We have a communications problem
January 10, 2009 by Ken
Filed under EU Ministry for Propaganda
The EU commissioner for Propaganda is at it again in a post on her blog she describes a visit to a Prague where she says of the Commissions meeting with President Vaclav Klaus.
“He kept a conciliatory tone and denied having compared the EU with the Soviet Union or going against science on climate change. My impression is that he is eager to be seen as” ….it ends at that point (obviously a misprint)
But Prague and the visit were only the introduction, when we get to the meat of the post is seems that Margot Wallstom is very concerned at the standard of
“Journalism? Badly written and researched and in fact just downright biased.” (Aren’t we all)
In particular the Commissioner was offended by an article in the Times, not perhaps the most EUscpetic of newspaper on the stand. This article was printed on December 28, and was based on the Open Europe report -EU communication policy and the campaign for hearts and minds
The Commissioner did not take the opportunity to rebut any of the findings in the report, in fact she did not even bother to mention it, as she was intent on defending EU Tube which was one of the areas covered in both the report and the Times article.
However she was even then being very selective and at one point descended to an outright lie in her description of the Times article.
The lie: “EU Tube’s attempts to adopt street language have also misfired, with ventures such as a three-minute “euro-rap”, which urges young viewers “you gotta be a part of” a united Europe.”
No it doesn’t, in fact it never mentions a united Europe. It encourages young people to get involved in their local communities and to take part in the Youth in Action programme.
The Times:” Get on our team, you know what I mean,” the rapper sings, surrounded by teenagers brandishing the EU flag. “It’s the return of the blue. See I’m going to move across from Germany to Paris, oui. We get united and take a stand in solidarity. I speak in all ‘hoods.” Odd neither the Times nor the Open Europe say you gotta be a part of” a united Europe! (see page 30 of the report)
Selective: There was no mention at all of the funding for EU TUBE or the many other schemes funded by the taxpayer or the 160-page dossier compiled by Open Europe which was the source for the Times article which quoted €2.4 billion figure for these so called information schemes.
This was a good opportunity for the Commissioner to back the European commission in London said: who is quoted in the Times denying the propaganda charge and “This is not propaganda, we are simply providing information.” and that the commission “did not recognise” the €2.4 billion figure”
The Open Europe report states in its executive summary
The European Union spends billions of euros a year promoting itself and its central aim of ‘ever closer union’. In 2008 alone it spent €2.4bn at the very least – more than Coca Cola spends each year on advertising, worldwide.
By promoting its policies, actions and principles, the EU serves to justify its own existence and, crucially, to cement the European Commission’s view that continued European integration is the best, or even the only, future path for progress.
It does this in a number of different but interrelated ways, all of which received a boost following the French and Dutch rejections of the EU Constitution in 2005.
See page 30 of the report for EU Tube details
The fact is the EU is clearly spending a great deal of our money on what can only be described as a blatant propaganda exercise, they invade our Government, our local government, schools, our colleges, our universities, our broadcast media, our newspapers, our high streets and the internet with so called information, which is in reality nothing more than a thin veneer to cover a campaign for the hearts and minds of the people as the EU builds its own demos its own people the Europeans.
Anyone who dares to question this propaganda invasion is ignored, denigrated, misinterpreted, or attacked as being anti European,
Open Europe says:
“the EU and its strongest advocates are so vociferous in their attack on critics of the EU. Instead of being viewed as a legitimate element of a democratic debate, criticism of the EU is invariably derided as ‘anti-European propaganda’
