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Category Archives: Iowa in the News
Iowa Student to Get First-hand View of Dem Convention
Iowa Student to Get First-hand View of Dem Convention MuscatineJournal.com MUSCATINE, Iowa – While other Americans plan to watch the Democratic National Convention on television this month, Muscatine native Karrie Temple looks forward to becoming part of the event. Temple, … Continue reading
Posted in Iowa in the News, Main Page
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Iowa in the News: Voting Machines
New Iowa voting machines come from company that had wrong result WQAD.com Des Moines-AP — The same company that produced wrong election results two years ago in Baldwin County, Alabama, has manufactured Iowa's newest voting machines. But company officials say … Continue reading
Posted in Iowa in the News, Main Page, Verified Voting
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Iowa School Settles Gay Discrimination Suit
Iowa School Settles Gay Discrimination Suit by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff (Des Moines, Iowa) A former high school student who was subjected to physical and verbal abuse over three grueling years has been awarded more than $27,000 to settle a discrimination … Continue reading
Posted in GLBT, Iowa in the News, Main Page
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Fridley Uses Propaganda Techniques to Publicly Justify His F 9/11 Ban
Fridley Uses Propaganda Techniques to Publicly Justify His F 9/11 Ban
Behind The Scenes at Democracy for Iowa
Last week when news of the Fridley ban of “Fahrenheit 9/11” came out, Trish Nelson, Co-coordinator of Rapid Response – Iowa, and I took up a little project. Trish researched the 31 towns with Fridley theaters in Iowa and located a local newspaper for almost every town. She set up a system to fairly quickly email or fax these newspapers. For my part, I wrote up a press release from DFIA objecting to the Fridley ban, and sent it over to Trish, who then sent it out to the local newspapers.
We do not know how far our protest will reach, but we received confirmation from the Manchester Press that they will be running a story on the Fridley ban today and they will be quoting me (no Internet access to the story, I’m afraid). I found from personal experience during the Dean campaign that Iowa’s local papers frequently provide excellent coverage of issues that are overlooked by the big, corporate-owned media, and that many a reporter welcomes a fresh source for lively quotes.
Towards the end of last week, R.L. Fridley, owner of the Des Moines-based Fridley Theatres, issued a press release because, it seems, he was being bombarded by emails, faxes and phone calls regarding his decision to prevent rural Iowa from viewing the documentary. He requested that this be the end of the matter. Trish and I, however, could not let it drop.
Trish did some more research and added to her list of local newspapers to include not only the Fridley towns but also towns with newspapers in the surrounding areas. I, in the meantime, set about writing another press release from DFIA. This press release is a little different and probably a bit too long, but hopefully, it will attract some attention and perhaps get a few folks to work on their “critical thinking” skills.
I’m including the full text of the press release below, with sources. I know it sounds a little strange to be quoting myself since I’m the one who wrote it, but in any BIG operation, I would not be the one writing the press release. And besides, I always make myself very available to me for comment! Here, in its entirety, is the most recent DFIA press release that went out yesterday.
Linda Thieman
Fridley Uses Propaganda Techniques to Publicly Justify His F 9/11 Ban
Storm Lake, Iowa (July 12) – When R.L. Fridley, owner of the Des Moines-based Fridley Theatres, banned the showing of Michael Moore’s documentary, “Fahrenheit 9/11,” from 31 small-town Iowa theaters, Fridley opened a Pandora’s Box of dissent. One point in the flurry of controversy that seems to have been overlooked was the blatant propaganda techniques that Fridley himself used in issuing his statements to his company managers and to the press – a huge irony since Fridley claimed that he would not show the film because it was “political propaganda.” Here is an inside look.
Claim: Fridley Theatres do not “play political propaganda films from either the right or the left.”
According to propagandacritic.com, “the name-calling technique links a person, or idea, to a negative symbol. The propagandist who uses this technique hopes that the audience will reject the person or the idea on the basis of the negative symbol, instead of looking at the available evidence.”
In Mr. Fridley’s case, the term “political propaganda” is the negative symbol that he chooses to link to Moore’s film. “This particular claim of Mr. Fridley’s is also highly debatable,” says Linda Thieman of Storm Lake, co-founder of Democracy for Iowa, a grassroots organization formed as an off-shoot of the Howard Dean presidential campaign, “since, if a ‘political propaganda film’ from the right were to come out, Fridley would no doubt not define it as propaganda.”
This “either from the right or the left” claim is a propaganda technique called a “Glittering Generality.” According to the Institute for Propaganda Analysis (IPA), “the Glittering Generality is, in short, Name Calling in reverse. While Name Calling seeks to make us form a judgment to reject and condemn without examining the evidence, the Glittering Generality device seeks to make us approve and accept without examining the evidence.”
Thieman explains. “The unsuspecting victim of Fridley’s propaganda technique says to him or herself, ‘Yes! In all fairness, he wouldn’t show propaganda from the RIGHT or the LEFT,’ making Fridley’s decision seem reasonable. It then appears as an acceptable excuse to Fridley’s larger audience while at the same time obscuring the real issue – that Fridley refuses to let his would-be audiences in small-town Iowa make up their own minds.”
Claim: “The film incites terrorism”
Claim: “Our country is in a war against an enemy who would destroy our way of life, our culture and kill our people,” Fridley wrote. “These barbarians have shown through [the September 11 attacks] and the recent beheadings that they will stop at nothing. I believe this film emboldens them and divides our country even more.”
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Iowa: Serious Bugs in ES&S Election Software
Iowa: Serious Bugs in ES&S Election Software United Voters! Many serious bugs in ES&S election software are finally being revealed, in spite of ES&S' claims that their software is reliable. The latest bugs to surface, just days ago, affect … Continue reading
Posted in Calls to Action, Iowa in the News, Main Page, Project Myth Breaker, Verified Voting
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Iowa in the News: Farms & The Environment
Battle brews between Iowa Farm Bureau, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement The Daily Nonpareil, Council Bluffs The battle between the Iowa Farm Bureau and Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement is heating up. A protest by CCI members at an IFB … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, Farming, ICCI, Iowa in the News, Main Page
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The Des Moines Register Finally Sells Out Completely
The Des Moines Register Finally Sells Out Completely Box-office capitalism By REGISTER EDITORIAL BOARD July 8, 2004 R. L. Fridley is not showing Michael Moore's “Fahrenheit 9/11” in his theaters. It might not be so noticeable if he were not … Continue reading
Posted in Calls to Action, Iowa in the News, Main Page
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Labor: Trouble at Tyson
Labor: Trouble at Tyson Tyson Foods sued under RICO statute Corporate Governance News A lawsuit by former employees of Tyson Foods, Inc. against their employer may go ahead, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Thursday. The four … Continue reading
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Maytag Strike Set To End July 6
Maytag Strike Set To End July 6 CBS MarketWatch NEW YORK (CBS.MW) — Union workers at Maytag's Newton, Iowa, manufacturing facilities are set to return to work Tuesday, ending a near four-week strike. The home-appliance maker said late Friday that … Continue reading
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Iowa Theaters Ban ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’
Iowa Theaters Ban 'Fahrenheit 9/11' New York Times DECORAH, Iowa (AP) — The president of a company that owns movie theaters in Iowa and Nebraska is refusing to show director Michael Moore's “Fahrenheit 9/11.'' R.L. Fridley, owner of Des Moines-based … Continue reading
Posted in Calls to Action, Iowa in the News, Main Page
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