Battles with Media Scoundrels Continue: UK Think Tank Bashes Russia, Vilifies Putin, NYT urges Internet censorship

Dispatches from
STEPHEN LENDMAN

O n issues mattering most, The Times shamelessly publishes state and corporate propaganda, pretending it’s all the news fit to print. Along with other media scoundrels, it long ago lost credibility, why alternative sources of news, information and analysis are growing at their expense. Following reliable ones exclusively is the only way to stay informed – essential in today’s dangerous world.

NYT Urges Internet Censorship

EDITOR’S NOTE:

Cover photo above: Dean Baquet, current New York Times editor.

Another black face to fool the masses. The Neoliberal plutocracy likes to hide behind politically correct masks. They did it brilliantly with Obama, they do it with many men and women pigeonholed in positions of pseudo power sprinkled throughout the establishment. Baquet, whose decency and fides as a true journalist can be gauged by his serving the Times, has been the executive editor of The New York Times since May 14, 2014, reporting directly to Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr., the chairman and publisher.^[3] Between 2011 and 2014 he served as managing editor under the previous executive editor Jill Abramson.^[4] Baquet is the first black American to serve as executive editor, the highest-ranking position in The New York Times newsroom. —PG
(Wikipedia)

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Times and other media scoundrels misinform, distort, distract and lie, vital hard truths banished from their reporting – fake news their specialty. A previous article discussed Google and Facebook intentions to halt what they call “fake news,” claiming it’s to counter misinformation. I asked if their real aim is censorship. Will other online companies operate the same way? Is free and open Internet content at risk? Will reliable alternative media sources be targeted for elimination?

Will dark forces controlling America only let their message be disseminated, destroying the essence of democratic free expression? On Monday, Global Research editor Michel Chossudovsky [along with The Greanville Post editor Patrice Greanville who published an alert around the same time] stressed the danger and raised the same issue, essentially saying “(a) smear campaign is currently underway accusing the alternative and independent media online media of producing ‘Fake News.’ “

“Fake news,” according to Times editors, is content disagreeing with what the self-styled “newspaper of record” reports. “Real news” is daily rubbish it publishes – a cesspool of misinformation, distortions and Big Lies on major issues mattering most.

[dropcap]N[/dropcap]ever before in America and other Western societies was it so urgent to stay vigilant about growing tyranny replacing fundamental rights – none more important than speech, media and academic freedoms. Without them, all others are at risk. Does the NYT advocate what demands denunciation? It appears so from a Sunday editorial, headlined “Facebook and the Digital Virus Called Fake News,” the title indicating disturbing content to follow, saying:

“(M)illions of people (are) taken in by fake news stories…spread on social media sites” – what Times editors call a “scourge,” claiming “internet companies like Facebook and Google…ma(de) it possible for fake news to be shared nearly instantly with millions of users and have been slow to block it from their sites.”

“Fake news,” according to Times editors, is content disagreeing with what the self-styled “newspaper of record” reports. “Real news” is daily rubbish it publishes – a cesspool of misinformation, distortions and Big Lies on major issues mattering most. Their solution is what Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky discussed in their book, titled “Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy and the Mass Media” – explaining how media scoundrels manipulate and control public thinking and perceptions by filtering news and information.

Acceptable “residue” only is reported. Dissent is marginalized. Government and dominant private interests alone are served. In his 1928 book titled “Propaganda,” Edward Bernays said it’s possible to “regiment the public mind every bit as much as an army regiments their bodies.”

“If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, is it not possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing about it?” In his book titled “Taking the Risk Out of Democracy: Corporate Propaganda versus Freedom and Liberty,” Alex Carey said:

“The twentieth century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: the growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy.”

Media scoundrels, like The Times, are gatekeepers, wanting their message alone disseminated, excluding truth-telling alternative sources, exposing their misinformation and Big Lies. The Times says these vital reports are “hoaxes,” claiming “dissemination of (what it calls) fake news on Facebook…has been a longstanding problem,” advocating “(b)locking” it – censorship by any standard while ignoring it own daily “fake news” on issues mattering most.

News consumers in America and other Western societies are relentlessly carpet-bombed with scoundrel media-proliferated “fake news.” Tune them out. Ignore their publications. Choose reliable alternative sources for news, information and analysis. Get involved to keep the Internet open, free and fair. Challenge dark forces wanting their message alone disseminated.

TAKE 2

The London-based, right wing, militantly anti-Russia Henry Jackson Society issued a disgraceful report, titled “Putin’s Useful Idiots: Britain’s Left, Right and Russia.”

It challenges the credibility of guests appearing on Russian media, claiming some support his “standing up to the European Union and/or defending ‘traditional values’ from the corrupting influence of liberalism.”

Others admire Russia “in part out of ideological folly: they see anybody who opposes Western imperialism as a strategic bedfellow.”

The report ignores deplorable BBC and other Western propaganda, criticizing so-called “Kremlin-backed” media as “Russia’s propaganda networks…Putin makes for a deceptive and dangerous friend,” it claimed. Its McCarthyite recommendations to UK and other European lawmakers are disturbing – making Western and Eastern Europe more tyrannical than already if adopted, urging:

“Activists, journalists, and politicians should point out the pro-Russian connections of individuals and parties across the political spectrum and challenge the credibility of these entities via political debates. The personal and organisational connections of left-and right-wing politicians and parties and their Russian counterparts should be mapped across Europe.”

“As individuals and movements on the left and right grow in influence across Europe, the continent must wake up to their insidious means of funding. Parliaments across Europe should amend current legislation or pass new legislation that forces politicians to declare all media appearances they make, whether they receive money for them or not. Academics, commentators, and others should raise awareness in the West of the nature of the Russian regime.”

Is Trump a Kremlin puppet for appearing on RT? Is his wanting better Russia/US relations something to fear? Should appearances on Russian media be criminalized? Are only Western and likeminded media reports acceptable, no others? I’ve been interviewed on RT, Sputnik News and other Russian media.

I support peace, equity, justice, ecosanity, rule of law principles, multi-world polarity, and mutual cooperation among all nations. I oppose imperial lawlessness, fantasy democracy, tyranny, and government serving wealth, power and privilege at the expense of most everyone else.

Does that make me anti-American? A Kremlin puppet?

NOTE: ALL IMAGE CAPTIONS, PULL QUOTES AND COMMENTARY BY THE EDITORS, NOT THE AUTHORS • CONTINUE THE DEBATE ON OUR FACEBOOK PAGE. CLICK HERE.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Screen Shot 2016-02-19 at 10.13.00 AM

STEPHEN LENDMAN lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III." ( http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html ) Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

=SUBSCRIBE TODAY! NOTHING TO LOSE, EVERYTHING TO GAIN. SIGN UP AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE.=
free • safe • invaluable

If you appreciate our articles, do the right thing and let us know by subscribing. It’s free and it implies no obligation to you—ever. We just want to have a way to reach our most loyal readers on important occasions when their input is necessary. In return you get our email newsletter compiling the best of The Greanville Post several times a week.

Battles with Media Scoundrels Continue: UK Think Tank Bashes Russia, Vilifies Putin, NYT urges Internet censorship

Dispatches from STEPHEN LENDMAN

NYT Urges Internet Censorship

EDITOR’S NOTE:

Cover photo above: Dean Baquet, current New York Times editor.

“Fake news,” according to Times editors, is content disagreeing with what the self-styled “newspaper of record” reports. “Real news” is daily rubbish it publishes – a cesspool of misinformation, distortions and Big Lies on major issues mattering most.

TAKE 2

=SUBSCRIBE TODAY! NOTHING TO LOSE, EVERYTHING TO GAIN. SIGN UP AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE.= free • safe • invaluable

Related Articles

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

A Nonviolent Strategy to Liberate Syria

Trump Unloads on Media Scoundrels

Dispatches from
STEPHEN LENDMAN

=SUBSCRIBE TODAY! NOTHING TO LOSE, EVERYTHING TO GAIN. SIGN UP AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE.=
free • safe • invaluable