Back in the Fifties, when I was a kid, it was a big deal for a young family to have a set of Encyclopedia Brittanica in the bookcase. It was a status symbol, I think, of middle class Americans striving to educate and better themselves. All the knowledge of the world, it was advertised, was right there, available to anyone with curiosity who could read. My Dad encouraged me to read my fill and talk to him about stuff that I’d come across.
The EB was the gospel truth, just like the Bible, back in those days. If someone had said that there were slanted stories, lies, or damned lies in either of those publications…well, someone like Senator McCarthy would have held hearings and publicly crucified the blasphemer.
Way back then, almost everybody got their news from the newspapers and the Evening News on one of the three national television networks. Newspaper reporters and the TV anchors pretty much just laid out the 5 W’s and 1 H of journalism (Who? What? Where? When? Why? and, How?), depending upon space or time allowed. You could switch from channel to channel and hear pretty much the same story.
It was rare to see emotion or opinion on a TV news broadcast, by the anchorman; that is why Walter Cronkite’s tears re: the JFK assassination were so moving.
If you wanted opinion, you would need to read the Op/Ed pages of your newspaper. My father used to submit short opinion pieces to the L.A. Times and local newspapers, and occasionally had some published.
Much later, beginning in 1968, you could watch investigative journalism, once a week, on CBS’ “60 Minutes”, which blended facts and opinion. I thought it was pretty good stuff, at the time, and so did others, evidently, as it is still on the air, some fifty years later.
Society has changed a lot since that time. We’re living in the so-called Information Age: pretty much anything you want to know, factually, is instantly available to you through the Internet. No need for encyclopedias, no need for newspapers, and no need for broadcast journalism, really. Digital news is available for free, through some app on your cell phone, if you’re so inclined. It’s really a wonderful thing.
What is not a wonderful thing is what has happened to “journalism” on radio and TV: much of it has become fact-challenged entertainment, basically, which panders to the listeners’ biases and political proclivities. It sounds and looks like news, but it is 75 to 90 percent opinion-based propaganda. An untold number of radio and TV “talk shows” now clutter the airwaves, dispensing opinion disguised as factual news.
The poster child for such faux news is the Fox News network, which homes in on a few items in the actual news of the day, and then has several so-called experts (“talking heads” is the industry term) massage the event into a conservative political diatribe. This propaganda is then re-broadcast many times each day to make sure the message is driven home to Fox News’ listeners.
Fox isn’t the only perpetrator of this kind of yellow journalism, but they have the most presence because they have their own network and they advertise what they’re putting out as actual news. There are liberal-biased shows on TV as well (Oprah Winfrey, The Talk, The Ellen Show, late night comedy shows, etc.), but none of them, as far as I know, purport to be anything other than opinion-based entertainment. Similarly, on the radio, blowhard Rush Limbaugh honks for conservative causes, but his shtick is not advertised as a news program.
The problem we have, in my opinion, is that many Americans believe Fox News to be actual news. In short, their “bullshit detector” is non-functional. (Or, heaven forbid, they don’t care about facts, and will accept entertainment and propaganda in lieu. This would explain the popularity of Donald Trump, wouldn’t it?)
My “non-functional bullshit detector” theory, if true, should be a great concern to America. If current and future generations lose their common sense and ability to smell rotting fish, then we have a problem…a very big problem.
The large, dark cloud hanging over Washington D.C. right now is the ongoing investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller of the 2016 Presidential Election campaign. Just about everyone, including Democrats and Republicans (but excluding Fox News and President Trump), agree that there was meddling in America’s 2016 elections by Russia either directly or indirectly through intermediaries. The big question that remains unanswered is whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russian agents to tilt the playing field in their (Trump’s) favor and, if so, is their now a quid pro quo in the works (i.e. that the Trump Administration owes the Russian government favors for this assistance).
There is enough smoke swirling around this investigation right now, including the indictment of some Trump campaign staff, to indicate flaming wood somewhere in this mess. But, the jury is still out, and hopefully, for the Nation, we won’t find out, like we did with President Nixon, that the perfidy extends all the way up the ladder.
The most interesting thing that has been discovered thus far is how the Russians tinkered with our election: they used, for the most part, social media.
Social media is an immediate, electronic version of what we old folks used to call “gossip”. In other words, person-to-person exchanging of observations, opinions, conspiracy theories, etc., that is passed from one person to the next, ad infinitum, and then becomes the basis for perception, biases, urban myths, etc. In other words, the “everybody knows”, “they say”, “the word on the street is…” precursor to social discourse.
Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, blogs, and U-Tube videos are among the most popular of the social media mechanisms that the current generation uses to communicate with each other. Basically, all of them are opinion-based ways of expressing oneself. They are the modern “rumor mill”.
One of the downsides of the Internet, particularly with social media, is that a user doesn’t always know who is at the other end of the conversation…it could be the actual person, or it could be someone who is pretending to be that person. The horror stories regarding dating websites are legion, as many lonely, desperate human beings have discovered when their “perfect match” turned out to be a sexual predator or serial killer. Probably the worst abuse of the Internet has been perpetrated by con men working to separate honest, but gullible, citizens from their money. Scam artists, purporting to be reputable folks, bilk wide-eyed believers out of millions of dollars every day. This crime has been going on for millennia, but the Internet makes it easier, as it provides an easy disguise to the criminal element.
The Russians used the anonymity of the Internet and the information distribution network of social media manipulate the 2016 election.
Early on in the Clinton campaign, the Russians hacked the email accounts of the Democratic National Committee, thereby gaining access to information that they could use against her via social media.
Popularity is a big thing with the current generations. Being “liked” on Facebook, being involved with something that is “trending”, having a legion of “followers” on Twitter…these things apparently make someone important, I guess. And, this is what the Russians took advantage of, by trolling the Internet. They carefully placed advertisements in social media, used bot nets to barrage users with “likes” and “followers”, and implanted political thoughts into social medial consciousness to subtly impact political discourse in targeted areas where the election was expected to be very close. In other words, they planted stories that sowed confusion, distrust, and anger among targeted demographics, with the intention of skewing the voting in close polling precincts.
For example, recent research by Facebook identified 80,000 Russia-linked posts that were viewed by 126 million people, as well as 3,000 online political ads viewed by 11.4 million people. Twitter says that it found 36,746 automated accounts with links to Russia that generated 1.4 million election-related tweets during the 2016 campaign. Those tweets were viewed 288 million times. Google has also reported that Russian agents placed election-related ads on its platform.
Russian-backed operatives even had a “donation page” on PayPal which generated money to support its nefarious activities. The donation page on the website Blackmattersus.com implore visitors to donate to the needs of the Black community. However, the website isn’t run by Black activists; it’s a site run by Russian-backed operatives aiming to stoke political divides in the U.S. before and after the 2016 election. The donation page /site was shut down by PayPal last week when Slate reporters brought it to PayPal’s attention.
These sort of nation vs. nation dirty tricks should not be a surprise to anyone, as Vladimir Putin, the ruthless politician who has been leading the Russian kleptocracy for the past seventeen years, was formerly a high-ranking official in the KGB (the Russian equivalent of our CIA). The man is a master spy and clever chess player of the highest magnitude.
The fact that Russian agents meddled with our election process is not an earth-shaking revelation; our CIA has been meddling in other countries’ affairs for the past 60 years, moving the hegemonic needle in the U.S.A.’s direction as best as it could. So, hat’s off to Mr. Putin…well played, Sir!
This past week, the House Intelligence Committee released a fraction of the 3,000 political ads put out by a single troll farm linked to the Russian government. More than 11 million people saw at least one of them. The ads fall into two categories: blunt affirmation of Trumpian bigotries and fake liberal posts meant to arouse conservative ire. The fake liberal posts often depict Hillary Clinton as untrustworthy and too friendly with disfavored minorities, closely mimicking actual conservative propaganda which targets a specific slice of the American electorate.
As Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation continues on, there seems to be more evidence with each passing day that individuals in the Trump campaign for President colluded with those Russian agents/meddlers, either inadvertently or purposely. Several indictments have already been handed down, and one Trump campaign staffer has plead guilty. Collusion with foreign agents is a treasonous offense, it is against the law, and it would also constitute an impeachable offense against President Trump, should Congress deem that appropriate.
(Of course, if something like that were to be in the offing, President Trump could pardon himself, his family members, and any campaign staff who conspired with the Russians. Given that he has already shown bad judgment in this regard (i.e. pardoning ex-Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio for racist actions he took while on the job), Mr. Trump might just invoke his pardon powers, and thereby invoke a constitutional crisis.)
Let’s hope that none of this happens.
Something as crazy as all of this would not have been possible without the Internet. The technology exploded on the scene, was quickly exploited by clever individuals, and…voila!…in a period of just a few decades, everyone is carrying around a device in their pocket with which they can communicate with anyone, anywhere in the world, instantly. What a wonderful thing! However, the suddenness of this tremendous leap forward in human achievement has apparently outrun the ability of common people to wisely use the technology.
I remember the old adage, “Don’t believe everything you read.” That is now doubly important in the Internet World, as should be “Don’t believe everything you hear” and “…see”, as well. There is so much false information disseminated, so easily, to the unwary public. “Fake news”, phony testimonials by con men in disguise, altered photos, staged “reality” videos on U-Tube, are just some of the trash that the consumer has to wade through.
(By the way, November 4th has just passed, so it may be safe to say that the latest Internet conspiracy theory/hoax/agitprop effort has been put to bed. An Alt-Right rumor, started on U-Tube, which quickly went viral, reported that left-wing terrorists (including M-13 gang members, the New Black Panthers, the Black Lives Matter movement, and Antifa activists) were going to rampage on November 4th in an attempt to start a new Civil War by going house to house stealing guns, and murdering white people, Christians and Trump supporters. There was no foundation for this rumor, which was received by millions via social media, but serves as an example of how the Internet can be used to inflame, incite, and manipulate people.)
(Update: Today, November 5th, there was an armed assault on a church in Texas. The gunman, armed with an automatic rifle, slaughtered 26 parishioners and seriously injured another couple of dozen. Within minutes, there were postings on Alt-Right websites and U-Tube identifying the shooter as a Muslim/Bernie Sanders supporter. These postings were viewed by tens of thousands of Americans. Later in the day, when the facts came in, it turned out that the murderer was a pasty Caucasian guy with mental health issues who had been cashiered out of the Air Force after a court martial some three years ago. In other words, just another crazy White guy with a legally-purchased machine gun. “Our thoughts and prayers…”)
And, now, we have the hackers, the pfishers, and the criminal thieves who seem to be a step ahead of any effort to corral them. Add to that foreign spy agencies, attempting to manipulate our political thought process. It’s a nightmare, I tell ya’.
Yes, the technology is a great thing, but unless the public uses common sense, it could end up being the death of us.
Be careful out there, my friends.