News o' the day

US Propaganda Aimed at Foreigners Reaches US Public: Pentagon Document
Published on Friday, January 27, 2006 by Agence France Presse

“…In a press release, the National Security Archives said the document "calls for 'boundaries' between information operations abroad and the news media at home, but provides for no such limits and claims that as long as the American public is not 'targeted,' any leakage of PSYOP to the American public does not matter."..”

Propaganda:

Propaganda: def. the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person.: ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause; also : a public action having such an effect
(source: Merriam-Webster online Dictionary)

“Propaganda has only one object: to conquer the masses. Every means that furthers this aim is good; every means that hinders it is bad.”
(Joseph Goebbels, 1929)

Let me see if I understand this…the Pentagon, and by extension the Bush Administration states that the U.S. is to distribute lies, rumors, allegations, ideas, err Propaganda, to the rest of the world, and this is ok. If these lies then happen to leak back to the U.S. press, and wind up in the mainstream news media, than this too is ok.

Well, why the hell not! After all, lets be real clear here, the state of U.S. journalism is groveling subjugation to corporate masters. Period. The grinning pompaded bonhomie of ‘TV newscasters’ is a perfect image for the shallowness of their ethical depths. The truth is that the lies spewed by the Bush Administration, and they are legion, to the rest of the world are no different than the lies provided by mainstream U.S. Newsmedia.

“The ‘societal purpose’ of the media is to inculcate and defend the economic, social, and political agenda of the privileged groups that dominate the domestic society and the state. The media serve this purpose in many ways: through selection of topics, distribution of concerns, framing of issues, filtering of information, emphasis and tone, and by keeping debate within the bounds of acceptable premises.”(Edward S. Herman and Naom Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, 7, 1988.)

“The U.S. Economy is strong and growing stronger” they report. Meanwhile the U.S. Economy is in truth slamming into an iceberg and following the Titanic to the deep and suffocating shadows. To carry this analogy a bit farther, this Titanic has been devasted by the twin economic icebergs of Irresponsible Tax Cuts and Deficit Spending so the wealthy are busy cramming into every life boat they can find, leaving the rest of us to our fate. Investment Bankers, Politicians, and CEO's are tossing overboard the elderly, poor, and crippled (myself among them) that somehow managed to inhabit one of their precious few remaining life boat's, while the rest of us are busy in the bilge, shoveling coal, making beds, scraping rust, keeping up our duties, as the intercom blares about how well things are going on the ship. We notice the deck is slanting a little, but we are assured that we are on course by Captain Peter Peachfuzz, who is reporting from half a mile away, safe in his own well appointed raft. It is a grim scenario.

Have you seen the data on the U.S. Economy, the ‘real’ data’?

“…Historically low job growth, declining wages, rising poverty and the worst deterioration in our fiscal situation in history is hardly proof that current fiscal policies are working or should be continued…” (State of the Economy, by Gene Sperling and Christian E. Weller. January 26, 2006)

Lying through their teeth for U.S. journalists is practically a career development path, like learning the Law, or Medicine, or Carpet Laying.

The purpose of the Main Stream Media in this country is to foster the agenda of George W. Bush and his ilk. (It's also to entertain and sell shit, but that's another column.) Herman and Chomsky, in 1988, foretold the state of journalism in this country. The purpose is not the news, merely the impressions favorable to the power brokers for the control of the U.S. public. The words of corporate broadcasts' have only a tenuous link to reality, like compassionate deeds are to conservative dogma.

So, should the Pentagon be allowed to lie their ass off to the rest of the world, and the U.S. public too?

Why not? It’s well established already.