"If you do not read the paper, you are uninformed. If you do read the paper, you are misinformed."—Mark Twain.
As we get older, we start to notice things that probably would have passed us by in our youth. We would listen to football pundits tell us their opinion and there would be no indication of anything untoward. For many of us, things reported on TV and read in national newspapers were considered to be fact.
It was almost like the belief as a child that everything our parents told us was the truth.
At a young age we couldn't even comprehend the notion of ulterior motives from commontaters, biased ideologies from the media back-pages, and downright slanderous misrepresentation from sports journalists, designed simply to shape, lead, and change our opinions.
We listened, we read, we believed. We had no reason to think otherwise.
"Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves."—Eric Hoffer
Of course, school taught us about the use of propaganda during the great wars; but semi-interesting history lessons were a far cry from watching John Craven's Newsround or sneaking a quick read of the back-page football stories in the local newsagents.
It was difficult to link historical events from 60 years ago to our very own, modern-day reality.
You do however reach a time in your life when your eyes are opened to the truth, and this brings with it a realisation of a hidden world of subtle manipulation posing as your friendly journalist or well-known media organisation.
For some of you, its a gradual thing, brought on over the course of a few hateful newspaper stories about your club. For others, it hits you suddenly. Just one propagandist article that makes you truly wonder how on earth such obvious lies could be published and labeled as fact.
Either way, it's not a nice feeling. That realisation of being led up the garden path.
"The biases the media has are much bigger than conservative or liberal. They're about getting ratings, about making money, about doing stories that are easy to cover."—Al Franken
We all know the world doesn't revolve around the sun, it revolves around money. Personal wealth drives most people to the edge of decency before greed eagerly pushes them over. Shameless destruction of people's lives and biased misrepresentation by the majority of media outlets, all pretty much boil down to two very simple things.
Money and power.
They either want to make easy money out of you; or manipulate you towards their own ideology. In some cases, it's both.
Sensational headlines about a teams star player, sells to those who can be easily led. Lazy journalism is rife in a world of "experts" who claim fact through ommision of the whole truth. And the world wide web fans the flames of a social problem that can turn supporters against their own club.
The power to manipulate entire social groups is far to easily obtained in the age of the internet, and anyone with access to a computer can dress up biased opinion in such a way, that many would happily take it on board without realisation of being controlled.
"The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie—deliberate, contrived and dishonest—but the myth—persistent, persuasive and unrealistic."—John F. Kennedy
Tell enough people a lie and eventually it becomes a myth. Get the right person to tell that lie and that myth will certainly become truth. Get the right person to tell the right people that mythical truth, and you will ensure that a young generation will grow up with that ideology hardwired in to their belief system.
You only have to look to the reporting of the Hillsborough tragedy, and the war on terrorism to witness that theory in effect.
Get enough believing in a myth, then it will only aid in applying pressure to the situation, or the person, the propagandist is trying to turn the tide against. Once those disinformed supporters have been swayed; their complete belief in the myth will make them fight even harder, as they look to recruit others to the cause with their own, misdirected opinion.
Myth can, more often than not, take the form of slanderous, ad nauseam, accusations based on half-truths. They are designed to give that person just enough knowledge to believe in the myth, without them feeling the need for further scrutinizing.
The media myth about Rafael Benitez' transfer policy can go some way to showing the biased misreprsentation of half-truths.
"When the debate is over, slander becomes the tool of the loser."—Socrates
We all know that if you throw enough mud, inevitably some of it will stick. Eventually, slander turns to myth, which in turn leads to wide-spread false beliefs of the truth.
But slander doesn't just have to be petty name-calling or vicious rumors. It can just as easily come in the form of lies and disinformation which are implied to be factual.
The whole incident between Sam Allardyce and Rafa Benitez can be seen as slanderous behaviour, with the clear intent by Allardyce and Ferguson of trying to create a negative light for the Liverpool manager.
If someone is offered information which allows reason to act in accordance with their own motives, then that person will gladly take that opinion on board—no matter how slim the evidence—without question.
Rival club's supporters are happy to believe the words of Sam Allardyce and Alex Ferguson, and that will only add to the ideology that is being shaped by these antagonists. The media bias in certain corners of the world are happy to pedal lies and slander in the hope of swaying social opinion, which is why more and more false stories, half-truths, and propagandist myths are force-fed to the public, everyday.
Some fans are happy to sit back and accept that there is no sense in fighting such a large-scale wave of propaganda. But whilst people are being manipulated without realisation; it's up to those who know the truth to fight back, inform the unknowing, and slowly convince people they are being led in the wrong direction.
"Truth is generally the best vindication against slander."—Abraham Lincoln