The Murdoch media drives resentment with propaganda as constant as drums of war. The pounding message for its audience is that every development is a zero-sum game, one that only defrauds this “conservative” base.
Tag: Propaganda
Murdoch propaganda in your face
It was the scare campaign of the week. Treasurer Jim Chalmers suggested a few superannuation tweaks might be in order and the backlash in corporate media was savage. What’s the scam?
Anyone who’s paying attention knows the behavior of the U.S. war machine is as relevant to Australians as it is to Americans, writes Caitlin Johnstone.
Source: Murdoch Propaganda Readies Australia for War with China
What the Murdoch’s claim to be “news” almost had Rupert jailed in the UK. He sacrificed a paper and staff then fled to the US to repeat his methods and there.
In 2020, Fox News anchors Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity pushed Donald Trump’s election fraud claims for weeks. New documents suggest they never believed any of it.
Source: Fox News Knew Donald Trump’s Election Fraud Claims Were False. They Broadcast Them Anyway.
Murdoch is an Advertorial
In the latest escalation in Australia’s increasingly forceful campaign to manufacture consent for war with China, the Murdoch-owned Sky News Australia has aired a jaw-droppingly propagandistic hour-long special which advocates a dramatic increase in the nation’s military spending.
Let be clear
One of the empire’s strongest assets is the widespread assumption that propaganda is something that only happens to other people. Another is the widespread assumption that propaganda only comes from other countries and other political ideologies.
Source: Propaganda isn’t something that only happens to others. – Pearls and Irritations
It is sometimes alleged that there has recently been a recrudescence of Antisemitism. Usually this is a stalking horse for apologetic excuses for Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians and the global condemnation it properly attracts. This is a sleight of hand fallacy, citing a secondary phenomenon of the Fascist Right for a primary development on the Democratic left, with a view to compromising and confounding the latter. Accordingly, the contention that Antisemitism is on the rise in the mainstream is patently false and misleading. For as the scholarly Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism acknowledges, the rising democratic criticism of the conduct of the State of Israel is a clean, different thing from the marginal Neo-fascist return to the traditional politics of scapegoating Jews.
The misleadingly named `International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’ has been rolling out its pseudo-definition of ‘Antisemitism’ for some time to criminalise free speech criticism of Israeli human rights abuses and violations of international law. In recent times the Labor Victorian and New South Wales Tory governments have been seduced coercively into sneaking the IHRA pseudo definition, intended to criminalise criticism of Israel administratively and in our educational institutions, through their parliaments.
Source: ‘Antisemitism’, mendacity & zionist propaganda in Australia – Pearls and Irritations
Conclusion: Dark Times Call for Dark Words
The ongoing propaganda we see daily from the media requires a scalpel to get through. Hopefully this piece has begun to sift through the endless foray of Newspeak that we see every day.
Source: Beyond the BS: What Politcal Terms Really Mean – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Who and what Are we to believe?
Key points:
- Propaganda is the use of either real or fake information to manipulate opinion
- Experts say the Kremlin has focused on deception and defamation along with censorship
- They say Ukraine has used guilt and outrage to gain support from the West
Source: Ukraine and Russia’s second front is a propaganda war. But who is winning? – ABC News
For decades, propaganda has steered the course of the mass media’s narrative, dominated by the needs of state and corporate power. John Pilger explains that nothing has changed in today’s world.
Source: JOHN PILGER: Silencing the lambs — how propaganda works
In declining order of trust: The Age, SMH, Guardian online, News com.au, Sky News, Herald Sun and Daily Telegraph come below the 50% mark with Sky News boasting the highest don’t trust rating. Would someone please remind us who owns the four at the bottom of the trust scale?
PR companies working for the fossil fuel industry are appropriating language from within the climate movement, using it to perpetuate climate denial, writes Stella Levantesi.
Don’t be fooled by fossil fuel industry’s ‘green’ word salads
As fossil fuel corporations reap fabulous profits at the expense of Australian gas and electricity customers, the gas lobby is running a propaganda campaign calling for Australia to power the world, help Ukraine, let “the market” do its thing. The reality is there is no properly functioning market and this is all a PR distraction to combat the obvious solution to the crisis, that the government needs to earmark gas supply for East Coast customers. Callum Foote fact-checks the finance press.
Source: Gas Lies: as super profits ramp up so too does the fossil fuel propaganda war – Michael West
Scott Morrison and the government have made sure the old media companies have profited financially in a major way under the coalition government and that largely explains why old media companies are keen to keep Morrison and the coalition in power. By rights Scott Morrison should have no chance at the federal election, which is what the polls say, but if the old media keep on reporting in a biased manner like that have the last 2 days Morrison might scrape over the line.
It’s really only a few of the small independent media journalists and companies that can be trusted to report without fear of favour as the larger ones were compromised long ago by their owner’s financial greed. This has been magnified even further in recent times because of the abuse of Jobkeeper and the News Media Bargaining Code which has allowed the large old media companies to gain a financial advantage with the small media companies being left out.
It appears that Vladimir Putin’s aides have misinformed him about the war, fearful of his reaction.
The REAL STORY is News Corpse and the LNP Dirt Brigade. Kitching never complained
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese says the late senator Kimberley Kitching never raised complaints of bullying with him as he labelled political debate about her death “not constructive”. Reports have emerged about the stress the late senator was under within her own party before her death from a suspected heart attack, with Labor senators Kristina Keneally, Penny Wong and Katy Gallagher named in media reports as having ostracised her. In a joint statement released on Friday, the three denied the claims and said it was necessary to respond, given the “hurtful statements” that continue to be made.
Source: Albanese: Kimberley Kitching never said a word to me about bullying
What do news reports about Grace Tame’s bong, Jenny Morrison’s 60 Minutes fluff piece and Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s China scare campaign have in common?
Marshall McLuhan’s prophecy that “the successor to politics will be propaganda” has happened. Raw propaganda is now the rule in Western democracies, especially the U.S. and Britain.
Source: JOHN PILGER: War in Europe and the rise of raw propaganda
Grattan Institute energy experts say News Corp’s eye-watering figures on the projected costs and job losses of an improbable moratorium are ‘inflated’
This isn’t in any way new!
The Israeli cabinet approved on Sunday a project that could inject up to NIS 100 million [$30 million] toward covertly funding government propaganda in the United States and other Western countries. Led by Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, the initiative is expected to revive a failed plan entrusted until recently to the now-defunct Strategic Affairs Ministry, which closed in 2021. The plan is to transfer money indirectly to foreign organizations that will spread Israeli propaganda in the countries in which they operate, all while hiding the fact that they are backed by the Israeli government.
Source: The new hasbara campaign Israel doesn’t want you to know about
Something is rotten with the state of propaganda
(Editor: ASPI is also Australia’s most influential and aggressive crafter of anti-China propaganda, funded to the tune of $11m a year by government and the military industrial lobby, foreign arms manufacturers that is).
The top of the ASPI page comes with this warning from Wikipedia in bold text: This article has multiple issues. This article relies too much on references to primary sources. This article may rely excessively on sources too closely associated with the subject, potentially preventing the article from being verifiable and neutral.
It is the standard Wikipedia disclaimer when Wikipedia suspects Something is rotten in the state of Denmark—or, perhaps one might say, in the Canberra suburb of Barton.
More than half of the reference sources on the Wikipedia page come directly from ASPI itself and all but one either endorses or praises ASPI.
Source: Wikipedia v ASPI: on sock-puppets and Wiki-sneaks – Michael West Media
In my last piece, I looked at how Scott Morrison appeared to have lost the support of the man who truly runs Australia. There we looked at the column published under the name of Morrison’s dog, which left the Prime Minister beaten and bloody in an alley somewhere. This time, I want to look at NSW, again using the Errorgraph as the example. Similar to last time, I do not have the link to the article, but someone in my household buys this rag and so I have photos of the appropriate pages.
Source: Rupe’s Tantrum: NSW Edition – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The Minerals Council of Australia, a foreign-controlled mining lobby, has duped Australia’s major media in an $80bn PR scam by falsely claiming more than $72 billion of GST payments to exaggerate the contribution of the minerals industry to Australia. Callum Foote reports.
The Associated Press is flatly denying the Israeli military’s cover story for why it bombarded the al-Jala tower in Gaza, which housed media offices of AP and al-Jazeera, and where dozens of journalists were based. Israel maintains that there was a Hamas intelligence unit in the building that was targeting Israel. This Israeli allegation is, of course, ridiculous. Hamas’s attacks on Israel are via little rockets with no guidance systems. A third of the Hamas rockets are so feeble that they actually land inside Gaza and have hurt Palestinians. The rockets fly blind and most land uselessly in the desert. So what would an “intelligence office” in an office building be doing that posed a danger to Israel? If they were on a computer on the internet, they could be anywhere– they didn’t have to be in the al-Jala.
While described as a lifestyle brand, Fox Nation is just another right-wing propaganda outlet
Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch lied during his remarks yesterday at the media research firm MoffettNathanson’s 8th Annual Media & Communications Summit, casting the streaming service Fox Nation as a lifestyle brand when in fact it’s a vehicle for Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s white supremacy. Murdoch also claimed the network stands by its reporting despite the fact that it has repeatedly undermined its own “news”-side coverage of the election, and he dodged questions about a clash over Fox’s opinion side despite reportedly intervening personally to defend Carlson’s white nationalist talking points in prime time. This is the second time this week that Murdoch’s public strategizing ahead of the 2021 upfronts has obfuscated the crisis in which Fox finds itself as the network tries to sell advertising space for the upcoming broadcast calendar while continuing to push lies, bigotry, and misinformation. Source: Lachlan Murdoch continues to lie to the advertising industry | Media Matters for America
With President Donald Trump’s reelection hopes seemingly fading, Fox News star Tucker Carlson made an 11th hour push on Tuesday night to try to will him to victory. He devoted his entire program to an interview with Tony Bobulinski, a former business partner of Hunter Biden, in the latest dubious salvo of an extensive campaign by Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch’ media outlets to tarnish Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden via his son’s business interests.
The Murdochs’ desperate final push to use Hunter Biden to reelect Donald Trump | Media Matters for America
The secret propagands wars the US funding mind bending religious sects (ODT)
Office bearers of US-backed Chinese language news service Decode China are linked with Falun Gong, the spiritual group that has spent millions backing Donald Trump through fake social media accounts. The same people are on the board of the National Foundation for Australia China Relations, raising scepticism about its ability to repair fractured relationships. Marcus Reubenstein investigates US state funding of anti-China media in Australia and links to global arms dealers via ASPI.
via Propaganda Wars: US state department funds anti-China news outlet in Australia – Michael West
Trump is pitting the two halves of the network’s business model against each other. If its executives respond by making the network even more supportive, they are risking flight from advertisers and cable providers concerned with being too closely associated with the president. If they don’t, they are risking outlets like OAN, which has little interest in pretending to be a real news outlet, peeling off their viewers.
via President Trump: Fox News is a propaganda outlet | Media Matters for America
So for the Brussels bureaucracy, the Health Silk Road is not about saving lives; it’s about “destabilizing” the EU and improving Xi Jinping’s domestic image after China lied, lied and lied again about the extent and severity of coronavirus. That happens to be the exact same narrative of the Trump administration, US corporate media and US intelligence.
Does it matter? Not for those 89 nations that are receiving much-needed help and equipment. The dogs of demonization bark while the Health Silk Road caravan passes.
via China rolls out the Health Silk Road, by Pepe Escobar – The Unz Review
Digital Literacy
All Left Parties in opposition or in State Power, must make it a priority to encourage or fund digital literacy programs. If they can do neither, the Federal Leadership must be proactive in promoting this via their own channels.
The Labor Party has the power and the technology to create tools to counter claims from all types of propaganda. Speak loud and speak often, via text and video. Importantly, be bold enough to respond to claims made via comments on Social Media. Make it known that truth telling in Democracy is paramount and false claims and misrepresentations will no longer be tolerated by the voting public.
via 2020 How to Kill Propaganda with Three Blows – » The Australian Independent Media Network
There is a divide between Free Speech and Propaganda. Not all Advertising is deemed Free in the USA. The Freedom and responsibility is Facebook’s and Instagram’s to choose. If Rupert Murdoch has that right so then does Zuckerberg. Advertisers also have an equal right to stop advertising on the Tucker Carlson show when they come to realize what it is he’s advertising off their backs. (ODT)
Many of the accounts affected by Thursday’s announcement had already been banned from other social media sites. For instance, pages relating to Infowars were removed from Facebook but until now the conspiracist news site had been allowed to maintain an account on sister service Instagram.
Yiannopoulos, a former Breitbart News employee, had already been banned by Twitter and Facebook but the decision to remove his Instagram account means his only mainstream social media outlet will now be on YouTube.
The change in attitudes suggests Facebook is adopting a more consistent approach across all its platforms. The company has recently specifically banned white supremacist material from its service and has come under increased pressure to act against such content following the Christchurch terror attack, which was livestreamed on its network.
A MUST READ. News Corp and the fight against it for a BETTER Australia (ODT)
Paris (AFP) – The five largest publicly listed oil and gas majors have spent $1 billion since the 2015 Paris climate deal on public relations or lobbying that is “overwhelmingly in conflict” with the landmark accord’s goals, a watchdog said Friday.
Despite outwardly committing to support the Paris agreement and its aim to limit global temperature rises, ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, BP and Total spend a total of $200 million a year on efforts “to operate and expand fossil fuel operations,” according to InfluenceMap, a pro-transparency monitor.
Ayman Mohyeldin: “While Fox News spent more than 33 hours discussing the caravan through Election Day, the network didn’t focus on it at all the day after the midterms, and it has spend less than five minutes on the subject the day after that”
When News becomes Propaganda
In The Wake Of Domestic Terrorist Attacks, RNC Chair Declares Our Country Is Safer Under Trump | Crooks and Liars
and
Rachel Campos-Duffy Blames ‘Anti-Semitism From The Left’ After Massacre At Jewish Synagogue
and
Fox & Friends host describes the extremism and hate speech found on social media platform Gab as “open, uncensored dialogue”
History repeats itself, observed Karl Marx, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.
In the 1950s the “red scare” warned of communists sympathetic to the Soviet Union lurking around every corner of the US. On Tuesday, the White House was back at it, this time raising the spectre of Marx, Bernie Sanders and working mothers in Sweden.
A pre-election report from the White House Council of Economic Advisers sounds the alarm: “Coincident with the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx’s birth [May 1818], socialism is making a comeback in American political discourse. Detailed policy proposals from self-declared socialists are gaining support in Congress and among much of the electorate.”
The paper also just happens to be “coincident” with the 2018 midterm elections. It does not take a wild leap of imagination to foresee a feedback loop in which the Fox News host Sean Hannity cites the study as evidence of socialism posing an existential threat, after which Donald Trump talks and tweets about the issue.
Entitled Opportunity Costs of Socialism, the report struck many observers as an attempt by Republicans to neutralise what could be the winning issue for Democrats – healthcare – cloaked in academese about Das Kapital and the follies of “Maoist China, Cuba, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)”.
via The socialists are coming! White House sounds alarm at rise of the left | US news | The Guardian
If you live in a midsize city or battleground state, you are now more likely than ever to see pro-Trump propaganda and conservative spin on your local news — just in time for the 2018 election season — thanks to conservative media giant Sinclair Broadcast Group.
Media Matters has identified communities that will see competitive congressional midterm races and that have Sinclair-owned or -operated news stations. Many Sinclair stations are already airing national news programming with a conservative slant, and they will be ramping up coverage of their local races.
We’ve already tackled Nevada and Tennessee. Now, we’re taking a look at New York.
IT TAKES ALMOST 2 YEARS TO DEFEAT A LIAR WHO THEN SIMPLY WALKS AWAY IN SILENCE. A TYPICAL AND DAILY TACTIC BY ANDREW BOLT A MURDOCH MAN DO
The former Israel lobbyist and high-profile Labour lawmaker Ruth Smeeth has deleted a statement from her website which alleged anti-Semitism in Labour.
In one of the most high profile instances of the supposed “anti-Semitism crisis” in the UK’s main opposition party, Smeeth in June 2016 claimed she had been “attacked by a Momentum activist and Jeremy Corbyn supporter who used traditional anti-Semitic slurs to attack me for being part of a ‘media conspiracy.’”
Activist Marc Wadsworth had in fact neither said nor implied anything about Jews. Neither did he use the word “conspiracy.”
Smeeth did not reply to a request for comment. You can read the deleted statement in full below.
via Labour Israel lobbyist deletes anti-Semitic “conspiracy” claims | The Electronic Intifada
Iran rejected the Israeli version of events as “ridiculous”. The pro-Assad military alliance denied that any of its drones entered Israeli air space.
Syrian state media reported two separate Israeli attacks. Syrian air defences opened fire in response to an Israeli act of “aggression” against a military base, hitting “more than one plane”, a military source said.
Israel’s claims a drone had entered Israeli airspace were a “lie”.
It seems Israel might just have been caught read handed assisting anti- Assad forces the coalition deem to be “terrorists”. ( Old Dog}
via Israeli jet shot down in Syria after Iranian drone intercepted
Amongst credible economists and political leaders (so, not including Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison), it is universally accepted that Australia, like most other developed economies, has a wealth and income inequality problem. There are books and essays being written and read every minute about why this problem exists, but let me simplify in the words…
Source: What is a worker? – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Friday 6 July 2017 Being Conned with Bullshit For most of my working life I worked in marketing and advertising so I know how people are influenced, persuaded or swayed by such things as branding and repetitive advertising. Companies spend millions of dollars to subtly brainwash you, to align you with a certain brand or…
The media’s role in overcoming political propaganda can’t be over-stated, writes Russell Edwards. It’s also high time journalists started fighting it. What should we expect of those who govern us? We live in a liberal democracy. The legitimacy of any government rests on the informed consent of the public. Should we therefore expect that governmentsMore
Source: A Message For The Media: Start Putting Public Interest Ahead Of Propaganda – New Matilda
For years the influence of the CIA in Hollywood was hidden and unacknowledged. Now it’s more of an open secret; not publicized, but pretty easy to read up on if you care. Just ask the spy agency’s Entertainment Industry Liaison.
Source: Lights, camera, propaganda! US government anti-Russia campaign invades Hollywood — RT Op-Edge
Supporters of Israel steal animated video without creators’ permission to send Europe an extreme message.
Source: Israeli Propagandists Threaten Destruction of Europe as Punishment for Boycotting Israel | Alternet
The label ‘conspiracy theorist’ is used by Western Establishment gatekeepers as a means of shutting down debate and smearing those who have the temerity to challenge elite-friendly narratives.
Source: Top 10 ‘acceptable’ Western Establishment conspiracy theories — RT Op-Edge
Mainstream media is hopelessly conflicted these days with an ideology to sell, bought and paid for by their corporate puppet masters. Christian Marx calls on us to boycott and divest from the MSM!
Source: Mainstream media: Now just a propaganda mill for Big Business?
olddogthoughts 