https://rumble.com/vmd8j1-we-didnt-ask-for-liars-billy-joel-parody.html

Intro:

Feelings used to change behaviour, and creating a problem to solve it.

This was talking about advertising, for context, but it can also apply in the media, and social settings.

Actual examples:

Verse 1

Their opinion (=) critics say
How they manipulate

Often when someone makes a valid point that someone doesn’t like or agree with, you might here them use the reply “Well that’s YOUR opinion” to throw shade on their points or evidence.

This shows how they can use “that’s your opinion” to downplay any legitimate argument you’ve made

Critics say…

The media often pushes their opinion every time they say “critics say” or words to that effect. This is because, professionally, journalists aren’t supposed to give their opinion, but just the facts impartially. I once did 2 weeks of work placement when I was in high school at a newspaper agency in a small town. The journalist I got to work with was really picky about my choice of words in the articles I got to write, which, at the time, I thought was a bit unfair. Looking back I realised why. That’s because you have to be really careful with injecting your opinion verses stating what happened. For example: it might be better to say “The protester was smiling” instead of “The protestor seemed happy”. If you lax the boundaries too much, it can be easy to go off the rails as a journalist.
So just remember, when you hear or see the phrase “critics say” this will usually reflect that authors or interviewers or organisations opinions generally.

Thoughty2 goes into good detail about this around the 15:58 mark in this video. Let’s have a look at this:

Actual examples:

Change perspective

Perspective can be hugely important in how people form their views.

Here is where we will look at how easy it is to use perspective to manipulate views or opinions.
Here’s the example I used in the song:

More examples:

Be selective,
oh the more you know

There are various ways a selective narrative can be used. It’s always important to ask “what aren’t they saying?” or “What are they leaving out?”

Examples:

Sow division it’s their mission.

Here I will show how the media divides and conquers.

They don’t care of journalism

Here are two articles about ethics and standards in journalism:

https://www.nytimes.com/editorial-standards/ethical-journalism.html#introductionAndPurpose

Now let’s look at this Wikipedia article about journalism ethics:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalism_ethics_and_standards

Here is a summary of the five main values in the introduction of this article:

Journalism is guided by five values:

1. Honesty: journalists must be truthful. It is unacceptable to report information known to be false, or report facts in a misleading way to give a wrong impression;
2. Independence and objectivity: journalists should avoid topics in which they have a financial or personal interest that would provide them a particular benefit in the subject matter, as that interest may introduce bias into their reporting, or give the impression of such bias. In cases where a journalist may have a specific financial or personal interest, the interest should be disclosed;
3. Fairness: journalists must present facts with impartiality and neutrality, presenting other viewpoints and sides to a story where these exist. It is unacceptable to slant facts;
4. Diligence: a journalist should gather and present pertinent facts to provide a good understanding of the subject reported;
5. Accountability: a journalist must be accountable for their work, prepared to accept criticism and consequences.^[16]

Throughout this article, you can decide for yourself if these are being followed or not. Note the first one of how important reporting things as true, and NOT MISLEADING is.

Now here is something else that stood out to me:

• Journalism today is built off true, accurate and objective information.^[18] To remove those aspects would be damaging to the very core of not just journalism. The very way information is spread and given to viewers and others all around the world. The audience will see the lack of ethics and standards, making others question what is good, reliable information or not.

Now, ethically, accuracy is important for the sake of the truth and objectivity. BUT it also has an extra effect where accuracy and truthfulness in media creates consistency and trust. And to sway from that consistency through dishonest and manipulative media will lead to people noticing the decline in ethical standards and switching off.
Here are some articles that point to the decline in trust in media:

https://www.dailywire.com/news/mainstream-media-outlets-saw-massive-decline-in-interest-in-2021

https://www.forbes.com/sites/andymeek/2021/02/20/fewer-americans-than-ever-before-trust-the-mainstream-media/?sh=6a6f032d282a

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/polls-show-americans-distrust-the-media-but-talk-to-them-and-its-a-very-different-story/2017/12/27/ed9bbabe-ce3b-11e7-81bc-c55a220c8cbe_story.html

https://morningconsult.com/2020/04/22/media-credibility-cable-news-poll/

https://news.gallup.com/poll/355526/americans-trust-media-dips-second-lowest-record.aspx

https://www.foxnews.com/media/decline-in-trust-of-the-media-is-troubling

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/five-years-network-ratings-declines-explained-1241524/

One has to ask oneself, what would be the causes of this lack of trust. It doesn’t come from nowhere. If the news was always accurate, you’d theoretically have a great relationship with the viewers. The lack of trust would have to have a initial cause.

Demonising, ostracising,
Something most outgrow

This is about “otherising” or “demonising” people, and yes it’s something that children do, and many adults never grow out of. When you see people doing this, generally it means that the person doing it doesn’t really value their own opinion. If you did, you’d let other people speak out against it and see if it still holds water. By demonising or “other-ing” people you’re giving yourself permission to dismiss their opinion for no reason. This can be a slippery slope, as if you can dismiss their ideas, eventually you can dismiss them too.

More examples:

Bandwagon, get on,

Here is an article discussing 11 types of propaganda, many of which I address in my parody, but the first one is the Bandwagon propaganda, which is basically playing off people’s urge to “fit in” or to make up things to go along with something that’s trending for attention.

11 Types Of Propaganda & The Uses Of Each Propoganda

FOMO phenomenon,

View of a different type?
Call you something they don’t like

Claim to like democracy

There are 2 things I want to point to in this section.

1. If all the organisations and channels are saying EXACTLY the same thing, not similar things, then they aren’t reporting the news, they’re creating it or fabricating it. and;
2. When you hear these people say “dangerous to OUR democracy” that ‘OUR’ generally means their group of high paid presenters, specifically excluding everyone else. YOU are not part of THEIR democracy.

Constant fear mongering

Fear mongering can refer to exaggerating topics to make people afraid, or selling fear through advertising or the legacy media. See the clips in the intro.

They can lie to our face
and they still will get paid

We didn’t ask for liars!
But they won’t learn if
They keep earning
We didn’t ask for liars!
Lets privatise them
Take back our finances

Verse 2

Changing the order of
Images, Kuleshov

I’ll explain this in more detail later.

Propaganda,

There are many different types of propaganda. Here’s an article covering 11 of them:

11 Types Of Propaganda & The Uses Of Each Propoganda

Examples:

and there’s slander,

Clickbait

hoax

Oh man, a Strawman

Activism,

Framing,

see also change perspective and be selective.

for reference here’s a video from Mr Beat with an interesting take on limited framing. https://rumble.com/v1bipxj-the-great-replacement-theory-explained.html at 16:12

Sound bites,

libel.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/defamation
Defamation is a statement that injures a third party’s reputation. The tort of defamation includes both libel (written statements) and slander (spoken statements).

Elements

To prove prima facie defamation, a plaintiff must show four things: 1) a false statement purporting to be fact; 2) publication or communication of that statement to a third person; 3) fault amounting to at least negligence; and 4) damages, or some harm caused to the reputation of the person or entity who is the subject of the statement.

Which can mean that written articles on the internet can potentially have the ability of opening the writers up to claim of libel which should be a good reason for them to behave, but often, as in the case of Nick Sandman, unless someone takes action, these “news” organisations will keep their false reports going.

News hosts are woke

Disagree? – hate speech

No ethics to be seen

See also section on ethics in journalism

What a crock of  shh – that’s banned
They must protect their brands

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/white-house-petition-logos_n_2912087

https://dangerousminds.net/comments/should_politicians_be_required_to_wear_the_logos_of_their_sponsors

It’s out of context
Slap it with a ‘fact check’

Bring in race every place
That is what they do best

We didn’t ask for liars!
But they won’t learn if
They keep earning
We didn’t ask for liars!
They are the virus
That’s why they fight us

Verse 3

False flag to distract,

Use of graphs distort the facts

Tell it from just one side

Don’t admit when you lied
Spreading news that is false
like they have no pulse

see also they can lie to our face…

What you see, they decide
Trying to control your mind

Legacy media
Its Schizophrenia

Keep your view narrow
This is just their M. O.

Sneakily mislead

Link you to a Nazi

Censor and control
They don’t want you to know

We didn’t ask for liars!
But they won’t learn if
They keep earning
We didn’t ask for liars!
Lets shine light on them
When they try and hide it

Verse 4:

Use repetition
Called ad nauseum

Next is guilt by association

They’ll claim superior

news of bacteria
But each person
Makes their decision
(aka Covid cons)

https://rumble.com/vcvgld-kary-mullis-explains-why-his-pcr-test-is-not-a-diagnostic-test.html

Order they suppress
you won’t hear from the press

Studies have come our way
Now believe what we say!

We didn’t ask for liars!
But they won’t learn if
They keep earning
We didn’t ask for liars!
But they’ll keep on churning
It’s quite concerning

Verse 5

Global warming
Used for submission
It’s time to stop

I’ll be (eventually) looking at these climate change myths and how these ideas are used to manipulate people.
https://rumble.com/voyfxf-debunking-climate-change-myths-50-years-of-failed-expert-predictions-louder.html

Here’s Greta saying climate change isn’t real: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HUzN9PTQn0

They’re a laughing stock

If you try and speak your mind
They will take you offline

Young boy murdered named Cannon
Why don’t they give a damn?

Demoralise and gaslight

They’ve committed democide

Hypocrites wont admit
When they are full of it

All lives matter, that’s for sure
Something that they won’t explore
They’d prefer to cover war
I can’t take it anymore!

We didn’t ask for liars!
But they won’t learn if
They keep earning
We didn’t ask for liars
You must be discerning
So you don’t get sucked in and in and in…

Outro:

We didn’t ask for liars!
Lets privatise them
Take back our finances
We didn’t ask for liars,
They are the virus
That’s why they fight us
We didn’t ask for liars!
Lets shine light on them
When they try and hide it
We didn’t ask for liars!
But they’ll keep on churning
It’s quite concerning
We didn’t ask for liars
So if you want to learn, then
You must be discerning