The word “propaganda” is not found in the KJV, or any other translation checked, with the exception of the New Living Translation, 1996:
DEFINITIONSActs 4:17 - But to keep them from spreading their propaganda any further, we must warn them not to speak to anyone in Jesus’ name again.”
Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language, 1828
The Century Dictionary, an Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, 1895PROPAGAND'IST, noun
A person who devotes himself to the spread of any system of principles.
Bonaparte selected a body to compose his Sanhedrim of political propagandists.
PROP'AGANDISM, noun [See Propagate.]
The art or practice of propagating tenets or principles.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English, 1919propaganda (prop-a-gau'dii), n.
1. A committee of cardinals (Congregation de Propaganda Fide, 'for propagating the faith') which has the supervision of foreign missions in the Roman Catholic Church. It was founded by Pope Gregory XV in 1622. One of its chief instrumentalities is the Propaganda College in Rome. See congregation,
Hence—2. Any kind of institution or organization for propagating a new doctrine or system of doctrines, or for proselyting.
Ballentine’s Law Dictionary, James A. Ballentine, Third Edition, 1969propaganda (-a), n.
{Congregation, College, of ) the P., committee of cardinals in charge of foreign missions; association, organized scheme, for propagation of a doctrine or practice; (improp., as pl.) efforts, schemes, principles, of propagation. [lt., f. mod.L congregation de propaganda fide congregation for propagation of the faith]
WEX Legal Dictionarypropaganda
Ideas communicated for the purpose of influencing the thoughts of another, especially. in the modern sense, distorted principles intended to deceive. An antisocial activity insofar as it advocates the destruction of organized government, of mass industrial revolts against municipal government, and revolutionary mass action for the final destruction of government. 47 AmJlst Sedit Etc § 13.
The term “political propaganda," for the purposes of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, is defined at length in such statute. 22 USC § 611616.
One of the qualifications which charitable organizations generally must meet in order that a gift to them may be deductible for gift tax purposes is that carrying on “propaganda" or otherwise attempting to influence legislation shall not constitute a substantial part of their activities. IRC 1954 § 2522: 26 USC 2522.
MISCELLANEOUS CITATIONSPublicity or propaganda
The term "publicity or propaganda" is a term of art found in the omnibus appropriations bill passed by Congress every year: “No part of any appropriation . . . shall be used for publicity or propaganda purposes within the United States not heretofore authorized by the Congress.”[1] The statutory language does not define “publicity or propaganda,” nor did the first statute in which the prohibition appeared, the Labor-Federal Security Appropriation Act of 1952.[2] There is no definition of “publicity or propaganda” in the legislative history of that statute, either.[3] What the legislative history does reveal is that the provision’s sponsor, Rep. Lawrence H. Smith, introduced it in response to a series of speeches given by the administrator of the Federal Security Agency (the precursor to the Department of Health and Human Services).[4] The floor debate evinced recognition that a vaguely defined propaganda provision could interfere with legitimate educational efforts, but also a strong interest in precluding the use of appropriations for “individual glorification of bureaucrats.”[5] The primary source material on the provision, scant as it is, suggests that Congress did not intend the provision to impair the government’s duty to keep citizens “fully and accurately informed.”[6]
With these concerns in mind, the Government Accountability Office takes a flexible, deferential approach to adjudicating suspected violations: “Application of the prohibition is necessarily balanced against an agency’s responsibility to inform the public about its activities and programs, explain its policies and priorities, and defend its policies, priorities, and point of view.”[7] Efforts by federal agencies to explain or defend their policies are in general not propaganda. More specifically, activities such as “meetings, conference calls, luncheons with agency leadership, and travel” do not constitute propaganda as long as they are “reasonably related to the agency duty to inform the public of agency actions, programs, and policies, or justify and rebut attacks upon its policies.”[8] GAO guidelines state that it will “rely heavily on the agency’s administrative justification.”[9] One opinion says that violations should be found only if the agency’s justifications are “palpably erroneous.”[10] History has borne out this deferential mindset; GAO has found only a handful of violations.[11] Similarly, the handful of court decisions on propaganda have taken the pragmatic view that government agencies do not break the law when spending money on political advocacy.[12] The courts also agree with GAO that, by including the provision, Congress has indicated that at least the obvious cases of propaganda should be prohibited.[13]
Over 50 years construing the provision,[14] GAO has cultivated a doctrine that separates “publicity or propaganda” into three types of inappropriate activity: 1) “self-aggrandizement,” 2) “purely partisan purposes,” and 3) “covert propaganda.” Self-aggrandizement (also known as “puffery”) refers to an agency’s efforts to overstate its own importance.[15] Purely partisan purposes include efforts solely dedicated to the electoral success of a political party or candidates.[16] Recognizing the difficulties in separating permissible explanation from impermissible partisan politicking, GAO has taken an extremely deferential view.[17] In its own words, political activities by government agencies are fine unless they are “completely devoid of any connection with official functions.”[18] Covert propaganda refers to media materials prepared by a government agency and then disseminated by a non-government outlet with the source undisclosed.[19]
[1] E.g., Pub. L. No. 108-199, div. F, title VI, § 624, 118 Stat. at 356. See also 22 U.S.C. §§ 1461, 1461-1a (restricting the domestic dissemination of news reports originally created by the government for broadcast abroad).
[2] Pub. L. No. 134, ch. 373, § 702, 65 Stat. 209, 223 (Aug. 31, 1951).
[3] 97 Cong. Rec. 4098 (1951).
[4] Id.
[5] 97 Cong. Rec. 6734 (1951).
[6] Id. See also Government Accountability Office, Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003: Use of appropriated funds for flyer and print and television advertisements, B-302504 (Mar. 10, 2004).
[7] Government Accountability Office, Department of Defense—Retired Military Officers as Media Analysts, B-316443 (Jul. 21, 2009).
[8] Government Accountability Office, Department of Defense—Retired Military Officers as Media Analysts, B-316443 (Jul. 21, 2009), at 8.
[9] Government Accountability Office, Principles of Federal Appropriations Law: Third Edition, Volume I (Sept. 28, 2004).
[10] Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003—Use of Appropriated Funds for Flyer and Print and Television Advertisements, B-302504 (U.S. Gen. Accounting Office Mar. 10, 2004).
[11] See Government Accountability Office, Department of Defense—Retired Military Officers as Media Analysts, B-316443 (Jul. 21, 2009), at 7 (“Although the prohibition on the use of appropriated funds for publicity or propaganda has been in effect, in one form or another, for decades, we have rarely found violations of the prohibition.”) .
[12] See Joyner v. Whiting, 477 F.2d 456, 461 (4th Cir. 1973); Donaggio v. Arlington County, Virginia, 880 F. Supp. 446, 454-56 (E.D. Va. 1995); Arrington v. Taylor, 380 F. Supp. 1348, 1364 (M.D. N.C. 1974).
[13] National Association for Community Development v. Hodgson, 356 F. Supp. 1399 (D.D.C. 1973).
[14] While GAO often cites previous opinions, they have no formal precedential value.
[15] Government Accountability Office, Restriction Violations on the Use of Appropriations in a Press Release by the Office of Personnel Management, B-212069 (Oct. 6, 1983) (finding unobjectionable OPM press releases informing the public of the Administration’s position on pending legislation); See also Government Accountability Office, Application of Anti-Lobbying Restrictions to HUD Report Losing Ground, B-284226.2 (Aug. 17, 2000) (HUD brochure that was deeply critical of proposed HUD budget reductions not “self-aggrandizement” because the brochure included “important and timely information about the impact of the reductions to HUD’s programs.”).
[16] Government Accountability Office, Letter to Senate Chairman William Dawson, B-147578 (Nov. 8, 1962).
[17] Government Accountability Office, Social Security Administration—Grassroots Lobbying Allegation, B-304715, April 27, 2005 (finding permissible the Social Security Administration’s inclusion in regular mailings to 140 million Americans a warning that Social Security was facing a funding crisis at the same time that President Bush was stumping for his privatization program).
[18] Government Accountability Office, Letter to Senate Chairman William Dawson, B-147578 (Nov. 8, 1962).
[19] E.g., Government Accounting Office, Letter to Senate Committee on Postal Services, B-229257 (Jun. 10, 1988).
Our Enemy, the State, Albert Jay Nock, pp. 56-57.
War, Nearing, 1931, pp. 21-22.Lincoln's phrase, 'of the people, by the people, and for the people' was probably the most effective single stroke of propaganda ever made in behalf of republican State prestige."
The Spirit and Structure of German Fascism, Brady, (1937), p. 161."The printing press is a formidable propaganda agency. Tens of millions of daily, weekly, and monthly papers and millions of books are printed and circulated by concerns that operate on a profit-making basis. They make money by giving the masses 'what they want.' Incidentally, they provide the masses with food for feeling and for thought which determines mass attitudes and mass opinion. The masters of capitalist economy are the masters of the press and press propaganda.
"One of the oldest propaganda institutions in present day society is the Church. Although the Church as a propaganda agency reaches adults primarily, it is able to make a considerable impression on the youth through Sunday schools and young people's societies. Church control, like school control, press control, movie control, and radio control is a function of the ruling class.
"Recent scientific developments have added to the school, the press, and the Church the movie and the radio by means of which millions are reached who would otherwise be inaccessible by reason of illiteracy or other facts. Both movie and radio are almost completely in the hands and its representatives.
"School, press, church, movie, radio,–these are the major channels through which the ruling class in each industrial country reaches the mass with its military propaganda. So thoroughly are these propaganda institutions organized, and so widespread is the network of power that they have built up, that almost every family in a modern industrial society can be supplied almost every day with the materials that will determine its feeling and its thinking.
"Until recent times civilized nations relied upon religious institutions to stir up war-lust in the masses. During the nineteenth century, however, the school and the press supplanted the church as the chief means of building a war psychology. With the coming of the twentieth century, the movies and the radio were added to this secular arm of war propaganda. When the twentieth century ruling class decides to prepare the masses for war, it has at its disposal church, school, press, radio, and movie."
War Is A Racket, by Major General Smedley Butler"And to what end? This the Nazis made unmistakably clear; at the center of all their propaganda 'for the broad masses' is the concept of the 'soldier of labor.'
State of the Union Address, Franklin D. Roosevelt, January 4, 1939In the World War, we used propaganda to make the boys accept conscription. They were made to feel ashamed if they didn’t join the army.
So vicious was this war propaganda that even God was brought into it. With few exceptions our clergymen joined in the clamor to kill, kill, kill. To kill the Germans. God is on our side . . . it is His will that the Germans be killed.
And in Germany, the good pastors called upon the Germans to kill the allies . . . to please the same God. That was a part of the general propaganda, built up to make people war conscious and murder conscious.
State of the Union Address, Franklin D. Roosevelt, January 3, 1940We have learned that long before any overt military act, aggression begins with preliminaries of propaganda, subsidized penetration, the loosening of ties of good will, the stirring of prejudice and the incitement to disunion.
State of the Union Address, Franklin D. Roosevelt, January 6, 1941For out of all the military and diplomatic turmoil, out of all the propaganda, and counter-propaganda of the present conflicts, there are two facts which stand out, and which the whole world acknowledges.
The first is that never before has the Government of the United States of America done so much as in our recent past to establish and maintain the policy of the Good Neighbor with its sister nations.
The second is that in almost every nation in the world today there is a true public belief that the United States has been, and will continue to be, a potent and active factor in seeking the reestablishment of world peace.
State of the Union Address, Franklin D. Roosevelt, January 6, 1945Every realist knows that the democratic way of life is at this moment being directly assailed in every part of the world--assailed either by arms, or by secret spreading of poisonous propaganda by those who seek to destroy unity and promote discord in nations that are still at peace.
PROPAGANDA TECHNIQUESAnd I would express another most serious warning against the poisonous effects of enemy propaganda.
The wedge that the Germans attempted to drive in western Europe was less dangerous in actual terms of winning the war than the wedges which they are continually attempting to drive between ourselves and our allies.
Every little rumor which is intended to weaken our faith in our allies is like an actual enemy agent in our midst--seeking to sabotage our war effort. There are, here and there, evil and baseless rumors against the Russians--rumors against the British--rumors against our own American commanders in the field.
When you examine these rumors closely, you will observe that every one of them bears the same trade-mark--"Made in Germany."
We must resist this divisive propaganda--we must destroy it--with the same strength and the same determination that our fighting men are displaying as they resist and destroy the panzer divisions.
Propaganda techniques are used by the media to sell an idea or product in exchange for a financial benefit from a third party. The person or group with the financial interest will try to persuade the viewer/reader/listener by distorting questions, sabotaging arguments, and misusing evidence, often in such a subtle way that the viewer/reader/listener never realizes he is being sold a bill of goods. Most sources agree there are nine basic techniques:
1. Bandwagon – Propagandists try to convince you that “everyone is doing it” or “everyone has one”, often by falsifying data or making claims such as “…used by one out of three people” or “99% of women choose…” You wouldn’t want to be the only one not buying or believing, would you?
2. Flag-Waving – Propagandists try to convince you that you are a good American if you buy or do the thing they recommend. In this technique, they will use popular virtues such as flag-waving patriotism, baseball, or apple pie to make you believe that you are unpatriotic if you don’t agree.
3. Appeal to Emotions - Propagandists tug on the heartstrings and use words that evoke emotions instead of giving factual information. This technique includes appeals to pity or compassion, such as “you wouldn’t want (fill in the blank) to suffer anymore, would you?” or appeals to complete happiness, such as “I’ve never been happier since I (fill in the blank).”
4. Act Fast! - Propagandists try to make you believe that it is “now or never!” or “time is of the essence!” They want you to believe that you better act fast, without really thinking it though, or you will lose the opportunity.
5. Poisoning the Well - Propagandists try to sell you on a product or idea by undercutting the credibility of one to sell you on another. The accusations are most often unsupported and sometimes involve name-calling. The idea behind “poisoning the well” is that if the well is polluted, no good can come of it.
6. Testimonial - Propagandists appeal to the authority of a famous person or group. If a famous, recognizable person endorses a product or idea, it must be wonderful, right?
7. Repetition - Propagandists repeat words or phrases so they are firmly planted in the viewer’s mind. Example - the commercial for a headache medicine – “Head-on, apply directly to the forehead, Head-on, apply directly to the forehead, Head-on, apply directly to the forehead…” The repetition sticks in your mind.
8. Association - Propagandists associate a person with admirable qualities or lifestyle to the thing/idea being sold. You will look at the person and think, “I would be just like (fill in the blank) if I bought (fill in the blank).”
9. Faulty Conclusions - Propagandists try to sell you on a product or idea by misrepresenting facts. One way they do this is by making hasty generalizations, basing conclusions on inadequate evidence. An example would be “If a little is good, a lot will be great.” Another way is through composition and division, which is based on the assumption that the whole of something will have the same quality as each of its parts, or the converse belief that each part will have the quality of the whole. An example would be a baseball team being called great because they have a great pitcher. But if you took that pitcher away, would the team still be great? A third way is to present a false cause, blaming one thing for the outcome of another, even though the effects may be totally coincidental. An example would be calling a driver reckless for hitting a tree, even though the brakes on the car were found to be faulty.
Propagandists are often GASLIGHTERS.