Friday 29th of March 2024

between the warmongering and essays by torture apologists, there wasn’t space...

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Just a few decades ago, it was still possible for the left to find space on corporate-owned airwaves. Progressive talkers like Tom Leykis, Lynn Samuels and Phil Donahue found wide audiences until they got pushed off the air by the corporate powers that be. I worked talk radio in Los Angeles and San Francisco until 2007.

The same applies to print. Until the 1990s, the New York Times occasionally found space for the occasional progressive-minded op-ed; no more, not ever. A memorable turning point was former columnist Bob Herbert’s 2010 remembrance of radical historian Howard Zinn. Zinn’s passing, Herbert wrote about his friend, “should have drawn much more attention from a press corps that spends an inordinate amount of its time obsessing idiotically over the likes of Tiger Woods and John Edwards.” I was surprised that Zinn was friends with a prominent writer at the Times. The paper, Herbert included, rarely, if ever, mentioned him.

 

BY Ted Rall

 

Between the warmongering and essays by torture apologists, there wasn’t space.

It’s their outlet, so it’s their rules. They don’t have to broadcast or publish anyone or anything they don’t like. Problem is, they don’t want anyone else to broadcast or publish anyone or anything they don’t like.

There are many shades of Republicanism but, for all the headline-grabbing scuffles between Liz Cheney and Donald Trump, the Republican Party remains a big tent embodied by the range of speakers at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Big-business Republicans such as Mitch McConnell and small-government libertarian Republicans such as Rand Paul refrain from criticizing the GOP’s allies on the far right, including white nationalists and other extremists whose ideas capture the imaginations of the rank-and-file, and whose raw numbers they need to win elections.

When an insurgent candidacy gathers momentum from outside the establishment, GOP leaders bow to the will of their voters, as when the California state party did — to the corporatists’ initial displeasure — when actor Arnold Schwarzenegger emerged as the front-runner in a state gubernatorial recall election. Of course, national officials have fallen in line behind Trump.

Top Democrats, on the other hand, would rather lose elections than yield control to their party’s progressive base. They deployed sleazy but legal tactics, as well as Richard Nixon-style dirty tricks, to block Bernie Sanders in consecutive sets of primaries even though polls consistently showed him to be the strongest candidate while their chosen nominee, Hillary Clinton, lost. Sanders remains one of the most popular politicians in America, yet party leaders and their media allies are still congratulating themselves for stopping him as they scramble for a viable presidential candidate for 2024: Joe Biden (going senile, approval rating 36%), Kamala Harris (unlikable, 26%) or maybe Pete Buttigieg (wet behind the ears, 37%).

Democrats want progressive votes but only for free, nothing owed, and then on sufferance. One of the main ways party leaders announce their contempt for progressives is to demonize and marginalize progressive pundits and commentators. While their framing often falls flat and they’re weak in negotiations with Republicans, the Democrats’ censorship of the left is ruthless and cunning.

Democrats represent half the country, and progressives represent half the Democrats. In other words, progressive Sanders/Elizabeth Warren/Squad voters account for roughly a quarter of the electorate. But these one out of four voters have only token representation among politicians and zero representation in mainstream media.

Anti-progressive censorship is so thorough that we had might as well be living in the Soviet Union. In the 2016 presidential primaries, only two major newspapers endorsed Sanders. None did in 2020. Sanders was blacklisted by cable news; MSNBC’s strict no-Bernie-coverage rule even led to the firing of a host, the late Ed Schultz. No major daily newspaper in the United States employs a progressive or other leftist on staff as an opinion columnist or editorial cartoonist — while hundreds of mainstream liberals and conservatives ply their trade.

Reveling in brazen hypocrisy, corporate Democrats censor progressives and other leftists who criticize them from their left flank — then they discredit them using a fiendish tactic: Guilt by forced association.

Since it’s impossible for a left-of-the-Democrats talk host to find work on either terrestrial or satellite radio or television, some manage to turn up either on foreign-owned or conservative media outlets that welcome criticism of the Democratic Party even if it comes from the left. And when they do, lefties get smacked down for the sin of trying to earn a living.

During the Bush years, English-language services of the Qatari-owned Al Jazeera website and cable TV provided a haven for Bush-bashers like yours truly, who by then had earned persona non grata status at places like CNN and MSNBC. Now, Russia’s RT and Sputnik News employ a roster of progressives exiled from the walled garden of mainstream media.

Having thoroughly silenced every progressive voice, Democrats and their media allies resort to absurd victim-blaming: How, they ask, dare they work for foreigners? Especially foreigners who aren’t aligned with the U.S. government?

Conservative news outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, Fox News and the New York Post give more space to progressives than do “liberal” media. The “enemy of my enemy” motivation is at work; if the left wants to beat up Democrats, who is the right to refuse? As a former frequent guest on Fox News, I took heat for legitimizing pigs like Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly. But I went on Fox because, for the left, it’s the only game in town. CNN or MSNBC won’t have us.

 

Nowadays, center-left liberals are beating up lawyer-turned-pundit Glenn Greenwald, known for the Edward Snowden revelations and cofounding The Intercept. (Disclosure: My admiration of Greenwald dissipated after he slithered out of covering the Los Angeles Times firing me as a favor to the LAPD. He couldn’t even be bothered to fart out a supportive tweet.) Greenwald has become a regular guest of Fox News’ Tucker Carlson. Criticism ranges from Greenwald being too chummy with Carlson to legitimizing him to actively promoting him.

I can’t argue with Greenwald’s defense. “I used to go on MSNBC all the time at the beginning of the Rachel Maddow Show because I would go on and bash Bush and Cheney and I would argue even in the early Obama years that Bush and Cheney ought to be prosecuted,” he points out. MSNBC’s invitations ended as Obama turned right and Greenwald went after him on the same set of principles. “I know that the reason I go on Fox is because Tucker has a story that he thinks … I’m an important piece of and can tell.”

As Greenwald says, “Every cable show uses people.”

If corporate liberal media outlets and their fans don’t want lefties like Greenwald to allow themselves to be “used” by Fox or Press TV or Al Jazeera, they can make it stop right now. All they have to do is invite us on.

 

Read more:

https://www.unz.com/trall/how-liberals-censor-leftists/

 

 

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Cartoon at top from The New Yorker (c.1960s) showing that the slanted news is not new...

god does not exist EITHER...

 

The Catholic Church has apologized to parents after a bishop in Sicily told a congregation packed with children that “Santa Claus does not exist,” and that the modern Father Christmas was invented by the Coca-Cola company.

 

First of all, in the name of the bishop, I express my regret for this declaration which has generated disappointment in the smallest children,” the Italian press quoted Don Alessandro Paolino of the Diocese of Noto as saying.

Don Paolino’s apology came after Bishop Antonio Stagliano left some young churchgoers upset this week by telling them point-blank that Santa Claus was not real

 

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/542852-bishop-santa-claus-exist/

 

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self-molesting smollett...

 

 

Breitbart News editor-in-chief Alex Marlow, author of Breaking the News: Exposing the Establishment Media’s Hidden Deals and Secret Corruption, said Friday on Newsmax TV’s “Stinchfield” that the Jussie Smollett story is an example of the left weaponizing “fake news” to villainize MAGA country.

Anchor Grant Stinchfield said, “They got called out. They were proven to be liars, the media and Jussie Smollett, which is why I say Alex, this really is a bigger story than just Jussie Smollett. It really typifies what the media does and perfects.”

 

Read more:

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2021/12/10/marlow-smollett-story-example-of-fake-news-attempts-to-villainize-maga-country/

 

 

On Thursday, a Chicago jury delivered the verdict on Jussie Smollett's staged hate crime case, finding him guilty on five out of six counts of charges of disorderly conduct, thus faking the well-publicized racist and homophobic attack against him in 2019.

 

Not even a full day has passed since the announcement of the verdict on the trial of disgraced actor Smollett, as many of those who supported him at the beginning of the case and did not show any doubt about his credibility during the sensational trial overnight distanced themselves from the actor, whom the whole country sympathized with almost two years ago.

During her regular press briefing at the White House, Jen Psaki was questioned as to whether there were any lessons learned from Smollett's case, especially when it comes to rushing to judgment.

 

Predictably, after Smollett's guilty verdict was announced, the past tweets of many prominent Democrats rushing to comment on the incident in January 2019 began circulating again. In those tweets, many celebrities and politicians expressed unconditional support for Smollett.

 

Biden and Harris symbolically led those past supportive liberal voices. And certain questions have been raised as to whether they should apologize or clarify their previous public defense of his innocence.

Shortly after Smollett claimed in 2019 that two racist Trump supporters assaulted him and wrapped a noose around his neck, Biden, then only considering his presidential bid, wrote on Twitter that "what happened today to @JussieSmollett must never be tolerated in this country."

 

"We must stand up and demand that we no longer give this hate safe harbor; that homophobia and racism have no place on our streets or in our hearts. We are with you, Jussie," he added.

 

Meanwhile, Harris, then a California senator, called the incident a "modern-day lynching."

 

"@JussieSmollett is one of the kindest, most gentle human beings I know. I’m praying for his quick recovery," she postedin January 2019. "This was an attempted modern-day lynching. No one should have to fear for their life because of their sexuality or color of their skin. We must confront this hate."

 

Harris' sentiments were echoed by Democrat Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, who also dubbed the alleged attack an "attempted modern-day lynching," urging his colleagues to adopt his anti-lynching bill.

 

They were joined by a slew of other liberal politicians, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), both members of the party's progressive left-leaning wing dubbed "The Squad."

The "guilty must face the maximum" for the alleged crime against Smollett, Reverend Al Sharpton said at the time. Ironic when you look at this statement from today.

...And Justice for All

However, this response did not suit many commentators, as conservatives demanded that Biden, Harris, and their colleagues repudiate their statements, which allegedly only contributed to the development of the situation due to the huge publicity.

 

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/20211211/psaki-claims-trump-should-learn-lessons-from-smollett-hate-crime-hoax-dems-had-eagerly-endorsed-1091430285.html

 

 

GUS MIGHT PUSH THE BARROW A BIT MORE AND INDICATE THAT THE SMOLLETT INCIDENT WAS A DEMOCRAT SET-UP (Smollett needed some help AND INSPIRATION to make it stick)... It was A CONSPIRACY TO CREATE HATE AGAINST TRUMP AND HIS MAGA SUPPORTER... IT WORKED... See who is going to pick up Smollett from the floor... He might become a Democrat candidate in elections in seven years time... or get a job in the Democrat party or affiliated venues soon...

 

 

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four blatant lies...

 

By Glenn Greenwald

 

The war on "disinformation” is now one of the highest priorities of the political and media establishment. It has become the foundational justification for imposing a regime of online censorship. Around the world, new laws are being enacted in its name to empower the state to regulate discourse. Exploiting this cause, a small handful of billionaires are working in unison with Western security state agencies — under the guise of neutral-sounding names like The Atlantic Council — to set the limits of permissible thought and decree what is true and false. Corporate media outlets are attempting to rehabilitate their shattered image by depicting themselves as the bulwark against the rising tide of disinformation.

It is an understatement to say that this righteous cause is a scam. That its motive is power and control over speech and thought — to eliminate dissent and discredit competition — rather than a noble quest for truth is almost too self-evident to require explanation. No human institutions should be trusted with the inherently tyrannical power they seek to arrogate unto themselves: to decree truth and falsity with such authoritative power that views they have decreed "false” become prohibited, off-limits, even worthy of punishment. 

A foundational view of the Enlightenment was that truth and falsity are best discovered by humans engaging in free inquiry and appealing to reason and persuasion, rather than being captive to the whimsical decrees of centralized authority dictating to citizens what they are and are not permitted to believe. That is why I believe, as I wrote at length in a 2013 Guardianarticle, that at the heart of every censor lies hubris: the belief that they are so evolved, enlightened and superior that they have risen above the eternal human propensity to err, enabling them to ascertain universal truth whose validity is so unassailable that nobody should be permitted to question it let alone dissent from it.

All that said, there is a core truth — an unintentional one — that lies at the crux of this elite war on "disinformation." It is absolutely true that U.S. political discourse is drowning in deliberate disinformation campaigns and lies. It is also true that this disinformation epidemic is a serious menace, a toxic plague on our democracy and society. That part they have right.

Where they have gone wrong — very, very wrong — is how they have identified the most harmful sources of this disinformation. It does not emanate primarily from Trump boomers on Facebook or dark web QAnon groups or mischievous and transgressive teenagers on 4Chan. Ordinary citizens are obviously as capable as anyone of believing and spreading false assertions. But the far more damaging, destructive, organized and coordinated disinformation campaigns come from major corporate media outlets themselves and their security-state partners — particularly the corporate outlets that most vocally and flamboyantly claim to be so profoundly concerned about disinformation that they want to censor the internet in the name of stopping it. They are the ones who spent the last five years flooding the country with demented CIA-constructed conspiracies about a Kremlin takeover of the U.S. using clandestine sexual blackmail over the president and hallucinating Russian agents hiding under every bed; so many fabrications were disseminated under the rubric of that fairy tale that it is genuinely hard to choose the worst.

Arguably the most pernicious and prolific disseminator of organized disinformation campaigns is NBC News, which includes its cable unit MSNBC. We have spent the last several months working on a mini-documentary demonstrating how most of the coordinated lies from the U.S. security state were spread by a tiny handful of pundits, three of whom — Rachel Maddow, all-but-official CIA spokesman Ken Dilanian, and former Bush/Cheney spokesperson Nicolle Wallace — work for NBC News. That report will be published shortly.

But this week we produced a Rumble video dissecting one specific two-minute segment that NBC aired in order to demonstrate how casually, aggressively and constantly NBC's highest-paid personalities lie to the public. As I note in this new video, I use the term “lie” here not the way it has been used by the liberal CNN/NBC/Atlantic/NYT corporate media axis over the last five years: 1. anything Donald Trump or his supporters say; 2. anything that contravenes liberal orthodoxies. In this video report, I use the term "lie” in its most literal, restrictive and classic sense: namely, the assertion of demonstrably false factual claims with either the knowledge that it is false or complete indifference to its truth or falsity.

On December 10, MSNBC aired a segment on Morning Joe — a purported news report featuring its host Joe Scarborough, the former GOP Congressman from Florida, and its regular paid contributor Claire McCaskill, the former two-term Democratic Senator from Missouri — that packed one lie after the next into two short minutes. The duo was purporting to explain to its audience the implications of last week's ruling by a British court approving the Biden DOJ's request to extradite Julian Assange to the U.S. to stand trial on espionage charges in connection with the 2010 publication by WikiLeaks, in partnership with numerous mainstream media outlets, of a cache of secret documents revealing various war crimes, lies and corruptions on the part of the U.S. and UK governments and their allies.

Within the span of two minutes, these NBC personalities told four blatant lies about the Assange case. I do not mean that they asserted dubious opinions or questionable narratives or even misleading claims. I mean that they outright lied about four separate matters that are crucial to understanding the Biden administration's attempted extradition and prosecution of Assange. These lies were not just misleading but pernicious, as they were designed not merely to mislead the public but to provoke them to believe that one of the gravest attacks on press freedom in years — the imprisonment of a journalist for the crime of reporting true and accurate information about the crimes of power centers — is something viewers should applaud rather than denounce.

We took the time to dissect this segment and to amass the dispositive proof of their multiple lies not because we think Scarborough and McCaskill will pay any price or will have to retract any of this. Of course they will not. They are doing their job, which is to lie in a way that flatters the ideological preconceptions of NBC viewers, who hate Assange due to the role his reporting played in harming the Democratic Party during the 2016 election, which Hillary Clinton herself claims was one of the two primary reasons she lost. 

We did this video report in order to illustrate how easily and reflexively these corporate outlets lie; to demonstrate that the public's view that these outlets are completely untrustworthy and contemptible is valid and correct; and to set the record straight about the Assange case. We realize that not all subscribers here want to watch a one-hour video, and for that reason — as we do with all of the video reports we produce — we will shortly publish a written transcript of the program for our Substack subscribers. But I really hope people will take the time to watch this particular video: since the lies came in the form of video, we therefore concluded that using video to highlight the severity and intentionality of this lying was the most effective way to demonstrate how noxious it really is.

 

Read more:

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-real-disinformation-agents-watch

 

 

 

 

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