[maceo]

Actually, it refers to a phrase used by Walter Lippman in his seminal 1922 book, Public Opinion [1]. The genesis for the book is the lead-up to World War 1. The US population was rabidly ANTI-war at the time. In fact, Woodrow Wilson won re-election on the slogan "He kept us out of the war."

But the US banks were in a position to lose billions if Western Europe was defeated in the war, and so the power elite decided that it was necessary for the US to enter the war to protect the interests of the 1%. The intellectuals of the time believed that it was possible to win over the American public by creating what was effectively the first mass propaganda campaign in history. At the time, the word "propaganda" didn't have the negative connotations that it has now, so Edward Bernays, who was really the mastermind of the effort, wrote a book titled "Propaganda" summarizing everything they learned in converting the American public into Hun-haters.

After the war ended, the fear that the liberal intellectual class stirred up against the Huns, was immediately transferred onto the communists. And then these same intellectuals moved into comfortable positions on Madison Ave and made millions creating the modern advertising industry.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Opinion_%28book%29

[ableal]

Thanks, I did not know that the phrase had originated with Lippmann.

The bibliography looks interesting, I'm aware of the broad outline, but not the details.