TresSugar

Vintage War Propaganda Posters - Are We Repeating History?

CitizenSugar — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:00:25 -0700

World Wars I and II left us with not only a global landscape changed forever politically and historically, but two of the biggest events in the 20th century left us with a wealth of propaganda artifacts that almost tell the story better than any history book. Some of the themes championed in these beautifully designed posters of food conservation, using resources carefully, sticking with the service no matter what, and encouraging women to do their part sound like wildly familiar themes today. I mean, carpooling! As applicable as some of the sentiments may be, of course the rampant use of racist images to dehumanize the enemy renders some of the images shocking to a modern eye. Though decidedly different than the wars that left us these posters, we are still in wartime. We might not see propaganda campaigns like these posters, but you might not have to look too hard to see the same kinds of appeals to fear, appeals to prejudice, and bandwagon methods of getting the word out today. Take a look at propaganda gone by and see what looks familiar.

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Rapper Nas Gives Petition to "Propaganda Machine" Fox News

CitizenSugar — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:55:15 -0700

Rapper Nas joined with the Color of Change and MoveOn to deliver a petition to the offices of Fox News yesterday. Just after his controversial album hit number one, Nas took the podium protesting the racist attacks he sees coming from Fox against Black Americans and Barack Obama.

Delivering over 600,000 signatures to the network, Nas delivered a prepared speech saying, "We already knew that Fox is not a news network; they are a propaganda machine . . . Fox poisons this country every time they air racist propaganda and try to call it news. This should outrage every American that Fox uses hateful language to talk about the person that may be the first black president."

Fox declined receipt of the signatures, but issued a statement: "Fox News believes in all protesters exercising their right to free speech, including Nas, who has an album to promote."

That album now called Untitled had an original, much more controversial title. Does this affect his statement against Fox?

To see clips of the Fox language Nas finds offensive - served up on last night's Colbert Report (where the petition was delivered after Fox refused to accept it) - plus Nas's interview with Stephen, read more.

Nas was in studio with Stephen too - see the episode with his interview including talk of his feud with Bill O'Reilly.

Does Nas and the Color of Change/MoveOn petition have a point? Is Fox racist?

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"Two Tickets For Wall-E Leftist Propaganda, Please." Possible?

CitizenSugar — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:56:13 -0700

Heading out to the movies this holiday weekend? If your "two tickets, please," is for last weekend's #1 flick, Pixar's Wall-E, you might be getting a jumbo bucket of leftist propaganda with your price of admission. But it's a cartoony-thing, right?! But it's a cartoon-y thing with an apparently serious leftist message.

The National Review's global-warming blog says “it was like a 90-minute lecture on the dangers of over consumption, big corporations, and the destruction of the environment.” Oh! That sounds like a cute and funny movie! What??

But wait, there's more! Glenn Beck says, "I just see Wally and he's on the Earth and he's cleaning stuff up and I looked at my wife and I said, it's a frickin' global warming movie, it is how we destroyed the Earth." Over at Dirty Harry's Place (a conservative look at film, punk) Harry says of the Pixar tale, "they stop things cold, yanking you out of the story with the liberal nonsense. Quite a disappointment. Anyway…"

Lars Larson was on with Dan Abrams backing all of this up, saying it gives "little kids the idea that human beings are bad for planet Earth." At Townhall, they agree with the propaganda claim, but say it's "actually a brilliant exposure of liberalism’s flaws."

Is all of this possible out of a cartoon? Is Wall-E propaganda in the world's cutest package?

Check out Buzz's brilliant review for more info on the plot and characters - and hey, 4.5 out of 5 stars ain't bad!

Border Security USA Is Coming to Your Television Set

LibertySugar — Thu, 29 May 2008 14:30:11 -0700

ABC is teaming up with the Department of Homeland Security to make some good old-fashioned reality television. The new show, Border Security USA, will focus on US border protection agencies including: Transportation Security Administration, US Coast Guard, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Secret Service, Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The federal government's efforts to stop illegal immigration, smuggling, and terrorism will be documented reality-television style. The Hollywood Reporter says that in one episode, two Iranian men are denied entry because one has relatives with terrorist ties, and the other carries a fake ID.

Perhaps this show could teach Americans about how the Homeland Security bureaucracy operates. But, I'm still concerned that a sensationalized television interpretation of national security concerns may oversimplify the problem and lead to discrimination, intolerance, or a false understanding of complex issues like immigration and global politics.

Is gov reality the next big thing, or is this just run-of-the-mill propaganda? Are you going to Ti-Vo this one?
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Pentagon Pauses Propaganda Program

LibertySugar — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:00:00 -0700

Since the build-up to Iraq, retired US military generals, presented as independent mediate analysts, were in fact part of an extensive Pentagon program called "Message Force Multipliers."

The New York Times reported last week that the experienced personnel, appearing to want nothing more than to help Americans assess a post-9/11 world, were actually part of a carefully organized Pentagon information apparatus used to disseminate a message favorable to the Bush Administration.

The effort began with the build-up to Iraq, and television stations continued to use these retirees, who also had extensive and current military contracts, until yesterday when the Pentagon suspended the program.

The Pentagon's spokesman said that the media-infiltration operation was being reevaluated due to criticism that the retired officers offered Pentagon talking points as their own.

Who do you think is more to blame for this dishonest representation -the Bush Administration, or the willing television networks ready to use war for ratings? Do you think they collectively and gravely deceived the American public, or should it have been obvious to viewers that the "analysts" were puppets of the Pentagon? Is this fraud? Treason? Or politics as usual?

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Propaganda 2.0? Israel Condemns Released Killer on YouTube

LibertySugar — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:30:55 -0700

The Israeli government, no longer willing to wait to for an Arab television interview, is sending their message to the Arab world via YouTube. Israel's government uploaded a video in Arabic and English condemning Lebanese militant Samir Qantar as "the most despicable of murderers." Qantar, released Wednesday in a prisoner swap, received a hero's welcome back in Lebanon. He had been jailed since 1979 for killing a 4-year-old Israeli girl, along with her father and two policemen. The 2-year-old sister also died, because her mother accidentally smothered her while they hid.

Israel is trying to smother the political support for Qantar with the details of his crime sent straight to the Arab world. But the message comes with a warning, too. The Arabic video ends promising a tougher Israeli response than in 2006, if Hezbollah tries a kidnapping similar to its capture of two Israeli soldiers. Hezbollah says that Israel is sending voicemails to Lebanese mobile phones with the same retaliation threat.

YouTube sounds like a promising channel for dialogue, but I couldn't imagine receiving a voicemail from a foreign government hinting at impending military violence. Do you think a message for peace can get out using technology?

Dick Morris: Clinton's Deed Comes at Too High a Cost

TresSugar — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 11:30:57 -0700

Now that Bill Clinton has helped bring journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling home safely from North Korea, prominent politicos are speaking out against the way the release was handled. Appearing on Fox News today, former Clinton adviser Dick Morris argued that negotiating with North Korea gives the rogue state "an opportunity to rehabilitate its image globally simply to get two reporters out of jail."

Former UN ambassador John Bolton makes a similar argument that the trip is a "propaganda victory for North Korea," claiming that involving dignitaries like Clinton could create more danger to Americans in the future.

So what should we do with the journalists, just leave them there? Pretty much, says Morris: "What were they doing in North Korea in the first place?" Well, here's what I think.

Sing for Changes Kids: How Long Did It Take You to Hit Stop?

CitizenSugar — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:00:05 -0700

This video just made the wildfire rounds of the Internet, and the reviews. . . let's just say "scathing" would be a civil way of putting it. Featuring a group of grade school kids called "Sing for Change," (their YouTube page says, "Light, hope, courage and love shine through these non-voting children who believe that their very best contribution to the Obama campaign is to sing,") the video shows an original ditty sung by the kids.

The DrudgeReport linked to the video with the headline "Obama Kids Sing for Dear Leader" a nod to North Korean propaganda. Wonkette was even less kind, and though Gawker called them "creepy kids" they added this visceral rant:

The thought that an actual Obama supporter would round up a few dozen kids in the name of producing such nauseating vacuous reverse propaganda is too depressing, so let's just assume this is the diabolical work of some NRA-funded 527.

The video brings up a host of questions to be sure: Is it okay to use kids in a political campaign? Is this propaganda? Is the video even watchable? The comments on the YouTube page point to a strong distaste for seeing kids put in this position. Does it make you want to hit "stop"?

Georgian Conflict Created by Cheney to Make Obama Lose?

CitizenSugar — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 08:00:57 -0700

Russians were told yesterday morning that the true nature of the conflict in South Ossetia is this: it's a plot hatched by Vice President Dick Cheney to make sure Barack Obama isn't elected president. Is Cheney creating a Cold War 2.0?

This revelation, that the conflict is orchestrated to wing Obama, was first announced on the radio and has been getting wide play. A senior political analyst close to Putin and Medvedev says, “George Bush's Administration is promoting interests of candidate John McCain. Defeated by Barak Obama on all fronts, McCain has one last card to play yet - the creation of a virtual Cold War with Russia . . . Bush himself did not want a war in South Ossetia but his Republican Party did not leave him any choice.”

The notion has reinvigorated Cold War-era talk like this from a former ambassador to the EU:

The West has spent a lot of time, energy and money to teach Georgia the tricks of the trade . . . to make the country look like a democracy. We and many other nations see through this deceit. We understand that the seditious tactics of the so-called color revolutions are a real threat to international law and the source of global legal nihilism.

To see where this idea came from, read more.

Russia's Cold War conclusion comes in no small part from what they perceive to be a compliant US media. One woman from Moscow says, “In the old days under Soviet rule we didn't believe a word of our own propaganda but we thought that information was free in the West and we longed for it. But we have learnt since that the West has its own propaganda and in some ways it is more powerful because people believe it.”

Is there a big US propaganda machine in full effect? Is Cheney pushing the US toward another Cold War just so Obama won't win - or is this just a ridiculous conspriacy theory?

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An Ode to Trader Joe's

GiggleSugar — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 10:15:00 -0800

Is it a commercial? Is it propaganda? Or is it, as I suspect, pure poetry? This Trader Joe's fan wrote a commercial, complete with off-key singing and awesome lyrics. Who among us, for example, hasn't had our heart's cockles warmed by the thought of how reassuring it is that those lime and chili cashews, balls of ice cream covered in flour and tiny free cups of coffee will (probably) be at TJ's every time we go? And that instead of what's on our list of essentials, we'll end up buying odd little snacks. . .