Mainstream Media: The Devil Wears Pravda

Mainstream Media: The Devil Wears Pravd

Posted By John T. Simpson On September 19, 2009

From the riots and chaos of the 1960s to the anti-war rallies of the Bush years, the American Left’s revolution has been widely televised. In fact, the Big Three and Dead Tree Press played a major part in that revolution. From negative field reporting during the Vietnam War to negative reporting on McCain/Palin and the beatification and election of Barack Obama, the MSM has been marching in lockstep and waving the banner for the American Left all the way. RatherGate, anyone? Doesn’t get much more lockstep than a reporter trying to subvert a presidential election to the Left’s advantage.
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But there’s another revolution underway in America today, and you sure as hell won’t see it televised or reported on by our new fourth branch of government. It’s not in their interest to do so. Nothing new there. For a long time now, political corruption has been rampant in the Leftist ‘mainstream’ media. In 1998, Matt Drudge made his big mark breaking the Monica Lewinsky scandal, which Newsweek had buried to protect President Clinton. Think Obama’s Tiger Beat [2] would have done that for Bush?
It has only gone way downhill since into Soviet-era Pravda [3] territory. The MSM’s modus operandi today is identical, and I don’t say that lightly. But having listened to Radio Moscow broadcasts on ham radio for years during the Cold War era, combined with some Naval Intelligence training and research into the subject, I deconstructed the Soviets’ propaganda MO down to five simple canons. All five are in direct violation of every principle of objective and unbiased journalism there is:
1. Always make the State and its political leadership appear infallible.
2. Promote the State’s ideology and official policies wherever possible.
2. Demonize political adversaries and dissidents as enemies of the State.
4. Suppress news that reflects poorly on the State or its leadership.
5. If bad news cannot be suppressed, attack and discredit the source.
Those canons apply to any totalitarian dictatorship’s propaganda machinery, really. Just ask the Green protesters in Iran. I referenced the Soviet-era Pravda because I know it all too well. Example. All five canons were applied in the days following the KAL 007 shootdown [4] by Russian fighter jets on September 1, 1983. There was nothing from Radio Moscow for days, then a terse statement of how Russian fighters encountered KAL 007 before it “continued on to the Sea of Japan.” That’s verbatim.
Finally, when the big news and damning facts could no longer be suppressed, Radio Moscow went on an all-out offensive, blaming the Americans for their own rash action in shooting down a commercial airliner and killing all 269 passengers and crew. They even insinuated that the flight number, 007, proved that it was on a spy mission. Don’t expect reason [5] or sanity [6] from propagandists.
Now, take a look at those five canons again and compare the MSM’s response to the Van Jones, Yosi Sergant/NEA and ACORN video sting scandals, all stop-the-presses headline stories. Van Jones, a presidential ‘czar’ whom we discover is a radical racist, self-avowed Communist and 9/11 Truther. Yosi Sergant, communications director at the NEA, an independent federal agency, politicizing NEA by coordinating with the White House and artists nationwide to create art promoting Obama’s political agenda, a direct violation of NEA’s charter [7]. And all with our taxpayer dollars.
Last but not least, six ACORN workers in three different field offices, all most willing to perpetrate housing and tax fraud to facilitate the establishment of brothels with illegal alien child sex rings, and all on our dime. Makes you wonder who they’ve placed already. I can just picture Pinchy [8] doing a Dr. Evil-like “Ssssh!” on that last musing at a Times editorial board meeting. Given the Paper of Broken Records’ non-coverage of Van Jones and Yosi Sergant, I’d say Pinchy has a whole bag of “Ssssh!”
The Pulitzer Committee should add a new award category for Best Non-Coverage of a Major News Story. It would be an Oscar-like Battle for the Gold [9] the first year out. It’s tragic to bear witness to, having been weaned on great American investigative journalism [10] that seems almost nonexistent in the MSM these days. Very sad state of affairs, but We The People need to know who and what we’re dealing with here. This now-endemic political corruption in the MSM goes way beyond just reporting or not reporting the news. It violates the sacred public trust We The People have put in our media watchdogs to investigate and report the truth on our behalf so we can make informed decisions.
That political corruption also introduces severe conflicts of interest when ideology trumps major front page news stories, which has happened far too often lately. Our government should be fearful of a free press, not worshiped by it. That’s more apropos for North Korea, not America. A truly free press is supposed to keep public officials honest and on their best behavior, regardless of party affiliation. Unfortunately today, in Animal Farm-like fashion, our MSM pigs and government farmers are all gorging themselves at the same table and berating all the other farm animals who don’t fall in line.
In closing, I’d like to leave you with some schocka headlines from today’s wild British tabloid-like Pravda [11] that you will never see in our ‘mainstream’ press in this Golden Age of the ObamaMessiah [12]:
Obama Embodies Grand Failure of Great Hopes [13]
Barack Obama and the Banality of Evil [14]
Obama is Just a Slave [15]
By stark contrast, our own MSM has reversed roles with Pravda in through-the-glass-darkly fashion and morphed into the Dear Leader Soviet-era version. All major MSM outlets suppressed the Jones story until it was no longer feasible, then attacked and discredited those who would dare expose a self-avowed Communist presidential appointee, all the while omitting key elements of the story and praising Jones despite it all in order to make Jones look good and his political opponents nefarious. That’s all five old-school Pravda canons rolled into one story, and that’s just Van Jones. As an American citizen, how much does that suck? Orwell had days like this [16]. Da Svidaniya, Comrades! [17]
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