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Propaganda

Misinformer Of The Year: The Center For Medical Progress

December 22, 2015 Olivia Kittel, www.mediamatters.org ,
By Olivia Kittel for Media Matters - Conservative media figures and their right-wing political allies thought that this was the year they could finally achieve their decades-long goal of destroying Planned Parenthood's reputation and ability to provide health care to millions of Americans. Since July, the previously-unknown anti-choice group Center for Medical Progress has released a series of dishonestly edited videos that falsely accuse Planned Parenthood of illegally selling "baby parts." Long-standing opponents of the organization's mission used those deceptive videos to generate congressional hearings...

Thomas Paine, Recycled Propaganda, White Power & COP21

December 4, 2015 , ,
Eleanor Goldfield for Occupy.com. On Act Out this week, let's use some common sense and talk about the rights of man. Next up, Recycled Propaganda, pure white low life scum, grab a seat at the middle east dinner table and from Paris to the globe, climate change can be slowed, if we make it so. But first, life is meaningless – like a blank page so get a brush, a crayon, a pen and paint your way.

Cameron Calls Opponents Of Bombing ‘Terrorist Sympathizers’

December 3, 2015 Jon Stone, www.independent.co.uk , ,
By Jon Stone for Independent - David Cameron has refused to apologise after branding MPs who oppose air strikes in Syria “terrorist sympathisers”. The Prime Minister faced repeated interventions from MPs during a House of Commons debate on military action demanding that he retract the attack. Mr Cameron reportedly last night told rebel Conservative MPs that they might be set to “walk through the lobbies with Jeremy Corbyn and a bunch of terrorist sympathisers”. But today he did not acknowledge requests in parlaiment to withdraw the comments, even from pro-intervention MPs.

Project Censored 2015: Top Ten News Stories The Media Ignored

November 29, 2015 Tim Redmond, www.cascadiaweekly.com , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
By Tim Redmond for Cascadia Weekly. As Project Censored staffers Mickey Huff and Andy Lee Roth note, 90 percent of U.S. news media—the traditional outlets that employ full-time reporters—are controlled by six corporations. “The corporate media hardly represent the mainstream,” the staffers wrote in the current edition’s introduction. “By contrast, the independent journalists that Project Censored has celebrated since its inception are now understood as vital components of what experts have identified as the newly developing ‘networked fourth estate.’”

US Total Failure In Ukraine, Will The Nation Wake Up?

September 6, 2015 Patrick L. Smith, www.salon.com , , , ,
By Patrick L. Smith for Salon - It is not a matter only of countering entrenched interests—the Pentagon, the defense industries, the intelligence and national security apparatus. I conclude that the American consciousness must also sustain a certain kind of violence before we will imagine our place in the world anew. This seems to me the colonel’s thought: We failed in Ukraine “pretty much completely,” and we can learn from this to think differently. I see two major misapprehensions immediately at issue. One is the neoliberal model, arising as it does out of the Chicago School’s free-market ideology, econometrics, rational choice theory, and the drastic tilt toward mathematics and computer modeling in postwar social sciences. It strips all history, culture, tradition and human preference out of our thinking such that we can pile into Ukraine and expect to win the day. Impossible. This is the irrationality of hyper-rationality. It is a proven loser. Let the losses pile up.

How The US Elections Manipulate Voters, Prevent Progress

September 1, 2015 Byron Williams, www.contracostatimes.com , ,
By Byron Williams in Contra Costa Times - If the 2016 presidential race stays true to form, it will be dominated by preliminary bouts, otherwise known as primaries, followed by the main event, the General Election. The primaries will be a competition to see who is more in touch with the respective party's base. This means Democrat and Republican candidates will appeal more to their parties more ideological sectors, only to make a mad dash to the center after the nomination process is complete. With some exceptions, this has been the basic formula that both parties have employed for the last four decades. It depends on a linear left/right axis. What's great about this approach is its neatness, or at a minimum the appearance thereof. For the portion of the electorate that participates in the political process, it is a call to arms -- to hunker down in the predictable silos of orthodoxy, questioning the sanity of those who possess the unmitigated gall to see the world differently.

8 Frightening Characteristics Of Propaganda

August 25, 2015 Daniel Lattier, www.intellectualtakeout.org , ,
By Daniel Lattier in Intellectual Take Out - Jacques Ellul’s Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes (1965) has been called “a far more frightening work than any of the nightmare novels of George Orwell.” In it, the French philosopher and sociologist dispels some of the popular notions about propaganda and exposes how it really operates in the modern world. In the first chapter of the book, Ellul describes some of the characteristics of modern propaganda. Eight of them appear below: 1) It Prevents Dialogue. 2) It Focuses on the Mass. 3) It is “Total”. 4) It Takes Over Education. 5) It Takes Over Literature and History. 6) It Must be Subtle at First. 7) It Must be Nonstop. 8) It Aims at Irrational Action.

Can The US See The Truth About Russia?

August 7, 2015 Jack Hanick, www.observer.com , , , ,
By Jack Hanick for the Observer - When the president of Ukraine was overthrown, from a Russian viewpoint this was a Western organized coup. The overthrow of a democratically elected president signaled that the West was interested in an expansion of power, not democratic values. The leaked recorded conversations of Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and US Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt suggested that the US was actively involved in regime change in the Ukraine. For Russia, the Ukrainians are their brothers, much more than any other group. The languages are similar; they are linked culturally and religiously. Kiev played a central role in the Christianization of Russia. Many Russians have family members in Ukraine. For Russians, this special relationship was destroyed by outside forces. Imagine if Canada suddenly aligned itself with Russia or China. The US would surely see that as a threat on its border and act decisively.

Newsletter – Culture Of Deception

July 18, 2015 Margaret Fowers and Kevin Zeese, www.popularresistance.org , , , , , , , , , ,
By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese. A recent report by the Union of Concerned Scientists, "The Climate Deception Dossiers," proves that the corporations which profit from the burning of fossil fuels knew about global warming decades ago, knew their industries contributed to it and responded by funding propaganda to deny global warming and pushing policies that increased their profits at the expense of a livable future. In "We are all Greeks Now," Chris Hedges connects corporate capitalism to the many crises we face. He writes, "Corporate profit is God. It does not matter who suffers." When profit is worshiped, truth is sacrificed and all manner of deception is justified."

Noam Chomsky: Why The Internet Hasn’t Freed Our Minds

May 26, 2015 Noam Chomsky interviewed Seung-yoon Lee, www.alternet.org , , ,
For the propaganda model, notice what we explain there very explicitly is that this is a first approximation - and a good first approximation - for the way the media functions. We also mention that there are many other factors. In fact, if you take a look at the book ‘Manufacturing Consent’, about practically a third of the book, which nobody seems to have read, is a defence of the media from criticism by what are called civil rights organisations - Freedom House in this case. It’s a defence of the professionalism and accuracy of the media in their reporting, from a harsh critique which claimed that they were virtually traitors undermining government policy. We should have known, on the other hand, that they were quite professional. The media didn’t like that defence because what we said is – and this was about the Tet Offensive - that the reporters were very honest, courageous, accurate, and professional, but their work was done within a framework of tacit acquiescence to a propaganda system that was simply unconscious.

WI: Climate Change Gag Order & Industry Attacks On Science

April 12, 2015 Steve Horn, www.desmogblog.com ,
On April 7, Wisconsin's Board of Commissioners of Public Lands voted 2-1 to ban those employed by the agency from doing any work pertaining to climate change or global warming while doing public lands related work.Silenced image Although the story was covered by multiple media outlets, lost in the public discussion so far is how the vote fits into the broader multi-front industry attack in America's Dairyland-turned-Petro State and which industry interests may have played a role in the vote. The historical roots of the vote appear to trace back to an April 2009 congressional testimony given by Tia Nelson, executive secretary for the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands and daughter of former Wisconsin Democratic Governor Gaylord Nelson, in favor of passage of the American Clean Energy Security Act of 2009. In audio of the discussion preceding the 2-1 vote obtained by DeSmogBlog via an open records request, much of the 17-minute deliberation centered around the GOP Wisconsin treasurer Matt Adamczyk peppering Nelson with questions about her time spent serving on the task force.

Seven Steps Of Highly Effective Manipulators

April 12, 2015 Rick Sterling, www.dissidentvoice.org , , ,
Avaaz is an online lobby organization founded in 2007 by Jeremy Heimans (now CEO of Purpose) and others. Start-up funding was provided by George Soros’ foundation. While Avaaz has promoted some worthy causes, they have been prominent in promoting neoliberal foreign policies in keeping with the U.S. State Department. Accordingly, they had a major disinformation campaign against Venezuela last year. Avaaz very actively promoted a No Fly Zone in Libya. They are now very actively promoting the same for Syria. In-depth research and exposure of Avaaz can be found here. The titles give some indication: “Faking It: Charity Communications in the Firing Line”, “Syria: Avaaz, Purpose & the Art of Selling Hate for Empire”, “Avaaz: Imperialist Pimps for Militarism”.

Sleep Well, No Oscar For American Sniper

February 24, 2015 Mike Hastie, www.PopularResistance.org , , ,
I slept pretty well last night when I found out that the film, "American Sniper" did not win best picture at the Academy Awards. I also believe that 58,000 American soldiers who were killed in Vietnam also slept well. "By every standard, Fallujah was a crime." Chomsky also had this to say about the Vietnam War during the same interview. "The entire Vietnam War was an atrocity. The My Lai Massacre was just an afterthought." This is the great truth that has great silence, as far as what really happened in Vietnam and Iraq. This is what the American people cannot face, because it would dismantle their belief system. Whenever the truth threatens one's core beliefs, there is an urgent instinct to deny its reality. Clint Eastwood's film, is a continuous betrayal of all I felt when I came back from Vietnam. Lying is the most powerful weapon in war. This is the internal hemorrhage that almost killed me. It so often reminds me of the words of Malcolm X: "The only thing worse than death is betrayal." More Vietnam veterans have committed suicide than were killed in Vietnam. Many of my friends did not die in Vietnam, but as a result of being there. A very close vet friend of mine hung himself in a motel room several years ago.

Letter Campaign For 50th Anniversary Of Vietnam War

February 4, 2015 Staff, www.vietnamfulldisclosure.org , ,
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the landing of U.S. ground troops in Da Nang, Vietnam. Many consider this to be the beginning of the American War in Vietnam. To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the war the Pentagon is undertaking a ten-year, $65-million campaign to rewrite and whitewash the history of the war in Southeast Asia. In response, Veterans for Peace has announced the Vietnam War Full Disclosure project to offer a more truthful history of the war. As part of the project, Veterans for Peace is asking all who were affected, directly or indirectly, by the war to write letters addressed to “The Wall” (the Vietnam War Memorial) describing their experiences and sharing their grief over its devastating consequences. The project welcomes letters from both soldiers and civilians.

US Media Executive Equates Journalism With Terrorism

January 25, 2015 Bryan MacDonald, rt.com
The new chief of the US Broadcasting Board of Governors stirred up a storm when he equated RT to two of the world’s most hideous terrorist organizations. While his comments were absolutely without justification, it could be part of a clever funding ploy. “We are facing a number of challenges from entities like Russia Today which is out there pushing a point of view, the Islamic State in the Middle East and groups like Boko Haram” – Andrew Lack, the newly-appointed chief of the US Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG). I swear this is not a misprint. The head of a notionally independent US federal agency, responsible for the supervision of all US government-funded international media actually said this in a New York Times interview. The BBG supervises US propaganda networks such as RFE/RL and the Voice of America and had a 2014 budget of $733 million. He believes that little RT (2014 budget $291 million) is not only an existential threat to the US media but he equates the danger it poses to that of barbarous terror organizations.
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