Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley): If you watch western news media with a critical eye you eventually notice how their reporting consistently aligns with the interests of the US-centralized empire, in almost the same way you'd expect them to if they were government-run propaganda outlets.
Astonishing how Johnstone churns out first-rate, extremely well written substack posts, that even include a good amount of citations, and does so on a near daily basis. She's like the Van Gogh of substack writers - we know Van Gogh in a short period of 10 years painted about 900 paintings. Will Caitlin surpass Van Gogh?!
I will disagree with the assumption that they believe their own lies. Some if not many of them anyway. Otherwise why do they repeatedly refuse debate and discussion with actual honest journalists and others? Which raises the questions like Gary Webb, Danny Casalaro and many more like them. Gary who I spoke with a few times had two entry wounds to the back of the skull I believe and he death was declared a suicide. Read his book the dark alliance.
I spent over a decade in government and longer than that on accountability work.
So I can tell you that many of exactly the same class and careerism and power dynamics determine who rises and who is appointed to powerful government positions. Also, who is ostracized as "a problem", marginalized, ground down, forced out, and/or fired.
I worked on a case where the State's lead nuclear regulator blew the whistle and immediately was stripped of work, demoted, re-assigned in retaliation- literally - to a broom closet. State officials then pursued sham disciplinary actions. They were so stupid that they claimed that toll receipts from the Garden State Parkway were evidence that the whistleblower was spending time gambling in Atlantic City, when he really was driving to the nuke plant!
An excellent and extraordinarily detailed article, although the structure he described is very familiar to me, since I was a reader of Pravda and other Soviet state-published press, not to mention the former communist centrally published and proofread printed and broadcast media published in my own country !
I can already feel the "smell" when press hyenas inform the public in biased, state-controlled articles dictated by secret services in no small part ! Well, around the US press, I feel a stinking dead smell like the last time I smelled in an American forest, I found a badger that had been dead for days !
If someone seriously wants to delve into how the US uses its secret services to control, for example, German press workers, I would wholeheartedly recommend Udo Ulfkotte's book "Bought Journalists"! I would like to note that the author has left this world as if by order, after his pacemaker failed, what a coincidence!
All these things are tied together and are not by accident obviously. These things wouldn't bother me if these things were so effective. That people know these things and just shrug. They are used to it. Another psyop. Just like the movement against progressive ideas and those not supporting war.
Why is every mainstream journalist sound like a war hawk? The US government is a war machine. So when you are dealing with the US you make the country sound like the good guy in all cases, that they are right and just. Simple. That's what happens, especially at the start. Afterwards when things go on, you're allowed some criticism just to give the illusion of dissent. That's the part of feeding the journalists the narrative, imagine being paid and someone else already done your journalism for you. Easy.
This also ties to media influence and why voting is meaningless. You will never vote on anything meaningful. Like Clinton or any other mainstream politician or political party influencer, you are given candidates to represent you. They represent the empire. We are told which ideas are popular, even if they are absurd like your article about republicans and their perception of transgender influence. Democrats are no better with their identity politics. All minorities-all people should have equality. They stunk when it came to their campaign championing women's rights recently.
We are told what to think, what our values are to align with the party. Even if it is the antithesis. Both parties are antiintellectual. Schools are failing in the US. Both parties are pro war and pro wealth hoarding for the rich. You mentioned that the western left doesn't exist in any meaningful numbers. That's by design. Imagine two parties claiming to be opposites always end up agreeing on the same issues, producing them same results.
Journalists in the mainstram are just the tools used to advance the empire's interests. You call it manufacturing consent, that's what the mainstream journalists job is. Who are they talking to? Us. Who are they working for? The government. They sound like war progandists because everything boils down to pro war in a totalitarian state. Free speech is meaningless if there is no platform to be heard on. It is all geared to alter our perception to be pro war. Removing the knowledge of anti-us government regime change, alters people's perception.
These 15 points are tied together purposefully, as I mentioned.
Almost all mass media employees are merely public relations instruments for thinly shrouded power brokers. They launder and massage approved narrative information for public consumption and decant it to the masses like Kool-Aid, gladly doing the bidding for 30 pieces of silver and a Junior Membership in The Club.
If anyone doesn’t understand why Assange is locked away, prevented from defending himself in a court, Caitlin’s many examples of the media’s selective coverage explains it well.
The news networks and the national newspapers are sophisticated instruments of disinformation and cannot survive as such if the public fully grasps this.
Great effort is taken to dress the package as if it is the real thing. And these owned media have the benefit of past examples of real journalism. I.F. Stone, Edward Murrow, Martha Gellhorn all worked in a commercial medium that was not owned by oligarchs, and journalism was still a relatively apolitical calling. The NYTimes published The Pentagon Papers, which, to be fair, was inside information about the complete fabrications upon which the Vietnam War was based, and that was the work of a whistleblower, not of investigative journalism. And the Washington Post broke the Watergate scandal, which, to be fair, was only made possible when another insider leaked sensitive information to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.
So for all Millennials and X-gen readers and younger, if you want democracy, start with baby steps, and just close the doors of government to private money. If enough people demand it...
I can remember the days when there were those who expressed concern over not only the corporate ownership of the media but the CONCENTRATION of corporate ownership. Today we we are seeing the full night mare.
Where I used to avidly follow Canadian politics, it now makes my skin crawl and I have turned to the international and independent media where there are very capable world class journalists, analysts and academics willing to speak truth to power.
Fortunately the total collapse of the Western MSM has spawned a whole wave of independents globally, sinking the MSM into irrelevance.
Americans can feel fortunate you still have an independent progressive media-- I do a lot of cross border shopping. In Canada we are a propaganda ghetto where the government subsidizes the MSM prestitutes know exactly where and when to shave their content.
We have a few outlets that claim to be progressive and speaking truth to power; but they do creme puff journalism.
Thank you for this excellent report!! It would be wonderful if this piece would be published in all the major newspapers in the world, and covered on all the mainstream television news program, but we know better. These "so-called journalists" of the MSM will never admit to any of these reasons why they act like propagandists. They just won't. More reasons to support independent journalism (and Substack writers)!
Astonishing how Johnstone churns out first-rate, extremely well written substack posts, that even include a good amount of citations, and does so on a near daily basis. She's like the Van Gogh of substack writers - we know Van Gogh in a short period of 10 years painted about 900 paintings. Will Caitlin surpass Van Gogh?!
I will disagree with the assumption that they believe their own lies. Some if not many of them anyway. Otherwise why do they repeatedly refuse debate and discussion with actual honest journalists and others? Which raises the questions like Gary Webb, Danny Casalaro and many more like them. Gary who I spoke with a few times had two entry wounds to the back of the skull I believe and he death was declared a suicide. Read his book the dark alliance.
Just go ahead and call them presstitutes.
Caitlin and Tim: this article knocks it out of the park. Thanks for your continuing dedication to actual journalism.
I spent over a decade in government and longer than that on accountability work.
So I can tell you that many of exactly the same class and careerism and power dynamics determine who rises and who is appointed to powerful government positions. Also, who is ostracized as "a problem", marginalized, ground down, forced out, and/or fired.
I worked on a case where the State's lead nuclear regulator blew the whistle and immediately was stripped of work, demoted, re-assigned in retaliation- literally - to a broom closet. State officials then pursued sham disciplinary actions. They were so stupid that they claimed that toll receipts from the Garden State Parkway were evidence that the whistleblower was spending time gambling in Atlantic City, when he really was driving to the nuke plant!
Absolutely top notch essay...in analysis and evidence and clarity. Bravo Caitlin Johnstone! This is a keeper as a standard reference. Many thanks!
An excellent and extraordinarily detailed article, although the structure he described is very familiar to me, since I was a reader of Pravda and other Soviet state-published press, not to mention the former communist centrally published and proofread printed and broadcast media published in my own country !
I can already feel the "smell" when press hyenas inform the public in biased, state-controlled articles dictated by secret services in no small part ! Well, around the US press, I feel a stinking dead smell like the last time I smelled in an American forest, I found a badger that had been dead for days !
If someone seriously wants to delve into how the US uses its secret services to control, for example, German press workers, I would wholeheartedly recommend Udo Ulfkotte's book "Bought Journalists"! I would like to note that the author has left this world as if by order, after his pacemaker failed, what a coincidence!
All these things are tied together and are not by accident obviously. These things wouldn't bother me if these things were so effective. That people know these things and just shrug. They are used to it. Another psyop. Just like the movement against progressive ideas and those not supporting war.
Why is every mainstream journalist sound like a war hawk? The US government is a war machine. So when you are dealing with the US you make the country sound like the good guy in all cases, that they are right and just. Simple. That's what happens, especially at the start. Afterwards when things go on, you're allowed some criticism just to give the illusion of dissent. That's the part of feeding the journalists the narrative, imagine being paid and someone else already done your journalism for you. Easy.
This also ties to media influence and why voting is meaningless. You will never vote on anything meaningful. Like Clinton or any other mainstream politician or political party influencer, you are given candidates to represent you. They represent the empire. We are told which ideas are popular, even if they are absurd like your article about republicans and their perception of transgender influence. Democrats are no better with their identity politics. All minorities-all people should have equality. They stunk when it came to their campaign championing women's rights recently.
We are told what to think, what our values are to align with the party. Even if it is the antithesis. Both parties are antiintellectual. Schools are failing in the US. Both parties are pro war and pro wealth hoarding for the rich. You mentioned that the western left doesn't exist in any meaningful numbers. That's by design. Imagine two parties claiming to be opposites always end up agreeing on the same issues, producing them same results.
Journalists in the mainstram are just the tools used to advance the empire's interests. You call it manufacturing consent, that's what the mainstream journalists job is. Who are they talking to? Us. Who are they working for? The government. They sound like war progandists because everything boils down to pro war in a totalitarian state. Free speech is meaningless if there is no platform to be heard on. It is all geared to alter our perception to be pro war. Removing the knowledge of anti-us government regime change, alters people's perception.
These 15 points are tied together purposefully, as I mentioned.
Almost all mass media employees are merely public relations instruments for thinly shrouded power brokers. They launder and massage approved narrative information for public consumption and decant it to the masses like Kool-Aid, gladly doing the bidding for 30 pieces of silver and a Junior Membership in The Club.
I've been waiting for an article like this for years. Thanks! To show gratitude, I signed up for a month paid (substack really needs a tip function).
I would appreciate some follow-up on: "Some of it is indeed conspiratorial in nature and happens in secret." What are examples of this?
Also editors seems to wield a lot of power behind the scenes. What is their role in propagating the pro establishment media system?
Cutouts such as the National Endowment For Democracy and Bellingcat.
Awesome overview!
And this is what's goin' on:
"It can also take the form of encouraging the public to fight a culture war so that they won't start fighting a class war."
If anyone doesn’t understand why Assange is locked away, prevented from defending himself in a court, Caitlin’s many examples of the media’s selective coverage explains it well.
The news networks and the national newspapers are sophisticated instruments of disinformation and cannot survive as such if the public fully grasps this.
Great effort is taken to dress the package as if it is the real thing. And these owned media have the benefit of past examples of real journalism. I.F. Stone, Edward Murrow, Martha Gellhorn all worked in a commercial medium that was not owned by oligarchs, and journalism was still a relatively apolitical calling. The NYTimes published The Pentagon Papers, which, to be fair, was inside information about the complete fabrications upon which the Vietnam War was based, and that was the work of a whistleblower, not of investigative journalism. And the Washington Post broke the Watergate scandal, which, to be fair, was only made possible when another insider leaked sensitive information to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.
So for all Millennials and X-gen readers and younger, if you want democracy, start with baby steps, and just close the doors of government to private money. If enough people demand it...
I can remember the days when there were those who expressed concern over not only the corporate ownership of the media but the CONCENTRATION of corporate ownership. Today we we are seeing the full night mare.
Where I used to avidly follow Canadian politics, it now makes my skin crawl and I have turned to the international and independent media where there are very capable world class journalists, analysts and academics willing to speak truth to power.
Fortunately the total collapse of the Western MSM has spawned a whole wave of independents globally, sinking the MSM into irrelevance.
Americans can feel fortunate you still have an independent progressive media-- I do a lot of cross border shopping. In Canada we are a propaganda ghetto where the government subsidizes the MSM prestitutes know exactly where and when to shave their content.
We have a few outlets that claim to be progressive and speaking truth to power; but they do creme puff journalism.
We have one outstanding lone wolf journalist who has been called "Canada's Noam Chomsky". Yves Engler is his name and his blog is at: https://yvesengler.com/2023/06/01/ukraine-supporters-attack-free-speech-in-name-of-democracy/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ukraine-supporters-attack-free-speech-in-name-of-democracy
Thank you for this excellent report!! It would be wonderful if this piece would be published in all the major newspapers in the world, and covered on all the mainstream television news program, but we know better. These "so-called journalists" of the MSM will never admit to any of these reasons why they act like propagandists. They just won't. More reasons to support independent journalism (and Substack writers)!
This post can serve as an abstract for "Manufacturing Consent".