In the end, controlling the narrative is quite simple really. It means regurgitating the same jumble of words/pictures over and over again, despite the facts behind the story. What Americans, with our limited level of patience, really want are sensationalist short stories of scandal and intrigue, with short phrases and photos that resonate easily in our brains...no in depth hard facts need apply here. Hard facts require deeper digging, and that requires effort. Why do that when we can just let the media talking heads tell us the "facts" for us?
The media and politicians on both sides know how to utilize this false narrative theory and the Kardashian-Tebow mass-herd prone American populace eats it up.
The media controls the narrative in all aspects. It doesn't matter what the story is or the facts behind it. If they run it long enough and hard enough, the people will have it etched in their brains. The Bush years are a testament to this.
Some examples of stories that were beaten to the bloody pulp during Bush's time in office:
-The Abu Ghraib scandal
-The slow response to Hurricane Katrina
-US troop deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan
-Waterboarding
These stories were heavily reported for weeks, months, and years in an unrelenting stream of sensational and emotional negativity that forced the American public to turn sour.
Barack Obama?
Instead of waterboarding, the Obama administration has a "kill list".
No story.
US troop deaths have quadrupled under Obama.
No story.
Texas suffered some of the worst wildfires in state history. No help from the President.
No story.
Record deficits.
No story.
Attorney General Eric Holder held in contempt of Congress and the Fast and Furious scandal.
No story.
Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars down the drain with Solyndra and other failed "green" companies.
No story.
What do we get long running stories about?
-Republicans are against women's rights
-Mitt Romney is really, really rich
-George Zimmerman is a jumpsuit wearing, racist murderer
At the end of the day, the media ultimately has the power to either build up or destroy any one politician or public figure. They did it with Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton in devastating fashion in 2008. They also did it with Howard Dean during the 2004 primary season, running the infamous "scream" over and over again until people thought he was a crazy lunatic who shouldn't be near the White House. In reality, that raucous Dean speech was so loud, he couldn't even hear himself scream over the deafening roar of the crowd. Dean would have been the Democrat nominee and may well have beat Bush for the presidency. Instead, a 2 second scream caught on tape was run over and over and over again in the national media. Dean's poll numbers and popularity plummeted and he had to drop out of the race.
People who watch the news get the pre-packaged news for dumb people. They get the pre-conceived narrative without getting any facts. In the latest evidence of the media controlling the narrative, we have Mitt Romney being confronted by all the major Obama lapdog networks about his finances and time at Bain Capital. The hard hitting questions immediately condemn Romney in the public eye, regardless of the truth behind them. When the old people in the nursing homes turn on the CBS Evening News after their Bingo game and see Romney being grilled...."well by golly he must have done something bad!" On the flip side, when they turn on the same news and see a glowing interview full of smiles and laughter and questions like "So what's your favorite food?" with Barack Obama, there is an instant feeling of positiveness.
If the media were as savage and ruthless towards Obama as they were to Bush, Palin, Dean, and Hillary Clinton, Obama never would have come close to the White House. Instead, they completely built up Obama's very name, and continue to keep him afloat, by ignoring a treasure trove of potentially devastating stories that reside both in his shady past and failing present.