Anatomy of a Smear: The Media’s Playbook for Squashing Dissent

(Ryan DeLarme) Many believe the modern left to be a faction of altruist heroes, sent straight from heaven to fix all the wrongs perpetrated on the world by the dastardly right as if all the layers and nuance of the American political landscape could be boiled down into some sort of Saturday morning cartoon for children. Actually, that analogy is not too far from the mark when describing big media’s current political marketing campaign, and the mental munchkins who fall for it every time.

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by Ryan DeLarme, June 14th, 2021

First, a disclaimer is in order. This isn’t about partisanship, it’s about overreaching corporate and colluding, big-money “philanthropic” influence (aka the “establishment”). It exists overwhelmingly in both parties, its tentacles are myriad and inescapable. The worst part is that their strategists are, in most cases, smarter than us. They have had generations of practice honing their ability to wield dark psychology on the general public and the explosive rise of technology has made it frighteningly easy to do so.

They are experts in removing all opposition, debate, or questions when they sense a threat to the agenda or if their lies are about to be revealed. They don’t have the courage of their convictions and tend to avoid defending them in open debate. So they work as one to trash, malign, make ridiculous anyone who raises a hand and says, “Wait a second, I don’t agree with that, it makes no sense, here is another way to look at this.”

Here at Stillness in the Storm, we have seen these tactics deployed countless times. Most recently, we see American attorney and former federal prosecutor Sidney Powell in the media’s crosshairs.

Powell is a leading critic of the 2020 presidential election. The mainstream media recently sent out two messages about her. They illustrate how “woke” reporters attack public figures they dislike. One message was that Powell now admits no reasonable person would believe her claims about manipulated voting machines. The other was that she thinks President Joe Biden will be forced to step aside to make way for Donald Trump. Both messages seriously distort Powell’s positions in ways intended to demean and marginalize her.

I have never met Powell and have no particular attitude toward her, positive or negative. But professional journalists should treat everyone fairly. By not treating Powell fairly, journalists impugn their own professionalism.

Powell is a victim of the “Distort and Blackout” technique. Irresponsible journalists use Distort and Blackout to portray perfectly respectable figures.

Here’s how it works according to Epoch Times reporter Rob Natelson :

Suppose Sen. John Doe delivers a major policy address. The topic is how to improve K-12 education, and Doe proposes six different reforms. A responsible journalist reporting on the speech would summarize carefully all six proposals. The journalist would write the story so readers feel almost as if they heard Doe themselves. To add context, the writer might report reactions from education experts, bystanders, or some of Doe’s political opponents. But an irresponsible journalist hostile to Doe might focus on only one of the six proposals, distort it to make him look bad, and ignore the other five entirely. This is the Distort and Blackout technique.

Moreover, some reporters might ice the poison cake by presenting distorted versions to others for comment, thereby obtaining predictably unfavorable responses.

Here’s how the media have done this to Powell:

Powell has been very critical of Dominion Voting System’s voting machines. The company has responded by suing her for libel. Her attorneys have asked the court to dismiss Dominion’s case.

Powell’s lawyers supported their motion to dismiss with an 86-page Memorandum of Law (pdf)—a kind of legal brief. This document is chock-full of reasons why the court should throw out Dominion’s suit.

One reason is a technical legal argument employed to defend defamation cases. The argument is that a person cannot be held liable for expressing opinions, and that Powell was expressing her opinion about Dominion’s voting machines and that those machines were manipulated to alter the 2020 presidential election results. The memorandum further says that because she was representing the Trump campaign in a partisan political environment, reasonable listeners would understand that she was expressing opinions.

Another example:

On May 29, 2021, Powell was interviewed on stage at a political conference. The interview was lengthy and contained a lot of material legitimate journalists might find worthy of reporting. But the media blacked out everything except a single item, and they distorted that.

Newsweek’s “coverage” was typical. It stated in part,

“‘He can simply be reinstated,’ Powell said of Trump during the conference. The crowd cheered loudly in response to her groundless claims. ‘And Biden is told to move out of the White House,’ the lawyer continued with a smirk on her face.”

This account portrays Powell as malevolent (the smirk) and wacky (because she thinks Biden will be forced from office and replaced by Trump).

But the video, whose relevant portion begins at 1:04:35, shows us something quite different. It shows a smile to the audience rather than a smirk, and it shows us context the left-wing media omitted.

Powell made her comments in response to a hypothetical question. The moderator asked, “All right, Sidney, let’s give the audience and us a chance to dream a little bit together.” The moderator proceeded to lay out an improbable scenario in which all the battleground states change their certified election results. Then he continued, “Let’s just allow ourselves to dream for a moment. Trump is then announced the winner. … What happens?”

Thus, Powell was not responding to anything that has happened or is likely to happen. The moderator gave her a hypothetical situation and asked her to speculate.

Any rational person would understand that the moderator’s hypothetical scenario is highly improbable. It would require election audits and reversal of results in all the battleground states, new votes by presidential electors, a congressional recount of the Electoral College, and Congress’s announcement that Trump was the winner. It was, as the moderator twice said explicitly, a “dream.”

Powell is a lawyer, and improbable hypothetical scenarios are familiar to all lawyers. Professors’ “hypos” (as they are called) are a mainstay in law school classrooms. Legal educators spin them to force students to consider and respond to shifting factual situations.

Here are a few things for us all to consider in the future:

1. Never accept media reports of court proceedings as fact. Journalists are usually ignorant of the law (I say this as a journalist), and even when they are not, they often have agendas. Always read the court papers yourself.
2. Never comment on an event based on a single reporter’s account. Always do background research before issuing an opinion.
3. be skeptical of media claims in which the media are heavily invested. In the case of the 2020 election, most national media adopted a “no problems” narrative hastily and without prior investigation. Their fanatical insistence on that narrative in the face of reasonable doubt is one reason to question it.

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Stillness in the Storm Editor: Why did we post this?

The news is important to all people because it is where we come to know new things about the world, which leads to the development of more life goals that lead to life wisdom. The news also serves as a social connection tool, as we tend to relate to those who know about and believe the things we do. With the power of an open truth-seeking mind in hand, the individual can grow wise and the collective can prosper.

– Justin

Not sure how to make sense of this? Want to learn how to discern like a pro? Read this essential guide to discernment, analysis of claims, and understanding the truth in a world of deception: 4 Key Steps of Discernment – Advanced Truth-Seeking Tools.

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