Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Caitlin Johnstone): I don’t mention it often but I actually have a degree in journalism. I graduated with distinction from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 2003, and while it would be another 13 years before I’d ever put my degree to any use, the experience played a massive role in forming my opinions about the mainstream press.
As John Lennon told us; "I read the news today, oh boy, the English army had just won the war." Well, not really, that was the Soviets, but that headline wouldn't sell so well, and no one else would be reporting it that way.
I had a parallel experience in science. Research PhD: expected path was post-doc (maybe several), then obtain research grant, deliver to research institution as research assistant professor --> tenure track, blah blah. But I discovered I loved to teach and students thought I was unusually good at it. And so I followed my spirit and said "screw it" to the standard expectations. As your (and perhaps my) experience illustrates, we need a lot more of those nonstandard paths in all areas of human endeavor if we are to shake up this corrupt self-reinforcing system enough to actually set a better course for ourselves. Just an opinion, of course.
What Caitlin is saying is certainly true of my experience as a writer even though my degrees were in philosophy and health education, not journalism. I would underscore, as well, that what Caitlin is saying about journalism is true of every academic discipline: if you do not learn to credibly parrot the dominant narratives and believe them with all your heart, you will not survive a hostile job market designed to promote yes men/women and weed out dissidents of whatever stripe. This is also true in health and medical occupations, that if you do not embrace the dominant paradigms and practices early on (all dictated by bottom line considerations) there's a good possibility you'll be refused a university degree, much less not survive the grueling internship that's a requirement for professional practice.
America is ruled by Mob-think. Tocqueville observed back in the 1830's that Americans had freedom of expression but everyone said the same things. Lately it's become painfully obvious that censorship on the internet has taken a turn for the worse, and comments that are deemed not PC get shut off. Our daily conversations with people have to conform to what the majority is peddling or we meet a wall of silence.
You can't have a serious discussion on say political corruption lasting more than five minutes in America but go abroad and perhaps you can discuss it all night long. In this environment the status quo is always upheld and any opinion to the contrary is considered heresy. To prop up this bankrupt status quo the powers that be keep the nation under control with a cabal of dinosaurs. Forget about reform.
The news complex has got to be one of the most detrimental constructs ever invented. Pure and utter propaganda.
Thank you so much Caitlin for choosing a different path. It's thanks to people like you that we can still find dissenting opinions. Nothing is more important right now!
After years of owning and running a private medical primary care practice I took on a side job 6 hours a week, as a Chief Medical Officer of a local nuclear power plant. That is where I quickly learned what it means to tow the corporate line. I was hired just after the plant had a 2 million hour of no on-the-job-accident celebration. A very big affair to which I was invited. Lots of awards, tables of food, and dignitaries. Two weeks into the job I examined an injured worker, who could barely walk and he was in moderate pain. I sent him home with followup and filled out the requisite worker’s injury forms as not able to work until improved. Within 30 minutes the head of the plant was at my door yelling WTF, this was not acceptable. The lightbulb went off in my head as I reviewed previous significantly injured worker’s cases with the nursing staff. Of course bonus pay was involved with the no injury record in the departments. Most significantly injured personnel were brought back to the plant by a co-worker for 30 minutes or so daily, allowed to sit in a chair and sign in, then escorted by car back home. Voila, no on the job injuries and the monies kept flowing. The injured workers went along with this scheme as not to disappoint his or her team.
This is what Caitlin refers to as everyone knows exactly what they are supposed to do without being told to do so. I didn’t last too long in that corporate world of deceit. Even when I thought I was advocating for my patient, I realized who was the boss and who set the rules.
Really enjoyed this one. Some further reading which really illuminates how the press work:
o Heroes (or pretty much anything really) by John Pilger.
o Flat Earth News by Nick Davies.
o No contest by Alfie Kohn.
I also had a similar experience to Caitlin when I was just out of university. I worked for a company that created personalised need feeds for clients.
My job involved, essentially, reading and categorising offered releases to make sure they went to the right people. Two absolutely key things I learnt from that:
o The vast majority of the news you read is a combination of news agency wire clippings, corporate and government press releases, and quotes from officials taken from, you guessed it, MPs press releases. What Davies calls Churnalism. Moat 'journalists' spend their days doing a combination of cutting and pasting and editing. This is why all the papers are identical, they take the same stuff from the same sources. 'No Contest' explains the mechanism for this - it's competition. Read that book for further details but suffice it to say that everything you think about competition is very likely to be inaccurate.
o There are obvious linka the press never looka at, and they're generally linked to raw materials. I can't tell you how often I'd see a combination of press releases that went something like this:
'MPs condemn brutality of the civil war in x region of y African country.
Rip Tinto announces immense diamond mine in x region of y African country. (And it was often Rio Tinto, those guys are absolute scumbags).
It doesn't take a genius to work out that there's something fishy going on when a corporation is perfectly happy to open a goddamn diamond mine or whatever in what's supposed to be the midst of a bloody civil war. Read between the lines a bit and it's very obvious that one or both sides must be getting paid off - how else could the mine stay open?
This, btw, is why clues up activists as well as business types but the Financial Times. Because the FT openly lays out those kinds of facts.
I spent most of my (20) years in television, working in operations and engineering. While not directly in the news department, I was required to record satellite feeds for the news department to use. Many from pharmaceutical companies, organizations and agricultural entities, as well of course ones from government agencies. One day standing next to the monitor checking the feed, I decided to read the copy on the screen which was the pre-written copy for the reporter to use. Noteworthy were the blank spaces for their ("add your here") names and news organization. Much to my chagrin, another moment came when I was personally deeply involved with a statewide protest and was in the room when an important vote was coming from the governor and state council. Who across the room did I see? A former employee of the news department who had gone to work for the governor's office. Ha Ha. You have to laugh. Not so funny now of course!
Thankfully there is a global network of very good journalists emerging. For those of us living in North America and Western Europe it is more important than ever to multi source our news and opinion internationally.
In Canada our MSM is a total waste of time and our alternate sources aren't any better. Americans can be thankful there many alternates willing to give you the straight goods.
This is WW lll and it is a very hybrid war fought on many fronts: only one of which is the battle for freedom of speech.
I think that every decent person who loves the truth should read the book "The Bought Journalists" by Udo Ulfkotte, a former journalist of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, who unfortunately passed away (in somewhat suspicious circumstances) !
If you read his book, you will look at the lying profession of journalism in the West as "authentic" a little differently ! 😉
As John Lennon told us; "I read the news today, oh boy, the English army had just won the war." Well, not really, that was the Soviets, but that headline wouldn't sell so well, and no one else would be reporting it that way.
I had a parallel experience in science. Research PhD: expected path was post-doc (maybe several), then obtain research grant, deliver to research institution as research assistant professor --> tenure track, blah blah. But I discovered I loved to teach and students thought I was unusually good at it. And so I followed my spirit and said "screw it" to the standard expectations. As your (and perhaps my) experience illustrates, we need a lot more of those nonstandard paths in all areas of human endeavor if we are to shake up this corrupt self-reinforcing system enough to actually set a better course for ourselves. Just an opinion, of course.
What Caitlin is saying is certainly true of my experience as a writer even though my degrees were in philosophy and health education, not journalism. I would underscore, as well, that what Caitlin is saying about journalism is true of every academic discipline: if you do not learn to credibly parrot the dominant narratives and believe them with all your heart, you will not survive a hostile job market designed to promote yes men/women and weed out dissidents of whatever stripe. This is also true in health and medical occupations, that if you do not embrace the dominant paradigms and practices early on (all dictated by bottom line considerations) there's a good possibility you'll be refused a university degree, much less not survive the grueling internship that's a requirement for professional practice.
America is ruled by Mob-think. Tocqueville observed back in the 1830's that Americans had freedom of expression but everyone said the same things. Lately it's become painfully obvious that censorship on the internet has taken a turn for the worse, and comments that are deemed not PC get shut off. Our daily conversations with people have to conform to what the majority is peddling or we meet a wall of silence.
You can't have a serious discussion on say political corruption lasting more than five minutes in America but go abroad and perhaps you can discuss it all night long. In this environment the status quo is always upheld and any opinion to the contrary is considered heresy. To prop up this bankrupt status quo the powers that be keep the nation under control with a cabal of dinosaurs. Forget about reform.
The news complex has got to be one of the most detrimental constructs ever invented. Pure and utter propaganda.
Thank you so much Caitlin for choosing a different path. It's thanks to people like you that we can still find dissenting opinions. Nothing is more important right now!
Yes Caitlin. Thank you.
Their reporting is nonsense, not news sense.
News is what somebody somewhere wants to suppress; all the rest is advertising.
Lord Northcliffe
You definitely made the right choice
After years of owning and running a private medical primary care practice I took on a side job 6 hours a week, as a Chief Medical Officer of a local nuclear power plant. That is where I quickly learned what it means to tow the corporate line. I was hired just after the plant had a 2 million hour of no on-the-job-accident celebration. A very big affair to which I was invited. Lots of awards, tables of food, and dignitaries. Two weeks into the job I examined an injured worker, who could barely walk and he was in moderate pain. I sent him home with followup and filled out the requisite worker’s injury forms as not able to work until improved. Within 30 minutes the head of the plant was at my door yelling WTF, this was not acceptable. The lightbulb went off in my head as I reviewed previous significantly injured worker’s cases with the nursing staff. Of course bonus pay was involved with the no injury record in the departments. Most significantly injured personnel were brought back to the plant by a co-worker for 30 minutes or so daily, allowed to sit in a chair and sign in, then escorted by car back home. Voila, no on the job injuries and the monies kept flowing. The injured workers went along with this scheme as not to disappoint his or her team.
This is what Caitlin refers to as everyone knows exactly what they are supposed to do without being told to do so. I didn’t last too long in that corporate world of deceit. Even when I thought I was advocating for my patient, I realized who was the boss and who set the rules.
Really enjoyed this one. Some further reading which really illuminates how the press work:
o Heroes (or pretty much anything really) by John Pilger.
o Flat Earth News by Nick Davies.
o No contest by Alfie Kohn.
I also had a similar experience to Caitlin when I was just out of university. I worked for a company that created personalised need feeds for clients.
My job involved, essentially, reading and categorising offered releases to make sure they went to the right people. Two absolutely key things I learnt from that:
o The vast majority of the news you read is a combination of news agency wire clippings, corporate and government press releases, and quotes from officials taken from, you guessed it, MPs press releases. What Davies calls Churnalism. Moat 'journalists' spend their days doing a combination of cutting and pasting and editing. This is why all the papers are identical, they take the same stuff from the same sources. 'No Contest' explains the mechanism for this - it's competition. Read that book for further details but suffice it to say that everything you think about competition is very likely to be inaccurate.
o There are obvious linka the press never looka at, and they're generally linked to raw materials. I can't tell you how often I'd see a combination of press releases that went something like this:
'MPs condemn brutality of the civil war in x region of y African country.
Rip Tinto announces immense diamond mine in x region of y African country. (And it was often Rio Tinto, those guys are absolute scumbags).
It doesn't take a genius to work out that there's something fishy going on when a corporation is perfectly happy to open a goddamn diamond mine or whatever in what's supposed to be the midst of a bloody civil war. Read between the lines a bit and it's very obvious that one or both sides must be getting paid off - how else could the mine stay open?
This, btw, is why clues up activists as well as business types but the Financial Times. Because the FT openly lays out those kinds of facts.
I spent most of my (20) years in television, working in operations and engineering. While not directly in the news department, I was required to record satellite feeds for the news department to use. Many from pharmaceutical companies, organizations and agricultural entities, as well of course ones from government agencies. One day standing next to the monitor checking the feed, I decided to read the copy on the screen which was the pre-written copy for the reporter to use. Noteworthy were the blank spaces for their ("add your here") names and news organization. Much to my chagrin, another moment came when I was personally deeply involved with a statewide protest and was in the room when an important vote was coming from the governor and state council. Who across the room did I see? A former employee of the news department who had gone to work for the governor's office. Ha Ha. You have to laugh. Not so funny now of course!
Thankfully there is a global network of very good journalists emerging. For those of us living in North America and Western Europe it is more important than ever to multi source our news and opinion internationally.
In Canada our MSM is a total waste of time and our alternate sources aren't any better. Americans can be thankful there many alternates willing to give you the straight goods.
This is WW lll and it is a very hybrid war fought on many fronts: only one of which is the battle for freedom of speech.
I worked at ABC World News. The Process was pyramidal in structure and there was the red phone in every room.
The mainstream “News” invariably is like kissing a wet fart . . .
I choose to avoid it.
MSM all owned by the same corps and pushing agendas—period.
Caitlin you’re a refreshing champion of truth through independent thought and genuine journalism.
Hard to believe that was the same Chomsky who later advocated that the unjabbed be excluded from society.
I think that every decent person who loves the truth should read the book "The Bought Journalists" by Udo Ulfkotte, a former journalist of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, who unfortunately passed away (in somewhat suspicious circumstances) !
If you read his book, you will look at the lying profession of journalism in the West as "authentic" a little differently ! 😉