Paul Robinson — Book Review – John Helmer

If you are aware of John Helmer's blog Dancing with Bears, frequently linked to here, you may be interest in this. Otherwise, not so much.

Irrussianality
Book Review – John Helmer
Paul Robinson | Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa

Swiss Propaganda Research — The Propaganda Multiplier: How Global News Agencies and Western Media Report on Geopolitics

It is one of the most important aspects of our media system, and yet hardly known to the public: most of the international news coverage in Western media is provided by only three global news agencies based in New York [AP], London [Reuters] and Paris [AFP]....

Why you can't always (ever?) believe what you see and hear on "the news," which is actually an echo chamber.The obvious question is, echoing whose voices? The article attempts to answer this but the subject is purposefully oblique and amorphous.

At the same time, actual news is dismissed as fake and investigative reporting is dismissed as conspiracy theory, while whistleblowers are persecuted and if possible prosecuted, while "anonymous sources" are treated as authoritative.

This would all remain unknown if it were not for the Internet, and the powers that be are now seeking to regain control of the narrative by introduction censorship, either directly or indirectly by "de-platforming."

This is incompatible with a functioning democracy, whether direct or representative.

True Publica
The Propaganda Multiplier: How Global News Agencies and Western Media Report on Geopolitics
Swiss Propaganda Research

See also

Russia Insider
The Oligarch Takeover of US media

John Hellevig

Brad DeLong — Genius no-longer-quite-so-young whippersnapper Ezra is, I think, massively overly polite here

Smackdown of the New York Times culture. I don't even link it to it anymore. Why drive traffic in the direction of propaganda (think "anonymous" sources) and journalistic standards that should be considered substandard?

Grasping Reality
Genius no-longer-quite-so-young whippersnapper Ezra is, I think, massively overly polite here: As Ezra Klein say, Jill ...
Brad DeLong | Professor of Economics, UCAL Berkeley

Caitlin Johnstone — MSM Is Frantically Attacking Dissenting Syria Narratives, And It Looks Really Bad

Many of these recent hit pieces are coming out of the UK, which is interesting given the way a BBC reporter recently admonished her interviewee for questioning the official story about the alleged Douma chemical attacks because his words could hurt the “information war” effort against Russia. If this view is widespread among British journalists (and recent headlines by the Times, the Independent and the Telegraphsuggest that it may be), this means we’re looking at an environment wherein reporters aren’t even pretending it’s their job to be truthful, tell all sides of a story and hold power to account, but rather to manufacture support for escalations against Russia and undermine anyone who resists....

Overreach.

Caitlin Johnstone — Rogue Journalist
MSM Is Frantically Attacking Dissenting Syria Narratives, And It Looks Really Bad

Caitlin Johnston

See also

Ed Schulz, Cenk Uygur, Mika Brzezinski, Phil Donahue, Ashleigh Banfield.

People scoff at state-funded channels like RT, while singing the praises of channels like MSNBC and CNN. Those networks benefit hugely from the myth that because they are not state-funded, they are somehow independent.

These are networks owned by giant parent corporations with plenty of skin in the political game — yet, it is rarely acknowledged that these corporations have a detrimental influence on the quality of journalism produced by their employees. The truth is rarely uttered, that network stars like Rachel Maddow are completely beholden to those corporate and political interests — and that this basic fact massively influences their reporting....

And this is just MSNBC, hardly the worst of the lot of US media.

RT
Former MSNBC journalists expose the channel’s ‘pro-establishment bias’

Danielle Ryan, Irish freelance journalist

ht Naked Capitalism for both links.

Moon of Alabama "Russian bots" - How An Anti-Russian Lobby Creates Fake News — Moon of Alabama "Russian bots" - How An Anti-Russian Lobby Creates Fake News

Another detailed account.

Conclusion.

This is nuts.

Last August, when the Hamilton 68 project was first released, the Nation was the only site critical of it. It predicted:

The import of GMF's project is clear: Reporting on anything that might put the US in a bad light is now tantamount to spreading Russian propaganda.

It is now even worse than that. The top ranking of the #merrychristmas hashtag shows that the algorithm does not even care about good or bad news. The tracked twitter accounts are normal people.

The whole project is just a means to push fake stories about alleged "Russian influence" into U.S. medias. Whenever some issue creeps up on its dashboard that somehow fits its false "Russian bots" and "divisiveness" narrative the Alliance for Securing Democracy contacts the media to spread its poison. The U.S. media, - CNN, Wired, the New York Times - are by now obviously devoid of thinking journalists and fact checkers. They simple re-package the venom and spread it to the public.

How long will it take until people die from it?

Moon of Alabama
"Russian bots" - How An Anti-Russian Lobby Creates Fake News

b

Leo Standish — Head of RT: American Media is Completely Fake - Even Your President Agrees (Video)

Simonyan nails it, again.Simonyan nails it, again.

Russia Insider
Head of RT: American Media is Completely Fake - Even Your President Agrees (Video)
Leo Standish

Mainstream Media and Imperial Power — Dennis Bernstein and Randy Credico interview John Pilger

Noted journalist and filmmaker John Pilger’s collection of work has been archived by the British Library, but deep-rooted problems of Western media create an increasingly difficult landscape for ethical journalism, as Pilger explained in an interview with Dennis Bernstein and Randy Credico....

Consortium News
Mainstream Media and Imperial Power

Dennis Bernstein and Randy Credico interview John Pilger

Adam Johnson — Coverage of Iran Protests Illustrated With Protests Not in Iran––Organized by Fringe Cultists

When it comes to covering protests in other countries, it seems any vague picture of brown people protesting can stand in for those actually on the streets expressing their grievances. Since the outbreak of protests across Iran three weeks ago, several major outlets have used pictures of demonstrations in the United States, France, or United Kingdom—organized by a fringe, cult-like group, Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK)—in place of images of the entirely unaffiliated protesters, 6,000 miles away, who are the topic of discussion.

Fox News, Scientific American, Vox, Salon, National Interest and Axios were among the outlets that used unidentified photos of protests not in Iran to illustrate stories about protests in Iran.

These are all images of rallies by the MEK (sometimes known as the People’s Mujahedin, or its benign-sounding front-group name, National Council of Resistance) being presented as protesters in Iran. Several other outlets used their images, but noted they were simply “solidarity” marches in the US or Europe. While this is technically accurate, it’s still wildly misleading, given that it’s safe to assume most people won’t know that the organizers of these rallies are part of a US- and Israeli-aligned fringe group, and not allies of the workers and young people taking to the streets in Iran.

In other words, this was fake news.

Characterizing MEK as a "fringe group" is overly generous. MEK had been designated a terrorist organization until the US reversed its position in 2012 under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Some now consider MEK a representative and spokesperson for "the Iranian government in exile," similar to the US treatment of Ahmed Chabali and his pretensions in the lead up to the Iraq War.  To be fair, FAIR does mention this later in the post.

No intellectually honest person takes MEK seriously as a viable alternative to the current government in Iran. The idea that it is an actual “Iranian opposition” is a Western media fiction. But the group’s rallies outside Iranian embassies provide great visual fodder for indifferent or dishonest editors in need of high-quality “Iran protest” images—without the mess of actually paying Iranian photographers, or dissecting the on-the-ground political reality in Iran.

FAIR

Coverage of Iran Protests Illustrated With Protests Not in Iran––Organized by Fringe Cultists
Adam Johnson

Putting Trumpgate and Russiagate to bed - links

Deep state plot outed.

Consortium News

The Scary Void Inside Russia-gate

Stephen F. Cohen

The Foundering Russia-gate ‘Scandal’

Robert Parry

Protecting the Shaky Russia-gate Narrative

Robert Parry

Russia-gate’s Litany of Corrections

Robert Parry

Sucking Liberals into a New Cold War

William Blum

Russia-gate’s Reach into Journalism

Dennis J. Bernstein

Sic Semper Tyrannis
Fake News, Sedition and Public Apathy

Your Trump Dossier Cheat Sheet
Publius Tacitus

Irrussianality
The latest ‘existential threat’

Crackpot theory no. 9: Assume the worstPaul Robinson | Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa

AntiWar
The Enemy Within: It’s called the “intelligence community”

Justin Raimondo

Zero Hedge

WSJ Exposes The Real Election Meddling... At The FBI

Grassley Fires Off Scorching Letter To DOJ After Anti-Trump Texts Reveal Burner Phone, "Insurance Policy"

Ex-FBI Assistant Director: Strzok Fabricated Information And "Belongs In Leavenworth"

FBI Edits To Clinton Exoneration Go Far Beyond What Was Previously Known; Comey, McCabe, Strzok Implicated

Putin Blasts American Establishment's "Russian Spy Hysteria"

New Russian Hacker Claims Putin Ordered Theft Of Clinton's Email, After First One Refused FBI Bribe To Lie

Tyler Durden

Russia Feed
Vladimir Putin: Russiagate “invented by those aiming to de-legitimize Trump”

Vlad

Putin: Russian collusion witch hunt undermines US president and weakens American nation

Russia makes a convenient enemy to blame for the West’s failures

veniamin Popov

The Duran

EXPOSED: FBI agents plotting an “insurance policy” should Trump win election

WSJ drops truth bomb! FBI collusion as agency “interfered in an American presidential election”

EPIC: Trey Gowdy destroys corrupt DOJ, FBI Trump-Russia collusion investigation (Video)

The man who gave fake “Trump dossier” to John McCain speaks out

Alex Christoforou

Strategic Culture Foundation

Deconstructing the Almighty Russian Hackers Myth

Patrick Armstrong

Why America’s Law Enforcement Empire Resembles Secret Police in a Dictatorship

Phillip Giraldi

The Daily Caller
Democrats Mobilize Against Rod Rosenstein As Inspector General Investigation Zeroes In On FBI

Peter Hasson

Russia Insider
CNN & MSNBC Attempt Coverup of Their Bogus Russia-Gate Story
Mike (Mish) Shedlock

The Intercept

The U.S. Media Suffered Its Most Humiliating Debacle in Ages and Now Refuses All Transparency Over What Happened

Glenn Greenwald

Related

Fort Russ
VICE comes out swinging at Fort Russ News, here's what we think

Joachim Flores

Lobe Log
Donald Trump’s First Year Sets Record for U.S. Special Ops

Nick Turse

Sputnik International

Moscow Faces Information Confrontation Aimed to 'Strangle' Russia - Kremlin

Caitlin Johnstone — ‘The Atlantic’ Commits Malpractice, Selectively Edits To Smear WikiLeaks

See that full stop at the end of the last sentence there [in The Atlantic quote of Wikileaks]? That’s journalistic malpractice.

Selective editing in one way spin and disinformation get created. Another is selective reporting that omits relevant facts. This is how propaganda works to create faked news.

The author of the Atlantic article, Julia Ioffe, put a period rather than a comma at the end of the text about not wanting to appear pro-Trump or pro-Russia, and completely omitted WikiLeaks’ statement following the comma that it considers those allegations slanderous. This completely changes the way the interaction is perceived.

This is malpractice. Putting an ellipsis (…) and then omitting the rest of the sentence would have been sleazy and disingenuous enough, because you’re leaving out crucial information but at least communicating to the reader that there is more to the sentence you’ve left out, but replacing the comma with a period obviously communicates to the reader that there is no more to the sentence. If you exclude important information while communicating that you have not, you are blatantly lying to your readers....

Medium
‘The Atlantic’ Commits Malpractice, Selectively Edits To Smear WikiLeaks

Caitlin Johnstone

Dean Baker — Supporters of Trade Deals, LIke George Will and the Washington Post, Think They Have to Lie to Make Their Case

George Will is a columnist rather than an economist. One might think that this is a mistake instead of a lie. But Will is a professional and the Washington Post is a premiere medium where professionalism is presumed. If this was not a deliberate lie spreading fake news as propaganda, either Will was misinformed and did not realize it, or the Washington Post failed to in performing due diligence in fact-checking. Another fail.

Beat the Press
Supporters of Trade Deals, LIke George Will and the Washington Post, Think They Have to Lie to Make Their Case
Dean Baker | Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C

Reporter and Press Freedom Advocate James Risen to Join The Intercept and First Look Media

James Risen, who, as a best-selling author and New York Times reporter, has broken some of the biggest stories of the post-9/11 period, is joining The Intercept as our senior national security correspondent, based in Washington, D.C. Risen will write a reported column on national security and other national issues, as well as help to lead The Intercept’s investigative reporting efforts.

Risen will have a unique dual leadership position at First Look Media, because in addition to his editorial role at The Intercept, he will also serve as director of the Press Freedom Defense Fund, which is dedicated to supporting news organizations, journalists, and whistleblowers in legal fights where a substantial public interest, freedom of the press, or related human or civil right is at stake. Recently, the Press Freedom Defense Fund announced its support for the legal defense of Reality Winner, who is accused of leaking a top-secret NSA document on Russian election hacking to The Intercept.

Risen was himself a target of the U.S. government’s crackdown on journalists and whistleblowers. He waged a seven-year battle, risking jail after the Bush administration and later the Obama administration sought to force him to testify and reveal his confidential sources in a leak investigation. Risen never gave in, and the government finally backed down.... 

The Intercept
Reporter and Press Freedom Advocate James Risen to Join The Intercept and First Look Media
Betsy Reed

Moon of Alabama — Syria - The Alternet Grayzone Of Smug Turncoats

Moon of Alabama takes Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton (and others) to task for unprofessional behavior that some might view as unethical.

Blumenthal knows this well. His piece about the "White Helmets" for Alternet Grayzone was obviously sourced (if not plagiarized) from earlier work by Vanessa Beeley and other authors at the above sites. To then market Alternet Grayzone, which only exists a year or so, as "the only progressive outlet that's consistently" "provide[s] a critical perspective" is worse than marketing talk. It is an outrageous lie.

Any writer, me included, can err in the evaluation of the available facts. One can learn of new facts and one's opinion can turn out to be wrong and change. But one obligation to readers is to stay honest, to admit when one went wrong and to explain why ones opinion has changed. A certain humbleness is an essential ingredient of good writing.

Yet none of that can been seen in the output of Blumenthal and his fellow writers. No apology has been issued by him to the colleagues at Al Akhbar who he publicly smeared and accused. Neither Norton nor Khalek have explained their change of position.

Blumenthal now publishes pieces based on the archive material of those progressive outlets which have long had a critical view on the Syria issue. Yet he claims that no such outlets exit.

If they are helpful for the cause Max Blumenthal, Ben Norton and Rania Khalek are welcome to join those writers who all along published against the imperial designs for Syria. It would feel much better through if their newly discovered "progressiveness" on Syria would not have the distinct smell of mere opportunism.

Moon of Alabama
Syria - The Alternet Grayzone Of Smug Turncoats

b

Glenn Greenwald — CNN Warns It May Expose an Anonymous Critic if He Ever Again Publishes Bad Content

I beg to disagree with Greenwald here.

There is no guarantee of privacy on the Internet in public speech. Anonymous posters must assume that they are at risk of exposure and take that into consideration in posting. 

While there may be a guarantee made with a specific party, like a web site or internet provider, there is no blanket guarantee of privacy on the Internet, and none should be assumed to apply. 

In fact, the media and professional journalists have an obligation to do investigative journalism, and the public has an interest in knowing who is behind the mask.

Freedom without discipline and responsibility is license rather than liberty.

The Intercept

CNN Warns It May Expose an Anonymous Critic if He Ever Again Publishes Bad Content

Glenn Greenwald

Jessie Hellmann — Report: Putin 'personally involved' in undermining U.S. election

"Believe." ""Have high confidence." "Consistent with."

In other words, inference without actual evidence.

This passes for "intelligence." Or is it disinformation and psyops?

This reverberating around the media eco chamber along with rumor and fake news about Aleppo posing as fact. Zero evidence.

This is a transparent attempt to poison the waters so badly before the accession of DJT to power that he will be hampered from conducting policy the way he wishes, fi  he cannot be stopped from taking office.

The Hill
Report: Putin 'personally involved' in undermining U.S. election

Jessie Hellmann

UPDATE:

Anonymous sources. "Believe." "Have a high level of confidence."

"CIA has assessed, the Russian government wanted to elect Donald Trump. The FBI and other agencies don't fully endorse that view, but few officials would dispute…"

Inference. No evidence.

The push continues to delegitimize the president-elect of the US — by the losers. Losers.

NBC News
U.S. Officials: Putin Personally Involved in U.S. Election Hack
William M. Arkin, Ken Dilanian And Cynthia Mcfadden

And just like that the narrative of Russia hacking the presidential election has escalated to the highest possible level, and has officially jumped the shark.

Zero Hedge
US Accuses Vladimir Putin Of "Personal Involvement" In Election HackTyler Durden 

Tony Cartalucci — Unverified Aleppo "On the Spot" Executions

Western mainstream media fake news on Aleppo. All unverified, much rumor and some obviously manufactured. No credible sourcing. No evidence on the ground. Basically BS and faux outrage.

This is either incredible incompetence, lack of professionalism and absence of journalistic standards, or an intentional disinformation campaign on the eve of the defeat of Western and Takfiri backed jidahis.

And this is from papers of record.

Land Destroyer
Unverified Aleppo "On the Spot" Executions
Tony Cartalucci

Zero Hedge — New York Times Hires Politico's Self-Described "Hack" Who Sent Stories To Clinton For Approval

Just when you thought the NYT couldn't get any worse.

Zero Hedge
New York Times Hires Politico's Self-Described "Hack" Who Sent Stories To Clinton For Approval

Tyler Durden

Jonathan Turkey — Did The Clinton Campaign Try To Sack Mika Brzezinski?

Mika Brzezinski has now claimed that not did the Clinton campaign try to pull her off the air but that the brass at MSNBC knew about it and said nothing publicly.

On air, Brzezinski said “I was concerned the campaign was not understanding that perhaps there was an arrogance. They needed to sort of get off their high horse and understand that this isn’t over. I’ll just say it: NBC got a call from the [Clinton] campaign. Like I had done something that was journalistically inappropriate or something and needed to be pulled off the air.”

Jonathan Turkey
Did The Clinton Campaign Try To Sack Mika Brzezinski?

Jonathan Turkey

Robert Parry — Clinton’s ‘Russia Did It’ Cop-out

The Clinton machine – running on fumes after Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential bid – is pulling out all remaining stops to block Donald Trump’s inauguration, even sinking into a new McCarthyism.

In joining a recount effort with slim hopes of reversing the election results, Clinton campaign counsel Marc Elias cited a scurrilous Washington Post article that relied on a shadowy anonymous group, called PropOrNot, that issued a “black list” against 200 or so Internet sites, including some of the most respected sources of independent journalism, claiming they are part of some Russian propaganda network.

In classic McCarthyistic fashion, no evidence was supplied, simply an anonymous smear....

But the Democrats risk a bleak political future if they don’t break away from the corporatist model that Bill and Hillary Clinton have personified over the past quarter century. Or maybe the Democrats can just keep on blaming the Russians.

Consortium News
Clinton’s ‘Russia Did It’ Cop-out

Robert Parry

Adrian Chen — The Propaganda About Russian Propaganda

The story of PropOrNot should serve as a cautionary tale to those who fixate on malignant digital influences as a primary explanation for Trump’s stunning election. The story combines two of the most popular technological villains of post-election analysis—fake news and Russian subterfuge—into a single tantalizing package. Like the most effective Russian propaganda, the report weaved together truth and misinformation.

The New Yorker

The Propaganda About Russian Propaganda

Adrian Chen