{"id":279946,"date":"2016-11-18T19:31:53","date_gmt":"2016-11-18T18:31:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/filtering-the-election\/"},"modified":"2016-11-18T19:31:53","modified_gmt":"2016-11-18T18:31:53","slug":"filtering-the-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/filtering-the-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Filtering The Election"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><strong>Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When the likes of Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi, Bashar al-Assad, and now Donald Trump, are <a href=\"http:\/\/medialens.org\/index.php?option=com_acymailing&amp;no_html=1&amp;ctrl=url&amp;urlid=6112&amp;mailid=415&amp;subid=22466\" target=\"_blank\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?hl=en&amp;q=http:\/\/medialens.org\/index.php?option%3Dcom_acymailing%26no_html%3D1%26ctrl%3Durl%26urlid%3D6112%26mailid%3D415%26subid%3D22466&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1479563023629000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF3CR5MnSO6lybSOupTKRS3dXTjdg\">declared<\/a> the latest \u2018New Hitler\u2019, we learn little except that they are enemies of the establishment. It means the \u2018On\u2019 button has been pressed on a propaganda machine designed for maximal demonisation, leaving no room for public doubt. This inevitably drives comparisons in the direction of Hitler and the Nazis.<\/p>\n<p>The rationale is well-understood by the public relations community. Phil Lesley, author of a handbook on PR and communications, explained the spectacularly successful strategy for obstructing action on environmental issues:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u2018People generally do not favour action on a non-alarming situation when arguments seem to be balanced on both sides and there is a clear doubt\u2026 Nurturing public doubts by demonstrating that this is not a clear-cut situation in support of the opponents usually is all that is necessary.\u2019 (Lesly, \u2018Coping with Opposition Groups,\u2019 Public Relations Review 18, 1992, p.331)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Conversely, when action is required, the issue must be presented as one-sided, clear-cut, black-and-white.<\/p>\n<p>This doesn\u2019t mean that Saddam Hussein <em>wasn\u2019t<\/em> a tyrant, and it doesn\u2019t mean that Trump <em>isn\u2019t<\/em> a grave threat to uncivilisation; it means that establishment enemies are described as \u2018New Hitlers\u2019 for reasons that have little or nothing to do with any threat they might pose.<\/p>\n<p>In Trump\u2019s case, the public was not being softened up for&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/2016\/11\/filtering-the-election\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Introduction When the likes of Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi, Bashar al-Assad, and now Donald Trump, are declared the latest \u2018New Hitler\u2019, we learn little except that they are enemies of the establishment. It means the \u2018On\u2019 button has been pressed on a propaganda machine designed for maximal demonisation, leaving no room for public doubt. This [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2525,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-279946","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2525"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279946\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}