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Greece: Unprecedented propaganda before euro elections

A mainstream media message: Vote for "stability"=current government regime or you will get chaos

They are called "Psychological Operations" and used normally during periods of war. Their goal is to demonize the opponent through terrorising population. During the Cold War, one of the most famous American propagandistic films was depicting Soviets attacking US with nuclear weapons and the reactions of American pupils in a school. In Greece we had similar operations last week. This time, however, were not conducted by the government, but by a private TV station.

All the Greek mainstream media excessively promoted politicians' statements like Evangelos Venizelos who warned that in case that voters would not support his party Elia (ex-PASOK), chaos will come to country. However, in one of the biggest TV channels of Greece, the "dirty job" has been done by the "reporters". It was like a thriller or a farce comedy when these reporters presented the consequences from a possible win of the Leftist party SYRIZA: the end of the world would come, more or less.

"The overturn that SYRIZA declares may lead to extended unbalance" and political unbalance may "trigger centrifugal trends of MPs", which will result in "lead the economy backwards and canceling people's sacrifices because the investors will leave" and this will result to "feed the appetite of market speculators to attack again to our country". These are some examples of phrases used by a "reporter" but for those who were not scared enough there was a final warning: "If the vote will be used to punish [current political parties in power], the first ones who will regret will be the punishers".

"We need political stability", "... should we permit ourselves now to spill the bowl with the milk? Economy is recovering - the country and the economy need stability - When we'll go to the ballot box let's not play economy in dice", another “reporter” said. Neither the "loose" vote escaped from station's “bloodhounds” declaring that "The loose vote may strangle economy. Liquidity and negotiation for reducing debt may freeze and the country may reach a step before bankruptcy".

There is no such precedent for a TV news broadcast in the history of Greek and European television. I observed the work of Turkish private stations and I can assure you that neither the most fanatic - paid by Erdogan - Turkish journalist would accept to defend through such arguments the prime minister. Even in dictatorships, propaganda was more indirect. Someone should search a Pinochet's or some African tyrant's channel to find a similar way for serving power.

Key parts from the article by Stelios Kouloglou, under the title "SYRIZA, Maria and the Second Coming" , published on tvxs.gr website

Comments

  1. Anonymous30/5/14 11:09

    It is indeed, chilling, how much time and (tax-payers) money was spent propagandizing the EU voters.
    As a British citizen who's lived half his life in Germany, I had an eye on both country's media.
    I was so aghast at the extent to which the AfD was excluded from mainstream talk show, ganged-up-against (including "neutral" moderators) when given TV air-time, and demonised as extreme right - the ultimate sin in Germany.
    The propaganda was so blood-boiling it directly led to my application for the right to vote in Germany (a couple of hours time-leeching bureaucracy).
    I would also like to think, that the endless, feverish, tirades against UKIP also didn't work out how the media-moguls planned.

    ReplyDelete

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