Lying Trump and Surrogates
From an early age we try to encourage children to discount the propaganda techniques of advertisers. It is but a recent aspect of our culture that we need to educate citizens not only to be skeptical of overly broad claims by politicians, to be aware that they are being subject to techniques of purposeful propaganda. Donald Trump and his surrogates have mastered the art of expounding on ‘glittering generalities’ “It’s going to be huuuuuge” “a beautiful wall” “you’ll be tired of winning” ad infinitum. And then, there are the repeated lies, mimicked by each of his surrogates and allies. Most recent (of many) is his deceitful claim of personal success in the relocating of Sprint jobs to the US. This plan far preceded his (s)election and was wholly unrelated to any effort he made. Yet over and over we see the claim made with only the faintest of clarification by the media. They all know it is a LIE, not a difference of opinion or a matter of nuance. It is a flat out LIE and they propagate the lie every time they show his face saying the lie.
Doubtless they do not have enough air time to verbally correct all his prevarications, and that’s understandable. Here is something they could do that would correct the record and not cost one iota of air time. What if each time any of the Trump forces faced a camera with an outright, indisputable lie, the universal red circle/slash symbol for “NO’ was simply layered over the face of whomever was mouthing the falsehood, making it clear to any viewer that they were being subjected to a lie? The media is deeply in our debt for promulgating the views of this dangerous individual in exchange for the notoriety he provided. Now they owe us a clear, unvarnished path to the truth. Propaganda WORKS, and those who promote it should be put out of business.