The Glenn Beck Program - August 03, 2024


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


Episode Stats

Length

59 minutes

Words per Minute

133.00626

Word Count

7,871

Sentence Count

502


Summary


Transcript

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?
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.
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.
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
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
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
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.
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
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.
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
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
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
00:25:27.780 for myself and my family,
00:25:29.060 and you should too.
00:25:30.340 You should get
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00:25:40.220 bacterial infections.
00:25:41.720 It provides five
00:25:42.560 life-saving antibiotics
00:25:43.740 for emergency use,
00:25:44.980 and all you have to do
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00:25:47.820 and you'll have it
00:25:49.100 in case you need it.
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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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
00:40:23.260 struggle just to live our
00:40:24.240 lives and try to keep
00:40:25.680 tyranny at bay day after
00:40:27.140 day without also having
00:40:28.660 to deal with pain on a
00:40:29.720 regular basis.
00:40:31.080 And yet, our bodies don't
00:40:32.220 really give us much of a
00:40:33.400 choice.
00:40:34.380 Our biggest cause of our
00:40:35.700 pain is inflammation in
00:40:37.360 our joints.
00:40:38.180 I know, because I used to
00:40:39.160 get it so badly in my
00:40:40.280 hands, I couldn't always
00:40:41.860 button my shirt in the
00:40:43.240 morning, let alone do so
00:40:44.780 many of the things I love
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
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
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.