A Reprise of On Bothsideism with Context

June 11/12, 202(

“If I had a hammer, I'd hammer in the morning

I'd hammer in the evening all over this land

I'd hammer out danger, I'd hammer out a warning

I'd hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters

All over this land, ooh”

Peter, Paul, and Mary, 1960

This evening I was reminded of an ethnic cleansing in Gaza. No, not the one people claim Israel is committing against the Palestinian Arabs in Gaza. The one the British actually DID commit against the Jews in 1929 when they forcibly removed the Jewish population who had lived there for centuries. Then in 2005, the Israeli government, in preparation for pulling out of Gaza themselves, removed whatever remnant remained or had come back in the interim. Another story that is not told or generally understood by the world population at large is that in 1948 when, having beaten off the attacks of the Arab nations whose intent was to drive the Jews into the sea, Israel came into existence, the Arab nations forcibly expelled the Jews many of whom had lived there for generations.

Looking at comparative populations, depending on source used, there are approximately 500 million Arabs in the world with approximately 470 to 480 million (larger than the population of the United States) living in the Arab League nations. By contrast, there are an estimated 15.8 million Jews in the world (a smaller population than the city of Istanbul) of which about 7.3 million live in Israel. None of the above should be taken as an argument in favor of the policies of the Netanyahu government but simply as facts which are ignored in the Hamas/Palestinian propaganda that emanates from the United Nations and much of the so-called mainstream media.

There are other examples. Vladimir Putin claiming he invaded Ukraine in order to “deNazify” the country. That he runs a Fascist state and spends huge amounts of money in drones, missiles, strategic bombers, and bombs attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure rather than military targets is supposed to be ignored.

And in this country, we have the phenomenon of people at the very top of the administration from Pam Bondi to Kristi Noem to Donald Trump himself saying things that when placed into proper context are absolutely outrageous. For example, Bondi and Noem are loudly and persistently repeating that violent people, especially those who attack law enforcement will be dealt with harshly. Which totally ignores and even tries to hide the reality of Donald John pardoning the January 6th, 2021 insurrectionists en masse and indiscriminately including those who had attacked the police and threatened to murder Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pence. For his part, Donald John, with his trademarked bluster said he should be thanked for getting “bad guys” out of the country. Yes Mr. President. Perhaps. But am I supposed to take your word for it absent evidence, adjudication, or other due process that they are “bad guys”? Sorry. Not from you nor from any other President of the United States. That way lies tyranny.

And it is in that context that I ask you to read the following essay.

ON BOTHSIDEISM

[Opinion]by Leland J. Katz

"There are two sides to every argument."

We are taught that from an early age.

In high school, we often join the debate team or club or are taught formal debate technique in some other way in which one researches a subject so thoroughly that, called upon to debate an issue, we can debate both sides. Sometimes we even argue a point with which we don't agree as an intellectual exercise.

And while it is true that there are two sides to every argument (otherwise there would be no argument), there are not always two sides to every issue — at least not legitimate sides. Sometimes there is just truth and lies.

Yet because of what we have been taught, we strain with all of our might to see two sides. Even when they don't exist. The phenomenon even has a name. It's called "bothsideism". In the news business it's called "False Equivalence".

False Equivalence happens when a newsperson either in print or broadcast gives equal weight to two opposing positions, one supported by evidence and one with no evidence to back it up. That sounds strange in the abstract but in the world of political reporting, it happens all the time. Among the reasons for this are changes to the media we consume. Once, with the exception of movie newsreels, we got all of our news from newspapers and the radio.

Then, after WWII, we added television to the mix and, gradually, the movie newsreels disappeared from the scene. But the broadcast media use the publicly owned airwaves and in order to do so are licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to operate "in the public interest". In 1949, the FCC introduced a policy called the Fairness Doctrine that required holders of broadcast licenses to present controversial issues of public importance in a manner fairly reflecting differing viewpoints.

In 1987, during the Reagan administration, the FCC revoked the policy and in June of 1987, Congress tried to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. Reagan vetoed the effort.

Related to but not the same as the Fairness Doctrine is the Equal Time rule. Originally part of the Radio Act of 1927, it was recodified in the Communications Act of 1934 and requires broadcast licensees to provide equivalent access to competing political candidates. For example, if a station broadcasts a message by a candidate in prime time, it must offer the same amount of time on the same terms to an opposing candidate. Broadcasters also must offer time to political candidates at the same rate as their "most favored advertiser". There also are a number of exceptions including those for "legitimate" news interviews or other events, syndicated programming and more.

All of which seemed effective when broadcast was the only form of radio and later television communications.

Today, however, with cable, satellite services such as SiriusXM, cable, internet streaming services, and so-called social media far outstripping over the air broadcasting none of which require licensure by the FCC, it all seems merely quaint.

So while ABC, NBC, and CBS, remain broadcast outlets with their complement of owned and operated broadcast stations each operating on a frequency assigned by the FCC; MSNBC, CNN, i24, and Fox, just to name a few, are not and are not subject to FCC rules.

But it is the world of social media that are the worst offenders. Here, everyone with access to a medium can, like the gunslingers of the old west who only needed a six-gun to enforce their opinion on those around them, can shout whatever truth or untruth they want to the world.

For believers in free speech, that would seem to be a good thing. Why shouldn't everyone have their say? Isn't that what the Letters to the Editor columns in daily newspapers across the country all about? But letters to the editor reach, at best, a limited audience and are carefully vetted by a newspaper's editorial staff. In contrast, most social media are driven by algorithms designed to get the most numbers of clicks which has become the basis for advertising revenue. The social media are, for the most part, funded by advertisers who either have an axe to grind or want the widest audience possible. The "information" these algorithms put forward is often the most outrageous and emotionally angering material because that generates the most numbers of clicks and therefore drives the most revenue.

“Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth”, is a law of propaganda often attributed to the Nazi Joseph Goebbels. Goebbels was an amateur. Using newspapers, radio, and film, repeating a lie three times was enough to give that lie the air of truth.

Today's internet social media algorithms can repeat a lie 5,000,000 times and more almost instantaneously. Donald Trump grasps this and, having lost his account on Twitter for his lies, formed his own social medium called "Truth Social" which he continues to use even after Elon Musk bought Twitter, renamed it "X", and offered to reinstate his account for him.

Today Truth Social and "X" often repost the same lies. With no filters on their posts, it's difficult for the average person to know where the truth stops and the lies begin.

Musk, claiming to be a supporter of "free speech", has reinstated the accounts of some of the worst haters, neo-Nazi's, and outright Nazis on "X" who are now free to spread their lies across the World Wide Web to their heart's content.

There are also other actors both homegrown and foreign some of whom, most notably China, Iran, and Russia, have set up cyber psychological warfare operations (PSYOPS) on multiple social media platforms including but not limited to "X", Truth Social, TikTok, FaceBook, and others to not just disseminate their own propaganda but to influence U.S. policy, elections, and to undercut American democracy itself.

And when such efforts are echoed by American politicians such as Marjorie Taylor Greene who most recently has been publicly repeating Vladimir Putin's anti-Ukraine propaganda points, the danger becomes very real as the lies impacted the United State's ability to provide Ukraine with badly needed weaponry for over six months — a delay that cost both military and civilian Ukrainian lives.

Other actors such as Steve Bannon who, having lost his Breitbart and SiriusXM outlets, is now hosting his War Room podcasts on various outlets including Apple Podcasts and continuing to lie about the "stolen" 2020 election.

It is important to not only know the what media one can trust to deliver unvarnished truth but to understand the history and agenda of various groups trying to influence opinion. An example of such a group is Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). Taking advantage of the naiveté of American college and university students about the realities of the world around us, they have become the driving force behind college student protests of the Israel/Hamas war in Gaza and were already locked and loaded on October 8th.

Founded in 1993 at the time of the Oslo Accords, it disappeared in 1999 only to be revived in 2000 at the time of the 2nd intifada. It is funded at least in part by American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) which is thought by some to have links to Hamas.

Also recent anti-Israel videos on TikTok have been traced to the mainland Chinese government.

None of which means that legitimate discussion of issues cannot take place. But that can only happen when both parties to the discussion understand the basic underlying facts. When one side brings lies to the table — even sincerely believed lies — because they have chosen to get their "information" from illegitimate sources there is no sound basis for that discussion.

For that, an understanding of the changes in the media which often sows division and promotes violence is essential. If this essay stimulates the search and study necessary for such an understanding, it will have served its purpose.

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Leland J. (Lee) Katz is a 3 year veteran of the USAF officer corps having served as a nuclear weapons alert duty officer on a British air base in northwestern Germany which was part of the NATO nuclear strike force immediately after the Cuban Missile Crisis and as officer in charge of the Athens (Greece) station of the Armed Forces Courier Service. He is also a 38 year veteran of corporate America. His book, The Pretenders, published in 2018 is an autobiographical novel focused on his career in high tech. He holds a BA from the University of Massachusetts, a MS from Boston U., and a MBA from Boston College. He writes regularly in his blog on Substack on “My Views on the News” and other topics covering politics, international relations, and other topics of national and international interest.