The Difficulty of Being an Informed American
The American print and TV media have never been very good. These days, they are horrible. If a person intends to be informed, he must turn to foreign news broadcasts, to Internet sites, to foreign newspapers available on the Internet or to alternative newspapers that are springing up in various cities. A person who sits in front of Murdoch's Fox "News" or CNN or who reads The New York Times is simply being brainwashed with propaganda.
Before conservatives nod their heads in agreement, I'm not referring to "the liberal media." I mean the propaganda that issues from the U.S. government and the Israel lobby.
It was neoconservative Bush regime propaganda fed to America through Judith Miller and The New York Times and through Murdoch's Fox "News" that convinced Americans that they were in danger from a small secular Arab country halfway around the globe called Iraq. It was the American media that convinced Americans that getting rid of dangerous "weapons of mass destruction," weapons that did not exist in Iraq, would be a cakewalk paid for by Iraqi oil revenues.
It is the same propagandistic American print and TV media that have rationalized President Bush's illegal invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan based on seven years of lies and deception.
It is the same media that today provide only Israeli propaganda as "coverage" of the Israeli war crimes in Gaza.
It was The New York Times that spiked for one year the leaked information from the National Security Agency that the Bush regime, in violation of U.S. law, was illegally spying on Americans without warrants. The "liberal" New York Times agreed to suppress the story so that Bush would not face re-election under the cloud of his outlaw behavior.
Conservatives think The Washington Post is "liberal media" despite the fact that the editorial and commentary pages are controlled by neocons and their sympathizers.
During the run-up to wars and during wars, the American media have always been propagandists for the government. The only exceptions occurred during the Vietnam War and the Contra-Sandinista conflict in Central America. Karen de Young and some others tried to honestly cover the Contras and Sandinistas and were demonized by "patriots" taken in by the government's lies.
Conservatives still blame the "liberal" media for losing the Vietnam War, when in fact all the media did was to provide some truthful reports that opened some American eyes.
When the truth cuts against the position of the U.S. government, conservatives see it as "liberal."
When propaganda supports the government's lies, conservatives see it as "patriotic."
However, any resemblance to independent reporting disappeared from the American media when the Democratic regime of President Clinton allowed Murdoch and a small handful of moguls to concentrate the American media in a few corporate hands. That was the end of American reporting.
Journalists disappeared from media management and were replaced by corporate advertising executives with an eye not to offend any source of advertising revenue, and certainly not to offend the government, which controls the broadcast licenses that comprise the value of the mega-companies. Today, reporters write the stories that their masters want to hear, or they are out. The function of editors is to make certain that no uncomfortable information reaches the public.
The public is slowly catching on, and the print media are slowly dying. The New York Times, Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times are all on the ropes to one extent or another.
Americans are still subjected to Fox "News" and CNN propaganda piped into airport waiting rooms, doctors' offices and exercise centers. It is very much the situation that George Orwell describes in 1984.
People ask me where they can get reliable information. I tell them that their goal cannot be reached without commitment of their time.
People who have access to television services that provide English language foreign broadcasts, such as Iran's Press TV, Russia Today or Al Jazeera, can get news and insights from those parts of the world demonized by the U.S. media.
The BBC World Service still reports facts while covering itself by providing the views of the U.S., British and Israeli governments.
Both the Asia Times and Israeli newspapers such as Haaretz can be read online in English. There are other such newspapers, and all of them provide information that Americans will never see in their own media. Any American newspaper that was as truthful about the Israeli government as Haaretz would be closed down.
The only U.S. print media with which I am familiar in which some honest reporting can be found on a regular basis is the McClatchy papers.
Americans addicted to print media must turn to alternative newspapers, which tend to be weekly or bi-weekly. However, the news and commentary provided are often superb.
I have made no study of alternative newspapers and know very few. The Rock Creek Free Press is terrific. After reading one issue, you will waste no more time on the "mainstream media." The Rock Creek Free Press is likely to rescue even the dullest mind from its brainwashed state.
Other alternative newspapers, such as The Liberty Voice, lift your spirit as well as inform.
Alternative newspapers are often the children of people motivated by a sense of justice and the love of truth. Such people have become an endangered species in the American "mainstream media." The free press Americans have today is online and in the alternative media.
The function of the "mainstream media" is to sell products and brainwash the audience for the government and interest groups. By subscribing to it, Americans support their own brainwashing.
COPYRIGHT 2009 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.
Entries(RSS)
Joe McNulty,
I second Chris at comment #46. You undoubtedly are the victim of Marxist propaganda at whatever institution(s) you were schooled at, not to put myself up on a pedestal, for I once also agreed with such foolishness. What you said about being an American is 100% incorrect. Jefferson, Madison, and Washington would have laughed at you. Did you know that from the time of the Articles of Confederation until Tyler took office in 1841 no non-white race was permitted to immigrate to America? Europe is the home and birthplace of the West, and as such, that immigration policy was smart. As for your comment about Mexicans, you are forgetting something important: they have a chip on their shoulder against the U.S. concerning a little spat called the U.S.-Mexican War of 1846-48, after which we took what is today the entire American Southwest from them as war booty. You pointed out that they are Christian just as Americans traditionally are. I have seen that this is true, for I live in California, I pray to God for not much longer. They set up their own churches when their neighborhoods here get big enough, rather than assimilate to white American cultural ways by going to church with them. This is something Mexicans can do in their own country, no? One more thing - have you seen what happens when our elected officials try to enforce state or federal laws that are not in accordance with the plans of the border-hoppers? They take to the streets, and reveal where their loyalties lie. "We're going to take our land back," "Whites are the illegals," and a few other charming slogans are carried proudly on banners and signs during these marches. Italians, Eastern-Europeans, and Russians of the 1890s-1920s did not have such plans of revenge in their hearts, and neither did the Irish of the mid-19th century. That does not mean that such massive importation of those immigrants was a good idea, for I believe the Founders would have put a stop to those influxes much earlier than the federal authorities did in those respective cases, at their respective times. The point is, McNulty, you do seem to have taken the Marxist bait, having swallowed their creed that America is a universal nation (an oxymoron if I've ever heard one), one that is to be continually inhabited by immigrants since it was built by people who immigrated to these lands from another. You believe that if you want, just realize what kind of belief it is - one that is alien to America's founding principles.
Joseph @47
>I understand that in the Nineteenth Century there was great debate over whether the Irish were “white people.”<
Unfortunately, you have been deceived.
This lie was propagated by the Harvard professer Noel Ignatiev (a Jew who has explicitely advocated the genocide of the white race), and has been refuted by Steve Sailor and others.
The only good thing about this lie is that it allowed Jeremiah Wright to launch a very clever attack on Bill O'Reilly at the National Press Club, where he used said Jewish Lie to make fun of someone Mr. Wright views as a front for the Jews.
"Conservatives think The Washington Post is “liberal media” despite the fact that the editorial and commentary pages are controlled by neocons and their sympathizers." If there is any real difference between neocons and liberals it is that the neocons are to the left of the liberals.
Journalism has always been a fake undertaking. The original purpose of newspapers and subsequent mass media has been to sell goods and mold opinion. A Journalism degree, like almost all degrees, just makes it easy for prospective employers to assess the qualities for the employer's purposes. The fact that over the years a few competent and ethical men have slipped through the gauntlet does not justify the professional claims.
Many years ago, there was a cartoon of two commuters on a train. One was reading "lots of important information that you have to know." The other was reading gossip rumors and wacky stunts. The guy with the big paper was looking over his neighbor's shoulder. The best news is World Weekly News with its Hitler sightings, Elvis' latest whereabouts, communicating with the other side, Dear Debbie's advice column, Ed Anger's right-wing outrages, and Bat Boy. Truly great stuff.
"...there’s an article at The Rock Creek Free Press claiming HIV does not lead to AIDS."
You can read ?
@55 alogicbit
You promised you'd not contribute anything else to these pages. You're nothing but a promise-breaker. Be gone!
@Etienne Gervaise
I don't know why you don't like Lyndon LaRouche but he is having a web broadcast on the 16th of January where you can submit questions to him at his website.
As far as I know LaRouche and his PAC are the only ones who have put forth measures to stem the economic collapse like the Homeowners & Bank Protection Act.
I know Chronicles probably won’t publish this comment but I can prove there is a conspiracy by predicting a future event.
I originally estimated that it would happen sometime between mid January and February the 10th but it might even happen TOMORROW 16TH January 2009 when Putin travels to Berlin.
There will be an attempted terrorist attack on NATO headquarters in Brussels with a nuclear bomb or dirty bomb that will be linked or traced back to Russia justifying intervention against Russia by “terrorists” or claimed links to Russian intelligence.
Of course it will be a false flag attack and the evidence will be fabricated orchestrated by Zbignew Brezinski.
Brezinski’s puppet Obama will come to the forefront and the media will hype up the new Cold War threat escalating further support for terrorism inside Russia, NATO expansion and a foreign policy specifically targeted towards Russia.
I predict that the events outlined in #58 will not happen. But if they do, they prove not only that there is a conspiracy but that george is up to his eyeballs in it.
@Kirt Higdon
My analysis is based on statements by senior political figures, Obama appointees, past events, geo-political manoeuvring and use of iconic imagery Edward Berneys style PR to gather public opinion for said agenda (which isn’t exactly hard as it is what most Europeans and Americans want to hear).
If you want I could listed the points of how I came to this conclusion put putting events in context that you might not have considered before and are connected.
I am so sure that something will happen between now and mid February targeted towards Russia I am even trying to see if you can put a bet on it.
I heard people have placed bet in the past here in the UK at betting companies like predicts when man will be able to go to the moon (this is before it happened) and future predictions of when they will be able to go to Mars etc.
But I have never betted before and I don’t know if you can go into a betting shop and place any of the board bet on future predictions.
If NATO headquarters is attacked, we'll know for sure it's false flag as they'd be no rational reason for anyone but NATO boosters to do it.
In any event, a lot of forces with ties to Brezinski are probably going to lie low til it's clear how the incoming administation is going to handle Iran.
What the people gung ho for another major terrorist attack need, whether they happen to be associated with the Amerian Government or not, more than anything else is a pretext.
There are doubtless hopes that American confrontation with Iran can be used as this pretext.
Things have gotten too quiet lately for the good of the cause of international terrorism.
And this stagnant pot will certainly have to be stirred by someone or the other...
#60 - It's one thing to notice general trends and/or to expose successful conspiracies after they happen. Unsuccessful ones are difficult to expose absent government informers, which make them more provocations than conspiracies. But you are claiming based on the analysis of public statements and trends alone to expose before the fact an event with a maximum requirement of operational secrecy. And you want to bet on it. Try the Intrade on-line betting site. They are currently offering roughly 20 to one odds against an overt Israeli or US air strike on Iran by March 31. I think you could get even more lopsided odds than this on your prediction. Of course, there would have to be a specific and not just an approximate closing date, but you gave 2/10 as the specific closing date in your original post on this.
@Bob Johnson
“If NATO headquarters is attacked, we’ll know for sure it’s false flag as they’d be no rational reason for anyone but NATO boosters to do it.
In any event, a lot of forces with ties to Brezinski are probably going to lie low til it’s clear how the incoming administation is going to handle Iran.”
You couldn’t be more wrong the war in Iraq was a diversion from the prevailing policy not the standard implemented with the false flag terror attack on 9/11 with the pro Zionist faction in the US government Neocons.
Near the end of 2008 published in an Israeli newspaper Brezinski assured Israeli policy makers deviating away from the ME including attacking Iran is in Israelis best interest
While our attention has been focused on the Mid East we have missed more and crucial events that happened in Europe against Russia which includes moving Afghani terror hub to the Panski Gorge in 2003, Nord Ost and Beslan organised terror attacks by Chechen terrorists and there western intelligence puppet masters, Plutonium smuggling KGB fool here in the UK, coloured revolutions, gas conflict, the Georgian assault and now the gas disruption cut off by Ukraine of Russian gas to Europe.
Plus those stationed there by the US government to head operations in Europe against Russia are Brezinski clan members, George Soros and former oligarchs.
They have been promoting this New Cold War since Putin came to power in fact the first book published with that title was in 2000 six months into Putin’s presidency.
@Kirt Higdon
Intrade on-line betting site.
Does it do the UK and trade in £’s or is it just a US site and how do you post your own predictions?
“But you are claiming based on the analysis of public statements and trends alone to expose before the fact an event with a maximum requirement of operational secrecy”
You would only need a few specific people to carry out the attack and even then the operation would be splintered in such a way Know one but those directing the operation would have the full picture of what is going on.
The main thrust of my opinion is not based on an open statement but a closed door one presented to EU parliament Security Council by Brezinskis ISIS of “Bin Laden” detonating a nuclear bomb at NATO headquarters in Brussels I used public statements to back up my thesis and past events in context of this.
The reference to the NATO attack presentation is in the 9/11 documentary Zero by an EU parliamentarian. Type in Zero 9/11 on YouTube and I think it is part 6.
It needs updating since new revelations have come out supporting my thesis including new Obama staff members but I will post the various points of which I came to this conclusion when I update the points I made.
This from the Russia Today website.
"Putin in dinner jacket in Dresden Opera House – LIVE on RT
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is to attend the Debutantes’ Ball at Dresden's Semper Opera House on Friday. Watch the sumptuous ceremony live on RT at 2100 PM CET (2300 PM Moscow time)."
Could this be when the attack in Brussels will happen to coincide with the event?
A suggest you keep close observation to the news wires from 2100 PM CET.
Remember the Estonian spy for Russia hyped in the news that was gathering info on the missile shield at NATO headquarters in Brussels?
Well they will use that as a pretext that he was gathering information for the NATO attack and will be used as evidence against Russia as involvement in the attack.
Three years ago, at another website, I ventured to predict that the U.S. and Israel would attack Iran before the 2006 November elections. I thought for sure it would occur, since the neo-con pitbulls and their toadies at National Review were foaming at the mouth for it to happen.
It didn't.
Unless you are a Roman augur or haruspex, you shouldn't stick your neck out with predictions.
2000 EST and no dirty bomb yet! I'm waiting and RT is on the goggle box.
@Joseph Salemi
I think that would have been to obvious just like people predicting Obama will be assassinated so they can bring in Marshall law. No way far to obvious.
The beauty of my prediction is that it is not obvious until you start piecing the facts together over the years, there stated agenda and motivation.
Brezinski’s book Grand Chessboard absolutely lays out which his primary geo-political objective which is based on several Bilderburg essays to capture Eurasian oil for EU and US companies under US domination and with the global economic slowdown there is a urgent need for the resources that they can use as capital and they don’t want Russia having a predominant role in the region.
@Etienne Gervaise
I thought it might happen when Putin is overseas just like when he was at the Olympics when Georgia attacked South Ossetia.
I’ve also been monitoring the Georgia situation on RT and it is far from over possibly even a new front against Russia.
Powell, Biden and Brezinski have gone on record as stating that an event on the 20th or 21st January from “terrorists” (who in the past have connects or thought in CIA/MI6 theatres of combat in the Balkans and Chechnya and the three main attacks in Europe where monitored by domestic intelligence officers in all three countries) will test the new Obama administration.
But I still contest that it will be no latter than 10th February.
#68 - george, your prediction is clearly not obvious. It will be beautiful only if it proves correct. By this time, I think we all have our calendars marked for 2/10. For my part, I think you attribute far too much influence to Mr. Brezinski. Zbig is not that big.
@Kirt Higdon
"george, your prediction is clearly not obvious"
I agree I said it is not obvious until you put the pieces of the puzzle together
"The beauty of my prediction is that it is not obvious until you start piecing the facts together over the years, there stated agenda and motivation."
“For my part, I think you attribute far too much influence to Mr. Brezinski. Zbig is not that big.”
You have got to be kidding me since 79 and probably even before this guy ran the affairs against the Soviet Union.
This guy is the senior geo-political strategist for the Rothschild led NWO.
This guy co created globalist organisations like the Bilderburg and Trilateral Commission as well as other prominent think-tanks like the CSIS.
And the ones he did not create he helped tutor those who run them.
A good example is his Afghan right hand man since the Afghan war Khalizad who is the former ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and now at the UN.
He is the father of international terrorism using militants and with the already or created organised crime networks like drug smuggling , sex trafficking, etc as an international mercenary force.
This is nothing new the East Indian Company of the British Empire used mercenary units.
Pre-revolutionary Russia militants were used in the south by Rothschild to capture the newly discovered Caspian oil reserves and by the Nazis in WW2 in the Balkans called Operation Blue the same thing is happening today more so.
That is what the Bosnian war was about essentially a live recruitment, training and Islamic terrorist/mafia creating a network connecting the Middle East, Asia and Europe to train militants to fight in Russia’s Southern region.
With the break up of the Soviet Union Islamic militants and there Islamic militant theology were transported and started making incursions into Russia’s Caspian rich Dagestan region.
In 92 with the aid of Turkey the Chechen president travelled the US giving speeches at various US universities including Harvard. It was at Harvard he meet Brezinski and got his backing to send him and his militias to train in international terrorist training camps in Bosnia under the US supported regime there as well as in military camps in Turkey.
The 94 war was similar to 79 a classic Brezinski trap and after the war through Azerbaijan were able to get a strong foothold in Russia financing and running terrorist training camps in Dagestan.
That’s what it is really about the break up and division of Russia so they can capture natural oil and gas reserves.
#70 - Let's lay down a ground rule or two for evaluating the "beauty" of this non-obvious prediction. Other terrorist attacks (say, the bombing of a hotel in Bangkok or the seizure of an Israeli consulate somewhere by masked gunmen) do not give george the right to say that he was correct in predicting a terrorist attack, but just off in minor details. Also, upon the non-happening of his prediction, george does not get to say that he was right all along, but the plot was called off due to his outing of Dr. Zbig in this forum. Are you down with these conditions, george?
I won't be claiming if an attack happens somewhere else and if it connected to Brezinski or Chechen militants or anything like that that I was right.
I will claim I am right only if what transpires happens like I said no latter than 10th February.
Once I update my points I will post them to show you how I came to my conclusion.
One of the worst people propagandising this new Cold War is Tom Clancy especially in his video games.
In his 2001 game Ghost Recon this is the outline to the story of the game which was the outline to the western storyline of the August 2008 Georgian conflict.
"Ghost Recon begins in August 2008, with civil unrest in Russia. Ultra-nationalists have seized power in Moscow, with plans to rebuild the Iron Curtain. Their first step is clandestine support of rebel factions in Georgia and the Baltic States. This storyline foreshadows the 2008 South Ossetia War. This is where the Ghosts come in: to silence the rebellion. Armed with some of the most advanced weaponry in the world, the soldiers of the Ghost Recon force are covertly inserted into Eastern Europe and given specific missions to curtail the rebel actions and overthrow their benefactors.
During the first few missions of the game, the Ghosts battle South Ossetian rebel forces from the north of Georgia, who are harassing the legitimate government and its allies."
There’s going to be a crisis which will come along on the 21st, 22nd of January which we don’t even know about right now!”
Is this the NATO attack on Brussels he is talking about?
Will it happen tomorrow or shortly after Obamas inauguration?
Don't think the new Kennedy iconography of Obama like his address to the Munich crowd is just a coincidence its part of a subliminal marketing campaign to launch the “New Cold War”
Keep an eye on the news wires.
“While foreign leaders may or may not choose to test Obama, “the one thing I’m sure of is, events will test him,”
“There will be coups. … There will be genocide. … There will be terrorism.” - Council on Foreign Relations president Richard Haass
Is this Russia he is talking about?
Coups, genocide, terrorism!!! That Richard Haass must be the CFR's answer to Nostradamus. I remember a set of New Year's predictions made many years ago by a noted astrologer. He stated, "There will be earthquakes; California will not break off and fall in the ocean; and as for the stock market, it will have its ups and downs." He was 100% correct. I concur with the prediction that there will be a crisis that we don't now know about on January 21 and/or 22. Someone somewhere is always having a crisis and most of them we don't know about before, during or after the fact. I further predict that it will not be "the NATO attack on Brussels". (I assume this refers to the attack on NATO at Brussels which we have been discussing.)
@Kirt Higdon
The CFR set up a special Russia project devision.
Matthew Raphael Johnson's website rusjournal had a good article titled The Nature of anti-Putin NGOs (early 2006) which lists those involved in activity in Russia which include.
Mark F. Brzezinski, McGuire Woods, LLP
Dov S. Zakheim, Booz Allen Hamilton
Jessica T. Mathews, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Robert J. Einhorn, Center for Strategic & International Studies
Among others.