With respect to media lies.. whilst they have been going on since forever, powered by private firms (Fox News, CNN, Disney et al), I'm thinking back to what I believe was a pivotal moment. Do you any of you remember the late Michael Hastings reporting on the proposal (as it was then) to end the ban on the use of propaganda against the American people?
Michael Hastings is still sorely missed. He was a brilliant reporter, and was murdered for his trouble. He was on the right track to try to draw people's attention to this treasonous legislation. How vital it is to shine a light on the government's sanctioning of "the production of fake news for your own good". This amendment breaks so many oaths given to the American people in their constitution. It opens the door to a world in which nobody has a means of knowing what is real and what is not.
Of course, propaganda was always used, directed at "foreigners"... but the proposed amendment to which Michael refers was making it legal to turn the PR and bullshit inward toward their own people (nice).
When you look at the cult status and blind worshipping of "celebrities", making it possible for the likes of George Clooney and Angelina Jolie to be used as pawns in selling any lie dressed up as "humanitarianism". We also have the baffling and suffocating proliferation of NGOs and "charities", able to blindside yet more millions of people under the banner of "philanthropy".
I really do believe things became radically worse after this bill, amendments included, was in fact passed, in 2013. This made it legal to produce flashy films (think "The White Helmets" and pretend rescue clips, "dusty boy pulled from rubble" nonesense, and crappy films like "Zero Dark Thirty" that completely skewer and obfuscate the disgusting adventures of USA in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and now Syria... all of it fake, fakety fucking fakeries here there and everywhere to get the American people onside with whatever the government and military happens to be up to at that time
This is what lead us to the Truman Show nightmare we live in today. This is how a group of terrorists linked to Al Qaeda was able to masquerade as a "humanitarian organisation" and win endorsements from hundreds of cerebrally challenged Hollywood luvvies, to the point where they AMOST won a Nobel Peace Prize! They were given millions of dollars of funding from EU countries, USA and UK and other NATO sources (though they claim to be impartial and independent), and.. millions more in personal donations given by well-meaning, warm hearted people who have been taken in by the lie; because the affore-mentioned Hollywood whores tugged at their heart strings, crying crocodile tears and showing scene after scene of carnage and despair in Syria to provoke a deep seated need in the public to "do something".
The reason Oslo didn't award the WH the prize was almost certainly the backlash from people like us, foot soldiers in the information war, calling bullshit, during the three weeks leading up to the announcements. And we've learned that it is possible to change people's perceptions, one person at a time, through a combination of evidence, logic, and sincerity - I'm old enough to remember when all of those three things were a damn sight more fashionable.
R.I.P. Michael Hastings - (January 28, 1980 – June 18, 2013),
fallen hero in the information war.
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Link to Michael Hastings' original article at Buzzfeed
The following is an excerpt from a piece in "Business Insider"
2013:
"Lt. Col. Daniel Davis, who released a highly critical report regarding the distortion of truth by senior military officials in Iraq and Afghanistan, dedicated a section of his report to Information Operations (IO) and states that after Desert Storm the military wanted to transform IO "into a core military competency on a par with air, ground, maritime and special operations."
Davis defines IO as "the integrated employment of electronic warfare (EW), computer network operations (CNO), psychological operations (PSYOP), military deception (MILDEC), and operations security (OPSEC), in concert with specified supporting and related capabilities, to influence, disrupt, corrupt or usurp adversarial human and automated decision making while protecting our own."
IO are primarily used to target foreign audiences, but Davis cites numerous senior leaders who want to (in the words of Colonel Richard B. Leap) "protect a key friendly center of gravity, to wit US national will" by repealing the Smith-Mundt Act to allow the direct deployment of these tactics on the American public."
The above article from Business Insider can be found here:
http://www.businessinsider.com/ndaa-legalizes-propaganda-2012-5?IR=T
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