A crisis of Truth
The cancer of our Republic.
TAT readers,
Happy TGIF to all. This week has been easily, on par with all chaotic weeks, just prior to a US Presidential election. It’s not just politics though, but a daily dose of competing media, regardless of whether it is politics, war, business or any other competitive issue. Whenever something of value is at stake, arguments for and against, quite often take on a life of their own. This is nothing new.
There are though, limits to how much you can stretch truth before it becomes an outright lie, conspiracy theory or any other immoral description of lying to your fellow citizens. This has been the case during the Trump era. There are plenty of reasons for this but very few corrective measures outside of peer pressure will work at this point. In order for peer pressure to work within our constitutional republic, requires truth.
I have addressed this issue on a personal level and a professional level in TAT essays in the past, and often. Still, it is most important that I address it now as the baseline for interacting with our fellow citizens. We cannot depend on the US government to protect us at home, or abroad from what is professionally termed, malign influence. In simplest form, malign influence is influence wielded to achieve advantage over another individual, entity, business, government, foreign nation, etc. This was much of my profession during my years in CT/ Counterterrorism, while still in uniform. It’s not PSYOPS, it is influence and PSYOPS is, but one piece of influence wielded in support of national security, and not even the largest piece. Also, it is illegal for anyone in the military to attempt to influence American citizens.
At home, it’s the purview of DHS/ Department of Homeland Security and the FBI to protect us from malign influence threats, here in the United States. At the national/ international level and domestically, 90% (I’m being generous) of our efforts fail and have since the end of the Cold War in the early 90s. Ever since, we’ve been paying nepotistic defense contractors handsomely, for little but pervasive failure. These highly paid failures have resulted in, the global and precipitous decline of democracy and our citizenry, significantly under the influence of hostile foreign and domestic influencers.
These failures and the absence of any reasonable restraints on high-profile media outlets like FOX News, political parties, pop up apps and media sites where the only thing broadcast is propaganda, has been nothing short of disastrous. While there has been enormous attention paid to Russian influence operations in support of Trump and the GOP for nine years and countless hours of analysis by the best in government, it is Russian extreme-right-wing ideology, that was at the core of Trump’s and MAGA’s campaign, for president.
As I have discussed in earlier essays, The Four Horsemen of the MAGA Apocalypse, Autocracy, Oligarchy, White Christian Nationalism and Violence, is no different that Putin’s. He has exported this dictatorial ideology, globally. Even in India, if you replace the word Christian with Hindu, the overall ideology is the exact same. Here in the US, such ideology is little different than what inspired the Old South’s Confederacy, during the Civil War. After failing to heal after the war’s conclusion in 1865, this ideology has plagued us ever since in eras like; the height of the Klan movement, the Civil Rights era and even now, as the spine of the GOP’s 2024 platform and their stated intentions to overthrow our constitution, in Project 2025.
Now that we know a bit of where all of the truly crazy conspiracy theories, that are part and parcel of today’s Republican Party identity, let’s take a look how lies, fake news and influence operations sustain false narratives. We are literally engaged in a Narrative Warfare conflict, with truth on one side and pure crazy, on the other. This also neatly summarizes today’s political campaign between a party that keeps themselves between our constitutional guardrails and the GOP who is doing everything possible, to make our constitution irrelevant or overturn it altogether.
This morning, I published a restacked TAT essay about the rampant antisemitic trends in many western news outlets. No, they are not using the overt antisemitism of the Nazi Party or modern neo-Nazis, but a subtle inference in the way they report about Israel’s wars against the terrorists largely surrounding them. The war in Gaza has been exemplary of this. For months, three of my former “go to” reporting sources, the AP, Reuters and the BBC spent huge amounts of ink to publish Hamas’ fake casualty reports while mostly ignoring the barbaric attack against the Jewish State by two terrorist armies, one Hamas and the other Hezbollah. Both are fully supported by a genocidal, terrorist regime in Tehran.
Without more facts, it is too early to say whether the IDF has complied with the obligation to warn in every case. However, there is no question that the IDF’s warnings practice, in general, is the gold standard. Indeed, as a matter of policy, the IDF typically exceeds what the law requires. It is likewise clear that its warning to evacuate northern Gaza constitutes an “effective warning,” as that concept is understood in IHL. This is in sharp contrast to Hamas’s failure to provide any warnings to the civilian population of Gaza and its efforts to neutralize the effectiveness of the IDF’s. That Hamas has violated its own warning obligation under IHL is simply indisputable. - Israel – Hamas 2023 Symposium – The IDF, Hamas, and the Duty to Warn - The Lieber Institute at West Point - Michael Schmitt - Oct 27, 2023
Not one of them have to my knowledge, spent invested any ink in the monumental efforts of the IDF/ Israel Defense Forces to protect civilians. In fact, according to the prestigious Lieber Institute at West Point, who has carefully monitored and reported on this issue regularly, deem Israeli efforts far in excess of other Western Militaries, including our own. The AP has partially recovered and does a better job but I’m not sure if I will ever read Reuters of the BBC, ever again. Anyway, I wrote on this, this morning so you can find more in the following essay.
As we move on to the election discussion regarding dishonest reporting, we need to see how poorly informed, most Americans are, and intentionally so because of the media they watch, read or listen to. As noted earlier, the US national security community is grotesquely incompetent or as I prefer, impotent against such threats. This is the reason that all of us that consider ourselves good citizens, based on our founding principles, must take up the mantle of advocacy against media dishonesty.
One aspect of this is to, “follow the money.” With newspapers disappearing almost weekly and only a handful of media monopolies controlling all media, they produce media that enhances their bottom lines. This means pandering to every type of audience available. Ownership of primary alleged news outlets is often murky by design, intentionally so. Between the demands of investors for a return on their investment and the financial lifeline of most media, ad revenue, what sells has all too often become more important than truth.
For example, OAN was founded on the recommendation of AT&T. By professional estimates, OAN is so dishonest and extreme right wing in content, that it makes FOX look liberal by contrast. and they are on par with FOX News, for producing pure propaganda and some of the most prominent conspiracy theories that bond the MAGA movement together.
AT&T’s involvement, according to Reuters, was more than just a suggestion. Reuters reported that the world’s largest communications company provided “tens of millions of dollars in revenue.” It said that 90% of OAN’s revenue came from a contract with AT&T-owned TV platforms, including DirecTV. Shiffman reported that one accountant said under oath that without the DirecTV deal, OAN’s value “would be zero.” - Is AT&T backing One America News - Poynter - Tom Jones - Oct. 7, 2021
The Yellow Journalism era of the late 1890s was little different from what I am discussing here today and produced as much chaos and as many allege, the assassination of President McKinley. In those days, wealthy publishers, William Randolf Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer were engaged in a brutal contest for readership, because like today, it drove advertising revenue. There is a strong case to be made historically, that it was their sensationalist, dishonest alleged news, resulted in the Spanish American War. Hearst’s paper, put into print an article that said that President McKinley should be shot and sure enough, not long afterwards, he was assassinated.
The three graphics below are taken from: When a newspaper was accused of killing a president - ProQuest
This history lesson aside, there is no debate about the dramatic increase in far-right political violence in the age of Trump. As a Texan, I know full well the story of the El Paso Walmart, mass murderer who acted on the rhetoric of Trump and Texas Republicans in elected office.
Pulitzer’s guilt over the assassination of the president, even though it was his competitor Hearst’s paper that had inspired the assassination, is long thought to have been a primary inspiration for creating the “Pulitzer Prize.” After all, he and Hearst had walked the nation into a war and an assassinated president, all for advertising revenue. Today’s media environment is little different than the height of Yellow Journalism era. Must we wait for another war or political violence on a substantial level, to put an end to the painful dishonesty of most media today?
Another favorite source for my research is the prestigious Pew Research Center. The following reports and articles detail much of what I have discussed in this essay. For those interested, I recommend scanning or reading some of these links. None of it should surprise anyone.
Americans’ main sources for political news vary by party and age | Pew Research Center
54% in U.S. say social media companies shouldn’t allow political ads | Pew Research Center
Americans See Skepticism of News Media as Healthy, Say Public Trust in the Institution Can Improve | Pew Research Center
64% in U.S. say social media have a mostly negative effect on country today | Pew Research Center
Do Americans trust the news media? | Pew Research Center
Rising Numbers of Americans Say Jews, Muslims Face a Lot of Discrimination | Pew Research Center
We are losing at Narrative Warfare
My professional career in influence is grounded in something that the US government does not understand and refuses to learn about, Narrative Warfare. Like most people these days, they believe everything can be achieved via technology. When it comes to human beings, we are far too complex for any current technology to predictably influence anyone on a regular basis. Technology can be very useful, if national security researchers would integrate the handful of those professionals like me, who are actual influence operators, not simply high-level academics who are either devoid of field experience or those who are not integrated with such expertise. As the VP of Narrative Strategies, a US based, niche think tank, I have the great fortune to be affiliated with colleagues, deriving from both tracks.
The point of raising the issue of Narrative Warfare is that at its simplest, it a cognitive battle between identities. Narrative is how humans make meaning out of all they experience throughout their lives, and this is what shapes their identity. In the past 30-40 years, right-wing media has shaped or in professional terms, conditioned the identity of the FOX crowd in a manner that completely alters what is considered patriotic. Instead of traditional American values, they now believe in, God, guns and Trump or whatever he says even though the day before he may have said the exact opposite.
Humans make most of their decisions subconsciously and based exclusively on their identity. If that identity has been cultivated to see reality where there is none, those so afflicted will be their alternative reality over what is actually occurring and act on it, if so, triggered by who understands that identity. There are only two ways to understand it and that is to either have deep experience and training in the field or to create it. This is what FOX, and the party collectively have done for at least three decades.
FOX/ MAGA voters will vote for Trump, nine times out of ten, no matter what they say to those outside of the communities that share multiple portions of their identity. The FOX crowd is a perfect example and along with the professional influence operations assistance acquired from Russia, they now can control GOP audiences with relative certainty and ease.
As noted at the onset, we will get little to no help in restoring our media environment, from the US national security community. They don’t know how and are seemingly unwilling to learn. Like my deep reverence for the Minutemen at the beginning of our War for Independence, I strongly believe that it is citizens who must do what their government cannot or will not, to protect the nation, by all legal means. No, I am absolutely not calling for a revolution or overthrow of our constitutional republic, but rather expecting citizens to vote for those who will listen to experienced professionals rather than nepotistic defense contractors.
I believe in every citizen and resident, doing their part in looking up things before posting and then doing the hardest thing of all; to publicly advocate for truth by challenging conspiracy theories, half-truths and lies, regardless of whether it is a close friend, family member or work colleague. If we all do this, even the greedy multi-national conglomerate media entities that control nearly all of our media, will refocus on advertising sources that meet the needs of their evolving audiences. I warn all of you though, this will not be easy, but what choice do we have?
Sure, we could all sit on our derrieres and keep our heads down. This tactic though, will get us nothing but another Trump administration. MAGA doesn’t accept criticism well and the so-called freedom of speech hacks like Elon Musk, and today’s GOP, would simply begin censoring dissent, as they have stated often in their rants. Never once forget that our rights, including freedom of speech, depend on the validity of our constitution. Trump has already stated that he would set aside the constitution should he need to, if reelected. Project 2025 and the GOP’s 2024 Platform both discuss critical unconstitutional changes in our founding document that would render it, largely null and void.
Finally, let’s wrap this essay up and get onto the weekend
Here’s the way I see things:
The foundation of solving any problem and sustaining our republic, depends more on truth than any other single element.
My definition of truth:
All known facts, presented objectively and in context
- CobaughNot one single problem can be solved effectively or sustainably, without facts. No math equation can be solved if we simply use any number we like, instead of the one that works. Without math, no scientific solutions could be found or engineering problems solved. You cannot go to a therapist and tell them only a handful of truthful insights and expect them to help you. Your doctor cannot treat you without actual test results or expert observations. You cannot fly a plane without expert training, that all depends on math, engineering or critical thinking skills. Neither can you just say that there is money in your checking account and expect to buy things. It actually must be there. Rural America where I was raised, cannot just say it rained if it didn’t, and still expect crops to grow.
Reality matters everywhere, except in today’s MAGA dominated GOP or in the much smaller fringes on the left. Hey, free speech is one of our most essential elements of our Bill of Rights and I am not advocating for censorship. What I am advocating for is for every voter to put in the time to check things out before sharing them with their fellow citizens. If all of us do this, the frauds like FOX, NewsMax, OAN, Breitbart etc. will either have to adjust to the new reality or perish as businesses when viewers and readers abandon them. I can’t speak for you folks, but I don’t take kindly to being lied to. It is truly as simple as that. That today’s GOP is a megaphone for an un-American, Confederacy 2.0 and global, Russian far-right ideology, is at the very fever pitch as the tensions leading up to and throughout the Civil War.
The road back from the chasm between truth and all else is a long one and piled high with obstacles. Still, if we are to keep our republic, we must embark on this road to recovery. Like all difficult paths in life, it is easier together and in support of each other. I’m in and hope that all of you will join as well.
Now, thoroughly enjoy your weekends,
Paul