Alt-Media: Beware the Impostors

No effective anti-war movement exists today in the U.S. An alternative media does though. Will this alt-media reach enough people to encourage a new anti-war movement tomorrow? Will this alternative media filled with polemic-saturated blogs create a critical discourse sufficient to challenge a propaganda machine financed by the masses whose minds they attempt to control through weaponized "information?"

A century ago Viscount Northcliffe's emergence as the most powerful media magnate in England rendered him most suitable to serve as undeclared war propaganda liasion for the British empire. He was responsible to convince the United States to enter World War O

I am leaving to take over Mr Balfour's (then England's Foreign Minister) American Mission and it is essential that not one line of criticism of the United States, men, books. or anything else should appear in the Daily Mail, the Continental Daily Mail the Overseas Mail, or any other publication associated with the Daily Mail. [1]

War propaganda was too important an endeavor to entrust it being promoted by anyone other than the most notorious publisher in England. Prime Minister Lloyd George's wisdom prevented his entrusting Balfour his lead diplomat with convincing their special friend across the pond to join their crusade to save England's bankrupt empire.

A newspaper owner replacing Arthur Balfour as US War Mission director signals it was a money and propaganda trip. In this regard Lloyd George's motivation differed little from Hearst creating a moral imperative in the public for war. Once war is presented as a moral crusade, then by default all of its opponents of war are cowards and appeasers or enablers of evil.

Contrast this trend with Orwell allowing Ukranians seeking a post-Bolshevik independence to publish his dystopian classic Animal Farm:

[Ivor] Ševčenko was raised by parents who, during the Russian Revolution, helped lead a movement against the Bolsheviks for Ukraine's independence, and was drawn to the Ukrainian DP camps to help. There, he translated aloud in Ukrainian while reading Orwell'sAnimal Farm, a book he had recently picked up somewhere, to a transfixed audience. (Ševčenko learned English from listening to the BBC.) He wrote to Orwell on April 11, 1946, asking if he could publish his novel in Ukrainian for his "countrymen" to enjoy. Orwell agreed to write a preface, refused any royalties, and even tried to recruit his friend Arthur Koestler, author of the Soviet dystopian novel Darkness at Noon, writing, "I have been saying ever since 1945 that the DPs were a godsend opportunity for breaking down the wall between Russia and the West." [2]

Can this method prevail today with a corporate controlled mainstream media (MSM)? Data compiled that tracks trends in the size of the MSM's viewership shows mixed signals. Within the various components of the MSM there are some signs of decline, stabilization, and slight increases. Regardless of any signs showing weakness in the MSM, such monoliths have the resources and power on a scale to enable its survival. Don't forget though that Orwell's dystopian warnings found an audience behind the Iron Curtain. Therefore, the alt-media must reach a larger audience within the digital grid wherein narcissists share their selfie shrines and the NSA monitors all communications to "protect" us.

The decline in the MSM's audience should infer more legitimacy of the horizontally distributed alt-media. It should. But that is still not an established fact. Why not?

I ask several questions using expressions familiar to the producers and consumers of alt-media. Does the alt-media offer truly independent sources of news unfiltered by government spokespersons and corporate executives? Or is it "controlled opposition" that offers just enough criticism of the powerful to distract us from seeing the MSM pulling the strings of the alt-media? Thus, as this iconoclastic narrative approaches we look behind the curtain in a sequence the exact opposite of Oz. Rather than the supposedly omnipotent Oz being exposed as an overly anxious older man from Kansas, the alt-media's image of modest truth seeking is compromised sometimes by the elites controlling it from a distance.

Who would have predicted a journalist like Glenn Greenwald whose interviews of Ed Snowden conducted in Hong Kong in 2013 that "infuriated" an indignant MSM and a surveillance state would demur when invited to demand publicly that NBC retract its false reporting? Especially the same Greenwald who when appearing in the belly of the beast MSNBC condescendingly dismissed Zbignew Brezizinski's daughter for posing as a "journalist" and instructed her to "put down those White House talking points." Greenwald did post an article on The Intercept wherein he discusses Turkey's legal basis for either droning or kidnapping Fetullah Gulen.  This media outlet did post an article pointing out how social media allowed both Erdogan and the Turkish public to express their opposition to the coup, which certainly contradicts NBC claims that Erodogan was on a plane flying to Germany to seek asylum. But, The Intercept didn't post any comments criticizing NBC's inaccurate reporting on such a critical story.

Greenwald in this video effectively exposes MSNBC as propagandists repeating the lie that Edward Snowden's NSA revelations pose a graver security risk to the public than the omnipresence of a surveillance state. Greenwald's combination of erudite and combative lecturing of the MSNBC story hinted at his striking the first of many well deserved blows to MSM's propaganda model. Yet, the recent failed military coup in Turkey exposed Glenn Greenwald and media "watchdogs" as likely shills who express selective indignation at some of the MSM's lies .

Regretfully, NBC's refusal to issue a retraction about their false reporting on the coup in Turkey fell on deaf ears at the Intercept's usually tireless truth seekers. Yes they have reported on the conflicting narratives of the coup, but NBC's ethical lapse didn't deserve their demanding this network acknowledge their error. Maybe their mission is to report and leave the advocacy to others? Why report MSM's false reporting if not taking the next step and demand they acknowledge and retract their errors?

Fairness and Accuracy in Media (FAIR) whose critical reviews of the MSM though bombastic and informative at times seem to occur within certain limits. Their limits were shown when NBC reported false details about the coup in Turkey. Take for instance Newsbud's campaign waged against NBC for failing to retract false reporting about critical facts of the recent and ill fated coup in Turkey against Erdogan. FAIR did not respond to Newsbud's request to demand NBC acknowledge their false reporting. NBC News reported that Erdogan was flying in a plane en route to Germany seeking asylum. This image suggests the coup had prevailed, and should have convinced the masses in Turkey to accept it as a fait accompli. Nonetheless, the coup failed and NBC News refused to acknowledge its reporting error.

Newsbud in this You Tube video begins discussing at 17:00 their attempts to contact FAIR.

In addition to FAIR not joining Newsbud's call to NBC to retract its inaccurate reporting, other media outlets funded by billionaires demonstrate no willingness to challenge MSM's established practice of promoting propaganda. 

Both Soros and Omidyar celebrate certain opposition movements like in Ukraine for instance with such vigor that participating in them becomes a moral obligation to progressives. This type of social justice awareness is similar to the progressive indignation that motivated their "Save Darfur" campaign.Yet those rebellions don't seem to flatten hierarchies that create a post-empire world. Instead, these rebellions induce more chaos of which the state effectively cites as their queue to add more bells and whistles to its police and surveillance states.

For instance, Soros contributes funds to the Tides Project which allocates monies to various organizations including the Canada based magazine AdBusters. The latter organized the Occupy Wall Street movement. This funding sequence does not mean that Soros intended for this money to be allocated to Occupy Wall Street. But, an important question to ask is did Occupy Wall Street weaken the power of investment banks and reach of the surveillance state?

Look at Soros' involvement in so many projects. The DC Leaks show how many categories and subcategories are created for which Soros' funds are needed. In spreading funds over so many agendas, so many actions, they show no interest in pressuring NBC for example to report the truth. Soros though has demonstrated much dedication to the noble cause of increasing "transparency" in nations like Mongolia, Pakistan, Serbia, Tajikistan, and of course Ukraine. Of course nations that serve as important geopolitical allies or pieces on the Grand Chessboard of the U.S. empire suffer from "transparency" needs awaiting Soros' assistance. This confluence of Soros' transparency agenda and U.S. geopolitical objectives may just be coincidental. But, NBC and the rest of the MSM won't analyze the facts to determine if it is just a coincidence.

The noble cause to bring "transparency" to various nations so far doesn't include Soros Inc making a simple call to NBC to acknowledge reporting false information about a failed military coup. His Open Society Institute (OSI) Soros in a 2011 memo wherein they praise the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) for working with many major "respected" media outlets to promote its message:

Founded in 1977, the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) is the nation’s oldest nonprofit investigative news organization. CIR’s mission is to produce and distribute multimedia reporting that reveals injustice and abuse of power, has an impact, and is relevant to people’s lives. CIR distributes its reporting through partnerships with respected print, television, radio, and online outlets, including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, USA Today, ABC World News, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, CNN, 60 Minutes, PBS Frontline, National Public Radio, FRONTLINE/World, Politico, and Salon. CIR investigations have sparked congressional hearings and legislation, United Nations resolutions, public interest lawsuits, and change in corporate policies. [3] 

Soros media outreach efforts consist mostly of relying on the compromised circle of MSM sources. They permit coverage of many issues to occur within a limited range. An example of this accepted practice is NBC's obstinate refusal to issue a retraction for its false reporting in the anti-Erdogan coup.

Soros-supported organizations fatigue themselves promoting government "transparency," leaving them too weary to challenge NBC. This explains why an alt-media for all of its limitations and problems remains a necessary platform for criticizing the empire. 1914, 1945, 1989, 2001 and the present show us that elites see us as burdens that need to be controlled. This observation should be obvious but even so warrants repeating given its tragic encores in our history. Their instruments of control are so efficient, potent, and cost-effective that they inflict weariness on the masses. But, one gift from God is that creative impulse that still escapes the elites' elaborate designs of control. That creative impulse should give us hope.

[1]. Wilson, A.N. After the Victorians: the Decline of Britain in the World. Picador. New York. 2005. Amazon Kindle version location 3982.

[2]. Chalupa, Andrea. "How 'Animal Farm' Gave Hope to Stalin's Refugees." The Atlantic. March 01, 2012. http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/03/how-animal-farm-gave-hope-to-stalins-refugees/253831/

[3]. DC Leaks. Transparency & Integrity Fund and National Security & Human Rights Campaign’s Docket II, August 4, 2011 file:///home/chronos/u-cfc300be8a8c68bdd9cabb830c2903badb2e706c/Downloads/-tif%202011%20docket%20ii%20approved.pdf