Haley Nate

Prof. Josh Terry

ENG 2010
Position Argument
Propaganda in News Media Today
We want you, to enlist today! is a famous line delivered to us by good ole Uncle Sam
during World War II. Uncle Sam along with Rosie the Riveter, are two well-known examples still
used today, and youd be hard-pressed to find someone who wasnt familiar with their phrases.
The army needed men to enlist and women to work while they were away. It is amazing to see
how something as simple as we want you! will stick around. After all, they were just
advertisements at the time of their inception.
The most prominent forms of propaganda to most are likely to be from World War II.
Looking back on it now, we can easily point out how openly exaggerated and emotional
propaganda really was back then. Something to consider of citizens back then seeing
propaganda, is that they had very limited resources to get information. Citizens did not have the
internet at their fingertips to check facts; they were limited to newspapers, radios, and some were
lucky enough to own televisions. With so few resources supplying information, citizens could be
presented with single stories and reports. Receiving information from limited sources in a time
like World War II could have a significant impact on how the information was presented and
received. With so much at stake for our country, reporters could easily exaggerate truths, leave
out unsavory details, or alter the order of important events when presenting any information.
Having the power to modify information like this, they can create fallacies and possibly
propaganda.

The simple definition of propaganda according to Merriam-Webster is: ideas or

statements that are often false or exaggerated and that are spread in order to help a cause, a
political leader, a government, etc. One important thing to keep in mind, is this could be any
idea or any statement. For example, companies and businesses sometimes use exaggerated
information to create advertisements to sell products such as food, clothes, or services. This isnt
always negative, they simply use a different form of rhetoric to influence people to use their
products and/or services. Although in more extreme cases, it can be used to manipulate entire
populations into adopting a new and harmful ideology. For example, in North Korea citizens can
be convicted for watching any media made outside their own country. The differences between
positive and negative propaganda are more dependent on how the information is presented. The
rhetoric can be concealed or open, emotional or reasonable, or a combination. Clearly, there are
different forms of propaganda, some more harmful than others.
If rhetoric is the only factor separating something as simple as advertising and
propaganda, what lies between the two? There are many sources someone can absorb ideas and
statements such as: movies, television, internet, newspapers, magazines, and so on. One
important source that came to mind was news media. The news media is important because it is
often our first source of information on current events. News media today has to reach a much
broader range of people in many demographics. In a sense, news is a business that has to create a
product. Some readers would prefer to know every gory detail. Some may read multiple articles
to get enough information to make an evaluation of the topic. Others may only want to read the
headlines to know what is going on in the first place. And of course, there are many readers all
along the spectrum. Because there are different types of consumers within different
demographics, there are multiple sources of news media to abide for the demand. And just like

advertisers selling a product, news media adapts their product, or changes their rhetoric for their
audience.
Here in America, our two most popular news stations are Fox and CNN. One of the first
things I learned about our countries two-party voter system, is that Fox covers Republican
interests and CNN covers Democratic interests. This could explain why these are the top two
news stations in our country, as they are reaching out to two opposing demographics. The day
after the events in Nice, France on July 14th 2016, the two news stations had different headlines
on the event. The headline for Fox read as: Terrorist behind Nice attack a creepy loner; not
overtly religious, say neighbors (Fox News). The headline for CNN reads: Attack in Nice:
Truck driver identified as 31-year-old Tunisia native (Dewan with Hanna with McKirdy). Both
headlines were found on the home pages of each networks website. The Fox headline is
addressing the attacker as a creepy loner and CNN addresses him as 31-year-old Tunisia
native. Whoever wrote the article for Fox describes the attacker as a creepy loner. This could be
considered fact, if you personally knew the attacker. Alternately, the three authors for CNN
identify the attacker by his age and place of birth. These are undisputable facts anyone can
understand, no matter where you live in the world. The other noteworthy distinction between the
two articles is that Fox does not have any author listed, whereas CNN had three. This not only
makes it difficult to cite the Fox article, but it speaks to their credibility as a reliable news source.
If Fox was able to publish subjective information with no author, what is the obligation of
the press when documenting a story? First of all, the freedom of the press is guaranteed under
constitutional law, in our first amendment right to freedom of speech. With this freedom, the
journalistic expression of opinion and interpretation of facts is essential to help others understand
events, so they can respond accordingly with thought and reason (Casey). It is the obligation of

the reporter to use appropriate rhetoric to expose facts as accurately and objectively as humanly
possible. Simultaneously, it is the obligation of the consumer to consider the facts and come to
their own reasonable conclusions. For respectable journalists today to provide their consumers
with reliable information, they have a responsibility to be honest and self-disciplined in their
work. In a way, you can say they are seeking to be a propagandist for the truth (Casey).
There are several techniques synonymous with propaganda that Fox news seems to use
frequently. Doctor Cynthia Boaz has broken them down into fourteen categories (Boaz).

Panic Mongering
Character Assassination/Ad
Hominum
Projection/Flipping
Rewriting History
Scapegoating/Othering
Conflating violence with
power and opposition to
violence with weakness

Bullying
Confusion
Populism
Invoking the Christian god
Saturation
Disparaging education
Guilt by association
Diversion

In the Fox headline regarding the Nice attack, one could easily pinpoint several of these tactics.
Looking closer at the title, Terrorist (panic mongering) behind Nice attack a creepy loner;
(scapegoating, bullying) not overtly religious, (diversion) say neighbors you can identify four
tactics within twelve words. Compared to the CNN headline, Attack in Nice: Truck driver
identified as 31-year-old Tunisia native which some could consider it to be panic mongering,
since the topic is of a devastating event.
Not to say that CNN hasnt used these tactics before, especially since theyve been
accused by one of their own employees of censoring their content. Amber Lyon, a three time
Emmy winning reporter for CNN news has spoken out regarding the extensive censorship the
government has put on reporters to censor their work. She was sent to Bahrain with four other
reporters to document the Arab spring. Instead, they encountered protestors. Lyon and the other
reporters ended up documenting the uproar happening in Bahrain. The footage was never
released, but according to Lyon they had recorded interviews with government officials and
protestors, she said they even recorded unarmed protestors being shot by government officials
(Adl-Tabatabai). When the reporters returned with the footage CNN refused to air it and Lyon
was let go with a severance package to keep her quiet. In this case, CNN may not be guilty of
using the same tactics as Fox to propagate their information. However, they are equally guilty of
propagating the truth and hiding it from their audience.
With that, does propaganda exist in news media today? Yes, and in many different forms.
Some is intentional, some is not. It is important for consumers to understand that subjective or
inaccurate rhetoric is dangerous. When consumers are not always willing to understand what is
being presented to them, they carry on the misinformed ideology presented to them. To fully

understand the truth, consumers must understand the bad that comes along with the good, and
vise versa. The world is not a perfect place, and if we are relying on news media to provide us
with the truth, it needs to be the whole truth. The top news station in our country should not be
able to publish subjective information without an author, and still be deemed credible.
Consumers must hold their news stations to a higher standard of presenting an objective truth; or
else these misinformed ideologies will keep the news where it is.

Works Cited

Propaganda. Def. Simple Definition of Propaganda. Merriam-Webster. 2015. WEB. 15

July 2016.
Fox News. Terrorist behind Nice attack a creepy loner; not overtly religious, say

neighbors. Fox News. 15 July 2016. Web. 15 July 2016.

Dewan, Angela. Hanna, Jason. McKirdy, Euan. Attack in Nice: Truck driver identified as
31-year-old Tunisia native. Cable News Network (CNN) 2:07PM EST 15 July 2016.

WEB. 15 July 2016.

Casey, Ralph D.. News and Propaganda. American Historical Association. 2013. WEB.

15 July 2016.
Boaz, Dr. Cynthia. Fourteen Propaganda Techniques Fox News Uses to Brainwash

Americans. Truthout.org. 02 July 2011. WEB. 31 July 2016.

Adl-Tabatabai, Sean. CNN Journalist Governments Pay Us To Fake Stories, Shocking
Expos. Your News Wire. 08 February 2015. WEB. 02 August 2016.