Other Control Tactics

What I described in the prior chapter is the tip of the iceberg of techniques that are used by the media to brainwash people. Here is a short list of other techniques:

Diversion / Distraction From What is Really Going On:

This tactic is where the media diverts your attention from the real issues and consumes your attention with irrelevant and/or far less important issues. For example, America always seems to be at war. This never-ending battle with our "enemies" is partly a diversion to distract people's attention from corporate and government corruption.

• "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
  Abraham Lincoln

By diverting people's attention towards external enemies, American politicians are able to distract our attention from our internal corruption, which are like a virus or "cancer" and cause far more damage than our external enemies. The public has no idea how corrupt many high ranking officials are because they are consumed with external "enemies."

• "Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear -- kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor -- with the cry of grave national emergency ... Always there has been some terrible evil to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it by furnishing the exorbitant sums demanded. Yet, in retrospect, these disasters seem never to have happened, seem never to have been quite real."
  General Douglas MacArthur, 1957

As an example, because of corruption in Congress, Congress has given Codex Alimentarius Commission (an agency of the United Nations) the authority to determine what nutrients can and cannot be sold in America (this is a major loss of American sovereignty). This authority, for a variety of reasons, has not yet been exercised.

• "What is the Codex Alimentarius Commission? This Commission consists of pharmaceutical executives and international delegates and was established in 1962 by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization to develop international food standards to 'protect' consumer health and to facilitate 'fair' trading practices in foods ... Vitamins, minerals, and natural remedies help prevent illness and thus threaten the pharmaceutical market. Concerned citizens believe that the pharmaceutical industry is using Codex to discredit the effectiveness of natural therapies and prop up its trillion-dollar market for beta blockers, calcium antagonists, cholesterol-lowering products and so on."
  http://www.avenaoriginals.com/market/newsletter/auguest2002nl4.htm

Avoiding The Debate By Using Deception:

In this tactic, the media makes it sound like they are covering all of the issues of a debate, when in fact they are only talking about a small segment of the issues in the debate. For example, in December, 2002, Newsweek magazine published a major article on "alternative medicine." They even talked about cancer. But you can rest assured they didn't mention any of the top 100 alternative treatments for cancer. They were talking mainly about alternative medicine being used to treat the symptoms of chemotherapy.

By doing this the reader thought that when they finished reading the article, they knew everything there was to know about alternative treatments for cancer, when in fact they knew absolutely nothing about alternative treatments for cancer. In other words, the readers didn't even know there is a debate or war between orthodox and alternative medicine. They think the two sides are closely working together.

Misinformation:

This takes many forms. It can take the form of bogus research, designed to discredit valid research. It can take the form of misinformation about treatment plans, bogus "patients," and so on. Anything that includes a lie or false information fits into this category. And that is a lot of things.

Blacklisting:

This is an interesting form of propaganda. I have previously mentioned the four viewpoints that a person needs to look at in order to make an informed decision. In this method only one of the four viewpoints are mentioned, the orthodox view of itself. The other three subjects are totally blacklisted, as if one side didn't even exist.

This, in fact, is a major way of keeping the truth about alternative medicine from the public, the subject is simply ignored. Since most people get the vast, vast majority of their information from the media, the people don't even know one side of the debate even exists. I will give examples of this in a future chapter.

The Last Word:

Some media shows like to pretend they present both sides of issues. Frequently, when they present both sides of an issue they will actually have someone from both sides of the fence speak. But it is not what you think. The person the media station doesn't like is always interviewed first. The selections chosen from the interview with the person they don't like may be very abbreviated and may be designed to make the person look rather dull, meaning not very smart. But it gets worse.

They then let the person they like give the "last word." This person always explains why the first person was wrong, then explains why their own interpretation is correct. The second person is always portrayed as very sharp and very intelligent. A good announcer can enhance the differences between the two people and make the second person look even smarter.

Putting the two interviews together, it is partly an attempt to mute the first person, then let the second person criticize the first person and then present the "far more intelligent" case by the second person. It is critical that the favored person go last. That way when the second person is finished, so is the debate. The first person never gets a chance to refute what the second person said.

The listener is left with a bad taste in their mouth for the first person and ends up thinking they understand all of the issues. The listener, of course, ends up agreeing with the second person. It is a technique that appears on the surface to be unbiased, but yet it is among the most pernicious techniques of all.

Name Calling/Slander:

This is a technique of belittling the major players of the enemy. Quackwatch uses this technique in almost every article they write. They say something slanderous about one of the proponents of alternative medicine. They even have an entire article attempting to belittle Linus Pauling!

Glorifying the Team Players:

It is hard to pick up an issue of Reader's Digest (in fact it is probably impossible) without finding at least one article that glorifies orthodox medicine. Frequently, they have an article glorifying a doctor. Other times they have an article about how a patient was saved by one or more wondrous orthodox doctors. Other times they have an article about a disease and how orthodox medicine is "closing in" on this disease. Etc. They are constantly glorifying orthodox medicine.

We Must Save The Public:

Enter the corrupt FDA, FTC, ad nauseum. As I write this, the FTC is trying to get more control over the internet. It totally irks them to know that there is a medium that they cannot control. Their job is to shut down, by force if necessary, all truth about cancer. They do a great job. They, of course, focus on the abuses that are done on the internet, as an excuse to gain more control over the internet.

They want this control in order to suppress the vast amount of truth that can be found on the internet and the potential for distributing truth on the internet. In other words, they focus on people who are less than 1% as corrupt as they are, and use the abuses of these people "to save the public by giving them (the far more corrupt group) more power."

This is by far the most common tactic used by power hungry governments. Almost all power the government gains (e.g. a new government agency or new powers) is by finding some "event" they can leverage to argue for more power so they can presumably protect the public.

For example, the Patriot Act, which is supposedly a reaction to terrorism, is in fact nothing but trashing the constitutional protections we have. Virtually the entire Bill of Rights has been destroyed by using this technique. The media are masters at blowing up the significance of a single event in order to promote an ever growing and ever more powerful government. Hitler used this technique all the time.

• "The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants."
  Albert Camus, author

Step By Step:

This is not so much a misinformation technique as it is a way to get what you want in spite of overwhelming public concern. As an example, suppose a company wants its product approved by the FDA. But suppose that the overwhelming public scientific evidence is that the product is toxic and causes brain damage, death and a host of other problems. It is not enough to simply have the pharmaceutical company produce false "scientific" studies. Even overt political corruption cannot get you what you want. What do you do?

No problem, you introduce the product in stages, step by step, such that no single step causes too much of an outcry, but taken together, the steps get you the profits that you want. Of course, a good example is Aspartame. Here is a very, very shortened summary of how J.D. Searle got Aspartame approved, even though it was known to cause over 90 different illnesses:

• "[Aspartame] is essentially a chemical weapon designed to impact populations en masse. It is an rDNA derivative made from two amino acids, L-phenylalanine, L-aspartic acid and methanol. Originally discovered during a search for an ulcer drug in 1966, it was "approved" by the FDA in 1974 as a "food additive". Approval was followed by a retraction based on demonstrated public concern over the fact that the substance produced brain tumors in rats. According to the 1974 FDA task force set up to examine aspartame and G.D. Searle, "we have uncovered serious deficiencies in Searles operations and practices, which undermine the basis for reliance on Searle’s integrity in conducting high quality animal research to accurately determine the toxic potential of its products." The task force report concluded with the recommendation that G.D. Searle should face a Grand Jury "to identify more particularly the nature of the violations, and to identify all those responsible."

  In 1976, an FDA "task force" brought into question all of G.D. Searle’s aspartame testing procedures conducted between 1967 and 1975. The final FDA report noted faulty and fraudulent product testing, knowingly misrepresented product testing, knowingly misrepresented findings, and instances of irrelevant animal research. In other word, illegal criminal activity. Understandably scared, Searle officials sought to suppress the FDA findings and obstruct justice. They turned to Nixon and Ford administration operative Donald Rumsfeld and elected him "chairman of the Searle organization." In 1977, the Wall Street Journal detailed the fact that Rumsfeld made efforts to "mend fences" by asking "what Searle could do" in the face of the changes. Also in 1977, Dr. Adrian Gross, a pathologist working for the FDA, uncovered evidence that G.D. Searle might have committed criminal fraud in withholding adverse data on aspartame...

  In 1981, under pressure from the soft drink lobby, FDA Commissioner Hayes approved the initial use of aspartame in dry foods and as a tabletop sweetener, discounting public complaints as anecdotal and ignoring three FDA scientists, who voiced the fact that there were serious questions concerning brain tumor tests after having done an in-house study. Hayes was widely profiled as a man who believed that approval for new drugs and additives was "too slow" because "the FDA demanded too much information." Hayes also ignored the fact that the biased scientific studies paid for by Searle were faulty. After leaving the FDA, Hayes took the post of senior medical consultant for the public relations firm retained by Searle ... A subsequent inquiry "found no impropriety."

  In July 1983 it was approved for use in soft drinks in the United States, followed three months later by approval in Britain by the Ministry of Agriculture. All this was done despite the fact that the Department of Defense knew that aspartame was neurotoxic and harmful to human health. These facts were deliberately suppressed by the government. It is also interesting that in 1981 FDA scientist Dr. Robert Condon, in an internal government document, said "I do not concur that aspartame has been shown to be safe with respect to the induction of brain tumors." All safety was thrown aside because of pressure from Searle."
  Joseph Mercola, M.D.

In other words, with enough effort and money, and using the step by step protocol (from dry foods to soft drinks), virtually anything can eventually get approved by the FDA.

The step by step protocol is used by virtually all governments to get what they want. When Hitler conquered a country he did not just march in and kill all of the Jews, that would have raised a public outcry. He did it small step by small step, such as by making the Jews wear arm bands, then causing them to lose their companies, then segregating them from the general public, then putting them in concentration camps, etc.

As another example, the anti-gun people do not want private citizens to own guns. As the bumper sticker says: "When guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns." Thus, step-by-step, laws are passed in cities, states and nationally to increase the number of people who have to register guns, and the number of types of guns that are outlawed. The newest step is H.R. 2038. This step-by-step process will not end until all non-criminals have their guns confiscated.

Hidden Agendas and Deceptive Titles:

For example, there is an organization called:
"Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine (OCCAM)," a noble sounding organization,
which is part of the "National Cancer Institute (NCI)," another noble sounding organization,
which is part of the "National Institutes of Health (NIH)," another noble sounding group,
which is part of the "U.S. Department of Health and Human Services," certainly an organization of complete integrity.

Wow, with all of these high sounding names, OCCAM must have a fabulous web site supporting and helping alternative health research. It is all a lie. OCCAM exists to suppress the truth about alternative medicine. It exists to lure people who contact the NCI away from the truth about alternative medicine. Its name implies it is pro-alternative medicine, but its actions are totally anti-alternative medicine.

Such deception in titles are common in government, charities, ad nauseum. The "American Medical Association" has no interest in your health, it is effectively a labor union. The "American Cancer Society" has no interest in seeing people cured of cancer, it is interested in luring research money away from alternative medicine and in raising money for orthodox "research." And the list goes on and on.

Copyright (c) 2003, 2010 R. Webster Kehr, all rights reserved