For almost 8 years the US media has served as Ministry of Propaganda for a war criminal regime

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/There-May-Be-Many-Mushroom-by-Paul-Craig-Roberts-080814-100.html

The success of the Bush Regime's propaganda, lies, and deception with gullible and inattentive Americans since 9/11 has made it difficult for intelligent, aware people to be optimistic about the future of the United States. For almost 8 years the US media has served as Ministry of Propaganda for a war criminal regime. Americans incapable of thinking for themselves, reading between the lines, or accessing foreign media on the Internet have been brainwashed.

As the Nazi propagandist, Joseph Goebbels, said, it is easy to deceive a people. You just tell them they have been attacked and wave the flag.

It certainly worked with Americans.

The gullibility and unconcern of the American people has had many victims. There are 1.25 million dead Iraqis. There are 4 million displaced Iraqis. No one knows how many are maimed and orphaned.

Iraq is in ruins, its infrastructure destroyed by American bombs, missiles, and helicopter gunships.

We do not know the death toll in Afghanistan, but even the American puppet regime protests the repeated killings of women and children by US and NATO troops.

[FreakinDJ]

1. WMDs and Iraq War are best evidence Regulations are needed

No denying without media deregulation the Iraq invasion could not have happened

[ezdidit]

37. too true!

It's just been genocide for insider profit. RICO doesn't begin to cover it. I wonder what Swiss jurists are thinking....

[The Stranger]

2. It is a genocide.

The U.S. media is complicit in it.

[ixion]

3. If you are capable of thinking for yourself, the last 8 years have been one long

nightmare.

I no longer recognize the social fabric of the US.

[peace13]

7. I hear that!

Peace to you, Kim

[Ganja Ninja]

12. It's been a long strange trip but it started much longer than 8 years ago.

They've been doing this since back in the days of Nixon.

[ixion]

18. granted, but it's become more pronounced, IMO

it's far more in-your-face than it was in the 80's and 90's.

[cliffordu]

19. Yep.

[Golden Raisin]

32. Like the Constitution,

the social fabric of the U.S. has been torn to shreds, pissed on and dragged through the mud for the last 8 years by Neocons/Bush regime and their Propaganda arm, the MSM. Congress has basically done nothing in terms of concrete or effective opposition. Citizens are either struggling desperately to just stay afloat/survive economically or just don't know/care and are so hypnotized/anesthesized by 'American Idol' they don't see the damage or the danger.

[grannie4peace]

4. that is absolutely the truth

[nancyr]

5. Pretty much sums it all up.

The media and the government are the same thing.

[peace13]

6. Take this one step further.

What would they talk about if Obama gets elected? What could they possibly keep busy with? I want November to get here quickly but in the back of my mind I know that there is no way that we will not be under this dark, deadly regime of rethuglican rule come January.

[Joanne98]

8. And that's the TRUTH!

[bjobotts]

29. Google "Operation Mockingbird" to see why this is so. Bribes and blackmail for propaganda.

[bjobotts]

30. Control the mesage says the corporate media owners or get lost.

[judasdisney]

35. How dare you mention OPERATION MOCKINGBIRD. You'd think

that the stunning bombshell revelation by Carl Bernstein in October 1977 that "The CIA owns and controls every media outlet of any significance in the U.S." (quote from William Casey) is "important" or something.

What's wrong with you?

[Supersedeas]

9. if only someone on the Networks could make the Russia/Georgia -- US/Iraq comparison...just once.

[Better Believe It]

10. K&R

[bjobotts]

31. McCain would start a war rather than lose an election. In fact that is what he's trying to do

[Supersedeas]

46. Have you seen how the 'line was lost' during Condiliar's Press Conference

Notice too the utter arrogance of her body language:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtdVS8646GI

[Triana]

11. DO something!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=6639255&mesg_id=6639255

[flashl]

13. Its more than media, "Bush Spent Over $1.6 Billion on Advertising and Public Relations Contracts"

Bush Administration Spent Over $1.6 Billion on Advertising and Public Relations Contracts Since 2003, GAO Finds

t r u t h o u t | Press Release

Monday 13 February 2006

Washington, DC - Today Rep. Henry A. Waxman, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Rep. George Miller, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, and other senior Democrats released a new Government Accountability Office report finding that the Bush Administration spent more than $1.6 billion in public relations and media contracts in a two and a half year span.

"The government is spending over a billion dollars per year on PR and advertising," said Rep. Waxman. "Careful oversight of this spending is essential given the track record of the Bush Administration, which has used taxpayer dollars to fund covert propaganda within the United States."

"No amount of money will successfully sell the Bush Administration's failed policies, from the war in Iraq, to its disastrous energy policy, to its confusing Medicare prescription drug benefits," said Democratic Leader Pelosi. "The American people know the Bush Administration is on the wrong track and the White House PR machine won't change that fact."

[Overseas]

14. I liked the part about U.S. vs. world reporting on Bush-McCain support for Georgia

There is a lot more in the article about this particular conflict and the distorted pro-Republican reporting in the US media that is understood as false by the rest of the world.

It culminated in those ridiculous words John Sidney McCain III and his Hug-Buddy Dubya said about sovereign countries not invading other countries !! Roberts expected The Daily Show to have fun with those comments and they did.

The corporate news media wants to pretend each news story happens in a vacuum, whereas overseas they have a memory that extends for decades. The thousand disgraces of the Bush regime are still fresh in their minds, even if our corporate media have decided we forget everything a week later.


This about sums up the pessimistic state in which I existed prior to the go-ahead given by the Bush Regime to its puppet in Georgia to ethnically cleanse South Ossetia of Russians in order to defuse the separatist movement. The American media, aka, the Ministry of Lies and Deceit, again accommodated the criminal Bush Regime and proclaimed "Russian invasion" to cover up the ethnic cleansing of Russians in South Ossetia by the Georgian military assault.

Only this time, the rest of the world didn't buy it. The many years of lies--9/11, Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, al Qaeda connections, yellowcake, anthrax attack, Iranian nukes, "the United States doesn't torture," the bombings of weddings, funerals, and children's soccer games, Abu Ghraib, renditions, Guantanamo, various fabricated "terrorist plots," the determined assault on civil liberties--have taken their toll on American credibility. No one outside America any longer believes the US media or the US government.

The rest of the world reported the facts--an assault on Russian civilians by American and Israeli trained and equipped Georgian troops.

The Bush Regime, overcome by hubris, expected Russia to accept this act of American hegemony. But the Russians did not, and the Georgian military was sent fleeing for its life.

[Supersedeas]

21. an educated electorate is not in the Corp Media's interest

[DavidDvorkin]

15. And before that, they were the publicity arm of the Republicker Party

I first noticed it during the Carter administration. It became painfully obvious and frightening during the 1980 campaign.

[bvar22]

16. The Nazi Media Propagandists were tried as War Criminals at Nuremberg.

"Nonetheless, in their arguments US prosecutors set forth a democratic legal principle derived from the international experience of a half-century of carnage: that planning and launching an aggressive war constituted a criminal act and that those who helped prepare such a war through their propaganda efforts were as culpable as those who drew up the battle plans or manufactured the munitions."

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/apr2003/nure-a16.shtml

There IS a legal (International) precedent established by Europe and the USA.

[DFW]

17. Roger Ailes at Den Haag?

"those who helped prepare such a war through their propaganda efforts were as culpable as those who drew up the battle plans or manufactured the munitions."

By this standard, there are a whole lot of members of the American media looking at
trial by the International Court. Fat chance, but maybe sending a few well-documented
letters of complaint to Den Haag could start some scrutiny that could make them re-assess
the intensity of their efforts?

[mitchum]

40. I would love to see that pig dance on air

[DangerDave921]

45. You forget

We won WWII, so we could set the agenda for what happened to the losers of the war. To the victor go the spoils. In today's world, there is no so-called "winner" to hold any US folks accountable.

Is the US going to try its own military for war crimes? Of course not.

[libodem]

20. No doubt it will turn soon enough

when a Democrat enters the White House. Remember how they hammered us with all Monica all the time for all those YEARS. I wonder what will happen now? Poor Obama. He'll be hounded night and day by these treasonous bastards, distracting him from the business at hand. There ought to be a law! If those effin' think tanks with the millionaire lawyers set out to besiege him with frivolous lawsuits like they did with President Clinton, I hope they are prosecuted for malicious malfeasance. (I think I made that up...but it sounded good) :) I don't trust the stupid press any further than I can see them. They jump on this made up crap and then spew it across any media outlet they can. I'm a hater, today. Thanks for gettin me started.....:P

[wiggs]

22. Yes. And there will be more victims. A generation of Iraqis has witnessed destruction

of their country, including national treasures, and the horrors of war (I can't even imagine). A generation of Iraqis is pissed, angry, damaged, hurt, and bitter and will not forget.

[The Wizard]

23. A government controlled press today

Totalitarianism tomorrow.
The fat lady is about to sing.

[go west young man]

24. You hit the nail on the head. An article from Pravda.

http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/14-08-2008/106094-bushenough-0

So how do you plan to answer this erroneously termed “aggression”? He says this will “worsen” relations with the United States? Buddy, relations with the United States could hardly be any worse than they are now.

The United States shows no respect for Russia. The United States shows no respect for any other country weaker than itself, much less a rival as you perceive Russia to be. How about your NATO? Today the west, tomorrow the world, eh? America uber alles!

How about your missile shield breathing down the neck of the Russian nation? There to protect Europe from Iran? The most totally absurd thing that only a moron would believe.

How about your deliberate breaking of your agreements regarding Serbian Kosovo? UN Resolution 1244 which your country agreed to, is the ink dry…you deliberately went against it and recognized Kosovo in total disregard and in violation of that agreement.

And you expect your words to be heeded or even listened to? You are joking! It is said when Caligula went mad he heard laughing.

Do you hear people laughing at you Mr. Bush?

[go west young man]

25. Another expose' on our media this time from the UK.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20523.htm

[Mudoria]

39. Pravda?

:puke:

[go west young man]

41. Pravda is just one of many Russian news sources.

I would recommend checking it out these days before you pass total judgment. Here's a link: http://english.pravda.ru/ Russians of course have their own perspective on things. Personally I feel that our Fox news and even CNN act more like the Pravda of Soviet times. It's just misinformation with a pretty face and we lap it up here in the states.

[go west young man]

42. Also try this DU link to see how our own Pravda works.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x170169

[Franc_Lee]

26. What do you expect when 90% of M$M are owned and operated by the repugs, get real!

[madeline_con]

27. Remember Baghdad Bob? n/t

[awoke_in_2003]

38. Yep

but at least Bob offered some comedy. Our asshats are not funny at all.

[Bobbie Jo]

28. If you'll remember, WAR put CNN on the map.

With wall to wall "shock and awe." :nuke: They created an industry when Poppy served up the Gulf War golden egg.


The rest, as they say....is history.

[Enthusiast]

36. Yeah, it was the most entertaining war ever!

GHW Bush was a hero! It was considered wonderful. Bush Jr. wanted some of that action. It's enough to make me puke.

[DU GrovelBot]

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[judasdisney]

34. If this thread's title is true, then why does the Left continue to support the media? Which it does

Every time I hear Rachel Maddow using ABC News as a daily news source on her radio show: WTF?

Every time I see Keith Olbermann using the New York Times as any type of credible source: WTF?

Every time I see and hear Zogby, Gallup, Time Magazine, or AP (yes, AP) cited by the Center for American Progress, Talking Points Memo/TPM Muckraker, diarists on Kos or DU, Thom Hartmann, Randi Rhodes, etc.:

Don't you clowns recognize the agenda of the sources you cite?

WTF?

[DFW]

43. The problem is not the media per se, but what has become of it

An aggressive Democratic FCC Commissioner who enforces the law rather than ignores it
when it suits the Republican party could work wonders in making propaganda outlets
identify themselves as such, and restoring a semblance of balance to our media despite
the goals of their corporate owners.

The key word here being "could." Next to the next Attorney General and the next Supreme
Court Justice, the next FCC Commissioner could be the most important appointment a
Democratic appointment could make. Fox, ABC et al know this, too. They will do all in
their power to prevent it. The big question is whether all in their power is enough to
overcome the will and the overall interest of the nation. So far, the answer has been "yes."

[DangerDave921]

44. Suggest others

What sources would you prefer Maddow to cite?

Also, NY Times is right-wing? The paper that endorsed every single Dem candidate in 2006?!

[judasdisney]

49. your answer

Maddow should be using anybody but ABC. ABC? The Road to 9/11? Hello? Owned by Roy Disney, ultra right-wing uber-fascist?

The New York Times endorses Democrats? Oh yes -- in between being a key player in the WMD scare by giving Judith Miller unlimited free rein, withholding key stories by James Risen revealing the existence of warrantless wiretapping until AFTER the 2004 elections; burying the lede about the 2000 Florida vote count newspaper consortium that found under all recount scenarios Gore had won but stating that "Bush Won Florida" in the story title and lede and placing the truth in paragraph 17; hiring the farthest-right-wing ruling class sociopath fascists (Bill Kristol, John Tierney) as op-ed columnists -- validating Neocons with rabies, but not hiring any balancing left-wing counterparts;

refer to Media Matters (since I don't have time to continue listing the sins of the right-wing NYT) for further massive lists of NYT distortions and systematic reversals-of-fact (start with the massive campaign of disinformation against Latin American presidents such as Morales, Correa, Lula de Silva & Chavez).

http://www.mediamatters.org

Yes, the NYT is right-wing with a few token left-leaning op-eds & stories -- much the same as WSJ is. Would you call WSJ left-wing because they have a few left-leaning op-eds?

The NYT is WSJ-lite.

[lovuian]

47. its true and the joke of it is noone watches them

except a very few dumb Americans who get dumber everyday

so their effectiveness is finished

[Honeycombe8]

48. How is this known? Could it be the media has reported it?

Not ALL the media, but SOME media has reported a different view?

If that's the case, then ALL the media is not propaganda for a war criminal regime.

It gets my goat when someone has a good point to make, but the exaggeration of it makes it seem just silly. Causes the original, very real point to be missed, or disbelieved in entirety.