Friday, December 6, 2013
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The role of mainstream media in Greek crisis
One of the primary tools of social engineering applied to the Greek society, are the mainstream media. These media (newspapers, radio, TV) are controlled by businessmen and journalists who, in many cases, have overlapping interests with the government. This is especially true as far as the non-bankruptcy of Greece is concerned (corporate interests dont like this scenario). Therefore, they try to shape events and peoples world-views according to their interests as well as the government planning - even if the countrys and the citizens interest is best served through a debt restructuring.
Lets see how this support translates into public-opinion shaping:
1) Since PASOK came in government in late 2009, the media have been very "light" on their criticism towards PASOK for lying to the people during the pre-election period. People were told by Papandreou (PASOK leader) that there are plenty of money to be spent for social policies and then Papandreou backed-off from his pre-election promises of growth policies / no-tax policies / easy-on-the-poor policies etc and initiated austerity measures in 3 waves (December 2009, March 2010, May 2010).
2) The prior government had implemented very high car-ownership taxes which the current government opposed (during pre-election). However, people were asked to pay these taxes anyway. People reacted by giving back over 150.000 pairs of license plates (!) - which means over 150.000 car owners did not have the money or were opposed to this very high taxation and opted for not using their cars at all (and not paying the tax). This high-taxation backfiring was very under-reported in the media until the tax-paying period was almost over (late December 2009). It was the citizens way of saying "enough is enough". However, if the media reported this trend earlier, more people would have opted not to pay and give back their license plates. This was significant because people, for the first time, reacted in sync against government taxation. Another syncronized movement was the taking over of toll stations in national roads by the people. These toll stations have very high fees making transportation very expensive - thus people rioted and said "roads are ours, well pay nothing!". These 2 were the first manifestations of society reaching a breaking point regarding what they can tolerate. PASOK realized this and promised that 2010s taxes on cars will be "more fair" and that some toll station agreements will be re-evaluated.
3) When the first austerity measures were taken, the media tried to split public opinion between public sector employees (which were hit harder) and private sector employees. It is the ancient recipe of divide and conquer by polarizing the people against itself. By dividing the masses with some being in favor and some being against, its ensured that they will not unite against government policies.
4) The media totally aligned with the government position regarding the borrowing crisis. They assigned the Greek borrowing crisis, as the government did, to international speculators and they did not report how the government actually manufactured this borrowing crisis through its statements and deeds. There was some slight criticism on how the governments "unfortunate statements" were increasing borrowing costs, but it was never attributed to intent (despite it being a recurring theme, rather than one or two "unfortunate" occasions). Additionally there has been pretty much no media cover on alternative borrowing options that have not been used or the possibility of extracting the Greek oil. There has been few exceptions in some newspapers and a few tv broadcasts.
5) The media portrayed the IMF+EU "rescue" package as the only viable option for the country in order to manufacture consent. They also exaggerated the fact of what "halt of payments" mean, portraying images of chaos and labeling it as a nightmare scenario. However, with deficits at 22bn euros, the country was marginally able to be on zero deficits and paying its wages and pensions autonomously if interest costs are excluded (-13 bn euro) after the halt of payment, and the austerity measures are counted in (+10.6 bn euro).
6) The media hided the fact that the IMF+EU "rescue" package does not save the country, but instead it puts it into further debt and a downward recession spiral. It was revealed over 15 days later than the activation of this mechanism and, even than, it was portrayed in economic terms rather than laymen terms so as not to be widely understood.
7) The media used polls that were fixed, in order to show that people consented. The fixing was through the poll questions which were implying things that were false. For example "do you agree with the rescue deal and the austerity package in order to save the country?" (51 in favor 40% against%). Any financial analyst knows that this "saviorship" is non-existent since debt will rise to over 150-160% of GDP from 115% in 2009.
The role of mainstream media in Greek crisis
Lets see how this support translates into public-opinion shaping:
1) Since PASOK came in government in late 2009, the media have been very "light" on their criticism towards PASOK for lying to the people during the pre-election period. People were told by Papandreou (PASOK leader) that there are plenty of money to be spent for social policies and then Papandreou backed-off from his pre-election promises of growth policies / no-tax policies / easy-on-the-poor policies etc and initiated austerity measures in 3 waves (December 2009, March 2010, May 2010).
2) The prior government had implemented very high car-ownership taxes which the current government opposed (during pre-election). However, people were asked to pay these taxes anyway. People reacted by giving back over 150.000 pairs of license plates (!) - which means over 150.000 car owners did not have the money or were opposed to this very high taxation and opted for not using their cars at all (and not paying the tax). This high-taxation backfiring was very under-reported in the media until the tax-paying period was almost over (late December 2009). It was the citizens way of saying "enough is enough". However, if the media reported this trend earlier, more people would have opted not to pay and give back their license plates. This was significant because people, for the first time, reacted in sync against government taxation. Another syncronized movement was the taking over of toll stations in national roads by the people. These toll stations have very high fees making transportation very expensive - thus people rioted and said "roads are ours, well pay nothing!". These 2 were the first manifestations of society reaching a breaking point regarding what they can tolerate. PASOK realized this and promised that 2010s taxes on cars will be "more fair" and that some toll station agreements will be re-evaluated.
3) When the first austerity measures were taken, the media tried to split public opinion between public sector employees (which were hit harder) and private sector employees. It is the ancient recipe of divide and conquer by polarizing the people against itself. By dividing the masses with some being in favor and some being against, its ensured that they will not unite against government policies.
4) The media totally aligned with the government position regarding the borrowing crisis. They assigned the Greek borrowing crisis, as the government did, to international speculators and they did not report how the government actually manufactured this borrowing crisis through its statements and deeds. There was some slight criticism on how the governments "unfortunate statements" were increasing borrowing costs, but it was never attributed to intent (despite it being a recurring theme, rather than one or two "unfortunate" occasions). Additionally there has been pretty much no media cover on alternative borrowing options that have not been used or the possibility of extracting the Greek oil. There has been few exceptions in some newspapers and a few tv broadcasts.
5) The media portrayed the IMF+EU "rescue" package as the only viable option for the country in order to manufacture consent. They also exaggerated the fact of what "halt of payments" mean, portraying images of chaos and labeling it as a nightmare scenario. However, with deficits at 22bn euros, the country was marginally able to be on zero deficits and paying its wages and pensions autonomously if interest costs are excluded (-13 bn euro) after the halt of payment, and the austerity measures are counted in (+10.6 bn euro).
6) The media hided the fact that the IMF+EU "rescue" package does not save the country, but instead it puts it into further debt and a downward recession spiral. It was revealed over 15 days later than the activation of this mechanism and, even than, it was portrayed in economic terms rather than laymen terms so as not to be widely understood.
7) The media used polls that were fixed, in order to show that people consented. The fixing was through the poll questions which were implying things that were false. For example "do you agree with the rescue deal and the austerity package in order to save the country?" (51 in favor 40% against%). Any financial analyst knows that this "saviorship" is non-existent since debt will rise to over 150-160% of GDP from 115% in 2009.