Norman Finkelstein Quotes

Developments in information technology and globalised media mean that the most powerful military in the history of the world can lose a war, not on the battlefield of dust and blood, but on the battlefield of world opinion.

The military has been determined to control the images of war since Vietnam. They're convinced that they lost the war because of loss of political support back home, because people saw what was going on.

We are in a battle, and more than half of this battle is taking place in the battlefield of the media

Politics as battle has given way to politics as spectacle.

All governments in all wars have used all the means at their disposal to put their own motives, decisions and actions, and the actions of their military forces, in the best possible light.

The genius of David Petraeus has always been his masterful manipulation of the media.

We studied Western journalists' reporting methods, fed them story ideas, steered them toward sympathetic interviewees, and supplied them with the revolutionary movement's facts and figures.

The generation of news by actions taken by the government becomes one weapon in a strained situation. The results, in my opinion, justify the methods we use… News generated by actions of the government as to content and timing are part of the arsenal of weaponry that a President has in application of military force and related forces to the solution of political problems, or to the application of international political pressure.

Governing today means giving acceptable signs of credibility. It is like advertising and it is the same effect that is achieved—commitment to a scenario.

Politics is the business of managing perceptions.

The term “public diplomacy” is often a euphemism for propaganda.

… in this day and age, brands are more powerful than truth and, inexplicably, blindly, Israel is letting itself be branded an apartheid state — and even encouraging it.

Public opinion wins war. I have always considered as quasi-staff officers, correspondents accredited to my headquarters.

A dozen press agents working overtime can do terrible things to the human spirit.

A modern revolutionary group heads for the television station, not the factory. It concentrates its energy on infiltrating and changing the image system.

The Jewish press in the USA is solely responsible for our poor publicity.

I did love that scene in the movie [ "Our Brand Is Crisis"] because it's like "The Wizard of Oz." You see the backstage action of politics. You have access to see behind the curtain. You see how it's all one big advertisement.

In industrialized warfare, where the representation of events outstripped the presentation of facts, the image was starting to gain sway over the object, time over space. Soon a conflict of strategic and political interpretation would ensue, with radio and then radar completing the picture.

The secret to a successful career in virtually any field is good public relations. Forget results. Forget the facts. Perception is all that matters.

The art of publicity is a black art.

The Russians know that well executed disinformation, when exercised tactically, can quickly metastasize.

Jesse Jackson is a master of the old expression that it doesn't matter what someone says about you as long as they spell your name right.

The Obama Doctrine is the first presidential strategy in history that is exclusively about communicating - not implementing - policy. The Obama Doctrine seems to be 'tweet with overwhelming force.'

I fear three newspapers more than a hundred thousand bayonets.

The most political decision you make is where you direct people's eyes. In other words, what you show people, day in and day out, is political...And the most politically indoctrinating thing you can do to a human being is to show him, every day, that there can be no change.