-
- In its zeal to infuse anti-drug messages into the consciousness
of televiewers, the Clinton administration has sneaked into their subconscious.
-
- There's more plot to the plot than television program
fans realized. It's not in the credits, but credit the White House with
a major role.
-
- With eager cooperation of commercial TV, the White House
drug czar's office came up with a scheme that puts millions of dollars
of found money into the networks' pockets and at the same time subliminally
slides the administration's message into the minds of the viewing masses.
-
- Viewers haven't even been aware of it, but as many as
100 of their favorite programs - from "ER" to "Home Improvement"
to "Beverly Hills 90210" - have been programmed right out of
the White House.
-
- Story lines and plots have been "suggested"
by the White House. Scripts have been submitted by networks for review
in advance to the drug czar.
-
- And, what at first may sound innocent enough, the nets
have shown their work to the White House after the doctored programs were
aired.
-
- The rationale is: "We knew what you wanted us to
have the program get across, and here's the proof."
-
- Why the need to show proof? The answer: to be paid.
-
- The details are in the deal the White House has cut with
the five largest networks - ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and Warner Brothers - according
to Salon.com, which broke the story:
-
- * In 1997, in response to President Clinton's campaign
to deploy taxpayer dollars to fight drug use, Congress approved spending
$1 billion for anti-drug advertising over five years.
-
- * Under that law, networks that got paid by the government
to run those commercials had, in effect, to charge only half-rate.
-
- * Uncle Sam paid the full rate for the spots, but the
nets then had to give away a dollar-for-dollar match of free air time for
public-service anti-drug ads by non-profit groups that were also working
hand-in-glove with the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
-
- * Networks were not thrilled to see millions of dollars
of potential ad revenues evaporating into the free time they were giving
away.
-
- * The president's drug czar, Barry McCaffrey, devised
one ofthose win-win ways out. He would give the nets "credits"
from having to give away free spots in return for anti-drug messages their
producers would weave into program plots.
-
- * If the program plot wasn't sufficiently "on message,"
the White House would withhold the credits.
-
- * The nets got that message. To win those credits - thus
freeing up precious air time it then sold to commercial sponsors at the
full rate - the nets made sure their programs got the desired White House
message across in their plot lines.
-
- Among those whose episodes were suggested and/or approved
by the White House were "Cosby," "The Drew Carey Show,"
"The Practice," "General Hospital," "7th Heaven,"
"Chicago Hope," "Beverly Hills 90210," "Providence,"
"Touched by an Angel," "Home Improvement," "ER,"
"Promised Land," "Boy Meets World," "Trinity,"
"The Smart Guy," "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" and "Wayans
Bros."
-
- The money the nets made on this plot-tinkering is not
chump change. The New York Post said the White House "valued the programming
messages it had approved at $22 million."
-
- The nets can't see why this isn't all well and good -
after all, a socially worthwhile message is getting across (drug users
are losers in the virtual life of the doctored TV dramas) and the nets
are getting richer. What's wrong with that?
-
- If anyone has trouble with taxpayers' money going into
the sit-com business, it hasn't made the news.
-
- But those who worry about bureaucrats in Washington engaging
in mass-comm mind-bending are speaking out.
-
- "This is the most craven thing I've heard of yet,"
one of the media watchdogs, Andrew Schwartzman of the Media Access Project,
told the Post.
-
- He termed it "turning over content control to the
federal government" and denounced it as an outrageous abandonment
of the First Amendment."
-
- "It's one thing to appropriate money to buy ads,
another thing to spend the money to influence the public subliminally,"
he was quoted by the Washington Post. "And it's monstrously selfish
and irresponsible on the part of the broadcasters."
-
- * Robert Weiner, a spokesman for the drug control office
in the White House, thought it a great idea for the government to ghost-write
a prime-time program "which is a very positive statement and has the
proper message on drugs and is accurate.
-
- "There's nothing wrong with that. They've given
us positive programs. If you've got a good 'ER,' that's certainly as important
as an ad."
-
- It all raises the question of where the government can,
and should go, in influencing attitudes and actions of people toward a
desired goal - with or without their knowledge it's being done
-
-
-
- (On Clinton's Dept. of TV programming story)
-
-
- Comment
-
-
- From: Brasscheck <ken@brasscheck.com 1-15-00
-
-
- On Clinton's Dept. of TV programming
-
- It's old hat really and I'm surprised none of the commentators
on this story pointed to the Office of War Information (OWI) set up under
the Roosevelt regime which started all this.
-
- A little history:
-
- July 1941 - FDR creates the Office of the Coordinator
of Information putting close friend Bill Donovan in charge. Donovan, a
Wall Street lawyer, laid the foundations for what later became the CIA.
-
- Early 1942 - FDR splits the "white" propaganda
function from the covert function, calling the former the Office of War
Information (OWI). The OSS takes over "black" propaganda efforts
as well as intelligence gathering and covert operations.
-
- 1942 - Close colleague of Bill Donovan, Asst. Secretary
of War, James J. McCloy, establishes the Psychologic Branch within the
War Departments intelligence division. It later evolves into the Psychological
Warfare Division (more on that later)
-
- The OWI did things like send plot lines and characterization
suggestions to the producers of soap operas, comic books, and other mass
entertainments. Some of their guidelines: Japanese were to be portrayed
as treacherous and British were to be portrayed as heroic.
-
- After the war, graduates of the Psychological Warfare
Division, OSS, and OWI essentially ran the US news media and publishing
industries
-
- An overstatement?
-
- Here's a short list of positions occupied by OWI graduates
in 1953:
-
- * The publishers of Look, Time, Fortune, and several
dailies
-
- * Editors of magazines such as Holiday, Parade and the
Saturday Review.
-
- * The Board Chairman of CBS and dozens of key network
executives
-
- * The heads of Viking, Harper and Brothers, and Farrar
-
- * Ike's chief speech writer (FDR began the tradition
of US presidents leaving their speech writing to others)
-
- * The editor of Reader's Digest Int'l division
-
- * At least six partners of major Madison Avenue advertising
firms. (Recently passed away adman David Ogilvy was a star aid to the UK
intelligence expert who taught Donavan how to set up a proper intelligence
service.)
-
- And you wonder why the US news media marches in lock
step...
-
- Christopher Simpson nails all this, and much, much more
in his outstanding history: "The Science of Coercion: Communication
Research and Psychological Warfare 1945-1960" (Oxford University Press,
1994)
-
-
- ============================================== Brass
Check - http://www.brasscheck.com
-
- "...if only the press were to do its duty, or but
a tenth of its duty, this hellish system could not go on." - William
Cobbett, Rural Rides, 1830
-
- "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in
a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
- Thomas Jefferson ===========================================
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