Interpreting Propaganda

Interpreting propaganda is no easy job. We're all susceptible to it. And it's up to each of us to develop our awareness for their tactics so that we can better counter it. The king of propaganda is, of course, the New York Times. For those in Oxycontin Land that would be the "liberal press." Take a recent story: Interns? No Bloggers Need Apply.

It's a normal story about a kid who got an internship at Comedy Central and then started a blog writing about his exploits with the company. Poor naive Andrew McDonald never dreamed he might upset his masters at Comedy Central:

It never occurred to him that his bosses might not like his naming it after the company and writing in it about what went on in their office.

It did upset the overlords at Comedy Central and like any totalitarian institution it "asked" him to change the name of his blog, which he did, of course. They also asked him to "stop revealing how its brand of comedic sausage is stuffed." Translation: quit talking about this company in your blog. The essence of this piece of propaganda is found in the following line:

This is the time of year when thousands of interns and new employees pour into the workplace from college campuses, many bringing with them an innocence and nonchalance about workplace rules and corporate culture.

Translation: This is the time of year when thousands of interns and new wage slaves pour into the workplace from college campuses, many bringing with them an ignorance and lack of understanding about who is the slave and who is the master. Some of these wage slaves actually bring with them notions of democracy.

The wisdom of allowing private tyrannies to curb free speech is never questioned. It is merely an anecdotal account of one good wage slave learning to travel the choppy waters of a corporate dictatorship. Instead the good reader is informed that "freedom of speech" really doesn't apply at work anyway:

Private employees do not receive the protection of the First Amendment because there is no government action involved, he said

Well that's just great. So I don't have free speech for 4o plus hours per week. And, when you think of it, I don't have free speech the rest of the week if I decide to talk about my employer. What good is free speech if it doesn't apply where you are the majority of the time?

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