On this date two years ago, Dredd Blog published the post GE Serves The Pentagon On TV Near Yoo, pointing out the massive propaganda engine GE corporate media has and uses on U.S. citizens.At that time two years ago we did not know that the work GE corporate media helped the military with was linked to a Pentagon secret document, now unclassified, which defined the contours of the media propaganda efforts.
Those efforts are called Information Operations Roadmap, detailed in that once-classified but evidently unwittingly declassified document, produced by Donald Rumsfeld when he was Secretary of Defense.
A copy of the document is available through the link in the comments at the end of this post of two years ago:
GE looks at the media as one of its tools for selling ideas as if ideas were toothpaste.
This echoes the observation of Professor Noam Chomsky, who said:
One of the most important comments on deceit, I think, was made by Adam Smith. He pointed out that a major goal of business is to deceive and oppress the public.(Noam Chomsky, Professor, MIT, emphasis mine). Notice how GE calls various entities "Brands" on its own website:
And one of the striking features of the modern period is the institutionalization of that process, so that we now have huge industries deceiving the public — and they're very conscious about it, the public relations industry. Interestingly, this developed in the freest countries—in Britain and the US—roughly around time of WWI, when it was recognized that enough freedom had been won that people could no longer be controlled by force. So modes of deception and manipulation had to be developed in order to keep them under control.
And by now these are huge industries. They not only dominate marketing of commodities, but they also control the political system. As anyone who watches a US election knows, it's marketing. It's the same techniques that are used to market toothpaste.
And, of course, there are power systems in place to facilitate this. Throughout history it's been mostly the property holders or the educated classes who've tended to support power systems. And that's a large part of what I think education is—it's a form of indoctrination. You have to reconstruct a picture of the world in order to be conducive to the interests and concerns of the educated classes, and this involves a lot of self-deceit.
BRANDS(General Electric Website, UPDATE: they took the page down to hide this egregious reality, so to see this use The WayBack Machine). The GE website points out that they are also into military contracts in war zones as well as oil, gas, healthcare, and banking.* Bravo
* CNBC
* Focus Features & Rogue Pictures
* Global Networks
* MSNBC
* Mun2
* NBC Entertainment
* NBC News
* NBC Sports & Olympics
* NBC Universal Television Group
* NBC Universal Television Stations
* SCI FI
* Telemundo
* USA Network
* Universal Parks & Resorts
* Universal Pictures
* Universal Studios Home Entertainment
* iVillage
GE is part and parcel of the military oil media complex once called the military industrial complex.
This blog has a series of posts which show the roots of this system which worships war and deceit, our worst enemy.
The Pentagon needed to help Bush II get elected, to save the military oil complex from becoming a class like the military in other countries of the world:
Until more money arrives, the defense apparatus is literally feeding on its own parts, pinching this and that, scrimping here and there, in order to keep the same Cold War force structure in place and the same lineup of new weapons moving through the pipeline of development. During the Cold War era, the military institution acquired a reflexive appetite for growth that it's now unwilling to give up. Instead, it lumbers toward a self-induced crisis of malnourishment, as when an addict's starving body eats its own liver.(Is There A Shadow Government - 2). That was the state of the military just as Bush II was being elected, with the help of GE and the GE CEO, Bush II's greatest campaign contributor.
The author observed "the defense apparatus" (a.k.a. "military industrial complex") as being an addict to public money, which is synonymous with dangerous, aberrant behaviour.
The Pentagon had the choice of easing the burden of the nation it is sworn to uphold, by dropping the cold war habit, or instead staying addicted and becoming too big to fail - continuing to impoverish the nation.
The Pentagon did not wait long after installing Bush II to begin their wars, which still continue to this day, to fatten them at the expense of millions of Americans who are losing homes, jobs, and healthcare.
We have written some posts exposing some of how the Pentagon, through puppets like MSNBC's Morning Joe, habitually deceives the public.
GE financials looked at here.
Here are some quotes from the Information Operations Roadmap document mentioned at the top of this post:
We Must Fight the Net. DoD is building an information-centric-force. Networks are increasingly the operational center of gravity, and the Department must be prepared to "fight the net." (page 6 [PDF page 10])(Information Operations Roadmap, emphasis added). The roadmap includes the ways the information operation is to be carried out, such as:
We Must Improve PSYOP. Military forces must be better prepared to use PSYOP in support of military operations and the themes and messages employed in a PSYOP campaign must be consistent with the broader national security objectives and national-level themes and messages. (page 6 [PDF page 10])
The integrated employment of the core capabilities of Electronic Warfare, Computer Network Operations, Psychological Operations, Military Deception and Operations Security, in concert with specified supporting and related capabilities, to influence, disrupt, corrupt or usurp adversarial human and automated decision-making ... (page 11 [PDF page 15])
SOCOM's ongoing PSYOP Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration and modernization efforts should permit the timely, long-range dissemination of products with various PSYOP delivery systems. This includes satellite, radio and television, cellular phones and other wireless devices, the Internet and upgrades to traditional delivery systems such as leaflets and loudspeakers that are highly responsive to maneuver commanders. (page 15 [PDF page 19])
USD(P), in coordination with ASD(PA) will analyze and make recommendations on those policy, strategy and legal issues affected by and related to the proper role for public diplomacy and public affairs in relation to IO. Particular emphasis will be given to examining the appropriate relationship of PSYOP to public affairs as they relate to [U.S. Government] communications strategies for both adversaries and non-adversaries. (page 24 [PDF page 28])
(ibid, at page 71 [page 75 PDF]). This document was prepared in 2003 so its application in the real world "turned the U.S. military into a global propaganda machine" according to the president of the Associated Press.
- Brokering press availability for senior leaders (speeches, interviews, etc.)
- Inoculations: Preemptive global communications to demonstrate past behavior or spotlight transgressions
- Rapid Response/Truth Squads and "Briefings Plus"
- Media embeds
- Official press releases
- Domestic opinion pieces and editorials by senior DoD officials
- News releases
- Press conferences
"I never realized how big nothing could be" (Roches) ... love that line.
Propaganda is BIG but it gives you nothing of truth, which is one of the main ingredients of mental health.
Leave truth out and all you have is the big nothing: social dementia.
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