In an article in the Syrian government daily Al-Thawra, the host of the Al-Jazeera TV talk show "Opposite Direction," Dr. Faisal Al-Qassim, stated that the U.S. media propaganda machine is employing the methods of Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.
The following are the excerpts from the article[1]:
"If Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's famous propaganda minister, were alive today, he would be demanding extensive compensation from the American media. Indeed, why not? This media is using his propaganda methods of premeditated and systematic lies, implementing them in toto without mentioning the inventor.
"In other words, we have here a clear case of the violation of copyright laws in respect to Goebbels' intellectual property. And since the Americans assign great importance to the intellectual property issue, they should acknowledge to the Nazi propaganda minister that they are copying his propaganda methods, and should pay him royalties. However, since the American media has extensively advanced Goebbels's propaganda methods, rendering them more destructive and effective – they have in fact registered a new patent, [which is why] they refrained from mentioning the source.
"Lest anyone think that comparing the U.S. media, which is the most respected media in the world, to Goebbels's propaganda is a distortion of [reality] and grave injustice, here is a big, fresh headline [that appeared] in a American paper on Tuesday, September 4, 2007: 'Cheney Orders Media To Sell Attack On Iran: Fox News, Wall Street Journal instructed to launch PR blitz for upcoming military strike.' This headline is not taken from an Arab newspaper or any [other] communications channel that wishes to denigrate the American media; it comes from an article written by prominent American journalist Paul Joseph Watson for the Prison Planet (a paper which gets most of its information from important U.S. papers and magazines such as the famous New Yorker).
"The American journalist quotes Brent Rubin, an expert on Afghanistan at the University of New York, who claims to have had long talks with the head of one of the institutes affiliated with the U.S. neo-cons – a senior official who told him that it was the vice president's office that issued instructions to launch an extensive and focused propaganda campaign [in order to] sell to the American people the idea of an attack on Iran one week after Labor Day[2] [According to the report,] to this end the Enterprise Institute will coordinate with the newspapers The Wall Street Journal and The Weekly Standard [sic], the magazine Commentary, the Fox channel, and other papers, periodicals, and TV and radio channels. The vice president's office requested that the media step up its propaganda campaign and coordinate it carefully so as to persuade the Americans to accept the impending attack on Iran, whether it is just or not.
"Attention! The U.S. media – and everyone's already got a headache from all the talk about their 'reliability', 'independence' and 'freedom' – is required to spread a bunch of lies and fabrications so that the plans to attack Iran might come to fruition. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney... requested that the media accuse Iran of any incident that might occur, even it be the work of the 'blue devil' [itself]. Cheney thus instructed [the U.S. media]: 'It is important that you sell [the message] that Iran and no one else is responsible for everything that may happen to us.' What a wonderful media this is!
"Is this logic different from the rationale behind the Nazi propaganda led by Joseph Goebbels, with its motto, 'Lie and lie again, and keep lying, until something sticks to the minds of the masses or until you, yourself, come to believe it!?'[3] Are the U.S. media not portraying white as black and black as white, to comply with Vice President's Cheney's orders? Are we not facing here the exact Nazi propaganda formula – a leader issuing orders and the media making sure they are fulfilled, and falsifying [the truth] blindly and automatically?!!...
"Who said that the Americans are not reliable? A report published [in a neo-con paper] admitted that the [U.S.] media is required to accuse Iran of any action the U.S. may be subjected to – and this must be done immediately, without doubt or hesitation. The media is also required to hide any evidence that might implicate other elements involved in such action. Note the professionalism, reliability, neutrality and freedom of the press [enjoyed by the American media].
"What is the difference between this 'utterly free' U.S. media and the contemptible official Arab media used by the Arab governments as a propaganda mouthpiece to mislead, conceal, and promote ignorance among the masses for their disgraceful recruitment?
"Oh, Goebbels, how you have been wronged! They demonize you, scoff at your methods, make you into a symbol of lies, hypocrisy and communications failure – only to imitate your methods in minute detail. There is only one small difference: your [i.e. Goebbels's] media communications were primitive; they failed over fifty years ago – while they [the U.S.] have an unprecedented state-of-the-art communications empire..."
[1] Al-Thawra (Syria), September 17, 2007.
[2] Labor Day is designated in the U.S. on the second Monday of each September.
[3] The quote appears at
http://en.thinkexist.com/quotation/-if_you_tell_a_lie_big_enough_and_keep_repeating/345877.html
as: "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."
