Most of what we consider public life in modern societies is public reactions to things done by the powerful. The New York Times makes up a new hoax and the week is spent on the hoax. The usual suspects swear by the obvious lies and normal people spend days picking apart the lies. Occasionally, we get the reverse where some uncomfortable truth gets loose and the usual suspect go bananas trying to “debunk” it while normal people cling to it as blessed relief.
This is the news cycle in a nutshell. There is very little news. It has been at least a generation since the major news outlets in America have done reporting. Most of it is just stenography. The “journalist” copies what a government spokesbot has sent to them and dresses it up with some commentary. Then there are the narratives that are designed to give the public a way to repeat the official truth that sounds convincing to them and their acquaintances.
The source of this is the “new journalism” that emerged in the 1960’s. The late British reporter Chris Munnion chronicled this in his book Banana Sunday. He spent most of his life covering Africa for the Telegraph. In the 1960’s he noticed Americans showing up with pre-written narratives. They would seek out quotes and pictures to fill out the story they had prepared for the trip. Even if the facts contradicted the narrative, they stuck with the narrative because that was the new journalism.
Narrative journalism is just accepted these days. The “news” has always been a form of passive-aggressive political activism so its evolution into story telling on behalf of powerful interests seems natural. When you think of the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal as propaganda arms of their respective clients in the managerial elite, it all makes sense. Instead of the Ministry of Truth we have the mainstream media “speaking truth to power.”
That last bit gets mocked by normal people on this side of the great divide because they have woken up to the reality of this age. As if often the case, however, there is a kernel of truth locked in this media fabrication. The people inside these disinformation operations genuinely fear the public. When they say “speak truth to power” they mean broadcast their truth to you in the hopes that you will buy it. Modern mass media is mostly a defensive weapon of the elites.
That is why it is worth thinking about what goes on inside these operations and what types of people work there. For example, here is a post in the Washington Examiner from someone calling himself Jaimie McIntyre. The Examiner bills itself as a conservative news outlet, but McIntyre is a far-left conspiracy theorist who has spent most of is career at operations like CNN and NPR. His post is a story comparing the suicidal holdouts in Mariupol to the Alamo.
Now, the “facts” in this tale are supplied by a group called the “Washington-based Institute for the Study of War” which sounds quite serious. When you look them up you find they have a web site and a staff listing. That staff listing is a who’s who of neoconservative warmongers. There is Kimberly Kagan of the infamous Kagan clan and Bill Kristol, the head loon at the Never Trump clan. These are the people responsible for the disaster unfolding in Ukraine.
Jaimie McIntyre is a crack reporter and he has access to the internet, so he surely knows the nature of his primary source. He makes no mention of it as that would have deflated the narrative. In other words, he is lying and he knows he is lying. Most likely the bulk of the narrative was supplied to him by the neocons. They have been pushing this theme since the start of the war. They think Americans will fall for the claim that the Ukrainians are innocent victims of the evil Putin.
In the Washington Post we have another version of the Alamo narrative. This one is authored by a someone named David Stern. The Post identifies him as a journalist based Ukraine. In reality he is most likely an operative of the American foreign policy establishment charged with peddling their narratives in Western media. Note that his copy does not mention that the holdouts are Azov fighters. The Post does not want anyone noticing those guys in the story.
If you scan the Washington Post, what you quickly see is that most of their Ukraine “reporting” relies on operatives from NGO’s and the intel community. They know that the information they are being fed is from partisan sources. That would be fine if they made that clear, but they go out of their way to conceal this truth. Their job is to sell the official lies and they take that job seriously. They are lying and they know they are lying but they keep lying because that is their job.
Of course, a real journalist would be curious about these sources that all seem to say the same things about current events. For example, a story on the “Institute for the Study of War” and who pays their bills would be interesting. It would provide the public with some understanding about who is trying to convince them that nuclear war is the price we must pay to defend Ukraine. Instead, they investigate a popular Twitter account called The Libs of TikTok.
That last bit is another good example of the mendacity of the media. This story was created by the Washington Post. They assigned credit for it to a vulgar dingbat calling herself Taylor Lorenz. This woman is so dumb she could count her boobs twice and get the wrong number both times. The real source was German intelligence who employs a former Twitter employee named Travis Brown. He works for the Protoype Fund, which is funded by the German government.
Again, like the Examiner piece using the “Institute for the Study of War”, the real story her is a foreign government attacking an American citizen. A real news organization would want to know who facilitated this. The Post surely knows that Taylor Lorenz is too stupid to work a phone so she did not call Travis Brown. Of course, that story will never happen because that idea would never cross the minds of the editors. Their job is to sell the official lies and they take that job seriously.
That is the main point of this exercise. At all levels of what is called journalism you will find people who lie with enthusiasm. The selection pressure is all in favor of people who enjoy lying to the public. They like the scheming and the deception. Like all sociopaths, they are shameless about it. Shame requires a soul. As Solzhenitsyn put it, “We know they are lying, they know they are lying, they know we know they are lying, we know they know we know they are lying, but they are still lying.”
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From Wikipedia: “[Jamie McIntyre’s] career spans more than four decades, beginning in 1975 with a part-time job as a Sunday morning disc jockey at WDVH, a 5,000-watt country music “daytimer” radio station in Gainesville, Fla…”
Uh, yeah.
There’s a reason it’s called programming. They started in on us as kids with kosher kartoons. 12 years of schooling to create a brain dead, uncreative, rule following shithead who never asks ,”why”. Talmudvision takes you from there to the grave in a haze of complete bullshit and lies. You die a stupid motherfucker, takin a jab, as planned , as intended, thought out long ago.
That was killer good, Z.
Enter Denis Prokopenko, lieutenant colonel in the Ukrainian national guard and commander in chief of the Azov battalion. Judging by his looks, he could star in movies as main hero character, he has got that reassuring aura of dignity. On a first glance it would be difficult to pin on him the clockwork orange hyper-violence that shot Azov battalion to villainy fame status. See the gravitas he emanates in the delivery of this speech in favor of the battalion extradition from Azovstal https://southfront.org/breaking-azov-militants-confirm-there-are-hundreds-of-civilians-in-azovstal/ He has got a meaty page on English Wikipedia all about him, where the Early Life section… Read more »
My guess is as good as anyone’s, but I think the Azovs are a controlled group useful to activate to stir up crises, just as ISIS was (is?). In short, all this cartoonish ultranationalist attitude may be one of the many ominous consequences of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeWHviwLMy8 So on the one hand there is Prokopenko who is the nice, official face, the stern and just warrior who can successfully strike a brave and stoic pose in the way the SJWs think is appropriate for a dignified man in the presence of danger. Owen Jones often tries but always miserably fails to… Read more »
“The people inside these disinformation operations genuinely fear the public.” I’m not sure why they would. What can the public do to harm or threaten them? For nearly 30 years, NPR has had a rigid story format that never varies. The tinkle of water, the scratching of shoes on a dirt road, a dulcid voice softly reciting, “Ayalo Mumbabwe lives in a little Zambian village…” the sound of Ayalo’s playmates happily jostling eacch other, “while his mother, Nguame, hangs out the wash…” The story could be about the siege of Mariupol, it hardly matters. It’s all the everlasting same. Hell,… Read more »
I continued to listen to NPR for as long as I could after Bob Edwards was evicted, until I could no longer stand to hear the sounds of their wretched voices dripping with supremacy. Terri Gross is perhaps the worst. One voice I miss is Daniel Schorr. He was a blast!
I think that being preached at by Greta Thunberg, the teen age climatologist, would be even worse than All Things Considered, especially if she was scowling at you.
I’ve been following ISW every day during the war. If you look at the maps only, it’s fairly informative. The spin they put on the events is completely ridiculous. Every day Russia is facing “increasing morale issues”, “logistical failures”, “failed to meet its objectives”, “not making territorial progress”, “facing strong Ukrainian resistance”. But every day the red (Russian progress) keeps growing on the map. Russia was losing in Mariupol every day until suddenly the whole map is showing Russian control. Putin seems like your standard Christian Civ-Nat, leading a 2nd world regional power. He’s definitely not a threat to America… Read more »
“The Tribe That Lost It’s Head” – a 1960’s novel by Nicholas Monserrat – featured a “journalist’s” lies…and the dire consequences thereof. My Waco moment.
Waco & Ruby ridge for me.
I suppose for younger people today Charlottesville & BLM. James Fields had no Gerry Spence, contacted them in regards to Fields.
Unfortunately crickets.
No quibbles with today’s essay, but rather a (perhaps ironic?) tip of the hat to Wikipedia. Their entry for the “Institute for the Study of War” seems quite detailed and broadly echoes Z’s claims in today’s message. Of course, Wiki doesn’t use terms like “neocons” or Deep State, but they seem quite up-front about who funds this non-profit (defense contractors) as well as who current and past personnel are, not surprisingly, many famous names in top government positions present and former. A point: Even a source with a reputation for a far-left slant can (seemingly) provide generally accurate information. Of… Read more »
Hoo boy. Agree- the biggest skeleton in an already crowded closet.
The Stand type stuff, almost ready to go? With Western commanders onsite, up to their frickin’ necks?
Just wait til they find the “experimental subjects”, and every nuclear nation on earth will be lobbing canned sunshine towards us and Tel Aviv.
Oops, reply to Majorian, just below
Assuming that claim I posted is not a conspiracy theory. And if it were not, even, Azovs had a month and a half of time to hide/destroy proofs. The foreign experts could be dispatched as well, I don’t think their handlers in the respective home countries would be too upset by such an outcome.
Depends whether the majority remaining are foreign troops or not.
The main point of interest in today’s piece may be the dogged resistance of the Azov guys in Mariupol, that has the Ukrainian government reinforcing their suicidal fanaticism by confirming more than once they are heroes who will fight to the last, as if they were to one-up Von Paulus in Stalingrad. Who’s willing to go that far in such an unsustainable situation? How many days by now have they spent drinking their own piss? Fanaticism, cult of death, Nietzschean cultivation of supreme will in spite of all ordeals, ok we get that, these guys are the natural result of… Read more »
I suspect the Azov units fight like the old SS units in WWII fought—for their own skins. Azov is identified as the modern day NAZI’s and vilified by Russia. They also are associated with a lot of the civilian “cleansing” activities being laid upon the Russian military. I doubt the Azov units will fair well in Russian captivity—assuming they are allowed to surrender at all. Neither did the old SS units (SS proper, not Waffen SS) in WWII.
Well the Russians repeatedly tried to start negotiations with them for the surrender, last time on Easter https://southfront.org/trap-at-azovstal-russian-concessions-kievs-benefits-videos-18/ I agree that Azov would better not fall in Russian hands, but Russians on their part are not interested in flushing them out of tens of miles of bunker tunnels that cannot be bombed or shelled conventionally. Now apparently Azov are playing the trump card: they claim hundreds of civilians are in the Azovstal plant with them. Russians are calling those human shields, CNN et co are snickering about the Russian claim “NO, they are not human shields, these are people too… Read more »
The Russians opened three humanitarian corridors and explicitly included “Nazi” units who would be treated humanely and with the death penalty taken off the table.
Assuming true, dying heroically with your Nazi Bros is probably better than 25-life in a Siberian gulag so who an blame the Azov guys for saying no.
Here is some commentary and several videos from Ukraine from the expert military/intelligence analyst, Larry Johnson. His background is detailed near the bottom of the post. His website is sonar21, Son of the New American Revolution, well worth your acquaintance.
https://sonar21.com/ukraine-claims-russian-phase-2-has-begun/
Jere is his most recent post, drawing attention to the importance of deception, or maskirova, in military conflicts. He perceptively references several examples of this from WWII.
https://sonar21.com/is-russia-running-operation-quicksilver-against-the-west/
Thank you for the post. I was unfamiliar with his writing. Seems thoughtful.
Good aggregator of videos from telegram.
The decoy thing is a bit of 4D chess coping. Granted, it worked well at fooling Rommel about a second amphibious invasion taking place around Calais, while the Normandy landing being only “diversionary”.
The Kiev attack was a gamble that did not go well, but if successful would have brought the war to an end rather quickly. The Russians now are forced to annihilate the Ukrainian army to win which is the conventional way to run things but will be more expensive in terms of human and materiel losses.
Now the controllers have rolled out Khruschev’s great-granddaughter to chirp out her bit of the, “Putin is going to use nukes,” narrative:
https://headlineusa.com/putin-will-go-nuclear-says-cia-boss-in-regime-change-set-up/
I think if we try to regime change him, Putin probably will use nukes, He might even use the big birds and turn DC into ashes.
Problem is DC is stupid and can’t understand the stakes. They don’t get to be Lord Humongous or Immortan Joe in the New World . They are just another skull on the skull pile.
Truth and beauty. Mathematics and music, art. Cherish it when you find it. A simulation? A simulation within a simulation? A Matrix? How many turtles down? I died for Beauty – but was scarce Adjusted in the Tomb When One who died for Truth, was lain In an adjoining Room – He questioned softly “Why I failed”? “For Beauty”, I replied – “And I – for Truth – Themself are One – We Brethren are”, He said – And so, as Kinsmen, met a Night — We talked between the Rooms – Until the Moss had reached our lips –… Read more »
[…] ZMan sums it up. […]
This is why we have the drumbeat, louder every year, about finding a way to ban anonymous internet posting. Even private websites. As if there’s not a long, long tradition of media anonymity, which includes so many pamphleteers like Benjamin Franklin during the Revolutionary War and in Europe before that. What’s going on in the media is terrible, but I think they reached their full power in the early 90’s, just before the internet took off. What did people have back then? Obscure news letters? Seminars? The media is dialing the lies to 11 with bullhorns precisely because alternative views… Read more »
Basically all on line versions of newspapers eliminated their comments sections for this very reason years ago.
Netflix stock down 20% due to huge (?) subscriber losses. CNN streaming service almost D.O.A. The above doesn’t necessarily mean that Joe Six-Pack has given up his life of ease sitting in front of the boob tube, mesmerized by insipid “entertainment” while he munches a bag of Cheetos and swills a bottle of beer. It MIGHT mean, however, that these types of media have exceeded their saturation points and/or that viewers are rebelling against “Woke” and otherwise insipid fare that insults the intelligence as well as moral sensibility.
Moving full color media will always regress to pushing young women to the fore, as it keys into the basic drives of humanity.
Eventually all areas that adopt a public moving media as a foundation, like politics, social commentary, any form of entertainment commentary, news, etc will become female dominated purely from that mechanism.
And with that it will become more and more vapid. It is inescapable with moving back to print or small black and white images.
Old age will claim the boomers soon enough. The very youngest are 57 and not in the best health.
Frankly as a group they don’t matter.
How much of the narrative do you think is coordinated, even in fictional media — films, TV shows, etc.? Last night I watched The Hitman’s Bodyguard which is about a hitman and his bodyguard (duh) attempting to make it to the ICC to testify against the fictional President Dukovic of the real country of Belarus to convict him of war crimes or crimes against humanity or whatever. The fictional president is played by a scenery-chewing Gary Oldman apparently with the stage direction “Be f*cking evil.” The viewer is encouraged to enthusiastically cheer the takedown of the cartoonishly villainous President of… Read more »
Trannie cartoon characters started to be inserted into children’s programming about twenty years ago. In a way, that’s even more insidious. Also, in the You Can’t Make This Shit up department, after the FBI massacre in Waco, NBC rushed out a made-for-TV movie about the real Satan, David Koresh.
Waco was a wake up moment for me. It was the first time that I noticed that the news was propaganda and lies. Why did the publicity hounds in the BATF stage a raid instead of arresting David Koresh when went out for a beer.? One of the stories put out back was that the children were in danger. My spider senses always tingle when I hear that. I guess that Clinton and Reno had to kill the children to save the children.
Waco & Ruby ridge for me.
I suppose for younger people today Charlottesville & BLM. James Fields had no Gerry Spence, my wife & I had a picture taken in front of the Spence law office in Jackson Hole, we contacted them in regards to Fields.
Unfortunately crickets.
Elian Gonzalez, the poor orphan who needed to be liberated back to Castro’s island paradise.
Of, course, now I wonder why only the US and not the Bahamas, Jamaica, Haiti or Turks and Caicos ever received the benefits of mass Cuban diversity…
Waco, in particular, was the day I knew there was turning back from the United States becoming a totalitarian hellhole. The massacre led directly to McVeigh and OKC, which did in fact tamp down the police state apparatus for a bit, but it is doubtful anything would or even could stop it now other than dying at its own hand, which looks like a distinct possibility. Future historians may use Waco and Ruby Ridge as the markers for the full transition to Evil Empire II and possibly the start of its decline. Those events certainly prodded those already aware of… Read more »
Ruby Ridge, Waco, and bombing of Serbia because the Muslims in Kosovo wanted their own country. I even recall an early internet heroine in Kosovo who would post from inside the war torn country about Serbian atrocities. She was actually in Toronto or somewhere like that. Before all that there were the babies tossed out of incubators by Iraqi soldiers in Kuwait, right after the US ambassador told Saddam Hussein that the USA had no interest in the Kuwait/Iraq squabble. Even before that was when we invaded Panama to get Noriega when he could have been easily captured or peacefully… Read more »
Along those lines, it is pretty well agreed now that most atrocities were committed by the Croats and then the Muslims, although we were told the exact opposite, of course. Since the Lorenz affair has caused people to become aware once again of how disgusting German intelligence is, bear in mind it coordinated with the CIA and DIA to promote “Serbian atrocities” on behalf of its historical ally, Croatia. Much of the completely justified dismissal of the propaganda about the Ukraine stems from that previous war’s deceptions.
And what are the odds that people seeing this show— who have zero knowledge of the background you describe— will come away from it assuming that they now know something about the real-life ruler of Belarus?
Such that the fiction conveyed by the plot becomes inextricably mixed in their minds with the picture they have of current events there.
So without making any factual claims, the
authors of the show are shaping (and distorting) the way their audience views the real events.
I was stunned by the number of seemingly intelligent dingbats who thought “The Queens Gambit” was nonfiction. They were always incredulous when I informed them that it was pure fiction. This was a great example of how average people develop an erroneous perception of reality through mass media.
It also tells a story of how woefully ill-read today’s geniuses of the internet really are.
One of my friends still runs a travel agency, and after the movie Black Panther was released he got endless calls from vibrant people wanting to book travel to “Wakanda”. When he told them it doesn’t exist they’d start fighting with him on the phone.
I remember the tv interviews with the vibrant audience after Black Panther premiered. They were yelling “see – now you know who invented flying cars”. I thought it was a Babylon Bee skit.
Why does “vibrant” always mean “muddy brown?” That’s now how I learned to define the word when I was a kid.
A lot of black people buy into this narrative
I think its mainly word of mouth and from Jet magazine which is filled with content lifted from Nation of Islam .
I used to know an old friendly NOI guy , no idea why we got along but it was as it was.
The stuff they believe is super weird but broadly, they believe we White people are rogue super solider project that turned on their creators in some mythic age.
Even if a (say) news source presented 100% factual reports, it too is a horribly distorted view of reality, even absent any political motive to “spin” stories. You can’t even call it a “half-truth.” It’s probably more like 1/100 or 1/10,000 of the truth. The missing 99% or 99.99% might not even be lies, unless one considers “by omission” a lie. Viewed another way, this is an example of selection bias or “cherry picking” — the most common cognitive error. No headline ever reported “100,000 jets landed safely yesterday.” News reporting, by definition, will collect and disseminate events that are… Read more »
When I was teaching at the University of Missouri in the late 90s, I asked my students if they thought The Blair Witch Project was a legitimate “found footage” film. Approximately a quarter of them did, and I have to assume many of the students hadn’t even seen TBWP, so the percentage of those who viewed and believed was probably much higher than 25%. Now this speaks more significantly, perhaps, to their belief in supernatural evil (nothing wrong with that), but it also suggests their credulity vis-a-vis narratives disseminated from on high.
This is a good example. I remember being pretty taken in by the initial ad campaign, which back then as a young man in the early days of the internet really made an impact on me. I was enthusiastic because it looked pretty compelling in my immaturity. So I immediately dug further.
It took longer than it would now, but all it did take was approximately 30 minutes on good ol’ AOL to figure out it was fake. The lack of intellectual curiosity regarding actual facts and the basis for beliefs is staggering.
I actually enjoyed the movie immensely because I thought it was real, and I was seeing footage of three kids who got mysteriously slaughtered in the woods. Then I saw one of the guys on Letterman or something a week or two after the movie opened. I am happy I watched it under those circumstances, otherwise I would have hated it.
What ‘footage’ isn’t ‘found’?
I always chuckle when I reflect on Belarus and realize it was the freest country on Earth during the height of the coof hysteria.
Vizzini, Re: your question of how much of the narrative is coordinated: it seems obvious that it must be. Whether that coordination is happening formally or informally, is the only question. When you see every ad and TV commercial— ads and commercials created by different ad agencies for different clients— all featuring variations of the same smiling inter-racial couple, the same Black females in lab coats, the same wise Black insurance agents counseling the grateful White couple; When suddenly Hollywood films are all substituting Black and female and LGBTQ characters for traditionally-White hetero roles; When Netflix is suddenly producing shows… Read more »
“the stories write themselves.” Yeah, but they don’t watch themselves. Does anybody watch t.v. anymore? I am 56. Back in the ’70s and ’80s we all had the same cultural references. We all knew where the “jumped the shark” metaphor came from because we’d all seen that episode of Happy Days. I’m still trying to figure out how the U.S. has such a powerful official mono-culture when none of us are watching the same trash. Kids in my school literally have no idea what the Winter Olympics are; nobody watches them anymore. Do we all get programmed by osmosis or… Read more »
A mono-culture controls the culture, almost every bit of it. Doesn’t matter if it’s TV, movies, advertising, music, sports–it’s all produced and disseminated by people who share the same anti-white worldview.
And how did that occur in every majority white country, across different cultures and historical backgrounds?
Ever nation’s government and media just decided to hate its own population all within a single generational timeframe?
It’s weird that the episode where Fonzie demonstrates his daredevil waterskiing skills is associated with the decline of the sitcom. It was actually in ’78 or ’79 and the show lasted through ’83.
Well, he was wearing his leather jacket while water-skiing, which is ridiculous.
Sir, you seem to have a rather niggardly opinion of the goodwill of screenwriters and other creative types in the entertainment field 🙂
The real Bill: And it’s not merely tv/movies (neither of which I watch). The same narrative shows up everywhere. You knit? You study ancient Roman history? You cook? You collect ‘x’? They will shove the noggers and the subcons and the sexually deviant down your throat. There’s an approved narrative and it has been inserted in every facet of everyone’s life. It’s why I scorn parents who think they’ve accomplished something by voting for a conservatard school board member (without addressing every single textbook and library book and all teachers and their training). Even on websites that ought to know… Read more »
was he even more Gary than in Leon The Professional? https://youtu.be/mX-qK4qG2EY?t=118
He gives it a good try — shooting a man’s innocent wife and child in front of him just to make a point, and blowing up the ICC in The Hague just to stage a particularly dramatic escape. But I can’t really disagree with him about blowing up the ICC….
Your comment does remind me of the countless movies that have been made since the end of the Cold War which have had a plot device where the Totally Legit pro-Western fictional president of real Russia has to be saved from hard lined elements trying to defeat the brave reformer.
You mean similar to the thousands of films that set up the German enemy?
It is so ingrained in our culture after 70 years of relentless propaganda.
Think about it. 70 years, year after year, as long as a human lifespan with the same tropes.
Was there ever a post conflict campaign of such relentless aversion stimulus to indoctrinate multiple generations?
trumpton: Count how many days the Mail Online goes between stories about notsee atrocities and/or noble survivors. I saw one just the other day about a woman in Ukraine (shocking, I realize) who bravely declared she’d survived the notsees and now she’d survive Putinhitler.
Truly inspiring how long-lived these notsee survivors have proven to be.
I have not read a newspaper since I programmed one of the large online sites for a UK national newspaper 20 years ago.
The experience was enough to disregard any information from those sources ever again.
We have a dishonest press that is now officially state sponsored media.
The Ukraine Russia war is a prime example. Watch one of the leaders of the Ukraine Azov Battalion surrounded in the Azovstal steel plant now begging for his life.
Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULqRN2VSzsE
hehe sucks to be him. enjoy the ride fukker, you paid for it…
The big problem is that it’s not just the Press.
Just about every institution of the West has been either convinced or coerced into all out hatred of the enemy du jour of the State.
Hence we have this
” it is our responsibility to play our part in the widespread efforts of Government, industry, sporting and creative institutions to limit Russia’s global influence through the strongest means possible.”
From a fucking Tennis Club.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/wimbledon-set-announce-ban-russian-and-belarusian-players
The latest hoax appears to be the delivery of fighter jets to Ukraine from an unknown country.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ukraine-has-received-fighter-planes-unnamed-us-ally-pentagon-confirms
I kind of doubt they are flying from Ukrainian airfields. Those would have been Russia’s first targets.
I wonder where they are really flying from. Those would be some very interesting radar tracks.
Even if they acquire the planes, I imagine Ukrainian fighter pilots are a bit harder to come by.
Begs a question as to who is flying the planes?
For the poorest country in Europe, they sure seem to have a fucking huge army, large number of bases, missile factories and weapons dumps.
Strange, isn’t it?
I did not know that about the German organization behind the LibsOfTikTok doxxing. You can never underestimate the mendacity of our media.
Lorenz probably sleeps with sources as a matter of course.
It would also explain her 7 year long engagement.
Given Lorenz’s “sources” likely are with NSA’s domestic spying team, she’s little more than a 40’s era French whore sleeping with SS officers. Karl posted earlier that 4Chan has uncovered the nasty slut’s on line “dating” information. That’s classic and hopefully will humiliate some domestic spooks.
i’d tap dat azz. but no snuggles afterwards…
No. She’s hideous.
“Couple more shots of whisky, women round here start lookin’ good” 😀
— Grateful Dead, “New, New Minglewood Blues”
You and your standards 😉
Really though, you can’t visualize her running out of your place, all disheveled and frantically digging for her keys while realizing what a horrible mistake she’s made and that all the showers in the world will never remove the smell of abject humiliation that she’s had impressed upon her? That she will never be able to eat chicken again without reliving the trauma?
Me neither, Karl maybe, but not me, no sir-ee.
When the money keeps flowing and all of your creature comforts are satisfied and your life quite luxurious, why be honest? Hasn’t our material wealth and the way we got here, lying and scheming included, shown that the old ways of following a moral code and being honest are now obsolete? If material progress is the ultimate goal of existence, and if morality and honesty are unnecessary to that end and in fact impediments, then get rid of them. Those things went the way of the horse and carriage. We are beyond them. And this extends to things like blackness… Read more »
i see a lapel button “Rootin’ for Putin!”
Been tempted to create a graphic saying “No Russian ever called me deplorable,” possibly using the Russian flag, but I don’t want to deal with the REEEEEEE-ing I’ll hear from half the people I have to deal with in my life.
i want a t-shirt that says “No One Ever Got Diabetes From Tequila”
The gift shops in Sofia, Bulgaria had some pretty cool Putin T-shirts when I was there for Orthodox Easter a few years ago.
I knew I should’ve picked one up!
And I see its wearer beaten to death with a pipe wrench in some back alley. No suspects. Case closed.
“Jaimie McIntyre is a crack reporter….” Jaimie McIntyre is a crack-smoking reporter…. There. Fixed it for you. I think we forget that the “media” was always a corrupt entity. From the times of the Romans, those that rule have always considered controlling the masses with lies to be the first and most important rule of the media. It certainly hasn’t changed in that regard. I know that universities began ethics courses in the 20th century, probably to improve the reputation of journalism, which was viewed as having the integrity of a pimp. From Wikipedia: “So while various codes may have… Read more »
The idea of government lying is somewhat older than Rome. It appears in Plato’s “Republic” (4th C. BC). While much of this work is speculative and fanciful, it’s argued that it is acceptable for the government to lie to decieve enemies or even its own citizens. This privelege however, is for the State alone, and citizens who lie deserve punishment. This, I believe, is where the concept “noble lie” comes from. Whether or not you agree with the above, I also cite another quote, from Bacon (I think) who said (approx.) “We are much beholden to Machiavelli and others, that… Read more »
And here again, we shouldn’t underestimate the power of self-deception.
A puppet “spokesperson” like Psaki is going to come across as more convincing if she herself believes the lies she’s spreading.
Likewise a RegimeStooge “journalist”: their job is going to be easier if they can convince themselves that— even if some of the “facts” they’re repeating are questionable or obviously false— they’re on the side of the angels.
So self-deception is the first necessry step to being a willing stooge of the regime.
It’s not so much self-deception as a belief in the larger “truth.” The believe that what they’re doing is for a greater good so it’s easy to just believe in the lies or to accept that the lies are OK to tell because they help the cause.
I think that’s probably true.
From their perspective, some facts— such as the disproportionate criminality of Blacks— even if true, are potentially dangerous: “They could reinforce harmful racial stereotypes”.
So for “the greater good”, it’s better if they were suppressed.
Yeah – harmful to whom?
This only pertains to the talking head level of media performers. Its for the greater good because their religion defines what is the greater good. Their religion “tells” them that blacks and Whites are no different, just with different outer coatings. But, that has nothing to do with the way they will perform, how they think, the nature of their “spirit” or “soul”, concepts that the left only believes as a literary device. It doesn’t matter that thousands of years have shown that blacks are incapable of maintaining a society above a subsistence level, or that their behavior is more… Read more »
It’s also framing and bias. Two people can see the same story and the same “facts” and see two completely different things and describe them in such a way that a 3rd party reading about it might not even realize both stories are portraying the same event.
Right: for each of us, our “confirmation bias” is going to incline us to assume that new events will fit in the categories we already have in our minds. All our minds work that way, if for no other reason than that it’s more efficient: rather than looking at each incoming fact afresh, our tendency is to put it into a pre-existing category. So where I see the latest Black-on-White murder as yet another example of the disproportionate violence and thoughless impulsivity of low-IQ Blacks raised in a violent culture, my liberal neighbor will see Black crime as a trickledown… Read more »
Two different ways of explaining, but one way supported in the science and observable reality, the other way unsupported by any demonstrable facts and reason.
But those are ‘explanations’ of the crime, and are thus heavily rooted in ideology. The two people in question will not, however, diverge wildly in their recapitulation of the facts of the crime.
Well said. Elsewhere I’ve occasionally have been preaching “The Blind Men and the Elephant” so I took the opportunity to refresh my memory. This is, probably, one of the instances one need not fear too much bias in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant I did not realize how ancient the parable is (thousands of years). Many conclusions may be drawn, but the most obvious would be that each individual may have a different (incomplete) view of a larger whole, that the entire truth may not be accessible, as well as that individuals may bicker (uselessly) over who is “right.” I’m re-reading Nietzsche. In… Read more »
That may be the case, particularly if the two people in question are very different and/or have a deep personal investment in the story itself. However, if two random people are instructed to summarize the story as accurately and objectively as possible, and to weed out their personal feelings, their depictions will have huge overlap. The subjectivity of reality is, in general, overstated.
Nope.
They just enjoy the lying.
Normal people can’t seem to work out why habitual liars just delight in the lie, so always give them a better motive.
They are just liars and enjoy the lying.
An example of this would be NPR. I’m truly flabbergasted to hear them proudly claiming to be an unbiased news source, giving their listeners all sides of the stories they’re presenting.
That is so obviously untrue!
But they seem to believe it.
“It’s not a lie…if you believe it…”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vn_PSJsl0LQ
Very interesting read, as always.
I always start my day with the ruminations and observations of Mr. Z, but I don’t know what I would do if it turns out our host is secretly taking shekels from shadowy oligarchs like George Soros or Col. Sanders.
Or, even worse, that the Havamal guys are some soapy money laundering front for a CIS black-ops group…
I could be wrong, but wasn’t an empty Havamal soap wrapper found in the gutter near Seth Rich’s body?
And he was wearing a Minter & Richter ring when found. A spilled cup of Alaska Chaga was beside him on the pavement.
sponsorship by Applebees is where i draw the line
I’m reminded of the recent incident with a Twitter poster who decided to poke the Hive mind. “I boarded a plane today with my son and mid flight, the pilot announces that the mask mandate is over. Flight attendants pulled off their masks and sneezed directly into their hands while screaming ‘this is MAGA airspace.’ My son turned to me in tears. I don’t know what to do,” Jared Rabel’s tweet read, which he said was “satire.” https://nationalfile.com/nyt-reporter-falls-for-twitter-joke-seeks-comment-on-maga-airspace/ A NYT reportette immediately hit him up for a comment in his direct messages, which is either hilarious or a sad statement… Read more »
Somebody should put together a score sheet letting us know which news outlet represents which faction of Deep State. Is the WaPo the PR wing of the CIA while NYT represents the perma-presidency cabal while the Wall Street Journal represents Wall Street. Of course, they all bow before AIPAC.
It’d be good to know for deciphering the ruling elite tea leaves.
I thought the NYT was the official FBI/State Department birdcage liner?
Decades ago, my Dad had a subcription to the Washington D.C. based “[National] Spotlight.” (long out of business). Pretty sure it did not represent the Deep State, nor mainstream opinion 😀
That said, in that pre-Internet era, it was not out of the question that government agencies would plant stories, or even run entire specialty publications, that suited their own ends. Or just rent or otherwise collect the subscriber list and they can infer a lot about people’s poltical leanings. Obviously, the same things are equally possible today in newer media as well as the paper type.
OT but a sign of the insanity of our elites. Wimbledon is banning players from Russia and Belarus participating in the tournament this year. This includes two of the top ten men and three of the top 20 women.
https://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/33771570/wimbledon-bar-russian-players-war-ukraine-per-reports
Maybe they can wear a fancy gold star patch on their clothes. You know, just so we can identify their “Russianness.”
and they are probably not going to let Djokovic play because he is unvaxxed. will be funny to see how many players they do let in, have to withdraw with medical issues….
That is going to do for the prestige of Wimbledon what affirmative action has done for the prestige of the Ivy League
It is a shame because grass courts are a great surface, and Wimbledon has such an awesome history. At least I got to go when the place was great tho I think the facilities are getting a bit tired and even somewhat dirty — imo So I guess it is only the Italian and French Open for me next year when I do my Europe thing. First world problems…
Falcone,
OT, but did you see this story out of Stockton?
https://www.ksby.com/news/california-news/15-year-old-girl-stabbed-to-death-at-a-stockton-high-school
Why is a story about a random 40-something entering a High School and stabbing a 15 year old girl to death at random not a bigger news item?
Is this just more of those norms they keep telling us would occur now that balance in the galaxy has been reestablished with the Biden presidentcy?
What narrative is furthered by publicizing her death? Gun? No. White supremacist? Obviously not, or we’d know. Police brutality against BIPOCs? Nope. There’s your answer.
I thought urban schools had all kinds of metal detectors, X-ray machines, and security guards now?
When I worked in “downtown” DC just over twenty years ago, on lunch hour I would sometimes visit the Martin Luther King [DC Public] Library (901 G. St. if it matters). They had metal detectors and a sign that said “Library Police.” These were not used when I visited, but I assume, for when school trips came in.
Metal detectors. To keep deadly weapons out.
At a public library.
Arthur,
I do not recall seeing any news on this. My wife is out of town for a month and she is the one who watches the news, so I have been out of the loop. But it is just sickening what is going on everywhere. This is the kind of stuff if it keeps continuing that is going to drive people to take action, especially if prices keep going up and normal people just snap. The b.s. just keeps piling up.
The Boston Marathon prohibited Russians and Belarusians from running in this year’s race. Contrast this attitude to post 9/11 when there was a nonstop “don’t blame Muslims/Islam is peace” campaign. Of course, both propaganda campaigns serve(d) the foreign policy goals of the neocons.
The Boston Marathon also didn’t ban Chechans after two of them literally blew up the race.
Chechen were not a threat to the current order and a great excuse for security crackdowns too. I think we are in a Thucydides Trap right now , we expected it to be China but its Russia, the rest of the BRICS and most of world outside the West vs the US I think we are going to lose frankly but I have no idea what comes after. Buy food, water, ammo, meds , tools and makes friends. If nothing happens. So be it you still have friends and useful things. Just remember you can get a nice knife or… Read more »
The Muzz–with rare exception–are non-white and the Rooskies are white. That’s the simple explanation for the difference in treatment.
Many of these players shunned their homeland and cravenly agreed to play as neutrals in the Paribas tourney. But this is not good enough for the Brits.
The media has always lied or at least massaged a certain narrative. But prior to the internet, people mostly just read one of the local rags, watched the local news and perhaps one of the national broadcasts. Now, one can read and/or get bombarded by multiple sources all day long – and it’s hyper obvious they all say the same damn thing and it never stops. The media outlets are populated by NPC drones on steroids who either don’t care about their lying or are to stupid to actually realize they are. Filtering out or outright ignoring the BS is… Read more »
usNthem: I’d suggest that their feeling part of the ‘in’ crowd helps explain why the journalists all lie in concert. Many of them grew up in the globalist bubble, almost all of them went to school in it, and now they revel in being part of it – ‘in the know’ they would claim. I saw that same mentality in the Foreign Service – and when we returned to the US and I no longer saw all the government cables, I knew all the journalists were lying but I no longer knew just by how much because I no longer… Read more »
“Many of them grew up in the globalist bubble, almost all of them went to school in it, and now they revel in being part of it –” But they all appear to believe they are actually fighting “power.” In their minds, the whole point of the press is to fight “power.” They give themselves awards for it all the time. They are the least self-aware people in the world. If you ask them, they were the heroes of the Floyd movement. “Power” murdered him on behalf of the state and then the “good” (powerless) people marched in the street,… Read more »
i don’t know about HS kids working on school paper being spergy. mostly they were normal kids who got easy credits, and free film and development for their photography hobby :). plus getting into football games for free…
“free film”
Man, are you dating yourself. That world is gone, Karl. It’s another country. Another planet.
Yeah. That’s OK . A lot of us remember that world .
The passage of that and the relentless grind of technology makes things like Wayne’s World painfully dated .
No need to struggle to get a public access channel when you have YouTube
And of course the increasing lack of a common culture .
My D&D buddies are a fair bit younger than me , adults, two are married but we have jack all in common with media and our “Appendix N.”
That’s true: in a generation, we’ve gone from one “reliable” local news outlet, speaking from a perspective shared by most, to a deluge of varying and contradictory assertions, explanations, and interpretations, with no way of judging between them.
In such a situation, tuning-out the noise, moving on to something else, and getting on with your life, may be a healthy brain’s response to undecipherable confusion.
The narrative can be a two-way street. For example, a few weeks ago, a prominent progressive comedian named Bob Saget died unexpectedly in a hotel room in Orlando Florida where he was doing a comedy program. His death was discovered in the early evening during a downtime between shows and his absence was what triggered concern about him. He was later discovered in his hotel room with a blunt force skull fracture running from his forehead to the rear of the cranium. The official police “investigation” ruled that he accidentally fell into his bed’s headboard causing the injury. Except that… Read more »
I recall the Crane was into the bondage scene. Who knows, but eventually, we all of us must sit down to a banquet of consequences.
Eat up!
Tom, Crane bought it over 40+ years ago! and he was a full on pervert, sex addict! just ahead of his time, really.
His death happened coincidentally with comedian Heather MacDonald cracking her skull on-stage after a vaxx clot. Very possible that Saget had a vaxx stroke, fell and hit his head in the bathroom, then went to bed to sleep it off.
A forensic pathologist that examined Saget’s skull x-ray opined that he would have had to have fallen approximately 30 feet in order to sustain that kind of head trauma. Last time I checked, Saget was not 30 feet tall. Nevertheless, I like your rationale. Henceforth, all unexpected future deaths should be classified as “the Vaxx did it” no matter how many bullet holes are evident.
yeah, it is highly unlikely anyone who sustained as much trauma as saget, would be able to walk a single step afterwards. it’s so odd the police are going along with the coverup, seeing as he was a B grade comic. why lie for such a nobody? maybe it’s just the local 5-O keeping it clean for the normie tourists that sustain Orlando?
I’d heard about it, but not the details.
A quick google shows that apparently, the death is officially ruled an accident. But “multiple skull fractures” does seem rather a stretch for a fall in bathroom or whatever.
Which is your theory? “Angry boyfriend with a sledgehammer” or “both law enforcement and hotel staff were accomplices to murder”? I’ve never seen the two simultaneously and this was Ritz Carlton, not Motel Six. They had security.
Most crimes of passion involving shattered skulls, involve damage to other parts of the victim’s body. The perp doesn’t hold back during a killing-rage and his whacks aren’t usually accurate, either.
Far more plausible, that 65yo skulls just don’t absorb impact traumas like they used to.
The rumor is that the woman’s husband is an enforcer for a Florida drug kingpin. A professional would only need one whack and would also likely act in cold blood. And a concealable blackjack works just as well as a baseball bat, so if he was well dressed, it’s unlikely hotel security would have been alerted. My guess is that a PI was tailing the wife and alerted the husband.
All that aside, the moral of this story is that if someone wants you dead, its not as hard as most people think, if you know what you’re doing.
Considering they were claiming everyone who died with COVID 19 as died of COVID 19 seems fair to me.
The partisanship of the press has its roots all the way back to the founding.
Cf. the National Gazette, a rag founded at the urging of Thomas Jefferson in order to counter the influence of the rival Federalist newspaper, the Gazette of the United States. Both papers and their voluminous offspring were, in the main, funded by the rival parties. At least then, as Marko alludes, one knew which side of the spectrum the paper and their editorial policy stood.
Now, of course, with the Uniparty, it makes no difference.
“The partisanship of the press has its roots all the way back to the founding.”
I used to try to explain this to the old maids (and to the old maids in breeches) who yammer about “civility” in political discourse in general in the press in particular.
I finally gave up.
“The New York Times makes up a new hoax and the week is spent on the hoax. The usual suspects swear by the obvious lies and normal people spend days picking apart the lies.” Not to pile on, but this is exactly what Steve Sailer has done for more than 20 years. Z’s post encapsulates what’s wrong with the HBD crowd, which mirrors many white conservatives. For more than two decades, Sailer (and whites conservatives in general) have stretched the limited of Excel spreadsheets to show how the MSM is wrong without ever asking 1) whether the MSM actually thinks… Read more »
” … doesn’t Sailer get bored doing the same thing over and over.?
Does he *personally* write *everything* published with his by-line?
Does SS still have that annoying habit of peremptorily ending his pieces without proper closure? Over on Taki, he seemed unaware of whatever the word limit was, often ending his screeds in mid-thought.
I don’t think Sailer has a big enough operation to employ ghost writers/interns, and Sailer’s writing quirks are pretty specific to him. Unless you know something….
On the other hand, The John Derbyshire operation was pretty comprehensive back in his Taki days. Why, his assistants Mandy, Brandy and Candy were just the tip of the iceberg of his operation on Taki’s secret private island.
I miss his updates on Miss Bum Bum, though he did have something on great import on that not too long ago on the podcast.
“ Besides just normal curiosity, doesn’t Sailer get bored doing the same thing over and over. It’s as though he chooses to be Sisyphus.”
Unfortunately much of the right-of-center audience loves this tiresome formula and doesn’t ask for more.
They love pointing out “lib hypocrisy”, liberal errors, and being outraged at the latest thing the left is doing.
Rather than a genuine desire to solve problems, much of the right sees politics as some perverse form of entertainment. They love their outrage pornography that never goes anywhere.
Agree. They get to show how clever they are while doing nothing about the problem. But in Sailer’s defense, I think he genuinely believes that his logic and facts will win the day. How he believes this after twenty years of abject failure, I don’t know but I think that he does. I’ve often joked that Sailer’s whole blog is one long plea to David Brooks to tell the usual suspects that they should take their foot off the gas because it’ll be better for them and us. What Sailer never seems to understand is that the Brooks’ types don’t… Read more »
In his not-defense I think it should be noticed that Sailer—like every other “HBD”-branded commentator I can think of—holds his rational non-mainstream opinions very gently, while his establishment-approved attitudes have the same idiot rabidity as any (other) Twitter shitlib.
He gets that they hate us.
He *really* gets it.
> Rather than a genuine desire to solve problems, much of the right sees politics as some perverse form of entertainment. Politics really is just entertainment. If there is one thing we on the DR have learned, it is that the world runs on raw power and it has always been that way. There is no “political” solution to our problems. If you really want solutions, you need to look into improving the ethics, morality, and culture of the people, and that is all downstream from our faith and values. This is a multi-generational process that begins with our children… Read more »
“There is no “political” solution to our problems. If you really want solutions, you need to…”
That sentence didn’t end the way I think it should have. People don’t change. You can’t “improve the ethics, morality, and culture of the people.” That’s Utopian “build a better man” thinking, just like Marxists. You can only separate out the ones that don’t agree with your ethics, morality and culture.
Methods for that are left as an exercise for the reader.
Thank you! That is exactly what I was blathering on about Nietzsche (in his intro of “Beyond Good and Evil”). He was criticizing Philosphers specifically, but his thrust was that experts were not questioning their ground assumptions, the often unconscious foundations of what they were seeking to prove, or at least to erect their dialectic upon.
Clearly, his (or other’s similar) advice should be something like: Dare to examine your premises, your initial starting assumptions.
some playful lads on 4chan doxxed Taylor, and had some fun with a hook-up site she is a member of. hope she has fun with all of her new friends….
Lorenz Taylor Onlyfans
Site redirect to my bank account in Costa Rica
The usual suspects swear by the obvious lies and normal people spend days picking apart the lies. “Normal” people don’t indulge in that hobby. Normal people are aware that the overwhelming majority of media presentation has very little, if any, effect on their lives. They’re busy holding a job, raising a family, keeping food on the table and making the payments on the Prius. Most of them couldn’t tell you who represents them in the US House of Representatives. Those that do indulge in superficial political analysis follow the lead of the media’s coverage of criminality and the sexual peccadilloes… Read more »
This is a longer version of “I just wanna grill”
Any DR society needs to let people grill.
Its our job to make a society in which Hubby, Wife, 2-3 kids and a nice grill are out there for everyone willing to put in a bit of effort.
Anything and anyone that stands in the way of that needs to be curb stomped
Mongoloid, he was a mongoloid Happier than you and me Mongoloid, he was a mongoloid And it determined what he could see Mongoloid, he was a mongoloid One chromosome, too many Mongoloid, he was a mongoloid And it determined what he could see And he wore a hat And he had a job And he brought home the bacon So that no one knew He was a mongoloid, mongoloid His friends were unaware Mongoloid, he was a mongoloid Nobody even cared Mongoloid, he was a mongoloid One chromosome, too many Mongoloid, he was a mongoloid And it determined what he… Read more »
A warrior poet walks amongst us ; ))
Thats Devo, fuckhead.
And notice how the RegimeStooge media all colluded, ignoring the Hunter laptop scandal, insisting the story was Russian disinformation, until after the election.
Biden insists he’s running next time, but surely the Dems won’t let that happen.
Could the timing of this latest round of ‘revelations’ re: Hunter’s laptop be their means of making sure Biden won’t be the nominee?
Not just that. I feel the laptop will be the impetus to remove Joe after the election. Watch for who the unelected VP will be.; that’s who is really running the Presidency.
I hear you; though running Biden at this point would seem to entail a considerable risk.
If he should keep getting worse— which is normally the case for age-related dementia— he becomes an uncontrollable factor. I suspect there are quite a few voters who’d hesitate to return an obviously-demented President to office.
No, Joe,
NOT THAT BUTTON
And just as the job of Senator and Congresscritter is addicting once you get there— the perks, the prestige, the invites to cocktail parties, the constant egoboost of being the center of attention, the heady feeling of being part of the in-crowd, one of those ‘in the know’, privy to those secrets concealed from the common people— likewise the position of a RegimeStooge Journalist. Prestige and privilege, and a good salary, and all you have to do is write what you’re told. I’m sure it’s easier if you can convince yourself that everything they’re telling you is true.
For many of them, it’s the best job they’ll ever have. Play the game and even if you don’t hang on to win perpetual re-election, you’ll be rewarded with lobbying gigs and seats on corporate boards.
All of the fraud in the national news organizations just filters down into local news. Local news operations just cut and paste from national content in order to fill time until the goofy weather person or sports geek anchor has their time slot.
True Journalism and journalists are rare.
Something like five companies own every local TV affiliate in the country. They get direction from the national companies on what to cover and how to cover it. The local newspaper is the same way, owned by Gannett or another large operator. There is no local journalism.
“This is extremely dangerous to our democracy!”
https://youtu.be/6MmB7_e7ftY
I don’t think the press or the media ever existed to inform. Newspapers to sell ads , radio and tv to sell soap. The rest was was left with those who wanted to mislead and control the narrative. Usually the weather is somewhat accurate along with box scores.
What was someone’s take on the NY Times correction box to fix an error in previous reporting? It was there to make you think the rest is all true and accurate.
I read somewhere that the post-WW2 years, up until 2015-2016 really, were a strange outlier time in journalism, when the public expected “fair and balanced” reporting and an anchor who was neutral. Maybe this was just an American thing; I dunno. But Boomers and casual newswatchers have a hard time seeing the MSM as a party organ, akin to Pravda or The People’s Daily. When I speak to my lefty associates, they still largely trust the MSM because it’s “sourced”. My news sources, on the other hand, are just some freaks with opinions. Prior to WW2, the news you read… Read more »
True, there were newspapers in many towns with “Democrat” or “Republican” in the paper’s name.
In Chicago it used to be the “Chicago Tribune” was the conservative paper and the “Chicago Sun Times” was the liberal paper. With every J-School grad coming out a screaming lefty who thinks they’re the reincarnation of Woodward or Bernstein, the Tribune is as lefty as “The Reader” (A Far-Left street rag) and the Sun Times is for the “See news. See news run. Run news run.” crowd.
” when the public expected “fair and balanced” reporting and an anchor who was neutral. Maybe this was just an American thing;”
Thanks for the laugh.
“We live in a dirty and dangerous world. There are some things the general public does not need to know and shouldn’t. I believe democracy flourishes when the government can take legitimate steps to keep its secrets and when the press can decide whether to print what it knows.”
~~ Katharine Graham, former Washington Post owner, reported in Online Journal, 2/5/04
That is ironic quote for a newspaper whose motto is “democracy dies in darkness”. I don’t know if that was current when Graham owned it.
This used to be understood at least somewhat by the public. Cities of any size had multiple newspapers and each paper existed to reinforce the beliefs of a certain segment of society. It has always been about pushing an agenda and making money.
This clip is English (from the series “Yes, Prime Minister”) but it illustrates your point perfectly:
https://youtu.be/DGscoaUWW2M
I like the evaluation of “The Sun” readers.
I miss the British.
> It has always been about pushing an agenda and making money.
Key differences are that back then the news was biased in favor of a particular constituency, whereas now they are mere mouthpieces for the government. Also the “making money” problem has been fixed due to oligarchs and deep state connections.
tldr; Transitioning from a racket to outright state-owned propaganda is a big distinction.
It’s unclear who own who 😠
“Usually the weather is somewhat accurate … .”
LOL!
Somewhat exactly!
“Later today, we can expect widely scattered accuracy, and our exclusive Somewhat-Accu-weather satellite tells us that we might even see temperatures around one of those numbers on the thermometer outside your kitchen window … .”
I had quipped on Gab once that no one has ever paid for “news”. Even at the dawn of the printing press the price paid by the schlep on the corner covered some material and logistics costs, but there was usually some moneybags subsidizing (or outright paying for) the content. There for a brief spell papers could use the subscription draw of comics, coupons, sports pages, and, especially, classifieds, to underwrite their news production, and during that time their content was at least OK. However, the Internet killed all that easy revenue off so we’re just left with varying degrees… Read more »
Pre-internet, classified ads were a huge money-maker. The loss of that revenue was the death knell for newspapers. I was instrumental in getting the newspaper I worked at to be one of the first to have on-line classifieds, but they just didn’t take it seriously enough in time. The old guys in the front office couldn’t see the freight train barreling down on them. By the time they realized what a threat Craigslist was, it was too late.
Speaking of Craigslist, I know they’re kind of yesterday’s news, now, but I still use them for buying and selling livestock and farm equipment. But I have no idea what their revenue model is. I pay nothing to post my ads or to search and answer ads on their site. I don’t notice much in the way of paid advertising.
It makes me wonder if they weren’t specifically funded just to break the backs of small, independent local newspapers.
Slightly on topic, the cost to run an obituary in the paper is now outrageous
“Again, like the Examiner piece using the “Institute for the Study of War”, the real story her is a foreign government attacking an American citizen.”
The real story is probably the foreign government doing it on behalf of some elements in the US. “You do my dirty jobs and I will do yours”.
Exactly my thought. What a wicked web we weave.
True. There is a pattern here. The Russian collusion hoax was farmed out to the Brits and Aussies. The Ukraine impeachment hoax was driven by data from Ukraine. My bet is the people assassinated Seth Rich were foreign operatives. It will not be long before some private security contractor working with MI6 is snatching dissidents off the streets of American cities.
Foreign operatives or domestic, it’s clear that someone in authority in the US was managing the coverup. From what I understand, the DC cops barely pretended to investigate Rich’s death; not even bothering to track down and interview the people at the bar he’d just left. Someone came up with and promulgated the narrative of “robbery gone bad”, even though nothing was taken; and “the robbers must have been scared off before they could rob him” even though no one reported scaring off any robbers. And in a way, the obviousness of the coverup makes the message even more dramatic:… Read more »
The United States’ intelligence services farm out domestic spying to the Brits, Aussies, Italians, and others, and the American spooks return the favor and do the dirty work for them inside their borders. The fundamental difference between the Empire and its former Soviet counterpart is the USA pretends to respect human rights although it slaughters innocents with impunity. I had not considered what Z wrote in response to you but, yeah, MI6 very well may start to assassinate the Regime’s opponents within the boundaries of the United States. We have seen only the outlines, but Blair certainly conned the dullard… Read more »
US intelligence agencies are (theoretically) prevented by law from spying on US citizens. But if foreign intelligence agencies do the spying for them— and then choose to share the intel with their American counterparts— US intel gets the info they want, along with plausible deniability: “Nope! Wasn’t us!”
The British connections to our wars is odd. They always seem to be the most enthusiastic. Maybe it’s empire envy or maybe something else.
Then there’s the dog that didn’t bark. Israel works its magic behind the scenes.
Israel often is quite overt. AIPAC basically is a war lobby for Our Greatest Ally.
Poor pacifist Bush dragged into the war by the cunning Blair. Are you not familiar with the foreign policy blob or arms manufacturers or the “Middle East lobby”?
Blair got in the way of the Iraq war roll-out by insisting the basis of it had to be weapons of mass destruction. Bush was for the war before he took office.
Blair also had encouraged Clinton to do what he eventually got W to do and came close to getting war in Iraq several times earlier. Blair and Clinton did not have the shallow pretext of 9/11, though. Bush probably was for the war before he got into office–he’s dangerous as well as an idiot–but he got nudged and encouraged by Blair as well, and a lot of the WMD bullshit was provided to him by MI6.
Just this morning NPR referred to the holdouts in the Maripul steel works as heroic Marines.
They probably meant sclerotic Mujahideens
Not exactly FNG (hat tip to Severian): Both the Russians and Ukrainians have “Naval Infantry” units that, much like our branch, people simply call “Marines”.
Our Devil Dogs may not like it, but Marines/Naval Infantry were the armed troopers serving aboard sailing ships to fight off boarding parties before their role expanded as technology and strategies evolved. Heck, even the Brits have a Royal Marines.
The French,British ,Dutch had marines before the US existed.
The other element of “speaking truth to power” is that each outlet is funded by a different camp, to speak their benefactors’ “truth” to the rest of the Elite. Since the media all end up referencing each other when the week’s thing happens and the narrative forms, teaching the story back to the original article can at least tell you what side of the Elite is pushing the narrative, and give you clues as to why. Hunter’s laptop resurfacing was a loud example of that, and might have kept the Elites it was meant for in line, but we’ll just… Read more »