The Sovietization of the American Press

[Deplorable Yankee]

The Sovietization of the American Press
The transformation from phony "objectivity" to open one-party orthodoxy hasn't been an improvement

Matt Taibbi

Mar 12

750

1,100

I collect Soviet newspapers. Years ago, I used to travel to Moscow’s Izmailovsky flea market every few weeks, hooking up with a dealer who crisscrossed the country digging up front pages from the Cold War era. I have Izvestia’s celebration of Gagarin’s flight, a Pravda account of a 1938 show trial, even an ancient copy of Ogonyek with Trotsky on the cover that someone must have taken a risk to keep.
These relics, with dramatic block fonts and red highlights, are cool pieces of history. Not so cool: the writing! Soviet newspapers were wrought with such anvil shamelessness that it’s difficult to imagine anyone ever read them without laughing. A good Soviet could write almost any Pravda headline in advance. What else but “A Mighty Demonstration of the Union of the Party and the People” fit the day after Supreme Soviet elections? What news could come from the Spanish civil war but “Success of the Republican Fleet?” Who could earn an obit headline but a “Faithful Son of the Party”?

Reality in Soviet news was 100% binary, with all people either heroes or villains, and the villains all in league with one another (an SR was no better than a fascist or a “Right-Trotskyite Bandit,” a kind of proto-horseshoe theory). Other ideas were not represented, except to be attacked and deconstructed. Also, since anything good was all good, politicians were not described as people at all but paragons of limitless virtue — 95% of most issues of Pravda or Izvestia were just names of party leaders surrounded by lists of applause-words, like “glittering,” “full-hearted,” “wise,” “mighty,” “courageous,” “in complete moral-political union with the people,” etc.

Some of the headlines in the U.S. press lately sound suspiciously like this kind of work:
— Biden stimulus showers money on Americans, sharply cutting poverty
— Champion of the middle class comes to the aid of the poor
— Biden's historic victory for America

opening snip

Read it all

The Sovietization of the American Press

The transformation from phony "objectivity" to open one-party orthodoxy hasn't been an improvement

taibbi.substack.com

Golly gee Matt did ya just start paying attention....wait till he figures out that thier really is just a uniparty in DC that should be a great piece ....derp

 

[lennypartiv]

Just like the fake news on CNN.

Maybe one day we will have a press who exposes voter fraud.

 

[Blackrook]

I hate to say it, but the journalism profession is full of cowards.

 

[marvin martian]

The Sovietization of the American Press
The transformation from phony "objectivity" to open one-party orthodoxy hasn't been an improvement

Matt Taibbi

Mar 12

750

1,100

I collect Soviet newspapers. Years ago, I used to travel to Moscow’s Izmailovsky flea market every few weeks, hooking up with a dealer who crisscrossed the country digging up front pages from the Cold War era. I have Izvestia’s celebration of Gagarin’s flight, a Pravda account of a 1938 show trial, even an ancient copy of Ogonyek with Trotsky on the cover that someone must have taken a risk to keep.
These relics, with dramatic block fonts and red highlights, are cool pieces of history. Not so cool: the writing! Soviet newspapers were wrought with such anvil shamelessness that it’s difficult to imagine anyone ever read them without laughing. A good Soviet could write almost any Pravda headline in advance. What else but “A Mighty Demonstration of the Union of the Party and the People” fit the day after Supreme Soviet elections? What news could come from the Spanish civil war but “Success of the Republican Fleet?” Who could earn an obit headline but a “Faithful Son of the Party”?

Reality in Soviet news was 100% binary, with all people either heroes or villains, and the villains all in league with one another (an SR was no better than a fascist or a “Right-Trotskyite Bandit,” a kind of proto-horseshoe theory). Other ideas were not represented, except to be attacked and deconstructed. Also, since anything good was all good, politicians were not described as people at all but paragons of limitless virtue — 95% of most issues of Pravda or Izvestia were just names of party leaders surrounded by lists of applause-words, like “glittering,” “full-hearted,” “wise,” “mighty,” “courageous,” “in complete moral-political union with the people,” etc.

Some of the headlines in the U.S. press lately sound suspiciously like this kind of work:
— Biden stimulus showers money on Americans, sharply cutting poverty
— Champion of the middle class comes to the aid of the poor
— Biden's historic victory for America

opening snip

Read it all

The Sovietization of the American Press

The transformation from phony "objectivity" to open one-party orthodoxy hasn't been an improvement

taibbi.substack.com

Golly gee Matt did ya just start paying attention....wait till he figures out that thier really is just a uniparty in DC that should be a great piece ....derp

Can't argue with that take, considering:

 

[gipper]

The Sovietization of the American Press
The transformation from phony "objectivity" to open one-party orthodoxy hasn't been an improvement

Matt Taibbi

Mar 12

750

1,100

I collect Soviet newspapers. Years ago, I used to travel to Moscow’s Izmailovsky flea market every few weeks, hooking up with a dealer who crisscrossed the country digging up front pages from the Cold War era. I have Izvestia’s celebration of Gagarin’s flight, a Pravda account of a 1938 show trial, even an ancient copy of Ogonyek with Trotsky on the cover that someone must have taken a risk to keep.
These relics, with dramatic block fonts and red highlights, are cool pieces of history. Not so cool: the writing! Soviet newspapers were wrought with such anvil shamelessness that it’s difficult to imagine anyone ever read them without laughing. A good Soviet could write almost any Pravda headline in advance. What else but “A Mighty Demonstration of the Union of the Party and the People” fit the day after Supreme Soviet elections? What news could come from the Spanish civil war but “Success of the Republican Fleet?” Who could earn an obit headline but a “Faithful Son of the Party”?

Reality in Soviet news was 100% binary, with all people either heroes or villains, and the villains all in league with one another (an SR was no better than a fascist or a “Right-Trotskyite Bandit,” a kind of proto-horseshoe theory). Other ideas were not represented, except to be attacked and deconstructed. Also, since anything good was all good, politicians were not described as people at all but paragons of limitless virtue — 95% of most issues of Pravda or Izvestia were just names of party leaders surrounded by lists of applause-words, like “glittering,” “full-hearted,” “wise,” “mighty,” “courageous,” “in complete moral-political union with the people,” etc.

Some of the headlines in the U.S. press lately sound suspiciously like this kind of work:
— Biden stimulus showers money on Americans, sharply cutting poverty
— Champion of the middle class comes to the aid of the poor
— Biden's historic victory for America

opening snip

Read it all

The Sovietization of the American Press

The transformation from phony "objectivity" to open one-party orthodoxy hasn't been an improvement

taibbi.substack.com

Golly gee Matt did ya just start paying attention....wait till he figures out that thier really is just a uniparty in DC that should be a great piece ....derp

I’ve followed Taibbi for a long time. He knows full well both parties are frauds and terribly corrupt. He was very critical of Ear’s handling of the Great Recession. He’s also pointed out how Bubba did all he could to support Wall Street and this lead to the Great Recession.

 

[Oddball]

The Sovietization of the American Press
The transformation from phony "objectivity" to open one-party orthodoxy hasn't been an improvement

Matt Taibbi

Mar 12

750

1,100

I collect Soviet newspapers. Years ago, I used to travel to Moscow’s Izmailovsky flea market every few weeks, hooking up with a dealer who crisscrossed the country digging up front pages from the Cold War era. I have Izvestia’s celebration of Gagarin’s flight, a Pravda account of a 1938 show trial, even an ancient copy of Ogonyek with Trotsky on the cover that someone must have taken a risk to keep.
These relics, with dramatic block fonts and red highlights, are cool pieces of history. Not so cool: the writing! Soviet newspapers were wrought with such anvil shamelessness that it’s difficult to imagine anyone ever read them without laughing. A good Soviet could write almost any Pravda headline in advance. What else but “A Mighty Demonstration of the Union of the Party and the People” fit the day after Supreme Soviet elections? What news could come from the Spanish civil war but “Success of the Republican Fleet?” Who could earn an obit headline but a “Faithful Son of the Party”?

Reality in Soviet news was 100% binary, with all people either heroes or villains, and the villains all in league with one another (an SR was no better than a fascist or a “Right-Trotskyite Bandit,” a kind of proto-horseshoe theory). Other ideas were not represented, except to be attacked and deconstructed. Also, since anything good was all good, politicians were not described as people at all but paragons of limitless virtue — 95% of most issues of Pravda or Izvestia were just names of party leaders surrounded by lists of applause-words, like “glittering,” “full-hearted,” “wise,” “mighty,” “courageous,” “in complete moral-political union with the people,” etc.

Some of the headlines in the U.S. press lately sound suspiciously like this kind of work:
— Biden stimulus showers money on Americans, sharply cutting poverty
— Champion of the middle class comes to the aid of the poor
— Biden's historic victory for America

opening snip

Read it all

The Sovietization of the American Press

The transformation from phony "objectivity" to open one-party orthodoxy hasn't been an improvement

taibbi.substack.com

Golly gee Matt did ya just start paying attention....wait till he figures out that thier really is just a uniparty in DC that should be a great piece ....derp

Difference being that TASS and Pravda did what they did at gunpoint....Murica's fake nooz media are voluntary agitprops.

 

[MarcATL]

I thought all things Russia was good now.

Can you people just get a script and stick to it?

 

[Oddball]

I thought all things Russia was good now.

Can you people just get a script and stick to it?

The topic is SOVIET Russia, pinhead.

 

[Muhammed]

The leftist medias' garbage is akin to the old Soviet Union KGB's First Chief Directorate's disinformation active measures propaganda.

CNN, NBC, WaPo and the NYT publish lies every day.

It appears that their agents must write crude defamatory anti-USA disinformation about the USA every single day, just like the KGB. If the writers didn't, they could be severely punished. Their agents had to meet a quota of lies, or else it's off to a gulag in Siberia, or worse.

 

[gipper]

I thought all things Russia was good now.

Can you people just get a script and stick to it?

Since when do you have a thought?

 

[Votto]

Thomas Jefferson was attacked by a Federalist newspaper as being a godless Jacobin who would unleash the forces of bloody terror upon the land. There would be murder, robbery, rape, adultery, and incest that will be openly taught and practiced. The air will be rent with the cries of the distressed, the soil will be soaked with blood, and the nation black with crimes.


Newspapers emerged as a driving force in American life, and had little to do with objective news. The press became even more corrupt under President Jackson. Editors of newspapers owed their jobs directly to Jackson as he appointed numerous ones to do his bidding. He also appointed numerous editors to salaried political positions, including many postmasters, while nationally it is estimated that 50 to 60 editors had been given plum political jobs. But rewarding political friends was nothing new in politics, as the Federalists appointed nearly 1000 editors to postmaster positions over a 12 year period, but Jackson transformed the hap hazard approach into more of an organized strategic plan to try and obtain votes.





A Historian by the name of Harold Holzer describes the impact of the power of partisan journalism on voters in the years leading to the Civil War. “By the 1850’s, almost no independent voters were left in America, only Democrats and Whigs, and nearly all of them avid readers of newspapers. They were kept in a perpetual state of political arousal by journalism, and further stimulated by election cycles that drew voters to the polls several times each year, not just on the first Tuesday of November, the overwhelming majority regarded politics with a fervor that approached religious awakening, evoking interest characteristic of modern sports or entertainment. With only a few notable exceptions, few unaligned newspapers prospered”

But my favorite is how the press handled Goldwater, just like they handled Trump


Fact magazine ran an entire issue on Goldwater’s alleged mental unfitness for the Oval Office. It stated with the title, “1,189 Psychiatrists Say Goldwater Is Psychologically Unfit to Be President!” The editor and publisher, Ralph Ginzburg, wrote, “Mr. Godlwater’s illness is not just an emotional maladjustment, or a mild neurosis, or a queerness. As emphatically stated by may of the leading psychiatrists in this country, the patters of his behavior is ominous. From his sadistic childhood pranks to his cruel practical jokes today, from his nervous breakdown under pressure in his twenties to his present day withdrawals and escapes in time of crisis, from his obsessive pre-occpuation with firearms in his youth to his present fantasies about brandishing nuclear weapons to scare his enemies, from his conviction that he is surrounded by deadly enemies at home, to his belief that every Russian ballerina is a spy, he show unmistakable symptoms of paranoia. Clearly paranoia is not just any mental disease. In a leader who commands the most powerful nation and the most destructive arsenal in history it constitutes nothing short of mortal danger to mankind. A little over 30 years ago a paranoiac with a charismatic effect on his audiences, supported by an extremist, highly patriotic group, was democratically elected to the highest executive position in the government of his country. His name was Adolph Hitler”





The article ended with a poll of 12,356 psychiatrists asked if they believed Goldwater was unfit to serve as President of the United States. Many psychiatrists believed he was which gave his position support. But as a result of the Fact article, in 1973 the American Psychiatric Association issued what became known as the “Goldwater Rule”. “On occasion, psychiatrists are asked for an opinion about an individual who is in the light of public attention or who has disclosed information about himself through public media. In such circumstances, a psychiatrist may share with the public his or her expertise about psychiatric issues in general. However, it is unethical for a psychiatrist to offer a professional opinion unless he or she has conducted an examination and has been granted proper authorization for such a statement.”

The only difference today being, the American Psychiatric Association is bought just like the press is today by the DNC. They would never condemn psychiatrists from dissing Trump like this.

 

[TheParser]

The Sovietization of the American Press
The transformation from phony "objectivity" to open one-party orthodoxy hasn't been an improvement

Matt Taibbi

Mar 12

750

1,100

I collect Soviet newspapers. Years ago, I used to travel to Moscow’s Izmailovsky flea market every few weeks, hooking up with a dealer who crisscrossed the country digging up front pages from the Cold War era. I have Izvestia’s celebration of Gagarin’s flight, a Pravda account of a 1938 show trial, even an ancient copy of Ogonyek with Trotsky on the cover that someone must have taken a risk to keep.
These relics, with dramatic block fonts and red highlights, are cool pieces of history. Not so cool: the writing! Soviet newspapers were wrought with such anvil shamelessness that it’s difficult to imagine anyone ever read them without laughing. A good Soviet could write almost any Pravda headline in advance. What else but “A Mighty Demonstration of the Union of the Party and the People” fit the day after Supreme Soviet elections? What news could come from the Spanish civil war but “Success of the Republican Fleet?” Who could earn an obit headline but a “Faithful Son of the Party”?

Reality in Soviet news was 100% binary, with all people either heroes or villains, and the villains all in league with one another (an SR was no better than a fascist or a “Right-Trotskyite Bandit,” a kind of proto-horseshoe theory). Other ideas were not represented, except to be attacked and deconstructed. Also, since anything good was all good, politicians were not described as people at all but paragons of limitless virtue — 95% of most issues of Pravda or Izvestia were just names of party leaders surrounded by lists of applause-words, like “glittering,” “full-hearted,” “wise,” “mighty,” “courageous,” “in complete moral-political union with the people,” etc.

Some of the headlines in the U.S. press lately sound suspiciously like this kind of work:
— Biden stimulus showers money on Americans, sharply cutting poverty
— Champion of the middle class comes to the aid of the poor
— Biden's historic victory for America

opening snip

Read it all

The Sovietization of the American Press

The transformation from phony "objectivity" to open one-party orthodoxy hasn't been an improvement

taibbi.substack.com

Golly gee Matt did ya just start paying attention....wait till he figures out that thier really is just a uniparty in DC that should be a great piece ....derp

As you know, "Pravda" means "truth."

And the other leading newspaper "Izvestia" means "news."

Some members and guests may not know that the Russian people in the USSR were not fooled.

The joke among the people was that there was no "news" in Pravda and no "truth" in Izvestia.