29 comments for “The Media’s Obsession With Personalities

  1. Tony
    November 8, 2019 at 10:00

    I love that little picture of Roger Stone.

    I was initially dismissive of him. However, whilst it is true that some of his behavior during elections deserves to be criticized very strongly, I have found those of his books that I have read to be very honest and very interesting.

    His book about Nixon even includes a quote from Noam Chomsky!

    His claim that, in early 1972, the CIA tried to assassinate Nixon is probably true but has proven difficult to verify. The motivation would probably have been his wish to see the JFK assassination files to confirm his suspicion that LBJ was behind it.

    In the end, Stone says that the plot was called off because the hit-man backed out when he was told who the target would be. What also gives the claim credibility is that, just a few months later, there were the Watergate break-ins.

    Some of the personnel involved in the burglaries were ‘retired’ CIA employees. It looks like the operation was deliberately botched in order to provide a trail to the White House and to bring Nixon down.

  2. Hollywood Mark
    November 7, 2019 at 13:50

    Read Lee Smith’s book The Plot Against The President.

    Amazing. Lays out the entire coup. Timeline and all.

  3. Antonio Costa
    November 7, 2019 at 11:22

    Impeach an administration on charges of war crimes. Everything else is a technicality that avoids the greatest injustice and criminality.

    Since both parties are engaged in this human and ecological crime, they will never charge the Commander-in-Chief with crimes against humanity.

    Thus making a total farce of any impeachment process and allowing endless wars to persist.

  4. Hawaii guy
    November 6, 2019 at 22:22

    Lots of media propagandists were executed at the Nuremberg trials, if it was illegal then it certainly is today as mainstream media is massively corrupt. Just look at the Epstein story they buried in 2015 that just got hot mic leak. How many more children were raped due to media’s criminal propaganda and sedition?

    • michael
      November 7, 2019 at 09:44

      Five of the nine people convicted for treason in the US (never any politicians on that list!) in the last hundred years were broadcasters during WWII: Burgman, Best, Monti, Tokyo Rose and Axis Sally.
      (Curiously one of the nine convicted was a coal miner Walter Allen in 1922, who who led the “the Miners’ March” the year before.)

    • Ash
      November 7, 2019 at 15:00

      Lots of propagandists? Wasn’t it just Julius Streicher?

    • willow
      November 8, 2019 at 03:41

      Obama legalized propagandists to propagandize when he repealed the propaganda ban in the 2012 NDAA Not many folks know about the repeal of Smith-Mundt, which protected Americans from domestic propaganda since 1947. Thanks to Constitutional Law Professor Obama, no one will be executed for lying to us. In fact, the liars are richly rewarded.

  5. November 6, 2019 at 21:05

    A very well written article. I have also found many of the comments to be very informative. I have yet to read all the charges against him however after watching everything that General Flynn and President Trump have gone through I can only imagine what will occur here. I like many other American’s are in such disbelief that our FBI and CIA and DNI could have done what appears to be so obvious I can only imagine how damaging this is to our country. Then to see the coverups done with Epstein and Weinstein our MSM has shown their faces. What can ABC And NBC potentially still be hiding?

    • michael
      November 7, 2019 at 10:11

      While most agree that it is generally a good thing to lock up the corrupt in our government, it would be nice to see enforcement in a bipartisan manner. Tony Podesta and Greg Craig should be sharing cells with Manafort and Gates; they all worked their corruption together under the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine; none were registered as Foreign Agents. Clapper, Brennan and Hayden all lied under oath but somehow get a pass, while Flynn twists in the wind for acting as ineffectual go-between for Israel and lying to the FBI about it? John Kerry continues advising Iran after leaving office, a clear violation of the Logan Act. The whole Democratic, Ukrainian-American crew who overthrew the democratically elected Yanukovych in the 2014 coup, leading to Crimea rejoining Russia, continues their corruption even after Obama (and Biden) leave office. They prefer Obama’s policies to Trump’s and think they make the rules, although that is clear-cut sedition; the President makes foreign policy, not Bolton, Biden, Nuland, Kerry or Hillary– their roles WERE advisory only, and if they haven’t noticed, their side lost in 2016, despite Ukraine interfering in that Election with the Black Ledger. The selective political enforcement of the laws just means that some people are above the law and others are essentially political prisoners. It is horrible enough the way REAL whistleblowers and REAL Americans are treated, and after three years of their Russiagate fantasies and conspiracy theories, the Establishment should serve up some of their screwups for much deserved punishment.

  6. November 6, 2019 at 17:25

    One of the most likely reasons why the impeachment mania caught hold is mentioned in the article by Joe Lauria.

    “Faced now with a criminal investigation into how the Russiagate conspiracy theory originated intelligence officers and their accomplices in the media and in the Democratic Party are mounting a defense by launching an offensive in the form of impeachment proceedings against Trump that is based on an allegation of conducting routine, corrupt U.S. foreign policy. ”

    Accompanying this tactic will be the attempt to de-legitimize the Justice Department’s investigation of wrong doing which led to the Mueller investigation.

    It has already begun.

    Some might say that in a fair fight Trump will win. But since when did fair enter into the thinking of our politicians. You do have to tip your hat at the Democrat Party behavior. They did a really impressive performance in getting the collusion investigation going, and did another by turning a phone call into impeachment mania.

    Beginning on day one when impeachment was in the air, you have to give Trump credit. He is still standing. At least it told us it was not as easy to get rid of an American president as a Ukraine one.

    And for those who side with Trump in this battle, I think many, like myself support the office of the President, and the Constitution that guides our government and not necessarily the occupant of the White House. We can hope he reaches one finish line and the people are to decide who will be the next president.

  7. JimGlover
    November 6, 2019 at 15:13

    Stone also knew from working with Nixon that the Official JFK Warren Commission was a cover-up. How many Washington friends would that get him?

    • Tony
      November 7, 2019 at 09:43

      Yes, he says that Nixon threatened to reveal all if he was not pardoned. That is why Ford pardoned him. That probably cost him the 1976 presidential election.

  8. Jeff Harrison
    November 6, 2019 at 15:11

    Thanx, Joe. I’ve said several times (on these pages even) that Trump could be impeached for the emoluments clause, for unilaterally (i.e. without the advice and consent of Congress) imposing tariffs and withdrawing from treaties and agreements with foreign countries. But that the infamous phone call was just SOP US foreign policy and that finding out what Biden had done in Ukraine after we had fomented a coup there was a perfectly reasonable thing to do. I have a bad feeling that this will scar our democracy, such as it is, for a lot more than a generation.

    • J Edward Tipre
      November 7, 2019 at 05:28

      By “this” and “scar our democracy” do you mean this particular corrupt episode spotlighting Biden’s son’s personal interests with Busima which will probably never be absorbed by the body politic, or the many episodes of office holders voting on behalf of war profiteers which most Americans have not absorbed?

      Would that Americans read Consortium News and a host of other reputable sources. Persevere!

    • J Edward Tipre
      November 7, 2019 at 05:29

      Meant “Burisma” as in Burisma Holdings.

  9. Guy
    November 6, 2019 at 14:34

    The democratic party must have the CIA working for them 24/7 .They have created such a $hitshow that it is almost impossible to unravel ,but of course that is typical CIA M.O.The republican party is pretty much the same .As they say same $hit different pile.
    Good luck for your next elections .The circus is ongoing .

    • jdd
      November 7, 2019 at 09:50

      Agree, except it’s the other way around. The Dem leadership and associated never-Trumpsters, along with the msm, have been taken over by the intelligence services. The ongoing impeachment farce is the clear proof, if the Congress’ lopsided vote to keep troops in Syria were not enough.

  10. rosemerry
    November 6, 2019 at 12:15

    Unlike Trump, Obama, Hillary Clinton, Clapper, Brennan, Comey and the rest of the “reliable witnesses”, Pres. Putin is NOT prone to lying, and has clearly stated that whichever POTUS the Americans chose, he would accept and that it made no diference to their policies, which is shown by Trump’s actions now to be true .

    btw after the 2010 Ukrainian election, won by the pro-Western side, Russia worked for four years with the Ukrainian government because they were neighbours, and only after the overthrow by the USA (“cookies Nuland”) of the 2014 elected government did the political situation start to worsen and blame be heaped on Russia whose actions were consistent with a country being attacked and fighting back. What business has the USA legally or morally with Crimea or Ukraine??

    • Guy
      November 6, 2019 at 14:37

      We should be so lucky to have the caliber of leadership such as Vladimir Putin as president or prime minister .

  11. jdd
    November 6, 2019 at 10:47

    Roger Stone and Julian Assange have one devastating thing in common – they can refute the myth of Russian hacking which is at the heart of the Russiagate hoax While Stone was arrested by a virtual army of FBI agents deployed by Robert Mueller, and is subject to a gag order by a hostile judge, killing the witness to a crime is the ultimate obstruction of justice, and now, just that is being perpetrated on British soil in collaboration with U.S. officials. Assange is one person alive in possession of the means to quickly end the lie of the entire Russiagate hoax perpetrated primarily by British intelligence and the British controlled elements of the U.S. intelligence community. The Veterans Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) have demonstrated forensically that the DNC files were leaked, not hacked, as claimed by Mueller, but a statement before Congress and the American public would crush the hoax and expose its perpetrators to prosecution. Which is why Stone is being silenced and Assange is being tortured and slowly murdered. Neither can be tolerated any longer.

    • November 6, 2019 at 17:38

      Note to Guy. I agree with you. But don’t tell anyone I said so. Really, when he came to power, he was dealing with a country that had been raped by the oligarch’s and their accomplices, and he brought Russia back and his adult behavior in times of crisis has been impressive. Unlike America and some of their allies, he has extended his hand, only to have it snapped at. Yes, he is an impressive guy as is his sidekick Lavrov.

    • J Edward Tipre
      November 7, 2019 at 05:33

      A tragic, factual encapsulation.

  12. vinnieoh
    November 6, 2019 at 10:30

    Salacious, tawdry, outrageous = market share, viewership, super glue for the eyes. I don’t own a smart phone and don’t tweet, facebook, Instagram, etc. This (and now MoA) is my only social media contact. I’m constantly amazed though by friends and family and what they talk about that is “trending” on their social media connections: moral turpitude and failure, risqué affairs and angry partings, and the occasional feel good story.

    You touched on another point that needs emphasis. Those that gravitate to such places as the literal and figurative swamp of DC are drawn there by ambition or natural progression of their profession. It is a hard place where dirty deeds abound; not for the timid or hesitant, and where much idealism and integrity goes to die. It’s become difficult not to regard anyone successfully operating there with a jaundiced suspicious eye. Just as an example: William Barr. I agree with your assessment of this continuing D party fraud, but Mr. Barr’s history does not give me confidence in any future result.

  13. November 6, 2019 at 09:53

    Hard to find a more likely conclusion than that reached by Joe Lauria.

    “Faced now with a criminal investigation into how the Russiagate conspiracy theory originated intelligence officers and their accomplices in the media and in the Democratic Party are mounting a defense by launching an offensive in the form of impeachment proceedings against Trump that is based on an allegation of conducting routine, corrupt U.S. foreign policy.”

  14. jmg
    November 6, 2019 at 08:51

    Joe Lauria wrote:
    “Instead we’ve seen character assassination of many people, including imprisoned WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange, rather than a truthful examination of his actions and the dangerous charges against him for practicing journalism.”

    Yes, and in addition to — in the words of, like Joe Lauria, as well award-winning journalist Chris Hedges — “Washington’s carefully orchestrated character assassination of Assange”, there are also the US attempts to frame and arrest Julian Assange using allied countries where he was moving.

    For example, some excerpts from a new remarkable report, just yesterday:

    > THE FBI TRIED TO MAKE ICELAND A COMPLICIT ALLY IN FRAMING JULIAN ASSANGE

    > 5 November 2019

    > Former Icelandic Interior Minister tells Independent Australia how he blocked U.S. interference in 2011 in order to defend WikiLeaks and its publisher Julian Assange. Sara Chessa reports.

    > A MINISTER OF THE INTERIOR wakes up one summer morning and finds out that a plane full of United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents has landed in his country, aiming to carry out police investigations without proper permission from the authorities.

    > How many statesmen would have the strength to say, “No, you can’t do this”, to the United States? Former Icelandic Interior Minister Ögmundur Jónasson, in fact, did this — and for the sake of investigative journalism. He understood that something wrong with the sudden FBI mission in Reykjavik, and that this had to do with the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks and its publisher Julian Assange. . . .

    > But this was not only about defending Iceland´s sovereignty. According to Mr Jónasson, during this process, he had been informed that the FBI showed up in Reykjavik with the aim of framing Julian Assange. . . .

    > Mr Jónasson says:

    > “Kristinn Hrafnsson is highly respected in Iceland. But for WikiLeaks and whistleblowers in general, I think it will depend – as indeed anywhere – on the public, which in the end is the guardian of freedom, including the freedom of the press. You can have excellent laws and constitutions, and they are, for sure, needed, but it is almost non-relevant if society is asleep. You need people to speak up.”

    > This is for Mr Jónasson the main point also in Assange’s case:

    > “WikiLeaks was bringing out the truth, revelaing crimes which should have been taken to court. This has been prevented. So the charges brought against the publisher are, in reality, charges against free speech and freedom of the press. The American police and secret services are trying to create an atmosphere of impunity, where they can do anything. Even when they landed here, they were showing contempt for democracy.

    > “What they are doing to Assange is in opposition to the American Constitution and the principles of human rights, they claim they are protecting.”

    > He is not alone in his considerations, given what the UN Special rapporteur on torture, Nils Melzer, said some months ago regarding Assange.

    > The former Icelandic Interior Minister is aware of this and quotes the statement by Melzer:

    > “In 20 years of work with victims of war, violence and political persecution I have never seen a group of democratic states ganging up to deliberately isolate, demonise and abuse a single individual for such a long time and with so little regard for human dignity and the rule of law … The collective persecution of Julian Assange must end here and now!”

    > “These are heavy words,” Mr Jónasson says. . . .

    > “All this for carrying out investigative journalism.”

    > In 2016, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention also stated Assange should walk free. However, he is in a London prison, waiting for the U.S. extradition hearing scheduled for February 2020. Meanwhile, the sexual misconduct allegations in Sweden (never turned into charges) are not involved with his current imprisonment.

    > When Mr Jónasson is asked who can do something to make governments align with the UN request, he again brings into play the people:

    > “All depends on us. There is not such a thing as spectators. Everybody is taking a part — sitting quiet is taking part!”

    (The FBI tried to make Iceland a complicit ally in framing Julian Assange — Independent Australia — 5 November 2019)

  15. AnneR
    November 6, 2019 at 08:29

    Sorry there is a crucial word missing from this part of the statement: “that the Demrat leaning, TDS infected neo-liberal, progressives will *not* ever let the “Russia Did It” disease.”

    It should read: “that the Demrat leaning, TDS infected neo-liberal, progressives will *not* ever let the “Russia Did It” disease GO.”

  16. AnneR
    November 6, 2019 at 08:28

    Thank you, Mr Lauria.

    It is quite clear – if this morning’s NPR is any guide (the radio being my only source of MSM propaganda) – that the Demrat leaning, TDS infected neo-liberal, progressives will *not* ever let the “Russia Did It” disease.

    NPR (I wasn’t listening closely because I’d earlier gotten riled up over a deliberate, Newspeak remark by Dan Damon on the BBC World Service) is continuing to go after Barr and ?presumably? his investigation into the origins of the “Russia Did It” disease. Anyway the effort on the part of NPR is clearly to work alongside the Demrats in making sure that their dutifully TDS listeners will refuse to believe anything he might drag out into the open because he was appointed by the Strumpet and – obviously, clearly – is doing this to cover up what the Strumpet and Putin did.

    Not that I trust any part of the “Deep State” or the Strumpet and his admin to tell, reveal the truth, whole and unadorned, about anything. Nor do I trust the Demrats. They are, each lot, for their own particular reasons busy with distractions and deflections, especially from actually getting down and doing some real work *for* their hoi polloi constituents (and Not for their actual constituents, the corporate-capitalist ruling elites and “our friend” in the ME).

    Stone is from all appearances criminally inclined in the white collar, bureaucratic, financial institution, ways. But those ways of criminality don’t interest the MSM, NPR included, and the powers that represent the really existing powers that be are most definitely not interested in delving too deeply, even less charging their cronies, with such crimes.

    • b.grand
      November 7, 2019 at 03:58

      That’s right, the Dems won’t let it go, so they’ll go down with that chain around their necks.

      Larry Johnson has written [at Sic Semper Tyrannis about the CIA’s Anti-Trump Task Force. This interview is terrific at Fault Lines radio show:

      The DNC’s Collusion With The Deep State w/ Larry Johnson

  17. Skip Scott
    November 6, 2019 at 08:27

    Great article. Such simple clarity is nowhere to be found in the MSM. They depend completely on VOLUME and repetition, even though the most rudimentary examination of the their narrative exposes it as a steaming pile of BS.

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