Disinformation, Manipulation & the Corporate Media

I’ve been thinking about the use of the corporate media as a machine of disinformation and in some cases, manipulation of the public. Those of us in the so-called “blogosphere,” particularly those of us who are involved in political blogging often identify ourselves as “citizen journalists.” I wonder if many of us become involved in blogging in part as a reaction to the corporatization and concentration of media. I know that was a major catalyst for me. In Canada, in some ways I think our very democracy is swinging in the breeze up on the hangman’s platform as we are all subjected to non-stop spin and manipulation by the mainstream media (or MSM as they’re called). Things didn’t use to be this way and in part, I blame the CRTC,
who are supposed to be looking out for the public’s interest. I fail to see that happening when they’ve allowed corporations to concentrate so much media and subsequent rulings seem to be quite encouraging of corporate media in their endeavours.

Undoubtedly an important book for many of us to check out is “Lies the Media Tell Us” by James Winter, a communications professor from the University of Windsor. I recently read a book review in the CCPA Monitor (yet one more reason that makes the CCPA an outstanding alternative to MSM) by Roy LaBerge in which Winter’s book is dissected and some of his most important points laid bare. I think it’s easy
for most of us to disconnect from the real business of news… advertising dollars. In his book, Winter relates the quote from a newspaper authority who says the news is “just the filler in between the ads.” The point being, advertisers can and do exert an incredible influence on media content of news. A local couple of examples spring to mind for me that reinforce this point in a real world way.

1. Consider for a moment the chill of the 2007 Black on Black story (Sean Holman’s Public Eye Online) about the story of Victoria News reporter Brennan Clarke and editor Keith Norbury getting a “talking to” from Black Press Ltd. British Columbia chief operating officer Rick O'Connor about "the impact a potential loss of advertising from the automotive sector" would have on the company. This, after the newspaper published a story about a cross-border car shopper. Those who followed the story, probably most of whom are journalists were deeply concerned about Mr. Clarke’s subsequent firing, which, of course, had nothing to do with writing that story, according to his employer. The most chilling piece to me is when Holman reports publisher, Penny Sakamoto and Island group president Mark Warner “meeting with the reporter, Brennan Clark, regional editor, Keith Norbury, and group editor Brian Lepine to express their concerns and explain the impact a potential loss of advertising from the automotive sector would have on these newspapers." As further explained by O’Connor, Holman continues:

“asked whether editorial staff need to consider the impact their stories have on advertising, Mr. O'Connor said, "No. But they need to understand that, if they don't have balance, then we're wide open to whatever criticisms come our way - whether it's related to advertising or not. In this case, the story was related to an advertising sector we're very strong in. And we took the brunt of their unhappiness" - referring to the fact advertising from the automotive sector dropped the week after Mr. Clarke's article was published. Brrrrr, it’s getting cold in here.

2. Thanks to another blogger, Gazetteer, I was recently happy to discover Harvey Oberfeld’s blog, Keeping It Real. Oberfeld, journalist extraordinaire with heaps of experience in print, television and other media, has now made the jump into the abyss of the blogosphere, much to the delight of many of us. Now he is unfettered by a corporate master and can really tell it like it is, with decades of experience about media in Canada. His most excellent story Vancouver Sun: When Propaganda Imitates News is a great introduction to what we can expect. In this story, Oberfeld minces no words, right out of the gate:

“Friday the 13th was indeed a really unlucky day for the Vancouver Sun … in terms of its vigilance aimed at protecting its journalistic integrity.” He goes on to write about how he caught the Sun in a bit of a piece of shameful media manipulation in cahoots with their buddies, the BC Liberals. Sharp Harvey caught the Sun in their Special Section entitled Doing Business in China. Purported to simply be a series of articles about the obvious, doing business in China, looking at trade policies and practices and how to best capitalize on the largely untapped frontier of China as a business entity and corporate wet dream. As Oberfeld notes:

“BUT there were also FOUR pages boldly proclaiming IN FOCUS and featuring no less than SIX photos of Premier Gordon Campbell (as if the two others on other pages were not enough!) along with riveting articles entitled “A message from Premier Gordon Campbell”, “A message from Minister Colin Hansen”, and “British Columbia and Canada in the Asia Pacific Region: building a shared and prosperous future”… But there it was, atop two beaming pictures of the Premier, a statement asserting ”This feature has been provided by The Vancouver Sun”. Apparently, propaganda was now news “feature” material … bought and paid for.”

After writing to the Executive Editor Valerie Casselton, the Sun’s big gun, Editor in Chief Patricia Graham confirms to Oberfeld that ooops, “FOUR PAGES OF THE SECTION WERE GOVERNMENT ADVERTISING, but the paper had mistakenly NOT said so.” Her explanation:

“The feature is advertising and should not have been labelled that way; it was a mistake. We have a policy that advertising features should be labelled so that they do not appear to be editorial; unfortunately human error in this case meant the policy was not followed.”

Now, what started me on this thread was not actually media manipulation per se, but the idea of media disinformation as a powerful and often overlooked geopolitical tool. I read A LOT of media, mainstream, alternative and “off the beaten path” stuff. Some of it even I find hard to believe, but I’ll tell you, having been perusing this for some time, I think even some of the most “out there” stuff has kernels of truth in it.

What really sparked this for me is the report this week of an incident in which the global MSM is reporting that an Israeli guard in the army committed suicide at the farewell meeting in Israel of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President Shimon Peres. For those of us who follow geopolitics, Mr. Sarkozy has just been crowned the President of the European Union (EU), making him a global player and leader in the geopolitical realm. The corporate media disinformation, or spin begins, and I quote:

"This was in no way an assassination attempt," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, calling the incident a suicide.

To me, admittedly just a little armchair spectator in this safer part of the world, this whole thing just stinks of “covert operations.” Reading the various MSM reports, Sarkozy was in Israel offering to be a peace broker between Israel and Palestine, a key goal of the EU. He was there to pledge his allegiance to Israel and to tell Israel “that it is "not alone" in facing any threat posed by Iran's nuclear programme.” Anyone else hearing the rattling of a war drum that originates halfway around the world, or more particularly, from the shadowy men who have risen above mere nation states?

Contrast this MSM reporting with this from alternative media sources, who report clearly and on the ground, including interviews with the Israeli guards family that this was in fact an assassination attempt and the cover up was immediate. A couple of things stand out for me.

- The interviews with the family, if they can be believed, who are quite adamant that the guard did not in any way demonstrate a propensity, or risk of suicide. And with his military training, experience, level of security clearance and someone who was clearly positioned as he was (on top of a roof) is not likely to publically commit suicide. Anyone who has served in the military, or those of us who know police officers understand, they usually suffer in silence for a long time, demonstrate a few signs of depression, hopelessness or problems that are identified by family and friends, which is clearly not the case for this officer, as reported by the folks who see him daily and know him best. And anyone who demonstrates any kind of mental weakness, or causes any kind of concern is not going to get the kind of clearance this officer had for this operation. These folks don’t kill themselves in public, like most cops, or soldiers, their trauma and pain is locked up in shame and when they do decide to end it, they do it in isolation away from the public eye.

- Another piece, MSM reports he was killed by a rifle. Now, I know military types are talented, skillful folks and I’m no "CSI ammunition expert," but I’d like someone to explain to me how a highly trained and experienced Israeli military trained officer, in the middle of a high level international mission, is going to manage to shoot himself with a rifle?

- Another important piece to me is that there were reports that after the death of the officer, two female Israeli army officers were reported to have “fainted” and been taken by authorities, purportedly for medical assessment. Now, I haven’t spent any time in the military myself and I know anything is possible, but can someone explain to me how two Israeli military officers who have enough experience and high level security clearance to be involved in this international mission guarding the safety and wellbeing of the nation’s Prime Minister and president were so dainty and slight of heart that they “fainted” at the sight of their military brother’s demise? The Israeli’s make tough people, and although I know more about trauma than most, there isn’t enough ink that could be spilled in this world to convince me these military officers went to pieces like what was reported. The pandering reference to the “weaker” propensity of “female officers” to fall to pieces is just not credible at all. What’s much more likely to me is they were birds eye witnesses to what happened and were whisked away for a “debriefing” which including strong “encouragement” (some might say compelled) to report on the “official” version of events.

- A fourth but related piece of the puzzle is that one of the first and only global alternative media networks to report on the assassination attempt against Sarkozy, What Does it Mean, was subjected to what they describe as being “brought [us] nearly to our knees with some of the most vicious and sustained assaults upon our computer networks I’ve ever seen.” And not satisfied to just attack them, the hack extended to their networks, namely the Russian Gnostic sisters, specifically Sorcha Faal, who disseminates information and reports from Russia about geopolitical events. The fact that Faal just posted a story about the assassination attempt is no coincidence and clearly efforts were made to bring the site down and stop them from challenging the manipulation and dissemination of disinformation by the global corporate media, which has decided what the real story is.

As one who likes to speculate, who benefits from discord and war in the Middle East most? I’ll leave it to all of your imaginations to figure that one out. I figure by just writing this little piece and some of the other things I’ve written before has gotten me on some sort of dissident round up list. Perhaps it sounds like paranoia and aggrandizement, but if I am to believe my brother and sister citizen journalists and human rights activists around the world, those of us who offer alternatives to MSM and alternative analysis of geopolitical events are quite at-risk as the machinery of the New World rolls ever forward crushing anyone and anything that gets in their path.

Last time I went to the States my name was flagged and my entire vehicle was searched. I won’t be back. Might be a coincidence, random searches happen, but so do apprehensions of activists and those perceived to be dissidents. And under American law, anyone can be declared an "enemy of the state."

And as far as I can make of it, the Powers that Be are on a tight deadline here, November 2008 is coming quick and Western regime change stands all but confirmed by the voters, which has of course not stopped them in the past, but just in case, the Big Boys need to pull out all of the stops while they can.

I think it’s going to be a very hot summer in certain parts of the world, while domestically, the sleeping giant of North America’s citizenry grows more and more angry and filled with despair as they lose everything and look for fingers to point in someone's direction and begin to ask what their governments are doing to help them? That’s the real million-dollar question.

Media can keep spinning out stories about vapid, stupid and expendable Hollywood types, or whatever distractions and disinformation they want, but the carnage across the Americas and the useless savagery being done to our courageous forces serving around the world will grow too serious for the Silverbacks to ignore.

This is the story of the universe, the dog chasing its’ tale: the demons come, the fighting begins, the world is destroyed, to be created anew by the just, compassionate and humble once again.

Israeli guard kills self at Sarkozy farewell
Francois Murphy, Reuters. Published: Tuesday, June 24, 2008

State-Sponsored Terror: British and American Black Ops in Iraq

By Andrew G. Marshall
Global Research, June 25, 2008

Gunshot starts panic as Sarkozy leaves Israel
Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem. The Guardian, Wednesday June 25, 2008.

The Project for the New American Century
By William Rivers Pitt (02/25/03).