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Ric Maulion

“Truth is the first casualty in war.” -Ninoy Aquino

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WE have seen how propaganda  proliferated during World War II, onwards. There was Joseph Goebbels, Nazi propagandist for the German Third Reich. As Adolf Hitler’s chief propagandist, he created a favorable image of Nazism for Germans and crafted a myth around the Fuhrer. His speeches all glorified Hitler, “… turning battle loses to victories.” He was famous, too, for his total war, accepting only victory or destruction and rallying Germans to the Nazi side.

As a reward for this creative feat, Hitler made him a chancellor, albeit for a day only. He and his wife Magda poisoned their six children before they took their own lives. It was a tragic end indeed.  (Incidentally, Hitler and Eva Braun killed themselves in a bunker when Russia was about to overtake Germany.)

And so, the Holocaust claimed 16 million Jewish lives. Hitler, Goebbels, etc. peddled lies, and their lies became “truth” as they repeatedly dished these out, day after day, to the unsuspecting public.

The pattern has always been clear. That has always been used as a template by other dictators.

To those calling for an expanded martial law throughout the country, think again. The pattern is obvious. Beware of the sweet-talking propagandists and the proliferation of fake news.

The President says something and then denies it or says it’s just a joke the following day. But not his cohorts and rabid blind supporters, trolls and apologists who are creating a myth for the Hitler of Asia.

The President should be cautious about his patented Hitler closed fist hand gesture, and let us be careful not to give his “war on drugs” approach an imprimatur.

In the meantime, there are many peddlers of fake news who are living in their isolated world while plying their trade. That’s what they are paid for.

“Journalism is war,” Teddy Benigno once said. Journalists exist for the truth, no less. A colleague once said that journalists expire the moment they become partisan and beholden to any person. That was well said.

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