By Richard Fernandez in PJ Media and
the Belmont Club blog
One of the more interesting theories
behind Vladimir Putin’s “disappearance” is that the Russian leader has
engineered it himself. After all, he hasn’t officially vanished.
The Associated Press has quoted his spokesman as saying ”there is
absolutely no reason for any doubts about the state of his health. His health
is really perfect, everything is OK with him, and he’s working in accordance
with his traditionally overloaded working schedule.” If after all the
excitement he suddenly shows up at ordinary meetings then the next time he
drops out of public sight the public will be less excited.
At a recently concluded seminar on
disinformation the speakers warned that Russia had developed techniques
designed to neutralize the control of the Narrative practiced by Western institutions. The
idea was to flood the news agencies with false information.
Since 2008, Pomerantsev argued, the
Kremlin and military in Russia have adopted a body of thinking where
information can be used as a tool to “confuse, demoralise, divide and conquer”
and thus be used as a weapon. This comes from the Kremlin’s recognition that it
cannot take on the West in a traditional military fashion and expect to win.
Rather, over the years, Putin has talked about needing to be cleverer than the
other side.
One of the Kremlin’s main strategies
is to destroy people’s faith in journalism and the possibility of debate in
media. Michael Weiss noted that this disinformation is most problematic when it
is picked up by mainstream media organisations and circulated in the spirit of
objectivity. The Putin regime, Weiss claimed, understands that Western
institutions valuing transparency and objectivity can be exploited. “Even if
you read through and see that a story is nonsense, the headline will still begin
to penetrate”, he said.
This is particularly effective when
the opponent relies on a synthetic storyline. The Russians well understand that
the West uses the media to advance certain themes. It exploits the
Mainstream Media’s tendency to push certain points of view by leaving enough
material around to falsify it. Edward Snowden’s revelations, for example, were
not only damaging in themselves but allowed the public’s imagination to run
riot over the administration’s possible dishonesty. Once the public is
convinced that Western news stories are just a bunch of lies then they will believe Putin just as readily as Obama.
Unlike traditional propaganda
techniques designed to engage emotional support, disinformation is designed to
manipulate the audience at the rational level by either discrediting
conflicting information or supporting false conclusions. A common
disinformation tactic is to mix some truth and observation with false conclusions
and lies, or to reveal part of the truth while presenting it as the whole (a
limited hangout).
Another technique of concealing
facts, or censorship, is also used if the group can affect such control. When
channels of information cannot be completely closed, they can be rendered
useless by filling them with disinformation, effectively lowering their
signal-to-noise ratio and discrediting the opposition by association with many
easily disproved false claims.
The jamming idea isn’t new. During
World War 2 the British developed anti-radar chaff (code-named “window”) “in which aircraft or other targets
spread a cloud of small, thin pieces of aluminium, metallized glass fibre or plastic,
which either appears as a cluster of primary targets on radar screens or swamps
the screen with multiple returns.” One can think of disinformation as memetic
“chaff”.
What’s behind the Russian curtain of
chaff, if chaff it is? Even if we’re convinced there’s nothing, the
impenetrable curtain fixes our gaze because we still imagine the worst behind
it. Fear supplies what the eye cannot see and is amplified by the
fragmentary glimpses we are allowed to see.
Heard melodies are sweet, but those
unheard
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear’d,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone.
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear’d,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone.
Just as the offscreen monster in
movies is more frightening than the man in a rubber suit when he finally
appears, Putin can get more mileage from suggestion rather than explicit
presentation. Putin missing from the Kremlin is so much more menacing than
Putin in it. The MSM has largely played into the Putin’s disinformation trap by
creating weaknesses he can exploit. By emphasizing narrative-making over
straight reporting, by pushing “explanatory journalism” they are leading with
their chin.
At some point during the past year,
the media industry seems to have gotten the message that explanatory journalism
is the next big thing — how else to explain the launch of not just one but
three major efforts in that area, and more to come? The New York Times has just
launched The Upshot, which seems like a blend of both the data-focused
journalism practiced by Nate Silver’s new site FiveThirtyEight and the
explainers of Ezra Klein’s Vox. Each has its own unique flavor, but is the
market for that kind of content really big enough to support them all?
“Explanatory journalism” a la Ezra
Klein presents a huge open flank for practicioners of disinformation. The MSM
has been so busy corrupting information that the Russians need do little more.
All the Kremlin has to do is put a dollop of whipped cream on it with a cherry
on top and wreckage of the media’s credibility is complete. The more
“explanatory journalism” and the more intensely Journolist process the facts, the more
vulnerable the Western thematic machine is to men like Putin.
The inability of the media to get
definite news on the whereabouts of the Russian really speaks volumes about
just how limited the sources of news organizations are. Jordan Hirsch writing in
Commentary Magazine, argues that Iran has bamboozled
the American leadership into letting it have the bomb. And why not when they
unfailingly consume their own Kool-Aid? Vox interviews Obama and Obama
reads Vox. What could go wrong? If the West hopes to outsmart men like
Putin it will have to improve its ability to gather the facts and nothing but
the facts. The “explanatory” part of things the public can handle for
itself.
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