Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 05:00 pm
On his Fox News program today, Glenn Beck attacked the rest of the media and charged that they are engaged in actively promoting propaganda for Barack Obama. Beck’s latest media allegation is not just conservative spin, but he is also engaging in information control. Much like a cult leader, Beck wants to control information in order to keep his audience loyal to him.
Here is the video courtesy of Media Matters:
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Beck said, “I know there is a perception in this audience that the mainstream media has a liberal bias, now it may just be the root beer speaking here, but it is not true. In fact, the media is engaged in open propaganda for this administration. Not merely bias, what are you nuts? They are following a proud heritage of propagandists before them that began as you might expect if you are a regular watcher of this show around the time of oh, I don’t know, what’s his name, Woodrow Wilson.”
Beyond the obvious hypocrisy of Beck claiming that rest of the media is engaging in Obama propaganda as his program airs on a network whose purpose for existence is the spreading of Republican and conservative propaganda, there is something deeper and much more sinister in Beck’s remarks. Beck, much like a cult leader, is trying to discredit other facts and forms of information so that his audience views him as the only “real truth.”
This tactic which is used all across Fox News is a form of mind control, often found in cults. Here is Cultwatch on information control, “Those who control the information control the person. In a mind control cult any information from outside the cult is considered evil, especially if it is opposing the cult. Members are told not to read it or believe it. Only information supplied by the cult is true…Cults train their members to instantly destroy any critical information given to them, and to not even entertain the thought that the information could be true.”
This explains why Fox News viewers often seem programmed. It is because they are subjected to a daily drum beat of talking points, propaganda, and misinformation. Fox News viewers are encouraged to never go out of the sphere of Fox News for their information. The network, as Beck did in the above clip, proactively seeks to discredit other sources of information, in this case with the idea that all other forms of media are engaged in Obama propaganda. It is not about just getting people to vote Republican. It is also about conditioning viewers to stay within Glenn Beck’s influence.
I am not going to go as far as to claim that Glenn Beck is a cult leader, but he is definitely utilizing information control techniques on his audience. To people on the outside, the idea that the media is engaging in propaganda for Obama is preposterous, but to viewers who have been conditioned to think of the media as Obama’s propaganda machine, this makes total sense. Tactics such as this one are one of the many reasons why Glenn Beck and Fox News should not be taken lightly. While Beck rails against propaganda, he is a textbook example of the power of propaganda and mind control.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
