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The Media

Free episodes:

This week on CounterSpin: The confusing debate over Syria and on-again, off-again U.S. military strikes leaves out a lot—like the work of nonviolent activists inside the country. Journalist Rania Khalek joins us to talk about that—and some of what they have to say about the debate over U.S. bombing.

Also on CounterSpin today, writer and activist Barrett Brown faces decades in prison for linking to a WikiLeaks page. Why is he being targeted by the federal government, and what does it say that a federal judge imposed a gag order on a journalist? We’ll talk to Peter Ludlow, a philosophy professor at Northwestern University who has been following Brown's case for The Nation magazine.
Rania Khalek on Syria, Peter Ludlow on Barrett Brown — FAIR: Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
FAIR TV Sept 13 2013
September 10, 2013: The Day In 100 Seconds
 
This GRTV production by James Corbett was first released in January 2012. In the light of the recent media disinformation campaign in relation to Syria, we bring this carefully researched video-documentary report to the attention of GR readers.
 
Monopoly Media Manipulation by Michael Parenti
Quotes from the article:
I would argue that media bias usually does not occur in random fashion; rather it moves in more or less consistent directions, favoring management over labor, corporations over corporate critics, affluent whites over low income minorities, officialdom over protestors, the two-party monopoly over leftist third parties, privatization and free market “reforms” over public sector development, U.S. dominance of the Third World over revolutionary or populist social change, and conservative commentators and columnists over progressive or radical ones.
Suppression by Omission
Some critics complain that the press is sensationalistic and invasive. In fact, it is more often muted and evasive. More insidious than the sensationalistic hype is the artful avoidance. Truly sensational stories (as opposed to sensationalistic) are downplayed or avoided outright.

In fact, both sides are seldom accorded equal prominence. One study found that on NPR, supposedly the most liberal of the mainstream media, right-wing spokespeople are often interviewed alone, while liberals — on the less frequent occasions they appear — are almost always offset by conservatives. Furthermore, both sides of a story are not usually all sides. The whole left-progressive and radical portion of the opinion spectrum is amputated from the visible body politic.
Michael Parenti: Monopoly Media Manipulation

Dr. Michael Parenti on the 'Make-Believe Media' (Episode 66)

Michael Parenti on Media, Class, Politics, Drones, Occupy
Chris Hedges: Urban Poverty in America Made Me Question Everything

Chris Hedges: Urban Poverty in America Made Me Question Everything
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10441
 
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These two post are about winning the narrative which is done through the media:
From the article:How to win a lost war
Legitimacy, the performance in warfare and the mutual recognition of the fighting forces are at the heart of the evolving battle space of the 21st century. Perhaps I'm an old-fashioned Clausewitzian, but as such I want to conclude with a Clausewitzian-like thesis: technological development does not save us from policy, ethics and morality, just the reverse; it puts them at the center of the narrative of the 21st century.
Today on Flashpoints: We speak with author, journalist and blogger Max Blumenthal, about his latest book "Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel".
 
Fair's analysis does not go far enough. If the U.S. government shut down was a true shut, all the government would be shut down including the military. Someone should point out the game being played there and suggest an alternative.
Here is two examples of a deeper analysis :Gov't Shutdown Reflects Struggle Within Capitalist Republican Elite
Well, again, first, the Koch brothers don't care about the Republican Party. They don't care about the United States of America. And they are incredibly wealthy. They are pure ideologues, in very large part.
 
Could this effect the Paracast and what we say on the forums; Does Proposed Senate Media Shield Law Hurt Independent Journalists?
 
Could this effect the Paracast and what we say on the forums

The long-term goal is to make all dissent illegal. In the future the idea of putting content on the internet without a government license will seem as ludicrous as driving a car without government licensure does today.

The Koch brothers are little pissants, worth at best, a hundred billion dollars. Corporate media (including NPR/PBS) is owned and controlled by *real* heavyweights worth Trillions like BP, Siemens, Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, and the World Bank.

The silly "government shutdown" is nothing but a publicity stunt, my 6th since high school.

All Terrorism is manufactured. The classic name for it is Strategy of Tension.

All media hype about class warfare/ Left v. Right / black v. white / urban v. rural / poor v. middle class is media engineered to maintain the Divide and Rule Strategy emperors and kings have used for 2,000 years to harvest wealth from peasants.
 
..
..NPR/PBS) is owned and controlled by *real* heavyweights worth Trillions like BP, Siemens, Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, and the World Bank...
According to WIKI (PBS - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is a" .. non-profit public broadcaster has 354 member television stations which hold collective ownership."

NPR is ".. a membership corporation. Member stations are required to be non-commercial or non-commercial educational radio stations .. Each member station receives one vote at the annual NPR board meetings—exercised by its designated Authorized Station Representative ("A-Rep")." NPR - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
NPR and PBS are funded by giant transnational corporations like Wal-Mart, Microsoft, Clear Channel, Mercedes-Benz, et al. via both sponsorships and direct payments from the various "non-profit" Corporate Foundations.

They don't pay for that programming out of the goodness of the hearts, I assure you.
 
The long-term goal is to make all dissent illegal. Yes I can see that is true for some.

The Koch brothers are little pissants. I think Bill Black said it best "Well, again, first, the Koch brothers don't care about the Republican Party. They don't care about the United States of America. And they are incredibly wealthy. They are pure ideologues, in very large part." I would add that they wish to oppress any one who is not extremely wealthy.

All media hype about class warfare/ Left v. Right / black v. white / urban v. rural / poor v. middle class is media engineered to maintain the Divide and Rule Strategy emperors and kings have used for 2,000 years to harvest wealth from peasants.[/quote]
This is the one that I need help to understand. There is class warfare being waged. Right? Because "Left v. Right / black v. white / urban v. rural / poor v. middle class is media engineered to maintain the Divide and Rule Strategy emperors and kings have used for 2,000 years to harvest wealth from peasants." Kings are waging class warfare on peasants. In 2000 years, if they have, how have peasants waged class warfare back?
I am not advocating any particular solution or ism. I would suggest that if warfare were not being waged against us, that we would all do our best to work out a fair way of doing things. It is true that mass movements have not managed to bring about a new political system. I myself try to live my life with integrity, kindness and being just. In fact there is to me a new way to make change. The system takes our time and effort to survive but after that we can do what will bring about positive change. I think it is happening with people growing their own gardens or no longer blindly believing what they are told.
The book is called "Change the World Without Taking Power About the book:
The wave of political demonstrations since the Battle of Seattle in 2001 have crystallised a new trend in left-wing politics. Modern protest movements are grounding their actions in both Marxism and Anarchism, fighting for radical social change in terms that have nothing to do with the taking of state power. This is in clear opposition to the traditional Marxist theory of revolution which centers on taking state power. In this book, John Holloway asks how we can reformulate our understanding of revolution as the struggle against power, not for power.
Change the World Without Taking Power | John Holloway | Macmillan

From Against the Grain:
How did anti-capitalist revolution fare in the twentieth century? John Holloway says it failed. The influential theorist and author believes we need to rethink revolution; we need to break the logic of capital in a different and distinctive way. Holloway believes that capitalism can be brought down only by the proliferation of "cracks," spaces in which people move "in the opposite direction."Mon 4.29.13 | Cracking the System | Against the Grain: A Program about Politics, Society and Ideas
I really look forward to your help in understanding what you are saying.
 
According to WIKI (PBS - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is a" .. non-profit public broadcaster has 354 member television stations which hold collective ownership."

NPR is ".. a membership corporation. Member stations are required to be non-commercial or non-commercial educational radio stations .. Each member station receives one vote at the annual NPR board meetings—exercised by its designated Authorized Station Representative ("A-Rep")." NPR - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In fact NPR stands for National Petroleum Radio
And Bill Moyers who did most on PBS to question the system never suggested any real changes.
He all attacked those who were questioning the official story of 911.
 
This is the one that I need help to understand.
The technical name for our society's problem is "Intra-Species Predation". Sometimes humans predate each other in the same way alligators or chimpanzees will eat members of their species or steal resources from each other.

The most sophisticated form of predation is farming livestock. In our case, financial elites have basically run human resource farms for thousands of years. The farmers extract sustenance from their human livestock, and pass that system on to their offspring.

Part of an effective human resource management system is weaponized anthropology. This means using art, media, culture, kinship, biology, and psychology etc. to control and shape the behavior of the human resources.

Due to evolution, humans are naturally suspicious of out-group members, ie. people from the tribe over the hill, people who speak a different dialect, etc. because they represent a potential threat. Weaponized anthropology uses this built-in quirk to great effect by sowing distrust and discord in societies. This is how Divide ut Regnes is accomplished.

Black vs. white / urban vs. rural / Christian vs. Muslim / poor vs. middle class / France vs. Spain / educated vs. uneducated / Jew vs. Goyim / Demo vs. Repub / immigrant vs. citizen / hippies vs. cowboys, and on and on and on. This is the main purpose of corporate media.

The idea is to keep the livestock bickering among themselves over crumbs tossed to them from the Master's table so they never ask the larger question "Instead of arguing over crumbs, why don't we just stop giving the Master our wheat in the first place and make our own bread?".

In my opinion, we can accomplish that by teaching children to stop wanting power over others.
 
The technical name for our society's problem is "Intra-Species Predation". Sometimes humans predate each other in the same way alligators or chimpanzees will eat members of their species or steal resources from each other.

The most sophisticated form of predation is farming livestock. In our case, financial elites have basically run human resource farms for thousands of years. The farmers extract sustenance from their human livestock, and pass that system on to their offspring.

Part of an effective human resource management system is weaponized anthropology. This means using art, media, culture, kinship, biology, and psychology etc. to control and shape the behavior of the human resources.

Due to evolution, humans are naturally suspicious of out-group members, ie. people from the tribe over the hill, people who speak a different dialect, etc. because they represent a potential threat. Weaponized anthropology uses this built-in quirk to great effect by sowing distrust and discord in societies. This is how Divide ut Regnes is accomplished.

Black vs. white / urban vs. rural / Christian vs. Muslim / poor vs. middle class / France vs. Spain / educated vs. uneducated / Jew vs. Goyim / Demo vs. Repub / immigrant vs. citizen / hippies vs. cowboys, and on and on and on. This is the main purpose of corporate media.

The idea is to keep the livestock bickering among themselves over crumbs tossed to them from the Master's table so they never ask the larger question "Instead of arguing over crumbs, why don't we just stop giving the Master our wheat in the first place and make our own bread?".

In my opinion, we can accomplish that by teaching children to stop wanting power over others.
I like your attitude. It shows uncommon sophistication. The problem is that there's so many people who are on another wavelength, or too busy scrambling for those crumbs you mention, or too busy getting whatever other instant gratification they can from their TVs, smart phones, MP3 players, or whatever, that initiating the massive changes required seems insurmountable. Sure, we can all try to do our little part. For example, after seeing the movie Pay It Forward, I went out and tried it. I was able to stick with it for about a month before realizing that real world is a whole other thing from the ideals we get into our heads. I became disillusioned and now the majority of my charitable contributions consist of buying lottery tickets ( though last week I gave half my breakfast away to a guy on the street who was going through garbage cans ). Have you checked out a movie called The East? I think you might like it.

The East - Destined to be a cult classic.

 
Thanks man. I'm queuing up The East to watch this weekend. Looks interesting.

I really do think there is hope for the future because the internet is allowing people to do an end-run around the controlled media and discuss and sort things out in a way never possible before.

The Banksters were all set for another war in of Syria. I believe We the People literally averted that war by just saying "no" because alternative information sources on the internet allowed them to see through the corporate media propaganda.
 
I stopped watching TV comedy after The Dick Van Dyke show. Men were betrayed as incompetent. Women as supermoms who could do it all. Parents portrayed as idiots. The working class were portrayed as ignorant bigots like Archie Bunker. Now I think they are portrayed as rednecks to be held up for ridicule. I think of the movie Jaws where in the scientist and the policeman are extremely competent but the working class boat owner is as much of a villain as the shark. I am not really competent to comment on TV or movies since I rarely watch either. The characters are shallow and self interested, not the kind of people you would want to have as friends.
Where are the shows that show people loosing their jobs, being homeless, or just supporting one another or challenging the system? I think of the truck driver who has to know so much about his truck, how to put on the load properly and drive with great skill. I chose three people that show us how we are portrayed to ourselves as stupid, getting what we deserve and how that is a lie. THE GLEN FORD INTERVIEW IS AN AMAZING INTERVIEW OF HOW HE CHOOSE THE COMMUNITY LEADERS AND CHANGED A CITY. There are two other parts to his interview.
Where is “The Left”? “Are We Being Served”
What this does reveal however, is the contradictions of a culture whose identity is determined almost entirely by our elites. To be working class is to be uncultured, uncouth and uncool (at best, an historical hangover). Just look at how working class life is portrayed on television and all of it produced by an intellectual elite that hasn’t the foggiest idea of what working class life is really like. Of what it’s like not to have the tools of a decent education, or the resources to realize your dreams? The odd one like me, who somehow make it through are the exception that proves the rule.
Where is “The Left”? “Are We Being Served” | Global Research
Glen Ford

On Reality Asserts Itself with Paul Jay: Glen Ford, Exec. Editor of Black Agenda Report, talks about helping create black radio news. He says that news media creates leaders by deciding what events are important and who is authorized to speak on the importance of those even
Michael Parenti
Today on Flashpoints: A new speech by radical political analyst and noted social critic, Michael Parenti, in celebration of his just released memoir, "Waiting for Yesterday: Pages from a Street Kid's Life".
Today on Flashpoints: Internationally celebrated writer and political analyst Michael Parenti. He has a brand new memoir, "Waiting For Yesterday". He joins us live in studio. Also, poet on assignment fir Flashpoints, Auora Levin Morales talks about her new book "Kindling: Writings On The Body".
 
Media specials are on tap for the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s murder, but none will explore the troubling new evidence that has been declassified in recent years – and that undercuts the Official Story of the Lone Gunman.
Where New JFK Evidence Points | Global Research
How can it be then, that on the vital issue of the on-going global war on terror, and the event that sparked this war, namely 9/11, the BBC is guilty beyond question of deliberately and actively supporting the cover up of irrefutable evidence which would help bring the true perpetrators of 9/11 to justice and most likely bring an immediate end to the global war on terror as we know it.
9/11 and the Collapse of WTC Building 7: The BBC’s Role in Distorting the Evidence and Misleading the Public | Global Research
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