Disinformation: What it Is; How it Works

Maybe a couple of quick definitions are in order first. A lot of people confuse "misinformation" and "disinformation", but there's a critical difference. "Misinformation" has been in the language for centuries and was formed from the verb "misinform". "Misinformation" is, quite simply, "incorrect information" and that's it. "Disinformation", on the other hand, entered the language in 1939 and Merriam Webster's 10th Edition defines it this way: "False information deliberately and often covertly spread (as by the planting of rumors) in order to influence public opinion or obscure the truth."

The difference is that disinformation (from the soviet term "disinformatsiya") is "covertly spread" and often started by planting rumors and the goal is to influence public opinion. The soviets became masters of this technique, using small newspapers or radio stations in third-world countries to start a rumor, which might then be picked up (with quite a bit of help from the soviet "news" bureau TASS) by larger news operations.

TASS would carry the initial reports but would fail to issue corrections when the originating newspaper or radio station later issued a correction. The rumors continue to spread to larger and more respected news organizations. Sometimes they managed to hit a home run and their disinformation would show up in major Western media.

Karl Rove and company watched and learned. (Is there an irony here? The "defenders of freedom and democracy", as they like to style themselves, taking to disinformation as a pig takes to mud.) They saw how easy it would be to start a whispering campaign. For example, the one in South Carolina, where the rumor mill spread an unfounded and false story about Senator John McCain so that George W. Bush could win the Republican nomination in 2000. These techniques were repeated four years later by the "Swift Boaters" and Jerome R. Corsi, a hack writer and conspiracy theory nut.

Today, we're seeing yet another tired replay of this hoary old script, this time against Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Will the public fall for this canard yet again?

A Disinformatsiya Case Study

The United States Information Agency (USIA) issued a lengthy report in 1996 describing how a disinformation campaign is waged. The full account is here: (The "Baby Parts" Myth: The Anatomy of a Rumor).

The account summarizes an unfounded, but horrifying, rumor that Americans (or, depending on the source, Europeans, Canadians, or Israelis) adopt infants or kidnap children, murder them, and use their body parts for organ transplants. You know it's false. I know it's false. But this story has been seen by millions of people and many of those who are already predisposed to dislike Americans (or, depending on the source, Europeans, Canadians, or Israelis) undoubtedly believed it.

These baby stealing rumors can be traced back at least as far as ancient Rome and were often used to pit one group against another, just as similar techniques are being used today by the GOP to demonize Democrats.

In January 1987, Leonardo Villeda Bermudez, a former Honduran government official mentioned the rumor in passing during an interview. The reporter felt that Villeda was saying the rumors were true. The official immediately issued a clarification and that clarification was repeated by all top Honduran officials, but the rumor had already been reported by one of the news wire services.

A few months later, in April, the disinformatsiya crew in the USSR began spreading and embellishing the rumor. The story appeared in Pravda (which means "Truth"), citing the Honduran account but ignoring all subsequent clarifications and retractions. The story continued to appear in TASS accounts until late 1988.

This event occurred near the end of the Soviet Union and lasted for less than two years, while some stories from the 1950s and 1960s were repeated for more than a decade. Joe McCarthy disgraced the Republican party in the 1950s and some of his lies continue to be handed down from one generation to the next, as if gospel, in the GOP.

The problem is that people believe what they want to believe. It's easy to vilify "the enemy" as Sarah Palin did at the recent Republican convention, and as she continues to do in her role of attack dog. Those Republicans who believe that only they are patriotic (and this appears not to be a small number) will easily believe that Democrats are enemies of the state.

Perhaps someday Republicans will understand that Democrats share with true Republicans a desire for peace, justice, and prosperity. Perhaps the majority of Republicans may even come to understand that their own party has lied to them about nearly everything it has done for the past eight years.

One can only hope.

The Conventions Have Ended

After the Democratic convention, I felt really good. And it was even better when Obama and Biden made Columbus one of their first post-convention stops. I created a couple of designs that I felt were forward looking and optimistic.

and

I really hoped that the campaign would involve a discussion of the issues, but then came the Republican convention. Lies, deceit, innuendo, and smears abounded. And that was just about their own vice presidential candidate. Of course they blamed "the liberal media" for it, even though it was a story planted by neocon bloggers. (This is essentially the same procedure that the soviets perfected using TASS in the 1950s and 1960s.)

So, for therapeutic value, I needed to create some edgier messages. By the way, if you like any of these, I've made them available via CafePress.

then

and

Well, the Republican convention is over, so the police in Minneapolis and Saint Paul can stop arresting terrorist nuns and beating demonstrators. They can go back to whatever it is they usually do for amusement. The Republicans are fanning out across the country with their message of fear.

And I needed more therapy. That led to ...

and

along with

and

and

and

and finally


This next election is the most important election in my lifetime. It will help determine the direction this country takes for decades and, possibly, whether this country continues to exist.

Incidentally, I've created some of these bumper stickers as wide-screen (1440x900) desktop wallpaper images. If you'd like to download them, you'll find them in a zip file here. Free.

http://www.blinn.com/desktop/ Just download "Obama.zip", extract the files, and use them.

Enjoy!

And please vote.

Aristotle supposedly said, "A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side."
(Smart guy, that Aristotle.)

Nasty?

Yeah, I guess you could say that some of these are nasty. Mean spirited. Personal attacks. In other words, they're exactly the kinds of things that Karl Rove and the rest of his politburo would use to blast the opposition. Hack writer Jerome Corsi's Obama Nation book, for example. Clever play on words, but lacking in factual references. Corsi, Rove, and their ilk are professionals when it comes to innuendo, rumor, and half truths.

So, yeah. Nasty. And without apology for being so. It's time to fight back.

I used to be a Republican

Maybe I'd like to be again someday, but it's not likely. Today the Republicans are the party of intransigence, not the progressives they once were.

It's not so much the Republicans, but the party as it is currently operating. The party has been taken over by what appear to most of the world to be crazy people. We have the neocons who have started one needless war and seem to be itching to start another. We have people who espouse Christian values and morality lying, stealing, and cheating. They pray loudly and publicly, but their actions do not reflect their words.

I once was a Republican. And this morning I heard a Florida GOP congressman on NPR. He made a lot of sense, talking about Congress working together to get things done. That was once the way things happened.

It's not just the GOP, either. Democrats have taken a harder stance, too, and are more confrontational than they were. I know why this is in my own case: As the GOP told me time and time again that I was the enemy, that I was not patriotic, and everything was the fault of people like me, the "big tent" got smaller and smaller. As the GOP hired more and more managers, all the while saying that they were making government smaller, as they outsourced $50,000 per year jobs to $200,000 per year private contractors who were accountable only to their corporations, as they routinely talked about solving problems and only made them worse -- I could see that the elephant was naked.

I just hope that some true conservatives manage to wrest back control of the party.

I really would like to respect the party again even if its values are no longer mine, or maybe the other way around.