A brief, weird history of brainwashing

On an early spring day in 1959, Edward Hunter testified before a US Senate subcommittee investigating “the effect of Red China Communes on the United States.” It was the kind of opportunity he relished. A war correspondent who had spent considerable time in Asia, Hunter had achieved brief media stardom in 1951 after his book Brain-Washing in Red China introduced a new concept to the American public: a supposedly scientific system for changing people’s minds, even making them love things they once hated.

But Hunter wasn’t just a reporter, objectively chronicling conditions in China. As he told the assembled senators, he was also an anticommunist activist who served as a propagandist for the OSS, or Office of Strategic Services — something that was considered normal and patriotic at the time. His reporting blurred the line between fact and political mythology.

A brief, weird history of brainwashing

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Media Bias: Ukraine Blocks Journalists From Front Lines With Escalating Censorship

After Ukrainian forces regained control of the port city of Kherson last November, following eight months of Russian occupation, some journalists entered the liberated city within hours. Without formal permission to be there, they documented the jubilant crowds welcoming soldiers with hugs and Ukrainian flags. Ukrainian officials, who tightly control press access to the front lines, responded by revoking the journalists’ press credentials, claiming that they had “ignored existing restrictions.”

Ukraine Blocks Journalists From Front Lines With Escalating Censorship

As if Ukraine doesn’t create ‘propaganda’!? 🙄

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Inside the high-stakes clash for control of Ukraine’s story:

The heated clashes have remained largely behind the scenes because the credentials are vital to report from the country, and journalists worry that a public conflict might further threaten their access. Most of the journalists from Western and Ukrainian news organizations who have clashed with their handlers spoke on the condition of anonymity.

INTERVIEW: All I know is that Gonzalo was detained on May 1

INTERVIEW: I don’t know if my son is alive or whether he has been tortured, says Gonzalo Lira Sr. Zelensky claims Ukraine’s fight is about freedom. Well he’s not showing it to the rest of the world.

INTERVIEW: All I know is that Gonzalo was detained on May 1 via George Galloway

Previously:

Father of Gonzalo Lira, American jailed in Ukraine, speaks out against “political imprisonment”