I was trying to say that the couched language in an initial article often precedes the publishing of subsequent articles that say the opposite of what the first article tried to lead us to conclude.
It doesn't happen all the time as there are statements of fact, of course.
<<It seems to me that propaganda is most commonly expressed through repetition of bald, casual assertions.>>
Most commonly might be true. I haven't though about it, but propaganda has many forms and some are more insidious than others. I may be using the term too broadly in my mind, but I include the failure of the media to cover important events as propaganda, too. To me, this is the most insidious form of propaganda. This is basically what turned me from a content Democrat into a warrior Republican. I discovered there was a wealth of factual information I didn't know about because I'd limited myself to the MSM, inc. CNN. It happened while I was helping my mother move through the end stage of severe dementia. She insisted on having Fox news on in the background all day every day. She could read the scroll better, she said, and liked the familiarity of the commentators. As a result, I frequently found myself chopping carrots, listening to Fox and going 'what...what'. Google became my friend. By the time she died in 2015, I was primed to completely change my party affiliation.
Having said this, I don't accept anything asserted on Fox without checking it out. Fox and other right-wing media are only starting points. The right is capable of employing the same tools of propaganda.
The odd thing is that the Times and WAPO actually divulge the truth of things. It's buried, though, and disguised sometimes. Headlines have completely become click-baits and often assert something that isn't supported by the article. And an article that contains info favorable to Trump almost always has that info at the end. Sometimes the very end, lol, the last paragraph. I always read an article to the end, even a long New Yorker or Atlantic piece. I consider the structure of these articles to be a form of propaganda.
In the Times in particular, coverage favorable to Trump positions is found not on the front page but farther into the paper in the business section or politics section, for example. |
