The Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect

I was raised to believe in the news being read on the radio and television. My father was a news freak, NTA Network news was the thing we all sat down and watched daily at 9 pm.

I grew up adoring newscasters and journalism as a profession. To me, the job was about the truth. Telling the people what is going on around them, which they might have the wrong information or opinion about or which they might have been ignorant of so that they can be well informed. I studied Mass Communication in school, for this reason, I convinced myself it was the next best thing to study after law. I wanted to study law so that I can defend the truth and ensure that justice finds an expression of truth through me in the defense of the defenseless. When I wrote JAMB and found myself with a score of 269, I thought it was enough to get into LAW at the University of Ibadan, it was not I had to settle for Mass Communication at Bowen University because at that time, Bowen University did not have a law department.

I still remember my lecturers by name and the classes I attended. I was a first-class student, maybe the only student who didn't see journalism as a means to getting a good job or earning a first degree so as to move on to another discipline when studying for my second degree. I love the profession; the truth was important to my Christian worldview and to me as a person.

Journalism was taught to be the fourth estate of the realm. As students, we were taught to have a nose for news, to report the news without any bias or the infusion of our opinions, and to focus on What happened, why it happened, who it happened to, where it happened when it happened and how it happened. We were told that whenever we were in doubt about any information, we should leave it out of our reports. We were also taught about propaganda and we were told communist countries like Russia and China do not encourage the accurate reportage of events but only wash their citizens with lies that keep them in perpetual ignorance and mental bondage.

We were encouraged to study Western journalists like Amanpour and to watch BBC and CNN and their pattern of news reportage. We were told the propaganda machines depended on the hypodermic needle theory, which is a communication model that suggests that media messages are injected directly into the passive audience's consciousness, leading to immediate and uniform effects on behaviour and attitudes. The theory views the audience as passive, homogeneous, and impressionable. We were told this theory cannot work in the West because the audience is not passive the audience is educated, enlightened and knowledgeable and would ask questions. We were told that when we report inaccurate facts, the audience would start doubting the integrity of our news and as a result, we would lose credibility.

I practised journalism, as a reporter and as a news producer I remember the first time I was told that there is something called ownership influence and we were not to report some news because the owner of the TV station I was working for at the time did not want those stories reported. I remember bringing Ebunolu Adegboruwa SAN to the studio to talk about the tolling of Lekki Toll gate the reason he took Lagos state to court at the time and how the owner of our TV station drove to the station to warn me sternly never to bring such a guest to the station again because what he said was not in support of the government. I felt it was an abuse of journalism as a calling. In order to form an objective opinion, one must hear from both sides so that the audience can make up their minds after weighing the evidence presented by two opposing sides on an issue.

I had the representative of the government on the show to speak for the government and it was only right that the other side have a say. I was told to my face that the practice of journalism as I saw it was idealistic. I was told to study CNN, ABC, CNBC, MSNBC and Fox News and see for myself that when it comes to political issues there is no truth, only the position of the owners of the news media. There is no neutrality as long as someone plays the piper. I did as I was told I studied the influence of media and ownership and discovered that the assertions were true. I resigned a few days after that.

The salary was horrible, working conditions terrible, the newsroom was always tense up and I found it difficult to practice propaganda in the name of journalism. It was not worth it in my opinion. There were two sets of journalists in our newsroom, those who were a bit well-to-do but had compromised their journalistic integrity for money and the few poor ones like me who did the job because we had a passion for the truth.

I stopped listening or reading the news altogether after leaving journalism. I realised listening to the news added no value to my decision-making as a person. I didn't like the idea of someone putting ideas or opinions into my head as news. I understand the power of words and the impact information or misinformation has on the decision-making process of a person. A good example of the power of misinformation was what happened some years ago at Lekki Toll Gate and other parts of Lagos State. Some youths decided to stage a protest against the arm of the Nigerian Police called the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) They called it ENDSARS. This arm of the police had become notorious for harassing innocent and not-so-innocent citizens in the name of hunting internet fraudsters, ritualists, armed robbers and other criminals. It was supposed to be a peaceful protest which was to last for a few days, I was lodged at a hotel on Muritala Mohammed Airport Road as I was to travel to Dubai the day the protest started. I saw some internet fraudsters who were also lodged in the same hotel (That was the last time I stayed in that particular hotel) doling out cash to the youths in the area to join the protest as rouble rousers to keep the unrest going. The touts and miscreants living in certain areas of Lagos saw the protest as an opportunity to do what they do best, so they also joined the protest.

Some online associations hoping to push their own agenda also mobilized and joined the protest Pro-Biafra terror groups and Boko Haram also sent delegates to the protest. The political opposition to the government of the day in Lagos and other parts of Nigeria also seized the opportunity to join the protest by letting their political thugs loose.

Religious groups and other well-meaning citizens who sincerely wanted the best from the Nigerian government also joined the protests. Cultists, students, transport workers, labour unions, and other pressure groups also joined the protests. Nigerian celebrities and musicians who fancied themselves as the leaders of the Nigerian youths also joined the protests. It was supposed to be a protest against police brutality but within a few days, the protesters were talking about revolution and toppling the government of the day.

The government of the day tried to dialogue with the protesters but they refused all entreaties claiming negotiating with the government would mean they had compromised. The government then went ahead and disbanded the Special Anti-Robbery Squad in order to placate the protesters but things only intensified because the puppeteers of the protest were on Twitter, most of them were located abroad where their families were safe They pumped money into the protest and kept posting updates on the social media platform to keep the fires of the protest burning. The unrest led to deaths. Police officers died, innocent citizens died but the protesters refused to let up.

The hardship the protest visited on the people was terrible as most people couldn't go about their business activities and had to stay at home so as to keep themselves safe from the criminal activities surrounding the protest in various parts of Lagos.

Every appeal to the protesters by the government fell on deaf ears. Eventually, the government was forced to declare a curfew and ordered the protesters to disperse. The protesters, especially the ones that blocked the Lekki Toll Gates dug in, they dared the government to do its worst. Government agencies in a bid to scare the protesters went to the toll gate to remove all the CCTV cameras (They could have just turned them off remotely if they wanted to do anything illegal, but they wanted to create panic among the protesters) special anti-protest squads and the military were deployed to Lekki Toll gate. A face-off was imminent. After several warnings, the military guys cut off the light and began shooting blanks into the air. The protesters scattered as expected and the government felt the issue was done with, what followed was the most demonic disinformation strategy on social media. People began to share gory images of dead and injured protesters. It is true that some protesters got injured due to the stampede and some were hit by rubber bullets but nobody was killed by the soldiers.

However, the pictures posted online that night sent chills down people's spines, and by the morning of the next day several hoodlums had visited many public properties all over Lagos and set them ablaze in retribution. They burnt government buses, privately owned companies belonging to politicians, toll gates, and other government institutions. They claimed many died and their dead bodies were carried away by the soldiers. The international community jumped on the issue Hilary Clinton and other political linchpins released statements on Twitter. Arise TV profited off the protest as it was the only television station actively covering the protest from the point of view of the protesters. That same night, the name of the Garrison commander who led the military operation, his phone number, social media profiles, address and other details were released on social media. He began to receive death threats and so was his wife and family. He quickly mobilised to get his family away from his residence, he also changed his location and then he put a call across to his family members. His younger brother called me, he said Brother Gbenga, please pray for my family, my older brother and his family and our entire family were in danger I asked him what happened and he explained he said they shot rubber bullets and fireworks to scare the protesters and there was no use of live ammunition. They didn't expect that manufactured images of death and injuries would be spread all over social media to create a false narrative. The protest had one DJ Switch lady who was cashing in on the protest's popularity on social media to build her career and social media followership. She was on Instagram Live when the rubber bullets and fireworks began to fly and was genuinely afraid for her life as panic ensued. She became the mouthpiece of the victims and cashed in on her lies to obtain an asylum visa to Canada. Days after the protest had died down, all the protesters who were said to be dead started resurfacing on social media claiming they were hale and hearty.

CNN carried out an investigation and at first reported that 38 people died only to backtrack to state that only one person died but the person was not named. Nigerians lambasted CNN because they so desperately desired that people died. The reason for this insistence is anybody's bet. November 27, 2020#EndSARS: CNN backtracks from claim that 38 died at Lekki Tollgate shooting. This then leads me to the Gell-Mann amnesia effect. The Gell-Mann amnesia effect is a phenomenon where experts correctly identify flaws and discredit media stories about their field of expertise, but somehow suffer a sort of “amnesia” when they believe or find valuable stories in the same media about fields where they are not experts. If you know something to be true and the media reported it in a false light, why would you then believe the media when they report something to which you do not have the facts that you can use to judge the story? You believe them because you are suffering from amnesia, you have come to assume that they can be wrong about the information on the facts you know about but you also assume they are right about the information on facts you don't know anything about. Truth is, if they were wrong about the information you know the facts about, they are equally wrong about the information to which you do not know the facts. Trusting any media just because it is a media is wrong. A conspiracy theory to mull about... Trump takes on China in a trade war. He insisted he would raise tariffs on products imported into the USA by manufacturers and insisted he would give tax breaks to companies manufacturing in the USA , China and product manufacturers didn't like the policy. China increases espionage activities in the USA since 2016. China releases Corona Virus, Coronavirus was allowed to kill 776,695,852 people globally and 103,436,829 in the United States. The world issues a global lockdown, Hunter Biden brokered deals for the Biden family in China and Ukraine USA conducts elections during the pandemic. The media backs Biden against Trump.Social media, the press and the FBI suppressed Hunter Biden's laptop story. Biden wins with the help of product manufacturers, Big Pharma, China, Ukraine, the media and others. Trump's trade war with China ends in a defeat, nobody was held accountable for COVID-19 and all the unnecessary deaths.

China faced no sanction for COVID-19. The truth was sold and the world misled! Finally, God made them male and female.

All the nonsense biotech is creating and confusing the world with today is a demonic agenda. Those who have been brainwashed into becoming victims of this lie being pushed by the media, big pharma and their fake scientists are victims of a demonic agenda inspired by greed and wickedness. If the media lied to you about this and you know it is a lie, why would you believe anything else? They say unless you are suffering from the Glenn- Mann Amnesia Effect? Trust the media at your own risk. PS: Proverbs 23:23 23 Buy the truth and do not sell it— buy wisdom, instruction and understanding as well. 1 Thessalonians 5:19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not treat prophecies with contempt 21 but test them all; hold on to what is good, 22 reject every kind of evil. I have always been an advocate of critical thinking especially for Christians. It is not a good thing to be the kind of Christian who is easily swayed by the lying tongues and schemes of the enemy. We know the one thing the devil is good at is lying and deceit and he does this using many direct and indirect means from religion to science to arts to culture and establishment of traditions but we have the mind of Christ and we must be trained to use it.

I am starting a critical thinking group for WhatsApp, where knotty issues could be brought up and discussed If you would like to be a part of it, please send me a message on 08072744871 WhatsApp or an email at gbengasamuelwemimo@gmail.com

-GSW-