“Much of the media …speaks not for the people, but for the special interests and for those profiting off a very, very obviously broken system.”
This quote could have said by Noam Chomsky in his the groundbreaking 1992 documentary film ‘Manufacturing Consent’.
Or it could have been found in Canadian filmmaker Jean-Philippe Tremblay’s insightful film about the corporate media ‘Shadows of Liberty’.
But it wasn’t. These were the words of Donald J. Trump, American businessman, television personality and the 45th President of the United States.
He went further, calling the media ‘the enemy of the American people’. “The press, he said, “has become so dishonest that if we don’t talk about, we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people. …We have to talk to find out what’s going on, because the press honestly is out of control. Trump added it would be a positive thing to mend U.S. – Russia relations but says fake reporting by the media was making it harder to make a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
And the corporate news is appalled. How dare Trump criticise them?
The mainstream press has declared war on alternative and independent media labelling them ‘fake news’ ever since Brexit and the US election. The irony of this is beyond a joke.
Do the mainstream media think we’ve forgotten the fake news about the Kuwaiti girl Nayirah who claimed to have seen Iraqi soldiers taking babies out of incubators during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait? You know, when they repeated the lies of Bush Senior get the US population to accept the invasion of Iraq.
The documentary ‘To Sell A War – Gulf War Propaganda’ uncovered how Nayirah’s claims had been parroted by media to help sell the first Gulf War. It turned out she was the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador for the United States and her claims were totally discredited. It might serve as a reminder to CNN.
Do the mainstream media think we’ve forgotten the fake news about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, when they repeated the lies of Bush and Blair to get the US and the UK to invade Iraq? John Pilger’s film ‘Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror’ dissects the truth and lies behind the ‘War on Terror’. It might serve as a reminder to Fox News and other propaganda outlets.
Do the mainstream media think we’ve forgotten the fake news about chemical weapons in Syria, when they repeated the lies of Obama to attempt to get more involved in Syria?
Do the mainstream media think we’ve forgotten the fake news about the Ukraine, when they repeated the lies of John McCain and Joe Biden as they omitted to tell us about US involvement in the 2014 coup there? John Pilger’s article ‘War by media and the triumph of propaganda’ might serve as a reminder to the editors of the Washington Post and others.
Do the mainstream media think the Scots have forgotten the fake news and biased reporting about their country in 2014 in the run up to the independence referendum?, The documentary ‘London Calling’ provides damning evidence of that bias. It might serve as a reminder to the editors at the BBC, the Guardian and the Daily Mail.
The list of media lies, distortion and bias could go on and on.
A clown like Donald Trump can say these words about the media because for 30 years the media has been acting as a propaganda mouthpiece for the neoliberal economic world order. The media moguls are part of the establishment that has benefited as they have destroyed our societies and the planet since the triumph of this selfish cult.
Just remember though, many wiser and more reflective minds than Donald J. Trump have been saying this for a long time.
These were the words of Noam Chomsky in 1992 in that documentary I mentioned at the start.
“The mass media serve as a system for communicating messages and symbols to the general populace. It is their function to amuse, entertain, and inform, and to inculcate individuals with the values, beliefs, and codes of behaviour that will integrate them into the institutional structures of the larger society. In a world of concentrated wealth and major conflicts of class interest, to fulfil this role requires systematic propaganda.”
The film Shadows of Liberty’s title is borrowed from a Thomas Paine quote.
‘When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.’
It is one we should all heed.
Paul is a Political Blogger with a focus on the neo-liberal economy, climate change and the western media’s slavish support of the US neo-con narrative. He was banned from The Standard for 3 years for suggesting the Left, Liberals and Progressives should work together to change the National Government.
[…] Labour’s electoral family, the Identitarians were at their most violent, poor old Paul (who we’ve given a platform to here at The Daily Blog) was banned for 3 years from The Standard for daring to suggest the Left and Identity Politic […]
Not to mention all the fake news spread by hearst, du pont, rockafella etc to create a demon out of a harmless herb and ensure they made millions from their destructive exploitation of the planet.
100% Bruce.
Carnegie family was yet another Elitist also helped to destroy Natural medicine in the early 1900’s by banning Natural medicine in University education.
Shame on them all, they did it for greed and made many suffer and die in the process.
it bears repeating;
here in aotearoa, the banks own both the media companies, and want them to merge.
also adding to the list of lies, (beware shit storm likely to kick off),we are supposed to believe that kerosene and burning furnishings bought down three high rise towers!!
anyone want to buy the auckland harbour bridge?
GSAYS,
We need a fully independent public media in NZ now as these Banks and elitists and corporate raiders will rape us until we are done after a change of Government later this year.
Donald Trump has taken on the corporate cabal US media that is out to destroy him, and he may win as US folks have had enough of the bullshit media over there.
He needs to place controls on the media and break them up as we need to here also.
Paul;
No wonder the Standard put a ban on you. What you have written here is the
very stuff they all don’t want us to see. Well done. It is a badge of honour.
Al Jazeera had a doco recently I watched about the good work Obama achieved in his eight years of office.
Because I did not record it I cannot quite remember all of the at least 5 lies or untruths the MSM continue to pump.
The one that stood out though was the death of Osama bin Ladin that Obama ‘managed to achieve’ in the run up to his re-election.
No surprises there but for the fact that I had known that bin Ladin had died in December of that same year as 9/11.!! 2001.
The official narrative,(that kept changing like they seem to do) was so bizzare
it was laughable. Cartoon like, especially when we all have images of Obama,Hillary and officials crowded around watching it all happen live.!!
Absolute Fake News Hollywood style as if we are all dumb morons to fall for it.
I used to laugh my head off every time they rolled out a new fake Bin ladin because I knew what the real one looked like years ago.
He seemed to get younger and younger when the real one was frail and sick of kidney failure and more.
Obvious manufactured images that beggars belief as if no one is paying attention.
Because news of that sort comes from few sources, so all west narrative is the same, how can anyone trust them.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/osama-bin-ladens-obituary-notice/5358889
http://www.globalresearch.ca/osama-bin-laden-the-newest-fake/6722
We live in an inverted world all right where MSM trying to turn the term ‘Fake News’ on known trusted alternative sources just does not work anymore because fast growing numbers in the world have already moved on. 6% trust is a joke.
Alex Jones of Infowars has a new term for MSM = Fake Stream Media.
We are truly living in historic times when a President of America can call the
MSM ‘the enemy of the American people’. He is right of course,in my opinion.
In fact they are an enemy of all thinking people world wide.
http://www.infowars.com/live-donald-trump-says-msm-is-enemy-of-the-american-people/
Alt-Media will become MSM faster than we all think if they continue down this path.
Cheers.
For those that wish to hear what’The Donald’ really said at the Press Conference
Start @ 1.00.10.
http://www.infowars.com/watch-live-president-trump-holds-press-conference/
Our own intel has set up a new office to monitor Trump’s Twitter feed.
Since he is by-passing the media and talking direct to the people we can follow
as well.
https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump
I gave Alex Jones a fair go, I really did, and he’s not always wrong, but even a stopped clock is right twice a day. The flat earth bullshit he spins about climate change makes it clear he’s either a paid corporate propagandist, or a useful idiot with no functioning bullshit detector. If I want incoherent nonsense screamed at me, I’ll visit a dementia ward. If I want proper investigative reporting from a pro-activist, anti-corporate perspective, I’ll look at the Antimedia:
http://theantimedia.org/climate-defense-becomes-offense/
Strypey;
Alex Jones is correct most of the time. On the occasion he is not he has no problem in correction.
His family line has intel people sprinkled through and people in high places as well.
He is well read of the Elite’s writings and documents from a very young age under the guidance of his father and 25yrs of Infowars is now the biggest Alt-media website on the planet behind the Drudge Report. (which is more like an information clearing house.)
My initial response to him was much the same as yours until I fact checked what he was saying through the huge data base of the likes of GlobalResearch and highly respected Webster Tarpley.
He is not allowed to discuss anything that is not already in the Public Domain.
Frequently documents and articles are shown to stop and read or access later.
He describes himself as a Libertarian and Constitutionalist.
His occasional rants are designed on purpose to help people wake up and take notice.
His stance on Global Warming is the same as many climate scientists,
experts in their field, in the form of letters of concern to many Governments.
It is a myth/meme propagated by Global Elites for the purposes of control of Nation States and the citizens within.
Putin has said it years ago, now Trump is saying it and any thinking person who has spent the time and effort to research the subject. Especially after the e-mail scandal of 2009/10 showing quite clearly that the stats were being manipulated or false.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/search?q=global+warming.&x=14&y=9
Jones can grate on the ears of some because of his Texan persona.
I say get over it, don’t judge a book by it’s cover and check for yourself if you do not believe some things.
I prefer the UK partner http://www.prisonplanet.com/ with Paul Joseph Watson who has a huge following himself.
Static articles in sections and easy access to archives. If only they would make the print size a little bigger.
View at a glance what guests are on the Show. Many are highly informative and ‘in the know.’
Infowars is followed by Heads of State, Military and Police world wide.
Cheers.
Thanks Paul, I tend to agree with your view. The MSM has been found out by more folks all the time. But not enough.
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