Hundreds of mainstream newspapers on Thursday have coordinated editorials against Trump’s attacks on the press, but as Sam Husseini explains, the major media need to do some soul-searching itself.
By Sam Husseini
Today, hundreds of newspapers, at the initiative of The Boston Globe, are purporting to stand up for a free press against Trump’s rhetoric.
Today also marks exactly one month since I was dragged out of the July 16 Trump-Putin news conference in Helsinki and locked up until the middle of the night.
As laid in my cell, I chuckled at the notion that the city was full of billboards proclaiming Finland was the “land of free press“.
So, I’ve grown an especially high sensitivity to both goonish behavior toward journalists trying to ask tough questions — and to those professing they are defending a free press when they are actually engaging in a marketing exercise.
As some have noted, the editorials today will likely help Trump whip up support among his base against a monolithic media. But, just as clearly, the establishment media can draw attention away from their own failures, corruptions and falsehoods simply by focusing on Trump’s.
Big media outlets need not actually report news that affects your life and point to serious solutions for social ills. They can just bad mouth Trump. And Trump need not deliver on campaign promises that tapped into populist and isolationist tendencies in the U.S. public that have grown in reaction to years of elite rule. He need only deride the major media.
They are at worst frenemies. More likely, at times, Trump and the establishment media log roll with each other. The major media built up Trump. Trump’s attacks effectively elevate a select few media celebrities.
My case is a small but telling one. Major media outlets were more likely to disinform about the manhandling I received in my attempt to ask about U.S., Russian and Israeli nuclear threats to humanity — I’ll soon give a detailed rebuttal to the torrent of falsehoods, some of which I’ve already noted on social media — than to crusade against it.
Husseini: Dragged out for wanting to ask a question.
Other obvious cases: None of the newspaper editorials I’ve seen published today mention the likely prosecution of Wikileaks. If there were solidarity among media, the prospect of Julian Assange being imprisoned for publishing U.S. government documents should be front and center today.
Neither did I see a mention of RT or, as of this week, Al Jazeera, being compelled to register as foreign agents. State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert has openly refused to take questions from reporters working for Russian outlets. Virtual silence — in part because Russia is widely depicted as the great enemy, letting U.S. government policy around the world off the hook.
The above are actual policies that the Trump administration has pursued targeting media — not rhetoric that dominates so much establishment coverage of Trump.
Then there’s the threat of social media.
My day job is with the Institute for Public Accuracy. Yesterday, I put out a news release titled “Following Assassination Attempt, Facebook Pulled Venezuela Content.” Tech giants can decide — possibly in coordination with the U.S. government — to pull the plug on content at a time and manner of their choosing.
You would think newspaper people might be keen to highlight the threat that such massive corporations thus pose, not least of all because they have eaten up their ad revenue.
The sad truth is that this is what much of the media have long done: Counter to the lofty rhetoric of many of today’s editorials, the promise of an independent and truth-seeking press has frequently been subservient to propaganda, pushing for war or narrow economic and other interests.
The other major story of the day — quite related to this — is that of Trump pulling former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance. NPR tells me this is an attempt to “silence a critic.” But Brennan has an op-ed in today’s New York Times and is frequently on major media. He oversaw criminal policies during the Obama administration, including drone assassinations. If anything, this has elevated Brennan’s major media status.
Those who have been truly silenced in the “Trump era” are those who were critical of the seemingly perpetual U.S. government war machine since the invasion of Iraq.
Trump attacks on the establishment media — like many media attacks on him — are frequently devoid of substance. But recently one of his rhetorically tweets stated that media “cause wars“. I would say “push for war”, but that’s quibbling.
Trump is technically right on that point, but it’s totally disingenuous coming from him. He’s actually been the beneficiary of the media compulsion he claims to deride. When he exalts U.S. bombing strikes in Yemen, Syria and elsewhere, CNN calls him “presidential“.
Many consider “Russia-gate” critical to scrutinizing the Trump administration, but the two reporters, apparently picked by the White House, during the Helsinki news conference focused on “Russia-gate” — which eventually led to Brennan and others attacking Trump as “treasonous”. Meanwhile, much more meaningful collusion that can be termed Israel-gate is being ignored as the U.S. and Israeli governments attempt to further mold the Mideast.
The need for genuinely free sources of information is greater than ever. It is unclear to me if traditional newspapers can be part of the equation. Quite likely, the institutions desperately needed to carry out that critical mission are yet to be born.
This article first appeared on Sam Husseini’s blog, Posthaven.
Sam Husseini is an independent journalist, senior analyst at the Institute for Public Accuracy and founder of VotePact.org. Follow him on twitter: @samhusseini.
Trump has accused the corporate media of publishing fake news and characterised them as the enemy of the people. He is right on both of these points. The corporate media produces propaganda masquerading as news in the interests of the elite, pushing endless war, justifying war crimes and crimes against humanity, justifying the privatisation of virtually everything and ever widening inequality.
Trumps big problem is, that the only backup from the establishment he has, is from the billionaire Mercer who also is the one who positions all these crazy neocons, Bolton, Haley, Pompeo, etc. into his cabinet.
Trump is not a monster, my respect for the man is based on him saying “I would rather take a political risk in pursuit of peace than to risk peace in pursuit of politics.” as he is standing alone against a front of warmongering, rabid lunatics.
Thanks for sharing your Helsinki experience with us Sam Husseini. We need more journalists with cajones, such as yourself.
Here is a policy paper regarding what the government plans to do about all of this:
Big Brother is Here to Make Sure You Don’t Read Things Which May Hurt You
This episode (collusion of editorials) seems like just another in an ongoing series of media stunts. The façade of press coverage appears as circus or staged event. News becomes commerce, an endless churning glut of half-truths, lies, distortions, fakery that can be swallowed whole-hog. Then some portion of the public simply moves along to the next serving. It can be weeks, months, years (if ever) before the reality becomes known.
It’s not just the endless war of bushtime that continues to distort reality, it’s also the endless feedback loop, the press spooling out lies that serve empire. As that former bush aide told political writer Ron Suskind: The aide said that guys like me were “in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off.
“That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”
Ain’t gonna study war no more.
The M$M/DNC/(cia) is hardly more than a Fifth Column (poorly) disguised as the much bragged about Fourth Estate.
Frankenstein’s baby Trump or the man who was provided with two billion in free advertising by the media who were the recipients of the campaign cash (dark money) that flooded the 14 republican candidates in the primaries attacks the “free press”.
Let the log rolling begin.
There is a new Iron Triangle in which billionaires use the abolition of campaign finance regulations as ruled by the Supreme Court to funnel dark money into political races in secret. Their “free speech rights” to donate unlimited cash into candidacies that promise to support the ends and means of the billionaires are never reported by the “free press” These rights are only recently granted to them by the Supreme Court decisions of Citizens United vs. FEC and McCutcheon vs. FEC.
That is one leg of the Iron Triangle.
The second leg of the Iron Triangle is the commercial profit driven media corporations which have a commercial profit interest to suppress all the newly created ways that the Supreme Court decisions allow corporations to give unlimited cash to the candidates for public office that have been selected by the billionaires.
The third leg of the Iron Triangle are the politicians that receive all of the cash from the billionaires that once elected do the bidding of the billionaires.
The Iron Triangle of dark money works like this:
Iron Triangle Leg One: Billionaires select politicians that will support their agenda and they funnel vast sums of money into their campaigns.
Iron Triangle Leg Number Two: Republicans including Trump align in a coordinated effort to unanimously support the selected political candidates that please the the largest corporate donors. These candidates don’t give a shit about anything except their allegiance to the billionaires and their will to do the bidding of the billionaires.
The third and final leg of the Iron Triangle is the “free press” which has become not the “free press” but the tool of the wealthy corporations and which is the end recipient of all the billions of dollars spent in advertising by the billionaires and their public relations affiliates in order to elect the candidates they want to control our national government.
What does the existence of an Iron Triangle between the “free press”, the politicians and corporations mean for democracy?
One need look no further than the various laws passed over the last century to limit or eliminate the corrosive effect of corporate money in elections which have been eliminated entirely by the recent Supreme Court decisions that have sided with corporate interests in the last decade.
The Tillman Act of 1907:
All contributions by corporations to any political committee or for any political purpose should be forbidden by law; directors should not be permitted to use stockholders’ money for such purposes; and, moreover, a prohibition of this kind would be, as far as it went, an effective method of stopping the evils aimed at in corrupt practices acts. Not only should both the National and the several State Legislatures forbid any officer of a corporation from using the money of the corporation in or about any election, but they should also forbid such use of money in connection with any legislation save by the employment of counsel in public manner for distinctly legal services.
That concern of a century ago was wiped out by the recent Supreme Court decisions of Citizens United vs. FEC and McCutcheon vs, FEC that eliminated campaign finance reforms dating back the The Tillman Act and ushered in the current era of Dark Money in politics.
What a quaint notion that this law would prevent officers of a corporation to use the money of the corporation to elect politicians. That was before the development of the telecommunications industry and the beginning of the mass hypnosis that somehow we are served by a “free press” that somehow bleats every day over the airwaves regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that we should support corporate candidates even those who are created and funded by the “free press” to support the interests of corporations.
Over the years the FCC has enacted other laws such as “The Fairness Doctrine” designed to provide equal protection for candidates running for public office which the commercial media might find not in their own commercial interest. That law was abolished too under Reagan. No more would media corporations be required to provide equal airtime for opposing views. Instead they could concentrate their coverage of political candidates which they supported without having the onerous task of letting the other guy speak.
Then there were the deregulation’s of the radio airwaves and the limits on ownership of the corporations that plowed their political bias into the radio channels.
Today we are again faced with challenges to the ownership limits posed by the FCC on television and the Internet. The end of Net Neutrality was heralded by the Trump appointed Ajit Pai under the euphemistically named “Restoring Internet Freedom Act” that will allow Internet Service Provider Corporations to inject their interests and filter content based on their corporate interests.
The band rolls on and the log rollers are winning every day. Too bad only a few have visibility to this silent takeover of our democracy.
Yep. What you describe, CitizenOne, in your informative but overlong screed is exactly how CEO of General Dynamics, a major USA war contractor, selected and promoted Obama for prez.
To wit: Selecting a politician to suport their agenda.
Your comment might have made a nifty little article in itself for this site, or one like it. Nice research and presentation. Certainly literate and well styled.
Citizen One. Excellent, well crafted and clear eyed presentation of The Reality of the present situational/political entanglements that can, and will lead only to certain chaos in America and the world.
The deeply corrosive sledgehammer in Trumps’ hands is the Wicked Power of the ‘Dark Money’ State — an Illegitimate and Illegal 4th Branch of Gov’t owned and controlled by The Oligarchy — which is the Real Invisible Gov’t (not the “Deep State”).
Trump is a caricature of Hocus Pocus and is doing a damned good job of Spell-Binding, Masquerading and Playing the “Fool On The Hill” as he masterfully De-natures and Dis-embowels Structures of American Gov’t; not “as-the-world-turns” — but in Increasingly Clearer Pathologies of AS THE WORLD BURNS/ and Environmentally DECOMPOSES under the Mass-Effect of Plastic & Carbon Pollution — along with MASSIVE Weapons Sales, by Salesman TRUMP — Mass Murder of Humans and Starvations where crops no longer grow in previously Fertile Ground, sustaining Life — where now, only DEATH BLOSSOMS in Mass Graves under the Regime of WEAPONS SALES and American jobs in munitions factories – and INNOCENT HUMANS SUFFERING & BURYING FAMILY AND FRIENDS IN MASS GRAVES AS WE DISREGARD THEIR HUMANITY WHILE CELEBRATING THE PROFITS FROM WEAPON SALES and CEO MASSIVE GAINS & PROFITS by way of DEATH AND DESTRUCTION OF THE LIVES OF HUMAN BEINGS, THE MAJORITY OF WHICH HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE TERROR AND/OR HORROR THAT VISITED THEM, IN THEIR PEACEFUL LIVES, WITHIN THEIR OWN NATIONALITIES, FAMILIES, AND LIVING STRUCTURES.
Trump is a Perpetuator of death and destruction — Not Of Life And Peace, this alone places him in the category of a CRIMINAL, according to our “criminal code” — which Allowed Us to Murder Native Americans at our own volition (free will) etc., etc., etc.
As they say/declare, “This Is America” — and ‘our’ American Flag (drenched and dripping) in the Blood of Manifest Destiny RIGHTS, – where the Sucked Up “Rule Of Law” allows pharmaceutical companies to manufacture, sell and distribute Known ADDICTIVE DRUGS, Causing DEATH in the tens of thousands? (or more) — – and/but are allowed to continue to MANUFACTURE and SELL this DEADLY Drug WITHOUT A KNOCK ON THEIR DOOR FROM FEDERAL AUTHORITIES — let me just say (ask) WTF !!!
SO THOUSANDS DIE FROM PHARMA DRUGS IN AMERICA
UNCOUNTED THOUSANDS DIE FROM MADE-IN-AMERICA
DRONES/BOMBS/MISSILE STRIKES/US TERRORISM IN THE
GWOT THAT WE AND OUR SAUDI PARTNERS CREATED
IN A BUY & SELL DESTABELATION SHAM THAT MIMICED
BOTH THE “BOSNIAN WAR” AND the SHAM KUWAIT “War”
AS WELL AS THE 3/19/03 TAKEDOWN OF SADDAM HUSAIN,
TRUMP-ED UP LIES that led to dismanteling a Sovereign Nation
And the pitting Nativist Warfare/kin against kin in the concept of
Structural Willie Lynch/Winston Churchill ‘divide & rule’ Control
As Brutal Extortionists and Subjugators as if DIABOLICAL
Blue-Eyed, White-Skinned Monsters of Instantaneous Death,
Literal Owners and Controllers of a New Society of Humans… .
This is America ! You Must Salute The Flag! Mother f….. !!!!
Completely agree with Sam Husseini.
Trump is a racist, homophobic demagogue. And yet I agree with Trump that “the US Corporate media” are the enemy of the American people. They are the most sophisticated propaganda system the human history has ever seen. And those who work there are better characterized as being “prestitutes”. All you have to do is think of the presstitutes’ role in Saddam’s WMD, treatment of Assange, treatment of RT, etc…..
Excellent piece. Thank you for running it, Mr. Lauria. Much needed. Why I pay $$ to subscribe to CN.
Don’t forget presstitutes’ ignoring or whitewashing of USA-backed genocide war on Yemen!
What is it about people who just can’t agree with the President with first excoriating him. If you like his policies or actions, say so. If you don’t, say so, too. Doing so, people can make inferences about the person by what he does.
It seems that those who do not criticize Trump the person cannot be taken seriously in political debates. What many fail to grasp is that this tactic of character assassination is used to thwart any movement which the powerful media and financial forces oppose.. It began before the inauguration and has not let up since. Why? Because they didn’t like Trump as a person or what they, the opposition, thought he planned to do. Easy answer.
“If you like his policies or actions, say so” – I did (his position that the US corporate media are the enemy of the people).
“If you don’t, say so, too…” – I did (his racist, homophobic policies, ..)
No-one is a perfect saint nor is anyone a 100% devil. I see no problem in pointing out both sides – as I think I did with Trump. Am I missing something?
What homophobic policies? What racist policies (and please don’t cite any policy which posits a border between citizens of the US and any other country as “racist”)?. Total garbage.
I don’t think Trump and the MSM/IC are working at odds from each other either. Trump, Hillary, many in the MSM and the “Resistance” all want Assange’s head on a platter. If they all agree on this, how different can they be?
The MSM is worried about the same thing Trump worries about–there’s not enough war/money for their donors and their donors need to be made happy. Trump is implementing a neo-con foreign policy and a neo-liberal economic policy. The MSM is fully supportive of both. There is literally no difference in what each group wishes to accomplish.
I can only conclude that we are seeing either: 1. good cop/bad cop or 2. competing ambitions for rulership among the IC.
What I definitely see happening is the deep state openly taking control of this nation. Instead of opposing the deep state, way too many people are begging for this illegal transfer of power from an elected govt. to a non elected, completely unaccountable totalitarian system. Because so many people seem to want totalitarianism, we see that ordinary people’s concerns are ignored. Those concerns are a drain on the donor/ruling class. Therefore, it is anti-war and anti- totalitarian voices which are actually being censored. We are on a scary path.
Jill – I don’t for one second believe that Trump wants Assange’s head on a platter, and I certainly don’t think he’s a neocon. But when he’s surrounded by people who DO want this, when he’s threatened with Russiagate and the threat of impeachment, when the Democrats and even members of his own party are pushing him in this direction, he’s going to give them lip service and throw some money their way.
He’s been accused of treason just for talking with Putin. He campaigned on stopping the wars, reducing or eliminating NATO, and then Russiagate reared its ugly head.
Trump is someone who does not believe the JFK story, the 9/11 story. It doesn’t fit that he’d want Assange’s head. Assange is the very guy who could prove that Russia did not hack the DNC servers. Trump is in a very precarious position, and that’s because the Deep State is not going to give him an inch. He’d be assassinated if he steps too far out of line.
The head that is wanted on a platter is Trump’s head.
BWEvol,
I think it’s necessary to look at what Trump is doing. His cabinet is full of deep staters and swamp monsters. You can say that they are threatening him but consider something. What do you think would happen if Trump called on his supporters and actual left wing people to get out and peacefully take on the deep state? He could fill DC streets with people if he just asked for help.
At a certain point we must accept that presidents are doing what they are actually doing. For so many years people could never wrap their minds around what Obama really did. Yet there he was ordering a 16 year old boy murdered by drone, having PSP arrested at the gates of the WH and filling his cabinet they way Citibank told him to (just to name a few heinous crimes).
If Trump wanted Assange free all he has to do is pardon him. Instead, he is making every effort to arrest him to include pressure/incentives for Moreno and Ecuador along with deals for his extradition to the US w/the UK govt. At some point, this reality has to be dealt with.
He says he doesn’t have a problem w/arresting and prosecuting Assange. His actions align w/these words. Remember, Trump is right now having Pompeo set up a regime change in Iran. He’s bombing other human beings every 12 minutes. He’s working with KSA to kill the poorest people in the world in Yemen. Why do you think he’s not capable of arresting and trying Assange? Either presidents are responsible for their own behavior or there is no real reason to elect anyone.
Even a president needs to show courage. They send young people off to die. They must be just as willing to take one for America as the poor children they send to kill and die in their wars of empire. So, if the deep state is planning on assassinating him, either he should take the risk anyway and do the right thing, or call on the people for help. Cowering in the oval office while committing war and financial crimes is not an option that any good person would take.
Jill – I hear you and you make some good sense.
“What do you think would happen if Trump called on his supporters and actual left wing people to get out and peacefully take on the deep state? He could fill DC streets with people if he just asked for help.”
Good idea. Certainly Trump’s supporters would be there, as they already believe there’s a Deep State. But the Left? Good luck with that, Jill. The Left hate Donald Trump, and a large proportion on the Left don’t even believe a Deep State exists. They’re either oblivious to it or they want the status quo to continue. It’s really such a shame because the opportunity is sitting right there, but without the numbers, Trump would probably be accused of trying to overthrow the government, along with half of the population, and then all would be lost. The country is totally divided. And I don’t think the Deep State will ever allow an “outsider” (which I believe Trump is) to get close to the presidency again. This is it.
I think Trump does have courage, but that’s not enough. The timing must be right, otherwise whatever you attempt to do can be stymied and you’re back to square one. Every day that Trump is in office is another day that the Deep State reveals itself, at least to those who are looking, and the investigation being done by Devin Nunes, Trey Gowdy and other members of Congress is getting closer and closer to putting the puzzle pieces together re the collusion of the Deep State in trying to overthrow a sitting President.
Paul Craig Roberts said on the day Trump was elected that Trump was going to have a hard time surrounding himself with “good people” because the very people who know their way around Washington are not good people, but “insiders”. Hundreds, more like thousands, of people have been put in place in the upper echelons of government to ensure that the status quo is maintained, and they will fight you every step of the way. It truly is a swamp.
So I don’t think Trump is afraid to take a bullet, but why not bide your time, let the Deep State hang themselves a little longer, get more desperate, start making more mistakes, allow even more people to realize what’s going on before you go to the people? If the American people want to take their country back, I think Trump will be there. The Left just has to get more on side.
Good talking to you, Jill.
BWevol
Because every day he is waiting for the deep state to reveal itself, he is bombing other human beings at the rate of every 12 minutes. He is ordering our poor young women and men to kill and be killed. You do not allow the killing of others to protect yourself from harm.
Trump can declassify the necessary documents to show what is actually happening with the deep state. He can call on the people. If he does this there are even Democrats who will come to help.
We are already a divided nation. It is only the truth that has any hope of freeing people from false division created by the oligarchy to keep us at each other’s throats instead of resisting those who are truly trying to harm us, other people in the world and the earth itself.
Trump appointed Gen Flynn who wanted to work with Russia and pull out of Syria
he had to go
Was Rex Tillerson fired for trying to prevent a Middle Eastern war?
https://newrepublic.com/minutes/150349/rex-tillerson-fired-trying-prevent-middle-eastern-war
Trump is being persecuted and threatened
The CIA kills presidents
ask JFK
oh right you can’t
Wow. You are one of the best, most astute, most informed commenters I’ve read anywhere, Jill. Bar none.
Thank you for your post. Glad CN exists as a forum for it.
One of the most astute assessments of our current situation that I have read.
Agreed. This is scary. And UnAmerican. And sad.
Every day it’s some hype of some little thing, and they all hype the same development as newsworthy. By this means it seems a hundred other important things get shoved aside. It’s unbelievable how robotic they all sound.
I pay only for the net, not the TV. I hear some TV lines somewhere other than home, and catch short news before Fresh Air in car on way home. Sometimes if I’m still in the car I listen to openers on ATC. Robots all.
Except some kinda commentary is emerging from PBS regarding Yemen.
The problem is that one weekend editorial won’t do it. We need like 3 months of this and completely silence from all social media and other news outlets, unless they pledge to go along. Maybe we have to pay people like Hannity and Jones and Rush to stay off the air, so that the message get delivered without free speech law suits. But whatever, it will take three months to cure America from all of this and finally be stronger together. Now we have to be brave enough to do it as Facebook and You tube are. Lincon did this in Civil War suspend constitution to save it.
(“Trump pulling former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance. NPR tells me this is an attempt to “silence a critic.””) – author.
Ah yes, “NPR” – where I can get my ‘daily dose of deep state propaganda’ with pretentious blather and jazz or classical music interludes, so I can feel superior to those deplorables listening to Fox News, who must settle for their ‘daily deep state propaganda’ delivered with barely disguised racism, misogyny and xenophobia. When it comes to ingesting one’s daily dose of imperial propaganda – it’s all about having “choices” here in the good old U.S. of A.
Of course for the truly adventurous one can always go to MSNBC and watch Rachel engage in what appears to be some bizarre form of demonic possession somehow related to all things Russian!
Yeah, Gary !
And let’s have a RED CAP celebration (MAGA) and cheerful THUMBS DOWN to shit-hole country humans !!!!
http://www.atimes.com/article/african-middle-eastern-refugee-crises-demand-long-term-solutions-not-quick-fixes/
… would the UNDESIRABLES cease seeking asylum —
IF US LED NATO HALTED THE BOMBING AND KILLING AND WEAPONIZING OF PROXIE MILITIAS ??? !
Excellent comment, Gary.
Gary W.
That is a fabulous comment! A much needed laugh!! Thank you!
The dishonest MSM hyperventilate about their hurt feelings when Trump criticises them. Yet they openly incite hatred and justify and condone Leftist violence. They have repeatedly called for Trump to be assassinated, for members of his administration and their families to be harassed and attacked in their homes, This will come back to bite them – if they legitimise and normalise violence they will find out this is a two edged sword.
USA weaponry, (500 pound bomb) dropped on Yemen school bus by our lemmings in Saudi Arabia, killing scores of children.
http://www.atimes.com/article/saudi-arabia-may-have-used-guided-bomb-on-yemeni-school-bus/
How much news coverage did this (and ongoing) atrocity receive… ?
Wow, that was some thuggish behavior by the Finnish authorities! Thank you for your courage, Sam Husseini. Mike is right, the only place to get truthful information is on alternative news media such as CN, and there are many other good ones. I won’t listen to any news reports either radio or TV (don’t have it) because I can’t stand having lies poured into my head just to “get the news”. I will only read websites and go to a bunch of them daily and some from Eurasia to get the counternarrative.
Thank you Sam for so clearly elucidating the hypocracy of the MSM. But I bet that champion of free speech, Racheal Madcow won’t be begging for an interview with you anytime soon. The only criticism I have of your piece is that you were too polite! The fury I feel at how the “press” has caved on its constitutionally protected duty to inform makes me incandescent on a calm day. I became aware of its lying behavior during the Viet Nam war, when these “respectable” rags shilled for LBJ, with that whiney Moyers leading the charge. When they eventually published the Pentagon Papers, they got a reprieve on their sullied reputation. But then we got Raygun and a whole new cess pool of corruption developed as the “Press” defended the rise of corporate power and militarism until today when you literally can’t tell where one starts and another ends. All while they attack and try to kill and actually do kill journalists who are trying to bring the facts to the public. Revolting!
Recommended in a tweet by Assange earlier this year: https://cfrmedia.com
We don’t need no stinking free speech in the new Trump Banana Republic America.
Agree… we need freedom after the speech…
Thank you, Sam, for telling it like it is. I don’t actually peruse American MSM very often for the simple reason that they are usually lying to you or leaving out stories that people really need to hear. Our so-called democracy is in its death throes.
As shown in this article, apparently it is not a two-way street when it comes to Russian/American propaganda:
https://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-united-states-and-russia-propaganda.html
Washington has a very, very thin skin when it comes to outside nations criticisms of its agenda.
The same slick corporate hustlers and sycophants to power who sold us the Iraq WMD story in 2002/’03 are now going to lecture the country against Trump. The effrontery of it all is bedazzling to witness.
Many Thanks Sam, keep up the good work…
“The need for genuinely free sources of information is greater than ever. It is unclear to me if traditional newspapers can be part of the equation. Quite likely, the institutions desperately needed to carry out that critical mission are yet to be born.”
Sam, those institutions already exist – you just published your piece on CN, which has been around for a while. What is lacking is a large audience seeking the truth about their world, and finding it on various sites on the web. The problem is not a lack of sources of truth, but the lack of people interested in seeking it out.
“The problem is not a lack of sources of truth, but the lack of people interested in seeking it out.”
Exactly, mike k, the Internet took away that old reason (excuse?) people often gave for adhering to old political beliefs — that “I never heard about those things” line — which was admittedly more plausible in the days of predominantly hard-copy info (ie; early radio and especially pre-cable TV were almost exclusively commercially oriented, so they would seldom offer the variety that an easy-entry medium like print media had). Now it’s become very obvious that — here in the US at least — the vast majority of the public are simply NOT interested in seeking out the wider, humanistic picture of world events just a few key-clicks away…that they’re satisfied to stay in a static, primitive ‘tribal’ POV (‘we good, they bad’), and of course the MSM is only too happy to oblige since it makes it easier for them to sell things, which as a commercial enterprise has always been their raison d’être. In fact, most people here will intentionally IGNORE —- and often actively RESIST —- peaceful, non-violent approaches to world affairs.
I think that too often we on the left/progressive/‘reality-based’ (however the hell we are to be classified) side of the aisle fall into a trap of believing that IF we can just compose a logical, lucid-enough explanation of events from a benevolent perspective that the majority of the US populace will embrace it. However, after having lived through the Vietnam War, the Iraq War(s), the numerous smaller ‘military actions’, the elections and RE-elections of Nixon, Reagan, and W, etc-etc, and read some of the millions of perceptive words written about them, I’ve reached the sad conclusion that it normally takes a dramatic event (not good writing) to change people politically, and that can easily go in a negative direction (ie: think 9/11).
Fallen into that trap myself, Eddie. I’d say the sad conclusion you reached is correct.
Thank you for the excellent article and the points made therein, Sam. Many who are cheering for censorship haven’t a clue what they are advocating for.
Mary, how did you get a pic as your avatar?
Your my hero Sam Husseini, especially after what happened to you in Helsinki. You and Ray McGovern should be praised for your outward protest.
I think we are watching a lot of panic playing out, as the Establishment is in free fall. The BRICST are joining together, as many countries are avoiding trading with the U.S. Dollar, and new Russian & Chinese missile technology may have changed the balance of all out war. We are in a downward spin, and it’s every man and woman for themselves in our Nation’s capital.
Good again on you Mr Husseini