{"id":33176,"date":"2024-04-25T19:54:21","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T02:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=33176"},"modified":"2024-04-25T19:54:22","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T02:54:22","slug":"the-media-lens-chamber-of-propaganda-horrors-an-appeal-for-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/04\/25\/the-media-lens-chamber-of-propaganda-horrors-an-appeal-for-support\/","title":{"rendered":"THE MEDIA LENS CHAMBER OF PROPAGANDA HORRORS \u2013 AN APPEAL FOR SUPPORT"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

25th April 2024<\/a> Alerts<\/a> (medialens.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tourists visiting Spanish cities like C\u00f3rdoba<\/a>, Toledo and Sevilla have the option of whiling away an hour or so at a \u2018Museum of the Inquisition\u2019, sometimes known as a \u2018Gallery of Torture\u2019. For around three euros, visitors can view an exotic range of devices used to impale, immolate, strangle and dismember human beings in the name of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s tempting to reassure ourselves that these are relics of a far-distant past, horrors that could never happen now. But did the Dark Ages ever really end? Noam Chomsky commented<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018Part of the tragedy of the Palestinians is that they have essentially no international support. For a good reason \u2013 they don\u2019t have wealth, they don\u2019t have power. So they don\u2019t have rights. It\u2019s the way the world works \u2013 your rights correspond to your power and your wealth.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It is indeed the way the world works. It is also the way the medieval world worked. UK Foreign Secretary, Lord David Cameron (Baron Cameron of Chipping Norton), recently passed judgement<\/a> on the war in Ukraine at a Washington press conference:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018It is extremely good value for money\u2026 Almost half of Russia\u2019s pre-war military equipment has been destroyed without the loss of a single American life. This is an investment in the United States\u2019 security.\u2019 <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

According even to Ukraine\u2019s president Volodymyr Zelensky, 31,000 Ukrainians have been killed <\/a>in the conflict. US officials estimate 70,000 dead, while Russia claims to have killed 444,000. Are these deaths \u2018good value for money\u2019?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And what about the 50,000 Russians estimated<\/a> by the BBC to have died? Do they matter? After all, European civilisation is supposed to be founded on Christ\u2019s teaching that we should love, not just our \u2018neighbour\u2019 but our \u2018enemy\u2019. On Britain\u2019s Channel 5, BBC stalwart Jeremy Vine offered<\/a> a different view to Bill, a caller from Manchester:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018Bill, Bill, the brutal reality is, if you put on a uniform for Putin and you go and fight his war, you probably deserve to die, don\u2019t you?\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Elsewhere, the Most Reverend and Right Honourable Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, commented<\/a> after Iran retaliated to Israel\u2019s bombing of an Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, killing 16 people, including two senior Iranian generals:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018The attacks on Israel by Iran this weekend were wrong. They risked civilian lives and they escalated the already dangerous tensions in the region. I pray for the peace and security of Israel\u2019s people<\/strong> <\/em>at this time and I appeal to all parties both for restraint and to act for peace and mutual security.\u2019 (Our emphasis)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

If Christ had done political commentary, he would have declared both the Iranian and<\/em> Israeli attacks wrong, and he would have prayed \u2018for the peace and security\u2019 of the peoples of Israel and<\/em> Iran, and also Palestine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cameron responded<\/a> on the same issue:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018[It was] a reckless and dangerous thing for Iran to have done, and I think the whole world can see. All these countries that have somehow wondered, well, you know, what is the true nature of Iran? It\u2019s there in black and white.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

He was immediately asked: \u2018What would Britain do if a hostile nation flattened one of our consulates?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cameron\u2019s tragicomic response:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018Well, we would take, you know, we would take very strong action.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Naturally, \u2018we\u2019 would do the same or worse, but it\u2019s a grim sign of Iran\u2019s \u2018true nature\u2019 when \u2018they\u2019 do it. The \u2018Evil\u2019 have no right even to defend themselves when attacked by the \u2018Good\u2019. Standard medieval thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Murderous\u2019 And \u2018Brutal\u2019 \u2013 Tilting The Language<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In idle moments, we sometimes fantasise about opening our own Media Lens Chamber of Propaganda Horrors, a Hall of Media Infamy. It would be a cavernous space packed with examples of devices used to strangle and dismember Truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A special section would be reserved for the sage effusions of BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner, who wrote<\/a> recently of Israel:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018It responded to the murderous Hamas-led attacks of 7 October\u2026 and then spent the next six months battering the Gaza Strip.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The Hamas attack was \u2018murderous\u2019, then, with Israel administering a mere \u2018battering\u2019 with its attack that has caused at least 30 times the loss of life. A \u2018battering\u2019 is generally bruising but not necessarily fatal. The term is certainly not synonymous with genocide. Is this biased use of language accidental, or systemic?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) commented<\/a> on their careful study of the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018Looking at all attributions, 77% of the time when the word \u201cbrutal\u201d was used to describe an actor in the conflict, it referred to Palestinians and their actions. This was 73% of the time at the Times, 78% at the Post and 87% at the Journal. Only 23% of the time was \u201cbrutal\u201d used to describe Israel\u2019s actions\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The Intercept reported<\/a> on a leaked memo which revealed that the New York Times had \u2018instructed journalists covering Israel\u2019s war on the Gaza Strip to restrict the use of the terms \u201cgenocide\u201d and \u201cethnic cleansing\u201d and to \u201cavoid\u201d using the phrase \u201coccupied territory\u201d when describing Palestinian land\u2019. The Intercept added:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018The memo also instructs reporters not to use the word Palestine \u201cexcept in very rare cases\u201d and to steer clear of the term \u201crefugee camps\u201d to describe areas of Gaza historically settled by displaced Palestinians expelled from other parts of Palestine during previous Israeli\u2013Arab wars. The areas are recognized by the United Nations as refugee camps and house hundreds of thousands of registered refugees.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The memo was written by Times standards editor Susan Wessling, international editor Philip Pan, and their deputies. A Times newsroom source, who requested anonymity \u2018for fear of reprisal\u2019, said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018I think it\u2019s the kind of thing that looks professional and logical if you have no knowledge of the historical context of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. But if you do know, it will be clear how apologetic it is to Israel.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Our Chamber of Propaganda Horrors might feature this barely believable sentence from a BBC report<\/a> by Lucy Williamson, which reads like something from the film \u2018Dr. Strangelove\u2019:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018If you wanted to map the path to a healthy, functioning Palestinian government, you probably wouldn\u2019t start from here.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Probably wouldn\u2019t start from where? From the middle of a six-months genocide, with two million civilians starving, with children literally starving to death, with tens of thousands of children murdered, with Gaza in ruins? It is hard to imagine a more ethically or intellectually tone-deaf observation. The BBC\u2019s Jeremy Bowen added<\/a> to the sense of surreality:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018The decision not to veto the Ramadan ceasefire resolution is also an attempt by the Americans to push back at accusations that they have enabled Israel\u2019s actions.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Is it an \u2018accusation\u2019 that the US has supplied billions of dollars of missiles and bombs without which Israel could not conduct its genocide? Is there any conceivable way the US could ever \u2018push back at\u2019 that unarguable fact? The Guardian described<\/a> how the US has worked hard to avoid Congressional oversight:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018The US is reported to have made more than 100 weapons sales to Israel, including thousands of bombs, since the start of the war in Gaza, but the deliveries escaped congressional oversight because each transaction was under the dollar amount requiring approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The Biden administration\u2026 has kept up a quiet but substantial flow of munitions to help replace the tens of thousands of bombs Israel has dropped on the tiny coastal strip, making it one of the most intense bombing campaigns in military history.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

These hidden sales are in addition to the $320m in precision bomb kits sold in November and 14,000 tank shells costing $106m and $147.5m of fuses and other components needed to make 155mm artillery shells in December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response to the latest news of a massive additional supply of arms to Israel, Edward Snowden posted <\/a>on X:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018ok but you\u2019re definitely gonna hold off on sending like fifteen billion dollars\u2019 worth of weapons to the guys that keep getting caught filling mass graves with kids until an independent international investigation is completed, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018\u2026right?\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Because we no longer live in the Dark Ages, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Waiting For The Hiroshima Bombing Scene<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

People are generally not tortured on the rack in Western societies, but are we really any less callous?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christopher Nolan\u2019s film \u2018Oppenheimer\u2019 has been lauded to the skies. It earned 13 nominations at the Academy Awards, winning seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. It also won five Golden Globe Awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet the film is a moral disgrace. It focuses on the life of physicist Robert J. Oppenheimer, and particularly, of course, on his key role in developing the first atomic weapons. The direct results of his efforts were the dropping of nuclear fireballs on the civilian populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan that killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These were the first acts of nuclear terrorism, by far the greatest single acts of terrorism the world has ever seen. Although the moral doubts haunting the \u2018Manhattan Project\u2019 then and since feature strongly in the film, a portrayal of the hideous impact of Oppenheimer\u2019s invention on civilians is almost completely absent. This single, dignified comment<\/a> from an elderly Japanese viewer reported by the Guardian says it all:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018\u201cI was waiting for the Hiroshima bombing scene to appear, but it never did,\u201d said Mimaki, 82.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Although the BBC sought out<\/a> the opinion of cinemagoers in Hiroshima, \u2018only meters away\u2019 from where the bomb exploded, the film\u2019s shocking moral failure was not mentioned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On reflection, our museum might be better called, The Museum Of Media Madness. Thus, the BBC reported <\/a>on the refusal of event organisers, The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), to ban Israel from the Eurovision Song Contest. The EBU opined:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018We firmly believe that the Eurovision Song Contest is a platform that should always transcend politics, promote togetherness and bring audiences together across the world.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The BBC claims to be obsessed with reporting \u2018both sides of the story\u2019, but it conveniently forgot to mention that Russia has been banned from the song contest since 2022 for a reason that did not<\/em> \u2018transcend politics\u2019 \u2013 its invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin \u00d6sterdahl, EBU\u2019s executive supervisor for Eurovision, was asked to explain the contradiction. He responded <\/a>that the two situations were \u2018completely different\u2019. True enough \u2013 Israel\u2019s crimes in Gaza are much worse even than Russia\u2019s crimes in Ukraine. \u00d6sterdahl\u2019s casual brush-off:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018We are not the arena to solve a Middle East conflict.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Media and political voices seeking to challenge the reigning brutality are not burned alive, but they are buried alive in high security prisons like Julian Assange, beaten up on the street like George Galloway, and forced into exile like Edward Snowden. Dissidents may not be pelted with rotten fruit and vegetables in the stocks, but they are<\/em> pelted with relentless media attacks intended to discredit them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Guardian, John Crace greeted the news that Galloway had returned to parliament, with a piece <\/a>titled:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018The Ego has landed: George Galloway basks in his swearing in as MP\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Crace wrote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018Wherever he goes, his giant ego is there before him. Like most narcissists, the only fool for whom he makes allowances \u2013 for whom he has a total blindspot \u2013 is himself.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

He added:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018\u2026 there is a lot about Galloway to dislike. His self-importance is breathtaking. Most MPs suffer from an excess of self-regard, but George is off the scale. It has never crossed his mind that he is not right about everything.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Before Galloway\u2019s victory, a Guardian news piece commented<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018\u201cA total, total disaster\u201d: Galloway and Danczuk line up for Rochdale push \u2013 Two former Labour MPs are back to haunt the party in what has been called \u201cthe most radioactive byelection in living memory\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As we have discussed many times, this is the required view, not just of Galloway, but of all dissidents challenging the status quo \u2013 they (and we) are all toxic \u2018narcissists\u2019. Thus, the BBC observed <\/a>of Galloway, a \u2018political maverick\u2019:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018To his critics and opponents, he is a dangerous egotist, someone who arouses division.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

What percentage of Tory and Labour MPs under (and including) Sunak and Starmer are not<\/em> dangerous egotists? Are the thousands of MPs who, decade after decade, line up to vote for US-UK resource wars of aggression of first resort, for action to exacerbate<\/em> climate collapse, not dangerous egotists?  Of course they are, but they are not labelled that way. The only egotism perceived as \u2018dangerous\u2019 by our state-corporate media system is one that threatens biocidal, genocidal and suicidal state-corporate narcissism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have to travel far from the \u2018mainstream\u2019 to read a more balanced view of Galloway. Former British ambassador Craig Murray commented<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018I have known George Galloway my entire adult life, although we largely lost touch in the middle bit while I was off diplomating. I know George too well to mistake him for Jesus Christ, but he has been on the right side against appalling wars which the entire political class has cheer-led. His natural gifts of mellifluence and loquacity are unsurpassed, with an added talent for punchy phrase making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018\u2026 But outwith the public gaze George is humorous, kind and self-aware. He has been deeply involved in politics his entire life, and is a great believer in the democratic process as the ultimate way by which the working classes will ultimately take control of the means of production. He is a very old-fashioned and courteous form of socialist.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

We strongly disagree with Galloway\u2019s views on fossil fuel production and climate change \u2013 in fact, he blocked us on X for robustly but politely challenging him on these issues. Nevertheless, it is clear to us that Murray\u2019s view of Galloway is far more reasonable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neon-Lit Dark Age<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In \u2018Brave New World Revisited\u2019, Aldous Huxley wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018The victim of mind-manipulation does not know that he is a victim. To him, the walls of his prison are invisible, and he believes himself to be free.\u2019 (Huxley, \u2018Brave New World Revisited\u2019, archive.org, 1958, p.109)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This is certainly true of corporate journalists. Borrowing illiberally from authentically dissident media, a recurring Guardian appeal asks readers to support its heroic defence of Truth. The declared enemy:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018Teams of lawyers from the rich and powerful trying to stop us publishing stories they don\u2019t want you to see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Lobby groups with opaque funding who are determined to undermine facts about the climate emergency and other established science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Authoritarian states with no regard for the freedom of the press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Bad actors spreading disinformation online to undermine democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018But we have something powerful on our side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018We\u2019ve got you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The Guardian is funded by its readers and the only person who decides what we publish is our editor.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

They have indeed \u2018got you\u2019, many of you, and not in a good way. The real threat to truth in our time, quite obviously, is the fact that profit-maximising, ad-dependent corporate media like the Guardian cannot and will not<\/em> report the truth of a world dominated by giant corporations. The declared aspiration is a sham, a form of niche marketing exploiting the gullible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The truth is that \u2018mainstream\u2019 media and politics are now captured in a way that is beyond anything we have previously seen. All around the world, political choices have been carefully fixed and filtered to ensure ordinary people are unable to challenge the endless wars, the determination to prioritise profits over climate action at any cost. The job of the corporate media system is to pretend the choices are real, to ensure the walls of the prison remain invisible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only hope in this neon-lit Dark Age is genuinely independent media \u2013 the blogs and websites that are now being filtered, shadow-banned, buried and marginalised like never before. Please support Media Lens: https:\/\/www.medialens.org\/donate\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Courtesy of Gwyllm Llwydd)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

25th April 2024 Alerts (medialens.org) Tourists visiting Spanish cities like C\u00f3rdoba, Toledo and Sevilla have the option of whiling away an hour or so at a \u2018Museum of the Inquisition\u2019, sometimes known as a \u2018Gallery of Torture\u2019. For around three euros, visitors can view an exotic range of devices used to impale, immolate,… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33176"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33176"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33177,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33176\/revisions\/33177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}