{"id":58739,"date":"2016-12-03T10:52:07","date_gmt":"2016-12-03T14:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=58739"},"modified":"2016-12-03T10:52:34","modified_gmt":"2016-12-03T14:52:34","slug":"58739","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=58739","title":{"rendered":"Official Washington&#8217;s &#8220;Info-Wars&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--more-->ZeroHedge.com<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.strategic-culture.org\/news\/2016\/12\/02\/official-washington-info-wars.html\">Authored by William Blum, originally posted at Strategic-Culture.org,<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>On November 16, at a State Department press briefing, department spokesperson John Kirby was having one of his frequent adversarial dialogues with Gayane Chichakyan, a reporter for RT (Russia Today);<\/strong> this time concerning U.S. charges of Russia bombing hospitals in Syria and blocking the U.N. from delivering aid to the trapped population.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/players.brightcove.net\/624246174001\/82f79524-152c-485f-bcb0-09197a216c87_default\/index.html?videoId=5214410554001\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>When Chichakyan asked for some detail about these charges, Kirby replied: \u201cWhy don\u2019t you ask your defense ministry?\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<div class=\"quote_start\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"quote_end\"><\/div>\n<p>GC: Do you \u2013 can you give any specific information on when Russia or the Syrian Government blocked the UN from delivering aid? Just any specific information.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>KIRBY: There hasn\u2019t been any aid delivered in the last month.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>GC: And you believe it was blocked exclusively by Russia and the Syrian Government?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>KIRBY: There\u2019s no question in our mind that the obstruction is coming from the regime and from Russia. No question at all.\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MATTHEW LEE (Associated Press): Let me \u2013- hold on, just let me say: Please be careful about saying \u201cyour defense minister\u201d and things like that. I mean, she\u2019s a journalist just like the rest of us are, so it\u2019s -\u2013 she\u2019s asking pointed questions, but they\u2019re not \u2013<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>KIRBY: From a state-owned -\u2013 from a state-owned \u2013<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>LEE: But they\u2019re not \u2013<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>KIRBY: From a state-owned outlet, Matt.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>LEE: But they\u2019re not \u2013<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>KIRBY: From a state-owned outlet that\u2019s not independent.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>LEE: The questions that she\u2019s asking are not out of line.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>KIRBY: I didn\u2019t say the questions were out of line&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>KIRBY: I\u2019m sorry, but I\u2019m not going to put Russia Today on the same level with the rest of you who are representing independent media outlets.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>One has to wonder if State Department spokesperson Kirby knows that in 2011 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking about RT,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=LyjnEm8DZkI\" target=\"_blank\">declared<\/a>: \u201cThe Russians have opened an English-language network. I\u2019ve seen it in a few countries, and it is quite instructive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>I also wonder how Mr. Kirby deals with reporters from the BBC, a STATE-OWNED television and radio entity in the U.K.,<\/strong> broadcasting in the U.S. and all around the world.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Or the state-owned Australian Broadcasting Corporation<\/strong>, described by Wikipedia as follows: \u201cThe corporation provides television, radio, online and mobile services throughout metropolitan and regional Australia, as well as overseas\u2026 and is well regarded for quality and reliability as well as for offering educational and cultural programming that the commercial sector would be unlikely to supply on its own.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>There\u2019s also Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, Radio Liberty (Central\/Eastern Europe), and Radio Marti (Cuba); all (U.S.) state-owned,<\/strong> none \u201cindependent\u201d, but all deemed worthy enough by the United States to feed to the world.<\/p>\n<p><strong>And let\u2019s not forget what Americans have at home: PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) and NPR (National Public Radio), <\/strong>which would have a near-impossible time surviving without large federal government grants. How independent does this leave them? Has either broadcaster ever unequivocally opposed a modern American war? There\u2019s good reason NPR has long been known as National Pentagon Radio. But it\u2019s part of American media\u2019s ideology to pretend that it doesn\u2019t have any ideology.<\/p>\n<p><em>As to the non-state American media \u2026 There are about 1,400 daily newspapers in the United States. Can you name a single paper, or a single TV network, that was unequivocally opposed to the American wars carried out against Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Panama, Grenada, and Vietnam while they were happening, or shortly thereafter? Or even opposed to any two of these seven wars? How about one?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>In 1968, six years into the Vietnam War, the\u00a0Boston Globe\u00a0(Feb. 18, 1968) surveyed the editorial positions of 39 leading U.S. papers concerning the war and found that \u201cnone advocated a pull-out.\u201d Has the phrase \u201cinvasion of Vietnam\u201d ever appeared in the U.S. mainstream media?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>In 2003, leading cable station MSNBC took the much-admired Phil Donahue off the air because of his opposition to the calls for war in Iraq. Mr. Kirby would undoubtedly call MSNBC \u201cindependent.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>If the American mainstream media were officially state-controlled, would they look or sound significantly different when it comes to U.S. foreign policy?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<h3><u>New Cold War Propaganda<\/u><\/h3>\n<p>On Nov. 25, the\u00a0Washington Post\u00a0ran an article entitled: \u201cResearch ties \u2018fake news\u2019 to Russia.\u201d It\u2019s all about how sources in Russia are flooding American media and the Internet with phony stories designed as \u201cpart of a broadly effective strategy of sowing distrust in U.S. democracy and its leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_21798\">\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/twp26p1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/twp26p1-300x188.jpg\" alt=\"The Washington Post building in downtown Washington, D.C. (Photo credit: Washington Post)\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>The Washington Post building in downtown Washington, D.C. (Photo credit: Washington Post)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cThe sophistication of the Russian tactics,\u201d the article says, \u201cmay complicate efforts by Facebook and Google to crack down on \u2018fake news\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0Post\u00a0states that the Russian tactics included \u201cpenetrating the computers of election officials in several states and releasing troves of hacked emails that embarrassed Clinton in the final months of her campaign.\u201d (Heretofore this had been credited to Wikileaks.)<\/p>\n<p><strong>The story is simply bursting with anti-Russian references:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u2013An online magazine header \u2013 \u201cTrolling for Trump: How Russia Is Trying to Destroy Our Democracy.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u2013\u201cthe startling reach and effectiveness of Russian propaganda campaigns.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u2013\u201cmore than 200 websites as routine peddlers of Russian propaganda during the election season.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u2013\u201cstories planted or promoted by the disinformation campaign were viewed more than 213 million times.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u2013\u201cThe Russian campaign during this election season \u2026 worked by harnessing the online world\u2019s fascination with \u2018buzzy\u2019 content that is surprising and emotionally potent, and tracks with popular conspiracy theories about how secret forces dictate world events.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u2013\u201cRussian-backed phony news to outcompete traditional news organizations for audience\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u2013\u201cThey use our technologies and values against us to sow doubt. It\u2019s starting to undermine our democratic system.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u2013\u201cRussian propaganda operations also worked to promote the \u2018Brexit\u2019 departure of Britain from the European Union.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u2013\u201cSome of these stories originated with RT and Sputnik, state-funded Russian information services that mimic the style and tone of independent news organizations yet sometimes include false and misleading stories in their reports.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u2013\u201ca variety of other false stories \u2014 fake reports of a coup launched at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey and stories about how the United States was going to conduct a military attack and blame it on Russia\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A former U.S. ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, is quoted saying he was \u201cstruck by the overt support that Sputnik expressed for Trump during the campaign, even using the #CrookedHillary hashtag pushed by the candidate.\u201d McFaul said Russian propaganda typically is aimed at weakening opponents and critics.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey don\u2019t try to win the argument. It\u2019s to make everything seem relative. It\u2019s kind of an appeal to cynicism.\u201d <strong>[Cynicism? Heavens! What will those Moscow fascists\/communists think of next?]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0Post\u00a0did, however, include the following: \u201cRT disputed the findings of the researchers in an e-mail on Friday, saying it played no role in producing or amplifying any fake news stories related to the U.S. election.\u201d RT was quoted: <strong><em>\u201cIt is the height of irony that an article about \u2018fake news\u2019 is built on false, unsubstantiated claims. RT adamantly rejects any and all claims and insinuations that the network has originated even a single \u2018fake story\u2019 related to the US election.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It must be noted that the\u00a0Washington Post\u00a0article <strong>fails to provide a single example showing how the actual facts of a specific news event were rewritten or distorted by a Russian agency to produce a news event with a contrary political message.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>What then lies behind such blatant anti-Russian propaganda? In the new Cold War such a question requires no answer. <u><strong>The new Cold War by definition exists to discredit Russia simply because it stands in the way of American world domination<\/strong><\/u>. In the new Cold War, the political spectrum in the mainstream media runs the gamut from A to B.<\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/news\/2016-12-02\/official-washingtons-info-wars\">http:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/news\/2016-12-02\/official-washingtons-info-wars<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58739\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}