Before you read Levine's article, I heard when I woke this morning on NPR,
that the person who currently runs NPR, was the head of Voice of America.
Apparently, NPR figures their listeners are too brainwashed to be concerned
that the network is being run by the man who ran America's propaganda radio
network aimed at its enemies. Now the propaganda is openly aimed at its own
citizens.
Miriam
Notes for subscribers: Trump cronies take over America's disinfo machine
Trump or no Trump, it's no exaggeration to say that the U.S. Agency for
Global Media has been the biggest informational sponsor of the global
far-right in existence today.
Yasha Levine
This letter is part of an investigative series into the history and origins
of America's propaganda machine - and the central role that weaponized
immigrants play in it. To read the series from the beginning, start here.
And subscribe.
New boss: Michael "My middle name is propaganda" Pack
As I wrote earlier, a scandal's been brewing at the U.S. Agency for Global
Media - the billion-dollar federal body that oversees America's sprawling
foreign propaganda and destabilization apparatus. A Donald Trump crony has
taken control of the agency and now a bunch of Obama administration
appointees have either resigned themselves in protest or have gotten the
boot - or both!
Mr. Michael Pack is a close ally of Stephen K. Bannon, the former campaign
strategist and White House adviser to President Trump who has urged Mr.
Trump to take charge of the news organizations and reshape them to his
purposes. Democrats in the Senate held up Mr. Pack's nomination for years,
but Mr. Trump urged Republicans in recent weeks to push through the
confirmation.
.The organizational heads dismissed Wednesday night were Bay Fang of Radio
Free Asia; Jamie Fly of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; Alberto M.
Fernandez of Middle East Broadcasting Networks; Emilio Vazquez of the Office
of Cuba Broadcasting; and Libby Liu of the Open Technology Fund.
Washington D.C. is howling about the danger this appointment supposedly
poses to the basic decency of America's premier information network. And
that's hilarious. Guess they don't know that this federal appendage - a
large chunk of which was spun off from several separate CIA psychological
warfare divisions - was created with the slimiest of intents: to weaponize
nationalism and religious extremism and to promote rightwing movements
around the world. Nothing is to good for the defeat of the global working
class!
I don't want to get all biblical; it's not generally my style. But if you're
into that sort of thing: the agency was conceived in sin.
I know people who work in various wings of this outfit - and they are good,
honest reporters. But it's also no exaggeration to say that the U.S. Agency
for Global Media has been the biggest informational sponsor of the global
far-right in existence. It's in the very structure of the organization. It's
why it was created. And it's still going strong today. I know because my
family and I - as Soviet Jews - were swept up and weaponized by its
ideological propaganda bureaucracy.
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So what about the outrage? My guess is that having someone like Steven
Bannon, Sebastian Gorka, or some other ultra-nationalist American Firster
providing spiritual guidance to agency won't change anything - at least not
as far as its "core mission" is concerned.
I will say this: Reading the obvious signs, I think there's one definite
thing we expect from this transition. The U.S. Agency for Global Media is
going to be even more rabidly anti-China than it already is.
Yasha Levine
@yashalevine
Probably the craziest example of weaponized immigrants going today is the
campaign by Falun Gong, the rightwing spook-connected, pro-Trump Chinese
cult flooding people's mailboxes with newspapers and clogging their Facebook
feeds with "Wuhan virus" and "CCP virus" documentaries.
May 5th 2020
74 Retweets189 Likes
If Trump and his people have any brainpower left, they'll use this
billion-dollar agency to send a huge injection of resources to whatever spy
outfit has been running Falun Gong's anti-China propaganda blitz. Because I
gotta say that this crazy cult's campaign through their Epoch Times media
property has been extremely effective, especially during COVID. I mean, it's
scary how good their propaganda's been. Would love to know who got the
contract to run it.
Hope you're all well. Stay strong!
-Yasha Levine
