Every mainstream media (MSM) news outlet serves the interests of the state power or money power that owns and runs it. And frequently those two worldly powers are one and the same. This is true whether the outlet is in America, Russia, Britain or North Korea. The difference is that Western outlets can insult politicians and give a wider range of views; but this difference is of far less value than at first appears. The MSM control the agenda. They report what they want to report, they ignore what they want to ignore. They promote what they want to promote, and discredit what they want to discredit. Loaded words are used constantly, such as a paramilitary being a “Terrorist” if opposed to “Us”, but a “Freedom Fighter” if on “Our” side. Even different words are used for bombs (here.)
The result is that the Western MSM are more truthful, but with little benefit. If someone lampoons Mr Kim in North Korea he will end up in a labour camp. If someone declares Theresa May or Tony Blair to be a War Criminal in Britain, there is no such consequence. But in both cases the leaders continue on their course. The phrase “more truthful” used above is significant. Truth is not relative. It is either the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; alternatively it’s a greater or a lesser lie.
A great danger here is that lies and obfuscation are constantly used to justify violence and war. Hence, in recent times, we have over one hundred cruise missiles fired at Syria because of an alleged gas attack in Douma; an attack which even good Western Journalists denied, and which was never investigated before the missiles were launched. But no missiles were launched at Burma on account of the Rohingya Ethnic Cleansing, or at Israel on account of the shooting of unarmed protesters in Gaza. This is hypocrisy of the very highest order, but after a few weasel words in the MSM things return to business as usual.
Christian Rethink is not a Newsfeed. What’s presented here are occasional articles giving more depth to current issues, particularly with regard to the current greatest war, the so-called “Civil” war in Syria.
UPDATE. Sorry, not much updating since Covid19 has been given all the headlines. But the disinformation continues on all fronts. At the time of writing (21 August 2021) for example, there’s lots of news about the Taliban’s sudden takeover of Afghanistan, but nothing said that this was agreed in February of 2020, nor that part of the agreement was that the Americans and the Taliban would stop killing each other then, nor that US and Allied casualties did indeed cease in that same month, nor that Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, both key politicians in the US-backed Regime, are still in Afghanistan negotiating with the Taliban . . . .
Here’s a cheery story about Afghanistan to set against all the media ones. Years ago, before the US and the Russians de-stabilized the country, I travelled through it with my wife. The most scary experience I had was on a bus journey from Kabul to Kandahar. We stopped at a roadside cafe in the night for refreshment. Leaving my wife at the outside table, I walked around the back of the buildings to find the toilet. I found it, a veritable sh*thole with resident flies and appropriate aroma, used it, and returned to my wife and explained how to find it. She then set off into the darkness, and in no time at all a big, burly Afghan was running after her. He was dressed just as the Mujahadeen and Talibs always are – big turban, long beard, salwar kameez. He was shouting in Farsi and had his arm raised. I jumped out of my chair to defend her, then saw that in his raised hand was a roll of pink toilet tissue.