Walkabout propaganda

 Posted on 8/20/1996 by J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com> to CIS


{original post unavailable}

Okay, John, lemme ask you a question, since you keep harping on
this issue of propaganda.

You're the leader of an isolated space station with a quarter
million inhabitants, who need air, food, supplies, space, support. You
no longer have ties to Earth, no support from there, no money, so you
have to rely on whatever docking fees you can get from other worlds.
You're in the midst of a war in which you have few resources, little
money, allies that have a tendency to turn on one another, nobody's
giving you a break, your position is tenuous as hell, you're constantly
undermanned, shorthanded....

Now you tell me where the heck you're going to get the time,
resources, money and manpower to launch a propaganda operation, which
if you're going to broadcast (and what's the point otherwise?) on an
interstellar basis is going to require extensive and expensive
facilities, broadcast repeaters, tacyhon carrier wave generators to get
around the time-delay aspects, writers, directors, broadcast engineers,
spokespersons, propaganda specialists, psychologists, technicians,
camera equipment, space in which to PUT all of this stuff...on and on
and on.

You keep beating this particular horse, but your objection has
nothing to do with the reality of their position.

jms