History | Page 259

no German secret was acknowledged publicly unless that secret fell into the hands of more than one of the four occupying powers, (USA, Soviet Union, Great Britain, France). He says: "In fact, of the numerous revolutionary "new weapons" that the Germans developed in that period, we know only thosefortunately, they comprise the majority-that fell into the hands of all, or at least more than one, of the four occupying powers"(1). These governments seem to keep secrets for the sake of keeping secrets. In any event, they operate on a "need to know" basis in dispensing these secrets. We simply have no need to know in their eyes. The differences between the media and the government itself are becoming more and more blurred. Politicians rely of instant polls, conducted the night before by the media, to plot today's public policy. The results of these polls are whatever the media says they are. In the meantime, the media itself is doing everything it can through "news", through entertainment and through movies to influence the results of those polls. The media and the government are so closely intertwined that for all practical purposes they can be considered as one. The C.I.A. spends a large portion of its budget in an effort to frame public discussion on issues it deems sensitive. The point here is that "truth" is not the goal of the government and in accomplishing their ends they use the methods of the mass media if they are not in partnership with the mass media itself. For almost sixty years this government/media has been telling us through their propaganda machine, "Hollywood", that all t