How to Write Like a Propagandist

By Cliff Kincaid

December 22, 2023

Bloomberg is back with another ridiculous opinion piece masquerading as a news story, as a “journalist” with an “Evening Briefing” disguised as a “news” dispatch is telling his audience that Trump echoes Hitler and is a would-be dictator. This is what passes for “journalism” these days.

Like you, I have gotten sick and tired of the unrelenting bias, but since they send me their email messages free of charge, I figure I should reciprocate with my own analysis of how media bias these days has become outright propaganda. It is a turn for the worst but a fact of life I encountered when I majored in journalism in college 40 years ago. Back then they called it “advocacy journalism” or “interpretative reporting.”

The journalism business cannot be reformed. It is getting worse by the day.

The good news is that the bias is so overt and propagandistic that people can’t help but notice how corrupt it is.

Here is just one example of the supposed incendiary rhetoric of former President Trump, according to this phony journalist. He says “Trump again used inflammatory, anti-immigrant rhetoric seen as echoing that of the Third Reich, this time at a rally at the University of New Hampshire where he praised modern day authoritarian leaders including Vladimir Putin.”

Instead of Trump sounding like Hitler, Bloomberg is doing so, using the Big Lie technique of the Nazis. It is an amateurish attempt to compare Trump to Hitler, almost laughable. The awkward phrase, “seen as echoing that of the Third Reich,” is based on propaganda from the Democratic Party.

When the article claims “Trump again used inflammatory, anti-immigrant rhetoric seen as echoing that of the Third Reich,” he in fact links to a CBS News story that is based on something said by Biden-Harris campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa.

This is journalism?

The Democrats are repeating the “Trump is Hitler” mantra, as well as denouncing “MAGA extremists,” to scare people. The Nazis did the same thing about the Jews. In this case, as we shall see, the scare techniques are necessary because Biden is crashing in the polls.

On command, Bloomberg “reporters” repeat these lies ad nauseam. Of course, Trump didn’t praise Putin for his authoritarian rule; he has consistently said that Putin is a killer who has outsmarted Biden and other Western leaders, and that is an obvious fact. Trump’s foreign policy was anti-Putin and anti-China. Biden’s foreign policy has led to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Hamas invasion of Israel, and more serious Chinese threats against Taiwan.

The Bloomberg piece is yet another lie in a long list, as I documented in the recent column, “The Contant battle Against Constant Lies.”

I am accustomed to the media lying on a constant basis, but the fact that Bloomberg is so bad at lying and so transparent is somewhat surprising. I guess I expected coverage of a higher quality from a “news” organization that is supposed to be objective, at least on the economy.

I wrote this column in the hope that somewhere in the higher echelons of this “journalism” business it will be acknowledged that the extreme slant to their “news” stories has gone too far and that Bloomberg “news” has become a joke.

I guess I’m in a hopeful mood these days.

What explains this desperation on the part of the “journalists” at Bloomberg? One paragraph finally admits a piece of bad news for Biden: “Meanwhile,” he says, “President Joe Biden’s approval rating has hit an all-time low, according to a new Monmouth University poll.” (Click here to view poll).

To save Biden, they must lie about Trump, using images of Hitler and dictators.

But there is more. Trump, Bloomberg tells us, is “twice impeached and facing four felony indictments.”

Not a word about the partisan nature of any of this.

The author is identified as “Managing Editor” of Bloomberg Digital, a top dog and a big cheese with 29 years of experience as an “award-winning legal reporter, columnist, freelancer, editor and newsroom manager.”

Seriously? If so, journalism is in worst shape than I ever imaged.

I am returning to my days as a media critic, since the daily dispatches from the Democratic Party operatives at Bloomberg are so full of extreme bias as to make one laugh hysterically. I can’t in good conscience ignore this kind of deception and dishonesty.

I believe this exercise on my part is worthwhile since the columns and stories on this supposed business website may be fooling some people. I hope you are not one.

E-Mail Cliff Kincaid: kincaid@comcast.net