmler/
Retrieved 17 January 2021.
- Hitler, Adolf (1925). Mein Kampf. Translated into English by James Murphy in 1939, pg. 78.
Available online:
https://greatwar.nl/books/meinkampf/meinkampf.pdf
Retrieved January 15, 2021.
- Langer, Walter C. (1943). “A Psychological Analysis of Adolf Hitler: His Life and Legend,”
Office of Strategic Services, Washington, D.C., pg. 51.
Available online:
https://archive.org/details/APsychologicalAnalysisofAdolfHitler/page/n52/mode/1up?q=allow+the+public
Retrieved January 17, 2021.
- White, John Baker (1955). Big Lie. New York, NY: Thomas Y. Crowell, Publisher.
- D’Souza, Dinesh (2017). Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing.
- Barone, Michael, Senior Political Analyst (2017). “Looking for fascism in America? Look left, on campus” Washington Examiner, March 6, 2017.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/looking-for-fascism-in-america-look-left-on-campus
Retrieved January 17, 2021.
- Freeman, Joanne B., Professor of History, Yale University (undated). “Jefferson and Hamilton: Political rivals in Washington’s cabinet,” George Washington’s Mount Vernon.
Retrieved 15 January 2021.
- Anonymous, undated article, “Book Burning,” Holocaust Encyclopedia. Washington, D.C.: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/book-burning
Retrieved January 17, 2021.
- Du, Gary “‘They Want to Cancel Our Culture, Our History, Our Liberty’: Goya CEO” Epoch Times, January 16, 2021.
Retrieved January 17, 2021.
- Kane “Antifa riots outside bookstore for 6th day…Why are they so afraid of Andy Ngo…” Citizen Free Press.
Retrieved January 17, 2021.
- Qiu, Linda (2016). “What you need to know about Hillary Clinton’s ‘infamous response’ to Benghazi question,” Politifact: The Poynter Institute, July 19, 2016.
Retrieved January 17, 2021.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Charlie Bass, MS, Ph.D., MD (Lt. Col., U.S. Army, Retired), assisted and served in the aftermath of hurricanes, a tornado, a terrorist bombing, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan during 28 years with the U.S. Army. In 2014, he retired with his wife to Corpus Christi, Texas. He and his wife wish to remind readers to vote in the November election.
Combat Stress Magazine
Combat Stress magazine is written with our military Service Members, Veterans, first responders, and their families in mind. We want all of our members and guests to find contentment in their lives by learning about stress management and finding what works best for each of them. Stress is unavoidable and comes in many shapes and sizes. It can even be considered a part of who we are. Being in a state of peaceful happiness may seem like a lofty goal but harnessing your stress in a positive way makes it obtainable. Serving in the military or being a police officer, firefighter or paramedic brings unique challenges and some extraordinarily bad days. The American Institute of Stress is dedicated to helping you, our Heroes and their families, cope with and heal your mind and body from the stress associated with your careers and sacrifices.