The Pentagon's Preferred Propaganda Model

"Nowadays, authoritarian propaganda can be varied, colorful, even mesmerizing. Hugo Chávez, the Venezuelan dictator, used to perform on television for hours, singing, chatting, and interviewing celebrities. On one recent day, the website of Komsomolskaya Pravda -formerly the organ of the Soviet youth movement, now a mouthpiece of Vladimir Putin's Kremlin-offered stories ranging from clickbait about "the beautiful women who lure Muscovites into dating scams" to an alarmist account of how Ukraine is "being turned into a training ground for the EU army.""

"The point of these efforts is not merely to misinform but to build distrust. Modern authoritarian regimes often offer not a unified propaganda line but rather contradictory versions of reality, and in many different forms: highbrow and lowbrow, serious and silly, sort of true and largely false. The cumulative effect is to leave citizens with no clear idea of what is actually happening."

"For the first time in our history, the Department of Defense has been carefully preparing to offer Americans something similar: not information but entertainment, scandal, sycophancy, and jokes. Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth demanded that all news organizations at the Pentagon sign a document agreeing to some new restrictions on reporters' movement-and, more important, prohibiting journalists from publishing information that contradicts official accounts, a stricture that some believed risked criminalizing ordinary journalism. Several dozen reporters left the building, including from The Atlantic"

Media in dictatorships now employ varied, colorful, and entertaining propaganda rather than uniform, dull messaging. Leaders perform, mix entertainment with news, and outlets publish both clickbait and alarmist stories that blend truth and falsehood. Authoritarian communications intentionally present contradictory narratives across highbrow and lowbrow formats to erode public trust. The cumulative outcome is widespread public confusion about factual events. The Department of Defense has prepared tactics that mirror these approaches, emphasizing entertainment and imposing reporter restrictions that could prevent publication of accounts that contradict official versions and could chill ordinary journalism.

Read at The Atlantic