112.(LV3-8)Role of Media 2 Commentary

Publish Date: April 15, 2007
Early History of Propaganda
by Noam Chomsky
Let's begin with the first modern government propaganda. That was by
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's government. Woodrow Wilson was elect-
ed President in 1916 on the slogan "Peace Without Victory". That was right
in the middle of World War I. The population was extremely pacifistic and
saw no reason to become involved in a European war. Wilson's government
was actually committed to war and had to do something about it.
They created a government propaganda commission, named the Creel
Commission, which succeeded within six months in turning a pacifistic
population into a hysterical, war-mongering population... a population
that wanted to destroy everything German, tear the Germans limb from
limb, go to war, and save the world.
That was a major achievement, and it led to a further achievement. Right at
that time and after the war, the same techniques were used to whip up a hys-
terical Communist (Red) Scare-- which succeeded pretty much in destroy-
ing unions and eliminating such dangerous problems as freedom of the press
and freedom of political thought. There was very strong support from the
media and the business establishment, which in fact organized much of this.
In general, it was a great success.
Among those who participated actively and enthusiastically in Wilson's war
were the progressive intellectuals, a circle that took great pride, as you can
see from their own writings at the time, in having shown that what they
called the "more intelligent members of society" (themselves) were able to
drive a reluctant population into a war by terrifying them and eliciting
fanaticism.
The means used were extensive. For example, there was a lot of fabrication
of atrocities by the Germans-- Belgian babies with their arms torn off, all
sorts of awful things that you still read in history books. Much of it was
invented by the British propaganda ministry whose goal was to (as they put
it) "direct the thought of most of the world".
But most crucially they wanted to control the thought of the more intelligent
members of the United States, who would disseminate the propaganda that
they were concocting and convert the pacifistic country to wartime hysteria.
That worked. It worked very well. And it taught a lesson: State propagan-
da, when supported by the educated classes, and when no deviation is per-
mitted from it, can have a big affect. It was a lesson learned by Hitler and
many others, and it has been pursued to this day.