Actions in 2022 by NewsGuard and PayPal and inquiries by a British official proved that powerful establishment actors oppose Consortium News. Help us show them they are wrong.
PayPal headquarters in San Jose, Calif. (Wikipedia)
By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News
For Consortium News the year 2022 was marked by notable achievements, some of which caught the attention of the Establishment.
In March, three months after we began reporting on Russia’s intervention in the Ukrainian civil war, the rating agency NewsGuard wrote to accuse CN of publishing “false content” for reporting on the 2014 Kiev coup and the role of neo-Nazism in the country.
In May, PayPal permanently banned Consortium News from using its money transfer system. PayPal steadfastly refused to say why. But its user agreement prohibits spreading “misinformation,” and while information is our only trade, it was logical to conclude, given the hysteria surrounding the subject, that it objected to our Ukraine coverage.
In June, The GrayZone reported on leaked emails which showed that a British Foreign Office official had contacted Nina Jankowicz, who at the time was heading the Biden administration’s now disbanded Disinformation Governance Board under the Department of Homeland Security. In an email, the official said he would look into CN‘s editor. He said Jankowicz told him she would “ask around” about Consortium News.
It is not clear who she asked, whether in or out of government. But Jankowicz told the official she thinks CN was not being funded, presumably by a foreign power such as Russia, but instead were just being “useful idiots.”
This year Twitter permanently banned two of our regular contributors, Scott Ritter and Patrick Lawrence.
In 2020, the Canadian electronic intelligence agency, the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) falsely accused Consortium News of being in the forefront of a Russian cyber attack.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt said about his fiercest right-wing critics: “They are unanimous in their hate for me — and I welcome their hatred.” We welcome the Establishment’s hatred too. We also welcome all the support you can give us to help us continually beat them.
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Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former U.N. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and numerous other newspapers, including The Montreal Gazette and The Star of Johannesburg. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London, a financial reporter for Bloomberg News and began his professional work as a 19-year old stringer for The New York Times. He can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @unjoe
Great group of comments here!
They hate us because we represent the truth! The truth is their enemy, reinforced by overwhelming fear they strike out at the opposition.
In the case of the Ukraine they got behind on supporting their argument. CN struck while the iron was hot and they were not, which resulted in their “outing” by CN & Co.
The politics of this conflagration, the political only because of the economics involved betrayed them. Trumpism had already poisoned the well, because of the controversies this mad man and his followers raised.
The U.S. political institutions are in desperate need of an immediate “refresh”!.
Thanks CN
FDR new, of course, that the hatred of his political enemies said far more about them than about him. And so it goes today. As for Canadian intelligence, you are generous to give them 2 lines in your article. Canada has as much “intelligence” as Washington will allow them to have. That’s the way Five Eyes operates–at least, that’s the way it seems to me, given the embarrassing number of Canadian screwups generated by Ottawa–embarrassing because I’m Canadian.
Thanks, Joe, for keeping it together through this “transition” (or should I call it simply craziness?).
From the perspective of 74 years, during much of which time I was at least partially conscious, I am more alarmed now than I was at the height of the Cold War, when I “served my country” for 10 years as an Army physician. Compared to now, it seemed that a certain sanity prevailed. I have never seen a greater assembly of rascals and fools than the current “leaders” of the U.S. and its allies. It is truly a dangerous time, and an especially troubling sign is when Denmark and its Nordic neighbors seem poised to abandon a wonderful system of social welfare in order to follow the U.S. into militarism. The biggest mistake ANY nation could make is to ally itself with a country like mine that has lost its way and is rotting from the inside while maintaining an outward appearance of omnipotence.
The legacy media has also lost its way, and PBS NewsHour is a first rate example of how so-called “journalists” perpetuate the myth of the greatness and goodness of my country and its (Democrat) leaders and “principled” Republicans (a contradiction, to be sure). It is a ship of fools, with mutually reinforcing narratives. One must ask, If the U.S. is so great, why have we lost every military adventure since WW2, turned places like Libya and Gaza into hellholes; and why is the world going to perdition and ecological ruin under the wise and benevolent leadership of the one “indispensable” nation?
A tree is known by its fruit, as Christ taught, and the fruit of U.S. meddling, intervention and militarism is there for all to see. The world is not a safer place, and it is not in spite of us, but because of us.
Consortium News has never failed to tell the truth and continues the legacy of Robert Parry. Would there were more like him in the pathetic infotainment culture that has devolved from real journalism. I will continue to support you any way I can and for as long as I am able.
For a wise person, being praised by fools is a disgrace. At their core, the establishment tools are envious fools. The good reporting at CN and at other targets of establishment ire shows them up for the propaganda operatives and corrupt journalist that they really are. Their supposed stairway to personal prosperity eventually empties out in the sewer. You have earned their hatred fair and square and that is something to be proud of. Keep on.
A wise man adapts to his surroundings; but, a fool expects his surroundings to adapt to him.”
“We welcome the Establishment’s hatred too. We also welcome all the support you can give us to help us continually beat them.” ………w/pleasure, DONE!!!
“Long Live, Consortium News!!!”
Thank You, Joe Lauria, CN, et al. “KEEP IT LIT.”
The Establishment’s attack on Russia – with broken promises, overthrow of Ukraine’s elected government, shelling of Donbass, economic siege – is only possible by deceiving the public through its corporate media. If the public knew the plain facts they would raise a storm that even the corrupted members of Congress could not withstand.
A perfect example of how the corporate media purveys the Establishment’s criminal cover story is this discussion of Zelensky’s speech to Congress at the PBS Newshour.
Brooks and Capehart on Zelensky’s visit to Washington and defending democracy abroad
hXXps://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/brooks-and-capehart-on-zelenskyys-visit-to-washington-and-defending-democracy-abroad
Here we see Judy Woodruff, David Brooks, and Jonathan Capehart putting their civilized manners, their sincerity, and their reputations at the service of the same war profiteers who lied the US into Iraq and Afghanistan. Whether due to bribery, blackmail, or threats, they unhesitatingly deceive their viewers, betray journalism and the 1st Amendment, and sabotage democracy. Their actions reflect a sorry lack of courage and shame.
My nominations for those sites hosting journalism at its finest, as well as intelligent and thought-provoking commentary——–> CN……..grayzone………..WSWS.
Those three sites , and a couple others, are the basis of my intake of news/analysis/commentary. This makes it futile to discuss rationally issues/events of the day with friends whose info streams run from NPR to MSNBC to NY Times. I ‘m sure I’m not the only one in this boat.
Not at all the only one. I too have limited news sites i visit. Those you mentioned and the Guardian, only for its climate/environmental articles. I sometimes look at msm for its comic value and incredulous content. (Eye rolling.)
The Jacobin is a trustworthy source as well…
What the establishment really hates is the American voting public, because every two or four years it must coddle and manipulate that public to ensure said establishment’s continuation in power while preserving the illusion of ‘democracy’ (well, nominally a ‘representative democracy’, where elected or aspiring officials and their corporate benefactors spend vast amounts of cash to convince voters that they have voters’ best interests at the very center of their hearts despite continuing failure to carry through on so many voter interests where that interferes with their primary function: carrying out the desires of those benefactors as vividly demonstrated in a 2014 Princeton study).
This takes a hell of a lot of media management and behind-the-scenes cooperation which dominates working lives in both halves of the political duopoly, so anyone – especially in the media – who interferes with this narrative becomes an enemy requiring marginalization using whatever portions of the establishment can be brought to bear.
So take pride in our appreciation for fulfilling the reason you’re given specific support for such inconvenient behavior by our Constitution’s First Amendment and for doing so in an effective manner against those who’d rather you weren’t.
Bill – perhaps the best way to show our disdain every 2-4 years is to vote 3rd party – THAT they really hate – the one thing each of the duopoly fears most is not each other but a 3rd party that would toss them out on their keisters – I have voted 3rd party for Pres since ’96 – if enough of us had done this we would have a MUCH better Gov’t by now … And how do I know that is what they fear – they are doing their best to keep 3rd parties off ballots, out of debates and starved of funds, which would be totally unnecessary if it were true that “3rd parties can’t win” – they are hoping we won’t figure out that this is a lie – and doing their best to keep it from happening …
I hope CN can do some stories on this – which i think is the biggest blow to our democracy – the lie that makes all the rest possible …
I’m not very interested in merely ‘showing my disdain’ (doesn’t a high percentage of potential voters already do this simply by not voting?), and third parties have had a dismal record for decades in effecting real change (the only slight exceptions having been Ross Perot in the 90s, a rather special case, and more recently the Libertarians, while the last time the Greens seemed to hold some promise of growth was in the 2000 election where Ralph Nader won 2.73% of the presidential vote, after which they have struggled for the ensuing two decades to reach 1% while Nader did better as an independent).
The duopoly has little to fear from such performances because it has proven very adept at keeping most of the voting public within its bounds. Leveraging circumstances (e.g., the Ukraine fiasco, increasing the visibility of our government’s failure to address real public needs, and serious populism) that might help unbalance the duopoly’s status quo comfort zone strikes me as having more potential.
I appreciate your comments, Bill, but my feelings are that all comments are done so in the realm of the matrix and thus a part of it. The most important thing you’ve said was that some people, including myself, rather than vote to support the very system that is killing us, have deigned not to support that system by not voting for it. To do so merely expresses the false hope that things will change.
Different people have different ways to try to effect political change rather than just considering it impossible to achieve. One way which actually succeeded in 2016 was expression of disgust with the Democratic party’s decades-long failure to carry through on its promises for reform. Unfortunately, the result was a president with a tin ear for (or perhaps just a complete lack of interest in) politics who was dispatched by the Democrats’ steadfast determination merely to continue their time-tested strategy of making it appear that they were the lesser evil (I wish that the late Glen Ford’s observation that they have instead proven themselves over time to be the more effective evil had resonated better with their captive sheep who cannot take a longer view of the duopoly disaster which may only be solvable by shoving a bar between the spokes of its well-oiled wheels even if the temporary result requires further tweaking).
A 3rd party has never been the solution to the ills of the U.S. government because it plays into the hands of the reining two. Moreover, the people have to be informed, which sadly they are not. At long as you think this way SH, the government will never change.
Clearly, the establishment is worried that Consortium’s reporting will continue to gain traction as the official narrative on Ukraine unravels. Thanks as always to CN for giving the voices of sanity a place to be heard.
The establishment hates anyone and anything that upsets its agendas, and tells the truth without distortion, spin, or obfuscation.
What they hate even more are hard concrete verifiable facts that reveal their lies and can’t be refuted, particularly when they come from their own ranks, after someone didn’t get the message / instruction NOT to publish the facts.
It must be very difficult to co-ordinate on a huge, often global, scale a continuous stream of disinformation with all government departments and all mainstream media outlets. So, it’s not surprising that occasionally the truth and facts do slip out.
Thank you CN, and Happy New Year to you all!
I donate because they hate you. They hate you because you’re right. And, I know you’re right because they hate you. And, If they didn’t hate you, you wouldn’t need my donations. It’s plain to me but rocket science to most. That most still rely on corporate media is the logic of religion to me.
btw, have another hun & HAPPY NEW YEAR!
The feeling is mutual. Any scorn emitted by those empty suits should be worn and carried as a badge of honor.
Hear, hear.
Agreed.