Beware of media manipulations

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Manipulating the media with a political goal is not something new. Later the trickery is discovered, and more it has some chances to work. The oldest I remember was the story of the mass graves of Timisoara in Romania in 1989. The organizer was a French «journalist» (He had been a high public servant in the French administration, and my father was knowing him very well to have worked with him several years.) : the opponents of the Ceausescu regime dig up 20 corpses in a cemetery and a properly staging was organized to take a few pictures sent to the media presenting it as a mass grave of victims of the communist regime. Big success ! In the following days all newspapers competed to have the best title : «Dracula was communist», «Slaughter»,etc... There had been thousands people killed and dropped in mass graves, according to some media, and a radio presenter launched a call to create some international brigades ready to die for Bucarest... It was a hoax, but when the media realized it 2 months later, this media manipulation had done its job : the communist regime and Ceausescu were no more there. Something that seems to have still some success is the manipulation of data that has been made by the far right in Germany about the crimes committed by immigrants. When I explained yesterday in a discussion to a member that they were committing less crimes than Germans, she told me that they were mass rapers, I had just to read the media to know it ! Hmm, according to the official crime stats in Germany, they do not commit many more rapes than Germans, with respect to their number : 458 rapes and attempts of rape were committed by the 1.5 million of immigrants in Germany in 2015, but some media wrote that they committed 200 000 sexual aggressions ! Playing on fears anchored in the collective unconscious works well, especially to promote xenophobic programs... I realize that I have been victim of a new media manipulation last week with the referendum about the independence of Catalonia. The media have been very quick to give a result of 90% of votes for the independence, although they did not questioned where the independentist government of Catalonia could have counted this North-Korean score : half of the ballot boxes were seized by the Spanish police, the other half dropped in the streets... The stroke of genius was not there though, it was to speak of the brutalities committed by the Spanish police to forbid to people to vote. Nobody likes to see police brutality in a democracy and a poll made last Monday in France was telling that 80% of French people were condemning the violence of the police in Barcelona. Ok, you can add me. I heard the president of the Parliament of Catalonia, Puigdemont, telling that after this violence, the Spanish government would not dare to arrest him. Smart. This guy has nerves. The newspapers spoke of 800 people sent to the emergencies. Today I am learning that only 4 were sent to the emergencies for police brutality, and that 2 left the hospital the same day. Also interesting is this picture of an old woman full of blood and presented as a victim of the police. Well, it seems that she felt in a stair at home. And it also seems that some several years old photos were photoshopped and sent to the media to show this police brutality during the referendum. I have been tricked, like millions of people, by a media manipulation done by the independentists in Catalonia. Reporters without borders complained last week against the pressures made by the Spanish government but told that the worst pressures were coming from the independentists... Yesterday afternoon, I watched an historical moment on the Spanish tv, thanks to @lovinangelsinstead21 : thousands of Spanish and Europeans flags were floating in the streets of Barcelona where hundred of thousands people were assembled to protest against a proclamation of independence. Yes, there were members of the Spanish government there, but there was also a Nobel Peace prize laureate, many intellectuals from all sides, all Catalans ! It was a great mass protest ! On the evening, I watched tv3, the official channel of the government of Catalonia, in Catalan. Guess what ? These people in the streets were «fascists». The populists are the same everywhere, they are liars, but it seems that the lies are too big here, and not supported anymore by the street. Beware of media manipulations.