PROPAGANDA

From Pressing issues courtesy of Daily Kos:

10 Years Ago: When MTV Banned the B-52s 

I'd forgotten about this but surely we must mark this date, ten years ago today, when MTV, less than a week into the U.S.-Brit invasion of Iraq, banned the playing of any music videos with "war" lyrics or images--and the entire catalog of the B-52s.  Neil Strauss reported at the time for the NYT:  "Though images of war are dominating television screens, one channel is not having it. The day after the war in Iraq started, a memo was distributed through the offices of MTV Europe by its broadcast standards department. In the memo, Mark Sunderland, one of the department's managers, recommends that music videos depicting ''war, soldiers, war planes, bombs, missiles, riots and social unrest, executions'' and ''other obviously sensitive material'' not be shown on MTV in Britain and elsewhere in Europe until further notice. 

More here.

I never knew about this in the first place, but it's not surprising.  While the American people and political establishment were freaking out in the years after 9/11, the media business ramped up to eleven one of their usual mandates, sucking up to power.  Clear Channel hosted pro-war rallies, and banned numerous songs.  Country group the Dixie Chicks were blackballed for daring to criticize Monkey-face Bush.  MSNBC fired Donahue explicitly because he was anti-war.  CBS news anchor Dan Rather went on David Letterman and told the world that Bush was his "commander-in-chief" and that he would "line up" wherever he ordered.

In short, the media business was pounding the nation with pro-war messages.  Propaganda, pure and simple.

I've heard that back in the Cold War days, media critics would observe that, when compared with the Soviet system, US propaganda was far more effective, in that the Russians knew the news they were receiving was bogus and pro-government, while we simply saw the news as the news.  The fall of the Berlin Wall didn't change that one bit.  Most Americans continue to see the news as news--I mean, there's the whole "liberal media" thing, of course.  But, by and large, the media business pushes an ideological agenda that favors the American power structure.  They do it now, and they will continue to do it for the foreseeable future.

It is only in times like the post 9/11 era and the run up to the Iraq invasion, you know, times of absolute absurdity, that the propaganda is obvious, and even then it is highly influential.  But make no mistake.  Even when times are not absolutely absurd, they do the same thing.  Always.

 $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$