BBC 'Documentary' by Robert Stuart
Media on Trial (Oct 2017)
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Media Critique (Media on Trial event on the left) |
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“Editor of the vehemently anti-Semitic newspaper Der Stürmer, Streicher was convicted of, in the words of the judgment, “incitement to murder and extermination at the time when Jews in the East were being killed under the most horrible conditions clearly constitut(ing) … a crime against humanity.”
(The) pattern of the major U.S. news figures advocating aggressive wars even predated 9/11. Three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas Friedman published a strident call for war crimes including collective punishment of Serbs and the destruction of their water supplies over the Kosovo crisis (..) Sadly, the words of Nuremberg Prosecutor Griffith-Jones concerning the propaganda of German journalist Julius Streicher hold considerable meaning today for some of the most prominent journalists in the country which, 60 years ago, provided the guiding light at Nuremberg: 'Streicher “made these things possible – made these crimes possible which could never have happened had it not been for him and for those like him.'
(...) Unfortunately, 60 years later, little progress has been made. War propaganda is still legal and very much alive – flourishing, in fact, as demonstrated by periodic calls for one more invasion of a country which has never threatened the U.S.: Iran. As matters stand today, with the United States still the world's preeminent military power, the American propagandists who enabled Operation Iraqi Freedom and other wars of aggression have little need to worry about their legal responsibilities under the Nuremberg principles. - A strong case can be made, though, that they have blood on their hands."
-- Peter Dyer, US Journalists & War-Crime Guilt, 2008, Consortium News
As a sociologist, who has researched Western media reports on NATO-targeted nations for years now, I must conclude that the Western media (corporate and state) today function as one single propaganda apparatus. Homo Sociologicus, Lars Jorgensen
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Did RT Sell us the Afghani War? Did RT Sell us the Iraq War? Did RT Sell us the Libyan War? Did RT Sell us the Syrian War? Did RT Sell us the Yemen War?
- by Clarity of Signal
"In the West, scribblers and ‘scholars’ have been paid to soften every barbarity committed by the rulers, soldiers and even common citizens. - The cults of formal learning, of facts and information have been erected. Holed in innumerable officially recognized institutions, the scholars, certified demagogues, researchers and media people have been ‘studying’ each other, recycling and quoting each other, filling millions of books with essentially the same narrative. ‘New’ and ‘revolutionary’ academic discoveries mostly lead to the same old conclusions, to stale intellectual and moral passivity, cowardice and spinelessness." The Entire World is “Fake News”, 2017, Andre Vltchek
A few articles to explain the manipulation on Syria today:
"Michael Weiss — One of the most widely quoted western experts on Syria — and an enthusiast for western intervention. Director of communications and public relations at the neo-con Henry Jackson Society. The Henry Jackson Society’s international patrons include: James “ex-CIA boss” Woolsey, Michael “homeland security” Chertoff, William “PNAC” Kristol, Robert “PNAC” Kagan, Joshua “Bomb Iran” Muravchick, and Richard “Prince of Darkness” Perle. The Society is run by Alan Mendoza, chief adviser to the all-party parliamentary group on transatlantic and international security.” Syrian Opposition’s Amazing CIA Credentials, 2012, Lew Rockwell
"Pro-Israel neocon hawk Michael Weiss brags, in a new piece in Foreign Affairs Magazine, that he has drafted a blueprint adopted by the Syrian opposition, which includes a call for foreign military intervention", 2012 Tikun Olam
Please notice a pattern in the Western demonization of targeted nations in the mainstream media's reporting. Besides the pattern of evidence afterwards showing that the reportings were ALWAYS completely false. Not only do the reporting imply that the people of the targeted nation are willing to accept the destruction of their country to remove their leader. Also, it should at least make people suspicious that the reporting on the targeted leaders implies that the targeted leaders are the stupidiest people on Earth. See, every time Western politicians set up a target and the Western media focus in for an excuse to 'intervene', the targeted leaders 'reportedly' do exactly, that which will get them bombed. So, Saddam Hussein gets his soldiers to kill hundreds of babies in incubators [ later fact: fabrication]; Gadaffi (for the first time in his forty years in Libya) attacks and kills his own people [later fact: British Parliamentary Report 2016 Gadaffi did not kill his own people and Al Qaeda presence was much bigger than reported]; Syria's Assad both torture, gas and bomb his own people and hospitals. And of course, the Syrian Army's most important gas attack came the very same day that the UN inspectors landed in Damascus to investigate allegations of the Syrian Army using chemicals (in 2013) [later fact: UN's Carla Del Ponte complete rejected that the Syrian Army was behind stating that it most probably were the 'rebels' that were behind].
After researching the most credible information and academic literature on the wars, I can conclude that basically all information from all Western politicians and media were false with regard to Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and earlier with regard to Korea, Vietnam, Chile, Latin American nations etc. Logically, even children easily understand this: Western politicians and the media systematically lie on foreign politics.
"... if you [look at] the current wars in Libya, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Ukraine, and others, it is clear that something has changed. There is one dominant narrative that is being pushed by literally every mainstream media source, irrespective of their ostensible ideological bent. No matter where you turn, you read or hear about Assad’s “barrel bombs”, Gaddafi’s “massacres”, or “Russian aggression.” These reports invariably represent a point of view that is not only completely one-sided, but also factually wrong, even on the most basic of issues. How did US and NATO manage to achieve such an amazing discipline within the supposedly free and independent Western media? - There are essentially three parts to the answer: state oversight of the media; co-opting individual reporters; disseminating propaganda through covert means." War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, NATO Information Operations, 2017, South Front
"Whether it’s a Friday leak to the press (meant to overtake a damaging narrative on Sunday news programs) or a Friday “document dump” of damaging material (meant to be overlooked by reporters ready to start their weekend), such news events rarely happen as a result of a reporter’s intrepid independent digging. They’re orchestrated, leaked, planted and timed. And too often, we in the media serve as willing repositories for propaganda, talking points and spin du jour, whether generated by Democrats, Republicans or corporate interests. Deals are cut in secret. Backs are scratched. One hand washes another." 'Let's start giving media manipulation the attention it deserves', Oct 2016, Attkinson
"In a word, the American MAVM (Mass Audio Video Media) now hold precisely the same position regarding Washington, as Dr. Goebbel's propaganda machinery held vis-à-vis the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, and the Nazi Party. They have become nothing less than the propaganda arm of the state. Thus we saw 'embedded' journalists from CNN, Fox Network, ABC-TV, etc., reporting directly from Iraq, wearing their 'objective' USA combat uniforms - and having precisely the same role as the German Wehrmacht cameramen who stormed across Poland, bringing newsreel images of the blitzkrieg to non-critical and manipulated audiences throughout the Third Reich.
Striking as well, was the religious zeal with which the American MAVM adopted this posture - thereby abandoning their own officially proclaimed professional standards of 'journalistic objectivity'. One wonders what is happening at this present time, within media education across the United States? Is professional media training also taking on board this agenda of manipulative nationalism, and inventing new 'codes of ethics and professional standards' to justify its practices? At the same time, we should remember that - as far as the media goes - all of this has happened before." Access (Britain's greatest filmmaker) Peter Watkins' Indispensable Book Media Crisis, here
Jonathan Cook on Trusting Politicians and the Media (FB, Sept, 2017)
"The biggest division on the left is not on substantial political matters but between those who understand that the political and media elites are manipulating the public discourse to weaken us and those who accept *their* argument that claims of such manipulations, smears and mind-games are just conspiracy theories.
I and others have been seeking to expose these manipulations for many years - there are lots of examples on my blog. And it is not as if we lack evidence for this. Nick Davies of the Guardian had a chapter (number 6) in his book Flat Earth News with shocking details of the extent to which the major western security agencies had penetrated media around the world, including in Britain and the US.
Now we have a whole book that develops this theme further: The Smear, by former CBS investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson. She points out that political operatives have brought the CIA's dark arts into the world of modern social media. It was the CIA that promoted in the 1960s the idea of the "conspiracy theory" to discredit dissidents and regime opponents. In his review of the book, Neil Clark observes:
'The CIA internal memo of April 1967 goes on to advise station chiefs to "employ propaganda assets" – adding that "book reviews and feature articles are particularly appropriate for this purpose." In 1977, Carl Bernstein revealed that over 400 American journalists had secretly carried out assignments for the CIA in the previous 25 years.
'Which begs the question: How many journalists, are working for it – and other allied intelligence agencies today – pushing the Deep State line on foreign policy and seeking to marginalize those who dare to challenge?'
Attkisson argues that nowadays, in our inter-connected world, these assets / smear merchants are working everywhere: government agencies, PR firms, "think-tanks," Super PACs, media conglomerates, and other lobby groups. She concludes with a warning whose importance I cannot emphasise enough: develop your critical thinking.
'One thing you can count on is that most every image that crosses your path has been put there for a reason. Nothing happens by accident. What you need to ask yourself isn't so much, "Is it true," but "Who wants me to believe it – and why?"
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“The victim of mind-manipulation does not know that he is a victim. To him, the walls of his prison are invisible, and he believes himself to be free.Aldous Huxley
Risk of Totalitarian Control
Corporate Control 'Alt. Media'
Cook: 'Google’s new search engine bias no accident': "...the claim of “fake news” does usefully offer western security agencies, establishment politicians and the corporate media a powerful weapon to silence their critics. After all, these critics have no platform other than independent websites and social media. Shut down the sites and you shut up your opponents." Sept. 30, 2017
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