The Media 'R Us

The newspapers lie

As far as politics and international relations are concerned, you do not get the “facts” in the American news – you get “fake news"  aka propaganda .  The media do not just "get it wrong" -- they lie.  

So when there was and explosion in Idlib province with people dying from a foul smelling gas, the  Western Mainstream Media immediately accused Bashir Assad of bombing his own people with Sarin. Their sources were Al Qaeda -- and also the Turks,  who weren't there and anyway have been implicated in supplying ISIS and Al Qaeda with chemical weapons technology.  There was no real evidence that the deaths in Idlib were due to sarin at all as you can see from the photo below.   

Sarin is transmitted through the skin. These responders are using bare hands to help victims. Sarin is also odorless but responders complained about the noxious odor.

Western reports have been thoroughly discredited -- just as the 2013 incident in Ghouta was.    Go here to Media Lens .... and here to to an analysis by an MIT expert ..... 

The American media have huge resources, people, money, organization. The must know the truth.

But they are not in the story business.   Really, every news article should begin: "Based on a true story...".  Like all those movies that have little or nothing to do with really happened.

When Trump seized on the opportunity to show the world that he is really not Putin's bitch, 90 percent of the American media applauded, cutting across party lines, acting as cheerleaders, all pom-poms and hoopla.

It often takes years and years before anyone will admit that these media events are hoaxes. That was the case with the Gulf of Tonkin story, Saddam's soldiers dumping babies out of incubators  to die on the cold floor in Kuwait and so on. 

The Public really doesn't want to know.  We are the "Good Guys", right.?  "They" are the Bad Guys because they are not "Us".

We want to believe Media lies.So, we have a vested interest in pretending they are "free", rather than just telling us what we want to hear.

Nah, there is no "Fourth Estate" -- just the propaganda wing of the Third.  Come to think of it --  there is only one estate -- us.

Now, in some other countries, such as North Korea, the press is directly controlled.  So people have to assume that most of what they are told is fiction .   

In Saudi Arabia, the media must mind both the Government - -and religious authorities.  There too people know the difference. 

Here the  Media companies are owned by a few rich people -- and they are in it to get richer so they must accommodate the preconceptions and needs of their audience -- and, of course, the advertisers who make their operations possible.  
 

His Nastiness: Rupert

  Rupert Murdoch didn't get to be rich by being stupid.  

America is #41 in press freedom worldwide because you cannot have real freedom of information when the truth is a market transaction.

America as #41

 "News" is entertainment.    And every good story has to have a nasty Villain, who doesn't look like us.  And a hero who looks like we wish we looked.    We need Evil.  We need Good.  We need Justice.  What do those things mean?  Who the fuck cares.

Of course, at some level, people also know it is a crock.  When we talk to our kids, they tend to ask dumb questions: like why?

Cognitive dissonance is a kid telling the Emperor he is naked. 

What to do?

Blame the Media.

Once upon a time, people took what they read in the newspaper as probably more or less factual --  so long as it did not conflict with their personal beliefs, prejudices or experience (of course).   By the time that untruths were exposed for what they were usually a lot of time had passed, lessening impact. Today,  Today, with the Internet, there are other sources of information -- which are difficult to ignore.  And kids have access to that too.

As a result, ,confidence in the media has fallen to just 30%. 

Still, it is you who controls the media -- the mob --expressing your  baser desires.

The media are just whores.

As Edward Bernays, the Father of Modern Advertising and PR knew well (he was Sigmund's nephew) he Public Mind  has it's Super Ego, it's Ego and -- most important of all, its Id.   

Ultimately,  most of the Public 'Mind" is unconscious-- with the Public “Id”  determining narratives.

Most of the "Mind" is hidden

The Media, of course, have to blame someone too.  They blame “fake news” on either foreign governments.   Nobody blames the People.

And yet we are the ones with the power to change all this.   We can and do influence events.

The American people got mass murderer William Calley, who had been living rather comfortably under house arrest,  a pardon.  But a majority branded Bradley (Chelsea) Manning a traitor for revealing war crimes leading to a long sentence under terrible conditions that the UN labelled torture. 

Whistle-blowers and truth tellers are like prophets  -- without honor in their own countries. 

79% of Americans disagreed with Lt.Calley's Court Martial conviction leading to Nixon's pardon after 3 years of house arrest. By contrast 52% of Americans thought Bradley Manning a traitor for revealing American war crimes.  Hugh Thompson, the Hero of Mai Lai, who stopped the massacre was shunned for 30 yeras

The American Public Id is brutal  and jingoistic -- it applauds bombing and killing, as long as the people who die are somewhere else.  The  Public Ego may talk of justice and freedom but the Public Id needs bogeymen -- 'terrorists" and "brutal dictators" to justify its delusions of national integrity, mass murder, torture and genocide.. 

If you pledge allegiance to the flag you are either a hypocrite or a fool -- or most likely both.  If you say, "my country right or wrong..." you are a psychopath.

As I said, in this modern capitalist world there is only one estate.  The Public.

And we are all part of it -- even the one percent.

Hitler did not convince the Germans to hate Jews and Slavs.  They already loathed them.    And -- of course -- Hitler was just another of those anti-Semitic Germans -- just one member of the Public, who led from behind.

Our forefathers killed Indians and Mexicans and took their land. That is the American Way-- One Nation Under Greed.

later, the Germans and the Japanese were the Bad Guys.  They lost the war and became vassals -- and we had an even bigger empire.  

After that,  the focus shifted to the Russians and the Chinese -- but they could not be conquered -- which made them really, really Evil. We tried to bully them - and, guess what, they didn't like it.  They resisted.

It is for good reason that Satan's other name is the Adversary.

George Bush sagely  said it all:  "if you're not with us, you're against us".   But "with us" means subservient to us.  "Against us" means adversarial. And we have a right go kill you, men, women and children.

Not all Americans think this way (obviously) -- but enough do that it defines the national narrative -- the fiction that provides context for our our lives. 

Of course, a lot of Americans prefer not to think at all.!  Those are the ones who don't vote and say, "I'm not interested in politics". 

They too are complicit. Shame on them. Shame on us.