Exclusive: As Russia-gate gives cover for an Establishment attack on Internet freedom and independent news, traditional defenders of a free press and civil liberties are joining the assault or staying on the sidelines, reports Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
In the past, America has witnessed “McCarthyism” from the Right and even complaints from the Right about “McCarthyism of the Left.” But what we are witnessing now amid the Russia-gate frenzy is what might be called “Establishment McCarthyism,” traditional media/political powers demonizing and silencing dissent that questions mainstream narratives.
Sen. Joe McCarthy with lawyer Roy Cohn (right)
This extraordinary assault on civil liberties is cloaked in fright-filled stories about “Russian propaganda” and wildly exaggerated tales of the Kremlin’s “hordes of Twitter bots,” but its underlying goal is to enforce Washington’s “groupthinks” by creating a permanent system that shuts down or marginalizes dissident opinions and labels contrary information – no matter how reasonable and well-researched – as “disputed” or “rated false” by mainstream “fact-checking” organizations like PolitiFact.
It doesn’t seem to matter that the paragons of this new structure – such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and, indeed, PolitiFact – have a checkered record of getting facts straight.
For instance, PolitiFact still rates as “true” Hillary Clinton’s false claim that “all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies” agreed that Russia was behind the release of Democratic emails last year. Even the Times and The Associated Press belatedly ran corrections after President Obama’s intelligence chiefs admitted that the assessment came from what Director of National Intelligence James Clapper called “hand-picked” analysts from only three agencies: CIA, FBI and NSA.
And, the larger truth was that these “hand-picked” analysts were sequestered away from other analysts even from their own agencies and produced “stove-piped intelligence,” i.e., analysis that escapes the back-and-forth that should occur inside the intelligence community.
Even then, what these analysts published last Jan. 6 was an “assessment,” which they specifically warned was “not intended to imply that we have proof that shows something to be a fact.” In other words, they didn’t have any conclusive proof of Russian “hacking.”
Yet, the Times and other leading newspaper routinely treat these findings as flat fact or the unassailable “consensus” of the “intelligence community.” Contrary information, including WikiLeaks’ denials of a Russian role in supplying the emails, and contrary judgments from former senior U.S. intelligence officials are ignored.
The Jan. 6 report also tacked on a seven-page addendum smearing the Russian television network, RT, for such offenses as sponsoring a 2012 debate among U.S. third-party presidential candidates who had been excluded from the Republican-Democratic debates. RT also was slammed for reporting on the Occupy Wall Street protests and the environmental dangers from “fracking.”
How the idea of giving Americans access to divergent political opinions and information about valid issues such as income inequality and environmental dangers constitutes threats to American “democracy” is hard to comprehend.
However, rather than address the Jan. 6 report’s admitted uncertainties about Russian “hacking” and the troubling implications of its attacks on RT, the Times and other U.S. mainstream publications treat the report as some kind of holy scripture that can’t be questioned or challenged.
Silencing RT
For instance, on Tuesday, the Times published a front-page story entitled “YouTube Gave Russians Outlet Portal Into U.S.” that essentially cried out for the purging of RT from YouTube. The article began by holding YouTube’s vice president Robert Kynci up to ridicule and opprobrium for his praising “RT for bonding with viewers by providing ‘authentic’ content instead of ‘agendas or propaganda.’”
The New York Times building in Manhattan. (Photo credit: Robert Parry)
The article by Daisuke Wakabayashi and Nicholas Confessore swallowed whole the Jan. 6 report’s conclusion that RT is “the Kremlin’s ‘principal international propaganda outlet’ and a key player in Russia’s information warfare operations around the world.” In other words, the Times portrayed Kynci as essentially a “useful idiot.”
Yet, the article doesn’t actually dissect any RT article that could be labeled false or propagandistic. It simply alludes generally to news items that contained information critical of Hillary Clinton as if any negative reporting on the Democratic presidential contender – no matter how accurate or how similar to stories appearing in the U.S. press – was somehow proof of “information warfare.”
As Daniel Lazare wrote at Consortiumnews.com on Wednesday, “The web version [of the Times article] links to an RT interview with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange that ran shortly before the 2016 election. The topic is a September 2014 email obtained by Wikileaks in which Clinton acknowledges that ‘the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia … are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region.’”
In other words, the Times cited a documented and newsworthy RT story as its evidence that RT was a propaganda shop threatening American democracy and deserving ostracism if not removal from YouTube.
A Dangerous Pattern
Not to say that I share every news judgment of RT – or for that matter The New York Times – but there is a grave issue of press freedom when the Times essentially calls for the shutting down of access to a news organization that may highlight or report on stories that the Times and other mainstream outlets downplay or ignore.
Hillary Clinton at the Code 2017 conference on May 31, 2017.
And this was not a stand-alone story. Previously, the Times has run favorable articles about plans to deploy aggressive algorithms to hunt down and then remove or marginalize information that the Times and other mainstream outlets deem false.
Nor is it just the Times. Last Thanksgiving, The Washington Post ran a fawning front-page article about an anonymous group PropOrNot that had created a blacklist of 200 Internet sites, including Consortiumnews.com and other independent news sources, that were deemed guilty of dispensing “Russian propaganda,” which basically amounted to our showing any skepticism toward the State Department’s narratives on the crises in Syria or Ukraine.
So, if any media outlet dares to question the U.S. government’s version of events – once that storyline has been embraced by the big media – the dissidents risk being awarded the media equivalent of a yellow star and having their readership dramatically reduced by getting downgraded on search engines and punished on social media.
Meanwhile, Congress has authorized $160 million to combat alleged Russian “propaganda and disinformation,” a gilded invitation for “scholars” and “experts” to gear up “studies” that will continue to prove what is supposed to be proved – “Russia bad” – with credulous mainstream reporters eagerly gobbling up the latest “evidence” of Russian perfidy.
There is also a more coercive element to what’s going on. RT is facing demands from the Justice Department that it register as a “foreign agent” or face prosecution. Clearly, the point is to chill the journalism done by RT’s American reporters, hosts and staff who now fear being stigmatized as something akin to traitors.
You might wonder: where are the defenders of press freedom and civil liberties? Doesn’t anyone in the mainstream media or national politics recognize the danger to a democracy coming from enforced groupthinks? Is American democracy so fragile that letting Americans hear “another side of the story” must be prevented?
A Dangerous ‘Cure’
I agree that there is a limited problem with jerks who knowingly make up fake stories or who disseminate crazy conspiracy theories – and no one finds such behavior more offensive than I do. But does no one recall the lies about Iraq’s WMD and other U.S. government falsehoods and deceptions over the years?
President Donald Trump being sworn in on Jan. 20, 2017. (Screen shot from Whitehouse.gov)
Often, it is the few dissenters who alert the American people to the truth, even as the Times, Post, CNN and other big outlets are serving as the real propaganda agents, accepting what the “important people” say and showing little or no professional skepticism.
And, given the risk of thermo-nuclear war with Russia, why aren’t liberals and progressives demanding at least a critical examination of what’s coming from the U.S. intelligence agencies and the mainstream press?
The answer seems to be that many liberals and progressives are so blinded by their fury over Donald Trump’s election that they don’t care what lines are crossed to destroy or neutralize him. Plus, for some liberal entities, there’s lots of money to be made.
For instance, the American Civil Liberties Union has made its “resistance” to the Trump administration an important part of its fundraising. So, the ACLU is doing nothing to defend the rights of news organizations and journalists under attack.
When I asked ACLU about the Justice Department’s move against RT and other encroachments on press freedom, I was told by ACLU spokesman Thomas Dresslar: “Thanks for reaching out to us. Unfortunately, I’ve been informed that we do not have anyone able to speak to you about this.”
Meanwhile, the Times and other traditional “defenders of a free press” are now part of the attack machine against a free press. While much of this attitude comes from the big media’s high-profile leadership of the anti-Trump Resistance and anger at any resistors to the Resistance, mainstream news outlets have chafed for years over the Internet undermining their privileged role as the gatekeepers of what Americans get to see and hear.
For a long time, the big media has wanted an excuse to rein in the Internet and break the small news outlets that have challenged the power – and the profitability – of the Times, Post, CNN, etc. Russia-gate and Trump have become the cover for that restoration of mainstream authority.
So, as we have moved into this dangerous New Cold War, we are living in what could be called “Establishment McCarthyism,” a hysterical but methodical strategy for silencing dissent and making sure that future mainstream groupthinks don’t get challenged.
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).
My people have been whispering into the ears of the policymakers for millennia. They always win. Haven’t you noticed ?
The primary aim of both Inverted Hasbara (false flag “anti-Israel” / “anti-Jewish”) and Conventional Hasbara (overtly pro-Israel / pro-Zionist) propaganda troll activity is to discredit fact-based criticism and critics of Israeli policy, the pro-Israel Lobby, and Israel’s efforts to influence American politics.
An example of an Inverted Hasbara (false flag “anti-Israel” / “anti-Zionist” / “anti-Jewish” / “anti-Semitic”) propaganda troll post:
“My people have been whispering…” appeals to a notorious conspiracy theory about a purported Jewish plot for world domination.
Anti-Semitic conspiracy claims are heavily influenced by publication of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious forgery first published in Russia in 1903, purporting to be an expose of a worldwide Jewish conspiracy. The Protocols claimed that the Jews had infiltrated Freemasonry and were using the fraternity to further their aims for global domination.
Hasbara propaganda trolls seed online commentary with obvious lies (claims unsupported by facts), lunacy (illogic and looney “conspiracy theory”), and offensive racism (virulent “anti-Jewish” rants, “Holocaust denial”, et cetera).
The dismal lack of success of so much the Conventional Hasbara (overtly pro-Israel / pro-Zionist / pro-Jewish) form of propaganda led to the development of Inverted Hasbara (false flag “anti-Israel” / “anti-Jewish”) propaganda.
Hasbara lies and lunacy are used to distract, divert and dilute legitimate critical discussion of efforts to manipulate US politics and foreign policy on behalf of Israel.
Consortium News readers are alert to Hasbara dis-information in its two forms – both Inverted Hasbara (false flag “anti-Israel”) and Conventional Hasbara (obvious pro-Israel) propaganda.
“PropOrNot” was eventually traced back to a Ukrainian oligarch and one implication / interpretation of the $160 million anti-propaganda bill was established bloggers / reporters could avail themselves of the government’s largesse with its “prize” (bounty) money.
dsfsdfds
like Timothy answered I am amazed that someone able to make $7869 in four weeks on the
computer . find out here…
Excellent!
RT is part off the lineup on my Spectrum cable TV. Are they going to change that. Or is someone making too much money?
Great article. I admit to spending little time watching our main media outlet news but it still amazes me when I do watch how the Trump and Russia and the evil they do dominates “reporting”. But it goes beyond that to our entertainment and the constancy of the bombardment.
To speak out in those forums takes courage and a willingness to sacrifice your career and no highly paid reporter, pundit, or entertainer dares take that rout.
The reasons Mr. Parry cites are inclusive and he does highlight what the attackers might lose economically with greater access to the truth, and their vehemence and intensity in seeing that it is kept hidden. Amazing stuff.
If we don’t find an efficient way to manage in a worldwide manner the power of money, mankind will destroy itself. Fortunes must be limited (around 2 to 300 millions euros or dollars each) and being billionare for any human (regardless of citizenship) must be unlawfull…Soon or later human greed will bring the specie to extinction (Example: Guess what will happen if crazy, fanatical ISIS and DAESH manage to have at their disposal nuclear weapons…Two psychopathe, mentally ill idiots (Trump & Macron) are also near the fatal button…
The only thing Fucken America deserve is a total embargo of everything made in America; including fucken Citizen, until those idiots will have cleaned the mess made worldwide by a tiny minority of US citizen. The main problem to solve is how educating corrupted, kiss’ass humans from all over (mostly prostitutes collabos européens) for them to see the thrue realities ..
Hello all, I have had more than my fill of this nation’s anti-Russia, anti-Putin, anti-RT propaganda. . RT is hands down the most all encompassing television newscast on a regular schedule. Now we have such criminals as Sen. Feinstein wanting Twitter to hand over all entries from RT, Wikileaks, Julian Assange, and more. Who in the hell do these people think they are? The US constitution was not written for the senate or the house, it was written for the people. Re: RT, they are always reporting from the dangerous wars that we started. I have not watched mainstream news from our own networks in years. I do not think they are reporting in similar circumstances. Compare and tell me otherwise.
Geeyp…I totally agree with your assessment of RT. Unfortunately it is not available nation wide and the fact that it is under threat of censorship shows how little our”representatives” respect our first amendment rights. Apart from the news the programming offers a varying perspective on significant world issues that would lamentably be ignored by most of our corporate media drugged countrymen even if it had wider distribution.
What frightens me is that the limited number of “mainstream media” outlets seem to be marching in lock step. As if a drill instructor were calling cadence and directing their movements. Fox does what Fox has always done. That is totally consistent with their past conduct. The rest of the media however, has not spoken with one voice so consistently, in my memory and I’m in my 60’s. What are there, 6 or 7 big names that disseminate the majority of the information we watch or hear? When did comedians ever agree so much? Really?
Colbert and Seth are like attack dogs, on different networks, and they spend all of their “face time” or monologue in Colbert’s case, attacking Trump. I actually watched RT television for close to a week before I figured out it was a Russian outlet. I was watching their reporting on the Middle East and it literally freaked me out because they were reporting everything, including some of the brutalities routinely visited on Palestinian women and children in the occupied territory. I just happened to remember the reporting and the station number and went back several times over a period of several days because I thought they were thorough and professional. Unlike most American “mainstream” media these days which simply don’t report anything negative about Israel, a clear act of censorship, this RT thing was just telling what was really happening on the ground. And they were very straight forward about Iraq. And all of sudden someone wants to shut them down? Should I say it? Shocker.
I think at the end of the day, when I’m a little tired and winding down preparing to go to sleep, my mind wonders here and there, no real direction, just random lurches for no apparent reason. One of these semi conscious musings led to a list of names I had never heard of that were deciding every thing that got printed or broad cast and everybody was going nuts trying to figure out who these wizard of oz characters were, and then I woke up. I had this weird feeling for a few seconds, an uncomfortable sensation that got me up out of my rocker and on my way to bed. I wonder who those “wizard of oz” characters are in real life. If there is a short list of old white men who decide what informations we get to find easily?
I have always enjoyed multiple sources of information because at some point I figured out the world doesn’t always agree with me and if I really wanted to understand, it behooved me to move outside of my comfort zone. I began reading the WSJ every day for one whole summer and it truly opened my eyes. Not some new information that changed how I felt about something that mattered. Just the sound and fury of the other side’s voice really impressed me, especially since it was a respected paper with a national audience. I was prepared for the business slant, the journal depends on them for revenue and has been one of the voice’s of big business for decades. But their opinion page shocked me. I was used to conservatives like Buckley and his crowd, erudite apostles of corporate America and the ” good ole days” but when I started seeing opinions to the right of Pat Buchanan I took a start. And then came Fox and things were never the same again.
It is of utmost importance that the establishment media not interfere with the so called alternate media. Shutting down news sources that are more aggressive and up to date can mean shutting down the any news source that is not playing ball with the leaders in power. That would lead to no freedom of speech and the end of journalism as we know it.
Jerry Alatalo, thank you for your astute observation of the differences between the Kennedy era and today, also.
From my reading Douglass’ book, the CIA had found a double for Oswald who may have been the “Oswald” in Mexico City. We also learned a few weeks ago that a huge number of Oswald files are “missing” from the CIA.
Of course the files have been purged. The CIA will never allow us to know what really happened. We need a popular revolt to bring these corrupt intelligence agencies to heel, and a complete revamping of the guardians who decide what information (if any) ever deserves classifying.
We just needed Trump to do nothing. But instead, he did the bidding of the CIA. The coup continues….with redactions of course.
https://www.maryferrell.org/pages/Featured_What_Happened_Thursday.html
I wonder. If some of the Oswald files are “missing”, did Trump do the CIA’s “bidding”? If so, does that mean he has read all the files (I hear he doesn’t read much), or did they make him an offer he couldn’t refuse?
like Timothy answered I am amazed that someone able to make $7869 in four weeks on the
computer . find out here…
Scammer alert. Share your worthless personality with your fake friends who deserve it.
How can thoughtful comments end up moderated for hours, but this crap gets through unmolested?
So long as we tolerate a ruling class there will be “McCarthyism” in whatever form.
Enemies must be rooted out. Also makes for excellent distraction.
https://therulingclassobserver.com/2017/10/15/down-the-rabbit-hole-with-capitalist-rationality/
THANK YOU consortium news.com for ALL you do. The Democrats are having a hard time accepting the fact that Hillary lost all by herself. 53% 0f white women voted for The Donald. 90Million registered voters chose NOT to vote. That should tell you “the lesser of two evils” has reached its peak. Hillary is still less popular than The Donald
It is interesting that Khrushchev cried when JFK was assassinated, and church bells were rung in Moscow in somber reflection of the loss. Castro feared Cuba being blamed. I know you, Joe, spoke of “JFK and the Unspeakable” by James W. Douglass, and I have to say it’s the best book I have read on Kennedy and the assassination. Incredibly moving.
Jessica K,
Thank you for referencing highly relevant parallels and contrasts, and vital historical lessons can be learned, between U.S.-U.S.S.R. relations in the time of JFK and Krushchev and U.S.-Russia relations today.Those familiar with James W. Douglass through reading “JFK and the Unspeakable” and/or listening to his talks would absolutely concur with your assessment. It is an astounding mystery as to why Mr. Douglass’ brutally honest truth-telling is not already the “Gold Standard” for journalists and non-fiction writers.
Jessica thanks, but don’t thank me thank the Kennedy family because I read where they endorsed Douglas’s book to it being, that if there were but one book to read about the JFK assassination then ‘JFK and the Unspeakable’ was it. I’m also glad you enjoyed the book. Joe
Speaking only for myself, this liberal-progressive has been nothing but skeptical of the Democrats’ baloney regarding Russia and the 2016 election. Although there is evidence of the usual purges of voters from registries, conducted by both major political parties to suppress leftist votes, this is nothing new, although there ought to be far more outrage over that than about phantom Russian hackers.
But the Democrats aren’t crying foul over vote suppression because they’ve been engaging in it as well, and they’re not about to condemn a practice they’ve adopted from their Republican friends as they have so many other GOPher policies. So we can’t expect the Democrats or their establishment press buddies to do anything about that.
Presently, the Dismal Dollar Dems are coming under fire, finally, and at least to some degree, for their paying off a private firm to dig up unproven allegations à la Iraqi WMDs. I doubt, however, that even this latest setback in their frenzy to do to Drumpf what GOPhers did to Bill CLinton during the 1990s will cause media talking heads and op-ed liars to change their tune, or exercise caution—after all, the same attacks on dissenting journalists and news organizations can be turned on establishment ones on the turn of a coin.
Oh, and they’re blaming Syria again for Khan Shaykoun! Tillerson, who sometimes appears measured in approach, must have had the electrodes applied, since now he sounds like Haley.
Sure must have to sound like that!
Thanks again to Robert Parry and CN for continuing to push back against this appalling state of American governance. We are veering toward a totalitarian state, and we have to oppose it in every way we can. Whether the rest of the world sees this fraud or not, these liars will stop at nothing until they are forced to. All this Twitter, Google stuff, Uranium One, etc., much is heating up. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised with the Russophobic madness, if the Deep State tried to put a Russia spin on JFK’s assassination (again, they tried that when it was the USSR). The US is collectively losing its mind
Good point. It was very odd that Russia was not blamed in the 1960s, since Oswald had defected to the USSR, had lived there for several years despite being denied citizenship, and had visited USSR and Cuba embassies in Mexico not long before the event. It is hard to believe that journalistic and investigative standards were so much higher then. I cannot explain it, other than to guess that a darker secret was likely to be exposed in the investigation.
The darker secret could be fear of evidence that US agencies, politicians, or political donors were involved. But now that mass media are controlled entirely by US agencies, politicians, and political donors, they need not fear that any such evidence will be revealed.
Sam it’s something worth believing that the Shadow Government & it’s Deep State strengthen their positions of power under the guise of covering up the assassinations of the 60 ‘s. Joe
as you point out oswald was “reported” at the cuban and soviet embassies in mexico before the assassination. there is evidence that one of those visits wasn’t even him but gave more background to the “narrative”.
the reason why it was never really reported on was because the case was closed when oswald was shot. it’s only a footnote now.
as e howard hunt said on his deathbed, he was just a bench warmer. and that it was part of a much larger picture. george hw bush was in dallas but called the fbi to “report” on a co-worker as possibly involved in the plot, ostensibly from another part of texas that day. these are all intelligence agency tactics to have multiple story lines going at the same time in case one of the narratives collapses.
ultimately the russians were ahead of this storyline and had the goods on the fact that oswald was on the cia payrole.
At about the 3:22 mark on the YouTube video of a conversation between LBJ and J Edgar Hoover, you will hear Hoover talk about the Oswald sighting in Mexico City. Hear it from the man himself how the FBI was giving up this Mexico City Oswald sighting, because the FBI had inclusive proof that Oswald was in New Orleans at that time.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=hoover+lbj+phone+conversations&qft=+filterui%3amsite-youtube.com&view=detail&mid=209FE33BD3A4EBCCC2CC209FE33BD3A4EBCCC2CC&&FORM=VDRVRV
WHO, WHAT IS ISRAEL?
The following is excerpted from Thomas Suarez’s STATE OF TERROR,
reformatted this writer. With thanks to Mr. Suarez. Beginning with
footnote # 130 (p.352), from the National Archives, Foreign Office [UK}
1093//330, Note of Meeting Held in New Court, St. Swithins’s Lane, EC on
Tuesday, September 9, 1941, at 2:30 pm.”
Marked in red:”To be Treated as Most Secret””…Present:
Weizmann ()who called the meeting)
Ben Gurion, three of the Rothscnhilds
Other Zionist leaders (eg Sedig Brodetsky,
Simon Marks (of Marks & Spencer)
Non- Zionist industrialist Robert Waley Cohen
“Weizmann and Ben-Gurion…assured the scaptics” “‘Arabs’ would
have equal rights. However within that absolute equality Jews would
have special privileges. Weizmann’s ‘equality’ included the transfer
of most non-Jews out of Palestine….” (See pp. 72-73
“… Cohen found the scheme dangerous ‘for
everyone concerned submitting that the Zionists were ‘starting
with the kind of aims which Hitler had started…and which seemed
to be based on one religion and one race….”
In this meeting Zionism established the apartheid
state. The question of “borders” was never absolute as the rest
of Suarez’ book documents throughout.
—-Peter Loeb, Boston, MA, USA
PS For basis of a just war etc. see Francis Jennings,
THE INVASION OF AMERICA, Chapter one [previously
delivered as a paper) DS
FYI – Nicholas Confessore is an operative of ours. He doesn’t “swa
low” anything whole. He creates news they want to print.
According to everything I have read, this dossier was first paid for by republicans and then dropped after Bush dropped out. https://beeryblog.com/2017/10/25/lazy-logic-no-the-dem-funded-dossier-is-not-like-trump-russia-collusion/
“The answer seems to be that many liberals and progressives are so blinded by their fury over Donald Trump’s election that they don’t care what lines are crossed to destroy or neutralize him.”
This seems to be the fundamental dynamic. The “primal scream” of fury and anguish at Hillary’s loss and Trump’s win is raw, irrational emotion that is being channeled. When people cannot control their emotions and detach a wee bit, they are prime fodder for being stampeded like panicked sheep.
“For instance, the American Civil Liberties Union has made its “resistance” to the Trump administration an important part of its fundraising.”
Very disappointed with the ACLU, which I have supported for years with a regular monthly donation, for jumping onto the “resistance” meme. But I don’t dare withdraw my support from them, because they are still some of the only somewhat sane people left on the “left.”
You make a valid point Litchfield. The discourse in our nation’s dialog has gone to such a vile and nasty display of crude partisanship that it is hard to comprehend to how we may all find common ground enough to agree upon a suitable compromise if ever again.
If your critical of Donald Trump then you are a snowflake whiner, and any facts to the contrary of Trump’s decisions or brags, then you are ‘fake news’. On the opposite side of the page, say one thing negative about Hillary, and your damned to hell if your a woman, and if you are a man then you are simply labeled a misogynist, so take that you macho pigs. It would almost all be too funny if it weren’t that it is playing with our society’s foundations of civility. Only to the few who rely on war, and domination, does this divide so benefit with power.
The American public has been so badly brainwashed that any evidence brought forth to disclaim any official bogus nonsense the government has propagandized the citizen with, is just fluffed off as conspiracy theory. Why, the government is so entrenched in it’s lies that it can’t even release all the documents and transcripts never before seen for the last fifty four years regarding the assassination of an American sitting president, or so it goes. Seeing how the JFK murder is still handled with a reluctant hand from behind the screen, does not give hope to the crime of 911 ever being solved to within a lifetime of suspicion at the minimum. Joe
O please, they’ve been shilling for the Right for years. This vaunted defense of “we have to let Nazis march if we want to march” is all bull squirt. When Ethel Rosenberg ( a Jew) needed their help, they abandoned her to execution without batting an eye, but they were there for the Nazis in Skokey. They are duplicitous monsters. Try CCR– the real defenders of our constitution.
It is very important to point out the Uranium deals with the Clinton Foundation and Russia. Even Newsweek did an article on this.
http://www.newsweek.com/what-we-know-about-russian-uranium-scheme-involving-clinton-and-obama-693348?yptr=yahoo
So while the Russia gate scam is predominant in the news, we see little about Hillary and the Russian Uranium scam.
Sickening
Not to mention the doings at the Mena Municipal Airport.
Hillary lost her political “virginity” in Little Rock.
Great old article about Mena airport
and gov Clinton –
http://www.idfiles.com/menacoverup.htm
By the way a seriously lousy film about the subject “American Made”
with Tom Cruise – worth a watch just for the sheer BS of it all – and the reviews are generally positive about this ” comedic”‘romp –
A pretty ugly chapter in American history – Iran Contra- and that other hero/idiot Oliver North –
I used to record Thom Hartman’s show broadcast on RT ( probably because none of the MSN outlets would carry his show ) – because it wasn’t available anywhere else – Hartman is hardly Russian propaganda –
And the old lizard Larry King has migrated over
the mainstream media has been dead for so long it’s not funny. just look at the numbers. other establishment organizations have always been a shadow to the establishment and everyone in any of these institutions has been living in an echo chamber so long they don’t even know what’s real anymore. even our author looks at all he reports on through his own rose colored glasses.
the alternative media is falling into the same trap but in slow motion. the saddest part is that we the people should be our own media but our own opinions can’t even be shared anymore. i watched as all the large outlets, who used to value readers comments, started using different methods of shutting down opinion. now the smaller independent voices have gone to disquis related comments.
the filtering of comments here at consortium is alive and well. and for what?
to heard people into thinking one way and stop thought in another. matters not, the genie cannot be kept in the bottle forever.
Has anyone seen the last FRONTLINE program that aired recently with the title: “Putin’s Revenge”?
I have never seen such crude propaganda in my life, something I’m sure rivaled the worst of Soviet or North Korean state run media. I’ve always considered NPR to be a fairly subtle form of propaganda, but Frontline gave up on subtlety!
Frontline is what one gives their dogs to prevent fleas. It has deteriorated into a sickening morass of privatization.
Moyers has always been suspect. Working for LBJ, a man who had his sister murdered and who ran with the mob in Texas. What does Moyer know? What will he not tell us? My God, the man was the speech writer for one of the most corrupt political figures in 20th century America.
Danny Weil –
Well said. I agree with you. I have watched Bill Moyers for a long time. I liked him. However, inside I always had suspicion of him being a part of The Empire Machine. Finally, he has come out. He is showing his true self.
I haven’t listened to NPR in ages because, as you mention it has a very noticeable propaganda bent. For example, throughout the Iraq war it gave very favorable coverage to Bush and the war effort and deliberately ignored or smeared anti-war demonstrators. NPR is basically a cheerleader for American capitalism and empire out of financial necessity. With 30% of its income coming from corporate sponsors and foundations, it cannot afford to be independent or report news which might offend these sponsors. 37% of their budget comes from fund raisers. Don’t forget that in 2002-2006 the Bush administration used a Pentagon military analyst program to sell the public on the Iraq War: NPR used Robert Scales, a defense consultant with Colgen in this capacity–without letting listeners know about his background.
Downgraded on search engines? Tell me about it. ferrocement water tanks can harvest hurricanes is on ferrocement.com
go ahead search water tank
There are several weird twists to the Russia story if you listen to the first part of Loud and Clear.
https://sputniknews.com/radio_loud_and_clear/201710261058544941-the-curtain-rises-on-dossier-scandal-the-role-of-clinton-dnc-and-fbi/
By the way, I’m not ashamed of going to Sputnik for this kind of analysis but it’s a shame that I have to here in the land of the first amendment.
Another excellent article by Parry. This harkens back to the Bush/Cheney 9/11 debacle where the US population was fooled into giving up liberty for security with the implementation of the Patriot Act. Here again, this neo-McCarthyite movement is intended to deprive Americans of their freedom–the right to know the truth. Is democracy in the US so fragile that a divergent opinion is considered the voice of an enemy state. Will every alternative point of view be scrutinized as an idea issued by a foreign adversary. Will all dissidents be viewed as stooges working for a foreign government.
The reactionary investigation and the concocted “Russian Conspiracy Theory” by the Democratic Party proves that they’re as warmongering as the neoconservatives in the Republican Party.
Perhaps, that’s why Hillary lost the election to Trump–“what happened”–was that progressives did not want to vote for a warmongering Wall Street shill.
Of course the collaboration of the media and government in defense of “manufactured consensus” is not a new phenomenon. I remember the role of the NYT during the Vietnam war and every other one since. The CIA, since its inception, has cultivated relationships with editorial boards and reporters to insure the capacity to keep critical thought within safe boundaries. It is not surprising that it is now attempting to extend the same strategy to the owners and editors of the new platforms which offer information through the internet. Another good reason to support sources like Consortiumnews, the Real News, and others who really do resist.
John Ratliff –
Your comments: ” I remember the role of the NYT during the Vietnam war and every other one since. The CIA, since its inception, has cultivated relationships with editorial boards and reporters to insure the capacity to keep critical thought within safe boundaries.”
Yes. . . . to keep critical thought within safe boundaries. A very astute observation. Very true. Late Gore Vidal long ago used to call NYT the newspaper of record – of The Empire.
But of course the Voice of America is perfectly justified in subverting the beliefs of foreign populations in their own systems. It’s always OK when we interfere in foreign countries because our intentions are pure and good and theirs are always evil.
You can’t make this shit up.
Actually, Obama started this new propaganda BS. He passed one of his famous { at Midnight } Laws to open up the channels that ” gave the US Gov – authority Use propaganda against the citizens of the US”. Before it was only legal to use propaganda outside the US – as in your V O A propaganda.He also made it possible to keep the US Gov not responsible in any court of law – concerning the Propaganda Act. You can look it up if you wish to verify.
The new arian race replaying the Nazi policies: “The Persecution of African Migrants in the Holy Land” https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=646&v=dPxv4Aff3IA
First they design and push for the wars of aggression in the Middle East to empower the Jewish state (see Oded Yinon plan), then they demand from Europe to accept the “enriching” African migrants, whose movement used to be controlled by the murdered Qaddafi (see H. Clinton’s emails), and then they are squealing about their very special country that must stay ethnically pure (never mind Paris, NYC, London, Moscow, Praha, Frankfurt, and other centers with a sizable Jewish population).
Listen to their speeches – they are imitation of Nazi speeches, word by word, but without any civilized manners accompanying them.
“In a surreal and stunning example of 21st century propaganda and censorship, Google has cobbled together a coalition it is calling ‘First Draft’ to tackle what it calls ‘misinformation online.’
“First Draft’s “founding partners” include News Corporation’s (parent company of Fox News) Storyful and NATO think tank Atlantic Council’s ‘Bellingcat’ blog, headed by formally unemployed social worker Eliot Higgins who now fashions himself as a weapons expert and geopolitical analyst despite no formal training, practical real-world experience or track record of honest, unbiased reporting. In fact, between News Corporation and Bellingcat alone, Google’s First Draft appears to be itself a paragon of, and nexus for “‘misinformation online.’
“Google’s Glaring Conflicts of Interest
“Google too, having for years now worked closely with the US State Department, faces its own conflicts of interest in ‘social newsgathering and verification,’ In fact, Google has admittedly been involved in engineering intentional deceptions aimed specifically to skew public perception, including doctoring its maps and Google Earth in real-time amid conflicts in favor of US-backed militant groups and through the development of applications designed to psychologically target the Syrian government into capitulating before US-backed militant groups. […]
“the same names signed on to First Draft are also the same names who helped sell the disastrous intervention in Libya and who are now attempting to sell yet another direct Western military intervention in Syria.
“And it is perhaps the lack of success these same names are having in selling this most recent potential intervention in Syria that has precipitated First Draft’s creation in the first place.
“There is a burgeoning alternative media composed of individual independent journalists, analysts and commentators both biased and impartial, both professional and amateur, competing directly with and overcoming the West’s longstanding monopoly over international public perception. There is also the emergence of professional and competitive national media organizations across the developing world who are taking increasingly large shares of both the West’s media monopoly and its monopoly over the public’s trust.
“It is clear that First Draft has no intention of protecting the truth as none among its membership have done so until now individually, but rather in collectively protecting what the special interests behind these organizations want the global public to believe is the truth. First Draft is a desperate measure taken by Western special interests to reassert the West’s dominance over global public perception by leveraging the widely used social media platforms it controls, including Facebook and Twitter, as well as IT giant Google and its large range of services and applications. […]
“Until the members of First Draft can cite a lie told by their competitors that is as destructive and as costly as their own lies preceding and underpinning the invasion and occupation of Iraq or the more recent destruction of Libya, their efforts appear more as a means of further deflecting away from the truth, not defending it.”
Facebook, Twitter, Western Media Attempt to Reassert Monopoly Over “Truth”
By Ulson Gunnar
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2016/10/facebook-twitter-western-media-attempt.html
Fake “citizen investigative journalist” Eliot Higgins and Bellingcat – founding members of Google’s “First Draft” coalition of war propaganda organizations, are busy spinning the October 2017 report by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM)
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2017/10/27/opcw-un-jims-leaked-report-khan-sheikhoun-tells-us-russias-denials-syrias-sarin/
We can expect the New York Times, Washington Post, Atlantic Council “regime change” think tank, and all the other “First Draft” coalition media “partners” to loudly follow suit.
Reviewing the report, it is immediately obvious the JIM totally failed to address the critical chain of custody issue concerning the purported physical “samples” allegedly collected from the “impact site” or “crater” – a hole in the road in Khan Shaykhun.
39-page report of the OPCW-JIM presented to the United Nations Security Council (26 October 2017)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByLPNZ-eSjJdcGZUb0hqalFOa0hhdEZ3WlBvZmRnajFRV3pr/view
The OPCW-JIM report repeatedly refers to an unnamed “defence research institute”, an unnamed “independent expert”, and unnamed “forensic institutes” engaged by the JIM.
In short, the latest OPCW-JIM report is a Bellingcat report in OPCW drag.
Russia-gate also gives cover for the election fraud perpetrated by both major parties.
A very good point.
Exactly! O yeah, and gives Rachel 2 Emmys. Jeez Louise
Why they get aseway with it?
The talking of a symptom belittles the cause, we look for a quick cure all for the Paine and end up hiding the pain while the disease grows.
In a court of Law we would be able to bury with piles of evidence those who deliberately set out to deceive by lies and try to hide behind some false defence.
Their actions are attacks upon our Freedoms and Rights. Especially Of Speech and Rights of Redress from Government and not just the Office but the individual offenders by name.
We should not have to bring suit against some Government Corporate entity, Justice, EPA, State Depts, Instead we bring forth the canals members to trial.
A lot like RICO act works for conspiracy to commit a crime.
So what means do we the commoner have to use, we have to ask members of the Canals to investigate their selves.
When was the last time a citizens group actually got a seated member, even at State Level , brought up for sentencing?
No, our grievences are heard by those whose aim is to protect the System and not the peoples who even with piles of evidentiary facts before them, refer the matter to a committee.
And even when caught for malfeasance of Office, what is their punishment, loose their office to them get on some corporates board or other minor gov high benefit and pay position.
Why are there such as during Bush he moron and Clinton no holders receiving high paid positions within our Universities?
We should say not satisfactory and demand, Make the penalty fit the Crime.
And the highest crime is Breaking a public trust.
We let military men get slap on wrist if that for crimes against humanity. , and pass the blame on to US. For they do it in our name.
https://dissidentvoice.org/2017/07/the-power-of-truth-love-and-justice-now/
Cabals? (“canals”)
“Buried deep in the provisions of the NDAA was language from a bill introduced by Sen. Rob Portman ostensibly to protect the public from the effects of ‘foreign propaganda.’ [The bill, originally introduced in March 2016] was passed by the Senate on December 8 as the “Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act” and then inserted into the NDAA.
“According to Senator Portman, the intent of the law is to ‘…improve the ability of the United States to counter foreign propaganda and disinformation from our enemies by establishing an interagency center housed at the State Department to coordinate and synchronize counter-propaganda efforts throughout the U.S. government. To support these efforts, the bill also creates a grant program for NGOs, think tanks, civil society and other experts outside government.’
“For Senator Portman, the U.S. is the innocent victim of ruthless propaganda efforts on the part of foreign governments to slander and discredit the altruistic objectives of U.S. global activities.
“In the face of the Neo-McCarthyism represented by this legislation and the many other repressive moves of the Obama administration to curtail speech and control information — from the increased surveillance of the public to the use of the espionage act to prosecute journalists and whistleblowers — one would reasonably assume that forces on the left would vigorously oppose the normalization of authoritarianism, especially in this period of heightened concerns about neo-fascism.
“Unfortunately, the petit-bourgeois ‘latte left’ along with their liberal allies have been in full collaboration with the state for the past eight years, with the predictable result that no such alarm was issued, nor has any critique or even debate been forthcoming. […]
“by narrowing the scope of acceptable political discourse in relation to U.S. global strategies that are heavily dependent on militarism and the strategic commitment to suppress regional capitalist rivals, the neocons and liberal interventionists can expect to avoid mass opposition to continued imperialist adventures. Similar to the McCarthyite period when the ideological commitment to containment abroad required the destruction of any domestic opposition, the neo-McCarthyism of today is geared toward ideological conformity. In this sense, Trumpism is becoming a useful tool for enforcing neoliberal ideological consensus.
“The potential danger of the unfolding order is not lost on those of us who take a consistent oppositional stance to the bi-partisan games being played on the people. The set-up piece that ran in the Washington Post that supposedly identified news outlets that were supposed to be involved in questionable or outright ‘fake news’ included a number of outlets [like Counterpunch and Black Agenda Report]
‘With the left’s attention fixed on Trump and its fear of the ‘new’ authoritarianism that he is supposed to introduce, it has failed to confront or even be aware of the fact that the foundation for any kind of ‘neo-fascism’ that might emerge in the U.S. was constructed over the last 15 years of the combined Bush and Obama administrations.”
Trump’s Neo-Fascism will be Built on Neo-Fascism of Obama and Democrat Party
By Ajamu Baraka
https://blackagendareport.com/obama_and_trump_neo-fascism
Good post, Abe. That is some very pertinent information.
Actually, you’d think it was the Right, who are allegedly for the minimization of the federal government, who would be against this kind of government overreach, not the “latte left” or the petit-bourgeois left or the “Democrat” party. Remember back in Reagan’s day when they were called “limousine liberals?”
Congratulations, you’re doing the federal government’s work for it, when you use derogatory, insulting, and demeaning terms to describe those ideologically opposed to you. I don’t see the Right described anywhere in your quote as being reptile-brained or having sloped brows. Obama, Bush, both Clintons and Trump thank you for your support!
What about the Center for Constitutional Rights? It’s better than the ACLU anyway.
Why try to pit them against each other. It’s far better for them to work hand in hand.
As American historian Stephen F. Cohen points out in The Nation, the mainstream American political-media narrative, which powerfully influences the possibility of war or peace with Russia, is dangerously unbalanced:
“It is not Putin who is endangering US and international security, but rather the high-level political and intelligence enemies of détente. Similarly, it is not Putin who is degrading the US media with “fake news.” Nor is it Putin who is subverting the American political process, but rather the US intelligence leakers who are at war against their own president.
“President Eisenhower eventually stopped Joseph McCarthy. Who will stop the new McCarthyism before it spreads further into the ‘soul of democracy,’ so revered by liberals and progressives? Facts might do so. But in lieu of facts, there are only professional ethics, decency, and patriotism.”
US Double Standards in the New Cold War
By Stephen F. Cohen
https://www.thenation.com/article/us-double-standards-in-the-new-cold-war/
The suppression of dissent by mass media to ensure that “future mainstream groupthinks don’t get challenged” is tantamount to treason. The economic power of oligarchy (zionists/MIC/WallSt) over Congress, judiciary, federal agencies, and mass media, has been completely consolidated since WWII, depriving us of every tool needed to restore democracy.
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
While Mr. Parry may prefer independence, and we all know the NYT ownership makes it unlikely, and the NYT may try to ignore it, 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.
Let me refer interested readers to the John Batchelor Show @ audioboom.com for (usually:) weekly podcast discussions with Stephen F. Cohen, each some 40 minutes’ length tho’ always presented in two segments, under the rubric: “Tales of the New Cold War”. Very highly recommended — indeed, some kinda prerequisite for sanity these days as the US goes down the fucking tubes..