Monday, January 22, 2007

Rev. Moon's Anti-Obama Agit-Prop

By Robert Parry
January 23, 2007

If you’ve ever wondered how agit-propaganda works, you might take a look at the latest case study from the Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s media empire – a bogus story about Barack Obama attending a Muslim “madrassah” when he was six years old, a smear that was then attributed to operatives of Hillary Clinton.

The shrewdness of Moon’s Insight magazine story is that it hit two enemies with one anonymously sourced stone, a strategy of slime and divide straight from the textbooks of a spy agency like the CIA.

Read on.
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1 comment:

Unknown said...

A great thing about Bob Parry is the encyclopedic extent of his research, his ability to remember most of it and his perspective when he delivers the goods.

In order to benefit from an accurate macro-perspective, it is imperative to take the time to read his 12/27/06 special report “The GOP’s $3 Billion Propaganda Organ” because it details the methods and means of decades-worth of Moonie manipulation in both American and global politics. With that under one’s belt, one can better appreciate Mr. Parry’s micro-perspective set forth in his most recent report, “Rev. Moon’s Anti-Obama Agit-Prop.”

One of the principles of perception management is to use themes that exploit less-than-conscious biases, prejudices and fears for the purpose of achieving a polarization of emotion instead of an evaluation of ideas and weighing of positions. The more extreme the polarization, the easier it is to manipulate a person to adopt a position anathema to his own self-interest. In “Agit-Prop” Mr. Parry’s spots the issue: Moon’s latest hit piece kills two birds by tarring Barack Obama as a closet Islamic fascist and Hillary Clinton as a no-holds barred manipulative bitch. As Parry says, Moon’s Insight Magazine effort “pushes hot buttons . . . of many Americans” but offers no confirmable proof when so doing. Moon thus plows the ground where a cleaner appearing Republican alternative can better take root.

Our democracy is premised on the idea that when having the benefit of sufficient accurate information, the People will exercise their inherent intelligence and make good decisions that will further their well-being. It is deplorable that instead of the news - which the First Amendment’s protections of free speech and press would deliver to our homes so that we could function as intelligent participants on our own self governance - we get manipulative “agit-prop” instead.

To be informed takes effort so it is a harder road than to be manipulated and duped. Bob Parry has made the effort to deliver the goods. Take the time to read it.

Ford Greene

Tue Jan 23, 01:34:00 PM 2007

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