Whoever Controls The Media, Controls Our World.

[CJCRANE]

I had a very strange feeling last year when the Gouta chemical attack in Syria happened.

The media exploitation of that event was so sensationalist and so over-the-top that I felt we were back in a new Neocon era, just like in the Bush era when we were exposed to repeated propaganda.

Even if we accept the official story, the use of the atrocity videos of the people suffocating was appalling and manipulative IMO.

I remember watching John Kerry giving a speech about it, and at the same time on several news channels, they had a split screen with him on one side and an atrocity video on the other side of people suffocating.

A month or two after that, I noticed the sudden wave of hatred for Putin and Russia in the MSM and blogosphere. It was like someone flicked a switch and opened the floodgates.

Then came the downing of flight MH17, and even while the embers of the downed aircraft were still warm, the entire Western media thundered with one voice and verdict about what happened and who was responsible.

Now, this is all great if you hate Assad and think Putin's a vicious bigot. I can understand cheering on those attacks.

But the problem comes when the media is a monolith. It's fine when it's saying what you want to hear. You can laugh at the people who disagree with you and whose views aren't represented by that same MSM. You're in the majority and have the backing of the august organs of the fourth estate, so it's easy to verbally bully the minority view.

But the danger is that one day that monolithic voice will be turned on you, or people you support. And there will be no one in your corner to stick up for you.

This is what we see repeatedly with the media narrative. On certain issues they speak with one voice and walk in lock-step. This is not just the American media, but the English speaking media and often all Western media.

We saw this with "values voters", the "War On Terror", "the Arab Spring", the supposedly grassroots bipartisan "Tea Party", the necessity of "Austerity" and more recently the media parroting how "toxic" and "unpopular" President Obama is. The media always plays up events that fit their narrative and completely ignore other events or facts that challenge their narrative or don't fit into it. I'm sure we can all think of lots of examples.

There is some force or group that spreads these talking points across the Western media. Maybe they're not all part of this group, maybe some of them just copy the others' talking points out of laziness or a feeling of not wanting to be left out.

So my point is: the MSM is not your friend. Even when you agree with a media talking point, just think for a second: "Why are they saying this? What are they trying to convince me of? What effect do they want?"

[BlueCaliDem]

1. The moment that Americans understand this truth and accept it 100% is the moment

when we take all power away from U.S. media.

Remember...they can only bamboozle the American people IF we let them pull the wool over our eyes. That's got to change or we'll never push America forward and will forever be serfs to the 1%.

[J_J_]

3. They just made up all this bullshit about ISIS and now we're bombing Iraq again

22+ Billion per year even after they cut food stamps because of the huge deficit

No one calls them ISIS but the US meda.

They made up the term because it would sell well to the American people.

Why are they trying to sell us another war?

And why do people still believe and support anything the corporate media says?

But they got their war on again, and no one is doing anything to stop them.

[librechik]

4. multinationals own all the media. They have no national loyalty. Only corporate greed.

They are owned by a few individuals who are proud to engineer our perceptions to their profit, and will continue to do so until they look around and notice all the consumers are gone.

NOTHING has ever stopped them from consuming until the civilization disappears. It has happened over and over again in history.
How can this time be any different?

[Zorra]

5. Is there any way to repair a video lobotomy?

Jim Morrison: "Whoever controls the media controls the mind".

[old guy]

6. Yes.

This has been at the top of my list of problems for a long, long time. It is not confined to national issues but has a dire effect when people only have one local paper and are only fed what the editor chooses to feed them. There are still people who just accept what they read as fact and do no checking to verify. Sad.

[J_J_]

7. Media is THE problem, they are supposed to hold politicians accountable

People still trust them because of what they might have done decades ago.

And this is on our public airwaves, they are making billions from corporations because they lie for them, on our public airwaves.