It makes sense that the Ruling Class spins their Fairy Tales to
confuse and lure Working Class Americans down a Primrose path. But
are we really so gullible as to fall for it again and again and again?
And by the way, if Donald Trump is the poster boy for success, then
give me a grass hut and a Ukalalie.
Carl Jarvis
On 1/18/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Narrative Control Firm Targeting Alternative Media
January 18, 2019
NewsGuard is led by some of the most virulently pro-imperialist individuals
in America and its agenda to shore up narrative control for the ruling
power
establishment is clear, writes Caitlin Johnstone.
By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com
The frenzied, hysterical Russia narrative being promoted day in and day out
by Western mass media has had two of its major stories ripped to shreds in
the last three days.
A report seeded throughout the mainstream media by anonymous intelligence
officials back in September claimed that U.S. government workers in Cuba
had
suffered concussion-like brain damage after hearing strange noises in homes
and hotels with the most likely culprit being "sophisticated microwaves or
another type of electromagnetic weapon" from Russia. A recording of one
such
highly sophisticated attack was analyzed by scientists and turned out to be
the mating call of the male indies short-tailed cricket. Neurologists and
other brain specialists have challenged the claim that any U.S. government
workers suffered any neurological damage of any kind, saying test results
on
the alleged victims were misinterpreted. The actual story, when stripped of
hyperventilating Russia panic, is that some government workers heard some
crickets in Cuba.
Another report which dominated news for a day recently claimed that former
Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort (the same Paul Manafort who the
Guardian falsely claimed met with Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy)
had shared polling data with a Russian associate and asked him to pass it
along to Oleg Deripaska, who is often labeled a "Russian oligarch" by
western media. The polling data was mostly public already, and the rest was
just more polling information shared in the spring of 2016, but Deripaska's
involvement had Russiagaters burning the midnight oil with breathless
excitement. Talking Points Memo's Josh Marshall went so far as to publish
an
article titled "The 'Collusion' Debate Ended Last Night," substantiating
his
click-generating headline with the claim that "What's crystal clear is that
the transfer to Kilimnik came with explicit instructions to give the
information to Deripaska. And that's enough."
Except Manafort didn't give any explicit instructions to share the polling
data with Deripaska, but with two Ukrainian oligarchs (who are denying it).
The New York Times was forced to print this embarrassing correction to the
story it broke, adding in the process that Manafort's motivation was likely
not collusion, but money.
These are just the latest debacles as reporters eager to demonstrate their
fealty to the U.S.-centralized empire fall all over themselves to report
any
story that makes Russia look bad without practicing due diligence. The only
voices who have been questioning the establishment Russia narrative that is
being fed to mass media outlets by secretive government agencies have been
those which the mass media refuses to platform. Alternative media outlets
are the only major platforms for dissent from the authorized narratives of
the plutocrat-owned political/media class.
Imagine, then, how disastrous it would be if these last strongholds of
skepticism and holding power to account were removed from the media
landscape. Well, that's exactly what a shady organization called NewsGuard
is trying to do, with some success already.
A report by journalist Whitney Webb for MintPress News details how
NewsGuard
is working to hide and demonetize alternative media outlets like MintPress,
marketing itself directly to tech companies, social media platforms,
libraries and schools. NewsGuard is led by some of the most virulently
pro-imperialist individuals in America, and its agenda to shore up
narrative
control for the ruling power establishment is clear.
The product that NewsGuard markets to the general public is a browser
plugin
which advises online media consumers whether a news media outlet is
trustworthy or untrustworthy based on a formula with a very
pro-establishment bias which sees outlets like Fox News and the U.S.
propaganda outlet Voice of America getting trustworthy ratings while
outlets
like RT get very low ratings for trustworthiness. This plugin dominates the
bulk of what comes up when you start researching NewsGuard, but circulating
a plugin that individual internet users can voluntarily download to help
their rulers control their minds is not one of the more nefarious agendas
being pursued by this company. The full MintPress article gives a thorough
breakdown of NewsGuard's activities, but here's a summary of five of its
more disturbing revelations:
No. 1 The company has created a service called BrandGuard, billed as a
"brand safety tool aimed at helping advertisers keep their brands off of
unreliable news and information sites while giving them the assurance they
need to support thousands of Green-rated [i.e., Newsguard-approved] news
and
information sites, big and small." Popularizing the use of this service
will
attack the advertising revenue of unapproved alternative media outlets
which
run ads. NewsGuard is aggressively marketing this service to "ad tech
firms,
leading agencies, and major advertisers".
No. 2 NewsGuard's advisory board reads like the fellowships list of a
neocon
think tank, and indeed one of its CEOs, Louis Gordon Crovitz, is a Council
on Foreign Relations member who has worked with the American Enterprise
Institute and Heritage Foundation. Members of the advisory board include
George W Bush's Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, deep intelligence
community insider Michael Hayden, and the Obama administration's Richard
Stengel, who once publicly supported propaganda in the U.S. (see the Tweet
below for a direct quote.) All of these men have appeared in influential
think tanks geared toward putting a public smiley face on sociopathic
warmongering agendas.
No. 3 Despite one of its criteria for trustworthy sources being whether or
not they are transparent about their funding, the specifics of NewsGuard's
financing is kept secret.
No. 4 NewsGuard is also planning to get its news-ranking system integrated
into social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter, pursuing a partnership
which will make pro-establishment media consumption a part of your
experience at those sites regardless of whether or not you download a
NewsGuard app or plugin.
No. 5 NewsGuard markets itself to state governments in order to get its
plugin installed in all of that state's public schools and libraries to
keep
internet users from consuming unauthorized narratives. It has already
succeeded in accomplishing this in the state of Hawaii, with all of its
library branches now running the NewsGuard plugin.
We may be certain that NewsGuard will continue giving a positive,
trustworthy ranking to the New York Times no matter how many spectacular
flubs it makes in its coverage of the establishment Russia narrative,
because the agenda to popularize anti-Russia narratives lines up perfectly
with the neoconservative, government agency-serving agendas of the powers
behind NewsGuard. Any attempt to advance the hegemony of the
U.S.-centralized power establishment will be rewarded by its lackeys, and
any skepticism of it will be punished.
We need to use every inch of our ability to communicate with each other to
make these manipulations clearly understood.
Caitlin Johnstone is a rogue journalist, poet, and utopia prepper who
publishes regularly at Medium. Follow her work on Facebook, Twitter, or her
website. She has a podcast and a new book "Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia
Preppers." This article was re-published with permission.
