Director Oliver Stone – in recognition of his brave work in documentary films – has been selected as the winner of the 2016 Gary Webb Freedom of the Press Award, reports Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
Though most people know Oliver Stone as a famous screenwriter and movie director, he has also lent his talents and resources to a number of documentary films that embrace the core journalistic idea that there are usually two sides – if not more – to a story.
Director Oliver Stone
In doing so, Stone has taken on controversial subjects, both in challenging conventional history as with Showtime’s “Untold History of the United States” and daring to treat foreign leaders – who were undergoing demonization by the U.S. government and media – as complex figures who deserve to have their say as well.
Not surprisingly, Stone has faced intense criticism for deviating from mainstream U.S. groupthinks, which seek to portray international adversaries as cardboard villains deserving only of American hatred and bombs.
But Stone learned as a decorated young soldier in the Vietnam War how that propaganda process can lead to unspeakable horrors, including the unnecessary deaths of millions of people and the devastation of entire nations and regions.
The Vietnam War – and the U.S. government’s lies that justified it – taught Stone a powerful lesson that is as true now as it was then, that a healthy democracy should encourage a diversity of viewpoints, appreciate all sides of a conflict, and have the courage to engage in serious self-criticism, not simply assume that what the authorities are saying is true.
Stone’s documentaries have included close-up studies of Latin American leftist leaders challenging U.S. hegemony in the hemisphere, including Cuba’s Fidel and Raul Castro, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, Bolivia’s Evo Morales, Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, the Kirschners of Argentina, Brazil’s Lula da Silva and Paraguay’s Fernando Lugo.
Stone recently produced a documentary on the Ukraine crisis, entitled “Ukraine on Fire,” which offered a nuanced understanding of Ukraine’s modern history as well as explaining the behind-the-scenes story of the violent overthrow of elected President Viktor Yanukovych and the secret U.S. hand in turning Ukraine into a flashpoint for a new Cold War.
In June, Showtime is scheduled to release Stone’s series of interviews with Russian President Vladimir Putin, spanning two years, entitled “The Putin Interviews.”
Because of his courage and tenacity in presenting sides of important stories that many powerful interests in the United States would prefer the American people not hear, the Board of Directors for the Consortium for Independent Journalism (which publishes Consortiumnews.com) presents Oliver Stone with the Gary Webb Freedom of the Press Award for 2016.
Background of Award
The award is named in honor of investigative reporter Gary Webb who in 1996 courageously revived interest in one of the darkest scandals of the 1980s, the Reagan administration’s tolerance of cocaine trafficking by the CIA-organized Nicaraguan Contra rebels who were fighting to overthrow Nicaragua’s leftist Sandinista government.
Journalist Gary Webb holding a copy of his Contra-cocaine article in the San Jose Mercury-News.
The Contra-Cocaine scandal was originally exposed by Associated Press reporters Robert Parry and Brian Barger in 1985, but the major U.S. newspapers accepted the Reagan administration’s denials and treated the story as a “conspiracy theory.”
So, when Webb revived the story in 1996 for the San Jose Mercury News and described how some of the Contra cocaine fueled the spread of crack across urban America, the major newspapers again rallied to the defense of the Contras and the Reagan administration’s legacy.
The assault on Webb was led by The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times – and was so ferocious that Webb’s editors at the Mercury News sacrificed him to protect their own careers. Webb found himself cast out from the profession that he loved.
It didn’t even matter that an internal CIA investigation by Inspector General Frederick Hitz confirmed, in 1998, that the CIA was aware of the Contra cocaine trafficking but had put its goal of ousting the Sandinistas ahead of any responsibility to expose the Contra criminality.
Because of the false impression that Webb had manufactured a fake story, he remained unemployable in mainstream journalism. In 2004, with his life in tatters and his financial resources spent, Webb took his own life, a tragic casualty in the difficult fight for a truly free press in America, a press that doesn’t just rubber stamp government propaganda and accept official lies as truth.
[For more on that history, see Consortiumnews.com’s “The Sordid Contra-Cocaine Saga.”]
Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com).
I am doubtful that the adversarial approach to history is a good one although I recognise that the subject has been captured today by state-supporting people who give themselves academic qualifications and reign over tertiary institutions handing out certificates and honours in support of their bias.
It seems arguable that Mr Oliver Stone has adopted the only practical means of showing what the custodians of the past have been doing in the last century and this. Its an astonishing thing for most of us, to read the history books of 19th century and realise that there was a time not long ago when humanity faced its acts resolutely and recognised the propriety of them. Not any more.
So it is with gratitude and respect that I join others in honouring Mr Stone for his contribution in raising the veil that institution historians have placed on our past.
Nice to see this honor go to Stone, who has made some courageous movies. I’m thinking esp. of ¨JFK,¨¨ which forced Congress to order the release of assassination-related documents. Whether all the documents will be released is an open question but Stone deserves great credit for helping shed light on the murky events in Dallas.
Why is the REPUBLICAN Indiana Department of Revenue hounding a dead man?
A man who was the nephew of a very well connected Indiana REPUBLICAN.
A man who has been dead for more than five years.
A man who the IN BMV accepts as dead.
A man who the U.S. Social Security Admin. accepts as dead.
A man in who’s death there is a cover-up.
A man who this very well connected Indiana REPUBLICAN uncle knows is dead.
A man who’s very well connected Indiana REPUBLICAN uncle left him penniless as a teenager.
A man who’s family is currently in need of an attorney due to ongoing issues.
Is the state of Indiana this desperate or is something else going on?
No one is more deserving of the Gary Webb award more than O. Stone. Congratulations! I would like to see, finally, a Documentary on the life and times of General Smedley Butler and why “War is a Racket” is as relevant then as today.
Stone and Kuznick’s “The Untold History of the United States” is incomparable as alternative to the whitewash job we are given. For Drew Hunkins, who may not come back on this site 2 days hence, there are so many, many books on the Kennedy assassination, I wonder why you would take Bugliosi’s as definitive? I just got David Talbot’s book, “The Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America’s Secret Government”, and just began it, but Amy Goodman at Democracy Now has a 3-part interview, October 13,14, and 19, 2015, with Talbot on Dulles, focusing on details he found implicating Dulles in the assassination plot, even as he had been fired by JFK for the botched Bay of Pigs operation. Dulles also lobbied intensively to get on the Warren Commission.
To this day, the methods of Allen Dulles at the CIA set the tone for the US government’s overbearing control of world politics. His brother, John Foster Dulles, also shaped the “exceptionalist” attitude that continues to dominate US politicians’ attitudes. But Allen Dulles as first spymaster was incredibly influential in that he developed such an attitude of secrecy that chokes out truth today. He was a controller of influential press, including being a good friend of Arthur Hays Sulzberger, editor of the New York Times. We continue to be haunted by the Dulles era, and the new CIA director, Pompeo, obviously would like to take out Julian Assange. Hillary Clinton said she wanted to, when she was SoS. We can be thankful for Oliver Stone and his important work.
Stone deserves the award for his courageous stance against the power structure’s received wisdom on almost all fronts.
Thank you, Robert Parry and “the Board of Directors for the Consortium for Independent Journalism (which publishes Consortiumnews.com)” for blessing a very worthy recipient, “Oliver Stone with the Gary Webb Freedom of the Press Award for 2016.”
And kudos to you, Oliver Stone, for teaming up now with the likes of Gary Webb “in the difficult fight for a truly free press in America, a press that doesn’t just rubber stamp government propaganda and accept official lies as truth.”
And oh, yeah. Love your commercial movies, too!
Too bad Ukaranian on Fire has been blackballed and censored in US and English Western countries
War is good for business says President G.W.Bush reports Oliver Stone.
In an interview with former Argentine president Néstor Kirchner, Oliver Stone learned that Bush claimed that waging war was a formula for economic growth. Here’s the key exchange:
kirchner: I said that a solution for the problems right now, I told Bush, is a Marshall Plan. And he got angry. He said the Marshall Plan is a crazy idea of the Democrats. He said the best way to revitalize the economy is war. And that the United States has grown stronger with war.
stone: War, he said that?
kirchner: He said that. Those were his exact words.
stone: Is he suggesting that South America go to war?
kirchner: Well, he was talking about the United States: “The Democrats had been wrong. All of the economic growth of the United States has been encouraged by wars.” He said it very clearly.
https://harpers.org/blog/2010/05/george-w-bush-war-president/
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Oliver Stone is a great man in my opinion. I loved his documentary called “South of the Border” (which goes hand in hand with John Pilger’s “War on Democracy”) about American brutality and lies in South America. I also watched his entire series of the “Untold History of the United States”. We really need more people like this. Though if our governments and large corporations get their way they will censor people like Oliver Stone, John Pilger, Robert Parry or anyone else that challenges the mainstream narrative right off the internet and any media in general.
There is still no connection of Iran-Contra by almost anyone to the iranian illegal arms sales, and making it into a showdown with Moscow when Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme refused to be their user when the Israelis tried to force 80 Hawk missiles through his country in mid-November 1985, and get the Pentagon to resupply them.
it’s the most important part of the continuing scandal.
Pamle was assinated. World Court judged USA a terrorist nation due to Contra support
What appears to have gotten better is the breadth and level of awareness in the West of the relationship between the ruling class and the media; and, with that, the public’s growing readiness to identify and push back against the propaganda exercises being foisted on it by those two duplicitous groups.
That resistance is becoming better informed, more enlightened and more concerted all the time. Its understanding is deepening so much that the role of the West’s underlying socio-economic system in the creation and promulgation of the countless and senseless human ills that propaganda seeks to cow the masses into accepting (if not abetting) is being realized and objected to more effectively, more wisely and in greater numbers and intensity than ever before, post-911.
Good things, all; but still not nearly enough. So, you go, guys, you Olivers, you Roberts, you Chelseas, you Julians, you Edwards, you Vanessas, you Sibels and you Tulsis. You and all your kindred spirits. May The Force truly be with you.
Yes Bruce. May the Force of Truth be more and more connected to by all of us, so it can transform our world into the wonderful realm it is meant to be. And may the power of Love overcome the love of power, so that our world can live in Peace. (Jimi Hendrix)
Interview with Stone:
http://youtu.be/ycXxGbrYWAg
Reference :
http://www.greanvillepost.com/2017/03/02/cinema-oliver-stones-ukraine-on-fire-documentary-seeks-to-rectify-major-lies-about-that-nation/
Well, not to be the big conspiracy theorist here, but I notice not one comment made mention of Gary Webb’s “suicide.” I used to hunt regularly with a shotgun, and I do not accept that anybody can shoot themselves TWICE in the head with a shotgun. Anyone who thinks that is possible, please demonstrate. In any case, I’m thankful you made an award In Gary Webb’s name.
For once a genuine award and not the ones they hand out to war criminals!
I know for a fact that it is better to go on living even in the face of the most devastating disappointment. My mantra is: you can’t be disappointed if you have not been appointed.
I’m grateful for the efforts of people like Robert Parry and Oliver Stone. An uplifting article and well-deserved praise. It sure is good to have some pause to reflect upon people of integrity…a little relief from banging against walls of deceit and deception.
The Putin Interviews are something I heartily look forward to. I am now tempted to reinstall television service just for the purpose of viewing them in a “timely” fashion. I want Showtime to be rewarded for doing this.
“During the interviews, Putin expresses his views on relations between the U.S. and Russia; allegations of Russia meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections; NATO; and turmoil in Syria and Ukraine. He also discusses such topics as his rise to the Presidency, and his long tenure there; his personal relationships with Presidents Clinton, Bush, Obama and Trump; Edward Snowden’s flight to asylum in Moscow, and the resignation of U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Some of the exchanges are surreal. According to Showtime, Stone introduces Putin for the first time to Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 Cold War satire “Dr. Strangelove,” which the two proceed to watch together.”
http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/showtime-oliver-stone-vladimir-putin-documentary-1202404604/
Apparently the interviews will run on four consecutive evenings, June 12-15. I think it’s fantastic that Putin took the time to watch “Dr. Strangelove” with Oliver Stone.
For Midnight Express, Scarface, Wall Street, JFK, Born on the Fourth of July, Alexander and – THE DOORS – well done! Can hardly wait to watch the interviews with Putin.
Oliver Stone is brilliant, investigative, creative, entertaining and a seeker of truth. Rare combination. Very rare. Hollywood can thank him for holding it up all these years. I think Gary Webb would be delighted in his receiving the award.
I’d like to see him do a movie about who really pulls the strings in Washington, to follow the money back to its source. White Helmets and Bellingcat are noble subjects, but it’s the ones pulling the strings (paying for the White Helmets and Bellingcat and other players) that I’d be really interested in seeing unmasked. Let’s go deep. Let’s go Deep State. Who is behind the curtain?
Using some of your creative thoughts Realist, I can see using Bellingcat for an example where a Stone film would narrate ‘While most American’s where seeing this in their news, this is what really happened’ or ‘the rest of the world was seeing this’. A split screen in the right places could be a possible way to enhance the point that we Americans have been getting played by our big corporate media, and make lights bulbs go off in the viewers heads. I can just hear Oliver Stones voice narrate the text to our seeing his edited visuals. Distractions are just like Fake News, these techniques of deception need to be taught to the masses…
yeah I like Oliver Stone, get Robert Parry to write the book to base the screenplay on. Picture a Robert Parry who is always sourcing back to the origin of a happening converted into visual and sound film, is real neat to imagine right? I don’t need no film I’m seeing it as I write.
Just had to add my two cents, but it would be nice to see a Oliver Stone film, if for no other reason but to give us a piece of our sanity back after us getting saturated with the big MSM lies for so long & so much, it would be nice.
Joe – set about writing a screenplay yourself, Joe! You’ve got a good imagination. There’s so much to write about, isn’t there? I mean, where do you begin? Here I was saying that we should go right for the jugular (the Deep State), but that might be biting off too much. Probably better to concentrate on the smaller stuff. For instance, who owns the media? How did 90% of it get concentrated into the hands of six corporations? How are these corporations colluding (and they are!)? Is there some big meeting held once a month where they go over who to go after and what the narrative will be?
Who comes up with and directs the propaganda in order to keep the citizens fighting each other and, as a consequence, they don’t turn their attention to the Deep State? Who comes up with this stuff? CIA? Every day there’s something new – every single day – a new fight, something new to get angry over. Fight, fight, fight.
Who owns the banks? The Federal Reserve? Who is writing and directing this play? It’s a well-oiled machine.
I can see your name up in lights now, Joe: “Joe Tedesky: American Sleuth”. And you just thought you were going to retire! Get writing, Joe.
And we all need to spread the word among our friends about the truths we are discovering. Good if you can write a book, but get the word out about what’s really going on however you can. This knowledge needs to spread, and word of mouth can be very effective. Put it on Face book, Tweet it, just keep putting it out there – that’s what the propaganda machines keep doing. Let’s give them some competition.
And backwards evolution, you have a lot to share – why don’t you write a book!
mike k – “And backwards evolution, you have a lot to share – why don’t you write a book!” LOL! Thanks for the suggestion, but my attention span is too short. Or, rather, my imagination would get in the way of the facts. More suited to a screenplay, I’m afraid, or a comedy sketch. Maybe in my next life!
I got carried away, but I’d love to be an audience member watching a Stone/Parry production though.
Where’s oliver stone’s israel film? Maybe his son, sean, should tackle that one.
https://youtu.be/1CDFuSVN6R8
Then again, who would distribute it?
JFK said nothing of the hundreds of connections to israel/mossad and israel’s nuclear weapons program which also conveniently lead to arnon milchon, executive producer of JFK and former Israeli intelligence operative (lekem). By his own admission no less.
Bobby Kennedy killed by a Palestinian? No more bothersome FARA requests after that.
911? Dancing israelis (confirmed mossad agents)?
Middle East foreign policy? Who benefits?
Oded Yinon “A strategy for Israel in the nineteen eighties”, 52 papers by PNAC (zionist neocons)
The whole story:
https://www.newsbud.com/2017/04/23/newsbud-exclusive-the-balkanization-of-syria-iraq-the-roadmap-to-us-israeli-hegemony-in-the-middle-east/
Who gets the most foreign aid? Who lobby is the most powerful in the us?
Safe to blame CIA and MIC but
All roads lead to israel. Where’s that movie Oliver Stone?
Stone’s indeed done fabulous work, among other films his ‘Salvador’ is stunning. However, I only have one minor quibble, Stone’s ‘JFK’ was a blatant piece of fiction that misled the American public. I’m one of the few lefty-progressives who believes Oswald acted alone and wasn’t a part of any conspiracy involving the MIC, CIA or mob.
Having said the above, certain elements of the intell agencies and Washington militarists are undoubtedly guilty of massive and grotesque crimes against humanity around the globe ever since Smedley Butler’s forthright cry of defiance almost 100 years ago. I’m not letting the CIA or MIC off the hook by any means in my by exoneration of them in one of the biggest homicides in US history.
The book that convinced beyond all reasonable doubt that Oswald acted alone and wasn’t a player in any conspiracy is Bugliosi’s magnum opus: ‘Reclaiming Hisory.’ It’s one of the finest works of non-fiction of the last 50 years, it actually took him 25 years to research and write. I beg of you, before disparaging the book, please crack open ‘Reclaiming History’ and give it a look.
For all of Stone’s other work, aside from ‘JFK’, he’s definitely a worthy recipient of all the accolades he can collect.
I don’t think absolute certainty is possible in the complex situations history presents. Relative truth is often possible, and has real value. But the truth seeker always leaves a little door open marked “just in case.”
Read RECLAIMING PARKLAND by Jim DiEugenio that completely demolishes Bugliosi. Then read BREACH OF TRUST by Gerald McKnight that completely destroys the Warren Commission’s report.
I looked through Reclaiming Parkland and it in no way demolishes Bugliosi’s truth tome. Bugliosi’s Reclaiming History is the definitive work on the topic. No fair reader can come away from it believing anything other than Oswald acted alone and was not a part of any conspiracy.
I spent some time studying Bugliosi’s book “Reclaiming History”, and came to the opposite conclusion. I was appalled at the brief and sloppy way in which Bugliosi dismissed the overwhelming eyewitness testimony of the doctors who actually treated Kennedy at Parkland, dismissing it as “not credible medical evidence”. His treatment of this evidence was just plain dishonest. It was the treatment of a prosecutor, not a scientist.
In contrast, he spent vast amounts of ink speculating on Oswald’s psychology, and padded the book with other extraneous and irrelevant details. This all gave the book the appearance of thoroughness. But in my opinion, this was a fabricated appearance to hide the dishonest treatment of truly important evidence. It was a fatter version of the same tactics used in Posner’s book “Case Closed”. I do not believe they withstand real scrutiny. Both these books may have been commissioned by the Oligarchy as part of the cover-up.
Bugliosi’s book grew out of his role in a British drama in which he was hired to portray the prosecutor in a fictitious trial of Lee Harvey Oswald. Some of his statements and conclusions in that fictitious trial were also inaccurate. These inaccuracies were naturally in favor of Oswald’s guilt, since Bugliosi was in the role of prosecutor. He clearly carried that same role over to the writing of this book. It was not an objective examination of the evidence.
The evidence that JFK’s assassination was an inside job is now overwhelming. An excellent summary of major points is in “JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters” by James W. Douglass. He describes how JFK stood up to the military-industrial complex of which Eisenhower somberly warned, and the corporate oligarchy of which it is a part. A summary of the book is here.
http://canadiandimension.com/articles/3027/
A video of Douglass speaking is here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srstQVfVNEM
It seems to me that Stone’s film on Kennedy’s murder is MUCH more meticulously researched than Bugliosi’s book.
Douglass’s book is an excellent, comprehensive account of the assassination of JFK and the consequences that have destroyed any illusion of democracy in the USA.
I second that.
Any fair reader who actually dives into Reclaiming History cannot come away with any conclusion other than that Oswald acted alone and was NOT a part of any conspiracy.
Notwithstanding his record of obtaining felony convictions, I’ve often wondered about Bugliosi. He was an attorney the LA County D.A.’s office when RFK was assassinated and the D.A.’s investigation of that crime- including not only its failure to properly investigate that crime when the coroner found that Robert Kennedy had died as a result of a close range shot to the head from behind, but its blatant corruption of the investigation and conviction of the Oswald-type patsy, Sirhan Sirhan. The CIA has been imbedded in Los Angeles and Hollywood for decades, and it is easy to be skeptical about the competence and independence of LA law enforcement – even those skilled like Bugliosi- when faced with solving such political crimes.
“I’m one of the few lefty-progressives who believes Oswald acted alone and wasn’t a part of any conspiracy”
Drew,
How interesting to find a person who still believes in the “lone gunman theory”. Well, to go through all the evidence, books, articles, in the JFK case is nowadays a lifetime work, but this one story would be enough to prove that there WAS a very clever conspiracy.
http://22november1963.org.uk/a-little-incident-in-mexico-city
At the end of Sept., beginning of Oct. 1963, a person contacted the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City, claiming to be L.H. Oswald, and asking for their help. After the assassination, when CIA and FBI could compare their information (otherwise they work separately), it appeared that the man claiming to be Oswald, was not the same man, arrested for the murder on Nov.22.
That there are so many theories circulating about the murder, plays directly to the hands of those who really organized the murder. Everybody’s heads just spin around with the multitude of possible culprits, CIA, FBI, mafia, Israel, MI6, individual persons, hating JFK for various reasons. And still, somewhere there are people who know the truth.
Read Bugliosi’s Reclaiming History. No fair reader can come away from that book with any other conclusion other than that Oswald acted alone and was NOT a part of any conspiracy.
Drew as much as I often agree with you I would recommend you take a 6.5×52mm Carcano Model 91/38 infantry rifle to a firing range, and get these best sharp shooter you can find, and see if you can fire off 3 almost direct hits inside of 6 seconds. Kennedy I believe was a target inside of a triangular firing squad. I even think there may have been even more shooters than 2 or 3 there that fateful day 11/22/63 who never got off a round during the turkey shoot. Read James W Douglas “JFK and the Unspeakable” for an alternative to Bugliosi’s version of the JFK assassination, it wouldn’t hurt to hear an opposing view.
Here is something that was linked from a comment from consortiumnews from 2013 which is interesting….
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/jfkassassination23feb12.shtml
Sorry, Drew, but Fletcher Prouty, and Jim Garrison on whom Stone relied were intimately familiar with the players at the CIA and the scene, and, apart from everything else, Bugliosi’s reliance on the single bullet theory, and dismissal of what the Parkland Hospital doctors saw, renders his 1000+ page tome a joke. For starters, read James Douglass’ book and listen to Prouty’s and Garrison’s interviews – and those of Doug Horne of the Assassinations Records Review Board – and see the work of Jim Marrs and Jim DiEugenio.
The Warren Commission Report was an abomination, and resulted in the coverup of the assassination of a U.S. President, a major political coup, and a Vietnam War that killed millions of Vietnamese, 55,000 Americans, the environmental devastation of a country,
American MIAs who were never repatriated, and the perpetuation of a military driven U.S. foreign policy that is reflected in where we and the world are today.
It’s sad to hear that a thinking US citizen, let alone a leftist (an actual one I presume and not a neoliberal masquerading as such), still believes that ”lonely lunatic” baloney. Bugliosi’s work is replete with superficial analyses and above all it misses the point: how is it possible that a US President would not face the most virulent opposition to the point of assassination if need be, when he has crossed all red lines of the Cold War US establishment.
JFK, in the last six months of his presidency and his life went beyond all acceptable norms of what was expected by a man in his office back then. He essentially repudiated his own pre-election statements and asked for understanding towards the USSR and its people in his Washington University Speech. He prepared the disengagement from Vietnam (essentially form the entire old French Indochina), he started dismantling the anti-Castro paramilitary organizations and less than a month before his demise in Dallas, he stated in an interview that he recognized the sins of US policy in Latin America and therefore sympathized with the goals – at least, early on – of the Cuban revolutionaries (i.e., Castro and Che Guevara).
Do you comprehend how blasphemous his views and policies were at the time for the US establishment? There was a reason why he had been labeled a ”communist” by various opponents and I think you understand the implications of such an accusation at the height of the Cold War in the US.
Had there been a controversial Soviet counterpart who got assassinated under so suspicious circumstances with the official narrative being ludicrous garbage that included ”magic bullets”, you would consider that a ”typical” case of the mysterious and dark machinations of the Soviet regime. But when all that takes place under the star-spangled banner, it somehow makes sense…
The Mercury New apologized for running Webb’s series twice. As if the top editors didn’t know what they were publishing. Anyway, that’s the old Mercury News; it’s now a ghost.
Since many here are making suggestions to what Oliver Stone should produce next, I will suggest that Mr Stone develope a film dedicated to exposing the ‘Fake News’ meme, which is now in current fashion. Although I trust that Oliver Stone would know how to present such a film, I also imagine that he could cleverly bring into view the past American presidential election and all it’s many antics of rhetorical deception that went with it, while at the same time present an alternative portrayal of Vladimir Putin like no other director would. Maybe Oliver Stone could even expand into revealing the pain and waste which is a result of the many wars the U.S. has waged and fought since WWII, along with how the CIA has engineered coup after coup all under the umbrella of U.S. World Hegemony. I’m sure using the ‘Fake News’ as the front cover title Stone could delve well into many other aspects of our modern world which we live in. After all none of this could have ever happened if all of this wasn’t first built around a lie to cover another lie.
Well…it hasnt gotten any better since the good old days….Thanks to all the journalists who had to live it repression…just to tell the straight story…
remember Kent State
FYI–
Thursday, Sep 22, 2016 06:58 AM CDT
“I’m still angry”: Oliver Stone slams “superficial election,” media “idiots,” Orwellian U.S. politics
The award-winning director of “Snowden” condemned U.S. warmongering and foreign policy in an interview
Ben Norton
Topics: Edward Snowden, Foreign policy, Media, National Security Agency, NSA, Oliver Stone, snowden, Surveillance, surveillance state, News, Politics News
“Stone spoke at a small event in New York on Sept. 14, where he blasted the “superficial” U.S. presidential election, the “idiots” in the media and belligerent U.S. foreign policy. He also discussed difficulties in making “Snowden” and applauded whistleblowers for “courageously” exposing lies, as Salon previously reported.”
http://www.salon.com/2016/09/22/im-still-angry-oliver-stone-slams-superficial-election-media-idiots-orwellian-u-s-politics/
“have the courage to engage in serious self-criticism,”— That is the sad truth lacking in the United States. When I showed Webb’s article to my “liberal” friends, every one dismissed it and my “raving”. Now, with the success of “fake news” no criticism is acceptable. Such bullshit.
Yes, it is courage to seek truth and to self-criticize that is lacking, which arises from a community that makes the pursuit of truth and justice sustainable. It is marginally sustainable in the US, and only for a minority, and only in general secrecy of opinion. This is the measure of totalitarianism, and we are there, because the mass media and elections are controlled by economic power.
”The Vietnam War – and the U.S. government’s lies that justified it – taught Stone a powerful lesson that is as true now as it was then, that a healthy democracy should encourage a diversity of viewpoints, appreciate all sides of a conflict, and have the courage to engage in serious self-criticism, not simply assume that what the authorities are saying is true.” Robert Parry
All of my contemporary heroes in one brief article! Terrific. Oliver Stone realized the mess that Vietnam was, the honorable way; he experienced it. William Pepper did the same thing. Both have been ignored by the MSM because they tell the truth. Congratulations to Oliver Stone. As for Robert Parry And Gary Webb; the same honesty except in Journalism. It is an encouraging day!
William Pepper reported on what he witnessed in Vietnam:
https://www.corbettreport.com/interview-1272-william-pepper-reveals-who-really-killed-mlk
Congratulations to Oliver Stone. As for Robert Parry And Gary Webb; the same honesty except in Journalism. It is an encouraging day!
I’ll vigorously second that. As long as the United States has people of their caliber, integrity, and courage and other like-minded citizens named in this article the United States has hopes of turning around and being something to be proud of some day.
Absolutely, Thanks Bill…
I quite agree, except that the “honorable way” to find out whether a US war is just is not to fight in it. This is of course a minor point in your phrasing, but perhaps worth consideration.
Take two youths, one who sees grounds to doubt the necessity or sense of a war like Vietnam, and has the honor and guts to take on family, community, and even nation to oppose it, at enormous loss to career, social life, etc. The other kid assumes that it must be honorable because “everyone says so” or does not see how to survive in opposition to family, community, and even nation. They both discover that it was a complete fraud and groupthink of the right-wing oligarchy, that led to “unspeakable horrors, including the unnecessary deaths of millions of people and the devastation of entire nations and regions.”
So who is the “honorable” kid, who is the opposite? It is not so much a question of what truth emerged, because they could not have known very well, in their early adulthood, in a society where oligarchy controls the prostituted mass media.
To claim that to kill and ask questions later is “the honorable way” merely because it is done in uniform would contradict any reasonable definition of honor.
The skeptical kid thought that he should expect proof before engaging in war, which proved to be correct, but then perhaps he had more intelligence, better teachers, and more information. To claim that the correct kid is more honorable would be unfair, when society misled the kid who killed innocents.
But to claim that the killer of innocents took the “honorable way” would be absurd, and would imply that the correct kid was dishonorable in demanding evidence before he kills.
So I avoid praising the uniform in a society that has only abused its military for generations.
Good one Sam. The military wants to co-opt the definition of honor to justify everything it does. This is the doctrine that obedience to authority is the highest value, when in fact truth is a higher value to which we owe allegiance in any situation. My country right or wrong leaves truth and justice in the lurch. This whole website is more about saying; I will not endorse my country when it is wrong, but call it out instead.
Of course you’re right Sam F and thank you for your clarity…
Sam F, I can’t thank you enough for your excellent response. It represents a kind of “higher level” of thinking that should always accompany decisions, especially regarding life and death.I have, half jokingly, remarked that next to the Situation Room there should be a room filled with the best and brightest offering alternatives to War. Thanks again for your addition…
Yes, your suggestion has occurred to me also, in the form of institutions of debate and of advisors to the Executive, designed to represent all public goals rather than merely security. The NSC surrounds the Pres, dominates him socially, and pretends that all problems are those that must be pounded with their own hammer.
So correct Sam. I think we’re on to something here. Now if we only had a forum…
Sam F-
You are absolutely right. I have a friend who went to Canada rather than Vietnam, and one day I thanked him for his “service” to peace. He got a good laugh over it, but he well understood my point. Our only hope for a future is for people to evolve to the point where they refuse to relinquish their personal responsibility for their actions. Murder is murder, whether or not you are in uniform.
Well Sam F, from my point of view, the “honorable way” to reply to your serial distortion of both Robert Parry’s writing and Oliver Stone’s honor is to measure your feckless screed against what Mr. Parry actually wrote here regarding Mr.Stone’s service…
…and your bizarre hypothetical narrative positing a contrived straw horse of your own invention, ostensibly in order to demonstrate the “honorable way”.
Exactly where, good sir, did you divine your source for these observations?
Exactly where did you find the “honorable way” quotation in the article?
Where do these “claims” you refer to appear in the article?
As Usual,
EA
EA, my response was not to the article but to the comment, where you should have noted the phrase “honorable way.” You then might have avoided your “feckless screed” and “serial distortion” of my comment.
Did you not even read the postulated opposing claims that I argue against in my comment? Not only did I not state what I consider the more “honorable way”: that was the entire point of the comment. The example sketches typical cases of the pro-war and anti-war youth during the Vietnam years.
In reading so carelessly and in making no point, you raise the question of what viewpoint you hoped to impose upon readers by denunciation rather than evidence and argument. Perhaps you will be more rational in arguing your case, whatever it is. Otherwise we might reasonably presume that you hoped to enforce the misconception of uniforms as honorable regardless of the acts done in them, and I thank you for proving my point.
Wow that video link featuring Dr William Pepper was truly revealing. I recommend it to everyone to take an hour out of your day to watch and listening to James Corbett interview Dr William Pepper…you won’t be disappointed. Thanks Bob for the link…Joe
Joe – yes, that was a fascinating interview of Dr. William Pepper on MLK. Excellent. I especially liked what Dr. Pepper said at the end, though, that if you don’t do what “these people” want, you are just assassinated.
Makes you wonder if they’ve gotten to Trump, and Obama before him, Bush, Clinton…..the people running the country (and I’m now quite sure it’s not the President) need to be taken out. Notice that Dr. Pepper also said at the end that there is going to have to be some sort of revolution where the people take back their country.
Oliver Stone, Robert Parry, James Corbett – all good people.
If you are asking me if there is a JFK warning effect, I would say yes, and there is a MLK, RFK, Malcolm X, and a few others to take into example when it comes to reading a new president the unseen rules of the presidency.
No doubt America lost an opportunity back in the thirties when Col. Smedley Butler went to Congress with information that there was a coup underway, as he had been asked to head this new regimes army….Congresses dull reaction was a missed opportunity…it was thanks Col. Butler, now get out of here. I think between Hoover and Allen Dulles who taught the elite how to use the government without the politicians went well, and I feel we are in a second or third stage of that era at this moment.
The only good thing is today we have a day for the Rev. Martin Luther King, but America doesn’t celebrate a J Edgar Hoover day.
Wow! is absolutely right. That is a spectacular interview.
https://www.corbettreport.com/interview-1272-william-pepper-reveals-who-really-killed-mlk
It not only gives a thoroughly investigated, incredibly detailed account of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr, including the involvement of government officials, but also of the cover-up, including the control of the mainstream media. Pepper then puts this story in the context of history and current events, showing how it is a template for other crimes and cover-ups by the Oligarchy.
This story is a natural for the Oliver Stone dramatic documentary treatment. It’s a story the entire nation should know.
I especially like Hoover paying off the warden to allow Ray’s escape out of jail, and then the clever alias Ray was given to further him along the pipeline undetected because his alias name held some influence enough he would get a pass from the authorities …I would never have thought of using that one in million years.
The sad part is most Americans can’t get into learning about these type of things which Dr William Pepper describes, for their lack of interest, and/or for their fear of being christened a conspiracy theorist. I personally don’t care if they bury me wearing a tinfoiled hat, because at least I yearned for the truth, and petitioned for world peace.
Chomsky states Gary Webb supposedly shot himself in the head twice.
The establishment hates the truth.
Stone has been a gem in American journalism and as valuable to the real fight for our freedom as Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, Ralph Nader, Robert Parry or Michael Moore (before he lost his mind and now competes with Rachel Maddow for the “Bullshit Artist of the Day” Award). Sure, I don’t expect his expose’s to be shown in theatres owned by the establishment elites across the country, but I wish they could be offered as “pay per view” options on cable or internet TV as a courtesy to genuine “freedom of the press” and first amendment rights, but instead they give academy awards to propagandists and war criminals like the White Helmets.
My motto: “ALWAYS READ TO THE END”.
If not doing so I would have stopped at Michael Moore. A person I (with sixty years worldwide working and living experience) regard as the biggest bullshit artist in America.
Keep up the good work all you people who make use of REPLY.
Still in his documentary “the untold history of the u.s.” he doesnt even bother to question the official 911 story..
I agree, the 9/11 story is centrally important. I’d also like to see a movie about the role of war profiteers in the so-called “War on Terror”. Tom Paine back in 1791 warned of war profiteers, “That there are men in every country who get their living by war, and keeping up the quarrels of nations, is as shocking as it is true”.
http://warprofiteerstory.blogspot.com
yeah. and as much as i generally appreciate Robert Parry, and Chris, Hedges, it pisses me off that they ignore the OBVIOUS regarding 9/11, when that single event is the reason we are in our current situation. Why is that OK? Didn’t they study junior high physics? Can’t they add 2+2? Can they look up building 6 … building 7? It doesn’t take much intelligence to see the conspiracy fact in the event. In addition, neither of them seems to have paid any attention to the Oklahoma City bombing, where the local media was not controlled at the beginning, and brought out way too much evidence to ignore that the building was wired with bombs. There are plenty of those local news broadcasts available on the internet to convince a living, breathing, thinking human to look into that event, where many innocent people, especially children, died. Again, if you know any basic physics, the story of the explosion that the feds gave us does not come close to matching the explosion that actually happened. Where are Robert Parry and Chris Hedges when it comes to such important, indeed, catastrophic events? I don’t understand it.
Thank god for people like Oliver Stone. Let’s hope he keeps ’em coming. I am amazed that Showtime is planning to air interviews with Putin. Are we finally seeing a chink in the armor of the MSM?
I’d love to see Oliver Stone take on the project of exposing the Bellingcat “open source intelligence” and “digital forensics” ruse.
What remains of independent investigative journalism has failed to fully address the antics of the Atlantic Council’s Bellingcat gang.
From Ghouta to MH-17 to Khan Shaykhun,, Eliot Higgins, Dan Kaszeta, and their fake “citizen investigative journalist” pals are ever ready to launder Al Qaeda and Ukrainian Secret Service videos and photos on behalf of Western “regime change” agendas.
I’d love to see Oliver Stone take on the project of exposing the White Helmet terrorist ruse next. That would be the icing on the cake.
Father of Invention: Media Portrayed Grief Stricken Dad Turns Out To Be al-Nusra Front Terrorist https://clarityofsignal.com/2017/05/02/father-of-invention-media-portrayed-grief-stricken-dad-turns-out-to-be-al-nusra-front-terrorist/
https://clarityofsignal.com/2017/05/01/now-you-see-me-over-100-white-helmet-self-posted-facebook-images-expose-fake-humanitarian-group-as-fsa-terrorists-in-bed-with-al-qaeda/ “Now You See Me” – Over 100 White Helmet Self-Posted Facebook Images Expose Fake Humanitarian Group as FSA Terrorists Linked with Al-Qaeda
Massive White Helmets Photo Cache Proves Hollywood Gave Oscar to Terrorist Group https://clarityofsignal.com/2017/02/27/massive-white-helmets-photo-cache-proves-hollywood-gave-oscar-to-terrorist-group/
https://clarityofsignal.com/2017/04/10/false-flagger-al-nusra-front-terrorist-reporter-hadi-abdallah-first-responder-to-chemical-massacre-in-idlib-syria-on-april-4th-2017/ False Flagger: Al-Nusra Front Terrorist ‘Reporter’ Hadi Abdallah First Responder to Chemical Massacre in Idlib, Syria on April 4th, 2017
Agreed, although I suppose that some of the false-source and false-flag stories require great investigative resources and time, some in extremely risky areas, and some are not very susceptible to direct disproof due to their numerous vague sources.
It is good to see Stone honored and encouraged, and to see Gary Webb recognized. One wishes that one had known of Webb’s distress in 2004, as his death might have been prevented.
As we approach 300 signatures, I will repeat this suggestion on behalf of Consortium News. Those who would like to petition the NYT to make Robert Parry their senior editor may do so here:
https://www.change.org/p/new-york-times-bring-a-new-editor-to-the-new-york-times?recruiter=72650402&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink
Of course the NYT may try to ignore it, but it is instructive to them that intelligent readers know better journalism when they see it. A petition demonstrates the concerns of a far larger number of potential or lost subscribers.
With all due respect Eric, Robert Parry’s integrity would have to be cast aside to work for the Times. Seems Chris Hedges left the Times after many years because his reports were a liability and rankled the government and his bosses.
Oliver Stone has done some incredible work with his films and documentaries. Even if Hollywood is reluctant to give him all the just rewards he deserves, this award is well deserved. Well done.
Yes, most readers here will readily see that this is a statement, not a likely proposal, although a statement that should resound as the NYT declines, and an opportunity that they may at last regret having foregone.
This is good stuff Liam….keep posting it….this is a gold mine