Posts

Keeping adversaries out of power

Weak people think of the people with differing points of view to themselves mainly as people with differing life experiences. Understanding people is weak.  Respecting people is weak. Money is to be made and power is to be acquired by defining people with differing points of view as adversaries. Adversaries are necessary for dramatic interest in news stories and other stories. Holding the attention of people long enough so they will pay attention to advertising is especially important. The people who do not pay attention to advertising are adversaries of a good business model. Confrontational political systems, and political conflicts more generally, are good for the news business.  They create drama. Regarding weak people as adversaries also makes it easier to make money and acquire power through adversarial legal systems.  By definition, weak people have no power, at least when compared with billionaires. Non-gullible people are adversaries of the rich and powerful.  Non-gullible pe

Keeping advertisers happy

Keeping profitable often requires direct and indirect government subsidies, whether in Australia or elsewhere. Funding elections is the purpose of media empires.  The money for that funding either comes from governments or advertisers, at least when other customers are unwilling to pay much, if anything. The process of reaching into the minds of customers and potential customers sometimes requires shouting.  That can be achieved by throwing newsprint around their neighbourhoods and by throwing bigotry around through broadcasting. But when newsprint is irrelevant and bigotry is unfashionable, hypocrisy becomes the next option. We know fossil fuel use is still on the rise but our advertisers now want us to promote their net zero campaign, whatever that means .

The Marquis de Tabloid is always right

Although the marquis has been selling off the family jewels, and several of the family estates, over recent years, he obviously knows what he is doing. The marquis is always right.  That is why he is powerful, influential, authoritative, wealthy and evil.  His rightness resides in his opinions, not in his grasp of the facts.  He believes that freedom of speech and freedom of the press include the freedom to do and say as he pleases, when and where he pleases. The marquis is even right in Italy, when he so chooses.  He is the leader of the right world.  He left the left world in his youth and has never looked back.

Facts are the enemies of profits

Plenty of advertisers are willing to support a propaganda machine when it helps them to remain profitable.  That is how we have kept in business for so long. Ruining the news, by replacing it with propaganda, keeps the money rolling in.  Advertisers love gullible audiences.  Our audiences are the most gullible of all. Advertising is all about duping people into spending money. Propaganda is all about duping people into believing lies. Deception has always been profitable, whether it is legal or otherwise. Big advertisers willingly spend big money if there is a big audience willing to spend money unquestioningly. Advertising budgets can be written off against tax. Spending money with us is a great way to reduce a tax bill. But the public is not interested in learning such facts.  The public is interested in following the opinions we support. And our opinions matter to politicians because the public believes us, not them. That is probably why governments are so willing to give public mon

Fighting the IPCC science cult

Extreme weather events make great news coverage. There are dramatic scenes to record and report. There are ruined lives to ruin even further with media intrusions and other expressions of insensitivity. We know tragedies sell in the same way celebrity gossip sells. We know politics sells in the same way hypocrisy sells. There are plenty petty hypocrisies to report upon while ignoring the biggest ones. There is money to be made emotively in many ways. There is little money to be made from reporting on science.  Our customers do not understand science.  If they did, they would stop buying crap. Through our science skepticism policy, we treat science as a cult, a joke and as a criminal conspiracy. We treat scientists and climate protestors as hypocrites. We can make money from science by reporting on it either accurately or inaccurately. We prefer to aim our inaccuracies at the opponents of our advertisers. Responsible scientists usually happen to be opponents of our political agenda. O

After dark

Bullies in the pay of the Marquis de Tabloid indoctrinate the vulnerable after dark. The bullies are paid to turn ignorant citizens into sycophants, like themselves.  Their aim is to maintain and expand the power of overly influential, pseudo-conservative egomaniacs, at the expense of real democracy. Puppet politicians collude with the bullies, having already colluded with overly influential puppeteers to fund bullying and greed with public money. The bullies, as hate-spitting enemies of reason, pretend to care about justice.  They do so by shouting superior orders into cameras.  But they only really care about themselves and their own misguided opinions.  After dark, a tiny minority delude themselves that they represent the majority.  They imagine their audiences as vast and attentive.  But ranting into the homes of the desperately lonely improves nothing. And the vicarious companionship of false, imaginary friends is no substitute for caring conversations .

Keeping the public ignorant

A very important job for any supporter of vested interests is to keep the public ignorant of the facts about vested interests. We have been helping to keep the public ignorant since 1952 . Whenever a scandal arises, we decide who gets to know about it and the way in which they acquire that knowledge. On most occasions, we prefer not to present anyone with knowledge at all. Facts confuse the public.  Knowledge makes people think too much.  Thinking too much tends to influence decisions. We are meant to influence decisions.  Too much information in the public sphere is bad for business. Confusing the public about what is factual and what is not is a good business strategy and a good political strategy.  It is the only way to support vested interests properly. We prefer to confuse the most gullible members of the public by making them believe they are not confused at all. We profit greatly by telling gullible people that the tellers of truth are liars. We also profit greatly by telling gu