Written by Paul Craig Roberts; Originally appeared at his blog
Bannon is correct that the US media – indeed, the entire Western print and TV media – is nothing but a propaganda machine for the ruling elite. The presstitutes are devoid of integrity, moral conscience, and respect for truth.
You’re not the press, you’re fake news!!! pic.twitter.com/ei0rEfRpyF
— ira (@idesignwis) January 26, 2017
Who else but the despicable Western media justified the enormous war crimes committed against millions of peoples by the Clinton, Bush, and Obama regimes in nine countries—Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Yemen, Syria, Somalia, Palestine, and the Russian areas of Ukraine?
Who else but the despicable Western media justified the domestic police states that have been erected in the Western world in the name of the “war on terror”?
Along with the war criminals that comprised the Clinton, Bush, and Obama regimes, the Western media should be tried for their complicity in the massive crimes against humanity.
The Western media’s effort to sustain the high level of tension between the West and Russia is a danger to all mankind, a direct threat to life on earth. Gorbachev’s warnings are correct…
The world today is overwhelmed with problems. Policymakers seem to be confused and at a loss.But no problem is more urgent today than the militarization of politics and the new arms race. Stopping and reversing this ruinous race must be our top priority.
The current situation is too dangerous.
…Politicians and military leaders sound increasingly belligerent and defense doctrines more dangerous. Commentators and TV personalities are joining the bellicose chorus. It all looks as if the world is preparing for war.
Yet presstitutes declare that if Trump lifts the sanctions it proves that Trump is a Russian agent. It is paradoxical that the Democrats and the liberal-progressive-left are mobilizing the anti-war movement to oppose Trump’s anti-war policy!
By refusing to acknowledge and to apologize for its lies, euphemistically called “fake news,” the Western media has failed humanity in a number of other ways. For example, by consciously telling lies, the media has legitimized the suborning of perjury and false testimony used to convict innocent defendants (such as Walter McMillian in Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy) in America’s “justice” system, which has about the same relation to justice as genocide has to mercy. If the media can lie about world events, police and prosecutors can lie about crimes.
By taking the role of the political opposition to Trump, the media has discredited itself as an honest critic on topics where Trump needs criticism, such as the environment and his tolerance of oppressive methods used by police. The presstitutes have ended all chance of improving Trump’s performance with reports and criticism.
Trump needs moderating on the environment, on the police, and on the war on terror. Trump needs to understand that “the Muslim threat” is a hoax created by the neoconservatives and the military/security complex with the complicity of the presstitutes to serve the hegemony agenda and the budget and power of the CIA, Pentagon, and military industries. If the US stops bombing and slaughtering Muslims and training and equiping forces to overthrow non-compliant Muslim governments such as Syria, Iraq, and Libya, “the Muslim threat” will disappear.
Maybe Trump will add to his agenda breaking into hundreds of pieces the six mega-media companies that own 90% of the US media and selling the pieces to seperate independent owners who have no connection to the ruling elites. Then America would again have a media that can constrain the government with truth rather than use lies to act for or against the government.
I recently saw the head of the Dutch state news on a TV show and he talked about being in Washington for the Trump inauguration and then going to see the anti-Trump demonstrations. Like it was his religious duty to attend those as well. At all times he made no effort to hide his anti-Trump bias and then talked about how he had a duty to tell the news as it is. Now I don’t begrudge a person for having his own opinion, that is their right. But it seems to me that if you talk so openly about your own opinion how can I trust you when you present the news as supposedly unbiased? Now, if the talk show host had asked him about his opinions regarding Trump, and the journalist had said, sorry, I can’t give you that, as a journalist it’s my duty NOT to have a personal opinion so I can most objectively tell you the news, yeah, THEN I would start to trust the news a bit more.
I don’t believe in secret conspiracies, in journalists being told to present the news in certain ways. That’s the Russia Today method. But at least that method is so out in the open you can spot it. In the west journalists seem more and more incapable of detaching themselves from their personal bias and doing proper fact checking. I may not be knowledgeable on everything but I am on some things, and when I see and hear them talk bullshit on things I do know about, I wander what else can I trust? I mean how hard is it to check stuff on wikipedia to start with? Also I notice that journalists let politicians get away with murder. All to often I watch them do an interview where I think he’s evading the question, keep pushing! And they don’t. Only when they have a real hate boner against a politician do they keep on pushing and pushing. Like they seem to have with Trump. Fine, but where was that journalistic outrage when the US and UK invaded Iraq? Where was that journalistic outrage when governments were bailing out the banks that caused the financial melt down? Where was that journalistic outrage when EU countries were forcing Greece into extreme austerity? Where was that journalistic outrage when Western governments were funnneling billions into army all sorts of shady Jihadists in Syria and calling them moderate opposition? Where was that journalistic outrage when supposedly a 7 year old child was making well composed tweets in a foreign language from a Jihaddi occupied and controlled city? And where is that journalistic outrage when Western aircraft are bombing Mosul on a daily basis, a city with more civilians being held hostage then East-Aleppo?
everything has a bias, everyone has a bias, every computer since it was programmed by a person has a bias, it comes with having a sense of self, you cant detach personal bias. all you can do is acknowledge it. the danger of the fake stream media is precisely that they have tried to create this falicy that they have no bias. now people think if it agrees with their bias it means it has no bias and so you can make cults with almost no effort and lead people down the craziest paths by simply moving them all as a group and having them reinforce their opinions to each other in a accelerating cycle of extremism. civilization is always just one bad afternoon away from ceasing to exist mind you as a group delusion, but the potential for a bad afternoon is growing like crazy at the moment
There is, and MUST BE, a difference between “factual reporting” and “opinion”. The news, the bare unvarnished facts, should be reported in as truthful and objective a fashion as possible, without lying, misrepresentation, distortion, or omission of relevant details and context. Otherwise, it’s propaganda – not “news”. Biased personal opinions can be given afterwards, if necessary – but they should be clearly separated from the “reporting” part.
Can you give an example ot “the Russia Today” method which is so easy to spot? I’d like to know what I’ve been missing. As for Wikipedia, maybe not quite so impartial either. https://youtu.be/-bYAQ-ZZtEU?list=PLN6ZFd7eQWEcfo5_NFZEzjyM993pshfcW
** That’s the Russia Today method. **
And the NYT method.
I’ve read that the civilians in Mosul are ISIS supporters not hostages. Sorry, I can’t remember where I saw that.
Good comment.
great article, i bang on about this a lot, you bang on about it more eloquently :D
((( The Media )))