Chatauqua
Professor Addresses Chautauqua on Iraq War
Journalism Professor Mike Niman, a media analyst and expert on propaganda, was a keynote speaker at the Chautauqua Institute's Hall of Philosophy. His topic, "War Propaganda and the Language of Fascism," was sponsored by the Chautauqua Society for Peace and Social Justice.
"If you look at most of the rhetoric about the war," Niman told his audience, "it's really an appeal to emotions, not reason. Because if we operated with reason ... then suddenly people have memory ... about weapons of mass destruction [and] about immediate threat to the U.S. as the justification for the war in Iraq."
"[But] it's an appeal to emotion. This is the language of fascism. Language that appeals to our emotions, as opposed to appeal to our reason.... Good propagandists attach their message to our values. We value freedom, so this becomes Operation Iraqi Freedom."
Listen to the full text of Professor Niman's presentation on audio files (two 30-minute parts).
(August 2005)