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Overview: In his long career as a journalist for National Public Radio and host of the popular Weekend Edition Saturday, Scott Simon has traveled the world, covering wars and political unrest. During that time, he grew familiar with the lies dictators and oppressive regimes tell to keep their citizens in check. Simon has become, in a way, an aficionado of propaganda. From Bosnia to Rwanda, he heard it all — or so he thought until he was introduced to the morbidly fascinating work of Charlie and His Orchestra.
Created by Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister for Propaganda, Charlie and His Orchestra was a band that played popular jazz and swing tunes rewritten with Nazi lyrics. They were regularly featured on a German radio show that reached airwaves in Britain and the US. The Reich hoped that the hateful messages of the songs would get through to faraway listeners and sway opinion in Hitler’s favor.
Simon’s story examines propaganda through the lens of his interest in this repugnant yet magnetic band. It examines the persuasive power of a new medium, radio, and how World War II played out for most people via spins of the dial. Simon also speaks to his own experience with propaganda, which he encountered many times in his decades as a reporter at NPR. More urgently, he addresses the hate speech we increasingly experience today. Propaganda is the blunt tool used by the intolerant and those who want to hold onto power at any cost. And unlike in Nazi Germany, it’s now in the hands of everybody. Anyone with a phone or social media account can reach millions with the aim to deceive and mislead. This fake news is old propaganda in a new guise. By comparison, Charlie and His Orchestra seem almost quaint.
Genre: Non-Fiction > History
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