Letter: Propaganda is key to Trump’s success

Thursday June 28, 2018

Too many inclined to believe presidential lies.

Editor:
Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels is quoted as saying, "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it." That theory gave us the Birthers, who gave us President Donald Trump.

Carol Stoudt's June 8 letter ("President's successes prove critics wrong") challenges us to find 10 lies that Trump has told and says we should watch Fox News for the truth. The Washington Post, which brought down President Richard Nixon by catching his lies, keeps a running list of Trump's lies, numbering 3,251 in his first 497 days.

Lt. Col. Ralph Peters, hardcore conservative and former military analyst for Fox News, recently quit the network and said it has turned into "a mere propaganda machine for a destructive and ethically ruinous administration." He criticized it for "profoundly dishonest assaults" on law enforcement and "scaremongering" about a "deep state." He said he's ashamed for being part of it.

Punditfact's scorecard shows 41 percent of questionable statements made by Fox pundits and personalities, not including their guests, were true, mostly true or half true. But 50 percent were mostly false or completely false, with an additional 9 percent considered "pants on fire" lies.

The Fox News propaganda machine has the largest audience on cable news. It's not just embarrassing that so many are falling for it, it's frightening for the future of America.
Adolf Hitler said, "What luck for rulers that men do not think."

MaryEllen Davidson
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Propaganda is key to Trump's success