Propaganda

CNN’s Iran Fearmongering Would Make More Sense Coming Directly From Pentagon

May 10, 2018 Adam Johnson, Fair.org Educate! CNN, Iran, Pentagon, Propaganda

Why doesn’t CNN Defense Department reporter Barbara Starr just leave CNN and instead work directly for the Trump DoD? On Tuesday, hours after President Donald Trump pulled out of the Iran deal (formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), Starr (5/8/18) rushed to publish an anonymously sourced and transparently propagandistic press release for the Trump administration and Pentagon. Wouldn’t it be easier if Starr just skipped the middleman and just worked for the DoD? In her 513-word piece, “US Officials Growing Increasingly Concerned Iran Could Attack Israel,” Starr mindlessly repeated “concerns” by unnamed US Department of Defense and Israeli Defense Force officials that Iran might directly attack Israel and/or Israeli positions in occupied Syria—something that has never happened in recorded history: There are increasing concerns Iran is on the cusp of an attack against Israel, several US military officials told CNN.

Facebook Begins Ranking News Sites By Trust And Combating “Propaganda” During Elections

May 5, 2018 By Aaron Kesel, Activistpost.com Educate! Electoral Politics, Facebook, Fake News, Media, Propaganda

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated Tuesday that his company has begun to implement a system that will rank news organizations based on trustworthiness while suppressing content that doesn’t fit in that metric, CNET reported. Zuckerberg said that Facebook has gathered data on how its users perceive news brands by asking them to identify whether they have heard of certain publications and if they trust them. “We put that data into the system, and it is acting as a boost or a suppression, and we’re going to dial up the intensity of that over time,” Zuckerberg said. “We feel like we have a responsibility to further break down polarization and find common ground.”

Georgia Police Used Fake News From Militia To Plan For Nazi Rally, Emails Show

May 5, 2018 Staff, Unicornriot.ninja Resist! Georgia, Nazis, Police, Propaganda, Racism

Newnan, GA – Emails obtained by Unicorn Riot through a public records request to the Coweta County Sheriff suggest that law enforcement relied on false ‘alt-right’ posts in their planning for an April 21, 2018 rally by the neo-nazi National Socialist Movement (NSM). The NSM ended up only drawing about 30 supporters but were met by several hundred anti-racist counter-protesters. Most media coverage of events in Newnan focused on the police response, which included over 800 officers who aggressively attacked and arrested antifascists, at times directly threatening protesters with assault rifles at point blank range. Evidence shows that the heavy-handed tactics used by Newnan police on April 21 were motivated in part by disinformation, created and shared by members of a far-right militia, which law enforcement had accepted as fact.

May Day: An American History Coverup

May 1, 2018 Eleanor Goldfield, Artkillingapathy.com Educate! Class Struggle, History, May Day, Propaganda

60 years ago, President Eisenhower proclaimed May 1st Law Day. According to the American Bar Association, it was to be “a national day set aside to celebrate the rule of law.” Even compared to the more frivolous holidays, this one seems particularly arbitrary. How does one celebrate Law Day? By high-fiving a lawyer? For once not crossing the street on red even though the coast is clear? The truth is, no one celebrates it. And even for those who first constructed and proclaimed it – celebration wasn’t the point. Rather, the point was to cover up and malign those who demanded justice over an oppressive and violent law and order. With this new day proclaimed, the powers that be could spray-paint “Commie” on the fight for worker’s rights so that all who labor here fall in a capitalist line, afraid of being thought unpatriotic if they demand justice.

Just When You Thought “Russiagate” Couldn’t Get Any Sillier …

April 25, 2018 Thomas Knapp, Counterpunch.org Educate! Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, Propaganda, Russia

April 20 is cannabis culture’s high holiday, and the Democratic National Committee celebrated it with fervor this year: Blaze up, get silly, file a bizarre lawsuit accusing the Russian government, Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, and transparency activist group WikiLeaks of conspiring to steal an election. The suit confirms that after more than a year, special counsel Robert Mueller still hasn’t amassed the evidence required for a successful criminal prosecution, requiring proof “beyond a reasonable doubt.” A civil suit lowers that bar to “a preponderance of the evidence.” But even that’s a long shot. The only credible evidence produced so far implicates only the Trump campaign, not the other two defendants, and only to the same extent that it likewise implicates the Clinton campaign.

Unpersons

April 24, 2018 William Blum, Williamblum.org Educate! Propaganda, Revisionism, Soviet Union

One reason it’s so easy to get an American administration, the mainstream media, and the American people to jump on an anti-Russian bandwagon is of course the legacy of the Soviet Union. To all the real crimes and shortcomings of that period the US regularly added many fictitious claims to agitate the American public against Moscow. That has not come to a halt. During a debate in the 2016 Republican presidential primary, candidate Ben Carson (now the head of the US Housing and Urban Development agency) allowed the following to pass his lips: “Joseph Stalin said if you want to bring America down, you have to undermine three things: Our spiritual life, our patriotism, and our morality.”

Executive Who Oversaw Iraq ‘Black Ops’ Hired To Produce Anti-Qatar Propaganda

April 24, 2018 By Jessica Purkiss and Abigail Fielding-Smith, Mintpressnews.com Educate! Iraq, Middle East, Propaganda, US Imperialism

The former CEO of propaganda producer, Bell Pottinger USA, was given over $500,000 to produce a six-part film linking Qatar with global terrorism. Aveteran of Pentagon propaganda operations was hired last year by a Dubai-based company to create a film accusing Qatar of links to terrorism, the Bureau can reveal. Charles Andreae, whose firm Andreae & Associates was contracted to produce the film, used to work for PR firm Bell Pottinger. Whilst at Bell Pottinger, he helped oversee a $500 million contract with the Pentagon to run top-secret influence operations during the Iraq war. The latest contract underscores growing concerns about foreign influence campaigns in the heart of Washington. While much focus has been on Russia’s role in the US elections, Persian Gulf countries have also been spending large sums of money pushing their agenda to President Trump’s administration.

How Shoddy Reporting And Anti-Russian Propaganda Coerced Ecuador To Silence Julian Assange

April 23, 2018 M.C. McGrath and Glen Greenwald, Theintercept.com Educate! Ecuador, Journalism, Julian Assange, Media, Propaganda

JULIAN ASSANGE HAS been barred from communicating with the outside world for more than three weeks. On March 27, the government of Ecuador blocked Assange’s internet access and barred him from receiving visitors other than his lawyers. Assange has been in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012, when Ecuador granted him asylum due to fears that his extradition to Sweden as part of a sexual assault investigation would result in his being sent to the U.S. for prosecution for his work with WikiLeaks. In January of this year, Assange formally became a citizen of Ecuador. As a result of Ecuador’s recent actions, Assange — long a prolific commentator on political debates around the world — has been silenced for more than three weeks, by a country that originally granted him political asylum and of which he is now a citizen.

‘Syria Boy’ Hassan Diab – Trump, May, Macron’s Worst Nightmare

April 22, 2018 Jerry Alatalo, The Oneness of Humanity Educate! Propaganda, Syria, Wars and Militarism

The story of Hassan Diab has gone viral on the internet, but apparently hasn’t come to the attention of U.S. President Donald Trump, U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May or French President Emmanuel Macron. Of course, the leaders of America, Britain, and France are fully aware of Hassan Diab, but for some unknown reason are choosing to remain silent – thus far unwilling to offer any commentary and/or statements whatsoever. One has to seriously wonder as to why – and become very concerned, in light of historic U.S./Russia tensions many experts assess as greater than during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Public Radio’s McCarthyite Smear Of Black Activists Shows Danger Of Russia Panic

April 21, 2018 Adam Johnson, Fair.org Educate! Activism, Media, Propaganda, Russia

For over a year, outlets from FAIR (8/24/16) to TruthDig (1/7/17) to The Nation(8/7/17) to The Intercept (2/12/18) have been warning about the pitfalls of nonstop Russia Is Everywhere and Out to Get Us coverage. The Russians are “stoking discord” and “sowing unrest” and infiltrating online and real-life spaces with memes and rallies and disinformation, corporate media tell us. Did you share Russian disinfo? Twitter and Facebook will let you know. Did you buy into Russian “fake news”? CNN wants to find out. Russia is everywhere, and it’s important the media not only report this fact, but do so over and over and over again, until one is looking for the Russian menace in every interaction.

NYT: Don’t Be Progressive, Be A ‘Liberal’

April 21, 2018 Jim Naureckas, Fair.org Educate! Corporate Media, Liberals, Propaganda

Its ostensible subject is why Democrats should call themselves “liberals” and not “progressives.” But in making that case, it hits most of the main points of the New York Times‘ ideology—one that has guided the paper since the late 19th century. First and foremost, it’s a defense of the status quo. “The basic premise of liberal politics,” Weiner writes, “is the capacity of government to do good, especially in ameliorating economic ills.” But not too much good, mind you: “A liberal can believe that government can do more good or less,” he stresses. Weiner draws a contrast with progressives: “Where liberalism seeks to ameliorate economic ills, progressivism’s goal is to eradicate them.” So Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society is cited negatively as an example of “a progressive effort to remake society by eradicating poverty’s causes”—in the process supporting “community action” and financing the “political activism”...

UN Agency Fails To Substantiate Claims Of Russian Use Of “Military Grade Nerve Agent” In Skripal Poisoning

April 14, 2018 Julie Hyland, Wsws.org Educate! Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, Propaganda, Russia, United Nations

Russia said that it had proof that the alleged chemical attack was staged by the UK. RT reports: “The Russian Defense Ministry has presented what it says is proof that the reported chemical weapons attack in Syria was staged. It also accused the British government of pressuring the perpetrators to speed up the ‘provocation.’ . . . “Konashenkov said Russia hoped that international monitors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which is due to investigate the circumstances of the incident, will help establish the truth. He added Eastern Ghouta is currently trying to return to peaceful life after being liberated from militant groups by Syrian government forces. He called on other nations and international organizations to provide humanitarian aid, which is badly needed in the area.

CIA Stages Gas Attack Pretext For Syria Escalation

April 11, 2018 By Patrick Martin, Wsws.org Educate! CIA, Propaganda, Syria

The US media has seized on the latest claims by CIA-backed groups of a poison gas attack on civilians to demand a further escalation of the US-led war for regime-change in Syria and an increased confrontation with Russia. The Syrian government claims that one of its airbases, in Homs province, has already come under missile attack. While the Pentagon is denying that it has launched any strikes on Syria yet, the rhetoric of the Trump administration indicates that preparations are being made for stepped-up military operations. As with previous allegations of chemical weapons’ use, the public is being inundated with unverified footage of suffering victims, while government officials and the corporate media, prior to any investigation and without any substantiation, declare the government of Bashar al-Assad and its Iranian and Russian allies to be guilty of a war crime.

Washington And Riyadh’s Terror Enterprise. Wahhabi-indoctrinated Mercenaries

April 9, 2018 By Tony Cartalucci, Globalresearch.ca Educate! Middle East, Propaganda, Saudi Arabia

Wahhabism was created and used as a political tool as early as the 1700’s. It served as the cornerstone of Saudi Arabia’s founding. Conveniently, Wahhabism – since its inception – was intolerant to outsiders. To the Saudis seeking political power through conquest, this intolerance was easily translated into the use of violence against tribes and neighboring states that did not submit to Saudi power. The British would harness this political tool further in its contest of power with the Ottoman Empire. It encouraged and cultivated extremist ideologies like Wahhabism before and after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. After the World Wars, the British and the Americans would ally themselves with nations like Saudi Arabia and begin exporting Wahhabi indoctrination worldwide. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s admission of this gives further insight into Washington’s use of extremists in Syria in the late 1970s and early 1980s as well as US support to militants in Afghanistan aimed at dislodging the Soviet presence there.

Mass Deception and the Prelude to World War

April 7, 2018 By Colin Todhunter, Counterpunch Educate! Media, Propaganda, Wars and Militarism

Over the last 15 years or so, politicians and the media have been manipulating popular sentiment to get an increasingly war-fatigued Western public to support ongoing wars under the notion of protecting civilians or a bogus ‘war on terror’. They spin a yarn about securing women’s rights or a war on terror in Afghanistan, removing despots from power in Iraq, Libya or Syria or protecting human life, while then going on to attack or help destabilise countries, resulting in the loss of hundreds of thousands of civilian lives. Emotive language designed to instil fear about potential terror attacks in Europe or myths about humanitarianism intervention are used as a pretext to wage imperialist wars in mineral-rich countries and geostrategically important regions. Part of the battle for the public’s hearts and minds is to keep people confused.

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