John Whitehead's Commentary

"Propaganda. All is phony."--Bob Dylan

For Hitler, mobilizing people to march was a way to immobilize them. Apart from the specific purpose of the march (whether to attack domestic enemies or occupy other countries), Hitler's German marchers became passive, powerless, non-thinking non-individuals. Thus, they easily became controlled by the government.

Today we face a similar sort of control. While Americans may not literally be in the streets marching to the beat of the government's music, we are increasingly being controlled by a more efficient and effective form of manipulation: television has become the modern equivalent of marching. As former presidential advisor Bertram Gross writes in his insightful book Friendly Fascism, "TV is the indispensable magic stroke, performed in order to accustom the people to a mechanical, quasi-ritualistic activity until it becomes second nature."

Indeed, television may be more effective at controlling people than mass marching. The ultimate propaganda tool, TV reaches out to and captures more people than would ever fill the streets by marching. Television cuts across all age groups and classes and includes the very young and very old, as well as the rich, the insomniac, the lawyer, doctor and professor. It also has a hypnotic effect because, as Gross states, it accustoms people to a mechanical, quasi-ritualistic activity until it becomes second nature--such as the endless and somewhat obsessed viewing of so-called news talk shows by Americans.

Clearly, the politicians who run the government are aware of television's pervasive and persuasive power. Hence, our airwaves are now dominated by politics, political campaigns and political ads from both the Bush and Kerry campaigns--all crafted by professional, highly paid advertising experts and psychologists and funded, as you might have guessed, by the American taxpayer.

George W. Bush, for example, gets his advice from the New York Madison Avenue firm Young & Rubicom and Vada Hill, best known for working on Taco Bell's talking dog ads. These advertising marketing firms seem to shift rather easily from selling tacos to selling presidents to the American public. Yet recent Gallup polls show that the ads work. For example, John Kerry's ratings have dropped since the airing of the campaign ads attacking his war record.

Of course, this means that Americans who watch such carefully crafted and manipulative ads actually believe what they are being sold. Bush ad-maker Stuart Stevens knows that he can effectively move public opinion by aiming at your emotions. For that reason, Stevens has adopted the Madison Avenue approach to selling products such as food and toilet paper and applied it to selling his candidate. As he said, "I think people who can make you feel emotionally involved about eating hamburgers have something to teach" the political ad men.

And because the average 30- to 60-second commercial has little real information, "positive" images are all important. Indeed, Bush's TV ads "are unique in the history of presidential advertising in that there is no informational content whatsoever," notes Ryan Lizza (www.NewYorkmetro.com). "They are truly issueless. In that sense, they represent a striking resurgence of Madison Avenue's influence in presidential politics."

We see this effectively demonstrated in the political ads run by the Bush campaign and its supporters. Although some of the TV spots seek to destroy Kerry's credibility, the focus is on selling the presidential product. The "Safer, Stronger" ads aired by the Bush ad people are a good example. No facts or accomplishments are transmitted, just images--a stock ticker and a flag-draped stretcher from ground zero--that recall the challenges of the recession and 9/11. Text across the screen proclaims that TODAY, AMERICA IS TURNING THE CORNER. The tagline simply emphasizes continuity: PRESIDENT BUSH. STEADY LEADERSHIP IN TIMES OF CHANGE. In this, there are no facts showing that the Bush presidency has in any way been an improvement over Clinton.

If and when the ads do provide information, it will most likely be negative, as seen with the ads attacking Kerry's war record. No matter how much Kerry might complain about such ads, however, he is not above the fray. His TV spots are now in the hands of Bob Schrum, whose work includes some of the toughest attack ads ever made. One notorious ad by Schrum for a Texas primary actually questioned whether Gov. Ann Richards had snorted cocaine.

We have been conditioned to accept the TV image, whether in a commercial or one of the myriad news talk shows, as representing the truth. But this is simply not the case. And like the barrage of infomercials selling snake oil products, we are also being sold political candidates as if they were deodorant.

If there is one maxim to remember, it is this: all of television and public life, including politics, has become entertainment--with the goal of selling you a product. This is true whether it is hamburgers, tacos, weight-reducing drugs or politicians--they are all products.

If we do not come to realize that politicians, like magicians, have become adept at slight-of-hand maneuvers, then there is little hope that we will ever know the truth of what goes on in government. Distracted and marching in step with whatever the government/entertainment industry feeds us, we too will have become like those who locked step with that little maniac with the Charlie Chaplin mustache.

ABOUT JOHN W. WHITEHEAD

Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at staff@rutherford.org. Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.

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