Monday 28 May 2018

And Here Is The News---HA-HA-HA!!



        I always refer to the mainstream media as the babbling brook of bullshit, the reason being, in the UK at least, it is no more than an outlet for state and corporate propaganda. However, what amazes me is that so many people still think they are keep up with the "news" when they indulge themselves in its outpourings. The BBC comes in for the most "respected" news broadcaster badge by lots of people. Of course it won that badge by smoke and mirrors reporting and clever self prompting propaganda.
     The following article is well worth reading in full, it pinpoints just a little of the slight of hand "reporting" that favours UK state wars and Western corporate interests that is spewed out as "news"


      The extracts are from Gorilla Radio Blogs:
          On January 22, BBC News at Ten carried a piece by 'defence' correspondent Jonathan Beale reporting a speech by General Sir Nick Carter, the British Army's Chief of General Staff.
Carter gave his speech, pleading for more resources in the face of the Russian 'threat', at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), an establishment thinktank with close links to the military and corporate media. Beale began his BBC News piece with a prologue of raw propaganda, delivered in an urgent and impassioned tone:
'Russia's building an increasingly modern and aggressive military. Already tested in battle in Syria, using weapons Britain would struggle to match – like long-range missiles. In Ukraine, they've been using unconventional warfare, electronic cyber and misinformation. And they're even on manoeuvres on Europe's doorstep, with large-scale exercises near Nato's borders. Enough to worry the head of the British army who tonight gave this rare public warning.'
The essence of Carter's 'rare public warning' was that:
'Russia was building an increasingly aggressive expeditionary force and the potential military threats to the UK "are now on Europe's doorstep"... the Kremlin already boasted an "eye-watering quantity of capability" - a level the UK would struggle to match... Britain "must take notice of what is going on around us" or... the ability by the UK to take action will be "massively constrained".'
Carter continued:
'Rather like a chronic contagious disease, it will creep up on us, and our ability to act will be markedly constrained - and we'll be the losers of this competition.'
      The army chief's warning had been approved by the Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson.
On News at Ten, Beale's reporting of the speech amplified the army chief's message – in other words, the Defence Secretary's stance - by deploying such key phrases as:
'Increasingly aggressive', 'tested in battle', 'Britain would struggle to match', 'manoeuvres on Europe's doorstep', 'near Nato's borders'.
     There was, of course, no mention of US/Nato encroachment towards Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union (contravening assurances given to Gorbachev), or the US bases and military exercises close to Russia's borders as well as globally, or the long history of US threats and major crimes around the world. Nor was there any reference to Ukraine which has routinely been reported as an example of Russian 'aggression'. John Pilger observes that the BBC along with others, including CNN, the New York Times and the Guardian:
'played a critical role in conditioning their viewers to accept a new and dangerous cold war.
'All have misrepresented events in Ukraine as a malign act by Russia when, in fact, the coup in Ukraine in 2014 was the work of the United States, aided by Germany and Nato.'
      Beale's credulous reporting of the army chief's speech was an exemplar of 'public broadcast' media whipping up fear to promote state interests.
Read the full article HERE:
      Then go and get your news from local and international social media and independent sources, removed from the chains that link mainstream media to the state and corporate interest.


Visit ann arky's home at radicalglasow.me.uk

1 comment:

  1. https://youtu.be/hXayStxNZc4

    This Land (updated version)

    Come gather round me, hear my sad story
    I know you think you've heard some one
    sing it before me
    but it's an old song, I had to change it
    times ain't what they used to be.

    As I went walking that super highway
    below the gray haze and sooted skyway
    I was arrested for hitch hiking
    on the freeway
    they said it don't belong to me.

    It ain't my land and it ain't your land
    could be a rich land but it's a poor land
    'cause of the few that hold it in their tight-gripped hand
    so that it don't belong to you or me.

    When I was younger and in my schooling
    I learned and followed by all the rulings
    I never dreamed that they were only fooling
    how could my teachers lie to me ?

    But as time passed and I grew older
    and the world around me got a little colder
    I heard a voice came calling at my shoulder
    said it don't belong to you or me.

    It ain't my land and it ain't your land
    could be a rich land but it's a poor land
    'cause of the few that hold it in their tight-gripped hand
    so that it don't belong to you or me.

    From the board rooms of corporations
    to the back roads of desperate situations
    it's a confused and dis-united nation
    all the way from sea to shining sea
    from the urban war zones of the busted street lights
    to the toxic waste lands of Nevada Test Sites
    from the open strip mines to the clear cut forests
    oh it's a sad sight to see.

    I see the downsize, I see the layoffs
    the corporate welfare, politician's payoffs
    I see the breadlines that never make the headlines
    'cause they're no so entertaining on TV
    when they can reduce you to just a number
    when they can knock you down and they can plow you under
    and when the only thing that matters is the dollar
    then you know it don't belong to you or me.

    It ain't my land and it ain't your land
    could be a rich land but it's a poor land
    'cause of the few that hold it in their tight-gripped hand
    so that it don't belong to you or me.

    There was a time when this song was greater
    but that was then, and this is later
    and there's a hole in my heart that's like a crater
    and they say it's gonna be the death of me
    let's take this song back, let's take this country
    take back our future, it's our duty
    let's stand up tall so that everyone can see
    then this land will belong to you and me
    and it will be your land and it will be my land
    from California to the New York Island
    from the redwood forests to the gulf stream waters
    this land will belong to you and me.

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