Every television newscast is a staged event
by Jon Rappoport
May 9, 2013
Focus on the network evening news. This is where the staging is done well.
First, we have the image itself, the colors in foreground and background, the blend of restful and charged hues. The anchor and his/her smooth style.
Then we have the shifting of venue from the studio to reporters in the field, demonstrating the reach of coverage: the planet. As if this equals authenticity.
The managing editor, usually the elite anchor, chooses the stories to cover and their sequence.
The anchor goes on the air: “Our top story tonight, more signs of gridlock today on Capitol Hill, as legislators walked out of a session on federal budget negotiations…”
The viewer fills in the context for the story: “Oh yes, the government. We want the government to get something done, but they’re not. We want to government to avoid a shutdown. These people are always arguing with each other. They don’t agree. They’re in conflict. Yes, conflict, just like on the cop shows.”
The anchor: “The Chinese government reports the new flu epidemic has spread to three provinces. Forty-two people have already died, and nearly a thousand are hospitalized…”
The viewer again supplies context, such as it is: “Flu. Dangerous. Epidemic. Could it arrive here? Get my flu shot. Do the Chinese doctors know what they’re doing? Crowded cities. Maybe more cases all of a sudden. Ten thousand, a hundred thousand.”
The anchor: “A new university study states that gun owners often stock up on weapons and ammunition, and this trend has jumped quickly since the Newtown, Connecticut, school-shooting tragedy…”
The viewer: “People with guns. Why do they need a dozen weapons? People in small towns. I don’t need a gun. The police have guns. Could I kill somebody if he broke into the house?”
The anchor: “Doctors at Yale University have made a discovery that could lead to new treatments in the battle against Autism…”
Viewer: “That would be good. More research. Laboratory. Germs. The brain.”
If, at the end of the newscast, the viewer bothered to review the stories and his own reactions to them, he would realize he’d learned almost nothing. But reflection is not the game.
In fact, the flow of the news stories has washed over him and created very little except a sense of continuity.
It would never occur to him to wonder: are the squabbling political legislators really two branches of the same Party? Does government have the Constitutional right to incur this much debt? Where is all that money coming from? Taxes? Other sources? Who invents money?
Is the flu dangerous for most people? If not, why not? Do governments overstate case numbers? How do they actually test patients for the flu? Are the tests accurate? Are they just trying to convince us to get vaccines?
What happens when the government has overwhelming force and citizens have no guns?
When the researchers keep saying “may” and “could,” does that mean they’ve actually discovered something useful about Autism, or are they just hyping their own work and trying to get funding for their next project?
These are only a few of the many questions the typical viewer never considers.
Therefore, every story on the news broadcast achieves the goal of keeping the context small and narrow—night after night, year after year. The overall effect of this, yes, staging, is small viewer, small viewer’s mind, small viewer’s understanding.
Billions of dollars are spent by the networks to build a reality the size of a room in a cheap motel.
Next we come to words over pictures. More and more, news broadcasts are using the rudimentary film technique of a voice narrating what the viewer is seeing on the screen.
People are shouting and running and falling in a street. The anchor or a field reporter says: “The country is in turmoil. Parliament has suspended sessions for the third day in a row, as the government decides what to do about uprisings aimed at forcing democratic elections…”
Well, the voice must be right, because we’re seeing the pictures. If the voice said the riots were due to garbage-pickup cancellations, the viewer would believe that, too.
How about this: two-day-old footage of runners approaching the finish line of the Boston Marathon. A puff of smoke rises at the right of the screen. A runner falls down in the street. The anchor is saying: “The FBI has announced a bomb made in a pressure cooker caused the injuries and deaths.”
Must be so. We saw the pictures and heard the voice explain.
We see Building #7 of the WTC collapse. Must have been the result of a fire. The anchor tells us so. Words over pictures.
We see footage of Lee Harvey Oswald inside the Dallas police station. The anchor tells he’s about to be transferred, under heavy guard, to another location. Oswald must be guilty, because we’re seeing him in a police station, and the anchor just said “under heavy guard.”
Staged news.
It works.
Why?
Because it mirrors what the human mind, in an infantile state, is always doing: looking at the world and seeking a brief summary to explain what the world is, at any given moment.
Since the dawn of time, untold billions of people have been urging a “television anchor” to “explain the pictures.”
The news gives them that precise thing, that precise solution, every night.
“Well, Mr. Jones,” the doctor says, as he pins X-rays to a screen in his office. “See this? Right here? We’ll need to start chemo immediately, and then we may have to remove most of your brain, and as a followup, take out one eye.”
Sure, why not? The patient saw the pictures and the anchor explained them.
After watching and listening to the last year of news, the population is ready to see the president or one of his minions step up to a microphone and say, “Quantitative easing…sequester…”
Reaction? “Don’t know what it is, but it must be okay.”
Eventually, people get the idea and do it for themselves. They see things, they invent one-liners to explain them. They’re their own anchors. They short-cut and undermine their own experience with vapid summaries of what it all means.
“Here are the photos. Just look at these photos. Don’t look at any other photos. These are the killers. Here’s what it means: we’re going to send in SWAT teams and rout you out of your homes at gunpoint, we’ll search your homes, no warrants, and you’re going to comply, and when it’s over and we’ve caught them, you’ll cheer.”
“Sure. Okay. We will.”
Pictures, explanation, obedience.
The staging of reality, the staging of news; they’re the same thing.
Jon Rappoport
The author of two explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED and EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free emails at www.nomorefakenews.com
I thought everyone knew all the world is a stage and we’re all actors playing parts. What is the real truth, the facts verses what to believe, choosing what one desires… Imagine = Imagic One can manifest what one imagines. This world is a creation of the total sum, the extremes and everything in between.
How do you see the world?
Hell, I don’t even know if I am solid or a hologram? LOL
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“If, at the end of the newscast, the viewer bothered to review the stories and his own reactions to them, he would realize he’d learned almost nothing. But reflection is not the game.”
I think this can be applied to most people’s lives. Without reflection there is no meaning, no learning, no growth, no self-responsibility, only zombies bouncing from one future to the next, never recognizing their mistakes of the past or able to sit comfortably in the present.
Watch the great movie Network! It all is about ratings, which is nothing more than getting people to focus on the t,envision which is other people filling their heads with nothing and wasting their precious time here on earth.
Reblogged this on Jericho777's Blog.
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You forgot the most important part. There’s always a “feel good” story near the end of the telecast: Usually a double amputee veteran who is now competing in wheel chair marathons or an inner city high school that is sending all it’s seniors to college, etc…
But once in awhile, someone in the media has the guts to broach the subject of conspiracy. TruthAlliance.net recently covered a report written by Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone Magazine. Taibbi begins his report saying, “Conspiracy theorists of the world, believers in the hidden hands of the Rothschild’s and the Masons and the Illuminati, we skeptics owe you an apology. You were right. The players may be a little different, but your basic premise is correct: The world is a rigged game. We found this out in recent months, when a series of related corruption stories spilled out of the financial sector, suggesting the world’s largest banks may be fixing the prices of, well, JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING!!”
Hallelujah! Just about everybody with an IQ over 80 knew it; so it’s about time people are finally beginning to say it: gold and silver prices are “rigged.” So is the Petro-Dollar. So is the ammo shortage. So are the headlines on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and MSNBC. And so are many of our national catastrophes.
Read the rest here:
http://www.newswithviews.com/baldwin/baldwin752.htm
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Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf means who’s afraid of the big bad wolf . . .
who’s afraid of living life without false illusions?
http://archive.org/stream/illusionsapsych02sullgoog/illusionsapsych02sullgoog_djvu.txt
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Good Post.
The News low-level entertainment at best.
I like how you illustrate viewer’s thought processes. A large percentage of the news does seem to be either propaganda or advertisement.
The one part I don’t get is the emphasis on an armed populace/ anti-gun control. I have mixed feelings here. On one hand we should definitely have the right to be responsible gun owners. On the other it seems that the gun-lobby has distorted debate, even influencing some of the alternative media. We’ve got corporations looking to criminalize and disempower the population through use of gun laws, but we’ve also got the gun lobby looking to misinform the population through various media.
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Anymore, if I pay attention to the “news” at all, it’s to watch the illusion as it’s being spun before me. All that I can really glean from the words and pictures in front of me, is that, yes, Something Happened. It is now up to me to sift through the spin and lies of omission to determine What Happened.
‘Conspiracy theorist’? I wear the title proudly. It’s the mainstream media’s nicest pejorative for anyone who doesn’t swallow their corporate/government-driven disinformation and get with the program. You know, the one they brand you with if they know they can’t quite get away with calling you “racist” or “extremist”.
As for Matt Taibbi, I’ve enjoyed his books and articles for a long time, but for someone with his intelligence and writing chops, he’s a little late to the party. I’m glad he’s finally starting to wake up though, he could be a powerful voice in the truth movement if he truly decides to wash his hands of the treasonous corporate media culture.
I believe that TV is what the CIA calls “soft” programming. It stems from their MKUltra program (Project Monarch) which is trauma-based mind control. “Hard” programming is the severe traumatization of an individual using “techniques” like sexual abuse, drugs, rituals, and some high tech stuff like “harmonics.” These victims are often sexually abused children who are traded or sold into slavery. It exists, there is no doubt in my mind. And if people knew how high up in rank (yes, they are rank he he) the perps are, they would just dismiss it as another “conspiracy theory.” Hell, they can’t even ask basic questions like you say. The more outrageous, unspeakable, or unfathomable the crime is, the more it is “considered” to be a “wing-nut” fantasy. And this is what the programmers count on!
In her book, Trance: Formation of America, Cathy O’Brien, a victim of MKUltra, describes a scene from somewhere in the whitehouse (she was a “Presidential model”). Those present were herself, her handler, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Dick Cheney…
“Reagan said, “George is like a director. He makes sure the stage is set to implement the New World Order as I envision it. Then he makes sure everyone has a script and knows their part. He tells them how to speak and when to speak it. How to dress and (patting my head) how to wear their hair. He gets everything and everyone in place and hollers, ‘Action!'” Reagan shouted through his hand as though it were a megaphone and rambled on, “All the world’s a stage. I’m the Wizard [of Oz]. But he is directing the show so you better pay attention and learn your part well from him.”
Is this apropos to TV programming? I think so, because it all trickles down from the top (the Illuminati). It also sounds like an actors’ orientation meeting for the films Sandy Hook and The Boston Marathon Bombing.
Yep, that’s how it’s done. Everything perfected in Hollywood has now moved to the mainstream media machine under the direction of the ruling sociopaths. They create the illusion of reality, and we believe it is reality and react accordingly. The end result is that they make us dance however they desire.
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Its one piece of drastic and dire info and the local channels in Seattle. Murder, rape, arson, blah, blah, blah… Whatever it takes to get us all to accept the total surveillance agenda… We’re spoon fed a diet of stress and fear… The best thing to do is unplug that TV and start living!
I have become so jaded by the news media that i dont believe anything the they tell us…even to the story of the abducted women in Ohio. I see conspiracy everywhere. (Turned off my T.V. 10 years ago)
Knowing what we know about MK Ultra..i have to wonder about this Ohio story. Could these events be set up…waiting in the wings for a roll out..a distraction? This could be a pretext to enter more private homes to search for missing people. The numbers of missing people are truly staggering.
Also, i think these types of stories of pedophilia and other salacious sex crimes are meant to take our eyes off those at the top who do this as a matter of course…to be made suspicious of each other instead.
It takes a 180 degree twist of the mind to think…think..think..for myself and against the lies.
What’s the alternative, though? How do you get what’s going on from “un-anchored” images, especially in a foreign country? How do you interpret the consequences of a tumor without a doctor to tell you what needs to be done about it? I don’t think you can. It’s all based on trust: you trust somebody better qualified than you to tell you what’s going on. It’s the quality of this trust relationship that needs to be constantly re-assessed, not its very existence. How do you do that? How do you protect yourself against having your trust abused? I have no idea. A society can set up watchdogs to constantly supervise how trusted professionals maintain their specific deontological norms, but, in the end, they are all people, and people can be corrupted.
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Great,,
If you studied geography in school its easy for you.
On the News – North East West and South comes the Daily World Tour:
Elections in Nigeria have turned violent as the onsite reporter is asked – “J, how many Dead” and they finally force a number out of him as yet Unconfirmed. Then onto South America where Brazil is doing such and such. Back across the ocean to Japan with the Island dispute festering up again. Oh now look there at the Palestines bothering Is-Real again. Back to base as the WH states economy is again growing – Perhaps some sort of growth hormone drink is being fed to the actual living economy!
Al in all your mind has raced around the world and completely missed your own situation that was requiring corrective planning or for that matter – Simple Thought.
Right now today Throw the TV out the window without opening it. Shoo the newspaper boy away, cancel the mags and drop the turned on radio into the filled bathtub.
Now sit down and either experience yourself and family or what – Feeling lonely No Doubt because your Addicted.
We Are Legion
Benghazi hearings? Who cares! Not when we got that corker of a story in Cleveland to distract us!
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@Carolyn Marie: You hit the nail on the head there. That is some deep thinking my friend and I love it. In any situation or story spewed forth by the main stream media and other government controlled outlets we need to think beyond what is being said and the purpose of the story and the message that is being conveyed. Brainwashing is a lot more complicated than we realize. Thank you for sharing your discernment skills.
If you need any evidence that the U.S media news is staged…
….for the past month and more…HNN has aired 24/7 coverage of the Jodi Arias trial.
This has been the most disgusting trial evidence this country has ever had the misfortune to hear…..week after week after week. In the U.S.. …when a person is convicted , the bailiffs and sheriffs department immediately take this person to prison.
But not in this case. Oh No ! ..This attractive woman was able to escape her chains and do a one on one interview for a network and beg for her death. …Boo Hoo. how touching…how Truman Show like.
It was as bad as any daytime soap opera hands down.
And i wont get started on the gaps in the Boston bombings and Ohio abduction stories, More holes than my favorite shoes…just saying
It’s all coming so hard and fast now.
[…] CASE YOU HAVEN’T FIGURED IT OUT YET. . . Every Television “Newscast,” IS A STAGED Event http://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/every-television-newscast-is-a-staged-event/ Focus on the network evening news. This is where the staging is done well. First, we have the […]
Speaking of distractions, notice how Boston made the public forget that North Korea declared war on South Korea on March 30? Well, if the thing I read on the interwebs was correct, they did. And after weeks of footage of dedicated and heavily armed North Korean soldiers showing a steely will to end their financial starvation, which were dismissed as false bravado, we now only care about pressure cookers and lunatic Chechen mothers.
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For those of you interested in turning off your t.v. once and for all….this is how I did it ten years ago.
As Elyag Reed said in a previous comment…t.v. is addictive.
What I did was to simply cover the screen when the set was on. Taking away the powerful images was half the battle. I live alone , so this was easier for me than for a household with children, Im sure
After a while I found many other things to do. Now, if i am around t.v. my attention span for it is very short. Its boring to sit and stare.
I saw a photo essay once of a typical family room furniture arrangement from the early 1900’s…where the room was set up for people to face eachother…then a family room from the 1960’s. Where the room was now arranged for people to face away from eachother and towards the box in the corner.
you have to ask yourself this… when the conversion from analog to digital happened…why was the government so keen to give vouchers to people who could not afford the converter boxes? (and not to mention the free “obama” cell phones..but thats another story)
To see CNN badly stage a news event, check out the following YouTube clip with Jon Stewart: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rUpNhv0W_J8 (CNN Anchors Hold SplitScreen Satellite Interview In Same Parking Lot).
…….Before the next big story hits the news and we forget ( and it will…mass mothers -day shooting in N.O.)….. …..i have got to put this out there….must ask this question…if the Ohio abduction story is true….
…..How did this Castro fellow…even afford to feed 3 women and a hidden child… on a long ago bus driver’s salary.?….there was nothing in the latest reports that tell how he was able to afford this…. what has he done for financial support….. 3 women,…. without medical care…for ten years…????
This and a thousand other questions….