A key distinction between propaganda and journalism is that manipulative propaganda relies on exaggeration and deceit while honest journalism provides context and perspective. But what happens when the major news outlets of the world’s superpower become simply conveyor belts for warmongering propaganda?
That is a question that the American people now face as The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and virtually the entire mainstream media hype ridiculously minor allegations about Russia’s “meddling” in American politics into front-page hysteria.
For instance, on Tuesday, the major news outlets were filled with the latest lurid chapter of Russia-gate, how Google, the Internet’s dominant search engine, had detected suspected “Russia-linked” accounts that bought several thousand dollars worth of ads.
The Washington Post ran this item as front-page news entitled “Google finds links to Russian disinformation in its services,” with the excited lede paragraph declaring: “Russian operatives bought ads across several of Google’s services without the company’s knowledge, the latest evidence that their campaign to influence U.S. voters was as sprawling as it was sophisticated in deploying the technology industry’s most powerful tools.”
Wow! That sounds serious. However, if you read deeply enough into the story, you discover that the facts are a wee bit less dramatic.…See definition of "yellow press."
The alternative explanation, of course, is unthinkable at least within the confines of “acceptable thought”; the alternative being that there might be no sinister Kremlin campaign to poison American politics or to install Trump in the White House, that what we are witnessing is a mainstream stampede similar to what preceded the Iraq War in 2003.“Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” G. W. Bush altered it to, "
...fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again.” I guess this is a test to see which is true.
The problem with the proof in evidence is that Russia is not Iraq and actually does have WMD and parity with the US.
Of course, the big difference between Iraq in 2003 and Russia in 2017 is that as catastrophic as the Iraq invasion was, it pales against the potential for thermo-nuclear war that could lie at the end of this latest hysteria.This is way beyond irresponsible.
Consortium News
Russia-gate Jumps the Shark
Phil Rockstroh
Moon of Alabama
"Russia Interfered!" - By Purchasing Anti-Trump Ads?
3 comments:
I try to think, why works these journalists come out with such crap? I came to the conclusion that they have well paid jobs and are sitting pretty so they do as their paymasters say. So again, it's just about money.
What is disturbing is how the media can paint any story it wishes and people will think this is the current news. So the story of the Clinton foundation scandal and Hilary dumping her emails through a private server so that people can't see her dodgy business deals gets no press, but the alleged Russian hacking that had no evidence and is clearly made up gets endless coverage.
Read George Seldes, the same shit has been going on for 100 years.
I try to think, why works these journalists come out with such crap? I came to the conclusion that they have well paid jobs and are sitting pretty so they do as their paymasters say. So again, it's just about money.
It's about money not just to pay them to write propaganda pieces and hit pieces.
The way the US works as an oligarchy is to bring the minions into the oligarchy by paying them outlandishly and treating them like celebrities with access.
The result is that the minions live in the bubble, too, and they soon forget where they came from in their delight with their new found status, which, of course, they want to maintain and augment.
This is how the game works.
Some people that get offered the bribe have the principles and good sense to decline. Some of these just go away and lead ordinary lives, while others join the opposition as activists.
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