Keyword Hijacking Smackdown! Challenge for HMW (and poll)

[orz]

Also i just had a bit of a revelation and realised that one of my main problems with KH is that I consider the undisputed overt intentions of advertising to be far more evil and harmful to humanity than the small-time, USA-centric, old-fashioned covert political stuff that Hugh claims is being put in there!

[brownzeroed]

Orz:

Why start from a flawed premise and work backwards?

It's the American Way!

I was just reading in the news somewhere that the general population of the US scores near the bottom in scholastic achievement (especially science), but confidence in our abilities is sky high.

I think our collective grammatical ability on this board should have been a dead giveaway ages ago...

But you obviously hate me for my freedoms.

[orz]

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

"Disruption"? "Fragment the board"? I'm posting the most basic mind control in media and even adding to knowledge of some of the trickier state-of-the-arts bits and Jeff treats this like I'm peddling orgone because a couple usernames go ballistic on me!

This is from a U. S Information Agency award-winning propagandist who wrote a book in 1976 exposing how TV news is slanted using framing, "A-Z"--

V. Oblique emphasis reporting: This is the most important and most often used technique of network news. Seemingly straight reports are very often subtle editorializations. The use of words and phrases gives transient and subliminal points of view to the audience, most often without audience knowledge.
(5 examples)

The tricks to manipulating TV news were exposed by an angry U.S. Information Agency video expert in his 1976 book, 'The Gods of Antenna.' This book by an award-winning US government propaganda expert, Bruce Herschensohn, is the television news equivalent of the CIA's 'family jewels' revealed to the Church Senate committee in 1975 revealing how the Central Intelligence Agency's control of media, called 'Operaton Mockingbird,' is used to manage public opinion.

From Herschensohn's book on page 68-
"For years, film and video techniques were used only to enhance the productions for audiences that wished to be entertained; therefore, those techniques deserved to be as guarded as a magician's hat. But those techniques were being used, and at the writing are still being used, to enhance distortion for audiences that wish to be informed.
As in the days of varityped contracts, the fine print of television is more important than the bold print, but too often it passes unnoticed, just as it is intended to do."

Below are Herchsensohn's list of techniques for slanting TV news.
I've copied first the basic "A - Z" list and followed it with a second version with his general descriptions but omitting his examples that are specific to Watergate news coverage unless an example clarifies better than just the description.

[u]U.S. Information Agency Video Expert's 'How They Slant TV - A to Z' list[/u]

A. Story placement

B. The hold frame

C. Selective Segmentation

D. Commentator speculations that appear to be factual

E. The truth but not the whole truth

F. Catch phrases

G. Utilizing the chemistry of combined audio and visuals

H. Visual emphasis to audio by selection of phrases for audience to read

I. Pretense balancing

J. Selectivity of interviewees

K. Treatment and respect given an interviewee

L. Prompting an interviewee

M. Methods of reading

N. Set design for visual authority

O. Narration rather than visuals - when it suits the purpose

P. Recap of past news to relate to the present

Q. Crediting and discrediting

R. Creation of news

S. Inclusion or omission of crowd reaction

T. Focal length

U. Tragedy and comedy style reporting

V. Oblique emphasis reporting

W. Ignoring follow-up stories

X. Story association and grouping

Y. Acceptance of TV editorials

Z. Repetition

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

U.S. Information Agency Video Expert's 'How They Slant TV - A to Z' list plus descriptions

A. Story placement: The first story on a network newscast is largely perceived by the audience as being the most important news of the day; the second story, the second most important; and so on through the first group of stories.
If a network would like to give particular significance to a story or less significance to a story, their placement within the newscast establishes an immediate priority of importance within the viewer's mind.
(3 examples)

B. The hold frame: This is an old motion picture technique, which now has wider use in television than in historical films. Since November 1963 it has often been referred to as the "Jack Ruby Frame."
(When Ruby killed Lee Harvey Oswald, the technique was used on replays of the video tape to visually stop the action at the moment the bullet hit Oswald.)
The technique is used to "catch" something the audience might otherwise have missed. It interrupts the motion to hold on one still picture from the moving action so that a particular frozen image can be examined by the viewer. In sporting events such as football or the finish line of a close horse race, the hold frame is particularly useful.
It can also be used to give the impression of "catching" an event it did not "catch" or "catching" a person it did not "catch."
(1 example)

C. Selective Segmentation: What was once a primitive or at least sloppy technique has become what is almost impossible to distinguish as it comes across the screen. The network's objective is to cut out portions of a speaker's comment and, by use of tied-together excerpts in false continuity, make the total effect different from his original in-context remarks. The primitive method was simply to physically cut out the film of the undesired area and splice and splice the two remaining wanted ends together. This results in a jump-cut, which can be seen by the audience and leaves room for suspicion and looks crude. The professional device is to use a cut-away of an interviewer or a cut-away of a chart, or whatever seems appropriate, and then cut back to the speaker. Both the visual and the audio cut can be accomplished while the cut-a-way is on screen. This can be used, and is most often used quite ethically to excerpt, cut down, or give certain segments of a speaker's performance without jarring visual effects, as would be evident without a cut-a-way. But it can and has been used unethically to change emphasis and meaning of what someone has said. It is difficult to recognize an excerption. At times, but not always, it can be ascertained by an inconsistency in audio quality behind the cut-a-way or as the shot changes.
(1 example)

D. Commentator speculations that appear to be factual: Although the words are couched and the periods are in the right places separating information from speculation, the end effect of this technique is to give the listener the impression that only facts are being reported. The transient character of television airways reporting permits this to be effective whereas, if the report were printed in a newspapwer or magazine for examination, there would be risk of discovery. "There's reason to believe..." and "could be" are often used.
(1 example)

E. The truth but not the whole truth: Although the whole truth is known to the reporter or commentator, only a portion is told, which casts an invalid impression by intent.
(7 examples)

F. Catch phrases: With unnoticed and unattributed bias, an editorialized catch-phrase is added to the nation's vocabulary, by force of habit. Catch phrasing is a printed-word and audio technique that has been streamlined by television with the use of "Anti-War Movement," "Peace Movement," "The Saturday Night Massacre," "The Mysterious Alert," "Operation Candor," "The White House Germans," and "The Christmas Bombing" (and, as previously mentioned, the word "Watergate" itself, used to house all charges of the period). The streamlining was applied by using catch phrases as matter-of-fact routine and by repetition as "fact phrases," making them appear to be nonbiased actualities.
(6 examples)

G. Utilizing the chemistry of combined audio and visuals: Often a visual image gives one impression, the audio another, and the combination of the two used simultaneously creates a distortion. (Most significantly, as mentioned, this technique was used to inject "Watergate," without the use of the word, by the projection of the Watergate Complex on the rear screen behind the commentator while he talked of an unrelated story.) The modifications of this technique are endless.
(2 examples)

H. Visual emphasis to audio by selection of phrases for audience to read: Charles Guggenheim used this technique of printed words upon the screen in the television commercials for Senator McGovern's race for the Presidency.
Examples: 1. The technique was steadily applied by the networks as a method to emphasize out-of-context areas of the transcripts of President Nixon's tape recordings.
(2 examples)

I. Pretense balancing: The motive is to show that the presentation is showing all sides of a particular story when, in fact, the balance is tilted.
(3 examples)

J. Selectivity of interviewees: The meaning of a news event can be given a decided tilt by those selected to be interviewed.
(2 examples)

K. Treatment and respect given an interviewee: The audience is immediately given an impression about the person being interviewed by the questions he is asked and by the manner in which he is addressed by the reporter conducting the interview.
(2 examples)

L. Prompting an interviewee: Words can easily be put into an interviewee's mouth by the interviewer. It is most effective if the interviewer's question is phrased so that it can be cut out, while the answer is retained as a complete statement. Obviously, if the manner in which the interviewee answers is not a complete statement, the question cannot be omitted. The objective is to coach the interviewee.
(1 example)

M. Methods of reading: Reading slow or reading fast or an accent on a particular word or a faint smile or a shake of the head give editorialization that cannot be found by rereading the text of the report or interview, but can be found only by viewing and listening to the newscast.
(1 example)

N. Set design for visual authority: Every executive knows that a desk can give a visual sense of importance to the man who sits behind it. When in the company of a visitor, most executives follow the rule of rising from the chair behind the desk and walking to another chair without the separation of the desk as a barrier importance between the host and guest. The very visual posture of a commentator gives him a look of authority.
(1 example)

O. Narration rather than visuals - when it suits the purpose: Often a new event will occur in which visuals will create a negative effect when the producer hopes to achieve a positive impression, or a positive effect when the producer hopes to achieve a negative impression. In this case, visuals defeat the purpose, and only narrative is used.
(1 example)
Example: When President Nixon worked in his Executive Office Building Suite, Dan Rather would refer to it as "his small, hideaway office" to CBS viewers. There were stills of the office, but stills would have defeated the purpose of Dan Rather's line, since the office was a very large one, used as his working quarters. The term "hideaway" was also inaccurate. Dan Rather was informed when the President went to work within his Executive Office Building suite, as were all the members of the White House Press Corps. It was, in fact, a more public suite than the Oval Office as it was the one place the public could see him enter and exit as they watched from the street. Dan Rather's continual referral to it as "the President's small, hideaway office" had a sinister ring of secrecy and isolation, and it could have raised suspicions in the minds of some viewers: "What is he doing in there?" "Why does he go to a small hideaway?"

P. Recap of past news to relate to the present: While telling a real news event, a re-cap is given to something that happened days, even weeks ago, as though it had direct relation to the current event. In that way audience interest may be revived in a non-news story.
(3 examples)

Q. Crediting and discrediting: This newswriting technique is designed to give credit to an editorial factor of the writer's choosing.
(8 examples)

R. Creation of news: Sometimes there is no event during the day relating to a continuing story that the network wants to sustain. Creating a related event is no real problem. One method is for the network to send a newsman and a camera crew over to the Capitol to talk to a senator or congressman about "the story." If the senator or congressman is willing, he or she can make news in an instant. Many are willing, since it is an opportunity to be seen and heard by millions. Networks generally recognize a particular senator's or congressman's point of view before an interview is filmed. If it doesn't turn out as they want, it can be discarded. Other methods of creating news are to give an unimportant item an extended story length, to have reporters quote other reporters, or to emphasize the fact that there is no news regarding a "continuing story."
(3 examples)

S. Inclusion or omission of crowd reaction: When reporting a speech of a public figure, it is up to the film editor to decied whether to include the audience reaction of those witnessing the speech. Most often, reaction will be cut in the interest of time, but this is an option that can change the entire character of the address. The character can be retained without the loss of time by leaving in the applause, fading it to a low level, and bringing in the reporter's voice above the applause. During an election campaign report showing two candidates, this technique of inclusion or omission can be used to tilt the character of public reaction to one candidate against another.
(1 example)

T. Focal length: Different lenses give separate impressions of the size of a crowd. Every photographer or cinematographer knows that a large crowd can look small, and a small crowd can look large simply by changing from a long lens to a short one, which changes the focal length. Television viewers who want to know the size of a crowd should look for the margins of crowd-ends, as it is the only sure manner in which to make an accurate judgement.
(1 example)

U. Tragedy and comedy style reporting: There is no hiding of passions within this type of reporting. The commentator comes right out with it.
(2 examples)
Examples: 1. John Chancellor, usually one of the most responsible commentators, gave a chilling example of dramatic tragedy reporting on the night of Archibald Cox's discharge and resignations of Elliot Richardson and William Ruckelhaus. When televised passion exceeds the immediate magnitude of the event, such excess can sometimes create its ultimate importance. The following are excerpts from John Chancellor's report:
"The country, tonight, is in the midst of what may be the most serious constitutional crisis in its history...That is a stunning development, and nothing even remotely like it has happened in all of our history...You are watching a special NBC Report of another event this year that we never believed would have happened in the history of this Republic...A constitutional situation that is without precedent in the history of this Republic...In my career as a correspondent, I never thought I would be announcing these things..."

V. Oblique emphasis reporting: This is the most important and most often used technique of network news. Seemingly straight reports are very often subtle editorializations. The use of words and phrases gives transient and subliminal points of view to the audience, most often without audience knowledge.
(5 examples)

W. Ignoring follow-up stories: Follow-up stories are often ignored when their usage would be beneficial to those the networks oppose or harmful to those the networks endorse. This technique is similiar to, but not quite the same as, a total disregard of an important story, to which we devote a later chapter.
(3 examples)
Example: 2. Howard Hunt testified before the Senate Select Committee about spy work that was conducted against Senator Barry Goldwater in 1964. The story died the next day.

X. Story association and grouping: Telling one story and without pause going into another story can imply association between the two. This can be achieved either with or without narrative bridges by grouping stories in succession.
(2 examples)

Y. Acceptance of TV editorials: It has become an accepted fact that network news will have an editorial. But why? Why should an editorial view be placed in a news program? Why is it not possible for the audience to find out the news without hearing an editorial?
(1 example)
Example: NBC and CBS incorporated their editorials within the context of the news programming, which made it most impractical for a viewer to turn the television audio down and then up again just in time to catch the next piece of news. ABC uses a better method of placing its editorials at the end of the program, much like a newspaper editorial, which can be read or simply left unread.

Z. Repetition: This is the simplest and oldest technique of any medium that wishes to propagandize a point of view. It was inherited from ages past and has never been used more strikingly or more effectively than it has in television newscasts. When a story appears night after night with little added to the account, or if a continuing story is repeatedly given precedence over other news items that are obviously more urgent in the context of the day's events, it is a safe bet that the network is setting up its own emphasis to maintain an objective, which is usually met. The creation of the most important story today, with repetition tomorrow, can truly make it important the day after tomorrow.
(4 examples)

[chiggerbit]

"Disruption"? "Fragment the board"? I'm posting the most basic mind control in media and even adding to knowledge of some of the trickier state-of-the-arts bits and Jeff treats this like I'm peddling orgone!

I'll leave Jeff to explain what he meant, but I will say that this is what I feared would happen when I saw this poll. I do not care for polls that mention specific board members. It feels like a popularity contest: Are you with us or are you one of those? Sorry, professor, I don't think that's how you meant it to come off. But I'd prefer myself that polls didn't personalize the poll by aiming at specific members of the board. They're divisive.

Like Fourth says, the problem with this discussion is that it's mixing issues, the credibility of KH theory, and Hugh's intense focus on a (mostly) single subject that he interjects whenever he can.

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

The psychological study of keywords is very old.

Here's a 1933 speech by president of the American Psychological Association, L. L. Thurstone. This is early research that has been improved on and superceded but it demonstrates both the significance of keywords and how long this science has been used.

This is the same Thurstone who confirmed with a study in 1932 as part of the Payne Group of studies that, YES, movies have a significant effect on the minds of children.

Mr. Thurstone. No, not Thurston Howell III. That's a keyword hijacking.

http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Thurstone/

The Vectors of Mind

L. L. Thurstone (1934)

Address of the president before the American Psychological Association, Chicago meeting, September, 1933.
First published in Psychological Review, 41, 1-32.
.....
We may start our analysis of the generalized factor problem by considering the many hundreds of adjectives that are in current use for describing personalities and temperaments. We have made such a list. Even after removing the synonyms we still had several hundred adjectives. It is obvious at the start that all these traits are not independent. For example, people who are said to be congenial are also quite likely to be called friendly, or courteous, or generous, even though we do not admit that these words are exactly synonymous. It looks as though we were dealing with a large number of dependent traits.

The traditional methods of dealing with these psychological complexities have been speculative, bibliographical, or merely literary in character. The problem has been to find a few categories, called personality types or temperaments, in terms of which a longer list of traits might be described. Psychological inquiry has not yet succeeded in arriving at a list of fundamental categories for the description of personality. We are still arguing whether extraversion and introversion are scientific entities or simply artifacts, and whether it is legitimate even to look for any personality types at all.
.....


It is of considerable psychological interest to know that the whole list of sixty adjectives can be accounted for by postulating only five independent common factors. It was of course to be expected that all of the sixty adjectives would not be independent, but we did not foresee that the list could be accounted for by as few as five factors. This fact leads us to surmise that the scientific description of personality may not be quite so hopelessly complex as it is sometimes thought to be.
.....
Studies of this sort should be repeated until every important trait is represented by several adjectives. The analysis should yield as many independent factors as may be required. When the factorial analysis is complete, the specifics should all vanish or they should be relatively small. Then the communalities and the reliabilities will have nearly the same value. The constellations to be found in such an analysis will constitute the fundamental categories in terms of which a scientific description of personality may be attained.

[Jeff]

"Disruption"? "Fragment the board"? I'm posting the most basic mind control in media and even adding to knowledge of some of the trickier state-of-the-arts bits and Jeff treats this like I'm peddling orgone!

Exhibit A: brownzeroed's thread of Robert Parry's commemoration of Gary Webb. You call Parry a "gatekeeper" and KWH Iran-Contra airstrip Nella with the movie Nell.

Exhibit B: MacCruiskeen's thread on Kerella's red rain. "300 degrees" and "300 pounds of pressure" are KWH hijacked to the movie 300.

Exbibit C: Patton Oswald was given a role in Ratatouille to reinforce notion that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman. ("Looks like a distinct case of keyword hijacking to me.")

Exhibit D: The Incredible Mr Limpet was used to get kids to stop thinking about a limpet mine exploding in the Gulf of Tonkin.

Your nonsense would be a tolerable amusement if you kept it to your own threads. But when you seed other members' with it, and then make the threads all about your hijack-of-the-moment, it's not funny anymore.

[populistindependent]

Here's another idea. It looks like there are at least 35 people interested in what Hugh has to say. If each of those people chipped in a buck/ year, Hugh could have his own board and complete control over its comings and goings.

Completely serious. The above is %100 snark free. In fact, I'd even visit it frequently.

I have a server where I can host it. As far as that goes, if anyone here wants a website I can help.

[populistindependent]

Good stuff populistindependent. From what you've said about your background in this I think your ideas are much more valid than Hugh's, and I can also appreciate why based on your experience you'd be more open to not totally dismissing him. I'm just not sure I'd want to have anything to do with the phrase Keyword Hijacking when studying/discussing these issues is all.

ROFL. The keywords "Keyword Hijacking" have been hijacked!

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

"Disruption"? "Fragment the board"? I'm posting the most basic mind control in media and even adding to knowledge of some of the trickier state-of-the-arts bits and Jeff treats this like I'm peddling orgone!

Your nonsense would be a tolerable amusement if you kept it to your own threads. But when you seed other members' with it, and then make the threads all about your hijack-of-the-moment, it's not funny anymore.

Many topics have gravity, oxygen, and psy-ops. Especially the topics discussed here.
I offer my 'expertise' for anyone who's interested.

No, there's nothing funny about spooks pre-biasing young brains against hostile keywords, is there? Like Project Papeclip and the Papeclip Project? Remember?

That's real. That's not "nonsense."

Exhibit A: brownzeroed's thread of Robert Parry's commemoration of Gary Webb. You call Parry a "gatekeeper" and KWH Iran-Contra airstrip Nella with the movie Nell.

And I backed that up, too.
I put in material from Webb's speeches and footnoted his book and tied it to stuff he didn't.
I personally interviewed Parry to back up my statements.
I showed that Terry Reed's book and video on Nella Airport was trashed by the Washington Post so it was a high-visibility problem.

That's not "nonsense." I take this stuff very seriously. I'm surprise others don't.

Exhibit B: MacCruiskeen's thread on Kerella's red rain. "300 degrees" and "300 pounds of pressure" are KWH hijacked to the movie 300.

I showed that those claims of, coincidentally, 300 degrees and 300 psi, came only from a disinformationist's claims to have interviewed the scientist. And others backed me up on how the science detail in her report was bullshit and obviously that reporter was skewing it for the 300s.
And more.

That's not "nonsense."

Exbibit C: Patton Oswald was given a role in Ratatouille to reinforce notion that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman. ("Looks like a distinct case of keyword hijacking to me.")

And that foul-mouthed comic has expressed public wonder about how the hell he got a Disney gig. If you don't get that Disney is CIA for kids by now....
Hey, I just showed you that the ethical dilemma anthropologists are voicing now is shadowed in Disney's 'Atlantis.'
I even showed that a Blackwater guy is part of the Disney story along with homonyms for 'al-Queda.

That's not "nonsense."

Exhibit D: The Incredible Mr Limpet was used to get kids to stop thinking about a limpet mine exploding in the Gulf of Tonkin.

Pre-biasing with benign definitions of hostile words. The science is open source.

That 1962 Operation Vulcan limpet mine disaster got keyword hijacked into
>'The Incredible Mr. Limpet"
>first episode of 'Man from UNCLE,' called The Vulcan Affair
>the James Bond movie, 'Thunderball,' which was undersea diving to rescue a Vulcan bomber with nukes
>the Vulcan named Mr. Spock on Star Trek

Even the project that later became 'Yours, Mine, Ours' was started right after Operation Vulcan blew up.

You know what else happened in 1962 besides the Operation Vulcan disaster?

In 1962 the man who was relieved from duty as head of Naval Intelligence just before Pearl Harbor because he wanted to warn Hawaii, Alan Goodrich Kirk (in 1941 he was Captain Kirk), gave an oral history to Columbia University about the excercise in 1938 that suprised Pearl Harbor exactly the same way the Japanese were allowed to three years later.

source- 'Day of Deceit' by Robert B. Stinnett, page 359 footnote #15

So both Captain Kirk and Operation Vulcan ended up as keywords with much safer meanings thanks to Gene Rodenberry and whoever else was advising him on 'Star Trek.'

Or maybe all these examples are coincidences. But I think that would be "nonsense."

[chlamor]

So far it seems there is resounding support for Hugh's whackiness.

I voted number two.

Personally I think it's great what he's doing but as I've said before Hugh needs to consolidate and have an initial thread where he lays out a concise and cogent underlying thesis using a few simple examples. In addition when he gets into a thread where he introduces KWHing into the thread as relates to the topic at hand he needs to be more precise

As someone who spent nearly a year of his life doing research on corporate propaganda there is no question that Hugh is pretty much on the mark.

Disney is in fact a massive propaganda machine for example.

The biggest problems as I see it is that Hugh is disorganized and he doesn't do well in teasing out how his examples of KWHing manifest themselves in today's economic and political systems. But let's admit that is a very intricate task.

Ultimately Hugh is a brother. Good on ya' Hugh you nutty-cuckoo madman.

My 2cents.

[Jeff]

Hugh, there is a great gulf you never bridge between your broadly-shared general statements of media manipulation and your contentious and bizarre examples of "keyword hijacking."

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

....

As someone who spent nearly a year of his life doing research on corporate propaganda there is no question that Hugh is pretty much on the mark.

Disney is in fact a massive propaganda machine for example.

The biggest problems as I see it is that Hugh is disorganized and he doesn't do well in teasing out how his examples of KWHing manifest themselves in today's economic and political systems. But let's admit that is a very intricate task.

....

Thanks for your honest comments. You're right. It is an intricate task.
But what are the building blocks of information culture? Words.

Some are associated with things the PTB want hidden. So marketing a benign definition to pre-bias young brains is a logical strategy and there's lots of examples. Easy to do.

You say:
"Disney is in fact a massive propaganda machine for example. "

Disney needs it's own thread.That's a heck of a place to start.
A government-linked mega-corporation targeting kids.

I learned much of what I picked up on themes and tricks from studying Disney.

What have ya got on the Rat, chlamor? Anything chunky and nutritious that'll stick?
Didja see what I put in the thread about Anthropologists on the Front Line?

'Atlantis' has frikkin' al-queda and Blackwater in it!

[chlamor]

What have ya got on the Rat, chlamor? Anything chunky and nutritious that'll stick?
Didja see what I put in the thread about Anthropologists on the Front Line?

'Atlantis' has frikkin' al-queda and Blackwater in it!

To let you know I almost started a thread on specifically Walt Disney last night after having read the thread you refer to here. I got sidetracked and did not want to pursue it at the time with the usual zeal.

There is quite a bit out there on Walt, quite an unsavory uber right-wing zealot.

[streeb]

Stanley Kubrick had "something on the rat"