Media Manipulation

Jason Miller Launches Gettr with Hidden Guo Wengui Funding

| Importance: 9/10

Former Trump aide Jason Miller officially launched Gettr, an alt-tech social media platform targeting American conservatives, with initial and significant funding from Chinese exile billionaire Guo Wengui’s family foundation. The platform, which emerged from a pre-existing Chinese-language …

Jason Miller Guo Wengui Gettr Steve Bannon War Room podcast +1 more social-media foreign-funding conservative-platform hidden-influence media-manipulation
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Trump Stages Pre-Debate Event with Bill Clinton Accusers

| Importance: 8/10

On October 9, 2016, just 90 minutes before the second presidential debate in St. Louis, Donald Trump staged a surprise press conference with four women who have accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct or been connected to the Clintons’ legal history. The event, held at the Four Seasons Hotel …

Donald Trump Paula Jones Juanita Broaddrick Kathleen Willey Kathy Shelton +2 more trump-campaign clinton-campaign presidential-debate election-2016 deflection-strategy +2 more
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Climategate Email Hack Manufactures Controversy Before Copenhagen Summit

| Importance: 8/10

On November 17, 2009, just weeks before the crucial Copenhagen Climate Summit, hackers breached servers at the Climate Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia, stealing thousands of emails and computer files spanning 13 years of climate research. The stolen materials were strategically …

Climate Research Unit University of East Anglia Phil Jones Michael Mann Climate denial blogosphere climate-denial disinformation cybercrime media-manipulation information-warfare
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James O'Keefe's Deceptively Edited ACORN Videos Trigger Destruction of Voter Registration Organization

| Importance: 8/10

Conservative activist James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles released heavily edited hidden camera videos purporting to show ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) employees advising them on tax evasion, human smuggling, and child prostitution. O’Keefe selectively edited …

James O'Keefe Hannah Giles ACORN voter suppression disinformation republican party media manipulation
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Armstrong Williams Paid 40K for Illegal Government Propaganda

| Importance: 7/10

The Department of Education violated federal law by paying conservative commentator Armstrong Williams 40,000 through Ketchum Inc. PR firm to promote the No Child Left Behind Act without disclosing the government funding to audiences. Williams regularly promoted NCLB on his syndicated TV and radio …

Armstrong Williams Rod Paige Department of Education Ketchum Inc Maggie Gallagher propaganda media-manipulation nclb armstrong-williams gao
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WHIG Establishes Systematic Opposition Research and Critic Monitoring Apparatus

| Importance: 8/10

The White House Iraq Group (WHIG) formalizes a strategic communications apparatus designed to systematically identify, track, and counter administration critics and potential whistleblowers. Through coordinated media messaging and high-profile official communications, WHIG developed comprehensive …

Karl Rove Karen Hughes Mary Matalin Condoleezza Rice Stephen Hadley +2 more whig systematic-retaliation opposition-research critic-monitoring character-assassination +4 more
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WHIG Launches 'Smoking Gun/Mushroom Cloud' Propaganda Blitz

| Importance: 9/10

The White House Iraq Group executes a coordinated propaganda campaign featuring the ‘smoking gun/mushroom cloud’ metaphor crafted by chief speechwriter Michael Gerson. On September 7-8, 2002, President Bush and top advisers appeared on multiple networks delivering identical nuclear fear …

White House Iraq Group Condoleezza Rice Dick Cheney George W. Bush Michael Gerson +1 more whig mushroom-cloud propaganda iraq-war nuclear-fear +2 more
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Andrew Card Reveals Marketing-Based Approach to Democratic Crisis Exploitation

| Importance: 9/10

White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card told The New York Times that “From a marketing point of view, you don’t introduce new products in August,” openly framing the potential Iraq War as a calculated marketing campaign. This statement exposed the White House Iraq Group’s …

Andrew Card Elisabeth Bumiller Dick Cheney Condoleezza Rice Donald Rumsfeld +3 more whig marketing-democracy powell-memo-acceleration crisis-timing media-manipulation +1 more
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Network Booking Coordinators Systematically Facilitate WHIG Synchronized Propaganda Appearances

| Importance: 8/10

Television network booking coordinators across CNN, NBC, CBS, and Fox News implement coordinated scheduling to facilitate White House Iraq Group’s synchronized propaganda rollout for September 8, 2002. Senior booking producers receive direct White House communications staff coordination to …

Network Booking Coordinators Karen Hughes White House Communications Staff CNN Booking Producers NBC Booking Producers +2 more network-booking-coordination whig propaganda-facilitation synchronized-messaging corporate-media-complicity +3 more
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WHIG Establishes Daily Executive Producer Coordination System

| Importance: 9/10

White House Iraq Group systematically coordinates with network news executive producers across CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox News to create direct communication channels for messaging priorities and narrative synchronization, effectively bypassing traditional journalist-source relationships.

White House Iraq Group Dick Cheney Karl Rove Condoleezza Rice Karen Hughes +2 more whig media-manipulation propaganda executive-coordination network-news +2 more
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National Association of Manufacturers Launches Unprecedented Multi-Million Dollar Anti-New Deal Propaganda Campaign

| Importance: 8/10

In 1935, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) under president Robert Lund launches what Business Week headlines as “The NAM Declares War” (December 14, 1935)—an unprecedented multi-million dollar propaganda campaign to discredit Roosevelt’s New Deal and promote …

National Association of Manufacturers Robert Lund Du Pont General Motors AT&T +3 more corporate-resistance propaganda new-deal institutional-capture media-manipulation +1 more
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Bernays "Torches of Freedom" Campaign Uses Feminism to Sell Cigarettes

| Importance: 7/10

Edward Bernays orchestrates his most famous propaganda campaign, hiring a group of young women to march in New York’s Easter Parade while smoking cigarettes and announcing to press photographers that they are lighting “torches of freedom” in a strike against male domination. The …

Edward Bernays American Tobacco Company George Washington Hill propaganda media-manipulation corporate-influence public-relations health
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Edward Bernays Publishes "Crystallizing Public Opinion" Launching Modern PR Industry

| Importance: 8/10

Edward Bernays, nephew of Sigmund Freud and veteran propagandist for the Committee on Public Information during World War I, publishes “Crystallizing Public Opinion,” the first book to codify techniques for manipulating mass psychology in service of corporate and political interests. …

Edward Bernays American Tobacco Company Sigmund Freud propaganda media-manipulation corporate-influence institutional-capture public-relations
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Committee on Public Information Created: Wilson Establishes Federal Propaganda Machine

| Importance: 8/10

One week after Congress declared war on Germany, President Woodrow Wilson created the Committee on Public Information (CPI) by executive order, establishing the first large-scale government propaganda apparatus in American history. Journalist George Creel was appointed chairman, heading a massive …

President Woodrow Wilson George Creel Secretary of State Robert Lansing Secretary of War Newton Baker Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels propaganda world-war-i state-repression progressive-era media-manipulation
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Birth of a Nation Premieres in Los Angeles: Groundbreaking Film Glorifies KKK, Depicts Black Americans as Evil

| Importance: 9/10

D.W. Griffith’s silent film “The Birth of a Nation” premiered in Los Angeles, becoming the longest and most profitable film produced to that date while securing the future of feature-length films and establishing cinema as a serious artistic medium. With assistance from …

D.W. Griffith Woodrow Wilson William J. Simmons Ku Klux Klan racial-politics white-supremacy kkk media-manipulation cultural-capture
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USS Maine Explosion - Yellow Journalism Manufactures War Fever

| Importance: 8/10

An explosion tears through the hull of the USS Maine anchored in Havana Harbor, Cuba, sinking the ship and killing 266 American sailors. Sober observers and an initial report by the colonial government of Cuba conclude the explosion occurred on board, but newspaper magnates William Randolph Hearst …

William Randolph Hearst Joseph Pulitzer New York Journal New York World USS Maine crew +1 more gilded-age media-manipulation imperialism propaganda spanish-american-war
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Log Cabin Campaign Uses Image Manipulation and Corruption Attacks to Defeat Van Buren

| Importance: 7/10

William Henry Harrison defeated incumbent President Martin Van Buren in the 1840 election, winning 234 of 294 electoral votes through what would become known as the first modern image-based political campaign. When a Democratic newspaper mockingly suggested giving Harrison “a barrel of hard …

William Henry Harrison Martin Van Buren Whig Party Charles Ogle political-deception electoral-fraud media-manipulation systematic-corruption democratic-erosion
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