Sigh, ... and the press' right hand calls the press' left hand "wicked" (or vice versa)

Just a quick contribution to point out the weakness we have for having someone tell us what to believe and what not to believe... and from whom.

I will start with this recent example courtesy of ZDNet Government's own David Gewirtz, CBS Interactive's Distinguished Lecturer.

Foreign news outlets cynically bash America's new emergency communications executive order

This article contains a message that will make many people smile... but they won't all be smiling for the same reason....

First let's not kid ourselves about the subject being criticized in the article... here are the examples the author cites as problematic - It all revolves around a single news item, recently explored by many members:

President Obama issued an Executive Order, in which he assigned "National Security and Emergency Preparedness Communications Functions."

Our fellow ATS'ers have not dallied nor remained detached from the development:

• Member paxmatus brought us Executive Order -- Assignment of National Security and Emergency Preparedness Communications Functions
  
• Labrynth2012 offered Obama Turns Internet over to DHS via Executive Order
  
• LetsGoViking opened a discussion entitled New Executive Order: Another Brick in the Wall,
  
• Bilk22 also discusses the topic in The Obama administration and the FBI want to spy on YOU
  

(I may have missed some discussions, but you probably get the point)

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Essentially, this particular executive order addresses the repeated national-level failures of communication command, control, and preparations for large-scale emergencies such as the infamous terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, and the equally damaging tragedy of Hurricane Katrina. Any nation must have a true plan and reasonable efficiency to maintain and make use of communication capabilities throughout the agencies and services which ostensibly exist to serve during such hard times. It stands under scrutiny because this order appears to engender better results from the same entities that repeatedly failed before; not by increasing accountability, but instead by increasing some levels of authority and power to the agencies in question.
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Our author has defined some foreign journalist's opinions expressed as "cynical bashing" and starts with a small diatribe about RT.com...

On the other hand, depending on where you read the news, you might get a completely different perspective. For example, take RT.com. RT stands for Russia Today -- so you know their [sic] perspective. If you read RT's article, you'd read "Obama gives himself control of all communication systems in America."

The esteemed Mr. Gewirtz professes he can assure us that...

I've represented America's strategic perspective as a guest on Russia Today's TV show .... and I can tell you that it's an enormous, well-funded propaganda machine.

I'll be returning to this point...

Gerwitz also cites another case of "cynical bashing" from Canada's Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG) as their article on the subject is entitled "Obama Seizes Control of All Communications Systems With Executive Order".

He adds:

For some reasons, Canadians seem terribly upset with this particular executive order. The Canada Free Press screams, "Obama’s obsession with control".

In contrast he praises as "sane" the 2-paragraph reporting on the topic by the Washington insider favorite "National Journal" ("Obama Outlines Emergency Communications Authority")... but never mentions that the author is a former employee of the Senate Press Office. When the National Journal was re-launched in October 2010 it featured a full page photo of President Obama along with the headline "I've got a lot of work to do."

Gerwitz also liked the article written in FeirceMarket's sub-forum FierceGovernmentIT ("Obama establishes new emergency comms effort") ... never-mind that this is no news source - but a marketing tool to serve government employees in the tech industry. In short, they are talking to their customers, about their boss.

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All of these examples are offered by the author to demonstrate that "propaganda" should be looked for because, in his words...

Like I said, news on the Internet is a funny thing. Whenever you can, explore beyond the 140-character Twitter headline and go to the source.

Otherwise, like many misinformed Twitter tweeters this week who retweeted RT's headlines, you may find yourself repeating Russian propaganda while thinking you're being a good American.

NOW... many would think he is full of wisdom and common sense. So be it. I disagree... why?

BECAUSE he forgot to mention the ownership of his own "news" organization such as the Columbia Broadcasting Company, the Hearst dynasty of news media, and their own litany of transgressions against "sane" reporting. He fails to note in his ironic phrasing "Foreign news outlets cynically bash America's ...." when if fact it was Obama whom they were criticizing not "America." And even the "sane" reporting examples he includes identifies the order not as American - but as Obama's.

I'm sure we needn't discuss the Hearst empires early 1900's consolidation of coast to coast newspapers and what role they played in the "Jekyll Island" plan to help centralized banking to usurp American citizens' interest in favor of the robber barons. And speaking of "enormous, well-funded propaganda machines" ... how about CBS remaining a key propaganda deliverer for numerous agencies.. with our own government not being the least of them. Does he not remember the PCB fiasco of the 70's the General Dynamic war machine advertising strategy, or so may other situations where the Military Industrial Complex bedded the "Big Four" broadcasting companies to ensure America never learned of their profiteering in Vietnam, and then Iraq? Or how about mentioning that "news" is entertainment in his American 'information' industry where truth and fact are "negotiable"?

I recognize the wisdom of "do your own research" when it comes to the internet... but this guy completely jumped the tracks by confronting what he declares as propaganda - with propaganda of his own.

reply to post by Maxmars


Trying to get people to see the lies that are right in front of their face is the BIG issue! How can people see ANY lies, when they believe in the system that tells them what the truth is?

Things that divide people, that blind them from seeing the TRUTH!

RELIGION
POLITICS
RACE
HAVE'S versus HAVE NOTS
GENDER
TERRORISM
WAR

How can we EVER overcome the obstacles that have been purposely put into place to divide us and destroy freedom, when we allow ourselves to be contributors to the system that created the problems in the first place? It seems that most people have beliefs, (be they right or wrong) and they are willing to argue until they sound like lunatics to prove their point. Meanwhile, they can't look in their own mirror and understand, who exactly they are looking at anymore?!

We have people all the time refer to the United States of America as a Democracy! WRONG! A democracy is MOB RULES! We are a Republic!

A Democracy is Two wolves and a sheep deciding what is for dinner! A Republic protects the sheep!

But yet, try to debate with a person who says a democracy is better..................

We are a lost cause, simply because we refuse to treat people like we would want them to treat us! If they don't belong to OUR club, they are wrong and they must be stopped from believing in what they believe in only because WE don't believe in it! Even though it doesn't harm anyone, but just due to the fact that they are DIFFERENT!

It seems that arrogance, selfishness, greed and power has come out on top of the food chain!

So who do we have to blame, but ourselves?

Our precept of governance included once - and in theory still includes - the existence of a free press.

The free press was the citizens assurance that they would always be 'well-informed' and able to judge the going's on in the part of our nation that they themselves could not directly be part of.

Now, the function and form of press is as a peddler of marketing for those who posture themselves as 'more capable' than the citizens. Just look at them. It doesn't matter what "party" they proclaim to support, it doesn't even matter what "they say" they believe.

We are "sold" our leadership by a system of political governance that will do anything to remain entrenched in the halls of power, where they can influence matters of state to be more amenable to their agendas - which are, for the most part, commercial. Since most commerce now aspires to be "global" most of their affairs are accommodating that end. It matters not one whit that people in one country or another are subjugated by the few well-placed robber barons who orchestrate everything citizens get from the press, from knowledge, to ignorance.

Sadly, the people who call themselves journalists and reporters rarely actually 'work' at what they trained to do... because the "owners" dictate editorial policy - and woe to any journalist who damages that tier of control.

Originally posted by Maxmars
Remember that tired old phrase... "those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it?"

John Swinton, the former Chief of Staff at the New York Times, was asked to toast the prestigious New York Press Club in 1880 (Swinton was called "The Dean of His Profession" by his fellows in the press):

" There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, as an
independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you
who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know
beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for
keeping my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with. Others
of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who
would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the
streets looking for another job.

If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper,
before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. The business of
the journalist is to destroy the truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to
vilify; to fawn at the feet of Mammon, and to sell the country for his
daily bread. You know it and I know it and what folly is this toasting
an independent press. We are the tools and vassals of the rich men
behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and
we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the
property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes. "

You have to wonder, if this was true then... what is it now?