Pravda Technique to Watch Out For

Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP

Pravda has many techniques they employ to feed The Narrative™, but I would like to point to one in particular because I have recently seen more examples than usual in both the written and electronic media. 

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It's the emotionally-charged interview with "victims" of some supposed outrage or another, excluding all context, any comment from those who are accused, and absolutely no scrutiny of the claims being made. 

Think of it as a steady stream of "Covington Kids"-type stories, where a narrative is crafted, a sympathetic "victim" trotted out for the public to feel sorry for, and an intentional exclusion of all the context or doubts that might change the way you view the story. 

I think of this as the "Covington Kids" strategy in particular because I recall being bombarded by outrage from center-left friends of mine who bought the story hook, line, and sinker solely based on the fact that it played right into their carefully constructed mental model, and hence bypassed every bit of their ability to detect bulls!!t. It went straight to the amygdala and triggered their fight-or-flight instinct. 

There are a ton of stories that fit this mold of late, but a great example is the coverage of the arrest of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort after their participation in the church invasion in Minneapolis. Both have gotten wall-to-wall, glowing coverage for their bravery and standing up for the First Amendment in the media, and Don Lemon has gotten standing ovations from all the Right™ people. 

Both have, of course, been interviewed about their experiences in the most sympathetic fashion, while none of these media outlets has explained exactly why they were arrested. 

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Neither was arrested for doing "journalism," despite that spin. You can read the indictments, which again have been presented as if the federal government invented probable cause—something the appeals court explicitly said they did when they rejected the DOJ's appeal of a magistrate judge's decision not to approve a warrant. The appeals court said the magistrate judge was wrong, but that the DOJ had other avenues to get the indictment. 

None of the people giving glowing interviews and tongue baths to Don Lemon actually informs viewers what Lemon was indicted for, or what the evidence presented was. It is right there in the indictment. You can believe that Lemon should be given the benefit of the doubt—that is for a jury to decide—but in the media, there are not two sides to the argument; it is the fascists versus the heroes. 

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You see the same thing over and over again, on a range of stories. The "Bait Boy" story is believed by millions because the media pushed it relentlessly, but it is not remotely true. But by choosing to interview people on only one side and present them as the arbiters of truth, viewers never get to see the evidence. Just the story concocted by the media. 

In story after story, you will see interviews with supposed victims who are allowed to shape the Narrative™ unchallenged in the least. You will see highly curated clips, leaving out all context, but most of all, it is what you don't see that helps ensure that viewers and readers walk away with the appropriate view of the "facts."

Getting back to Don Lemon, nobody in the media tells you about the countless independent journalists that Democrats have arrested without a peep from Pravda. We are told when we bring them up that they are not Real™ journalists, although what they do is indistinguishable from what Don Lemon is doing now. As if there is a license required to be a journalist in the first place. 

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No fawning interviews. Instead, the media denied that they were journalists at all. 

We see this sort of thing with race hoaxes all the time. You may not recall, but Jussie Smollett had weeks of fawning interviews on all the major networks before his story decisively fell apart. Any sane person knew it was a hoax immediately, but the story was so perfect for The Narrative™ that they ran with it. 

It happens all the time. Often harming real victims of the lies. 

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You may remember this race hoax. The mainstream media covered it breathlessly at the time.

Summer Smith, the mother of a black middle schooler in Texas, said her child was abused by a group of white kids, who allegedly tricked him into going to a sleepover where they pelted him with BB guns while they forced him to drink their own urine.

Smith's attorney, Kim Cole, said the black child was "tortured," BLM-linked groups called it a "racially-motivated hate crime," and Smith called the alleged white assailants "evil" on televised press conferences.

Several major outlets including NBC, CBS, CNN, Business Insider, People, Daily Mail, Dallas Morning News and Good Morning America covered the story, helping Smith raise $120k in a GoFundMe that she said would be used to pay for her son to attend private school (spoiler: she spent less than 1% of the funds on private schooling)

NONE of those outlets reached out to Asher Vann, the white kid alleged to have organized this heinous attack. 

This had very real consequences for Vann and his family. Vann told me he received thousands of death threats, and said protesters threw bricks at his house one night as the media drummed up outrage for clicks.

And last month, a racially diverse Texas jury ruled the whole thing was a hoax.

They ordered Smith and her attorney, Kim Cole, to pay Vann $3.2 million in damages for intentionally smearing him and tarnishing his future earning potential during their media tour in 2021.

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The point is to continually reinforce The Narrative™, and unless you are primed to notice that you never hear the other side of the story you just absorb it. 

It is a powerful technique. If you have 7 minutes, this is a good watch on how much propaganda is floating out there, with examples. 

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