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August 12, 2008 at 13:38:46
This Is Not News, This Is Propaganda by Kevin Gosztola Page 1 of 5 page(s) |
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David Lindorff, an ardent advocate for impeachment of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, posted an article this morning detailing the media’s coverage of the current relatively small war between Russia and Georgia. He accurately stated, “This is not news. This is propaganda.” When comparing current coverage of the conflict to the lack of media coverage of the current Iraq and Afghanistan wars, it’s hard not to question what we are reading and wonder if media is giving us the truth. In fact, a passing glance at the stories about the current Russia-Georgia conflict show a clear anti-Russian sentiment even though Georgia is responsible for igniting this bloody mess. The U.S. and other allied powers may be intentionally making it difficult for the world to understand the history of this volatile region or the who, what, where, when, and why of the current situation. Georgia is U.S.-backed and has been since US-educated Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili took power. Saakashvili came to power on a platform of reclaiming South Ossetia and Abkhazia for Georgia and there is no way that the U.S. could not have seen this coming. 
While the U.S. called for a ceasefire in the conflict as it condemned Russia’s “disproportionate response,” the U.S. airlifted Georgian troops out of Iraq and into the combat zone. (Georgia, until the conflict began, had the third most troops of any country deployed in Iraq.)
All of this should come as no surprise if you aware of this chain of events, which Asia Times details:
As an economic crisis and lawlessness grew in Georgia in the recent past, Russian diplomacy began shifting gear in Tbilisi, encouraging the elements that stood for better relations with Moscow. Up to a point, Moscow was right in doing so. But it failed to see that from Saakashvili's perspective, as his authoritarian regime became more and more unpopular and the debris of misgovernance, corruption and venality began to accumulate, it paid to whip up xenophobia. Russia was the best target, as nothing inflames Georgian passions better than the issue of the country's integrity.
That is why Moscow protested when it began to be known that with encouragement from the United States, Tbilisi was embarking on a plan to dramatically increase its military budget 30 times. This Georgian move went side-by-side with growing US assistance in training the Georgian army. Moscow began asking a pertinent question as to who it was that Tbilisi visualized getting into a war with.
Moscow proposed that an agreement could be signed committing all protagonists to commit to non-use of force in settling differences. But Tbilisi wouldn't have such an agreement. Nor would Washington prevail on Tbilisi to accept one. Not only that, Washington closed its eyes when clandestine supplies of weapons began pouring into Tbilisi. In July, the US Department of Defense funded a military exercise with Georgia. In retrospect, the turning point came when US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Tbilisi last month.
Saakashvili drew inspiration from Rice's statements endorsing Georgia's claim for membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and open backing of the Georgian stance in its standoff with Russia. It is a moot point whether Saakashvili unilaterally drew conclusions from Rice's diplomatic gesture or a tacit Washington-Tbilisi understanding came about.
At any rate, Saakashvili let loose the dogs of war within a month of Rice's visit to Tbilisi. And he acted with immaculate timing - when Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was on summer vacation and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had left Moscow to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympics. On balance, it is inconceivable Washington was in the dark about how Saakashvili's mind was working.
Since Saakashvili let loose, George W. Bush and policy advisers have done everything possible to conflate the conflict in a way so that it would seem like Russia is entirely responsible for the fiasco. McCain and Obama have also issued quotes that lead one to believe Russia is primarily to blame for the problems in the volatile region.
CNN and MSNBC are using an AP article that quotes President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia saying, “I have reached a decision to halt the operation to force the Georgian authorities to peace…The aggressor has been punished and has incurred very significant losses. Its armed forces are disorganized." And has made sure people are aware of the fact that Russia supports separatists in South Ossetia that have been giving Georgia trouble.
FOX News’ headline, “Georgia Reports Attacks Continue as Russia's Medvedev Orders Troop Withdrawal,” is enough to foster anti-Russian sentiments. While it works hard to maintain objectivity, if one reads the entire article, you can see such objectivity fizzle as a brief history of how Russia, as one Polish leader is quoted at the end, “has once again shown its face, its true face” unfolds without mentioning past U.S. involvement in Georgia.
The Daily Telegraph from the UK maintains the same type of coverage as FOX News. It features various accounts of the carnage in this article on the current situation, accounts that primarily focus on Russian shelling of buildings.
One intriguing paragraph is the following:
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Excellent. You made my day. See also small add of mine
http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/diarypage.php?did=8587 by Mark Sashine (72 articles, 19 quicklinks, 269 diaries, 4103 comments [131 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Aug 12, 2008 at 1:55:47 PM  (0+)
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Indie Media
Unless Indie media can get their own journalists in there to cover what is happening from deep sources, we will never know for sure. But to do that you need money and lots of it. We can do a think tank analysis from afar, but nothing takes the place of notebooks on the ground. by Georgianne Nienaber (154 articles, 47 quicklinks, 13 diaries, 350 comments [3 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Aug 12, 2008 at 2:30:43 PM (0+)
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Reply: If anyone should know ... Georgianne
... it would be you. What scares me is that in continued squeezing of cash journalist's such as yourself are going to become even more scarce, and you're one-of-a-kind as it is. Add on a continued assault on the Internet and we're one "Cyber-terrorist" attack away from having this medium shut down. Internet 2 is on schedule to be on line within a year-and-a-half. I'm seriously thinking of getting a HAM radio. For those of you who may not have noticed but most all the top tiers of government, enforcement, judicial, intelligence, media, entertainment, civil service and commerce have been corrupted through bribery, intimidation on scores of levels, from lose of a few teeth, to job, to life, blackmail, and just about any other from of brutality any fascist gang of pathological sociopaths, ruthless, hubris to the max, wouldn't do in continuing in shaping this world into their own private little version of Hell on Earth. They just can't help themselves. As Popeye would say, "I ams, whats I ams". There's no need for these cretins to even pretend that MSM is anything but propaganda. Orwell indeed must be rolling in his grave, 1984 may be 24 years too late - but it's herrrrre ... or damn close. Anything one hears off MSM has been like a scene from the movie "V", even the Daily Show is ruined for those of us that have not only pasted through the Looking Glass, but shattered it. Does anyone know how close we came to nuclear war this past week? What ever the hell is going on, those cretins that think that they know better than God, that have ruined this world as though they had Midas Touch in reverse, where everything they touched turns to sh*t, are pushing and shoving for control and a whole world of innocent people that don't want any part of their asinine games are about to get trampled in the scuffle. Indeed, we need more money, feet on the street, guns and lawyers. I'd throw in a as many military, intelligence, engineers, professionals of all stripes, because we need them all. And even if we get enough we're going to need all of the good God(s), Spirits, Mystics, Shamans, Witch Doctors, Witches (only good apply) on our side, and a huge sustained portion of good old fashion luck to even be able to come somewhere close to even slowing down this Hell-Bound Train and coming out on the other side in a world that would be fit to live in, after what we've done to it and are about to do to, it if these puss-for-brains megalomanics aren't stopped as soon as yesterday from causing any more carnage. Me - I'm stocking-up on toilet paper. by Mr M (8 articles, 0 quicklinks, 66 diaries, 2845 comments [654 recommended, 27 rejected]) on Tuesday, Aug 12, 2008 at 4:50:29 PM (0+)
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Most people...
are either NOT interested, like you mentioned, or haven't the time, inclination, nor clues about where to go to get reliable information in any form... Generally, it's all propaganda of some form or another like you've illustrated here. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed the "President Bush -why don't you shut up?" piece!!! by C.Bid (0 articles, 7 quicklinks, 7 diaries, 739 comments [2 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Aug 12, 2008 at 4:28:38 PM (0+)
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Infotainment can kill
When in the army I learnt that vanity and a desire to save face is the enemy of free information flows and the ability to get to the truth in order to make effective decisions. We have made politics into a spin contest. This has the effect of killing informed decision making. News is now entertainment and fantasy dressed up as important fact and can no longer be relied upon to keep us informed in order to keep us safe. Fox recently won a court case on the grounds that 'it is not illegal to make up news'. This dangerous practise must stop lest infotainment kills us all. by kwalsh (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 7 diaries, 275 comments [10 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Aug 12, 2008 at 5:42:42 PM (0+)
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Excellent snapshot of the situation Kevin
Thanks. by coyote (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 89 comments [25 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Tuesday, Aug 12, 2008 at 6:20:28 PM (0+)
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Fine article. The cited WSWS & Pravda pieces are also
terrific. I just love that "President Bush, why don't you shut up?" thing. I listened to NPR today on the way home from the dentist. I could scarcely believe my ears -- the whole thing was about "Russian aggression," "Russian atrocities," and "President Bush standing up to protect the sovereignty of weak nations." by Richard Mynick (2 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 1552 comments [255 recommended, 5 rejected]) on Tuesday, Aug 12, 2008 at 7:36:27 PM (0+)
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Reply: I'm not done yet
You May Be Georgian, But I'm Not by Kevin Gosztola (302 articles, 146 quicklinks, 81 diaries, 1082 comments [77 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Aug 12, 2008 at 8:18:09 PM (0+)
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«The first casualty of war ...»
and all that sort of thing - the fact is, of course, that in most instances Truth has taken it on the chin long before the war that is being planned has started - look at the runup to the US/UK war on Iraq for just one of innumerable examples. In any event, Kevin, an important article, which both in its close analysis of the situation and its use of sources sets a journalistic standard which we rarely have the privilege of seeing. You might want to take a look at the detailed analysis of the (initial) events of the latest war in the Caucasus presented by Professor Chossudovsky and my own comments in my recent diary entry here on OEN ; moreover, the fact that this region abuts on yet another of consuming interest to those making policy in Washington must also be kept in mind - see, e g, my comment on the quick link to Ron Paul's warning on a possible US attack on Iran. Finally, since you're studying film and are obviously an Asia Times reader (by the way, I suspect that the journal is being subjected to a DDOS - I haven't been able to get the website to load these last couple of days), you might want to take a look at the video that ATol's roving reporter Pepe Escobar has published on the REAL news network.... Keep up the good work ! I look forward to reading many more articles as carefully researched as the present one by you on OEN !... Henri by mhenriday (0 articles, 17 quicklinks, 5 diaries, 159 comments [1 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Wednesday, Aug 13, 2008 at 8:22:51 AM (0+)
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Corporate Controlled Main Stream Media Propaganda
Several months ago our household dropped our 20+ year subscription to the New York Times and Time/Warner TV cable service due their very poor editorial and broadcast policies in providing reliable and helpful information in their political reporting and programming choices. Thank you for this fine article. by Hubert Steed (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 84 comments [10 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Aug 22, 2008 at 7:45:25 AM (0+)
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