The Mainstream Media, Weaver Of Illusions.

 

         Our perceptions of the world around us, our value structure, our vision of reality, is built on the information we receive. What happens if that information is false? If you rely on the bulk of your information from that babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, the chances are that you will have a false vision of the world around you, a distorted view of reality. The babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, is no more than a propaganda machine for the establishment. It is owned and controlled by a handful of very rich conglomerates, who obviously have a vested interest in protecting their wealth and power. For almost  the last couple of centuries, it has never been a source of accurate information, and it never will be. Those who own the babbling brook of bullshit have an agenda, apart from making money, and that is to shape public opinion, to shape it in favour of their idea of how the world should be run, and to protect that wealth and power.

In the following video, John Pilger lucidly points this out, quoting obvious lies that flourished as "news" and by disclosing facts regarding that babbling brook of bullshit.

Thanks Loam for the link. Just click on the "Watch on Vimeo" button below.

John Pilger at Off The Shelf Festival of Words, Sheffield, 27th October 2016 from Dartmouth Films on Vimeo.

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The Illusion Of Democracy.

       Our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, is in full tilt throwing out the usual crap concerning our latest Crooks and Liars competition, known as the general election. TV is giving us "the leaders' debates" where we hear the well rehearsed sound bites, or bursts of pointless growling and snarling between "the Leaders", ah, where would we be without "our leaders". The babbling brook of bullshit create the illusion that during the Crooks and Liars competition you are free to roam the streets spouting your particular message to the general public, they call it "democracy". But what if your message is contrary to the accepted views of the powers that be? Will you still be free, in this "democracy" to go about spreading your opinion? Well apparently not, you will find yourself and your supporters being put under the watchful eye of the system's minders, and threatened and harassed at every opportunity. 

This from The Void:

       Lisa McKenzie, who is standing for Class War  against Iain Duncan Smith in Chingford, was arrested last night in the latest petty police attack on the group’s election campaign.

      Lisa was accused of putting a small sticker on a wall two weeks previously and thrown into the back of a van, hand-cuffed and held for hours.  She has been charged with criminal damage. The arrest took place at last night’s Poor Doors demonstration, the weekly picket of the luxury tower block in Aldgate where tenants in social housing are forced to use a different door to the rich.  According to one onlooker police insisted her arrest was nothing to do with the election campaign against Iain Duncan Smith.  They must think we are fucking idiots.

     When Lisa and Class War recently went on the campaign trail in Chingford they were followed by police, repeatedly harassed and threatened with arrest.  Class War candidate for Croydon South, Jon Bigger, was recently followed around the constituency by up to a dozen coppers just for handing out leaflets.

       At previous Poor Doors protests police arrested high profile Class War supporter Jane Nicholl, threatening her with ludicrous arson charges after somebody allegedly burnt a small effigy of Boris Johnson.  At a later demonstration police seized a Class War banner they said had a rude word on it and arrested the person holding it.  One of Class War’s founders, Ian Bone, has also been arrested at the protests for equally trivial reasons.

Read the full article HERE:

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Masters In The Art Of Deception.

     You can always rely on that babbling brook of bullshit, the media, to sow confusion, distort the truth, quote details out of context, excel in double-speak and continually attempt to create divisions among the ordinary people. The last thing they want is an informed public, that would sound their death knell.

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THAT BABBLING BROOK OF BULLSHIT.

      We have 24 hour news coverage and are assaulted with an avalanche of bullshit and trivia. We have a long winded out pouring from a sick parasite from the parasitic family of Windsors informing us he killed Taliban, all in a matter of fact, all in a day's work attitude. Then we have massive coverage of celebrities sexual exploits, people making snowmen, while other tell us how dreadful it is when it snows and upsets their routine. However you will have to search hard to find anything about the people in Europe in struggle and direct action to protect themselves against this ongoing vicious attack by the financial Mafia. You get statistics about the soaring unemployment among the young and pie-in-the-sky plans to end hunger forever. But where is the coverage of struggles taking place on a daily basis?

      We were informed that the unemployment rate among the young in Spain had passed the 55% mark, but it appears that all is quiet in that country, the people are just going quietly about their business, waiting for the promised growth. It would be a surer bet to wait for the promise land.

     In Greece the overall unemployment rate is now above 26%, homeless is stratospheric, suicides are rocketing, health problems, physical and mental, are going of the radar, while the Greek government becomes more openly fascist by the day, where is the coverage? Our media is indeed, a babbling brook of bullshit.

This from the Greek Streets.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

      In the afternoon of January 24, the Greek government via the ministry of transport ordered the civil conscription (i.e. the forced return to work) of the workers at the Athens Metro, who had been on strike for the past eight days. In response, the workers in all other mass transportation mediums in the city (buses, metro green line and tram) have also joined or extended their strikes. The workers at the Athens metro are calling all those in solidarity to gather at the main metro depot in Sepolia (by Kifissos Ave).

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THAT BABBLING BROOK OF BULLSHIT.

       Time and time again I refer to the Media as that babbling brook of bullshit, if only that was all they were. They are in fact a necessary arm of the powers that be and produce part-information and mis-information shaping and shading the picture of the world that we are handed. They are not innocents, their distortions can bolster a war by painting it justifiable and honourable, when in fact it is no more than a corporate resource grab, Iraq springs to mind. Their selective amnesia and blind-eye vision is nothing less than complicity in some of the most brutal episodes of modern Western imperialism. Without the loyal subservience of the mainstream media the state could not possibly get away with these brutal murders of innocent men, woman and children across the world. If the states of the world are blood stained up to their armpits, the mainstream media is wallowing in that same blood.

         There was a report half way through the war of an Italian refugee charity arriving at the border of Kosovo with a camera crew and ambulance, and spiriting away an old woman refugee who’d collapsed – all of it faithfully filmed for Italian TV. It was the first time during the war the charity had done anything. It turned out that the woman had merely fainted – and, as a result of this dramatic intervention she became extremely upset, hardly surprising, since she’d been separated from her family who, in the meantime, had been shoved off to some other refugee camp, and no-one knew where they were. Once you enter this world of TV, of image, of the appearance of goodness, “care”, “charity” & “humanitarianism” are but masks for indifference: everything’s just a photo-opportunity. The more all-pervasive these role-bound relations are the more such functionalising of people appears as ‘natural’. The media is simply an arm of the State, making modern alienated spectacular relations seem reasonable and in­evitable. 

         An article from a former soldier in Bosnia said that when an American TV crew turned up at his base they asked to see a burnt-out village previously inhabited by Bosnian Muslims – which they were duly shown. When the UN soldiers asked if they wanted to take photos of a burnt-out village previously inhabited by Bosnian Serbs the journalists refused, saying it would confuse the issue: their viewers wanted clear ideas about what was going on. The soldier then went on to say that this was a typical American desire for black and white opinions. In fact, this American TV crew were merely being loyal servants of their masters, the US ruling class, loyal servants of dominant ideology, which is not simplisticly a lie, but a half-truth that omits any facts that contradict the official “truth”.

 Image by John Hartfield.

Read the full article HERE:

 

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IT'S A CLASS WAR INSTRUMENT!!

         All this hullabaloo about regulate the press, don't regulate the press, is a distraction from the real problem regarding our corrupt babbling brook of bullshit, the media. Anybody with a grain of sense would say a free press is essential, but our problem is that it is not a free press in the first place. It is a tightly controlled press in the hands of a small group of rich and powerful people who will always come down on the side of the rich and powerful people. For example, the Murdoch clan's global corporation, the Independent and the London Standard are the mouthpieces of Russian oligarchs and then we have Viscount Rothermere controlling shareholder and chairman of the Daily Mail. With such a rightwing bunch of extremely rich people controlling our “FREE” press, there is no way that they will advocate greater unionisation among the working class, workers control, true democracy, etc. What you get is them pushing their own agenda to suit their own class. Our “FREE” press is a propaganda machine for the corporate world we live in, and will always be biased against any organising by the ordinary people to take control of their own lives and shape society to the needs of the people. 

      The Lord Leveson “thingy” is just more smoke and mirrors, creating the illusion that something is being done and the real propblem is those few bad, bad people who have tainted this fine institution. Once we see a few wrists of the lesser mortals being slapped, they can get back to trying to mould public oppinion in favour of their beloved system of corporate capitalism. Our press is a class instrument, owned and controlled by the rich and powerful class, and will always be used against any group that might in any way attempt to re-dress that balance between the rich and powerful, and the ordinary people. Our “FREE” press is an instrument of control used by the state and the corporate world to further the ends of their class. A “FREE” press would be controlled by no one and be the voice of all the people to the benefit of all those people. So just view “The Leveson Report” as another chapter in one of the many soap operas with which our babbling brook of bullshit fill their pages. 

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MORE ON NEWS CORPORATION.

                                                          Image by John Hartfeild.

    

      A few days ago I posted a wee article on Mr. Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and how its wonderful creative accounting and other shufflings managed to pay only 6% tax on billions of $ profit over a period of three years. His empire stretches far and wide and he is as far to the right as you can get without falling of the planet. Well Mr. Murdoch is a very anbitious man and is hell bent on taking over the entire UK media. The following is part of a campaign by avaaz to try and prevent that from happening.

      The conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch is trying to take over British media with his bid for full ownership of BSkyB. We only have 3 days to tell the regulator why this deal is bad news! Rupert Murdoch is on a fast track to control over half of this country’s newspapers and television. This week is our only chance to tell regulators to stand up for a wide choice of news, and defend our democracy.

       Britain loses if Murdoch wins. With all of the BSkyB TV network his massive dominance of our media would become further entrenched, extending his power and political influence. Here and elsewhere Murdoch has used his reach to promote conservative political candidates, the persecution of minorities, climate change denial and the dangerous lies that led to the invasion of Iraq.

       We have until Friday to stop this! Let’s flood the regulator with thousands of submissions saying why we feel this deal is against the public interest. We’ll deliver tens of thousands of comments in boxloads to Ofcom’s offices on Friday, making a media splash. Send yours now via the link below, and encourage everyone you know to do the same today.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/ofcom_no_bskyb_takeover/?vl

         Murdoch’s News Corporation already owns 39% of the BSkyB television company and four of our best-selling newspapers. His new expansion bid rides roughshod over the ‘media plurality’, which the government has a legal duty to uphold. Regulator Ofcom is accepting public comments on Murdoch’s plans for just a few days.

        This deal would allow Murdoch to cross-promote his different outputs and increase his political roles. For 30 years no British political party has won an election without Murdoch's blessing. This ability to get voters’ attention gives him frequent access to the prime minister - hence his nickname the ‘24th member of the cabinet’.

        This is a fight for the soul of British democracy. We cannot afford to have one company dominate half of our TV, newspaper and online news. From illegal spying at the News of the World here to his hate-filled Fox News empire in the U.S., Murdoch’s media erodes the values we hold dear and shows few scruples when attacking political or commercial rivals - now including the BBC.

        The Avaaz movement in Canada recently proved that determined campaigning can block conservative media takeovers. Let’s do it again here. Ofcom has given until this Friday for anyone to submit comments on whether this deal is in the public interest. Let’s send a message today and tell everyone we know.

http://draft.blogger.com/goog_1736774496

       In the world we are striving to create, citizens will be empowered by a media telling truth for the public good. Countering this deal is vital if we are to leave space for such a media in our country, and the world.

With hope,

Alex, Ricken, Brianna, Mia, Ben and the whole Avaaz team

PS Avaaz has a new website! Your feedback will be very valuable to help us improve it. You use the pink buttons on the left hand side of any page to report any problems you find.

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