For those of you familiar with our On Writing host, Michael Neiberg you know he can’t sit still. He’s a rambling man. He has ants in his pants and in 2024 he headed off to the Chalke Valley History Festival (CVHF) in Chalke, England. While there he hosted a discussion with journalist, author and TV producer Peter Pomerantsev. Their conversation explored the history of propaganda, specifically drawing parallels between World War II and the current war in Ukraine. Pomerantsev’s book How to Win an Information War: The Propagandist Who Outwitted Hitler, examines the British effort to counter Nazi propaganda. The book focuses on the central figure, Sefton Delmer, who pioneered “fake news” tactics, including operating covert radio stations broadcasting into Germany. CVHF shared the audio, and the exchange offers important lessons for understanding current events.
And then I discovered this largely forgotten story from the Second World War, where in a very good cause to fight Nazi propaganda, to subvert the power of Hitler’s propaganda inside Germany and inside Europe, we, the British, developed what one might call fake news.
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Peter Pomerantsev is a Ukrainian-born British journalist, author and TV producer. He is a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Global Affairs at the London School of Economics, where he co-directs the Arena program. He is also an associate editor at Coda Media, a position he has held since 2015. He is the author of Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible (2014), This Is Not Propaganda (2019)—and a third, How to Win an Information War: The Propagandist Who Outwitted Hitler (2024).
Michael Neiberg is the Chair of War Studies at the U.S. Army War College.
The views expressed in this presentation are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Army War College, U.S. Army, or Department of Defense.
Photo Description: Peter Pomerantsev at National Book Festival, 24 August 2024
Photo Credit: Photo by Frypie via Wikimedia Commons
