Booman’s latest front page post (3/19/12, 10AM EDT) is titled This Is Ideological Warfare.
In it, he writes:
There have been several studies (e.g. this one) over the last few years that have shown that Fox News viewers are not just more misinformed than consumers of other news outlets; they are more misinformed than people who watch no news programming at all. In other words, if you watch Fox News, you are going to be misled and you will form opinions based on lies. This fact alone should lead civic-minded citizens to worry about the negative impact of right-wing news organizations…
Really, man.
Have can you possibly have not yet realized that all major media news is misinformation? (All major media content of any kind, to be accurate.)
Misinformation? It’s either that or disinformation, actually.
“Ideological warfare?” You bet. Across the board. With the exception of about 1% or less of what is available in the mass media, the content is all “ideological,” all of the time. And that ideology is entirely economic imperialist in nature. Bet on it.
Fox’s “news” is just simpler to decipher because it is aimed at older and/or stupider viewers.
Booman continues:
It’s one thing, after all, to disseminate news with a political perspective. It’s quite another to simply replace news with completely nonfactual information and perspectives. The former is normal political debate; the latter is simple disinformation. It’s this making-people-stupid element of the Mighty Right-Wing Wurlitzer that makes it an appropriate target for more than just Democrats, but concerned and responsible citizens of all stripes.
No Booman, you are wrong. “Political perspective” during these corporate-owned PermaGov media days means disinformation.
All you have to do is listen to the talk that Noam Chomsky gave at last spring’s 25th Anniversary celebration of the media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) to get a good picture of what’s really up with the media.
Read on for more.
In his own gentle, self-deprecating and deceptively meandering way, Professor Chomsky literally stripped the U.S. and major U.S. allied media bare…so-called “liberal” media, centrist media, right-wing media, just about all media…regarding anything other than their total disinfo/misinfo status. Either those who run the media are totally unaware of the truth(s) of the matter…thus dispersing misinformation…or they are perfectly conscious of what they are doing and are acting in the capacity of disinformation specialists. Unlike almost everything else in this world there is no middle ground possible here, because the lies are so blatant and so easily seen through once one realizes what is happening that a smart 10 year-old could figure out what’s up in about 15 minutes of web search. Why is this kind of realization not happening across the general population of the media-controlled world? Mass hypnosis is the only answer that makes any sense to me. A mass trance state created by the complete suspension of disbelief that is required for people to spend a lifetime daily consuming vast amounts of mass media-produced bullshit.
For those of you with an aversion to looking directly at the face of truth that is plainly apparent in the above video, I give you some written samples of what Professor Chomsky said as he deconstructed the lie machine that is Omertica’s media. He concentrated on the U.S. attempt to jury-rig another U.S. owned regime in Egypt and thus shore up/continue U.S. control of Middle Eastern oil…a policy that continues unabated today, believe it… but it goes up and down the whole system. Politics, culture, local news, entertainment of every variety…the works.
If you still don’t get what is happening after reading/listening to Professor Chomsky’s message here, then you are absolutely beyond hope.
The U.S. and its allies will do anything they can to prevent authentic democracy in the Arab world. The reason is very simple. Across the region, an overwhelming majority of the population regards the United States as the main threat to their interests. In fact, opposition to U.S. policy is so high that a considerable majority think the region would be more secure if Iran had nuclear weapons. In Egypt, the most important country, that’s 80 percent. Similar figures elsewhere. There are some in the region who regard Iran as a threat — about 10 percent. Well, plainly, the U.S. and its allies are not going to want governments which are responsive to the will of the people. If that happens, not only will the U.S. not control the region, but it will be thrown out. So that’s obviously an intolerable result.
—snip—
…another near historical universal. You check history, virtually every resort to force, by whoever it is, is accompanied by the most noble rhetoric. It’s all completely humanitarian. That includes Hitler taking over Czechoslovakia, the Japanese fascists rampaging in northeast China. In fact, it’s Mussolini in Ethiopia. There’s hardly any exceptions. So you produce that, and the media and commentators present — pretend they don’t notice that it has no — carries no information, because it’s reflexive.
And then — but in this case, they could also add something else, which has been repeated over and over again, namely, the U.S. and its allies were intervening in response to a request by the Arab League. And, of course, we have to recognize the importance of that. Incidentally, the response from the Arab League was tepid and was pretty soon rescinded, because they didn’t like what we were doing. But put that aside. At the very same time, the Arab League produced — issued another request. Here’s a headline from a newspaper: “Arab League Calls for Gaza No-Fly Zone.” Actually, I’m quoting from the London Financial Times. That wasn’t reported in the United States. Well, to be precise, it was reported in the Washington Times, but basically blocked in the U.S., like the polls, like the polls of Arab public opinion, not the right kind of news. So, “Arab League Calls for Gaza No-Fly Zone,” that’s inconsistent with U.S. policy, so that, we don’t have to honor and observe, and that disappeared.
Now, there are some polls that are reported. So here’s one from the New York Times a couple days ago. I’ll quote it. It said, “The poll found that a majority of Egyptians want to annul the 1979 peace treaty with Israel that has been a cornerstone of Egyptian foreign policy and the region’s stability.” Actually, that’s not quite accurate. It’s been a cornerstone of the region’s instability, and that’s exactly why the Egyptian population wants to abandon it. The agreement essentially eliminated Egypt from the Israel-Arab conflict. That means eliminated the only deterrent to Israeli military action. And it freed up Israel to expand its operations — illegal operations — in the Occupied Territories and to attack its northern neighbor, to attack Lebanon. Shortly after, Israel attacked Lebanon, killed 20,000 people, destroyed southern Lebanon, tried to impose a client regime, didn’t quite make it. And that was understood. So the immediate reaction to the peace treaty in Israel was that there are things about it we don’t like — we’re going to have to abandon our settlements in the Sinai, in the Egyptian Sinai. But it has a good side, too, because now the only deterrent is gone; we can use force and violence to achieve our other goals. And that’s exactly what happened. And that’s exactly why the Egyptian population is opposed to it. They understand that, as does everyone in the region.
On the other hand, the Times wasn’t lying when they said that it led to the region’s stability. And the reason is because of the meaning of the word “stability” as a technical meaning. Stability is — it’s kind of like democracy. Stability means conformity to our interests. So, for example, when Iran tries to expand its influence in Afghanistan and Iraq, neighboring countries, that’s called “destabilizing.” It’s part of the threat of Iran. It’s destabilizing the region. On the other hand, when the U.S. invades those countries, occupies them, half destroys them, that’s to achieve stability. And that is very common, even to the point where it’s possible to write — former editor of Foreign Affairs — that when the U.S. overthrew the democratic government in Chile and instituted a vicious dictatorship, that was because the U.S. had to destabilize Chile to achieve stability. That’s in one sentence, and nobody noticed it, because that’s correct, if you understand the meaning of the word “stability.” Yeah, you overthrow a parliamentary government, you install a dictatorship, you invade a country and kill 20,000 people, you invade Iraq and kill hundreds of thousands of people — that’s all bringing about stability. Instability is when anyone gets in the way.
—snip—
And you dare to criticize Fox News? How is it any worse than a media that uses the “words” stability” and “instability” in such a grossly false manner?
Please.
Time’s getting short.
Please.
Wake the fuck up.
Station WTFU once again signing off.
And now the newzs…
President Obama today signed yet another bill for the good of humanity…
Please!!!
AG
Good news?
I just spent a few days with my son, who is taking an advanced degree at a major Ivy League university in something really useful…Ecological Biology.
That’s not the good news…of course, it is for him, but that’s a whole ‘nother story…the good news is that he, his friends and most of their teachers and colleagues don’t even own television sets!!!
That’s right, the best of the best here in the U.S…Generation Whatever They’re Called now, the smartest 20-somethings…have totally seen through the media scam and stepped away from the most trance-inducing areas of it. They still skim the news…as do I, on the web where we have control of what we ingest in real time…but they are almost completely free of slavery to the media hype on any level whatsoever. It was so refreshing to hang out with these people…they are almost a new breed of human in his country. Homo sapiens post-media. Clear-eyed and ready for real action on the most basic of levels. I hope this is happening elsewhere. I wish it was happening widely in previous generations, but I don’t see it.
So it goes.
Maybe we’ll survive long enough to get past this shit.
Or…maybe not.
So that goes as well.
Station WTFU signing off.
Later…
AG
This is all fine, Arthur, except for one thing.
The study I cited showed that exposure to some media outlets increased people’s correct knowledge of events and that exposure to still other outlets could decrease incorrect knowledge. In the case of Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show, both salutary outcomes were achieved at once.
Controlling for other factors, listening to NPR will make you more aware of the truth and listening to Fox will make you less so.
Now, there are whole categories of news that are verboten, that is true. And the media, particularly the corporate media, do not do a good job of questioning things like America’s foreign policy writ-large.
But within the confines of what is reported, right-wing outlets cause people to believe things that are not true and to disbelieve things that are true. And, in the category of being stupid because you have been denied any information at all, Fox is worse there, too.
“Correct” and “incorrect,” Booman?
Like “stability”and “instability” in Chomsky’s talk.
It’s all about the definitions…and in the depths of those definitions as well.
The Daily Show? Non-threatening in any substantive way. Already co-opted by its “leftiness” cult status. A leftiness that supports Barack Obama, a creature of the PermaGov-run media. I would love to see what would happen if Jon Stewart or any other of the so-called leftiness comics (As in “Ho ho ho,…sho’ is funny, this shit, aint it? HO ho ho ho ho ho ho!!!”) were to speak as clearly about the political and media scam as did Professor Chomsky. They’d be off the air before the week was up. Y’think Limbaugh lost advertisers? Fuggedaboudit!!!
OH yes!!! “Controlling for other factors,” indeed. Other factors like the leftiness lies are more true than the rightiness lies.
C’mon, Booman. Take your blinders off. There’s a big universe out there.
Even St. Rumsfeld was hip to it.
Or…perhaps even more truthifully:
And of course we can’t forget this deathless duo:
Misinfo?
Disnfo?
Or…the truth leaking out of the mouth of a professional liar in his near-dotage?
Who cares.
Heard much from G. W. Butch, Dick Cheney or St. Rumfeld recently?
‘Course not.
They are all easily replaced by SkyNet.
Wake the fuck up.
AG
yeah, yeah, yeah.
Chomsky is such an oracle. What’s depressing is that you think he has an original thought.
How boring is Chomsky?
Sooo boring that he tries to create an equivalence between the Arab League calling for a no-fly zone over Libya, and over Gaza, as if these two things are equivalent in more than the most literal sense. It’s a pathetic example used to make an otherwise unassailable point.
Truth in this case can be as simple as naming the Prime Minister of Canada or whether Hosni Mubarak is or is not still running Egypt.
Truth can also be as complicated as figuring out how to prevent nuclear proliferation when many people in the Middle East aren’t interested. Chomsky will choke on that one.
They are not “original thoughts”, Booman, nor would that be any reason to listen to them if they were. There are a lot of “original thinkers” out there…many living on the street and babbling nonsense to themselves.
What he says simply makes sense, as does much of what Ron Paul has been saying. I don’t give a rat’s ass whether it’s “original thought” or if they stole it from Buddha, Jesus Christ, Muhammad, Imam Ali, Moses or Joe The Plumber. The U.S. Permanent Government is running a dishonorable economic imperialist game in the Middle East and something approaching a treasonably criminal ongoing financial scam at home; it is taking thousands of lives and ruining millons more in the process; the lies being broadcast to the American people in order to run the various PermaGov games are piling up faster than bullshit in a stockyard and eventually the evil that is done is going to kick back even more effectively than it has kicked back so far.
By supporting that strategy and those tactics you are allowing yourself to be part of the problem.
Simple enough, it seems to me. The chickens always come home to roost. Every country grandma knows enough to understand that.
But you apparently do not, and I am calling you on it.
You want to diss Noam Chomsky? Feel free. He hasn’t been very successful at getting his points across to a wider audience, and much the same can be said of Ron Paul on a larger plane.
So what?
At least they are making an honest effort to deal with the truth as they see it as opposed to the almost pathological lying that comes out of the entire PermaGov system that you are so passionately supporting.
Watch.
They’re headed this way as we speak.
You think not? Karma is a bitch, Booman. Always has been and always will be.
Watch.
Lie with dogs and you come up with their fleas. And worse.
Much worse.
Bet on it.
Fear the justice…and the eventual retribution…of the universe, Booman. It’s been quite consistent throughout all of human history.
The poets know. They are our prophets.
Diss that, brother.
Diss that!!!
AG
Thanks for all the time and effort you’ve put into this conversation. I’d just like to lift this phrase, “the entire PermaGov system”, out (and hopefully, not out of context) and examine it a bit more.
I’ve read some of Chomsky’s work, as well as most of the other folks you’ve cited in this thread. I find something to learn from pretty much all of them—as well as having points of disagreement with pretty much all of them.
I find it helpful to remind myself when talking about “The System” (or “the entire PermaGov system”, or any other similar phrase), that I do not exist outside of “The System”.
“The System” is set up so that Chomsky, for example, is a tenured professor at a prestigious university, or Arthur Gilroy makes a living in live music, or Booman is alternately welcomed at the White House or ignored by the Obama administration.
We’re all “waist deep in the Big Muddy” of human society. Not a single one of us standing up above on the riverbank with clean hands.
If criticizing Booman for making the observation that the (dis)information on Fox News is of a noticeably different degree and quality than, say, CNN or NPR or Comedy Central seems to you to be the best use of your time, talent and energy, then by all means carry on. Just recognize that (as far as I can tell) you’re part of the same “system” (as am I).
Step away from “the system” as far as you can do so and still survive.
The less we give to it, the less it will be able to function.
That’s all we can do other than violently oppose it, and violence begets violence.
I have done so…to greater or lesser degrees depending on how many people were depending on me for sustenance and survival…for going on 45 years now. I encourage all who recognize the reality of the concept of “karma” to do the same. I can do no more. I do it in the music world and I do it elsewhere with whatever time and energy remains at my disposal after I take care of musical matters.
Just doing my job…any which way I can.
later…
AG
listening to NPR does not necessarily make one more aware of the truth, for the simple fact that it was only LAST month that NPR decided to change their “he said/she said” view from nowhere reporting:
And they STILL put liars and serial fabricators like Megan McArdle on their shows.