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"In Paranoia We Trust" -- Dr. They
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Paranoia Media Scrutinization Volume 1, Number 1 March 1992
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Various tutorials claim to offer diverse methods of insight
into the mundane media we all encounter throughout our daily
lives. Charles Olson's classic "The ABCs of Reading" instructs
readers on skills of perception that can be used to get more out
of reading. Dorfman & Mattelart's classic "How To Read Donald
Duck" offers readers an insane method of stripping away the
colonialist propagandizing mask covering all of Donald Duck
comix.
Paranoid Media Scrutinization (P-M-S) fills a large gap
among these tutorials and offers helpful hints to you (dear
reader) on how you might learn to become more paranoid in your
reading, viewing and listening habits. Our method is actually
very simple can be learned by anyone in the safety of their own
home. No drug therapies are required, and no mail order devices
are needed. If you are discrete, no salesman will call.
As eyes are the window to the soul, the media is a window to
the rectum of any culture's status quo. This oft quoted truism
holds for any society, whether it has a state owned press, or
thousands of privately owned newspapers and broadcast stations,
like our own country does. Take American newspapers for example
(PLEASE!). They are privately owned, and free to print whatever
they wish as long as it is neither slanderous or libelous. True
enough, as long as you add the pragmatic qualifier that any paper
that bites the advertising hand that feeds it had better have a
stack of Chapter 11 Bankruptcy papers close at hand. Newspapers
(as well as radio, TV) are business first, and news organizations
second. Any "news" that interferes with business will always
take a back seat to news that constipates the interests of the
status quo.
Unlike other world religions, P-M-S has only one guiding
principle. It was put forth by a long ago forgotten prophet:
"Newspapers are full of nothing but news and advertising. News
is something that someone wants to suppress, everything else is
advertising".
Do you doubt the wisdom of these words? If you do, good.
Skepticism is the first step towards divine paranoia. Just pick
up the nearest newspaper and look at which stories were deemed
important enough to make the front page, and which got 1 1/2
inches on page 16. This first issues of P-M-S takes most of its
examples from the small, local paper The Olympian because it is
readily available to most of our readers, and because Dr. They
wants to demonstrate that you don't need to own the New York
Times to sit in the fantastic throne of Mindcontrol (in fact, the
devices of Mind-Opinion-Control work all the more efficiently if
they appear to only be the localized bumblings of known
incompetents, rather than a larger, mysterious confederacy of
dunces). You can expect future issues of P-M-S to focus more on
National (rather than local) mind control issues.
I've got today's (2-19-92) local rag, The Olympian sitting
here in front of me: the front page has a two inch banner across
the top that says "OSCAR NOMINEES", there are front page stories
about a "good samaritan", New Hampshire primary results, state
budget battles, and a canned feature about "water". Inside on
page A3 there is a one inch story about 5,000 Algerians that were
arrested by their repressive government (that the U.S. Department
of State backs), a small article skirting the point that there
may not really be a "peace dividend" after all (A7), on the
editorial page is a letter presenting the readers with more
information about our local Mayor's continual lies, and his
current ploy of filing for bankruptcy (more on this coverup
below), on page C1 there is a short story (reproduced and
discussed below) about the trial looking into the fatal beating
of a local taxpayer (who was evading a traffic ticket!) by the
Olympia Police.
To begin, please read the following sample article from
(again) The Olympian newspaper:
TINY ANTENNAS HELP SCIENTISTS THINK SMALL
(AP) Washington-- Antennas the size of a grain of
sand have been produced by researchers at the National
Institute of Standards and Technology. According to
scientists, the antennas can effectively capture the
extremely short wave-lengths of infrared radiation,
measuring from 3 to 30 micrometers. This could lead to
novel devices that "see" images of heat radiating from
all warm objects such as people, animals and buildings.
Such detectors could be used in astronomy, medicine and
national defense, researchers note. (2/17/92 pgD2)
This is a small article (little more than a grain of sand in
the scope of things...), that almost no one would normally bother
to read, it is less than two inches in length and acts as a
buffer on the page between the TV schedule, movie ads, and Dear
'ol Abby. What could possibly be in such a simple "fluff" story
to stir up the embers of a reader's paranoia? Those of you who
took our paranoia placement test via modem already know that the
words "national defense" are a dead giveaway don't you?
Lets try another simple example that we all have read (and
thought nothing) about. This one comes from the congressional
confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence "Uncle"
Thomas. Much was made about Justice Thomas and Annita Hill's
telephone records. At one point Thomas produced his own personal
phone log which indicated when and where Ms. Hill had spoken to
him on the phone after she left his employ. All of this was
clear enough, and has no real controversy. The other angle on
all this hoopla was mentioned in the national press, but no one
really bothered to look at the larger implications of it. This
concerns the information that the FBI had produced telephone
company records of telephone calls made between Hill and Thomas
after she had quit working under Judge Thomas.
Simple enough? No? Hmmmmm, just what does this reference
to the FBI producing telephone records from over a decade ago
mean? It means that the telephone company, the National Security
Agency, or SOMEONE saves the Electronic Swithcing System (ESS)
records for at least a decade for no particular reason, just on
the hunch that these records might become useful to someone,
somewhere, sometime! Again, the importance of this to us is that
it points out another instance of the media being asleep at the
wheel while large issues slip right by us in the mad pursuit of a
single unrealted case. God forbid that there be any discussion
about how ESS records can not legally be kept in European
countries because of the abuses the Nazi's made of these records
during the Hitler administration...
* * *
Lets take a look at the coverage of easy-to-understand local
politics and see how a typical small town newspaper deals with
the day to day issues of small town life. You know, things like
everyday police brutality and political corruption... Least
anyone think that the problems faced (or is hit in the face?) by
Rodney King are limited to L. A. or other urban regions read the
below few stories from recent issues of the Olympian:
EX-CANDIDATE FOR SHERIFF ARRESTED
By Filiz Satir, The Olympian 2/10/92 Pg. C1
A former Thurston County sheriff's candidate, Anne
Warner Sunrise, was arrested early Sunday, following a
chase that ended with a sheriff's deputy smashing the
driver's window of Sunrise's car in order to remove her
from the vehicle.
Sunrise, 47, was stopped by three patrol cars, and
cuffed in the parking lot of Capital Mall. While being
transported to the Thurston County Jail, she chewed a
large hole in the vinyl of the patrol car's back seat,
a sheriff's report said Sunrise was booked for
investigation of felony eluding and malicious mischief.
Prior to the chase, a sheriff's deputy responded to an
alarm at the Village Mart 3210 Cooper Point Road N.W.
While the deputy waited outside the store for a back-up
patrol car, he noticed a woman walking to a car parked
in the lot. She disregarded the deputy who signaled to
her, and drove off, the report said.
The woman eventually made her way to Capital Mall
where three patrol cars boxed in her car.
A deputy drew a firearm and told the woman to get out
of her car. She refused. The deputy then took a night
stick and smashed the driver's window in order to reach
inside and unlock the car door. Sunrise was removed
from the car, cuffed and placed face down inside the
patrol car. She remained in jail Sunday on $3,000
bond.
Think that one was a fluke? Try these next few on for size......
SPENCER TRIAL GETS UNDER WAY
Brad Shannon, The Olympian (2-19-92 C1)
Tacoma-- Jurors in the Danny R. Spencer wrongful death
suit heard tow sharply divergent stories Tuesday of how
Spencer was beaten and subdued by Olympia police three
years ago on the city's east side.
Dan Huannula, hire by Spencer's family to seek
financial and punitive damages against the city in U.S.
District Court, painted the picture of callous
officers. He said they not only beat the fleeing
Spencer 15-20 times with batons, but ignored Spencer's
medical needs as he bled and later choke on vomit in
the back of a patrol car.
He contended evidence would show that police use of
deadly force--in hitting Spencer once in the head with
a baton--was unreasonable.
Spencer was being arrested for failing to pay a
traffic ticket when he fled, precipitating the physical
fight at East Ninth Avenue and Fir Street the evening
of June 17, 1989. The Spencer family's lawsuit
followed a 1989 inquest that cleared police of criminal
wrongdoing.
The city's lawyer, Don Law, countered Hannula's
version by painting Spencer, then 28 [then 28 is now 30
years old in Heaven?], as an angry 220-pounder who
escalated a minor incident into a pitched battle with
police. He said it eventually required eight men to
subdue Spencer, including a neighbor who rushed to the
scene in his bathrobe.
Law said Spencer was intoxicated--with a blood-
alcohol level of 0.12 percent. Spencer also had smoked
four to six marijuana cigarettes and ingested the
hallucinogen LSD earlier in the day, Law contended.
Law maintained the baton blows generally were
consistent with the need to control an escalating
situation. He said the one blow that hit Spencer's
head was accidental
Although Hannula decline to say how much general
damages and punitive damages he will seek in the case,
the family previously filed a 5$ million claim with the
city.
It sure is reassuring that the Olympia City Attorney is
named LAW (is his business partner named Order?). There are lots
of problems with the police/city/Olympian's version of events.
There is no mention of the reports from bystanders who said the
police were out-of-control, and swearing at Spencer as he was
dragged from the phone booth and beaten to death. There is no
mention that the versions of events by all the cops at the scene
of the beating did not match up until a few weeks after the
incident. LSD is not a drug that is easily tested for. I defy
anyone to come up with a test proving an individual ingested LSD
within a few hours of the test.
Do you think that cops brutally clubbing people is rare in
Olympia? Think again! The next day's Olympian (2-20-92 pg. C-1)
carries a story about one Clemit R. Deskins suing the Oly P.D.
for alleged brutality over an incident where Olympia's finest
delivered "a head wound from a nightstick blow and Ted Deskins
received several leg bruises from the nightstick". The current
article is (of course) not about police brutality, but is only
concerned with the charges pressed against Mr. Deskin for
striking an officer of the law (as the officers smashed him with
their clubs). A sidebar accompanying the article reports that:
"More than half of the dozen law-enforcement officers
who attended Wednesday's sentence hearing had had
assaultive encounters with Clemit Deskins in the past,
according to Assistant Olympia City Prosecutor Reiko
Cushman.
However, defense attorney Saxon Rogers asked
rhetorically how that could be since Deskins had never
been convicted of felony assault of a law-enforcement
officer."
If this is the sort of news that makes it into the paper
despite its attempts to exert information and thought control,
one is left to wonder about all the instances of police brutality
that occur and are never reported on. The tone of the writing in
the newspaper makes it clear that these stories are only deemed
newsworthy because actual lawsuits have been filed against the
local boys-in-blue.
Let us consider one final instance of the local newspaper in
question (The Olympian) and its over-UP-age of the scandal
concerning Mayor David Skramstad's filing for chapter 7
bankruptcy two days after taking office, and three months after
running up over $20,000 on credit cards (during the time-frame of
his campaign for Mayor). What? You never even read about this
in the paper? Relax, you are not alone..... But what do you
expect from a newspaper that backed Mayor Skramstad as a
candidate? The only way that anyone has been able learn anything
about what happened has been to read the few letters to the
editor that The Olympian has bothered to print (including those
from the Pro-Developer community who see nothing wrong with
Skramstad's actions). Which raises the question asked by (letter
writer) Laura Seurynck (2-19-92):
"Should we trust a person who is economically strapped
and suspected of being deceitful to be able to carry-
out the duties of the mayors office without being
swayed by special interests within our community?"
Hmmmmmm, good question!
A letter (by Steve Zodrow) printed a few days earlier (2-15-
92) questions why the only article mentioning that a legal
complaint has been filed against mayor reads more like a want ad
than a news story:
"Why was [this] article headlined "Finding Job bears on
bankruptcy" instead of "Concerned citizen files
complaint with PDC?" Why is the article devoted to
explaining Dave's hardships while the real issue is his
integrity? Why when I read this article do I feel like
The Olympian wants me to have empathy, support and
forgivness for this person before I know all of the
facts? Perhaps this is a carry-over of the support for
The Olympian's mayoral candidate from the recent
election? This type of control by the media sickens
me.
Gosh those are harsh words Steve! (He had better be
careful...P-M-S has learned that the first $500 donated to Mayor
Skramstad's campaign came from the Olympia Police Guild, not to
mention the fact that Mayor Skramstad's campaign manager was
Sheriff Gary Edwards...) We sure hope Mr. Zodrow has good
medical coverage (or a cam-corder), or that our country installs
a nationalized health system in the next few weeks, he may need
it he gets stopped for a bad tail light here in Olympia!
That ends our first issue. Again, we apologize for spending
too much time on stupid local politics, expect more paranoia on
issues of national import in out next issue. Best wishes from
Dr. They and P-M-S, and remember: They are not necessarily out to
get you...they may be after someone else, but that's no excuse to
just sit back and watch it happen, you may be next!
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Do you have a favorite news item that you would like to see
covered in future P-M-S issues? You can reach Dr. They at the
Acid Bath BBS (206) 456-2725, where the allwise Sysop Techno Punk
lets us rest our name. We (that is, THEY) appreciate any re-
typed or scanned news story complete with a citation telling
where the story is from. If you are too lazy to do that, then
send us the reference and our research staff will hunt it down.
If you send a news contribution and want a copy of the issue it
appears in, then include you name/nym and a BBS where we can
leave you a copy. If we pissed you off then call and flame us.
-------Dr. They
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