Spin! Spin Control?

buddyonair

CT are theories after all. So is there a need for Spin Control? (presented very good in the movie "Thank you for smoking")

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin_%28public_relations%29

How come the media got this powerful and is the best tool for Spin?

If there are no real CT is there a need for Spin at all?

meglome

The media has been powerful for along time. Though I would suggest if anything that they are less powerful now as there as just so many places to find out information.

More often than not spin is used (by governments anyway) as a tool to make them look good and to cover ineptitude. I don't see it as some big conspiracy mostly packaging. Although I'd love see the spin doctors be the first to go in this recession we're currently enjoying.

buddyonair

ineptitude = nice

Kama

Presenting bad news well, and exaggerating good is nothing new. The classic for media control is usually considered to be Chomsky, Manufacturing COnsent. Chomsky used be accused of being a conspiracy theorist, but now he's considered respectable. He has a quote I'll now mangle:

'When people don't want to respond to you, they call you a lot of dirty names; Marxist, Conspracy Theorist, and so on'


Mind you, bringing up spin raises an interesting linkage. Modern PR was essentially the brainchild of Edward Bernays, a relation of Freud. PR as the explicit construction of reality, rather than just reporting with a slant, is often attributed to him. He emphasised unconscious drives and manipulation. Check it:

'Those who manipulate [the] unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ...We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of...In almost every act of our daily lives, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons...who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.'

So...there's the PR/spin 'conspracy' for ya, from its Daddys mouth!

buddyonair

again, good comment. thanks. but I don't get it.

How could he earn respect and at the same time he is favoring the NWO?

I saw many documentaries about Noam Chomsky. He is a very calm guy, literally the opposite of Alex Jones. But still it is strange that he is not seen as an Alex Jones supporter. Chomsky's protest could be compared with Ghandi's way of protest.

You said "Modern PR". Is "Modern PR" the old word for Spin?

Kama

Yeh modern Public Relations is spin, basically. Bernays developed a lot of it back in the 20's, and has been widely imitated. He was also a bit of an elitist, basically quite close to what the NWO is considered by CT'ers to think; people are sheep, you have to manipulate them, a small number of powerful clever people should and do control everything, and thats hwo it both should and must be.

Chomskys quite far from an Alex Jones supporter; Alex Jones is a shock-merchant with a loudspeaker and the internet, Chomsky is an political anarchist and academic who has spent his life cutting newspapers and comparing what they say to show patterns in media and politics, and is not a fan of CT.

buddyonair

I will check Bernays. Sounds interesting.

So Chimsky is Mel Gibson in the movie "Conspiracy theory" then.
"cutting out articles from newspapers and stuff... just without the killing :pac:

Kama

Hehe no, Mel Gibson (ooh! we need a mel gibson thread!) is closer to Alex Jones than Chomsky. Unless you really like politics and history, especially US foreign policy, you'll find Chomsky boring as all hell...Closer to an old guy with a mug of tea cipping articles out, than a paranoid-schiz looking for 'teh sekret message!'.