Category Archives: Media Bias

Media Bias: Flip-flopper in Chief

Posted on September 15, 2004 by bfialindathieman

Media Bias: Flip-flopper in Chief By David Brock and Jamison Foser, AlterNet.org George Bush's image as a strong and decisive leader is a creation of journalists too lazy to notice that the [pseudo-]pResident has a long history of changing his … Continue reading →

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Des Moines Register Gets Grade F on Iowa School Report

Posted on September 10, 2004 by bfialindathieman

Des Moines Register Gets Grade “F” on Iowa School Report by Linda Thieman On September 8, 2004, the Des Moines Register reported that a new study showed that “Iowa schools are about on par,” ranking “25th in the nation for … Continue reading →

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Bush’s Alleged Heart Skips Beat at Lack of Post-convention Bounce

Posted on September 10, 2004 by bfialindathieman

Bush's Alleged Heart Skips Beat at Lack of Post-convention Bounce by Ruy Teixeira, AlterNet.org The new Gallup poll, conducted entirely after the GOP convention and therefore the first poll that truly measures Bush's bounce, shows Bush with a very small … Continue reading →

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News and Notes from Iowa and Deanland

Posted on September 9, 2004 by bfialindathieman

Candlelight Vigil Across Nation Organized by MoveOn.org in partnership with the Win Without War coalition More than 1,000 U.S. soldiers have now been killed in Iraq. 1,000 of our brothers, sisters, wives, husbands, moms, dads, sons, and daughters have given … Continue reading →

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Censored: The 10 Big Stories The National News Media Ignore

Posted on September 5, 2004 by bfialindathieman

Censored: The 10 Big Stories The National News Media Ignore By Camille T. Taiara, TruthOut.org In late July more than 600 people showed up in Monterey to speak at a Federal Communications Commission hearing on ownership concentration in the news … Continue reading →

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Media IS The Issue

Posted on September 4, 2004 by bfialindathieman

Media IS The Issue by Josh Silver, Free Press With the GOP convention wrapped up and Congress returning to Washington next week, media reform advocates are gearing up for a busy season. Media coverage of the election is a disaster. … Continue reading →

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Can You Envision a Balanced Media?

Posted on August 3, 2004 by bfialindathieman

Can You Envision a Balanced Media? Help Keep the Momentum Going! Since last week, thousands of progressive-minded Americans have signed Democratic Way's letter calling on the FCC to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine in broadcasting. Despite their initial success, it will … Continue reading →

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Why The Press Failed

Posted on August 2, 2004 by bfialindathieman

Why The Press Failed AlterNet.org The Bush administration's media strategy was simple: Treat the press as a special interest group and the American public as a market of consumers. It almost worked. When, on May 26, 2004, the editors of … Continue reading →

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Fridley Uses Propaganda Techniques to Publicly Justify His F 9/11 Ban

Posted on July 13, 2004 by bfialindathieman

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: Help Rapid Response Take Back the Media!

Posted on July 7, 2004 by bfialindathieman

Iowa: Help Rapid Response Take Back the Media!   RapidResponseNetwork.Org needs letter writers! If you have a little extra time to write an occasional letter, Rapid Response needs you.  Rapid Response is active at the national and state level, with … Continue reading →

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