With all the fuss in the last few days (Must Read: Glenzilla) about networks pushing war propaganda, I happened to reread a 1954 Philip K. Dick story, The Mold of Yancy. It's a reasonably good tale (Not as good as the stuff he wrote after dropping acid) about a massive effort to turn a moon full of people into sheep through massive doses of homespun wisdom from a synthetic character - a middle aged white guy called Yancy.
The content of Yancy's material was key. Specific, definite opinions on personal and trivial things. Vague, contradictory but deep sounding rubbish on big issues. The overall message : Trust in authority. I give youNBC Producer Carl Sears.
If you think Sears perfect parody of Yancyism was an exception, you're wrong.
Consider Williams latest, from the Daily Nightly
Judging by the early numbers for "Black Friday" and the traffic my wife and I encountered on the Jersey Turnpike yesterday, Americans were feeling robust (or at least marginally better) this weekend, where spending and driving were concerned. Then we came to work today and learned (officially) that we've been in a recession for some time. My friend who is an economist says there's a bright side to this: If we've indeed been in a recession for a while, and it started before we knew it, therefore it may end sooner than we're expecting it to. On the other hand, the Dow fell so far and so quickly this afternoon...we had to go on the network with a special report at the 4pm closing bell.
I hope you had a good, safe and family-filled Thanksgiving weekend. I hope you can join us tonight.
The Yance men would have been proud.
Of course, there are limits to the parallel.
As far as can be told, all of the people in TV news are thus far derived from actual humans. We don't know if they're programmed, or just selected for insipidness. The only time the Daily Drivel gets traffic is when Greenwald is busting on it.
As far as the story, Yancy was based on Eisenhower. The real powers in Callisto were corporations trying to start a war. Eisenhower tried to slow down the military industrial complex. He failed. This was a young Phil Dick story. In his later stories, nothing worked out as planned, and everybody was much more human, even the androids. After all - if Callisto had ever got their war with Ganymede, they would have been whipped. GE has had everything they could ask for in the last 8 years. GE stock closed at $45.75 1/20/01; $15.50 yesterday.