HUBBARD COMMUNICATION OFFICE
Saint Hill Manor, East Grinstead, Sussex
HCO POLICY LETTER OF 21 NOVEMBER 1972
ISSUE I
Distribution
All PR Packs
PR Series Nr. 18
HOW ONE HANDLES BLACK PROPAGANDA
RUMORS AND WHISPERING CAMPAIGNS"Black Propaganda" (black = bad or derogatory, propaganda = spread claims or ideas with emphasis) is the expression which is used to destroy public opinion or respect of persons, corporations or nations.
It is a practical tool of forces who are trying to destroy real or imagined enemies or who want to obtain dominance in an area.
This technology attempts to so disparage a reputation that the person, corporation or nation is refused every right through "general agreement." It is then possible to destroy the person, corporation or nation with a smaller operation if Black Propaganda has not already done that.
Malicious and mendacious gossip of old wives was the earlier form of this tactic; it was so evil that, in some areas, they were put in the public stocks (neck chains) or driven out of the city.
In modern times, there is no keeping Black Propaganda in check. Legal proceedings for slanderous gossip are too expensive and too difficult to carry out, and the press law is so misused that anybody can use this kind of campaign.
All you need is an enemy. And there are few people in history who do not have enemies.
One is always running into people in society who do not understand very much. That expresses itself as sort of an evil joy about things. These people forward on slanderous rumors very easily. There are a great number of these people in an uneducated society. Since they are
Scan of original German document
How do I really take care of my opponent, or what is "Black Propaganda"? Hubbard said, "Black Propaganda ... is the expression used to destroy the public opinion of or respect for persons, companies or nations...." (from: L. Ron Hubbard HCO-PB 21 Nov 72, issue 1)
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter Reichelt, 1997 - Page 364not able to read, the greatest part of knowledge has been denied them. And since they do not recognize very many words, they do not understand much of what is said to them.
But that does not just apply to the illiterate.
What they do not understand, they make up for in imagination.
Therefore such people do not only listen to slander, but they falsify and pervert it even more.
In this manner can a rumor that has no true basis go through society.
When a number of such rumors are at hand and are progressing, then one can presume the presence of a "Whispering Campaign." That is not just because these things are whispered, but because they appear, like an evil wind, to have no source.
Black Propaganda uses this propensity to spread falsehoods and to repeat things.
Much Black Propaganda, of course, is more daring and appears even more urgent in irresponsible (or secretly controlled) magazines, on radio and television.
But even after a malicious newspaper story has appeared or a bad radio or television report has been broadcast, the Black Propagandists wait for the "Whispering Campaign" of these slanderous statements to be forwarded through society.
Therefore every person and every being is in danger.
No person, society or nation has a completely clean slate. That has been reserved for saints. In their childhood people stole a couple of apples, broke a window or two, dinged a fender, took a joy ride with a "borrowed" vehicle or took a few pennies or a lollipop although it did not belong to them.
Childhood is rather lawless, and the teenage period is very often a revolt against the ever tightening straitjacket of "respectable social behavior." You marry the wrong person or go astray in an incautious moment with another or commit various minor or major sins which society does not speak well of.
All these things can make someone susceptible to attacks on his career or regarding his past.
A person begins to fear that bad things will be said about him. Faced with a - real or imagined - Whispering Campaign, one tends to withdraw, become less active and limit his sphere of action.
That also goes for corporations, and even for nations.
Therefore you can actually get rather unhappy and sick if you do not know how one handles such attacks.
THE ATTACKER
The world is full of insane people.
The fundamental characteristic of extreme insanity is continuing attack: attacks on everything, attacks on persons or things which contain no threat.
Serious, not minor, crimes can be found at the root of such urges.
The attacker has an evil intention in life. He belongs to the dead, not to the living. And his harvest is a harvest of death.
Such a person has the feeling that he cannot be secure until all others are dead.
Their evil intentions take many forms and means of expression. The end product is the same - Death.
When an attacker has gone too far, then he is himself attacked. Long, bitter quarrels and wars between nations are both the mutual exchange of violence.
If an attacker does not have the physical means to annihilate others, and if his own goals would fail if they were to be exposed, then the attacks are conducted covertly.
He uses verbal propaganda, the press and other channels of communication to inject his poison. He hides himself as the source and he has his verbal attacks appear to be logical, real or proven.
He counts on his statements being taken up by the more evil people in society, perverted and then forwarded on.
That is Black Propaganda. It serves to humiliate real or imagined enemies, to decrease their income to deprive them of friends and support.
Corporations and companies follow this procedure with their competition. The American Medical Association (AMA) maintains their multi-billion monopoly on illness in that it executes a long, well-financed Black Propaganda campaign against anybody who it thinks could threaten its income. The director of its "Research Division" (as they call their Black Propaganda department) once said that they take action against each rival until he collapses one day. CRASH! They use press releases, their own members, paid advertisements, exhibitions, government connections and spokesmen, every channel to bring about an endless stream of invented stories against each imagined rival. While this brings them the support of the government, it also brings them a deep hatred, not only from rivals, but also from the general public.
They get back what they sow. Once they were prosperous. They are no longer. Their members do not like them and an increasing number of doctors belong only to the state medical associations, but not to the AMA. The individual doctor, for the most part, has a good public reputation. His main association profits from that and betrays him. One day there will be no more AMA, CRASH!
Black Propaganda is therefore not something that you hand out lightly. Because it can recoil on the person who uses it.
We look once at how it recoils.
One who injects too much poison get splattered with poison.
Too much Black Propaganda leads to counter-attacks.
Black Propaganda is, in essence, a web of lies. The AMA simply invents stories which it spreads or has someone spread for them.
Sooner or later it turns out that these stories are untrue. ONE false story can destroy the credibility of the teller. Who will then still listen?
Therefore a Black Propaganda has a weak point. The attacker will be attacked sooner or later - often by many people.
But those who have to oppose such a campaign have to be familiar with the technology with how it this is done.
SOME SORT OF REPORTS
There is a natural law which, unfortunately, favors Black Propaganda.
WHERE NO DATA IS AVAILABLE, PEOPLE WILL INVENT SOME
That is the law of the omitted data.
A vacuum has a tendency to get filled up. Ancient philosophers liked to say, "Nature abhors a vacuum." In reality, the pressure surrounding an area will flow into that in which no pressure reigns.
So it is with persons, corporations and nations.
Attacked by lies, a person has a tendency to withdraw. This alone leads to one pulling things in on oneself.
The person would not like to give out any information. So they turn, to a certain degree, into a secret.
In order to fill up this secret, people will invent information.
This applies to persons, corporations or nations.
And that is a necessity of Public Relations.
In essence, Public Relations is the art of making good accomplishments known.
It is a fatal error to believe that good accomplishments speak for themselves. That is not the case. They must be published.
That is it, in essence, what Public Relations does. And that is also the reason why it is there - to fill up the vacuum of omitted data.
In the middle of a campaign of Black Propaganda, one will be refused the usual communications channels. The press media with whose help the campaign is executed will bring no favorable commentary. One is insane if one believes that they will do that, because they serve a different master who has the intention to destroy the respect of the targets of their attack.
Statements from "authorities" force absolute truth out of the field of vision.
Therefore Public Relations people have to be extremely well aware of their technology if they are to confront Black Propaganda.
THE TECH
If you do not have to carry on a battle against Black Propaganda, then Public Relations is easy.
One imagines a reporter as someone who does his work by coming up with ideas and publishing articles. That is the reason why one often thinks of reporters as public relations people, but they are not.
When a Black Propaganda campaign is being run, these kind of articles are distorted and rejected; and that is the end of it.
There is much more about it to know.
There are a few rules that apply:
1. Fill the vacuum of omitted data with truthful-sounding data.
2. Prove that all false statements one hears are lies.
3. Make every rumor which you encounter sound unbelievable.
4. Handle every statement you make with the appropriate degree of interest.
5. Study the situation carefully until you have discovered the exact source.
6. Apply your knowledge of the source in order to hinder or destroy the source through non-criminal means with Black Propaganda.
7. Continue to fill the vacuum of no data with good data by using any channel at your disposal.Each one of these points could fill a book. But if one understands them and uses one's own initiative, one can put together a whole lot of Tech.
Each of these point can appear in diverse variations.
APPLICATION
1. Fill the vacuum.
Only stop when you retreat. It has been clearly shown that in handling Black Propaganda by Public Relations, only "outflow" pays off. Saying nothing may be regarded as noble, but in Public Relations it is fatal. But even "experts" advise it (when they want to take in their customers).Openly lying is clumsy and be used as a type of affirmation against one.
You do not need to reveal or to spread flubs and neither should you ever do it. Public Relations people often makes flubs.
But do not interpret that as meaning "calm is necessary." Find a secure position and speak.
Use every channel to speak. But do not use any channel that would adulterate it when you repeat what you say.
Do not stay on the same topic as that on which you were attacked.One example of how one states his opinion without lying and without confirming it in this way could be:
ASSERTION: "I read that your business went broke last month."
REFUTATION: "For God's sakes! Listen to what you're saying! If we would not have gotten out of the contract, then we actually would have gone broke! There was quite a lively row about it in the board of directors. But McLinty won out. Scottish to the core. He said, "I won't sign it!" He almost tore the president's head off. A hellish spectacle. It seems we had stashed 80 million somewhere and McLinty is the one responsible, and he backed off not one inch."
The conclusion the questioner comes to is that you are not bankrupt. He has received information. The vacuum has been filled with a story of a dispute in the board of directors and a mysterious 80 million in reserves.2. Contradict false data.
The technology of proving that statements are false is called "DEAD-AGENTING." It is from the first book of Chinese espionage. When the enemy agent makes a false statement, then the one who believed it and has now found it to be false, kills him, or at least stops believing him.
That is where you get the PR slang expression for "Dead Agenting."It consists of fully contradicting false claims through documents, demonstration or display.
For that one needs a collection of documents or the ability to demonstrate something or display something.
ASSERTION: "I was told that you have having difficulties with the people at the income tax office."
REFUTATION: "Here is a document that shows we have paid our taxes in full, and here is a letter of recommendation from the revenue agency." And then one displays a few things.
The result? Whoever told him that has now died as a credible informant.The best style of Dead-Agenting is when the refutable claim a person makes consists of finding out WHO it was that brought his attention to it and giving him the counter evidence.
ASSERTION (Person A): "I heard that you are not married to the man with whom you are living."
REFUTATION (Person B): "WHO told you that?"
A: "I forgot."
B: "Good, when you remember, then I'll show you something."
A: "Good, it was a man ..."
B: "WHO?"
A: "Hans Dummer."
B: "Okay. Here is my marriage certificate. Who is this comedian Hans Dummer really?"
Now all of a sudden it is Hans Dummer who has the secret. Why is he lying? What does he get from it?If you do not have the document right there, but can get it, you can say, "Tell me the name of the one who told you, and the next time I see you, I'll show you something very interesting about it."
And then see to it that you get the document and then meet him again.
Dead-Agenting has a billion variations. "It does not fly." Fly with it. "The spot is empty." Show him it is full.
Etc
