Propaganda, American style

 

A Russian is on an airliner heading to the US, and the American in the seat next to him asks, “So what brings you to the US?” The Russian replies, “I’m studying the American approach to propaganda.” The American says, “What propaganda?” The Russian says, “That’s what I mean.”  - From “A case study in American propaganda” by Robert Wright

In the article quoted above, Wright, lays out the difference between American propaganda and that of the Russians. His point is that in a democracy, propaganda is subtle and understated, while in Russia it is blatant. The result is that most Russians are aware of the role of the media as propaganda for those in power and take the news and opinions with a “grain of salt”, while most Americans are totally unaware of the slant in our news sources. Case in point is the media coverage of foreign policy and in particular, the war in Ukraine.

As Wright points out, much of what we see about the war in the mainstream media (both “news” and opinion) comes directly from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). The ISW is funded by and has longstanding ties to various components of the military-industrial complex. The following is from the ISW website:

“Dr. Kimberly Kagan founded ISW in May 2007, as U.S. forces undertook a daring new counterinsurgency strategy to reverse the grim security situation on the ground in Iraq. Frustrated with the prevailing lack of accurate information documenting developments on the ground in Iraq and the detrimental effect of biased reporting on policymakers, Dr. Kagan established ISW to provide real-time, independent, and open-source analysis of ongoing military operations and insurgent attacks in Iraq. General Jack Keane (U.S. Army, Ret.), the Chairman of ISW’s board, also played a central role in developing the intellectual foundation for this change of strategy in Iraq, and supported the formation of the Institute in 2007.”

The board members of ISW represent a who’s who list of the US military, corporate CEOs (with an emphasis on private equity, aka corporate raiders), and conservative politicians (the list of the board and their affiliations taken directly from the ISW website):

General Jack Keane (US Army, Retired), Chairman, Institute for the Study of War; President, GSI, LLC; Dr. Kimberly Kagan, Founder & President, Institute for the Study of War; The Honorable Kelly Craft, Former US Ambassador to UN and Canada; Dr. William Kristol, Director, Defending Democracy Together; The Honorable Joseph I. Lieberman, Senior Council, Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman, LLP; Kevin Mandia, Chief Executive Officer & Board Director, Mandiant; Jack D. McCarthy, Jr., Senior Managing Director & Founder, A&M Capital; Bruce Mosler, Chairman, Global Brokerage, Cushman & Wakefield, Inc.; General David H. Petraeus (US Army, Retired), Member, KKR & Chairman, KKR Global Institute; Dr. Warren Phillips, Lead Director, CACI International; Colonel William Roberti (US Army, Retired), Managing Director, Alvarez & Marsal

With the media’s reliance on the ISW (and other thinktanks with the same guiding perspective) for its information and analysis of the war in Ukraine (including some sources that claim to be progressive), there is no need for any government control or censorship. 

Obviously the Russians have a lot to learn.