Lies not immediately refuted become the audience’s truth.
- The longer propaganda is perceived as the truth the harder it is to contradict even when the target audience is exposed to an opposing true message. [1]
- Refutations must be simple, clear, and use as few arguments as possible. [2]
- Repetitions of a myth, propaganda or lie will reinforce it in your audience’s mind. Avoid this whenever possible. Precede any repetition with a Pre-exposure Warning that the statement to follow is untrue. [3]
- Refutations are meant to replace false information in your audience’s mind. They should be as clear and emotionally engaging as the original lie, and must be repeated, or they will fail. [3]
- When it comes to rapid response, you can't be too fast, but you can certainly be too hysterical. -- Dan Schnur, GOP political strategist [4]
- You can't react to information you don't know, and timing is everything. -- James Carville, Clinton campaign lead strategist, 1992 [5]
An Example
When the Bush-Quayle campaign started telling voters that Clinton as governor had raised taxes in his state "128 times," the headquarters quickly researched the facts, challenged the allegation and sent out the response to Clinton field offices around the country to rebut the charge. -- Baltimore Sun, August 1992 – [5]
"When Obama was sworn into office, he DID NOT use the Bible but instead the Kuran..." -- Chain email, 12-20-07 [6]
This lie about Obama’s senatorial swearing-in ceremony was disproven immediately by PolitiFact. Unfortunately, the people who wanted to believe this lie do not read Politifact, but instead pay close attention to right-wing propaganda mills such as Fox “News.” The rumor circulated for years. There are probably still people who believe it, although they may think it refers to Obama's presidential inauguration.
John Kerry and the Swift Boat Veterans Propaganda Campaign
“John Kerry lied to get his Bronze Star. I know. I was there. I saw what happened.” - Van O'Dell, Gunners Mate, 2nd Class [7]
“Swift Boat Veterans for Truth” (SBVT) was formed March 23, 2004 after Kerry cinched the Democratic nomination. On May 4 it held a largely ignored news conference disparaging Kerry’s Vietnam war record – for which he received five medals – and excoriating his later anti-war statements as a spokesman for Vietnam Veterans Against the War. On August 5 they ran their first of four attack ads aired during August, 2004. [7] Also released in August was a book by John O’Neill, founder and lead spokesman for SBVT, and Jerome Corsi. [8]
SBVT was funded by wealthy right-wing Republicans, most prominently Houston area home builder Bob J. Perry. Of $158,750 received by SBVT through June, 2004, $100,000 came from Perry. In 2002 Perry gave over $3 million to Texas Republicans. [7]
Time Magazine conducted a poll August 24-26, 2004, showing that 77% of voters saw the TV ads, and 35% of all voters and 25% of swing voters who saw the ads believed there was "some truth" to the allegations. [9]
Eventually the claims of the group, none of whom had actually served on the same boat as Kerry, were discredited. Most of those who had signed affidavits against Kerry regretted their actions. Many men who actually served with Kerry disputed the criticisms, said Kerry acted bravely and with honor, and defended him. Kerry’s only potential erroneous statement was mis-remembering Christmastime as when he operated a swift boat in Cambodia. [8]
Van O’Dell, by his own admission, never served on Kerry’s boat. O’Dell claimed during the 3-13-69 Hop River mine incident, for which Kerry received a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart, that there was no gunfire and Kerry’s swift boat fled the scene while others stayed to rescue those in the boat which had struck a mine. [10]
This was contradicted by those in Kerry’s boat and the man whom Kerry had pulled from the water, Army Special Forces Lieutenant Jim Rassmann:
Machine-gun fire erupted from both banks of the river and a second explosion followed moments later. The second blast blew me off John’s swift boat, PCF-94, throwing me into the river. Fearing that the other boats would run me over, I swam to the bottom of the river and stayed there as long as I could hold my breath. When I surfaced, all the swift boats had left, and I was alone taking fire from both banks. To avoid the incoming fire I repeatedly swam under water as long as I could hold my breath, attempting to make it to the north bank of the river. I thought I would die right there. The odds were against me avoiding the incoming fire and, even if I made it out of the river, I thought I thought I’d be captured and executed. Kerry must have seen me in the water and directed his driver, Del Sandusky, to turn the boat around. Kerry’s boat ran up to me in the water, bow on, and I was able to climb up a cargo net to the lip of the deck. But, because I was nearly upside down, I couldn’t make it over the edge of the deck. This left me hanging out in the open, a perfect target. John, already wounded by the explosion that threw me off his boat, came out onto the bow, exposing himself to the fire directed at us from the jungle, and pulled me aboard.
This smear campaign has been launched by people without decency. Their new charges are false; their stories are fabricated, made up by people who did not serve with Kerry in Vietnam.” - Jim Rassmann [7]
Rassmann recommended Kerry for the Silver Star for that action, and learned only later that the Bronze Star had been awarded instead. “To this day I still believe he deserved the Silver Star for his courage.” Rassmann described himself as a retired lieutenant with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. “I am a Republican, and for more than 30 years I have largely voted for Republicans.” But he said Kerry “will be a great commander in chief.” [7]
Del Sandusky, Kerry’s boat driver that day, says, “The decisions that he made saved our lives.” Wayne D. Langhofer, machine gunner abord PCF-13, the boat directly behind Kerry’s boat that day, told the Washington Post on 8-22-04 that he distinctly remembered the “clack, clack, clack” of enemy AK-47 assault rifles. “There was a lot of firing going on, and it came from both sides of the river.” [7]
Kerry’s campaign fought these charges, producing documents and testimony from eyewitnesses contradicting the lies, innuendo and errors. Many people felt Kerry should sue the SBVT people. Others counseled that a lawsuit, even if won, could not be settled before the November election, and a trial for libel would only serve to keep the lies alive in the minds of voters. No lawsuit was brought and the charges continued in the news and the voter’s minds. “Swift Boating” became a widely-used term to describe an unfair or untrue political attack. Based on later interviews with most of those involved, the primary reason they signed affidavits against Kerry was anger for his later anti-war statements as a spokesman for Vietnam Veterans Against the War in which he spoke of his witnessing of war crimes.
In hindsight, a lawsuit may have been appropriate as it would have demonstrated that such well-funded political propaganda attacks will not go unrecognized and unpunished, and it would have dragged out into daylight those who fund, manage and advise such attacks. But there are two problems arising from fundamental human cognition which always need to be considered when responding to lies and propaganda.
Human Cognition Effects – Two Problems [3]
The Continued Influence Effect (to be covered far more extensively in principle #8 — REASON) shows that despite retractions or corrections, people tend to continue to rely on earlier misinformation, propaganda and lies. The best solution to counteract this effect is the Alternative Account, which fills the cognitive memory gap left by the retracted misinformation. The audience will always remembers something; you want them to remember the truth. The alternative account must be repeated, without repeating the initial myth or propaganda (see below), in order to strengthen the new memory.
The second cognitive problem is the Familiarity Backfire Effect (also covered in #8 — REASON), in which repeating the myth increases its familiarity and reinforces the memory. The best solution is to Emphasize the Correct Facts while avoiding any repetition of the myth. A good practice here is the Pre-exposure Warning. If you find that you must refer to the initial myth, lies or propaganda, warn the audience upfront that misleading information is coming. There are innumerable magazine articles intended to dispel myths of science or medicine which make this fundamental error of stating the myth, while postponing the truth until sometime later in the article. Sometime they present the myths as a True/False questionnaire with the truth buried in the answers at the end. Studies have shown that after reading such presentations, people remember the myths far better than the truth.
This is the fifth installment in our series on counterpropaganda.
Other reports and items of interest:
The Nine Principles of Propaganda begins HERE.
Trump - Our Psychopathic President begins HERE.
For a double-sided PDF copy of the principles of propaganda and counterpropaganda go HERE.
For a double-sided PDF copy of the twelve criteria of psychopathy go HERE.
THE NINE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF COUNTERPROPAGANDA
Propaganda is the backdoor hack into your mind
#1 Truth — Honest opposition is practical, moral, and unbiased.
#2 Focus — Address only one or at most two points.
#3 Clarity — Easily understood without further explanation.
#4 Resonate — Identify audience’s existing sentiments, opinions, and stereotypes that influence their perspectives, beliefs, and actions.
#5 Respond — Lies not immediately refuted become the audience’s truth.
#6 Investigate — Collect and analyze their propaganda to understand their message, target audience & objectives.
#7 Source — Expose covert sources of false propaganda.
#8 Reason – Expose their logical fallacies. Human cognitive biases for rapid thought response make us vulnerable to faulty reasoning.
#9 Disseminate — Share exposed propaganda with audiences not targeted; they can then recognize the lies and reciprocate.
Citations
1. Based on Wikipedia – Counterpropaganda. Retrieved 1-10-19 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterpropaganda#Employed_rapidly
2. Based on Wikipedia – Counterpropaganda. Retrieved 1-10-19 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterpropaganda#Clarity
3. Lewandowsky, Stephan, Ecker, Ullrich K.H., Seifert, Colleen, Schwarz, Norbert and Cook, John. (2012 Sep 17). “Misinformation and Its Correction: Continued Influence and Successful Debiasing.” Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 13(3), pp. 106-131 (2012). Portal to the paper. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1529100612451018
The Entire paper retrieved 1-10-19 from: http://bocktherobber.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/lewandowsky_et_al_misinformation_pspi_ip.pdf
4. Schnur, Dan. Quoted by Kurtz, Howard. (2007 November 24). “Clinton team is quick to bat down rumors.” The Washington Post. Entire quote is: "One of the greatest strengths of the Clinton campaign is they've internalized and updated the lessons of 1992 for the new media era," said Dan Schnur, a Republican campaign veteran. "When it comes to rapid response, you can't be too fast, but you can certainly be too hysterical. It's important to get information into reporters' hands as quickly as possible, but you don't want to be the deputy press secretary who cried wolf. . . . You want to save Defcon 5 for when you really need it." Retrieved 12-8-18 from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/23/AR2007112301659.html?noredirect=on
5. Germond, Jack W. and Witcomer, Jules. (2016, August 28). “Clinton camp maintains a rapid response team.” The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 12-6-18 from http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1992-08-28/news/1992241090_1_clinton-campaign-developments-computer-system
6. Holan, Angie Drobnic. (2007 Dec 20). “Obama sworn in on his Bible.” Retrieved 1-11-19 from PolitiFact: https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2007/dec/20/chain-email/obama-sworn-in-on-his-bible/
7. Jackson, Brooks. (2004 Aug 6, updated 2004 Aug 22). “Republican-funded Group Attacks Kerry’s War Record. Retrieved 1-9-19 from FactCheck.org: https://www.factcheck.org/2004/08/republican-funded-group-attacks-kerrys-war-record/
8. Wikipedia: “Swift Vets and POWs for Truth.” Retrieved 1-8-19 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swift_Vets_and_POWs_for_Truth
9. Schulman, Mark. (2004 Aug 28). Time: “Kerry Slips Slightly as GOP Heads for NYC.” Retrieved 1-9-19 from Time Election 2004: https://web.archive.org/web/20040831031320/http://www.time.com/time/election2004/article/0,18471,689369,00.html
10. O’Dell, Van. (2004 July 21). Affidavit of Van O’Dell. Retrieved 1-9-19 from FactCheck: https://cdn.factcheck.org/UploadedFiles/Odell.pdf