Almost Daily Rant

Ministry of (Mis)Information

"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." --  Mahatma Gandhi

As if a 24/7 blitz of corporate news propaganda was not enough for the masses, the State Department has launched a site condemning "conspiracy theories". Perhaps Bagdad Bob has been tasked with running the site?

The US State Department’s America.gov web site, which purports to engage international audiences on issues of foreign policy, society and values, has dedicated a special section to conspiracy theories and misinformation, claiming:

“Conspiracy theories exist in the realm of myth, where imaginations run wild, fears trump facts, and evidence is ignored. As a superpower, the United States is often cast as a villain in these dramas.” (Read full article)

The Art of Propaganda

I suspect you're well aware of the propaganda techniques used by a bought and paid for media to promote the Agenda. Edward Bernays is the Godfather of manipulating public opinion, but the article below is a very good summary of the framework.

Following this brief introduction is an attempt to enumerate powerful propaganda techniques being used on the American public by the corporate or so called "mainstream" media. Give this a good read, and my guess is that after you are armed with this important information, you will be able to spot these techniques as they are being deployed against you. The best way to counter propaganda is to understand the techniques and how they are used.

framing the debate

Debate a legitimate issue, and ostensibly have both sides represented, but instead on the continuum of opinion, have one from the middle and one from an extreme view and thus contain the debate to meet your ideological framing and goals. Alternatively, have a strong debater for one side, and a weak debater for the point of view you would like to suppress.

programming the viewers attitudes

This is one of the most common propaganda techniques. Cover a story, complete with your ideological spin, and then follow up with interviews of  "ordinary people" who support your point of view but frame it as the popular point of view or the only point of view. The viewer walks away with a powerful form of sub conscious attitude programming.

distraction

This is another common technique in use today. Instead of covering stories that matter, cover irrelevant, trivial stories about entertainers or celebrities and blow them up into grand productions so you don't have to discuss anything that really matters, or when something happens that you don't want to discuss but ordinarily would be forced by popular opinion to discuss, generate a distraction which you discuss instead. (Read Full Article)

CyberTyranny Act Take 2

Shelly Roche dissects the modified Cyber Tyranny Act, another offensive in the War on Internet.

Turn off Your TV

Every now and then when I’m felling masochistic, I turn on one of the IBNN (Info Babe News Networks) just to see just how thick the infotainers are pouring it on. It wasn’t always this bad of course. Though never completely removed from agendas, there was a time when news was a public service and there wasn’t quite as wide a gap between reality and the narrative that explained it.

The chart above shows how media ownership has consolidated over the years. Given the interests these media companies represent, is there any wonder why the news has become so cartoonish? Is there any wonder why financial "expert" analysis is a recipe for bankruptcy, political punditry a puppet show and opinions expressed outside the groupthink du jour heresy?

War on Internet

Freedom of thought and expression through an open medium is the biggest threat to any closed society. And there is no bigger threat to the 24x7 bombardment of infotainment, pundit-speak and propaganda of the corporate media than the Internet.

The proposed Cyber Security Act of 2009, according to Section 18 of S.773 gives the President the right to, “declare a cybersecurity emergency and order the limitation or shutdown of Internet traffic to and from any compromised Federal Government or United States critical infrastructure information system or network.”

 

 

So what is a “critical infrastructure information system or network”?

 

 

The term ‘Federal Government and United States critical infrastructure information systems and networks’ includes State, local, and nongovernmental information systems and networks in the United States designated by the President as critical infrastructure information systems and networks.

 

 

In other words, any network, host, server, mobile device, website, blog, community board or forum that the President wants to unplug. Remember, this isn’t necessarily about the current Administration. Legislation or Executive Orders signed can lay dormant for years for more sinister purposes beyond the already undemocratic effects of suppressed speech.

 

 

As more applications are centralized through cloud computing and more security breaches inevitably occur, no doubt each incident will be conveniently publicized to yet again create a sense of the imminent threat or crisis that requires the government to protect us.

 

 

Making matters worse is the current push to completely neuter or spade the alternative media. Obama’s choice to head the Orwellian-sounding White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs should worry any advocate of free speech.

 

When it comes to the First Amendment, Team Obama believes in Global Chilling.

Cass Sunstein, a Harvard Law professor who has been appointed to a shadowy post that will grant him powers that are merely mind-boggling, explicitly supports using the courts to impose a "chilling effect" on speech that might hurt someone's feelings. He thinks that the bloggers have been rampaging out of control and that new laws need to be written to corral them.

Advance copies of Sunstein's new book, "On Rumors: How Falsehoods Spread, Why We Believe Them, What Can Be Done," have gone out to reviewers ahead of its September publication date, but considering the prominence with which Sunstein is about to be endowed, his worrying views are fair game now. Sunstein is President Obama's choice to head the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. It's the bland titles that should scare you the most (cont.).