The Weekly Watch

Media Manipulation

Open Thread image.jpg

The failure of legacy media to inform and educate is clear to see. The goal of the media is to push desired narratives. Several events this week caused me to think in this direction... Ukraine, the Durham Report, and the freedom convoy among them.
Have we finally arrived at 1984's Newspeak?
Some Newspeak words include:
Thoughtcrime - Anti-Party thoughts
Facecrime - Occurs when the face reveals the existence of thoughtcrime (either lacking in anti-Party vigor, or expressing distaste for Party actions).
Goodthinkful - Describes a person who thinks just as the Party wishes.
Unperson - Someone the Party has vaporized; someone that no longer exists.(think Joe Rogan)

newspeak.jpg

Let's start with the beat of the US war drum toward Russia using Ukraine as an excuse.
The US coup removed a Russia leaning president and installed actually Nazis. (21 min)

The Biden administration has been steadily beating the drums for war with Russia, and the corporate media has been playing along right in tune. Most recently NBC News’ Richard Engel aired a segment where he, wittingly or otherwise, aired propaganda from the Ukrainian Azov Battalion, which is made up of dedicated neo-Nazis.

Jimmy and The Grayzone’s Aaron Maté (https://mate.substack.com/) discuss the Biden team’s bumbling toward a possible World War III and the media that’s cheerleading it all the way there.

Repeat a lie often enough and eventually???

Instead of reporting factual information, US media outlets have flooded their audiences with what one Western intelligence official calls a "strategic communications campaign." This campaign is described uncritically by CNN as a series of "alarming headlines" and a "drumbeat of official disclosures" that have come from "agency spokesmen and officials" who "have provided little by way of evidence -- in effect, asking reporters to report the material without confirmation." In short, a "strategic communications campaign" of state propaganda.

endless Russian invasions.png

https://mate.substack.com/p/stoking-war-with-russia-us-media

Sounds like a false flag, perhaps a bomb rather than shell?

The self-proclaimed Republic of Donetsk is evacuating citizens to Russia after reports of shelling from the Ukrainian military. This as Russian president Putin meets with Belarusian president Lukashenko and US secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is in Poland to meet with Duda. During the meeting between Putin and Lukashenko, Putin repeated to members of the press that Russia’s concerns have yet to be addressed by the US and NATO. RT’S Roman Kosarav gives us the latest Then, Pulitzer Prize winning writer and host of On Contact Chris Hedges and former UK MP George Galloway join a panel to discuss.

Lies and more lies..
US President Biden delivers a speech from the White House wherein he reiterated US claims about Russian plans for a "invasion" of Ukraine. Ben Norton and others respond...

about 5 min

Why would they push a war?

war stocks.png

Despite stock market turmoil in other sectors, defense contractors Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Raytheon are doing good business. Meanwhile, the US outspends Russia by a factor of ten on its military. The US military budget is more than the next nine countries combined. Washington’s predictions about an “impending Russian invasion” don’t add up, given the multibillion-dollar business of war central to the US role in world affairs. Chris Hedges of “On Contact” shares his insights. He says Democrats and Republicans alike are “in lockstep with the war industry.”

So enough with the way we're lied into war, another manipulative technique we experience is the reluctance to cover uncomfortable stories.

Hunter's laptop story from a year or so ago is a good example...

"The WPost's 'fact-checker' @pbump continues to classify the Biden laptop as a ‘conspiracy theory’ even after a new book from POLITICO's @SchreckReports proves the key emails are real," Greenwald reacted. "The actual 'conspiracy theory' is the media & CIA's lie that it was ‘Russian disinformation.’"

Greenwald continued, "This entire ‘fact-check’ reads like a DNC press release. Like the ‘anti-disinformation’ industry, this new media title ‘fact-checker’ is a huge fraud, designed to disguise liberal media activism as something more elevated, noble and trustworthy, like they're neutral or whatever.

What about the discredited Steele Dossier? I missed those headlines and the unraveling of the Russiagate narrative. This is the same treatment the shitlibs are giving to the possibly damning Durham Report.

Durham's grand juries have already yielded indictments of two Clinton campaign-tied operatives for deceptive attempts to influence the FBI's Trump-Russia probe. That Horowitz has already uncovered so many inconsistencies in the FBI's account – and that Durham has gone out of his way to question the FBI predication that Horowitz accepted – suggests that the Steele dossier and the Alfa Bank "secret hotline" story are far from the only fraudulent Trump-Russia activity in Durham's sights.

If Durham does unearth additional evidence that the FBI did not launch the Trump-Russia probe in the way that it claims, then that would be yet another devastating revelation for a bureau that has already been caught relying on Clinton-funded disinformation and lying about it. Given how hard the FBI and Democratic Party allies have fought to shield this conduct from scrutiny, Durham's probe could become a major political flashpoint as his probe reaches its final months and hones in on its final targets.

https://mate.substack.com/p/as-durham-closes-in-fbis-trump-russia

One characteristic of Russiagate bombshells is that the mainstream press simply doesn’t cover them. That stands in contrast to the breathless coverage given to the original investigations, even as they never delivered the promised goods.

So it is with the latest jaw-dropping revelation from the Durham investigation. Special Counsel John Durham, of course, is scrutinizing the origins of the Obama administration’s Trump/Russia probe — a probe that holdover officials at the FBI and other government national-security agencies extended into the Trump administration, even as Donald Trump was the sitting president of the United States and, at least nominally, the chief executive to whom those agencies answered.

In a court submission last week, Durham alleged that a tech executive, who was supposed to be helping the government combat cyber threats, used his privileged access to Internet data — specifically, domain name system (DNS) traffic between servers — to mine contacts between Russia and facilities connected to Donald Trump. The information, Durham says, was taken out of context and distorted to suggest that Trump might be a clandestine agent of Vladimir Putin’s regime. Alarmingly, some of the Internet traffic mined in early 2017 was generated by the Executive Office of the President — the White House. That is, the tech executive, who has been identified as Rodney Joffe, was monitoring then-President Trump, trying to portray him as Putin’s mole.

In other words: He was spying on the president of the United States with the aim of harming his ability to govern the country.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/02/durhams-jaw-dropping-revelation/

Then there's the disappearance of any voice which questions the narrative. This is the tool of the social media manipulators. Just disappear YT videos, channels, and people who don't promote the narrative. Cancel twitter accounts. Throttle and minimize unaccepted views with algorithms. Joe Rogan is too popular with his large audience, so label him a racist and promoter of misinformation.

Julian Assange, the greatest journalist of our time has been disappeared in a maximum security prison with absolutely no outcry from the MSM. I saw a sign in Ottawa this week.
Mass
pSychosis
Media

The Canadian media has been bought and paid for.

A Feb. 2 Instagram post claims that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “pays mainstream media $600 million to report in favor of him.”

The evidence? A clip of Trudeau saying just that.

“You sometimes hear about liberal bias in the media these days, how they’re constantly letting our government off the hook for no good reason,” he says in a video in the post. “Frankly, I think that’s insulting. It’s clear that they let us off the hook for a very good reason. Because we pay them $600 million.”

The video in the post then cuts to an image of Trudeau with text appearing that says “Mainstream media? I just bought it.” Meanwhile, he can still be heard saying: “You don’t get stellar headlines like these without greasing the wheels a bit.”

https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2022/justin-trudeau-600-million-do...
But hey it was just a joke...of course jokes aren't funny unless there's some truth to them.

We are being manipulated by the media, most of which is an arm of government propaganda controlled by advertisers money. Operation Mockingbird is alive and well with CIA villains actually manning the reporters desks. Welcome to today's "Ministry of Truth"

The story holds up pretty well and this version isn't bad.

There so many more examples of media malfeasance, and I hope you'll chime in below with your favorites.

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the maelstrom media
guaranteed to blow your head apart

Mitch-Dobrowner-Vortex-No.-Duae.jpg

photo by Mitch Dobrowner
http://mitchdobrowner.com

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Lookout's picture

@QMS

...but so twisted!

Have a good day. Sunny and headed to 60, but rainy all next week. Planting parsley, and cabbage plants today, plus I've got to touch up my slightly eroded drive before the next round. Always something.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Lookout's picture

It is Ukraine firing them at Ukrainians. 5 min
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2HqJ0eBQWo]

I wonder if the US or UK supplied those weapons?

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Lookout's picture

The surprising, under-told story of how Ukraine split apart, and the background to the civil war that has roiled the country since 2014. It's a surprising story, one that you don't often hear a lot: the story of Ukraine's sclerosis, how America ended up in bed with Ukraine's neo-Nazis, and the internal tensions that drove the country apart. Hadiya Afzal explains.
12.5 minutes
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtOx6dW_0vU]

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

enhydra lutris's picture

1984, but I recall that the whole big brother state was portrayed as centralized and governmental. Today it is decentralized or distributed and quasi-governmental through the miracle of corporatism. We have private for profit, private not-for-profit (both of which can be really disguised government or not) and government all working pretty much together. Within the past 60 days of so, one or more branches of the official government suggested non-ironically that we create something akin to a mini-truth, but its job would not be to mandate certain narratives, but to prohibit others. One needn't spew narrative x, one need only fail to question or deny it. Congress needn't legislate specifics, but instead simply threatened the private narrative machinery with dire consequences, whereupon they then hired pseudo-private fact and narrative checkers from the disguised government sector. Ditto the President's mouthpiece.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Lookout's picture

@enhydra lutris

but I would add the consolidation of media. Six corporations control essentially all media.

Thanks for the thoughts. Have a good day!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

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Lookout's picture

@humphrey

pushing back.

Never heard of
http://www.senatorblack.com/
but I like much of what he's saying.

Thanks for the Tweets!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

them.

(It doesn't show up unless you clck on the image but Applebaum is the author of the Atlantic article)

A bit more on Applebaum:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Applebaum

Affiliations
Applebaum is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.[68] She is on the board of the National Endowment for Democracy and Renew Democracy Initiative.[69][70] She was a member of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting's International Board of Directors.[71] She was a Senior Adjunct Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) where she co-led a major initiative aimed at countering Russian disinformation in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).[72] She was on the editorial board for The American Interest[73] and the Journal of Democracy.[74]

Personal life
In 1992, Applebaum married Radosław Sikorski, who later served as Poland's Defence Minister, Foreign Minister, and Marshal of the Sejm. The couple have two sons, Aleksander and Tadeusz.[75] She became a Polish citizen in 2013.[76] She speaks Polish and Russian in addition to English.[77]

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Lookout's picture

@humphrey
Some of his work is here...
https://www.strategic-culture.org/contributors/pepe-escobar/

Moscow has not deviated for a moment from its Sun Tzu approach – while detailing all demands and all red lines many times over.

The Dem combo remote-controlling the senile President of the United States by earpiece/teleprompter was never accused of being the brightest bulbs in the room – any room.

That explains why one of their own, Nancy Pelosi, on ABC News, gave the whole Russian “invasion” game away two – or three – days, depending on their math, before the “canceled” non-event.

First she said, “If we were not threatening the sanctions and the rest, it would guarantee that Putin would invade.” And then the clincher:

“If Russia doesn’t invade, it’s not that he never intended to. It’s just that the sanctions worked.”

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2022/02/16/war-inc-throws-an-inva...

Thanks again for the tweets!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout

“If Russia doesn’t invade, it’s not that he never intended to. It’s just that the sanctions worked.”

Yeah, let's just play along with the senile mouthpieces so they don't get upset.
Oh, and sanctions work for who exactly?

Pretty soon this is going to be a moot point. Now that Russia, China and Iran have developed a
work-around to the US hegemony control of the world trading systems. It is going to be odd-man
out. Which means the US dollar is going to become an after-thought.

The global control of exchange is going to shift toward constructive trade between these partners.
The US MIC/Wall Street parade is getting to the end of their influence. Hell to pay for us peons.

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Lookout's picture

@QMS

Russia is accepting (buying and mining?) bitcoin
https://www.altcoinbuzz.io/cryptocurrency-news/russia-recognize-bitcoin-...

Interesting China has banned it's use for what good that's done...
https://vnexplorer.net/20-of-bitcoin-hashrate-is-still-in-mainland-china...

SD asked today WTF can be done about the WEF control. Bitcoin is an option. The truckers are using it despite Turdoo's banning them from using it. That is beyond his control.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/ukraine-crisis-putin-and-macron-agr...

US embassy tells Americans in Russia to "have evacuation plans"
20:13
The US embassy in Russia has warned Americans in the country “avoid crowds” and “have evacuation plans” to leave Russia, citing media reports of “threats of attacks.”

The advice marks a further deterioration of US-Russia relations in what some observers are already calling a new Cold War.

A security alert posted on the embassy’s website on Sunday read: “According to media sources, there have been threats of attacks against shopping centers, railway and metro stations, and other public gathering places in major urban areas, including Moscow and St. Petersburg as well as in areas of heightened tension along the Russian border with Ukraine.”

Catalogues and brochures hit by glossy paper supply crunch
Ant and Dec transform for Drag Race UK charity single debut

21:17
Russia hit back at the US embassy in Russia’s advice that Americans in the country should “have evacuation plans” amid media reports of “threats of attacks,” Reuters reports.

Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, questioned if the United States had passed on the information about possible attacks to Russia. “And if not, how is one to understand all of this?” Zakharova said, according to Reuters.

Earlier on Sunday, a security alert posted on the embassy’s website read: “According to media sources, there have been threats of attacks against shopping centers, railway and metro stations, and other public gathering places in major urban areas, including Moscow and St. Petersburg as well as in areas of heightened tension along the Russian border with Ukraine.”

It also advised Americans to “avoid crowds,” “review your personal security plans” and “have evacuation plans that do not rely on US government assistance.”

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Lookout's picture

@humphrey

The US is a de facto one-party state where the ideology of national security is sacrosanct, unsustainable debt props up the empire and the primary business is war.

https://scheerpost.com/2022/02/14/hedges-democrats-the-more-effective-evil/

Russell has a good rant about it too (17 min)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivROLiLmnro]

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

situation.

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Lookout's picture

@humphrey

https://nypost.com/2021/04/04/hunter-biden-says-taking-a-seat-on-burisma...

“I don’t think I made a mistake in taking a spot on that board. I think I made a mistake in terms of underestimating the way it would be used against me,” he said of the $50,000-a-month gig that raised eyebrows and ignited a political firestorm because his dad, President Biden, was serving as vice president in the Obama administration at the time.

Asked by host Tracy Smith if he at least understood the bad “optics” of being on the company’s board, the son said he did not.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@humphrey In the actual world, not so much.

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NYCVG

Hi Lookout, thank you kind host for posting the full monty vid and keeping on. Wow to all, the last ten minutes of 1984 movie is intense, a real Hollywood gem that film. The anti-propagandists propaganda. How could I have forgotten the four fingers part, was it in the book? And so The Picard Song earworm deluxe burrowed right in, "there are four lights". It is easy to find, quite a catchy tune I think.

Speaking of earworms, this is where "circle game" got trapped inside my head, wayback in 1975:
To Mama From Christopher And The Old Man Stephen Stills
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oDFPUt6CWU width:420]
believing in you
is believing in me
all the same circle game
makes us feel free
---
I love that song. Yestidday I learned what happened to Christopher, he grew up and lives in France a lot. right on
...
Chris Stills - Hellfire Baby Jane
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcQGHe9BIUA width:420]

Peace and Love
two minutes daily

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Lookout's picture

@eyo

but ain't that every movie? None the less it's was fun to see again. The Richard Burton version really isn't better. That's the first one I saw after reading it. In HS we had to read 1984, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451 and more. I was still a bit too young to grok it, but upon later readings I get it. They are playing out.

Sending a note your way in the USPS. We'll handle some taters when it's more convenient.

Be well and of good cheer!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

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Lookout's picture

@humphrey

Talk about manufactured consent.

Well, that's where we've come. The question is it possible to walk away?

Just hire another CIA retiree MSM.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Would be something to behold if this actually takes hold widely.

Would need at least a war to provide cover/distraction for something that big and Reset-threatening. MSM can spin it as part of Putin's diabolical master plan, I suppose...

Basically, a call for Canadians to refuse to go to work, for truckers to refuse to haul, request for US truckers to not haul anything to Canada and for peaceful protests to continue Canada-wide until Trudeau is gone and mandates lifted:

Canada Walkout Call 22.2.21.png

View the appeal on Rumble here

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Lookout's picture

@Blue Republic

as well as the trucker suggestions to start next week. People are pissed off.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57qon3Ud5b0]

and here's your clip...

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Lookout's picture

with another one from Reina and Toni
“Ooh Las Vegas” - Gram Parsons and Emmylous Harris cover by Reina del Cid and Toni Lindgren
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4nXeIpK7RA]

I've only changed planes there so have no sense of the real flavor.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”