Media

Media articles feature analysis and commentary about mass media, entertainment, censorship, and propaganda.

All media articles at Brownstone Institute are translated into multiple languages.

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free speech censorship

The Free Speech Scare 

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The hunt for dissenters took strange forms. Those who held gatherings were shamed. People who did not socially distance were called disease spreaders. The mask, no matter how obviously ineffective, was imposed as a tactic of humiliation and an exclusionary measure that targeted the incredulous. It was also a symbol: stop talking because your voice does not matter. Your speech will be muffled.

The Free Speech Scare  Read Journal Article

spectacle propaganda

Above All Else, It was a Spectacle

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The Powers That Be use propaganda because it works. Images are powerful things. Photos and videos operate on the subconscious level. So even while we are rationally discussing the evils of this propaganda campaign, to even re-share the images here is fraught, because seeing them again produces an affect. It was traumatic to write this article — even though I know the images are contrived, they still affect my psyche.

Above All Else, It was a Spectacle Read Journal Article

who are the censors?

Deny, Deflect, Defend: The Censors’ Strategy on Display

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While the government’s denials and deflections are insulting to the citizens they purport to represent, we must remain focused on their aim: they appealed Doughty’s order because they oppose constitutional restraints on their control of information. We would hope that requiring the government to obey the Constitution would be uncontroversial; now, it may signify whether the rule of law still stands in the United States. 

Deny, Deflect, Defend: The Censors’ Strategy on Display Read Journal Article

hubris

Fauci and the Hagiographical Style of American Journalism

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Norah O’Donnell has known Dr. Fauci and his wife for ages: “How are you guys?” she starts her interview with Dr. Fauci for InStyle Magazine where Fauci posed for the most hubris-exuding photo of the pandemic. “With all due modesty, I think I’m pretty effective!” – Dr. Anthony Fauci, July 2020, InStyle Magazine

Fauci and the Hagiographical Style of American Journalism Read Journal Article

I am the regulator

“I Am the Regulator!”: EU Commissioner Warns Social Media to Censor After French Riots 

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“L’Etat, c’est moi” – “I am the state” – Louis XIV is supposed to have said. And in a contemporary echo of that famous phrase, EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton repeatedly stressed on Monday that “I am the regulator” when lambasting social media networks for “not having done enough” during the recent French riots and threatening them with sanctions, including even banishment, if they should remain similarly inactive after August 25.

“I Am the Regulator!”: EU Commissioner Warns Social Media to Censor After French Riots  Read Journal Article

censorship

I Am a Tree and We Need to Ban Leaves

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In the recent past, much of the press has at least tried to somehow shoehorn in an element of possible truth – or at least make things matters of opinion so anything could be true – to their culturally caustic efforts. In this case, they’re not even trying because it is impossible: the thousands of pages of depositions, emails, phone logs, and other records show exactly what happened, when it happened, and why it happened.

I Am a Tree and We Need to Ban Leaves Read Journal Article

CIA Covid Propaganda

Best-Selling Author Michael Lewis Pens CIA Covid Propaganda

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The terrifying takeaways from this analysis are: First, that what Lewis is hiding – or trying to divert attention away from – is the massive CIA involvement in the Covid response. Second, that the intelligence and national security leaders who were in charge of the Covid response did not just censor information that contradicted their narrative; they also recruited widely trusted voices – including internationally renowned authors – to disseminate their propaganda.

Best-Selling Author Michael Lewis Pens CIA Covid Propaganda Read Journal Article

YouTube censors

YouTube Censors Australian Politician’s Maiden Speech to Parliament

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While the Lib Dems are benefiting from the Streisand effect for the time being, Member of the European Parliament, Christine Anderson, is dealing with YouTube censorship by suing the social media platform. Anderson reports that YouTube blocked two videos from parliamentary sessions in which she acted on the official Special Committee on the COVID-19 Pandemic.

YouTube Censors Australian Politician’s Maiden Speech to Parliament Read Journal Article

first amendment

We Landed a Major Blow Against the Censorship Leviathan

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One naturally wants to believe that an issue one is involved in is of world-historical importance. But as the judge himself wrote in the decision, “If the allegations made by Plaintiffs are true, the present case arguably involves the most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history.” That, my friends, is a strong claim, but as I have previously argued, an entirely accurate one.

We Landed a Major Blow Against the Censorship Leviathan Read Journal Article

fake news media

How To Create a Fake News Cycle

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From masks and lockdowns to vaccines and remote learning: Time and again, solutions touted by the media oversold and underdelivered. We may never know how many lives were lost because of the tactics used to suppress ivermectin, but we know we can’t trust the media. That explains RFK Jr.’s rise – and it’s why I wouldn’t bet against him.

How To Create a Fake News Cycle Read Journal Article

information

Informational No Man’s Land

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Under these circumstances, those who do their own independent research, rather than uncritically swallowing whatever “official authorities” tell them, are not the “cranks” and “conspiracy theorists” they are being made out to be, but citizens who actually understand the predicament they find themselves in, and have the courage to think for themselves, even when it draws down ridicule, censorship, and alienation from “respectable” society.

Informational No Man’s Land Read Journal Article

Peter Hotez

The Great Debate That Will Not Happen

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There’s another expression we’ve all heard: “You can run, but you can’t hide.” Well, in our surreal New-Normal times, apparently the experts and authorities CAN run and they can hide. That’s what they’ve been doing for 40 months and, as far as I can tell, they’re all still in power. So that strategy is working perfectly.

The Great Debate That Will Not Happen Read Journal Article