I believe he is a propagandist because he throws seemingly unrelated facts into an article. Unrelated until one realizes those facts serve a broader purpose and message such as the one examined below.
On May 29, Bud Kennedy wrote an article entitled "Tea Party's vision comes to fruition in Tarrant elections". In one paragraph he referenced Jonathan Stickland. This is a screen shot of it.
I received an e-mail from Jonathan today rebutting the inferences made in that paragraph and I would like to use this incident to show how this particular journalist works as propagandist. Attempting to plant ideas and opinions in the minds of readers without the them knowing it.
I have deconstructed the paragraph in question and broken it down into the two parts which I think are the real messages. These messages are; Jonathan Stickland is the spiritual brother of disgraced politician Tom Delay. And Jonathan Stickland is an anti-Semite who equates Jewishness with evil. This is not saying the reader comes away with the exact verbal messages written above but that the readers gets this seed of doubt in the subconscious. That's the goal of propaganda.
Jonathan Stickland is the spiritual brother of disgraced politician Tom Delay. In his rebuttal e-mail, Jonathan Stickland wonders why Kennedy referenced a job he once had as a pest control technician instead of his present employment. It does seem odd. To answer this question, one must look at the situation from the viewpoint of a propagandist and consider the propagandist's goal. Facts of a situation; a politician (Stickland) who at one time supported his family as a pest control technician. Goal; use these facts to make the most damaging link possible. Question; which disgraced, conservative politician has been linked, again and again, to his business in pest control? Answer; Tom Delay. We can wait for another time to debate whether or not Tom Delay was railroaded, but the fact is, in the popular culture, Tom Delay is known as the former bug killer turned crooked politician who's been tried and convicted of being crooked. The fact that Stickland once did this too foreshadows future misbehavior. This is my explanation for Kennedy's odd reference.
Jonathan Stickland is an anti-Semite who also believes Jewishness equates with evil. A close reading of the paragraph shows Kennedy does not say that Stickland said, or even knows, that Straus is Jewish. He, Kennedy, simply throws in the fact of Straus' Hebrew extraction. The reason he used that fact and the reason he constructed that sentence the way he did was so that the word "Jewish" would be juxtaposed near the word "Christian", which was spoken by Stickland. This is in order to link, in the reader's mind, the word "Jewish" and the word "Christian" with Stickland's words about evil, the implication being that Stickland, the subject of the paragraph, is an anti-Semite. Then, the cherry on top of the propaganda sundae , the word "evil" twice repeated by Stickland no less, plants in the idea that, Stickland not only is an anti-Semite, but he also believes Jewishness equates with evil. The fact that so many people became concerned about Stickland's "anti-Semitism", see rebuttal e-mail, proves how effective this ploy was. And Kennedy plays along with this mis-perception when he doesn't even mention, in his June 2 update, the fact that he, not Stickland, brought up Straus's ethnicity. This type of character assassination of Conservatives by Leftists, has been going on since the end of World War II. And it has been wildly successful until the last few years.
Intelligent and competent propagandists never tip their hand, and they never use untrue statements. The propagandist arranges true facts and cultural stereotypes in such a manner that a false and, in the case of Conservatives, damaging subconscious impression is left in the mind of the reader. And if the propagandist is clever enough, the reader is completely unaware of it. We are barraged by thousands of these messages every day and they build up. The only way to combat them is to arm one's self with knowledge, consider the political leanings of the author and/or news entity, and never ever rely for one's information, or opinions, on a single source.
Note: This is my take on this subject. If anyone would like to point out mistakes in logic, reason, or facts, please do so. I believe that the beginning of wisdom starts with the acknowledgement of one's own ignorance. Joel Downs
