Deceptive tactics are becoming standard in American political campaigns, and 2008’s presidential campaign has seen its own share of spin. In what ways are political leaders misleading the American public, and what are the consequences? Does America as we know it risk becoming a dystopian footnote in the annals of history? How can we fight back against all the deception?
Link TV’s special presentation, The Art of Spin, aims to unravel the web of doublespeak and propaganda that threatens America’s democracy. Watch as talk-show host and author Thom Hartmann discusses the Orwellian language machine at work in our society with George Lakoff, professor and author of the recent book The Political Mind. Lakoff is featured in the film There You Go Again: Orwell Comes to America, which airs as part of the special.
About the film - There You Go Again: Orwell Comes to America
In his classic essay “Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell described political speech as consisting “largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness.” Six decades later, the tactics of disinformation and manipulation diagnosed by Orwell persist on the political battlefield, along with new propaganda techniques made possible by advances in scientific knowledge and modern technology.
"There You Go Again: Orwell Comes to America" which took place at the New York Public Library on November 7 2007, invited historians, linguists, cognitive experts, journalists, government officials, and political consultants to assess the current state of public discourse — and journalism’s response to it — one year before a hotly contested presidential election. "What Orwell Didn't Know: Propaganda and the New Face of American Politics," an anthology featuring twenty prominent writers and thinkers, was released at the time of conference.
The three panels, Propaganda Then and Now: What Orwell Did and Didn't Know, Deceiving Images: The Science of Manipulation and Solutions: The Future Political Landscape, can be viewed here on the Link TV website.
LEARN MORE:
Visit the Orwell Comes to America site
Media Matters
Orwell Links
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
Thom Hartmann
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