The Glenn Beck Program - Ep 7 ｜ Redefining Truth： The Man Behind the Rise of 'Expert' Propaganda ｜ The Beck Story

00:00:00.000 It was January 1998.

00:00:04.380 A movie called Wag the Dog was released in U.S. theaters.

00:00:08.260 It was directed by Barry Levinson,

00:00:10.060 and it's a fictional story of a president embroiled in a sex scandal during an election campaign.

00:00:15.840 To distract the nation from the scandal,

00:00:17.920 a White House spin doctor recruits a Hollywood producer to help create a fake war in Albania.

00:00:24.920 There's a crisis in the White House.

00:00:26.580 What's a crisis?

00:00:27.180 And the president's top advisors have been called together.

00:00:31.400 Oh, jeez.

00:00:32.660 The sexual misconduct occurred inside the Oval Office.

00:00:36.320 With the election only days away, how much will this scandal affect the outcome?

00:00:41.180 The president spent the weekend pressing the flash.

00:00:43.200 He wasn't campaigning. He was dating, actually.

00:00:45.720 Now, Washington's top spin doctor...

00:00:48.440 We can distract the press for 11 days till the election.

00:00:50.800 I think we got a chance.

00:00:51.820 ...has an idea.

00:00:53.000 We can't afford a war.

00:00:54.180 We're gonna have the appearance of a war.

00:00:55.680 But he can't pull it off without Hollywood's top producer.

00:00:59.960 Uh, do I know you?

00:01:01.160 We have some mutual friends in Washington.

00:01:03.300 Why come to me?

00:01:04.120 We want you to produce.

00:01:05.600 You want me to produce your war? 0.72

00:01:07.660 Not a war. It's a pageant.

00:01:09.500 We need a theme, a song, some visuals.

00:01:12.280 The president's gonna go to war with Albania in about 30 minutes.

00:01:17.760 Wag the dog.

00:01:18.940 It was supposed to be a satire of presidential politics.

00:01:22.240 But while the movie was still in theaters, this happened.

00:01:26.960 Good evening. I'm Mark Gillesavage.

00:01:28.620 Good evening. I'm Joey Chen, and this is The World Today.

00:01:31.380 First up, bombshell allegations rock the White House.

00:01:34.460 In Washington this evening, supporters of the president are reeling.

00:01:37.760 At issue, whether Mr. Clinton had a sexual relationship with a former White House intern,

00:01:43.000 Monica Lewinsky, and whether he conspired with his close friend,

00:01:46.960 Washington attorney Vernon Jordan, to convince her to lie about it under oath.

00:01:51.580 But I want to say one thing to the American people.

00:01:55.180 I want you to listen to me. I'm going to say this again.

00:01:58.760 I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky. 0.89

00:02:05.160 I never told anybody to lie. Not a single time. Never.

00:02:10.240 These allegations are false, and I need to go back to work for the American people.

00:02:16.060 Eight months later, in August 1998,

00:02:19.100 President Clinton changed his tune about the nature of his relationships with Monica Lewinsky

00:02:24.140 in a televised address to the nation.

00:02:26.740 In a deposition in January, I was asked questions about my relationship with Monica Lewinsky.

00:02:32.640 While my answers were legally accurate, I did not volunteer information.

00:02:38.980 Indeed, I did have a relationship with Ms. Lewinsky that was not appropriate.

00:02:43.320 In fact, it was wrong.

00:02:45.000 It constituted a critical lapse in judgment and a personal failure on my part,

00:02:50.100 for which I am solely and completely responsible.

00:02:55.100 Then, just three days later, on the same day that Monica Lewinsky

00:03:00.420 wrapped up her testimony before a grand jury,

00:03:03.360 President Clinton returned to the airwaves with this announcement.

00:03:07.500 Good afternoon.

00:03:09.200 Today, I ordered our armed forces to strike at terrorist-related facilities in Afghanistan and Sudan

00:03:16.160 because of the imminent threat they presented to our national security.

00:03:21.060 I want to speak with you about the objective of this action and why it was necessary.

00:03:26.020 Our target was terror.

00:03:28.900 Our mission was clear.

00:03:30.460 Americans could not help but draw the comparison between the comedic setup of Wag the Dog

00:03:49.100 and the very real scenario unfolding at the Clinton White House.

00:03:53.460 Surely, the President of the United States wasn't actually using military action

00:03:57.940 to create a diversion from his latest extramarital affair.

00:04:02.520 But for the next few weeks, video rental stores had to scramble

00:04:05.880 to keep up with the customer demand for copies of Wag the Dog.

00:04:10.820 Incredibly, four months later in December 1998,

00:04:14.240 just as impeachment proceedings against Clinton began in the U.S. House,

00:04:18.160 the scenario happened again.

00:04:22.220 Good evening.

00:04:23.700 Earlier today, I ordered America's armed forces

00:04:26.020 to strike military and security targets in Iraq.

00:04:29.820 Maybe the Wag the Dog similarity was just a total bizarre coincidence.

00:04:35.500 But how could anybody tell for sure?

00:04:38.500 After these weird coincidences,

00:04:40.560 the director of Wag the Dog, Barry Levinson,

00:04:43.080 was asked about the kind of real-life manipulation that his movie jokes about.

00:04:47.320 I do think it is more the media in terms of how much manipulation is taking place on a day-to-day basis

00:04:56.920 and to the point that we no longer are quite sure where reality is

00:05:03.220 and those things which are fabricated.

00:05:06.160 And it gets to be, I think, more sinister as time goes along

00:05:09.380 because you'll be able to do even more things,

00:05:11.620 as we allude to in the movie,

00:05:13.080 by digitally putting someone in another environment

00:05:16.440 so that if seeing is no longer believing,

00:05:19.840 then where are we?

00:05:20.740 And then we're really left to our own sense of morality

00:05:25.080 and how far does that play out?

00:05:28.340 In an interview at the time,

00:05:29.860 NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw

00:05:32.120 commented on the similarity between politics and entertainment.

00:05:36.240 Well, I think politics and the entertainment industry are similar.

00:05:40.840 It's a lot about power.

00:05:42.900 It is, pardon me, a lot about vanity.

00:05:48.320 It is, as well, a lot about manipulation,

00:05:53.180 about mass audiences and getting them to see your point of view.

00:05:57.540 And it's a lot about being a star.

00:06:02.100 It's a lot about who can light up a room.

00:06:05.000 Barry Levinson and Tom Brokaw

00:06:07.200 both mentioned the idea of manipulation in those clips.

00:06:11.680 They were speaking in the late 1990s

00:06:13.880 and Americans were already cynical about spin.

00:06:17.060 More than 25 years later,

00:06:19.520 we're now used to spin all the time.

00:06:23.220 It's so persuasive now in our government and culture

00:06:26.160 that for probably most Americans,

00:06:29.160 their default position is to assume

00:06:31.320 that the initial messaging from almost any institution,

00:06:35.340 especially government, is spin.

00:06:38.160 How did we get here?

00:06:40.240 In this final episode of Season 1,

00:06:42.780 I want to take a look at how the progressives'

00:06:44.940 deference to experts in government

00:06:46.760 also created a larger culture of experts

00:06:50.000 affecting and even manipulating all areas of our life.

00:06:54.840 And there is probably no individual more responsible

00:06:58.320 for developing the wider culture of manipulation,

00:07:02.020 expertise, and spin about that expertise

00:07:04.880 than a 20th century progressive named Edward Bernays.

00:07:14.240 Ever wonder why things are the way they are in America?

00:07:18.120 Welcome to the Beck Story.

00:07:20.320 My podcast on how our past informs our present.

00:07:24.780 How did we get here?

00:07:26.420 Well, this first season is about

00:07:27.920 how a cult of expertise developed in America,

00:07:31.440 how it permeated our government,

00:07:33.820 and how this allegiance to so-called expertise

00:07:36.720 has far-reaching implications for our nation right now.

00:07:40.840 A remarkably consistent through-line extends

00:07:44.880 from the original progressive movement

00:07:47.020 right through to the actions of the left-wing elites today.

00:07:56.220 Why are bacon and eggs such an indelible part

00:07:59.560 of breakfast in America?

00:08:01.920 Well, two words.

00:08:03.740 Edward Bernays.

00:08:04.840 In the 1920s, Bernays was a young publicity man

00:08:08.640 trying to get his own business off the ground.

00:08:11.600 Publicists, or press agents, as they were often called,

00:08:14.400 were not new.

00:08:15.620 But the Bernays approach was new.

00:08:18.640 He thought much further outside the box

00:08:20.960 than most of his peers in the industry.

00:08:23.680 The Beech Nut Packing Company

00:08:25.440 hired Bernays to help boost their sales of bacon.

00:08:29.360 Well, Bernays did some research,

00:08:30.800 and it indicated that most Americans at the time

00:08:33.200 ate a very light breakfast,

00:08:35.120 often little more than toast, juice, and coffee.

00:08:38.200 So his idea was not to simply come up

00:08:41.640 with an ad campaign for bacon,

00:08:43.660 but to actually try to alter the breakfast eating habits

00:08:47.540 of the entire nation.

00:08:50.500 Bernays approached a well-known doctor in New York

00:08:52.700 and asked if he would endorse a letter to doctors

00:08:55.220 across America,

00:08:56.640 polling them on which was healthier,

00:08:59.160 a light or hearty breakfast.

00:09:00.980 Here's Bernays recounting the story

00:09:03.380 in 1991, when he was 100 years old.

00:09:07.980 We carried out a letter to 5,000 physicians.

00:09:13.280 Obviously, all of them,

00:09:16.060 we got about 4,500 answers.

00:09:19.560 All of them concurred that a heavy breakfast

00:09:22.520 was better for the health of the American people

00:09:25.760 than a light breakfast.

00:09:27.080 That was publicized in the newspapers.

00:09:32.760 Newspapers throughout the country

00:09:34.820 had headlines saying,

00:09:38.140 4,500 physicians urge heavy breakfast

00:09:42.800 in order to improve health of American people.

00:09:47.340 Many of them stated that bacon and eggs

00:09:52.240 should be embodied with the breakfast,

00:09:55.880 and as a result, the sale of bacon went up.

00:10:02.040 His strategy totally changed breakfast in America

00:10:05.120 and made bacon sales soar for his client

00:10:08.260 without even publicizing the Beech Nut Company

00:10:10.880 as part of the strategy.

00:10:12.020 In his biography of Edward Bernays,

00:10:15.380 titled The Father of Spin,

00:10:17.700 Larry Tye says,

00:10:19.180 quote,

00:10:20.180 Hired to sell a product or service,

00:10:22.960 Bernays instead sold whole new ways of behaving,

00:10:26.840 which appeared obscure,

00:10:28.560 but over time reaped huge rewards for his clients

00:10:32.220 and redefined the very texture of American life.

00:10:35.720 This became a pattern for Bernays

00:10:38.920 in the way of manipulating public opinion,

00:10:41.820 using perceived experts like doctors and scientists

00:10:44.880 to endorse and help disseminate viewpoints

00:10:47.800 that his clients wanted the public to accept.

00:10:51.440 In his 1928 book, Propaganda,

00:10:54.020 Bernays wrote,

00:10:55.320 quote,

00:10:56.140 Only through the active energy of the intelligent few

00:10:58.720 can the public at large become aware of

00:11:00.800 and act upon new ideas.

00:11:02.440 The active energy of the intelligent few,

00:11:06.540 the expert elite,

00:11:08.380 this is still the idea at the core of progressivism today.

00:11:14.620 Edward Bernays, he was born in Austria in 1891.

00:11:18.700 He was the middle of five children and the only boy.

00:11:22.220 His uncle was the famous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud.

00:11:27.300 Bernays' mother was Freud's sister,

00:11:29.280 and his father's sister was Freud's wife.

00:11:33.200 When Bernays was one year old,

00:11:35.440 his family immigrated to New York City.

00:11:38.380 In 1912, Bernays graduated from Cornell University

00:11:41.720 with a degree in agriculture.

00:11:44.200 He never wanted to be a farmer,

00:11:45.920 but his father insisted he study agriculture.

00:11:49.200 When Bernays graduated,

00:11:50.480 he took a job writing horticultural articles

00:11:52.900 for a publication called The National Nurseryman.

00:11:56.720 Shortly after that,

00:11:57.940 he was invited by a high school friend

00:11:59.440 to help run a magazine for doctors called

00:12:01.620 The Medical Review of Reviews.

00:12:04.680 Bernays never even came close to farming.

00:12:07.780 His early experience working for these magazines

00:12:10.300 hooked him on publicity and persuasion.

00:12:13.380 When Bernays and his friend published a doctor's positive review

00:12:17.260 of a play called Damaged Goods,

00:12:19.460 it spun his career and his life in an unpredictable direction.

00:12:23.940 The play was about a very taboo subject at the time,

00:12:28.160 sexually transmitted disease.

00:12:30.660 After learning that a famous actor, Richard Bennett,

00:12:33.160 was interested in producing the play in New York,

00:12:36.140 Bernays approached Bennett with an offer to help.

00:12:39.500 Well, that offer soon escalated to Bernays

00:12:41.460 trying to raise funds to produce the play.

00:12:43.640 Having no real money to chip in himself,

00:12:47.220 Bernays devised a plan

00:12:48.800 that would become a go-to for him throughout his career.

00:12:53.300 He turned the play into a cause.

00:12:56.720 In this case,

00:12:57.700 he made the cause about public sex education.

00:13:01.060 Bernays created a front organization

00:13:03.180 called the Sociological Fund.

00:13:05.940 The publicity he whipped up

00:13:07.320 attracted the wealthy donors

00:13:08.720 like John D. Rockefeller Jr.,

00:13:11.080 Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt,

00:13:12.700 and Bernays' novel plan worked.

00:13:16.000 The money poured in,

00:13:17.280 and the play was a giant hit.

00:13:20.100 Bernays' success promoting the Damaged Goods play

00:13:23.020 was quickly followed by an even greater challenge,

00:13:26.220 selling America on multi-city tours

00:13:28.940 for a Russian ballet company

00:13:30.940 and an Italian opera singer named Enrico Caruso.

00:13:35.960 Well, both were huge surprise successes

00:13:39.420 thanks to his willingness to push boundaries.

00:13:42.120 He had one of the female stars of the Russian ballet

00:13:45.100 photographed at the Bronx Zoo,

00:13:47.440 wearing a tight-fitting gown

00:13:49.000 with a snake draped over her shoulders. 0.83

00:13:51.600 The racy photo made front pages

00:13:53.780 all across the country.

00:13:55.920 You see, Bernays had a real knack

00:13:57.300 of grabbing the public's attention.

00:14:00.840 World War I paused Edward Bernays' rising star,

00:14:03.980 but the war ended up being a huge part of his story

00:14:06.800 because it taught him all about propaganda.

00:14:09.780 On the day the U.S. declared war on Germany,

00:14:13.380 Bernays tried to enlist in the army,

00:14:15.400 but he was rejected because of his bad vision

00:14:17.840 and flat feet.

00:14:19.440 Instead, he pulled strings

00:14:21.160 and used his charm to get a job with CPI,

00:14:25.180 the Committee on Public Information.

00:14:28.080 That was the propaganda arm

00:14:29.920 of the Woodrow Wilson administration,

00:14:31.980 headed by George Creel.

00:14:33.620 At the CPI, Bernays honed his persuasion skills

00:14:37.420 by helping design messaging

00:14:39.020 to win support for the war effort

00:14:40.800 from pacifist Americans,

00:14:42.900 as well as from citizens

00:14:44.260 of multiple foreign nations.

00:14:47.360 When the war ended,

00:14:49.300 Bernays was part of President Wilson's delegation

00:14:51.700 to the Paris Peace Conference,

00:14:53.800 where Bernays' job was to publicize

00:14:56.360 Wilson's post-war aims and ideals.

00:14:59.600 Here's Bernays again, speaking in 1991.

00:15:02.040 At the age of 1926,

00:15:05.900 I was in Paris

00:15:08.120 for the entire time of the peace conference

00:15:12.260 that was held in a suburb of Paris,

00:15:16.040 and we worked to make the world safe for democracy.

00:15:22.000 That was a big slogan.

00:15:25.560 Bernays later wrote

00:15:26.760 that through World War I experience,

00:15:29.320 he

00:15:29.520 discovered that arms and armaments

00:15:31.600 are not the only weapons,

00:15:33.540 that ideas are weapons too.

00:15:36.460 Nations recognized in varying degree

00:15:38.520 the importance of a scientific approach

00:15:40.520 to the marketing of national aims

00:15:42.180 and of national policies.

00:15:44.740 Observing firsthand

00:15:45.800 how effective propaganda was during wartime,

00:15:49.320 Bernays was inspired

00:15:50.600 by the potential of propaganda

00:15:52.480 in peacetime.

00:15:54.580 He wrote, quote,

00:15:55.580 World War propaganda showed the possibilities 0.84

00:15:58.680 of molding public opinion towards an objective.

00:16:01.940 After the Great War,

00:16:03.520 Edward Bernays sprang into action.

00:16:05.960 He married his longtime close friend,

00:16:08.020 Doris Fleischman,

00:16:09.100 and together they started their own firm.

00:16:12.080 Feeling that the word propaganda

00:16:14.220 was now too tainted of a word

00:16:16.120 to describe the work that they did,

00:16:18.440 they took to calling it

00:16:20.020 Council on Public Relations.

00:16:22.580 Though many disputed his claim over the years,

00:16:26.220 Bernays always promoted himself

00:16:27.900 as the inventor of modern public relations.

00:16:31.400 Whether he legitimately invented it or not,

00:16:33.840 he did teach the first ever PR course

00:16:36.280 at New York University in 1923.

00:16:39.600 And that same year,

00:16:40.960 he wrote the first book

00:16:42.100 on the practice of public relations

00:16:43.880 titled

00:16:44.740 Crystallizing Public Opinion.

00:16:48.020 Bernays was a genius self-promoter,

00:16:50.600 but it wasn't all hubris.

00:16:53.100 He delivered for his clients.

00:16:55.140 In the early 1920s,

00:16:56.500 as bobbed hairstyles

00:16:57.860 became fashionable for women,

00:17:00.080 the Vanita Hairnet Company

00:17:01.440 hired Bernays to help their slumping sales.

00:17:04.640 Bernays once again looked to experts,

00:17:06.700 in this case, labor leaders.

00:17:08.960 He convinced them of the importance

00:17:10.660 of women factory workers

00:17:12.260 wearing hairnets around machinery

00:17:14.400 for their own protection.

00:17:16.460 He then got health officials across the U.S.

00:17:19.100 to make food service workers

00:17:20.560 wear hairnets as well.

00:17:23.040 By the end of Bernays' campaign,

00:17:24.960 several states passed laws

00:17:26.620 requiring women 1.00

00:17:27.960 to wear hairnets

00:17:29.460 under certain work conditions.

00:17:31.980 It was another

00:17:32.780 bacon-and-eggs-type victory

00:17:34.440 for Bernays.

00:17:35.880 He created a safety culture

00:17:38.240 around hairnets

00:17:39.740 and a new demand for them

00:17:41.820 without ever having to promote

00:17:44.020 his client.

00:17:44.720 As Bernays described it

00:17:47.240 in his book

00:17:47.700 Crystallizing Public Opinion,

00:17:49.940 quote,

00:17:50.180 The Council on Public Relations,

00:17:52.360 after examination

00:17:53.000 of the sources

00:17:53.700 of established beliefs,

00:17:55.300 must either discredit

00:17:56.340 the old authorities

00:17:57.280 or create new authorities

00:17:58.660 by making articulate

00:17:59.700 a mass opinion

00:18:00.520 against the old belief

00:18:01.620 or in favor of the new.

00:18:05.060 Business absolutely boomed

00:18:07.360 for Bernays' PR firm.

00:18:10.120 His client list soon included

00:18:11.500 General Electric,

00:18:12.820 Procter & Gamble,

00:18:13.960 CBS, NBC,

00:18:15.380 Time Magazine,

00:18:16.480 General Motors,

00:18:17.660 Philco,

00:18:18.460 Westinghouse,

00:18:19.260 and hundreds of others.

00:18:21.440 He earned the modern equivalent 0.98

00:18:23.040 of several million dollars a year.

00:18:25.960 An article about Bernays

00:18:27.180 in The Atlantic

00:18:27.840 described him as,

00:18:28.940 But the Pope of Propaganda,

00:18:47.820 as another journalist dubbed him,

00:18:50.140 was wildly effective.

00:18:52.380 He increased the sales

00:18:53.520 of ivory soap

00:18:54.600 by focusing on making

00:18:56.620 bath time fun for kids

00:18:58.260 and sponsoring

00:18:59.320 a long-running

00:19:00.240 soap sculpture contest

00:19:01.840 with cash prizes.

00:19:03.940 He made Dixie Cups

00:19:05.140 a household name

00:19:06.360 by setting up

00:19:07.240 one of his front organizations

00:19:08.800 called

00:19:09.280 The Committee for the Study

00:19:10.860 and Promotion

00:19:11.560 of the Sanitary Dispensing

00:19:13.420 of Food and Drink.

00:19:14.980 That campaign emphasized

00:19:16.480 that disposable cups

00:19:18.140 were the only true

00:19:19.760 sanitary way to drink. 0.53

00:19:21.700 He also helped make

00:19:22.860 Jell-O popular as a dessert.

00:19:24.900 He helped popularize

00:19:26.020 greeting cards.

00:19:27.000 He was the pioneer

00:19:28.420 of product placement

00:19:29.580 in movies.

00:19:30.180 I'm sorry,

00:19:30.540 you're saying you want us

00:19:31.520 to use the show

00:19:32.400 to sell stuff?

00:19:34.240 Look, I know how this sounds.

00:19:35.780 No, come on, Jack.

00:19:36.640 We're not doing that.

00:19:37.360 We're not compromising

00:19:38.300 the integrity of the show

00:19:39.600 to sell.

00:19:40.080 Wow, this is diet Snapple?

00:19:41.460 I know.

00:19:41.900 It tastes just like

00:19:42.380 regular Snapple, doesn't it?

00:19:43.420 You should try Plum-A-Granit.

00:19:45.220 It's amazing.

00:19:46.280 I only date guys

00:19:47.140 who drink Snapple.

00:19:48.360 Look, we all love Snapple.

00:19:50.180 Lord knows I do,

00:19:51.380 but focus here.

00:19:52.060 He even boosted book sales

00:19:54.900 on behalf of major publishers

00:19:56.760 by getting contractors

00:19:58.120 and architects

00:19:59.040 to build bookshelves

00:20:00.800 in houses and apartments

00:20:02.240 since, as he later wrote,

00:20:04.300 quote,

00:20:04.820 Empty bookshelves

00:20:05.960 induced book purchases.

00:20:07.800 As biographer Larry Tye

00:20:09.420 puts it,

00:20:10.120 Bernays was, quote,

00:20:11.760 part P.T. Barnum,

00:20:13.340 part J.P. Morgan,

00:20:14.640 and blended in a way

00:20:16.180 that was uniquely

00:20:17.300 E.L. Bernays.

00:20:18.680 In 1924,

00:20:23.820 he got a call

00:20:24.340 from the White House.

00:20:25.700 Calvin Coolidge

00:20:26.480 was running for re-election

00:20:27.740 and he had a public image problem.

00:20:30.640 Americans perceived him

00:20:32.000 as dour and boring.

00:20:34.260 Peter Roosevelt's daughter

00:20:35.380 quipped that Coolidge

00:20:36.640 looked as if he had been

00:20:37.740 weaned on a pickle.

00:20:40.160 Well, here's Bernays

00:20:41.540 in 1989 at 97

00:20:43.900 explaining that you never

00:20:45.900 combat a rumor

00:20:47.060 with a denial.

00:20:49.640 The denial of a rumor

00:20:52.080 is a question

00:20:54.260 as to which side

00:20:55.440 to believe

00:20:55.980 and many people

00:20:57.280 would not believe

00:20:58.360 the denial.

00:21:00.500 But what you do

00:21:01.740 with a rumor

00:21:02.680 is to blanket a rumor.

00:21:05.860 One way to blanket

00:21:07.180 any rumor

00:21:08.340 is to develop

00:21:10.340 what the social scientists

00:21:13.640 call an overt act.

00:21:16.080 The overt act

00:21:19.480 that Bernays came up with

00:21:20.920 to boost

00:21:21.540 Coolidge image

00:21:22.720 was a pancake breakfast

00:21:24.120 at the White House

00:21:24.900 with entertainers

00:21:25.840 and celebrities

00:21:26.500 from Broadway

00:21:27.300 and Hollywood.

00:21:29.000 After breakfast,

00:21:30.260 in front of the president

00:21:31.320 and assembled guests,

00:21:32.940 Al Jolson

00:21:33.660 sang a campaign song

00:21:35.280 titled

00:21:35.720 Keep Coolidge.

00:21:37.200 The press ate it up.

00:21:39.720 Here's Bernays

00:21:40.380 recalling the event

00:21:41.180 in 1991.

00:21:42.140 Next day,

00:21:43.700 every newspaper

00:21:45.320 in the United States

00:21:47.240 had a front page story.

00:21:51.060 President Coolidge

00:21:53.040 entertains actors

00:21:56.000 at White House.

00:21:57.980 And the Times

00:21:59.180 had a headline

00:22:01.000 which said,

00:22:02.620 the president

00:22:03.500 nearly left.

00:22:07.140 Just a few weeks later,

00:22:09.240 Coolidge was re-elected

00:22:11.180 in a landslide.

00:22:15.140 Bernays talked

00:22:15.740 and wrote a lot

00:22:16.840 about what he called

00:22:17.920 the engineering

00:22:18.980 of consent.

00:22:20.800 That is,

00:22:21.360 getting the public

00:22:21.980 to consent

00:22:22.700 to whatever he wanted

00:22:24.300 for them

00:22:25.000 on behalf of his clients.

00:22:27.180 Be it a program,

00:22:28.680 goal,

00:22:29.420 or even an attitude

00:22:30.580 about something.

00:22:31.480 He explained,

00:22:33.800 To influence the public,

00:22:35.340 the engineer of consent

00:22:36.560 works with and through

00:22:37.780 group leaders

00:22:38.500 and opinion molders

00:22:39.520 on every level.

00:22:41.560 Primarily, however,

00:22:42.940 the engineer of consent

00:22:44.140 must create news.

00:22:46.160 The developing of events

00:22:47.340 and circumstances

00:22:48.240 that are not routine

00:22:49.280 is one of the basic functions

00:22:51.200 of the engineer of consent.

00:22:53.620 Newsworthy events

00:22:54.560 involving people

00:22:55.560 usually do not happen

00:22:57.140 by accident.

00:22:58.840 They are planned deliberately

00:22:59.920 to accomplish a purpose.

00:23:01.480 to influence our ideas

00:23:02.720 and actions.

00:23:06.120 One of Bernays'

00:23:07.420 most famous

00:23:08.340 engineer news events

00:23:09.860 came on behalf

00:23:11.040 of the American Tobacco Company

00:23:12.700 for their Lucky Strike cigarettes.

00:23:15.300 It was 1929,

00:23:16.720 and it was still taboo

00:23:17.940 for women to smoke 1.00

00:23:18.800 in public.

00:23:19.760 But the American Tobacco Company

00:23:21.560 saw a goldmine

00:23:22.940 in potential women smokers. 1.00

00:23:25.980 After consulting

00:23:27.000 with a psychologist,

00:23:28.160 Bernays determined

00:23:28.940 that they had to target

00:23:30.220 the larger social taboo

00:23:32.220 of women smoking.

00:23:33.580 If that taboo

00:23:35.200 could be destroyed,

00:23:36.580 the floodgates

00:23:37.420 would open for his client.

00:23:39.680 Bernays recruited

00:23:40.440 a group of 10 debutantes

00:23:42.480 and armed them

00:23:43.580 with Lucky Strike cigarettes.

00:23:45.100 They were instructed

00:23:46.460 to casually join

00:23:47.780 the Easter Day Parade

00:23:49.120 in New York City

00:23:50.100 on Fifth Avenue.

00:23:51.640 Once they joined the parade,

00:23:53.160 they lit their cigarettes

00:23:54.800 and photographers

00:23:55.700 snapped away,

00:23:57.640 including one photographer

00:23:58.920 strategically placed

00:24:00.480 by Bernays' team.

00:24:02.060 When asked by reporters

00:24:03.400 why they were openly

00:24:04.380 smoking on the street,

00:24:06.000 the headline

00:24:06.760 on the front page

00:24:07.620 of the New York Times

00:24:08.440 the very next day

00:24:09.360 read,

00:24:09.720 Over the next several days,

00:24:17.320 women all over America 0.91

00:24:18.380 copied the stunt

00:24:19.560 lighting up

00:24:20.200 in broad daylight

00:24:20.860 on city streets.

00:24:22.340 Within a month,

00:24:23.140 Broadway theaters

00:24:23.800 allowed women 0.99

00:24:24.540 into smoking rooms

00:24:25.720 that had been

00:24:26.620 only for men.

00:24:28.440 By linking smoking

00:24:29.600 to challenging male power

00:24:31.640 and women

00:24:32.140 asserting their independence,

00:24:33.820 along with a well-choreographed

00:24:35.640 stunt,

00:24:36.760 Bernays engineered

00:24:37.660 plenty of consent

00:24:39.080 for Lucky Strike cigarettes.

00:24:41.140 And no one knew

00:24:41.920 that Bernays

00:24:42.720 and the American Tobacco Company

00:24:44.420 were behind

00:24:45.500 the whole thing.

00:24:47.860 Edward Bernays

00:24:48.540 was rather genius

00:24:49.580 at knowing

00:24:50.160 how to manipulate

00:24:51.180 large groups of people.

00:24:53.500 But how exactly

00:24:54.620 did he know

00:24:55.200 how to push

00:24:55.940 people's buttons

00:24:56.760 like that?

00:25:04.940 Wouldn't it be nice

00:25:05.900 if you lived in a country

00:25:06.720 where you didn't have

00:25:07.340 to constantly worry

00:25:08.240 that your government

00:25:08.980 was lying to you?

00:25:10.340 A country where you could

00:25:11.600 take it for granted

00:25:12.720 that they weren't

00:25:13.540 making decisions

00:25:14.380 based on what they think

00:25:15.820 is in your best interest

00:25:17.080 and not what you think is?

00:25:19.740 History shows us,

00:25:20.780 unfortunately,

00:25:21.440 that the more bloated

00:25:22.600 a government gets,

00:25:23.580 the more this happens.

00:25:25.360 I make it a point

00:25:26.380 to make critical decisions

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00:26:10.460 When Edward Bernays

00:26:11.760 was growing up in America,

00:26:13.380 he only occasionally

00:26:14.660 saw his uncle,

00:26:15.800 Sigmund Freud,

00:26:16.840 as his family visited

00:26:18.160 their native Austria.

00:26:19.900 But as an adult,

00:26:21.160 Bernays corresponded

00:26:22.260 regularly with Freud.

00:26:24.200 In 1919,

00:26:25.160 after sending Freud

00:26:26.040 a box of Havana cigars,

00:26:28.200 Freud thanked Bernays

00:26:29.360 by gifting him

00:26:30.220 a copy of

00:26:30.960 the introductory lectures

00:26:32.520 on psychoanalysis.

00:26:35.040 Well, Bernays

00:26:35.540 was fascinated

00:26:36.360 by the potential

00:26:37.120 applications

00:26:37.720 of his uncle's

00:26:38.680 psychoanalytical principles

00:26:40.620 to public relations

00:26:42.320 and advertising.

00:26:44.020 Bernays realized

00:26:44.780 this is what

00:26:46.040 would give him

00:26:46.660 a competitive edge

00:26:47.680 in the marketplace

00:26:48.360 of public manipulation.

00:26:50.780 Here again,

00:26:51.320 biographer Larry Tye.

00:26:54.100 Bernays was Freud's nephew.

00:26:57.020 But in fact,

00:26:57.720 a better way

00:26:58.060 of characterizing it

00:26:59.100 was that Sigmund Freud

00:27:02.020 was Eddie Bernays'

00:27:03.600 professional uncle,

00:27:05.940 which meant that

00:27:06.640 five minutes

00:27:07.720 after you met Bernays,

00:27:08.980 he managed to drop

00:27:09.940 into the conversation

00:27:10.920 something about

00:27:11.720 Uncle Sigmund.

00:27:14.280 Sigmund Freud

00:27:15.100 was a defining influence

00:27:17.320 for Eddie Bernays

00:27:18.520 in the sense that

00:27:19.720 when Bernays took on

00:27:21.420 a client,

00:27:22.400 he thought about

00:27:23.100 who the client

00:27:23.740 was trying to reach

00:27:24.720 and how he could

00:27:26.000 understand the psychology

00:27:27.400 of behavior

00:27:28.300 of the American public

00:27:29.920 to make it easier

00:27:31.360 to have the public

00:27:32.600 respond to what

00:27:33.480 his client's interests were.

00:27:34.780 To manipulate the public

00:27:37.100 toward a particular goal,

00:27:39.000 Bernays would bypass

00:27:40.300 the rational part

00:27:41.720 of the mind

00:27:42.220 and target instead

00:27:43.840 people's unconscious

00:27:45.160 desires and drives,

00:27:47.440 which was the basis

00:27:48.480 of his Uncle Sigmund's work.

00:27:51.180 So, for example,

00:27:52.260 Bernays counseled car companies

00:27:53.940 to sell cars

00:27:54.800 as symbols

00:27:55.680 of male sexuality,

00:27:57.520 and it resulted

00:27:58.580 in decades

00:27:59.300 of car commercials

00:28:00.200 like this one

00:28:01.360 from the 60s.

00:28:02.380 Cougar,

00:28:04.600 if you're mad enough,

00:28:07.080 Cougar,

00:28:08.360 it's the meanest

00:28:10.200 and most masculine

00:28:11.940 road animal yet.

00:28:13.780 Cougar,

00:28:14.840 if you're mad enough,

00:28:17.600 Cougar.

00:28:22.640 In a 1947 Newsweek article,

00:28:26.220 it described Bernays

00:28:27.300 covert persuasion

00:28:28.880 like this,

00:28:29.700 quote,

00:28:30.040 One of Bernays'

00:28:31.200 favorite symbols

00:28:32.200 is the iceberg.

00:28:33.960 What you see is big,

00:28:35.720 but what you don't see

00:28:36.900 is a lot bigger.

00:28:38.560 Like the iceberg,

00:28:39.720 much of Bernays'

00:28:40.560 own work

00:28:41.280 is invisible.

00:28:43.760 Bernays' success

00:28:44.480 at manipulating

00:28:45.180 the public's subconscious

00:28:46.460 always had

00:28:47.540 an authoritarian edge

00:28:48.880 to it.

00:28:50.000 Listen to what he wrote

00:28:51.000 in his 1928 book,

00:28:52.480 Propaganda.

00:28:53.200 The conscious

00:28:54.220 and intelligent

00:28:55.020 manipulation

00:28:55.500 of the organized

00:28:56.380 habits and opinions

00:28:57.360 of the masses

00:28:57.940 is an important element

00:28:59.560 in democratic society.

00:29:01.800 Those who manipulate

00:29:02.640 this unseen mechanism

00:29:03.720 of society

00:29:04.400 constitute an invisible

00:29:05.580 government

00:29:06.060 which is the true

00:29:06.840 ruling power

00:29:07.600 of our country.

00:29:09.080 We are governed,

00:29:10.400 our minds

00:29:11.040 are molded,

00:29:12.180 our tastes formed,

00:29:13.800 and our ideas

00:29:14.600 suggested,

00:29:15.940 largely by men

00:29:16.800 we have never heard of.

00:29:18.760 It is they

00:29:19.440 who pull the wires

00:29:20.320 that control

00:29:20.880 the public mind.

00:29:22.540 Propaganda is the

00:29:23.420 executive arm

00:29:24.300 of the invisible

00:29:24.960 government.

00:29:27.420 This is Bernays'

00:29:28.720 second daughter,

00:29:30.220 Anne,

00:29:30.820 in a 2002 BBC

00:29:32.320 documentary called

00:29:33.460 The Century

00:29:34.440 of the Self.

00:29:36.380 He felt

00:29:37.140 the people

00:29:37.940 were really

00:29:38.460 pretty stupid

00:29:39.160 and that's

00:29:40.480 the paradox.

00:29:42.060 If you

00:29:42.780 don't leave it

00:29:43.940 up to the people

00:29:44.820 themselves

00:29:45.860 but force them

00:29:47.660 to choose

00:29:49.060 what you want

00:29:49.740 them to choose,

00:29:51.180 however

00:29:51.540 subtly,

00:29:52.840 then it's not

00:29:54.100 democracy anymore.

00:29:55.920 It's something else.

00:29:57.060 It's being told

00:29:57.880 what to do.

00:29:58.600 It's being,

00:29:59.580 it's that old

00:30:01.420 authoritarian thing.

00:30:04.420 Bernays eventually

00:30:05.320 admitted that his

00:30:06.200 whole manipulation

00:30:07.060 strategy could be

00:30:08.840 abused.

00:30:09.980 The techniques

00:30:10.500 can be subverted.

00:30:12.160 Demagogues can

00:30:12.840 utilize the techniques

00:30:13.680 for anti-democratic

00:30:14.560 purposes with as

00:30:15.520 much success as can

00:30:16.700 those who employ them

00:30:17.540 for socially

00:30:18.080 desirable ends.

00:30:19.060 one prominent

00:30:20.640 Nazi leader

00:30:21.580 took Bernays'

00:30:22.780 writings to heart

00:30:24.000 despite the fact

00:30:25.280 that Bernays

00:30:25.900 was Jewish.

00:30:26.800 That was the voice

00:30:42.980 of Joseph Goebbels,

00:30:44.780 the Nazi minister

00:30:45.820 of propaganda.

00:30:47.320 In that clip,

00:30:48.440 he said,

00:30:49.180 quote,

00:30:49.440 it may be a good

00:30:50.920 thing to hold

00:30:51.520 power based

00:30:52.400 on guns,

00:30:53.820 but it is far

00:30:54.600 better if you

00:30:55.280 win the heart

00:30:55.960 of the nation

00:30:56.640 and keep

00:30:57.540 its affection,

00:30:58.700 end quote.

00:31:00.820 Goebbels did

00:31:01.400 just that.

00:31:02.740 He was responsible

00:31:03.740 for all Nazi 0.91

00:31:05.020 propaganda,

00:31:05.920 including their

00:31:06.760 anti-Jewish messaging

00:31:07.920 campaign,

00:31:08.960 as well as the

00:31:09.940 massive Nazi

00:31:10.980 rallies and parades

00:31:12.100 that struck

00:31:12.960 Germany with awe

00:31:14.100 and the rest

00:31:15.000 of the world

00:31:15.560 with terror.

00:31:17.320 Goebbels said

00:31:18.020 this effort was,

00:31:19.160 quote,

00:31:20.140 to forge the

00:31:20.860 mind of a nation

00:31:21.780 into a unity

00:31:22.840 of thinking,

00:31:23.880 feeling,

00:31:24.380 and desire,

00:31:25.460 end quote.

00:31:27.220 Goebbels showed

00:31:27.900 the horrific

00:31:28.560 possibilities of

00:31:29.680 Bernays' ideas

00:31:30.700 in the hands

00:31:31.980 of domineering

00:31:32.760 governments.

00:31:34.460 In 1933,

00:31:35.780 Bernays first learned

00:31:36.980 from an American

00:31:37.720 journalist who had

00:31:38.600 interviewed Goebbels

00:31:39.820 in Germany

00:31:40.440 that Goebbels

00:31:41.800 was using principles

00:31:43.180 from Bernays' books

00:31:44.500 in the Nazi

00:31:45.820 propaganda strategy.

00:31:48.020 In his 1965

00:31:49.100 autobiography,

00:31:50.300 Bernays recounted,

00:31:52.160 They were using

00:31:52.680 my books as the

00:31:53.580 basis for a

00:31:54.220 destructive campaign

00:31:55.140 against the Jews 0.99

00:31:55.800 of Germany.

00:31:57.080 This shocked me,

00:31:58.380 but I knew

00:31:59.180 any human activity

00:32:00.180 can be used

00:32:00.860 for social purposes

00:32:01.760 or misused

00:32:02.640 for antisocial ones.

00:32:04.720 Unfortunately,

00:32:05.560 Bernays would go on

00:32:06.620 to apply his

00:32:07.460 manipulation techniques

00:32:08.880 to more than

00:32:09.880 just helping companies

00:32:10.960 sell their products.

00:32:18.020 In the early 1900s,

00:32:20.160 many Central American

00:32:21.260 nations became known

00:32:22.540 as Banana Republics

00:32:24.300 because of the

00:32:25.300 political influence

00:32:26.480 wielded in those

00:32:27.620 nations by an

00:32:28.940 American company

00:32:29.840 called United Fruit.

00:32:31.980 By the 1950s,

00:32:34.000 United Fruit Company

00:32:35.100 was the largest

00:32:35.960 employer and landowner

00:32:37.640 in Guatemala.

00:32:39.240 But Jacobo Arbenz,

00:32:41.720 who was Guatemala's

00:32:42.760 new democratically

00:32:43.760 elected president,

00:32:44.960 had other ideas.

00:32:46.060 He began redistribution

00:32:48.580 of unused tracts

00:32:50.340 of United Fruit Company

00:32:51.660 land to thousands

00:32:53.240 of poor Guatemalan

00:32:54.340 families.

00:32:55.700 The Guatemalan

00:32:56.280 government paid

00:32:57.140 United Fruit Company

00:32:58.180 in government bonds

00:32:59.260 for the 400,000 acres

00:33:01.240 that were confiscated.

00:33:03.480 United Fruit

00:33:04.280 needed an emergency

00:33:05.620 solution,

00:33:06.820 so they called on

00:33:07.600 the master of spin,

00:33:09.160 Edward Bernays.

00:33:10.620 In one of his

00:33:11.760 trademark moves,

00:33:13.020 Bernays created

00:33:14.060 a phony news agency

00:33:15.640 called the Middle 0.70

00:33:16.700 American Information

00:33:17.960 Bureau.

00:33:19.320 Through this bureau,

00:33:20.400 he flooded the

00:33:21.100 American media

00:33:21.900 with news releases

00:33:22.900 about the supposedly

00:33:24.080 growing communist

00:33:25.180 threat in Guatemala.

00:33:27.320 His full-on

00:33:28.180 offensive worked.

00:33:30.580 Using resources

00:33:31.440 and research

00:33:32.340 provided by

00:33:33.200 United Fruit Company,

00:33:34.660 Bernays got the

00:33:35.500 nation's most

00:33:36.380 influential publications

00:33:37.740 to run stories

00:33:39.260 about Guatemala's

00:33:40.260 communist threat

00:33:41.500 and resulted in

00:33:43.340 newsreel reports

00:33:44.500 like this.

00:33:45.380 In Guatemala,

00:33:47.220 the Jacob Arbenz

00:33:48.280 regime became

00:33:49.240 increasingly

00:33:49.840 communistic after

00:33:50.800 its inauguration

00:33:51.580 in 1951.

00:33:53.400 Communists in the 0.60

00:33:54.220 Congress and high

00:33:55.120 governmental positions

00:33:56.120 controlled major

00:33:57.080 committees,

00:33:58.000 labor and farm

00:33:58.900 groups,

00:33:59.600 and propaganda

00:34:00.320 facilities.

00:34:01.560 They agitated

00:34:02.340 and led in

00:34:02.960 demonstrations against

00:34:03.960 neighboring countries

00:34:04.940 and the United

00:34:05.660 States.

00:34:07.180 In 1952,

00:34:08.920 Bernays even took

00:34:09.680 a group of journalists

00:34:10.600 on a two-week tour

00:34:11.620 of Guatemala.

00:34:12.280 The entire trip

00:34:13.680 was carefully

00:34:14.580 orchestrated,

00:34:15.760 and of course,

00:34:16.340 the whole thing

00:34:16.740 paid for by the

00:34:18.100 United Fruit Company.

00:34:19.920 Years later,

00:34:20.980 Bernays was accused

00:34:21.980 of having set up

00:34:23.000 anti-U.S.

00:34:24.340 demonstrations

00:34:24.980 that reporters 0.82

00:34:25.820 witnessed,

00:34:26.920 but he always

00:34:27.820 denied any

00:34:28.700 involvement.

00:34:30.220 Ultimately,

00:34:30.880 Bernays' relentless

00:34:31.900 media campaign

00:34:33.040 convinced the

00:34:33.820 Eisenhower administration

00:34:34.960 that a growing

00:34:36.160 communist influence

00:34:37.280 in Guatemala

00:34:37.940 posed an immediate

00:34:39.140 threat to the

00:34:39.820 United States.

00:34:40.560 It was an early

00:34:42.180 piece of the

00:34:42.980 domino theory

00:34:44.060 of U.S.

00:34:45.120 foreign policy,

00:34:45.960 the idea that

00:34:47.220 the U.S.

00:34:47.900 needed to counter

00:34:48.700 any communist

00:34:49.640 takeover of a

00:34:50.460 country,

00:34:51.100 because if that

00:34:52.300 takeover succeeded,

00:34:53.720 then communism

00:34:54.620 would inevitably

00:34:55.600 spread to

00:34:56.400 surrounding nations,

00:34:57.500 and they would

00:34:58.240 all fall like

00:34:58.980 dominoes.

00:35:00.160 In 1954,

00:35:02.140 after a years-long

00:35:03.420 influence campaign

00:35:04.500 by Bernays,

00:35:05.660 an exiled army

00:35:06.760 officer named

00:35:07.700 Carlos Armas,

00:35:09.100 along with 200

00:35:10.160 men recruited

00:35:11.160 and trained

00:35:11.900 by the CIA,

00:35:13.680 launched a

00:35:14.220 successful coup.

00:35:16.120 Within a few

00:35:16.720 weeks,

00:35:17.380 Armas was made

00:35:18.280 president.

00:35:19.680 From the moment

00:35:20.940 the coup began,

00:35:22.420 Bernays was the

00:35:23.300 primary source

00:35:24.340 of information

00:35:25.140 about the

00:35:25.640 operation for

00:35:26.840 the largest U.S.

00:35:28.380 and international

00:35:29.160 news agencies,

00:35:30.300 including the

00:35:31.000 Associated Press.

00:35:32.580 But Bernays

00:35:33.440 spun the coup

00:35:34.240 as heroic

00:35:35.560 freedom fighters

00:35:36.600 liberating Guatemala

00:35:38.060 from Soviet-backed

00:35:39.600 communism.

00:35:41.520 Communism was

00:35:42.880 percolating in

00:35:43.960 Guatemala at the

00:35:44.680 time, but most

00:35:45.960 historians now

00:35:46.740 agree that

00:35:47.300 Bernays spearheaded

00:35:48.780 an exaggerated

00:35:50.080 threat, and that

00:35:51.740 President Arbenz

00:35:52.960 and his supporters

00:35:53.680 were radical,

00:35:55.220 but not actually

00:35:56.060 pro-communist.

00:35:57.940 Regardless, a few

00:35:59.060 months after the

00:35:59.820 successful coup,

00:36:01.020 U.S. Vice

00:36:01.540 President Richard

00:36:02.300 Nixon arrived in

00:36:03.400 Guatemala for a

00:36:04.680 filmed press event

00:36:05.760 with the new

00:36:06.460 president, Armas.

00:36:08.260 Nixon spoke to

00:36:09.300 the cameras in

00:36:10.100 front of piles of

00:36:11.640 communist literature

00:36:12.560 supposedly found in

00:36:14.420 the offices of the

00:36:15.540 previous regime.

00:36:17.220 This is the first

00:36:18.500 time in the history

00:36:19.660 of the world that

00:36:21.400 the communist

00:36:21.860 government has been

00:36:22.540 overthrown by the

00:36:24.280 people, and for

00:36:25.560 that we congratulate

00:36:26.440 you and the people

00:36:27.620 of Guatemala for the

00:36:28.840 support they have

00:36:29.480 given.

00:36:30.220 And we are sure

00:36:31.500 that under your

00:36:32.180 leadership, supported

00:36:33.600 by the people whom

00:36:34.500 I have met by the

00:36:35.400 hundreds on my

00:36:36.520 visit to Guatemala,

00:36:38.200 that Guatemala is 0.54

00:36:39.700 going to enter a

00:36:41.040 new era in which

00:36:42.640 there will be

00:36:43.740 prosperity for the

00:36:44.940 people together with

00:36:46.700 liberty for the

00:36:47.640 people.

00:36:48.780 Bernays had become

00:36:50.160 too good at his

00:36:51.760 job.

00:36:52.780 It was one thing to

00:36:53.700 manipulate people,

00:36:55.180 to appeal to their

00:36:55.960 unconscious desire to

00:36:57.240 sell them soap or

00:36:58.140 cars, but it was

00:36:59.620 another thing entirely

00:37:00.780 to use the same

00:37:01.980 techniques to topple

00:37:03.360 governments.

00:37:10.900 Seventy years after

00:37:12.320 the CIA-backed coup

00:37:13.620 in Guatemala, the

00:37:14.900 U.S.

00:37:15.260 government is applying

00:37:16.180 technology to public

00:37:17.840 manipulation efforts

00:37:19.060 in ever more

00:37:20.060 sophisticated ways.

00:37:22.100 Regime changes are

00:37:23.200 rarely so obvious as

00:37:25.180 CIA operations.

00:37:27.140 Now the work is done

00:37:28.680 by a complex blend of

00:37:30.480 NGOs.

00:37:32.000 The Arab Spring

00:37:33.020 uprisings during the

00:37:34.320 Obama administration,

00:37:35.400 for example, featured a

00:37:36.900 number of groups and

00:37:37.940 individuals who received

00:37:39.140 training from U.S.

00:37:40.580 NGOs, including

00:37:41.600 Freedom House, funded by

00:37:43.660 the State Department, and

00:37:45.280 groups affiliated with the

00:37:46.540 National Endowment for

00:37:47.680 Democracy, which is also

00:37:49.920 federally funded.

00:37:51.600 In 2009, a young man

00:37:53.660 named Jared Cohen was the

00:37:55.540 Assistant Secretary of

00:37:56.920 State Hillary Clinton.

00:37:57.980 He was a key influencer in

00:38:00.600 the digital revolution,

00:38:01.920 driving much of the

00:38:03.160 Arab Spring protests.

00:38:05.380 The New York Times

00:38:05.980 profile at the time called

00:38:07.500 him the public face of

00:38:09.600 21st century statecraft.

00:38:12.540 In 2010, Google started a

00:38:14.600 new unit called Google

00:38:16.560 Ideas.

00:38:17.900 It was started, as one

00:38:19.360 report described it,

00:38:20.520 quote,

00:38:20.720 to try out ideas that

00:38:23.160 address the challenges of

00:38:24.480 counterterrorism,

00:38:25.820 counterradicalism, and

00:38:27.580 nonproliferation, end

00:38:29.380 quote.

00:38:30.600 Google hired Jared Cohen

00:38:32.740 as the director of the

00:38:33.980 new unit.

00:38:35.160 Cohen later explained that

00:38:36.500 he made the move to

00:38:37.380 Google Ideas because

00:38:38.760 there are, quote,

00:38:40.720 things the private sector

00:38:42.120 can do that the U.S.

00:38:43.540 government cannot,

00:38:45.420 end quote.

00:38:46.840 Sounds very much like a

00:38:48.300 young Edward Bernays.

00:38:49.420 In 2016, Google Ideas

00:38:52.120 changed its name to

00:38:53.460 Jigsaw and debuted a

00:38:56.020 new tool known as

00:38:57.340 the Redirect Method.

00:38:59.980 Jigsaw's partner in

00:39:00.960 developing the Redirect

00:39:02.380 Method was a British 0.99

00:39:03.440 company called

00:39:04.240 Moonshot.

00:39:05.900 According to both

00:39:06.880 companies, this tool,

00:39:08.460 quote,

00:39:08.740 places ads in search

00:39:11.100 results and social media

00:39:12.600 feeds of users who are

00:39:14.260 searching for pre-identified

00:39:16.240 terms that we have

00:39:18.000 associated with a

00:39:18.960 particular online harm,

00:39:21.420 end quote.

00:39:22.580 Those ads in the search

00:39:24.080 results then redirect the

00:39:25.520 user to content that

00:39:26.660 provides, quote,

00:39:27.900 constructive alternative

00:39:29.600 messages,

00:39:31.220 end quote.

00:39:33.760 Moonshot has also

00:39:34.760 partnered on projects with

00:39:35.960 the U.S. State

00:39:36.600 Department.

00:39:37.780 Initially, Jigsaw and

00:39:39.240 Moonshot's redirect

00:39:40.300 method was hyped as a

00:39:42.200 way to target potential

00:39:43.500 ISIS recruits.

00:39:45.320 But shortly after it

00:39:46.320 launched in 2016, the

00:39:47.840 co-founder of Moonshot

00:39:48.920 said phase two of the

00:39:50.720 redirect tool would

00:39:52.220 target right-wing

00:39:53.720 extremists in the U.S.

00:39:56.380 These are companies that

00:39:58.200 have partnerships with the

00:39:59.820 U.S. and British

00:40:00.940 government agencies,

00:40:02.660 working on advanced

00:40:04.020 technology to steer

00:40:05.780 public opinion.

00:40:07.440 I would say, imagine

00:40:08.880 what Edward Bernays

00:40:09.920 could accomplish with

00:40:10.940 this kind of technology.

00:40:13.040 But you don't have to

00:40:14.400 imagine it.

00:40:15.660 These public-private

00:40:16.920 partnerships are full

00:40:18.700 of Edward Bernayses.

00:40:22.240 It's enough of a

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00:40:33.400 choice.

00:40:34.380 Our biggest cause of our

00:40:35.700 pain is inflammation in

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00:40:38.180 I know, because I used to

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00:40:40.280 hands, I couldn't always 0.81

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00:40:43.240 morning, let alone do so

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00:40:45.900 to do, like painting or

00:40:46.940 writing things by hand.

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00:41:26.400 All right, now, doctor,

00:41:28.340 tell me again what the

00:41:29.980 doctor is.

00:41:30.780 What are we dealing

00:41:31.300 with?

00:41:31.500 You're the father of

00:41:32.460 public relations.

00:41:33.260 What we're dealing with

00:41:33.840 really is the concept that

00:41:36.620 people will believe me more

00:41:38.600 if you call me doctor.

00:41:40.760 Oh, I see.

00:41:43.900 That was Edward Bernays on

00:41:45.840 David Letterman's late

00:41:46.880 night show in 1985.

00:41:49.720 He was then 93 years old.

00:41:52.540 He was joking there about

00:41:53.800 perceived expertise.

00:41:55.180 But that was the magic trick

00:41:57.960 of his entire career.

00:41:59.980 He truly believed in the

00:42:01.480 importance of so-called

00:42:02.520 experts in steering the

00:42:04.320 public in a particular

00:42:05.760 direction.

00:42:06.800 And it is a belief that is

00:42:08.540 still pervasive in

00:42:10.040 progressivism today.

00:42:12.560 The author Fulton Orsler once

00:42:15.000 met Bernays at a dinner party

00:42:16.540 and described him as, quote,

00:42:18.240 a wily fellow forever

00:42:20.140 enchanted with his own

00:42:21.380 skills, trying to apply the

00:42:23.320 doctrines of his uncle,

00:42:24.560 Sigmund Freud, to control

00:42:26.060 the thinking of masses of

00:42:27.620 people on behalf of big

00:42:28.820 business while advocating a

00:42:30.560 kind of mild socialism of his

00:42:32.260 own, end quote.

00:42:36.500 Like most other disciples of

00:42:38.180 progressivism through the

00:42:39.320 years, Bernays believed

00:42:40.540 himself to be one of the

00:42:41.860 elites who knows what's best

00:42:43.600 for society at large.

00:42:45.060 He also had the very human

00:42:47.380 drive to make sure everyone

00:42:48.900 knew he was part of the

00:42:50.840 elite by constantly

00:42:52.420 brandishing his

00:42:53.440 accomplishments.

00:42:55.120 Bernays' older daughter,

00:42:56.560 Doris, told an interviewer

00:42:57.920 that her father embellished

00:42:59.200 his achievements because he

00:43:00.920 grew up in the shadow of his

00:43:02.280 domineering father and his

00:43:03.660 famous uncle, Sigmund Freud.

00:43:05.660 She said, quote,

00:43:07.240 My father couldn't let it be.

00:43:09.520 He had to keep on

00:43:10.380 constructing it and defining it

00:43:12.020 and embellishing it, end

00:43:13.960 quote.

00:43:15.320 He apparently even embellished

00:43:16.580 his own name, adding the

00:43:18.500 middle initial L, which

00:43:20.600 supposedly stood for Lewis.

00:43:23.200 But not even his daughters

00:43:24.540 are sure if that was his

00:43:25.700 actual middle name since it

00:43:27.320 wasn't listed in his birth

00:43:28.580 records.

00:43:30.300 Ultimately, Bernays even used

00:43:32.180 his go-to strategy of getting

00:43:34.000 an expert to endorse a certain

00:43:35.600 point of view in order to

00:43:37.240 enhance his own legend.

00:43:39.700 Eric F. Goldman, a historian at

00:43:41.820 Princeton University, wrote a

00:43:43.720 book about the history of

00:43:44.960 public relations and praised

00:43:46.560 Bernays as the most crucial

00:43:48.740 innovator in the PR field.

00:43:51.700 According to biographer Larry

00:43:53.180 Ty, it turns out Bernays came up

00:43:55.240 with the idea for the book, got

00:43:56.900 Goldman to write it, helped him

00:43:58.760 find a publisher, and even helped

00:44:00.440 him edit the book, and eventually

00:44:02.060 purchased from Goldman all rights

00:44:04.100 to the book.

00:44:04.620 In 1990, Life magazine named

00:44:10.080 Bernays on the list of the 100

00:44:11.660 most important Americans of the

00:44:13.400 20th century.

00:44:14.700 His book, Crystallizing Public

00:44:16.520 Opinion, is still used today in

00:44:19.360 college public relation courses.

00:44:21.800 Bernays' unique influence on

00:44:23.700 American life probably would have 0.99

00:44:25.100 gotten him that kind of

00:44:26.120 recognition, which he craved,

00:44:28.180 without all of the self-aggrandizing.

00:44:30.900 But it certainly didn't hurt.

00:44:33.920 Biographer Larry Ty summed up

00:44:36.020 Bernays' influence like this.

00:44:38.140 There's never been a spinmaster in

00:44:40.100 the history of America and probably

00:44:41.740 in the world who has the kind of

00:44:43.980 ongoing impact that Edward Bernays

00:44:45.980 has today on everything from the

00:44:47.940 way we buy to the way we vote to the

00:44:50.620 way we think.

00:44:55.460 I began this season of the Beck

00:44:57.860 Story podcast with an episode about a

00:45:00.080 guy named Frederick W. Taylor.

00:45:02.000 Taylor and his invention of what he

00:45:03.940 termed scientific management.

00:45:06.920 As many critics have shown since

00:45:08.400 Taylor's time, his work wasn't

00:45:10.220 actually scientific at all.

00:45:12.540 He applied his method to factories of

00:45:14.780 his day, conducting his efficiency

00:45:16.340 studies and getting paid handsomely to

00:45:19.340 show owners how they could save a buck

00:45:20.960 or two by following his efficiency

00:45:22.920 advice.

00:45:25.620 Progressives of the era fell head over

00:45:27.880 heels in love with scientific

00:45:29.740 management because it had so many

00:45:31.880 applications for government.

00:45:34.780 Edward Bernays pioneered ways to take

00:45:37.920 scientific management and apply it to

00:45:40.500 managing society.

00:45:42.700 He was always striving to make his

00:45:44.480 version of public relations at least

00:45:47.020 appear to be more science than showmanship.

00:45:50.660 In true progressive fashion, that meant

00:45:53.120 backing it up with the authority of

00:45:55.320 government.

00:45:55.720 Even as late as 1991, when Bernays was

00:45:59.700 about to turn 100 years old, he was

00:46:02.600 still campaigning to get legislation

00:46:04.440 passed in several states, including

00:46:06.320 Massachusetts, where he lived, that

00:46:08.680 would require government licensing of

00:46:11.160 public relations professionals.

00:46:13.460 His effort never paid off, but

00:46:15.380 progressives are still in love with

00:46:17.920 that approach.

00:46:18.960 In June 2024, the editors of Scientific

00:46:21.780 American published an editorial titled

00:46:24.320 Homeschooling Needs More Uniform Oversight,

00:46:28.620 in which they cry out for the urgent

00:46:30.800 regulation of homeschooling families.

00:46:33.380 The editors said that the Biden

00:46:35.440 administration must, quote,

00:46:37.580 develop basic standards for safety and

00:46:40.540 quality of education in homeschooling

00:46:42.600 across the country.

00:46:44.300 One of Scientific American's suggestions for

00:46:47.140 this regulation is that parents, quote,

00:46:49.980 could be required to pass an initial

00:46:52.000 background check, as every state requires

00:46:54.560 for all K through 12 teachers.

00:46:57.580 This is where the cult of expertise leads

00:47:00.300 society, to the point where they try to

00:47:02.940 make it sound reasonable to require you to

00:47:05.820 pass a background check to teach your own

00:47:08.380 child.

00:47:09.700 The cult of expertise usually wraps its

00:47:12.260 arguments in language about safety and

00:47:14.400 standards.

00:47:15.640 But in reality, it's often driven by fear

00:47:18.180 that people might think for themselves and

00:47:20.660 resist the experts' agenda.

00:47:24.200 In 2016, Oxford's dictionary,

00:47:26.920 Word of the Year, was, quote,

00:47:29.180 post-truth.

00:47:31.400 Oxford then went on to define post-truth as,

00:47:34.640 quote, relating to or denoting circumstances

00:47:37.780 in which objective facts are less influential in

00:47:42.040 shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and

00:47:46.320 personal belief, end quote.

00:47:49.780 A century of Bernays' influence had redefined

00:47:53.200 truth.

00:47:54.600 Listen to that Oxford Dictionary definition again.

00:47:58.300 We're post-truth now, where objective facts are

00:48:02.260 less influential in shaping public opinion than

00:48:05.300 appeals to emotion and personal belief.

00:48:08.640 That's Bernays' whole approach, appealing to our

00:48:12.500 irrational side, to get to the truth he was

00:48:16.600 selling, and sometimes even inventing the so-called

00:48:20.340 truth in the process.

00:48:27.880 Throughout his career, Bernays repeatedly proved

00:48:30.940 that very strategic messaging, using perceived

00:48:34.340 experts and very well choreographed so-called news

00:48:38.060 events, can actually change the public's belief and

00:48:41.460 habits. He accomplished all of that in an analog

00:48:45.500 world. Bernays would have a field day in today's

00:48:49.860 digital world. In the 1950s and 60s, the CIA performed

00:48:54.780 notorious mind-control experiments through a project

00:48:58.140 called MKUltra. Obstensibly, the program was a reaction

00:49:03.120 to American paranoia about communist brainwashing and

00:49:07.380 fears over the psychological warfare being developed by the

00:49:10.680 Soviet Union. MKUltra performed experiments on Americans using

00:49:15.460 electroshock therapy, hypnosis, radiation, and especially LSD.

00:49:22.100 Sometimes the subjects were volunteers, but often they were not,

00:49:26.880 and they included drug-addicted prisoners, prostitutes, and 0.93

00:49:31.000 terminally ill cancer patients.

00:49:33.400 Today, there is a head-spitting convergence of intelligence and other

00:49:41.260 government agencies with big tech companies. The new paranoia is that we're

00:49:47.100 falling behind China in a race for AI dominance. In October 2023, President

00:49:53.180 Biden signed an executive order demanding more research and deployment of AI

00:49:58.820 across all federal agencies. I'm about to sign an executive order,

00:50:03.600 an executive order that is the most significant action any government anywhere in the world has

00:50:09.480 ever taken on AI safety, security, and trust.

00:50:12.140 In May 2024, the U.S. Defense Department, the think tank called MITRE, announced a deal with the

00:50:24.480 California tech company, NVIDIA, to build an AI supercomputer. They call it an AI sandbox

00:50:32.920 that will allow federal agencies from the Pentagon to the IRS to test cutting-edge applications to

00:50:39.720 speed up the deployment of AI all across the federal government. Beside the ample concern

00:50:46.680 over surveillance and privacy that these public-private partnerships raise,

00:50:51.320 what about the threat of Bernays-style manipulation? Big tech companies collect a staggering amount of data

00:50:58.280 data on us that creates the ability to create psychological profiles and predict our motives for doing

00:51:04.920 things. A Forbes magazine reporter downloaded the data that Google alone had collected about her,

00:51:11.340 and it amounted to two gigabytes, roughly the equivalent of 1.5 million Word documents.

00:51:19.960 No government should have access to such tools of manipulation.

00:51:23.700 The left is increasingly concerned about Americans thinking the correct way.

00:51:33.300 Listen to this from Jen Easterly in 2021. She is the Director of Cybersecurity and Infrastructure

00:51:40.180 Security Agency at the Department of Homeland Security.

00:51:44.260 We're in the business of critical infrastructure, and the most critical infrastructure is our cognitive

00:51:50.420 infrastructure. And so building that resilience to misinformation and disinformation, I think,

00:51:56.660 is incredibly important. And we're going to work with our partners in the private sector and throughout

00:52:02.420 the rest of the government and at the department to continue to ensure that the American people have

00:52:07.860 the facts that they need to help protect our critical infrastructure.

00:52:12.020 Any American who values free thought and free speech should squirm at the head of a government agency

00:52:24.740 talking about our cognitive infrastructure. What happens, for instance, if the government decides

00:52:31.720 your insistence that there are only two genders comprises a defect in your cognitive infrastructure?

00:52:39.420 Bernays believed that the average person is basically stupid and needs to be told what to think.

00:52:48.380 He believed that it was the job of the expert elites like himself to guide the minds of the stupid masses.

00:52:57.020 This Bernays mindset shows no sign of slowing down.

00:53:00.940 In 2024, a Rasmussen survey divided respondents between elites and the general public.

00:53:10.300 They defined elites as Americans who have had at least one postgraduate degree and earn over $150,000 a year.

00:53:18.460 They also polled a separate group of what they called super elites, who are graduates of Ivy League and other elite colleges.

00:53:26.380 They found that 47% of elites and 55% of super elites believe the government allows Americans, quote,

00:53:36.780 too much individual freedom.

00:53:41.420 70% of elites say they trust the government to do the right thing most of the time.

00:53:46.700 That is more than twice the national average.

00:53:49.420 Bernays, just like current left-wing elites in government, justified control efforts as a means for defending democracy.

00:53:58.700 If the elites don't keep a proper lid on things, you see, the public will give in to their base desires and will have fascism.

00:54:08.860 Bernays didn't believe in God, and he loathed religion.

00:54:13.340 Even though he was ethnically Jewish, he turned his back on Judaism.

00:54:16.860 In 1984, historian Marvin Olasky interviewed Bernays, who told him, quote,

00:54:23.620 we have no being in the air to watch over us, end quote.

00:54:28.180 Therefore, Olasky writes, Bernays told him that we need, quote,

00:54:31.980 human gods, end quote, to preserve us from chaos.

00:54:36.900 The progressive cult of expertise is about to go into overdrive with the super spread of artificial intelligence.

00:54:44.600 There are labs full of engineers devising AI applications for everything under the sun

00:54:51.360 to ensure you don't have to think for yourself.

00:54:55.240 In May 2024, the founder of the dating app, Bumble,

00:54:59.380 told an audience at a tech conference that soon you'll be able to have your personal AI dating concierge

00:55:06.300 go out and date other concierges for you, then provide you with the best match.

00:55:13.140 Human gods, as Bernays put it, are now in the air, in the form of AI,

00:55:19.260 and there is a perverse rush to embrace these gods without really knowing what they'll do to us.

00:55:26.040 Two academic studies published June 2024 found that certain AI systems are learning to lie and deceive.

00:55:36.600 In fact, one of the studies discovered that OpenAI's GPT-4 demonstrated, quote,

00:55:42.300 deceptive behavior in simple test scenarios 99.16% of the time, end quote.

00:55:49.400 The researchers found that sophisticated large language models can be encouraged to elicit Machiavellianism,

00:55:58.400 in other words, Bernays-style manipulation.

00:56:01.920 Bernays called it nearly a century ago in his book, Propaganda.

00:56:07.660 We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed,

00:56:11.100 and our ideas suggested largely by men we have never heard of.

00:56:14.900 It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind.

00:56:18.000 Considering the theme of this first season of The Beck Story,

00:56:25.440 it may surprise you to hear me say this, but not all experts are bad.

00:56:30.720 This season is not a universal indictment of expertise.

00:56:34.680 True expertise can be trustworthy and help a free society thrive in all sorts of ways.

00:56:40.760 I mean, you certainly want your surgeon to be an expert in the field, right?

00:56:44.560 The key is expertise paired with wisdom, humility.

00:56:51.940 Wisdom and expertise are not the same thing.

00:56:55.360 Genuinely wise experts have the proper humility to understand that they may not know everything,

00:57:02.320 and that their expertise may have limits,

00:57:04.620 that their position on something could change in light of new information.

00:57:08.580 Expertise built with wisdom is rare, but a necessary pairing.

00:57:17.220 After well over a century of progressive dominance in American government and institutions,

00:57:22.180 we clearly need less expertise and more wisdom.

00:57:26.560 In a nation that is turning its back on objective truth,

00:57:31.140 we are more vulnerable than ever to the experts,

00:57:35.300 quote,

00:57:35.660 pulling the wires that control the public mind, end quote, as Bernays put it.

00:57:40.600 To counteract the progressive cult of expertise,

00:57:43.940 we must demonstrate that government of the people,

00:57:47.880 by the people and for the people is not only possible, but preferable.

00:57:54.140 With diligence and determination,

00:57:57.140 we must become the wise kind of experts.

00:58:01.200 Experts in recognizing and exposing lies, spin, propaganda.

00:58:07.640 Experts in elevating truth.

00:58:10.680 We'll see you next season.

00:58:15.560 We constantly rely on experts to make decisions for us.

00:58:19.240 Because even eyewitnesses and experts can get it wrong.

00:58:22.920 But experts do get things wrong.

00:58:24.840 You have to seek out sources from other points of view,

00:58:28.420 and then critically examine their motivations and credibility as well.

00:58:40.680 We'll see you next season.

The Glenn Beck Program - August 03, 2024

Ep 7 ｜ Redefining Truth： The Man Behind the Rise of 'Expert' Propaganda ｜ The Beck Story

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