Media narratives and round squares

Do you ever get the impression that if the majority of mainstream media outlets began to insist that squares were round, and received a little boost from the entertainment industry, that in a matter of about two years 66% of Americans would agree that squares were, in fact, round?  I get that feeling.  I think many in the propaganda ministry mainstream media get that feeling, too.

How do I know?  I don't.  But I can't help but think there has to be a reason that so many outlets are prepared to continually advocate the exact same untruths that always seem to benefit certain viewpoints regarding certain topics. Coincidence maybe?  Perhaps.  But that would require more suspension of belief than I'm currently capable of mustering.

No, when it comes to the MSM, call me cynical, but there is little left that I will actually believe.  Take for instance the miraculous story of the disappearing women.  You've not heard of that?  Well, neither had I!  I thought I kept up with the news pretty well, keeping myself informed with a healthy dose of raised eyebrows, but this one slipped by me. 

I know that the whole War on Women (TM) is a desperate political maneuver designed to buttress support for President Obama.  I knew the whole Contraception focus on the HHS mandate was being used to keep attention off of the clear and naked assault on Constitutionally protected liberties.  I'm not stupid.  But in it, I fell victim to a subtle sub-narrative.  I knew that the whole Sandra Fluke episode was simply a political stunt that Rush Limbaugh fell hook, line, and sinker into elevating.  I understood the politics behind the alternate hearing in which Ms. Fluke appeared, owing to the fact that Democrats had stormed out of the original hearing because no women were allowed to testify.  I knew...WAIT!  What?  WTH?  Hold up a minute.

Turns out, there were women at that hearing.  You know, the original hearing that the Democrats stormed out of because there were no women allowed to testify?  They were Dr. Allison Dabbs Garrett, the senior vice-president for academic affairs at Oklahoma Christian University and Dr. Laura Champion, medical director of Calvin College Health Services.  Where the hell did they come from? Well, Mollie Ziegler breaks down the breakdown over at GetReligion (kudos to Mollie for catching President Obama's embrace of the flawed storyline).

Apparently, they came from the hearing.  Just like the hearing did include, contrary to initial reports, testimony from individuals on both sides of the HHS mandate debate, so it also included Invisible Woman 1 and Invisible Woman 2.  So the whole thing was a big, fat lie.  Dumb luck that all of the media outlets that I read and watched missed it, too.  They must really trust those Democrats who walked out!  After all, it couldn't be that they knew the women were there to testify, and simply chose to ignore that fact and present a false narrative of events to the American public or anything.

Lesson here?  Just when you think you've become cynical enough for the American media, just remember there is no such thing as being cynical enough.  You can't just imagine you're ignoring the macro-narrative and that's good enough.  No.  You have to get mad at those little details as well, like the actual facts that the MSM is presenting in order to promote the narrative.  So from now on, make sure you assume just about everything you are hearing or reading could be flawed, and then go from there.  Just God help us if there is ever a real emergency, and our nation ignores the warnings because we finally came to the conclusion that the boy had simply cried wolf one too many times.