One interesting sideshow in the entire NSA-Snowden saga is the light it has shed on the courtier attitude that many members of the establishment media have, who seem to see themselves as an auxiliary arm of the government. We saw this with David Gregory’s questioning of Glenn Greenwald. Now along comes an even more egregious example. [Read more…]
The Guardian‘s Ewen MacAskill has a fascinating account of why Edward Snowden chose their paper to release his information rather than a US publication, and how the whole thing went down. The US media missed getting this scoop because it has developed a reputation for being highly solicitous of the needs of the US government, often consulting with them before publishing stories, and even withholding news at the government’s request. One well-known case is what resulted in Snowden going to Glenn Greenwald. [Read more…]
Somewhat overshadowed by the news about the government sweeping up phone and internet communications has been the other whistleblower release of a secret directive by president Obama calling for agencies to draw up a list of targets for cyberattacks. Some responders have said that there is no news here. They say that of course the US targets other countries for such attacks and only the naïve would expect anything else. A variant of this argument is also given for the revelations about the government collecting phone and internet records. That is true but they need to be aware that when they argue this way, they have fallen victim to a specific propaganda strategy. [Read more…]
The decision by Edward Snowden to reveal himself as the whistleblower was a public relations masterstroke. Long time readers of this blog will recall that I have documented case after case (Iranian Airbus, London subway ‘bomber’, KAL 007, Clinton’s bombing of a milk factory) of how governments, when they are faced with a situation that is potentially damaging to their image, will rush out an initial story that makes them look good. In doing so they will have no compunction about shamelessly lying and distorting the facts. This is because they have realized a major truth about manipulating people: It is the first impression in the public’s mind that is important because that is what sticks. [Read more…]
The Onion shows how to manufacture news (language advisory).
The Plain Dealer, my local newspaper, has been steadily cutting down its size and laying off reporters, with just the sports section seemingly untouched. On most days, of the six sections (main, metro, business, lifestyle, sports, classified), the sports section is easily the largest. The other sections often have just four or six pages, with a couple of those in the Metro section containing just obituaries. What this says about the priorities of the paper and our community is not complimentary. [Read more…]
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) and NPR (National Public Radio) are not driven by the profit motive but they do need money to function and as such do depend on donors. This makes them vulnerable to pressure by their corporate sponsors and big donors and this has been documented in the past. I long ago stopped watching The NewsHour because of its corporate friendly approach, that I suspected was influenced by the high-profile corporate sponsors it had. [Read more…]
President Obama has presided over one of the most opaque administrations in history, even worse than the Bush administration that was so bad that Obama’s promise to have the most transparent administration ever was greeted with great hope and optimism by advocates of open and clean government. [Read more…]
My knowledge of TV talking heads is somewhat scattershot, largely dependent on the video clips that come my way when I am surfing the web, usually in relation to news stories. I was vaguely familiar with the name Nancy Grace as a former lawyer as a legal analyst on cable news, but that was about it. So when in response to a post commenter Crudely Wrott said of her that she “seems to thrive on, no, display an actual need for, human suffering and callous, horrific crime. Like a vampire’s dependence on blood”, I thought it was perhaps a tad harsh. [Read more…]
A few days ago, I came across an amusing news item. Cable news teams had all rushed to Phoenix, Arizona to cover the impending verdict in the Jodi Arias murder trial which had inexplicably become a national obsession, when the sensational news from Cleveland about the dramatic rescue of the three kidnapped women and the child broke, and they found themselves having to cover both. [Read more…]