tease

Opinion: How we can confront propaganda

“We the people…” are late with this. It is time, now, to get started.

  • By Jerry Smetzer
  • Monday, February 1, 2021 9:30pm
  • Opinion

On Tuesday, Jan. 26, Mark Zuckerberg has decided on a way to deal with hate speech and propaganda on Facebook. Propaganda is the ugly step-child of mass communications. It has been with us as part of electronic news and entertainment since 1890 with radio. Web-based instant global communications today connect us all with all forms of social media, advertising, movies and radio. Propaganda comes with the package. It surrounds us and suffuses much of our daily lives and culture.

Zuckerberg’s attempt to slow down the propagation of hate speech on his global platform is praiseworthy, as is Twitter owner Jack Dorsey’s decision to remove former President Donald Trump’s user account. However, neither Facebook, Twitter nor any profit-making enterprise should have final authority to define what propaganda is or is not for the rest of us. When a private commercial company declares, unilaterally, that a media initiative is propaganda and then blocks it from their proprietary platform I doubt it will have much effect beyond feeding the paranoia that drives the membership growth of most hate groups.

A federal return to the Fairness Doctrine in broadcast news is being discussed. Unfortunately, I cannot see how our split Congress can even talk about fairness let alone restore a major policy that can so easily be manipulated with propaganda to look and sound like a communist plot. A presidential executive order might work to at least help us get started with discussions about the massive threat systemic propaganda poses to our U.S. Constitution.

ADVERTISEMENT
0 seconds of 0 secondsVolume 0%
Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts
00:00
00:00
00:00
 

Far better to get Facebook, Twitter and other public, private, commercial and government entities talking together under a federally sponsored multi-funded mechanism like an IRS 501c(3) nonprofit corporation. Such a corporation, guided by a board of knowledgeable and accomplished public and private directors could receive and manage the kind of massive financing and focus that it will take, with well-qualified tech support, to confront instances of propaganda wherever and whenever it becomes manifest.

Today, propaganda is published and available in every neighborhood on the planet. Confronting it where it occurs highlights another feature of IRS 501c(3) designation: It does not have the authority to block expression, no matter how hateful. With financing only available by performance contracts, a 501c(3) also cannot put at risk our individual human rights of free expression under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Finally, a 501c(3) is already prohibited from supporting political candidates or taking a side on political issues. The work of a 501c(3) corporation must be educational, not political. It must be able to state, with authority, and without bias, that a particular piece of media is propaganda and it must have the resources to purchase and place their statement where ever the propaganda instance appears.

Identifying propaganda as punishable, with penalties, is a good and valuable first step. Zuckerberg and Dorsey deserve credit for that. However, I think “We the People…” (in the sense embodied in the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution) should demand that identifying propaganda and confronting it wherever it appears is our collective responsibility, and we are poorly equipped for the task.

We don’t have a working definition of propaganda and don’t have a common understanding of how it works. Since the beginnings of the first world war there have been many examples — in libraries and museums — of what propaganda looks and sounds like, but the more important questions today are how is it developed and used, and how is it distributed and paid for.

Propaganda uses a form of an advertising and marketing concept called “branding.” It is delivered by means of a “meme.” The clearest example in recent days is Trump’s propaganda-based “branding” of the 2020 election as fraudulent. Propaganda is a branding process. It involves the careful design of a simple phrase like: “Election fraud.” The phrase is the packaged with imagery and text containing a grain of truth into a meme. The meme is then replicated everywhere a target population of eager consumers of hate and slander live and work.

“We the people…” are late with this. It is time, now, to get started.

Jerry Smetzer is a longtime resident of Juneau.Columns, My Turns and Letters to the Editor represent the view of the author, not the view of the Juneau Empire. Have something to say? Here’s how to submit a My Turn or letter.

More in Opinion

(Juneau Empire file photo)
Opinion: Life is harder when you outlive your support group

Long-time friends are more important than ever to help us cope, to remind us we are not alone and that others feel the same way.

A silver salmon is weighed at Three Bears in Kenai, Alaska. Evelyn McCoy, customer service PIC at Three Bears, looks on. (Photo by Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)
Opinion: Will coho salmon be the next to disappear in the Kenai River?

Did we not learn anything from the disappearance of the kings from the Kenai River?

Jonathan Flora is a lifelong commercial fisherman and dockworker from Homer, Alaska.
Point of View: Not fishing for favors — Alaskans need basic health care access

We ask our elected officials to oppose this bill that puts our health and livelihoods in danger.

Alex Koplin. (courtesy photo)
Opinion: Public schools do much more than just teach the three Rs

Isn’t it worth spending the money to provide a quality education for each student that enters our schools?

Gov. Mike Dunleavy speaks to reporters at the Alaska State Capitol on Thursday, April 17, 2025. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire file photo)
Letter to the Editor: Law enforcement officers helped ensure smooth, secure energy conference

Their visible commitment to public safety allowed attendees to focus fully on collaboration, learning, and the important conversations shaping our path forward.

Laurie Craig / Juneau Empire file photo
The present-day KTOO public broadcasting building, built in 1959 for the U.S. Army’s Alaska Communications System Signal Corps, is located on filled tidelands near Juneau’s subport. Today vehicles on Egan Drive pass by the concrete structure with satellite dishes on the roof that receive signals from NPR, PBS and other sources.
My Turn: Stand for the community radio, not culture war optics

Alaskans are different and we pride ourselves on that. If my vehicle… Continue reading

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) delivers his annual speech to the Alaska Legislature on Thursday, March 20, 2025. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire file photo)
Opinion: Sullivan, Trump and the rule of lawlessness

In September 2023, U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan established his own Alaska Federal… Continue reading

UAA Provost Denise Runge photographed outside the Administration and Humanities Building at the University of Alaskas Anchorage. (courtesy photo)
Opinion: UAA’s College of Health — Empowering Alaska’s future, one nurse at a time

At the University of Alaska Anchorage, we understand the health of our… Continue reading

U.S. Rep. Nick Begich III, R-Alaska, address a joint session of the Alaska Legislature on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire file photo)
Opinion: A noncongressman for Alaska?

It’s right to ask whether Nick Begich is a noncongressman for Alaska.… Continue reading

Boats return to the Homer Harbor at the end of the fishing period for the 30th annual Winter King Salmon Tournament on Saturday, March 23, 2024 in Homer, Alaska. (Delcenia Cosman/Homer News)
Opinion: Funding sustainable fisheries

Spring is always a busy season for Alaska’s fishermen and fishing communities.… Continue reading

Gov. Mike Dunleavy holds a press conference on Monday, May 19, 2025, to discuss his decision to veto an education bill. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire file photo)
Opinion: On fiscal policy, Dunleavy is a governor in name only

His fiscal credibility is so close to zero that lawmakers have no reason to take him seriously.

You're browsing in private mode.
Please sign in or subscribe to continue reading articles in this mode.

Peninsula Clarion relies on subscription revenue to provide local content for our readers.

Subscribe

Already a subscriber? Please sign in