Francis Berger
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Is Hungarian News Propaganda? Of Course, Yet . . .

9/27/2019

3 Comments

 
I have never really been a keen watcher of television news. Growing up in Canada, I found the news broadcasts rather dull and predictable. The news broadcasts in America struck me hysteria-laced screeching festivals coupled with deep-voiced pedestrian seriousness over the most ridiculously absurd topics and issues. One day I watched a whole hour of programming on CNN and became convinced a person could very well be driven to insanity by simply watching cable news every day over a period of a few months. As a result, I avoided American TV news with the same passion intensity I usually reserve for the avoidance of other, irritating affairs such as high school reunions, Black Friday shopping, and poetry slam competitions.

During my brief stint in England, I quickly discovered Brit news broadcasts were just as insane as their American counterparts. I found some reprieve from the TV news by watching children’s shows such as In the Night Garden with my son who was only three at the time. I still don’t quite understand what In the Night Garden was all about, but I found the intentional nonsense on CeeBeeBees less annoying than the intentional nonsense on the BeeBeeCee.

I visited Hungary a few times as a child when the country was still officially communist, and I clearly remember watching the state news broadcast in the evenings with my grandfather. Hungarian news during communist times was as dry and palatable as stale slice of week-old bread. I was usually bored to tears as I watched and listened to the news announcer murmur on about socialism's wonderful achievements as he sat before the camera in a stiff, ill-fitting suit he had been sentenced to wear for twenty-five years. Even as a kid I could tell how scripted and untrue the news the man read was. 
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When I first moved to Hungary as an adult after the collapse of communism, I immediately noticed the communist news announcer no longer dominated the news. Like the countless communist statues that had once held Budapest’s streets and squares captive, good old stiff suit had been taken down and stuffed into a memory hole somewhere on the outskirts of the city. But what replaced him was even worse. Deprived of the West for nearly half-a-century, Hungary drove headlong into emulating everything for which the West stood. Overnight, Hungarian news broadcasts became just as irritating and sensationalistic as other news programs in the West.

Upon moving back to the country four years ago, I made a point of avoiding the television news, which was easy to do because by that time avoiding the news on television came as naturally to me as breathing or sleeping. Nevertheless, when the migrant/refugee crisis began to swell in the summer of 2015, I began to watch the news on a regular basis. This lasted about six months. Since then, I have returned to my old custom of not watching televised news, but every now and then, usually when I arrive home late from work and feel too listless to do anything else, I plop down before the boob tube and passively allow the state broadcaster to inform me about the state of the country and the world.

On these occasions I have discovered the following regarding contemporary Hungarian state news – as is expected with any state broadcaster, it is rather propagandistic; however, the propaganda the Hungarian state news service now spews on a nightly basis is far more in touch with reality than it was nearly twenty years ago and is infinitely more in touch with reality than its Western counterparts. It addresses issues such as mass migration and sub-replacement fertility from a realistic perspective. That is, rather than rattle on about migrant rights, diversity, and empowering women in the workforce, the Hungarian state broadcaster acknowledges mass migration and sub-replacement fertility for what they are – crucial existential and spiritual problems. True, it uses both issues to bolster and fortify the policies of Viktor Orbán’s ruling Fidesz Party - which Western critics accuse of essentially taking over the media In Hungary - but beyond this veil of political partisanship there lies a core understanding of what these issues mean and the dangers they pose.

Of course, this does not mean I am going to start watching the news on a regular basis again. After all, Hungarian television news is just like any other television news broadcast – full of twisting and spinning and manipulating. But the twisting and spinning and manipulating the Hungarians are currently doing is far closer to the truth and to reality than the twisting and spinning and manipulating I remember watching when I lived in other countries in the West. There’s not much solace or encouragement to be found in that, but it is noteworthy, and it is better than anything I ever recall watching on CNN.

And does anyone out there have any idea what In the Night Garden is about? I still haven’t got a clue.  
3 Comments
bruce charlton
9/28/2019 11:16:50

Can't help about Night Garden, my kids are too old.

Glad to hear a positive step for you national news. But unless steps keep being taken in that direction, and quickly, then it will only delay the same outcome.

Do they, for example, acknowledge that only very religious, mostly insulated groups maintain above-replacement fertility in the modern world? No incentive-based attempt to maintain fertility in a non-religious society has ever yet worked - not even in Nazi Germany.

The fact that the atheist experiment has been thoroughly tried, many times and in many places, and has always failed the basic biological test of reproduction; is one big fact that can never be acknowledged.

Reply
Francis Berger
9/28/2019 16:03:51

@ Bruce - Good points. The answers to those questions depends on the Hungarian people - which is worrisome.

Hungarians suffer from the same nonsense plaguing Western Europeans, but they are about two or three decades behind the PC curve. For example, the whole gender debate makes no sense to most Hungarians. Neither does mass migration. In a nutshell, Hungarian society is more conservative than Western societies, but conservatism is useless in the long run.

Only about twenty or thirty percent of Hungarians can be classified as very religious. Sadly, I would estimate about the same number are agnostic/atheistic. The middle is occupied by those who regard religion as mostly cultural/traditional. Hence, there is no guarantee Hungary will go in the right direction in the mid-to-long term.

As for the government, I don't believe it views its actions as an atheistic experiment. For example, Orbán originally referred to his version of governing as "illiberal." He now calls it "Christian democracy." Alone, this means nothing. After all, the German chancellor is also a Christian democrat. But when the migrant crisis hit Europe in 2015, Merkel welcomed millions. Orbán, on the other hand, built a nearly 200 km-long border fence.

For all its blatant faults, I believe the Hungarian government's actions are, at the very least, partly grounded in religious convictions and motivations. How deep those convictions and motivations run and whether the Hungarian people share these convictions and motivations remains to be seen.

Reply
Francis Berger
9/28/2019 16:07:24

@ Bruce - One more quick point. The communists attempted to boost fertility in the 1970s over here. They succeeded . . . for three years.

After that the fertility rate plunged even lower than it had been before the experiment. So you are correct. Atheism will sabotage any effort at stopping sub-fertility.


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