In the midst of Google’s crackdown on Heartland Diary USA, it was a pleasant surprise today to see that Mike Huckabee had directed readers of his own blog to a column I wrote about Aldous Huxley’s prophetic warning about the “media propaganda machine.”
Gov. Huckabee was one of my top candidates back in 2008 when we were trying to stop John McCain, and he won my admiration again in 2016 when he was one of the first Republican candidates to recognize the significance of Donald Trump and to endorse him.
Huckabee’s newsletter at MikeHuckabee.com today included a discussion of Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World Revisited” (also published as “Enemies of Freedom”). He cites an interview that Mike Wallace did with Huxley in 1958. That was also the inspiration for my own 2017 column about the Fake News Media that Huckabee shared. I reprinted the column in June of this year, and Huckabee found it during his own research, writing:
“We also found a must-read essay on the Huxley interview, written in 2017 by Frank Miele, that discusses Trump and the media propaganda machine targeting him.”
Thanks, Gov. Huckabee!
If you want to read my 2017 essay on “Donald Trump, Huxley and the ‘Enemies of Freedom,” you can read it here.
What was interesting is that I had republished the essay in June as a bonus piece for readers of my upcoming column for Real Clear Politics. That column also referred to Huxley’s prophecy and was titled “How you sold your freedom for a little (fake) information.”
The column was a jeremiad of sorts — about the dangers of Big Tech. Here is a sample:
“Google and its brethren have become the de facto Ministry of Truth, which (as fans of George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four” already know) is in fact the Ministry of Lies and Propaganda. Due to congressional malfeasance, Google is the leviathan unleashed without any oversight on a world of unsuspecting information consumers, many of whom assume that what they read is reliable. In fact, it is filtered through a complex network of algorithms and policies that eliminate nuance and subtlety and substitute far-left talking points and distortions.”
What particularly caught my eye as I re-read it was this paragraph:
“Google’s power, aided and abetted by the federal government, is not just derived from its virtual monopoly on search results, but also by its control of almost all Internet advertising through its AdSense program. Websites, therefore, have become dependent on Google for their continued existence, and if Google removes their revenue stream, they have no choice but to buckle under to the Mother Ship’s demands or to go under altogether. What’s worse is that Google is answerable to no one. It makes its own rules and there is no effective right of appeal.”
At the time I wrote that, I had no idea HeartlandDiaryUSA.com would be the website dependent on Google AdSense. But last week Google let me know I wasn’t playing by the rules (their rules) and that they were therefore cutting me off from my (admittedly very limited) advertising revenue. Infuriatingly, they don’t bother to tell you what rules you have violated, so you are entirely dependent on their munificence to absolve you of wrongdoing!
I guessed that my infraction involved promoting my posts on social media, so as an experiment I have refrained from sharing these essays except on my own Facebook, Twitter and Parler pages. If my guess is right, it will add to my suspicion that the goal is restricting access to conservative commentary.
If so, I may decide to switch to a donor-based funding model such as Patreon to support myself for the many hours I devote to HeartlandDiaryUSA.com. Nothing certain yet, but that may be the logical next step.
In the meantime, if you want to support Heartland Diary USA, consider purchasing “The Media Matrix,” where my 2017 essay on the “Enemies of Freedom” is reprinted along with other columns about Fake News, Big Tech and the Big Lie.”
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Heartland Diary is solely operated by Frank Miele, the retired editor of the Daily Inter Lake in Kalispell, Montana. If you enjoy reading these daily essays, I hope you will SUBSCRIBE to www.HeartlandDiaryUSA.com by leaving your email address on the home page. Your free subscription will help me to break free from my Google dependency! Also please consider purchasing one of my books. They are available through the following Amazon links. My new book is “How We Got Here: The Left’s Assault on the Constitution†and is now available in paperback and as an eBook. It is 536 pages long and chock full of research on the progressive movement and the patriotic heroes who have fought against it. My earlier books include “The Media Matrix: What if everything you know is fake?” and the “Why We Needed Trump” trilogy. Part 1 is subtitled “Bush’s Global Failure: Half Right.” Part 2 is “Obama’s Fundamental Transformation: Far Left.” Part 3 is “Trump’s American Vision: Just Right.” As an Amazon Associate, I may earn referral fees for qualifying purchases through links on my website. Also please subscribe to Heartland Diary on YouTube by clicking here for News Every Conservative Can Use.
Frank, I remember this one during your DI life. it’s in a very deep drawer with so many other great essays you penned since 2006. Best you are. Ryan Phelps
Thanks for the support, Ryan!
Mr. Miele, your columns and articles – essays – speak to 75 million of us. You and Governor Huckabee give me hope. I’m not kidding. Too many stories out there have “feelings” but no facts. You and the Governor fight with facts. Thanks.
Joe Morrisco
Bedminster NJ 07921