U.S. Television News and Cold War Propaganda, 1947–1960 (Cambridge Studies in the History of Mass Communication)

by Nancy Bernhard (Author)

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ISBN-13: 978-0521543248

ISBN-10: 052154324X

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Television news and the Cold War grew simultaneously in the years following World War II, and their history is deeply intertwined. In order to guarantee sufficient resolve in the American public for a long term arms buildup, defense and security officials turned to the television networks. In need of access to official film and newsmakers to build themselves into serious news organizations, and anxious to prove their loyalty in the age of blacklisting, the network news divisions acted as unofficial state propagandists. This book analyzes the shocking extent of their collaboration.

Review

"The author chooses well-chosen sources to document 'East-West relations steeped in consumer oriented anti-communism,' which helped to form a 'Cold War consensus.'...She shares acute insights on the power of metaphor--as when many characterized television as an X-ray and a mirror--and provides a persuasive concluding chapter, 'Selling America.' A readable book recommended for all collections." Choice

"Overall, U.S. Television News and Cold War Propaganda is clear and concise, making it accessible to a wide range of audiences." Tom Liacas, Canadian Journal of Communication

"This excellent book...expertly covers the interacctions of the U.S. government with developing television network news organizations in the coverage of the early years of the Clod War...this book is a captivating account of how television participated with government in constructing and selling the first decade of the Cold War to the American public. In giving readers her insights, Bernhard successfully clarifies the interrelationship of government and industry policies in the early years of the Cold War that added shape and definition to our present-day post-Cold War society. All media scholars, especially communication historians, should read this book." Journalism History

"a very powerful story, based on extensive use of government archives, manuscript collections, oral histories, and other sources." American Historical Review

"Bernhard's informative book illuminates the role played by news programming demonstrates clearly how television particapted in a series of mediations between self regulation and censorship, public services and entertainment sponsorsupport and govenment-subsidized production." Business History Review

"Thoroughly researched and forthright in its conclusions...a provocative book." Nieman Reports

"Her [Bernhard's] analysis of media cowardice in dealing with one of the earliest challenges to deviance in Cold War reporting is superb." - Robert P. Newman

Book Description

How US government and media collaborated in their dissemination of Cold War propaganda.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cambridge University Press (October 16, 2003)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 268 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 052154324X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0521543248
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.67 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,585,384 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,129 in Propaganda & Political Psychology
- #2,655 in Film & Television
- #3,045 in Media Studies (Books)

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robert f martin

one of the most important books ever written about one of the most crucial eras of American propaganda.

Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2016

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one of the most important books ever written about one of the most crucial eras of American propaganda. Disturbing how many parallels there are to 2016. highly recommended to anyone who wants a potential roadmap of whats happening (again) today.

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Mark Watterson

The Smoking Gun of Gov't Controll of US Mainstream Media

Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2008

You truth warriors out there are going to love this excellent work by Nancy Bernhard. Even I, with the anti-establishment information I've gathered over the last several years found plenty to be shocked about. The culture in the US tells us that we have a free press. We grow up believing this and learn not to accept information espoused by media outside the "establishment". To put it bluntly, this is a lie. You already know this if you saw my review of Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free Press .

This book, "U.S. Television News and Cold War Propaganda" provides the reasons why we have the "Myth of a Free Press" as written about in "Into the Buzzsaw". This book takes us back to the beginning of commercial television and informs those of us born too late to have known this that, "Network television news was born at the dawn of the Cold War". After reading this book, one wonders if television was invented for the purpose of disseminating government propaganda.

"The broadcasting industry acted as a shill for the state and set to work selling the Cold War to the American public". This is an important observation by the author because it goes to the heart of the war in Iraq. The lesson is that the broadcasting industry acted as a shill for the state in 1950, in 2003, and all years inbetween and all years after. Hense, there is no free press in America. The JFK assassination? Oh, a lone nut did it. 9/11? Oh, a bunch of broken-english speaking arabs who couldn't fly, and under the control of a six foot four inch caveman half way around the world did it.

Some shocking quotes from the book:

"This book tells the story of a partnership between government information officers and network news producers to report and sell the Cold War to the American public". [the reader may replace "Cold War" with any American war of your choosing since WWII]

"Much of the news about the early Cold War on television was scripted, if not produced, by the defense establishment". [Can you say...Douglass Feith?]

"...all information became military information. Public service programming, required of stations for the use of the public frequencies, became the distribution channel for federal propaganda".

If you saw the mushroom cloud in the TV show "24" last year, here is where the idea came from: "As television matured, information officials grew more sophisticated at embedding Cold War messages into more popular entertainment programs, and avoided the apparent, if unremarked, impropriety of officidal control of news programming".

"Sometimes they admitted that their practices mimicked totalitarian methods, only dressed up for a public invested in freedom of information".

"[the networks] also believed sincerely that their lies served the ultimate interests of freedom. Such problematic exposure never came, in part because Americans overwhelmingly shared their belief in the righteousness of American institutions, and in part because they worked hard to disguise their programs".

"Most Americans construe their news media as aggressively oppositional and never see the extent to which the government controls the release of information, sells its version of events, and receives media cooperation in promoting its agenda. In the 1980's, for instance, the federal government spent a billion dollars a year on public relations programs. Officials tightly controlled the release of information, did so in extremely calculated ways ("spin"), insisted on the use of manageable journalistic pools in combat areas, and continually used television as a diplomatic and military tool. THE US WASN'T EVEN AT WAR IN THE 1980'S!!!!

And here's a quote that applies to the fraudulent "War on Terror" as much as it did the fraudulent "Cold War": "...they [the Truman State Department's public information officers] succeeded at selling the militarization of containment through systematic scare campaigns".

And finally, here's a quote that might remind one of the fascist Fox News Network: "...for propaganda to work in a capitalist democracy, it had to look like independently produced news".

To end this review, I'll just mention that the government set up the "Office of War Information" (OWI) for the purpose of disseminating lies and propaganda through the television networks. These special "Information" departments set up by the Pentagon have been a mainstay: see Douglass Feith's "Office of Special Plans" as described in James Bamford's book: A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies and see my review of that work.

The bottom line, folks, it that your mainstream media is pure 100% propaganda for the state and they always have been. You must be a critical thinker.

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U.S. Television News and Cold War Propaganda, 1947–1960 (Cambridge Studies in the History of Mass Communication)

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