You just can't take Hollywood out of the man. Former President Reagan insisted that his daily briefings be delivered not by his advisors in person, not in written report format, but via video. Last week the CIA de-classified an amazing amount of video production / security briefings that were prepared for President Reagan. They are available for viewing on the CIA YouTube Channel. Some of them are quite lengthy, but all are very interesting. Some short clips were featured on a segment of the Rachel Maddow show last week also. The segment is embedded below.
From a communication standpoint, I find this amazing. Reagan must have been a highly visual learner to have insisted that the CIA go to this extent to provide his briefings - complete with graphics and sound tracks with appropriate musical scores. They do provide a clear record of the briefings, but I have to wonder how cleverly the CIA subtly used imagery and music along with the standard rhetorical word crafting to insure that their view of the briefing topics was portrayed. Is is possible that the president was being shown the side of issues and events that would best benefit the agency agenda? For example, in the first clip that Rachel shows, the moderator is saying "You and Mrs. Reagan will arrive in Moscow...", while the video is showing images of soldiers goose-stepping in front of a government building. Later in the same clip, the moderator says they will be going to another city while showing footage of soldiers filling the screen, marching in parade formation. Subtle? Not so much.
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