Two PSAs

First, Part 4 of UkraineGate (of a projected 8 parts) from Les-Crises.fr has been published.

swprs.org

The site doesn’t mention copyrights nor Creative Commons, so I’ll paste in some of the lengthy text, a few of the many, many graphics, then allow you to continue to peruse the rest of the study.

“It is one of the most important aspects of our media system, and yet hardly known to the public: most of the international news coverage in Western media is provided by only three global news agencies based in New York, London and Paris.

The key role played by these agencies means Western media often report on the same topics, even using the same wording. In addition, governments, military and intelligence services use these global news agencies as multipliers to spread their messages around the world.

A study of the Syria war coverage by nine leading European newspapers clearly illustrates these issues: 78% of all articles were based in whole or in part on agency reports, yet 0% on investigative research. Moreover, 82% of all opinion pieces and interviews were in favor of a US and NATO intervention, while propaganda was attributed exclusively to the opposite side.” [snip]

“The Invisible Nerve Center of the Media System”

So what are the names of these agencies that are “always at the source of the story”? There are now only three global news agencies left:

  1. The American Associated Press (AP) with over 4000 employees worldwide. The AP belongs to US media companies and has its main editorial office in New York. AP news is used by around 12,000 international media outlets, reaching more than half of the world’s population every day.
  2. The quasi-governmental French Agence France-Presse (AFP) based in Paris and with around 4000 employees. The AFP sends over 3000 stories and photos every day to media all over the world.
  3. The British agency Reuters in London, which is privately owned and employs just over 3000 people. Reuters was acquired in 2008 by Canadian media entrepreneur Thomson – one of the 25 richest people in the world – and merged into Thomson Reuters, headquartered in New York.

In addition, many countries run their own news agencies. These include, for instance, the German DPA, the Austrian APA, and the Swiss SDA. When it comes to international news, however, national agencies usually rely on the three global agencies and simply copy and translate their reports.

The three global news agencies Reuters, AFP and AP, and the three national agencies of the German-speaking countries of Austria (APA), Germany (DPA) and Switzerland (SDA). [large snip]

“In the end, this dependency on the global agencies creates a striking similarity in international reporting: from Vienna to Washington, our media often report the same topics, using many of the same phrases – a phenomenon that would otherwise rather be associated with »controlled media« in authoritarian states.

The following graphic shows some examples from German and international publications. As you can see, despite the claimed objectivity, a slight (geo-)political bias sometimes creeps in.

“Putin threatens”, “Iran provokes”, “NATO concerned”, “Assad stronghold”: Similarities in content and wording due to reports by global news agencies.” [snip]

“What the agency does not report, does not take place”

The central role of news agencies also explains why, in geopolitical conflicts, most media use the same original sources. In the Syrian war, for example, the “Syrian Observatory for Human Rights” – a dubious one-man organization based in London –  featured prominently. The media rarely inquired directly at this “Observatory”, as its operator was in fact difficult to reach, even for journalists.

Rather, the “Observatory” delivered its stories to global agencies, which then forwarded them to thousands of media outlets, which in turn “informed” hundreds of millions of readers and viewers worldwide. The reason why the agencies, of all places, referred to this strange “Observatory” in their reporting – and who really financed it – is a question that was rarely asked.”

 The rest is here, along with other titles and other languages.

Share
up
13 users have voted.

Comments

Cassiodorus's picture

they are making stuff up.

up
4 users have voted.

"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

wendy davis's picture

@Cassiodorus @Cassiodorus

let's say they massage and spin facts into something resembling The Truth that will serve the amerikan empire and NATO. ; ) okay; and sometimes they just make shit up!

i'd quit jacking text until i discovered that the study had twigged to the syrian observatory for human rights is actually one dude in his mother's basement on the UK...who's never even been to syria!

and that illustrious organization is often quoted by Bellingcat crowd-source online journalism (who by the way did a three-day course at the Intercept''s offices), the OPCW, and the white helmets.

but then, HRW and amnesty int'l are very compromised as well:

and who's your new spooky avatar? yikes!

up
4 users have voted.
Pluto's Republic's picture

This information is forbidden by the media monopolies in the US.

This video clarifies the relationship between Sorkin and Lutshenko, who replaced him. It was Lutshenko, who was subsequently barred from taking the evidence related to the completed investigation into American corruption and election rigging from Ukraine during late 2015 and all of 2016 — presenting this evidence to the Department of Justice in DC. The evil US ambassador who testified at Trump's impeachment hearing refused to issue visas for the Ukrainian investigators to enter the US. Lutshenko was told the only way he could get the evidence to the US was to give it to the FBI in Ukraine. Lutshenko wisely refused to put it in the FBI's hands. Being Ukrainian, he knows more about government corruption than most people in the world.

The US contingent is still trying to cover up their own election crimes that took place in Ukraine, which also overlap the Biden crimes. The US ambassador worked with a criminal group operating in the Ukraine government to steal alleged levers relating to Paul Manafort's work in Ukraine many years earlier. These were smuggled back to the Obama administration and used to smear the Trump campaign through the prosecution of Manafort for tax evasion when he working on an unrelated project back in 2013-14. Ukraine was also participating parts of the dirty dossier of lies about Trump that would be used to sabotage his Presidential campaign. This is another reasons that the US Ambassador to Ukraine was fired by Trump. During that same time, Hillary took in more money from Ukraine than she did from any other nation in the world. When in February 2019 Trump first asked Ukraine for an investigation into this corruption and US election meddling, Biden was not a candidate for the 2020 presidency. Furthermore, those investigations were complete long before he asked, but the Ambassador (and others who testified at his impeachment hearing) were actively blocking the the charges and evidence from reaching Washington.

Apparently, the majority of brainwashed Americans are unable to muster the intellectual honesty to incorporate these facts and testimony into the narrative they use to define reality, rendering them delusional. Democrats and others with this type of brain injury should not be in the same political party as the Left, or in any serious discussion about the nation's future. There is not enough time to wait for them to die off, so they should be socially quarantined and removed from office as soon as possible.

up
8 users have voted.

____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
wendy davis's picture

@Pluto's Republic

in your memory, please? although i put this part 4 up as a public service, i had no idea you might bring the cliffs notes! i haven't even watched the nine minute version yet... iirc, i've only watched One, maybe Two of long versions the earlier parts, and i'd had to stop several times along the way. meaning: i can't sit still, and i retain almost zip from audio. i'd hunted for transcripts in vain.

this stuck out:

Lutshenko was told the only way he could get the evidence to the US was to give it to the FBI in Ukraine. Lutshenko wisely refused to put it in the FBI's hands.

of course durham sees that the fibbies have a hella lot to answer for, and i sure his investigation grows longer and wider legs. but that opinion depends on whether or not one is reading at the WaPo or NY/CIA times, doesn't it?

thank you so much, upside-down pluto!

up
5 users have voted.
Pluto's Republic's picture

@wendy davis

I have vast files of documents and taped testimony confirming these events — but I couldn't bring myself to write about them. Ukraine has always bothered me much more than the Russia Hoax. Only one US journalist published the story and evidence of the events I describe — in photos and transcripts. And then he went silent. That was before the impeachment hearings started. The stream of lies coming out of those hearings exhausted me. I wished I hadn't seen what I had. Congress didn't challenge the lies or bring witnesses to do so. Trump didn't say anything. Nor the DOJ. Surely they saw what I saw.

The entire time the impeachment hearings were going on — everyday — Ukraine was confessing and holding press conferences and showing evidence of their corruption and their meddling in the 2016 election on behalf of Hillary. This went on for more than two weeks. I collected much of it. The Ukraine parliament got it in their heads that Trump would only forgive Ukraine for siding with the Democrats in attempting to sabotage his 2016 election campaign if they now performed a public confession of everything they did. This mindset has Guiliani's handprints all over it. However, not one word was written about this in the US while it was happening. No one spoke of it. It was like I dreamed it.

That link below is the French documentary film company. They definitely saw the bizarre events that were happening, and I'm sure, captured all the confessions. They can safely tell the whole outrageous story. Glad you're tracking it as it unfolds. I'll back off and wait.

I will point out that people's attention is being aggressively summoned elsewhere when it comes to stories like this — stories that could shatter the official narrative. I'm pretty sure the American people don't want to know about this. It ruined my day. Such awareness just leaves people hanging there in a gloom bubble with no alternatives. Just because People see the corruption of the plutocrats in their government does not mean they are waking up. Nobody's even trying to hide that from them. I know they are not waking up and they do not understand what has happened because they are still voting. Sheesh. It you gave the folks in Guantanamo a phony vote over how the prison was run, they would rationalize that they were free and were living in Cuba because they wanted to. That's one of the first things the Nazis taught the Neocons.

For all of these related Orwellian reasons, and because AG Barr cut McCabe loose from prosecution, I don't expect anything to come of his investigation into treachery that can only lead to Barack Obama. That would be a destructive outcome for everybody. Barr is deep in the deep state and has forty years of deep state cover-ups under his belt. I think he's just gaslighting Trump until the last of this blows away. If Congress is too dumb to figure out what the Muller Report meant, they sure as hell can't understand what Barr is doing.

My final thought on that: I'm fairly certain that Congress is a mixed bag of those being gaslighted, those being extorted, those who are too dumb to think, and those who are Intelligence operative placeholders. This is why they are all sent home with moneybags and a zipped lip.

[Edited = content at the end added.]

up
5 users have voted.

____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
wendy davis's picture

@Pluto's Republic

you're apologizing for, and while i have some Qs about your dedication to following Ukraine news and inside sources, i'm very troubled tonight by a surprisingly excellent spielberg production of the indian wars in the 1800s.

two genocides of black kettle's encampments can stand for why i've always been a dedicated anti-imperialst, from the time i protested the viet nam war at 16 at kent state, then CU boulder... then earned my FP chops at the TPM readers diaries, and onward to my.firedoglake, when some would say: 'there are no neonazis in ukraine, wendy; you're smarter than that (the ultimate insult), no 'rumbles in the Rada!'

ah, forgive me for honking on. i'm just feeling untethered and spiritually adrift. my dreams hadn't helped, of course, full of deep water (the unconscious) averted horrors, and a dream call from our estranged adopted ute daughter asking if i thought she was a warrior spirit.

tomorrow, then, my friend, and i'll try to be less...crazy, or at least seem to be so.

good night.

up
4 users have voted.
wendy davis's picture

@Pluto's Republic

Le Crises.fr ('the crises' in eng.) and has the previous 3 parts of their UkraineGate series, plus the short versions, in case anyone wants to catch up.

of course you piqued my curiosity as to the identity of the US journalist, but i'd misread and had thought you'd been referring to the original maidan putsch, which lies still stand for The Truth, as do the lies that the russians in crimea and the donbass free republics instigated all of the bombings and shelling of civilians.

but last night, i'd even had my mouse copy this from the swiss propaganda report, and in my anguished looniness had forgotten to add:

What the agency does not report, does not take place"

for me. esp. with the impeachment hearings, it's hard to sort russia-gate from ukraine-gate, in that speaker pelosi has said ad nauseum: All Roads Lead to Russia.

on edit: i'd decided you may have meant a journalist who knows that no matter how much moolah the IMF gives/ends ukraine so the nation can join NATO, not just be 'under nato's umbrella', the corrupt oligarchs such squander it away.

bingling those terms, all i came up with was john helmer, dances w/ bears, but he writes from moscow. ; )

he's funny, too. ; )

up
2 users have voted.
wendy davis's picture

the link i'd entered to ukrainegate.info below the video to wasn't working,

so i've removed it, and will try this:

UKRAINEGATE: Inconvenient facts about an Impeachment, by Les Crises

https://ukrainegate.info/

up
4 users have voted.
lotlizard's picture

is almost totally duped into supporting the NATO / White Helmets / “gasses his own people” line when it comes to Syria.

up
3 users have voted.
wendy davis's picture

@lotlizard

to 'Germany (DPA)' from above...reporting on the White Helmets (head choppers pysop) group favorably? they've won two major awards now for the due documentaries on their 'brave deeds'.

the intercept, of course, and democracy now! lauded then highly, as in: so much for alternative media, lol.

OTOH, from white helmets exposed on twitter:

up
2 users have voted.
wendy davis's picture

as per the propaganda swiss stuy. on the msn rolling thunder this a.m.:

Lawmakers Are Warned That Russia Is Meddling to Re-elect Trump’, NYT via msn: even i can get into the CIA/Times piece via msn.

"WASHINGTON — Intelligence officials warned House lawmakers last week that Russia was interfering in the 2020 campaign to try to get President Trump re-elected, five people familiar with the matter said, a disclosure to Congress that angered Mr. Trump, who complained that Democrats would use it against him.

The day after the Feb. 13 briefing to lawmakers, the president berated Joseph Maguire, the outgoing acting director of national intelligence, for allowing it to take place, people familiar with the exchange said. Mr. Trump was particularly irritated that Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and the leader of the impeachment proceedings, was at the briefing.”

Though intelligence officials have previously told lawmakers that Russia’s interference campaign was continuing, last week’s briefing included what appeared to be new information: that Russia intended to interfere with the 2020 Democratic primaries as well as the general election.”

(‘video by reuters')

so i went to reuters and found the video.

trying to determine that the whole shebang was courtesy of reuters' i'd bingled, and sure enough, the second hit from the top. but i can't get it to boot up.

might be my ancient firefox...i dunno. but that's the original source.

up
1 user has voted.
wendy davis's picture

tonight's closing song is by gary jules:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N3N1MlvVc4]

up
0 users have voted.