With the recent scandal around James Tracy's questions regarding the Sandy Hook shooting, I would like to run a thought experiment about just how easy it would be to create a news story.
An international story occurring in another country would be no sweat. The party who creates the story would never have to step foot outside their studios. Some quick footage from a basement or some stock footage and you've got a story. Put any caption you want underneath a picture of the skyline of some foreign looking city, add some "interview" footage and ta-da. And one news source would be the only one necessary. Most of the images, interviews, etc that all the big news agencies run come from one source. Get one station to break a headline and the others will be playing the same 2.5 second sound bites on loop before you know it. Any contrasting media from the story's supposed country of origin would, of course, never get to the screens of Americans except for the small amount of people that are already plugged into alternative news accounts.
However, when we try to imagine creating a news story from scratch on American soil, things get a bit trickier. This would involve keeping a tight grip on the actual geography where the story was "taking place". A narrative would have to be enforced from the very first moment.
Obviously, the national news services would have to be given priority to entering the site. The national news is the most firmly controlled because it is the most centralized. Local news reporters from newspapers and local stations would have to be kept at a serious distance in order that they not gain information that would be harmful to the official narrative. The media objects (pictures, videos, eyewitness reports) that makes it to the public are always carefully chosen, but in the case of a created event, these selections would be even more closely scrutinized.
Finally, an effective way to dissuade critical examinations of the events and surrounding media coverage (as well as investigative pursuits by authorities) would have to be arranged. It's here where an especially tragic story is helpful. One effective way to silence questioners would be to avoid their questions, instead aiming ad hominem attacks against those who are not "suitably reverent".
In conclusion, creating a media incident in the U.S. would be difficult, but not impossible. I hope that, in time, some of the legitimate questions surrounding Sandy Hook will be answered.
For James Tracy's article see:
http://memoryholeblog.com/2012/12/24/the-sandy-hook-massacre-unanswered-questions-and-missing-information/
An international story occurring in another country would be no sweat. The party who creates the story would never have to step foot outside their studios. Some quick footage from a basement or some stock footage and you've got a story. Put any caption you want underneath a picture of the skyline of some foreign looking city, add some "interview" footage and ta-da. And one news source would be the only one necessary. Most of the images, interviews, etc that all the big news agencies run come from one source. Get one station to break a headline and the others will be playing the same 2.5 second sound bites on loop before you know it. Any contrasting media from the story's supposed country of origin would, of course, never get to the screens of Americans except for the small amount of people that are already plugged into alternative news accounts.
However, when we try to imagine creating a news story from scratch on American soil, things get a bit trickier. This would involve keeping a tight grip on the actual geography where the story was "taking place". A narrative would have to be enforced from the very first moment.
Obviously, the national news services would have to be given priority to entering the site. The national news is the most firmly controlled because it is the most centralized. Local news reporters from newspapers and local stations would have to be kept at a serious distance in order that they not gain information that would be harmful to the official narrative. The media objects (pictures, videos, eyewitness reports) that makes it to the public are always carefully chosen, but in the case of a created event, these selections would be even more closely scrutinized.
Finally, an effective way to dissuade critical examinations of the events and surrounding media coverage (as well as investigative pursuits by authorities) would have to be arranged. It's here where an especially tragic story is helpful. One effective way to silence questioners would be to avoid their questions, instead aiming ad hominem attacks against those who are not "suitably reverent".
In conclusion, creating a media incident in the U.S. would be difficult, but not impossible. I hope that, in time, some of the legitimate questions surrounding Sandy Hook will be answered.
For James Tracy's article see:
http://memoryholeblog.com/2012/12/24/the-sandy-hook-massacre-unanswered-questions-and-missing-information/
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