The Press: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion as Presented in Behold a Pale Horse pp. 297-302

Protocol 12

Number 12 is unique in that it is a long protocol, but it stays on track and it actually contributes to a conspiracy theory. The entire protocol concerns the press and publishing, how the Elder controls it, and why it's important to do so. Modern conspiracy theories can take inspiration from this part. It's also very curious that Cooper hasn't bothered to emphasize any of the points made in this particular protocol because of a very strange plan that Cooper tried to implement. 

Protocol 12 concerns the press, but in modern times we would just call this "the media." The reasoning is that there is no other media than the press in 19th century France where the Protocols originally came from. Conspiracy theorists have a predictable and ironic relationship with the media. The most obvious relationship they have is to call everything a lie and that the media is the tool of "them." In this case, it's the Jews, which are obviously in charge of everything. Except when the media agrees with conspiracy theories and then it can be used to bolster their claims. 

Conspiracy theorists are shut out of the official halls of knowledge but they are like poor dogs scratching the door to get in. When someone like David Icke or Alex Jones cites a press report to back up their claim it is because they desperately want to be recognized by everyone else. When that doesn't work they can use it as evidence that "they" are lying, but that line of questioning gets tired after a bit. The whole reason that anyone knows about Operation Northwoods (a proposal to get the US involved in a war with Cuba by shooting down one of our own planes) was because of CNN. The media isn't always lying and it seems fairly arbitrary for these conspiracy theorists when the media is lying and when it is not. 

The elder asks us what the purpose of the media is, and then he answer, "It serves to excite and inflame those passions which are needed for our purposes or else it serves selfish ends of parties. It is often vapid, unjust, mendacious, and the majority of the public have not the slightest idea what ends the press really serves."

For the most part, this is a fair criticism of the modern press. The noble truth of the fifth estate is to inform the public and keep a check on the officials. If that were the case, we'd have a much different press landscape that followed another adage other than the cliche, "if it bleeds, it leads." 

In my own history I have worked in the press...as an intern at two different new stations. Generally speaking there wasn't the level of cynicism that pervaded the room that the Elder is talking about now, but there were segments that might not have gotten the interest of the public but were in the public interest. Local newspapers have collapsed under an antiquated business model and the internet--but, local news agencies could concentrate on things that the internet doesn't. Google isn't going to cover the latest school board or city council meeting; but those meetings affect us much more than whatever dumb thing a former president said. We also know from the documents leaked from Facebook and Twitter that the companies artificially inflated posts that made users angry because that kept them engaged. The Elder/Machiavelli character isn't wrong; it's just that he's committing the usual fraud of placing malice where incompetence if the most likely culprit. 

The story behind Protocols is that Maurice Joly had to publish his book in Belgium and then import it to France in order to get around Napolean III's censors. He knew this before he began writing and this protocol, which is starkly more coherent and on subject than the others is lamentation about the state of the press in France at the time. 

The elder will cripple the press with taxes and fees, "we shall lay on it a special stamp tax and require deposits of caution-money before permitting the establishment of any organ of the press or of printing offices...For any attempt to attack us, if such still be possible, we shall inflict fines without mercy."

This is the type of plan that works normally, but what the Elder never anticipates are media conglomerates which have no problem attacking governments but are reticent about attacking their corporate owners. Henry Ford's Dearborn Independent wasn't going to run stories about worker abuse in the Ford owned plants. Twitter isn't allowing posts by media critical of Twitter or its owner Elon Musk without being labeled as propaganda. It's a problem that the early 19th century writer would have a difficult time foreseeing. 

The protocol gets a little repetitive as it describes, with surprising specificity, fines and penalties for various facets of the press. Periodicals are going to be taxed, because they "are the worst form of printed poison." I imagine that Joly's writing is personal here. 

The ultimate goal of the Elder is to make private press ownership so onerous and expensive that no one outside of the Elder's grasp could do it; and if they do, they have to print what the cabal wants. The only other alternative is a state run press that is under the direct control of the cabal. In this respect the cabal will publish every kind of press with differing opinions and complexities. In one of my favorite passages so far he says, "Like the Indian idol Vishnu they will will have a hundred hands, and every one of them will have a finger on any one of the public opinions as required." 

It's probably the smartest thing that I've ever read from a conspiracy theorist, it's not that pushing a single party line is the goal but to saturate the market so that no one knows what the truth is. It's very Orwellian in that it would force the public to doubt the information that their own senses supplies. This serves an important second feature as well: it creates the illusion of freedom. So many public voices doesn't give the impression of censorship, even if one hand controls all of those voices because most people have no idea that hand exists. In the US, we have four hands controlling all of the traditional media voices. 

Control of the media is nothing new, but what's more interesting is what Cooper planned to do about it. In his radio show "Hour of the Time" he created a plan. This plan was to get his listeners to buy stock in a publicly traded media company, at first they settle on Time Warner, in order to become majority shareholders and then put Cooper as CEO. Cooper begins the episode by explaining, what he views as the current media landscape. In the episode at the 36 minute mark he states that the goal will be to purchase 10% of the shares and then have decision-making ability on the board with the opportunity to buy more later. There were a few problems with the plan but as a caller explains at 52:19, most of Cooper's audience is the kind that keeps their money under a mattress rather than in a bank where they could actually purchase stock. 

Cooper's plan would ultimately fail. Awareness of the problems in the media deflates the ability of the media to manipulate opinions. Media ownership is a problem, and monopolization of opinions is something that seems impossible today; but there is the opposite problem--too many voices that just become noise that we ignore in favor of those views that vibe with our feelings. 

This is, notably, the best Protocol thus far and it's because it has a very real problem in the control that Napolean III (and the Okhrana in Russia) exercised over the press. If we took this Protocol out of the book, there is no indication that it came from it. It's not anti-Semitic on its own. Do not take my compliment here as endorsement for the Protocols. One last time so I'm clear, this protocol is well constructed because it's plagiarised from Joly who dealt with censorship directly.