The Mass Brainwashing of Germany

Brutal German state propaganda to encourage children to be muslims?

German State TV Series: “Lindenstraße” Episode 1084 “Islam”
Murat (Erkan Gündüz is surprised how much Lisa (Santje Peplow) is defending Islam

That little schmaltzy video was a scene from a German State TV series, broadcast in 2006, one year after Angela Merkel became chancellor, and when she was  still pretending to be for  Germany and a “Conservative”.  Then she met Sorros,  Erdogan, Obama etc….and the rest, as they say, is history. The number of Muslims in Germany  then was around 3.3 million. While exact statistics today seem  unreliable, a conservative estimate of over 4.7 million Muslims as of 2015 is said to be conservative.

The series was called “Lindenstrasse” and the young woman who “converted” – or “reverted” as Muslims call it – played the role of a young mother, Lisa, engaged to a Turkish Muslim, Murat,  who was working very hard to earn the money for the wedding. I watched that episode and a few that followed, until I came close to a saccharine overdose. You got a taste of it in the video above.

A discussion on the issue of state funded pro-Islamic propaganda:

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CNN Just Got Hit by a Massive Truth Bomb–The Facts of Life Are Conservative

“Could be bullshit. I mean, it’s mostly bullshit right now.”

And there you have it, a CNN producer, caught on camera, frankly admitting that “fake news” isn’t some regrettable accident of the 24-hour news cycle.

“Fake news” is CNN’s entire business model. (The business model of quite a few other liberal MSM outlets too, if the tantalizing hints being dropped by James O’Keefe are to be believed…)

As a fellow human being I feel sorry for the poor guy caught on camera by Project Veritasadmitting this stuff — because he’s probably going to lose his job.

But as a fellow journalist I feel about as much sympathy for him as I do for all those idiot jihadists who go out to fight in Raqqa and Mosul, lured by the cool videos of the beards, black flags, and AKs with the wailing soundtrack. Did they seriously imagine when they joined ISIS/CNN that it was all just going to be about the glamour and the hot chicks and the purity of the noble cause?

And I’m really not being high minded here. It just seems to me that one of the most basic, entry-level precepts that any serious news organization ought to be observe – and that CNN most patently never has observed, or not for a very, very long time – is this:

Facts are sacred. The truth always makes the best story. You do not make shit up.

Not only ought this stuff to be obvious, but it ought to come instinctively. Isn’t the whole attraction of joining an unglamorous, overworked, underpaid trade like journalism that you want to discover the truth about the world: all the stuff that they would rather you didn’t know?

That’s certainly been my own experience in the last few years covering the climate change/enviro-lunacy beat. I’ve never much enjoyed all the flak I’ve got from the left-wing media; still less have I liked being rejected by so many friends. But the thing that has kept me going through the hard times is that I know I’m doing good and making a real difference: there are some devious bastards out there doing terrible stuff and I’m exposing their knavery and holding them to account.

For any self-respecting journalist, I’d call that “job done.”

Sometimes I get asked by people on the other side of the argument: “What if you’re wrong?”

Here’s the first thing I’ll do if I’m wrong about climate change. I’ll write a big piece explaining why I’m wrong. Then I’ll find someone who is prepared to pay me for writing the opposite of what I do now.

This isn’t because I’m a moral paragon. It’s because I’m lazy and because I prefer the easier life: writing journalism where you have to keep making up your “facts” is much, much harder than doing what I do now, which is basically, copying out true facts and then adding a few nice adjectives and thinking up a snarky final sentence.

That said, I would have to concede that this is much easier to do if you’re politically on the right rather than on the left.

Margaret Thatcher once said “The facts of life are conservative.” And as in so many things, she was absolutely spot on. This, as you can imagine, makes life very, very difficult for people in the overcrowded left-wing media. (It’s overcrowded because so many journalists think they’re left wing).

Every day, they wake up to a world where: Israel is the only functioning democracy in the Middle East with the best human rights record; socialism is failing everywhere it is being tried from Venezuela to North Korea; the worst, most fascistic acts of violence and intolerance are being committed by left-wing people calling themselves “anti-fascists”; Islam is not a “religion of peace”; Trump is doing a great job as president — way, way better than his predecessor Obama; man-made climate change is the biggest scam in the history of science, politics, or economics…

And somehow they’ve got to construct stories demonstrating the opposite because it’s what their dumb-assed audiences want to hear.

How, if you’re running a left-wing media organization, do you reconcile this yawning gulf between the facts on the ground and your preferred political narrative?

Simple: you remake the world so that black is white and white is black; you create your own facts.

The liberal media has achieved this in myriad ways: selective reporting; emotive storytelling where opinion masquerades as news; targeting and vicious demonizing of anyone on the other side of the argument; the extensive quotation and celebration of people on the left who have successfully infiltrated schools, universities, branches of government, and other institutions both public and private, so that their skewed version of events becomes the official narrative.

But perhaps the deadliest weapon in the liberal media’s armory is this: the continual pretence it makes that its news reporting is fair, balanced, and honest; that it is constantly striving after objective truth; that only its enemies in the malign right-wing press are guilty of biased journalism.

And for years organizations like CNN — not to mention the New York Times, the Washington Post and their various UK counterparts like the Guardian and the BBC — have been getting away with this because, as someone once said (maybe Churchill, maybe Lenin, maybe Mark Twain — no one is quite sure), “a lie is half way round the world before the truth has got his boots on.”

One of the malign consequences of this deliberate and cynical lie (which comes straight out of the Leninist playbook) is that conservative media outlets have been continually forced onto the back foot, forever having to defend themselves against the charge that they serve up politicised news designed to advance their right wing agenda.

Which they do, of course. Fox News does it. Breitbart does it. The Daily Caller does it. The Sun and the Daily Mail do it. Every one of them is undoubtedly guilty of serving up journalism with a right wing slant.

The key element missing from this particular calumny is that the left wing media demonstrates at least as much bias, if not more. It just won’t admit it.

Continue reading…

— White House: CNN ‘a Disgrace to All of Media, to All of Journalism’

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CNN Caught On Hidden Cam Saying Russian Thing Is BS

Project Veritas, the undercover news group devoted to exposing how the establishment really thinks, got a CNN producer on camera to admit that the news network’s coverage of the phony Trump colluded with Russia story is a cynical effort to whip up ratings, a false narrative promoted to make money, not a bid to report the news as a first draft of history.

Hence, its wall-to-wall coverage of the Democrats’ Russia narrative, despite there being no there there. CNN has mentioned Russia 60,000 times since President Trump was inaugurated.

Here’s the thinking behind the obsession that has occupied a huge part of the Trump presidency:

Speaking on camera, CNN supervising producer John Bonifield in Atlanta told Project Veritas:

Project Veritas: The more CNN is constantly like Russia this, Russia that…

Bonifield: Because it’s ratings.

Project Veritas: Because it’s ratings?

Bonifield: Our ratings are incredible right now.

After that, he admitted there was little substance to the story – the network was just catering to what its leftist viewers wanted to hear:

Project Veritas: But honestly you think the whole thing is just like bullshit

It could be bullshit. It’s mostly bullshit right now, like we don’t have any big giant proof.

I just feel like they don’t really have it, but they want to keep digging. So I think the president is probably right to say like ‘ook you are witch-hunting me. You have no smoking gun, you have no real proof.’

And why did think it was a false narrative? Because if there were any substance to the story…

Bonifield: It would leak. If it was something really good, it would leak.

and

Bonifield: The leaks keep leaking I just refuse to believe that if they had something really good like that, it wouldn’t leak. (inaudible) I just feel like the don’t really have it but they want to keep digging.

Bonifield suggested it was ratings-driven and it came from the top. The CEO of the network, he said, told the editors:

“Good job covering the climate accords but we are done, let’s move back to Russia.”

Bonifield also admitted he was cynical and most of his colleagues were, too. Questioned about journalistic ethics, he said with withering sarcasm: “that’s adorable.”

So what can be said is going on? CNN is no longer a news network – it’s more a whip-up-the-left operation, to make leftists feel good about their crazed anti-Trump suspicions. It’s ratings-driven, not news-driven. And it’s interfering with what President Trump was put into office by voters to do.

It’s a strange beast these days. It’s not really about news. It’s about fake news.

James O Keefe in the above video:

The American people are fade up with fake news, and the mainstream media they can not trust, it’s corporate greed, market pressures, Managers without integrity, newsroom boses without courage, journalists who don’t even leave their desks.

The Very Purpose of Journalism is to Expose the World for What it Is – Not to Create False Political Narratives nor to Make Money.

— Project Veritas Undercover Investigation: CNN Producer Admits Network Hyping ‘Mostly Bullsh*t’ Trump-Russia Scandal for ‘Ratings’

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SHOCK VIDEO: CNN Creates #FakeNews in London Following Terror Attacks, Stages Anti-ISIS Muslim Protesters

A video released a day after the Islamic terror attacks in London show a CNN crew staging a scene with Muslims holding signs saying “ISIS Will Lose”.

The same crowd was used for the following AP post it appears – note the man with green around his neck in both pictures. This is how fake news spreads.

Below are videos of the behind-the-scenes work CNN did to stage the photo-op with Muslims holding up signs that read, ‘ISIS WILL LOSE’.

English newspaper columnist for the Daily Mail, Katie Hopkins chimed in as well saying,

“Please watch. You are being deceived.”

Selected Comments:

The media has been doing this for many years. I’m so glad they got caught. Listen to the lies they are telling to cover and justify this. It is downright propaganda.

This is more frightening than the jihadis themselves.

CNN has gone from sick to totally depraved. The aren’t reporting news, they are trying to brainwash viewers. I’ve cut the cord. I will not pay to have this filth pumped into my house.

CNN has been carrying pro-muslim, pro-terrorist propaganda since 1990 at least. And they’ve done it quite consistently.

CNN is a leftist toilet that hasnt been flushed in 20 years..

Can someone explain to me why CNN is the ONLY cable station in EVERY airport(at least every US airport I have experienced).

I can’t stomach even watching CNN anymore! They are a complete and total part of the elite political establishment

Source

— CNN Is Being Sued After Correspondent Arwa Damon Reportedly Bit an EMT While Drunk in Baghdad

— Watch the Tense On-Air Exchange That CNN Edited Out of Christiane Amanpour’s Interview with RT Host

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Buchanan: Bannon Is ‘Right’ — Media Is the Opposition Party Trying to ‘Bring Down Trump’

Wednesday on Newsmax TV’s “The Steve Malzberg Show,” conservative political commentator Pat Buchanan said White House chief strategist Steve Bannon was correct when he said the media was the opposition party. He added that just like they took down President Richard Nixon, they are attempting to “bring down” President Donald Trump.

Buchanan said, “There is a cultural left and a political left and a media if you will, are a conglomerate. It’s not a conspiracy but it is collusion, and they were determined to break and bring down Nixon from the day he was nominated. They were determined, tried to break, and they succeeded. Tried to break and bring down Reagan over Iran-Contra. I was in the White House then. And the same forces, similar forces are trying to break and bring down Trump. And it’s transparent. It’s right in front of us. You can’t watch those briefings and things, watch TV cable TV and the rest of it without seeing there is a real animus. I mean it’s the White House correspondents’ dinner. Steve Bannon was dead right when he said one thing, the media are the opposition party.”

Selected comments:

Liberals Call for Comey to Resign, Trump Fires Comey, Liberals Outraged

Media is most certainly the opposition. They seem to appoint themselves as some form of legit body representing the people when in fact they are no such thing. They ARE in FACT a mistrusted group by a staggering percent of the American people

Six LEFTY Billionaire Corporations 90% newspapers, TV, Radio, Movies, Books, Magazines. Worst is not Bias but CENSORSHIP of Government Atrocities such as Government (CPS) killing over 1,000 children every year! But this is censored and may not be reported in the press.

Media is owned-and-operate by the Rothchild/Jesuit satanist pedophile Cabal. Time for a FREE Press, that is not CONTROLLED by them

The bulk of the national media today is insane. No question about it. The reporting is so maliciously false and obviously unbelievable that insanity is the only possible description. People simply cannot normally be that stupid and idiotic, can they?…;)

When you control information, you control the future. Nothing new here.The State Controlled Liberal Media is losing their control.
“Fake News” is nothing more than a front to combat this losing battle

Buchanan is absolutely correct on this. As long as the media dedicates all of its efforts to trashing Trump, they are the enemy of the people.

He’s 100% right, what is going on is as subtle as a flying mallet. What bothers me is how many people are “dumbed down” and still buy into the fake stream media.

Election Tampering – sure we need to prosecute the big network, big media attempting to play kingmakers and pick the winners for the voters with all kinds of criminal tactics. Neo Marxists and Globalists congregate in a devil’s brew. They make up 90% of the mainstream Global media spectrum. Long live Bannon!

Source

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Schools, Fake News & Demonic Indoctrination

What Do You Know? ‘60 Minutes’ Is Shocked Educated, Young Lefties Fall for Fake News

This past Sunday’s edition of 60 Minutes featured a piece by CBS’s Scott Pelley examining the idea of fake news, but it was far from perfect with a glaring omission, a shocked host and guest that liberals fall for fake news, and downright hypocrisy from the network that promulgated Dan Rather’s fake news.

Going first to who falls for fake news, Pelley’s examples were heavily skewed to so-called right-of-center falsehoods like Pizzagate or Hillary Clinton having Parkinson’s Disease.

Pelley repeatedly told viewers that fake news was an issue on both sides, but never provided any proof until the nine-minute-mark of the 13-minute exposé with two ludicrous headlines about President Trump using drugs and having cancer.

It was soon after this that guest and “internet advertising firm” CEO Jeff Green dropped this admission that both he and Pelley seemed befuddled by:

JEFF GREEN: So the first thing that we found out is that it is definitely a phenomenon that affects both sides.

PELLEY: Liberals and conservatives?

GREEN: Yes. There is no question they’re both affected.

There was yet another surprise in store for these hardcore liberals. After citing a case of left-wing fake news about Congress “plotting to overthrow President Trump,” Green revealed that “fake news readers on the left were more likely to be affluent and college educated.” At the other end, “right-leaning fake news overwhelmingly attracted readers in their 40s and 50s.”

Green admitted that this “shocked me,” and Pelley had a similarly flabbergasted look. Green added that he “thought the same way that many Americans perhaps think is that fake news was a phenomenon that only tricked the uneducated,” but, alas, “not true — just not — the data shows it’s just not true.”

The glaring omission appeared a few minutes earlier while Pelley spoke to Jestin Coler, who “made real money on fake news” but overseeing two of them that fooled people (National Report and the Denver Guardian).

Touting the fact that “he pushed people’s buttons on issues such as abortion and ObamaCare” and reading headlines from some other Coler stories, Pelley shamefully left out the fact that Coler was not a Republican but a registered Democrat.

Hilariously, the pathetic National Public Radio (NPR) found the time to include this tidbit when they profiled Coler on November 23’s All Things Considered:

Coler, a registered Democrat, says he has no regrets about his fake news empire. He doesn’t think fake news swayed the election.

“There are many factors as to why Trump won that don’t involve fake news,” he says. “As much as I like Hillary, she was a poor candidate. She brought in a lot of baggage.”

Also worth noting was Pelley’s lengthy time spent promoting fake news promulgator and far-right commentator Mike Cernovich, who told Mediaite after it aired that he found it to be “fair” and “good journalism.”

When it comes to pushing fake news, 60 Minutes has little room to talk. They most notably peddled the fake 2004 Rather story about then-President George W. Bush, but they had some other hits as well.

Continue reading…

Students Support Religious Freedom for Muslims, Not Christians

Several students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison admit that Muslims should not be forced by law to do business with Christians. Those same students, however, had a hard time agreeing that Christians or conservative Americans have the right to decline work that conflicts with their conscience or religion.

In a viral video published by Arizona-based nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom (ADL), students were asked if they support Sophie Theallet’s decision not to dress Melania Trump.

Several students agreed that Theallet — one of many fashion designers declining to dress the first family — has every right to refuse to dress Mrs. Trump.

The students were also asked if a Muslim singer solicited by a Christian church to sing had a right to refuse.

Again, the students agreed that the Muslim singer has a right to not sing in a Christian church.

“Yeah, if that goes against your religious view, I feel you have a right to turn that down,” one student said.

The students also said that a law forcing Muslims to sing inside a Christian church should not exist.

When asked if a Christian photographer should be allowed by law to decline to shoot a same-sex wedding, the students appeared torn.

“For them,” the ADL notes, “it seems that the freedom to live and work according to your beliefs really depends on what you believe.”

Incidentally, Wisconsin resident Amy Lawson, a blogger and owner of Amy Lynn Photography, is challenging a state law forcing her to take photographs for a same-sex marriage.

Watch the full ADL video below:

Source

“Good work. I love seeing hypocrisy exposed, and the confused faces that go with it.“

— Christian Student Is Suspended For ‘threatening’ His Muslim Professor After He ‘confronted Her For Saying The Crucifixion Was A Hoax And Jesus’ Disciples Didn’t Believe He Was God’

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Petition Calls on BBC to Keep Christian Output

An almost 12,000-signature petition has been handed to the BBC, asking it to reject proposals to reduce Christian programming.

It also calls for Aaqil Amhed to be removed from his position as Head of Religion and Ethics on the grounds of his “clear bias towards Islam and contempt for Christianity”.

The petition, which was handed to the BBC by Christian group Voice for Justice UK, was launched in May, after Mr Ahmed claimed the BBC was ‘too Christian‘ in its religious output, and should give more airtime to other faiths.

Mr Ahmed, who is a practising Muslim, has compiled a report suggesting that Muslim, Hindu and Sikh faiths should receive more programming airtime.

The report is currently being considered by the BBC’s Director-General, Lord Hall, who could make changes to religious output.

‘Misrepresented’

Speaking to Premier Rev Lynda Rose, CEO of Voice for Justice UK, said: “The UK is actually a Christian country, it’s established as such by statue, all our laws, our traditions, our culture is founded on Christian values, so it would seem entirely right that Christianity be given priority air time.”

“It is right that Christanity be respected for what it is, our values be respected, that it be presented fairly, and that in the programming schedules the status of Christanity as the established religion of this country should be recognised.”

“Even when it comes to general programming, Christians are being misrepresented or treated unfairly, they’re either portrayed as barmy, or they’re very much portrayed as endosring modern, secular views.”

BBC rhetoric to make more religious programmes

According to Premier, a BBC Spokesperson responded, saying: “We are actually intending to do more programming around Christianity and more on other faiths as well, so there is absolutely no question of an ‘either or’ on our output.

“BBC Head of Religion and Ethics, Mr Ahmed is not biased against Christianity programming, nor does he show any pro-Islamic bias and any suggestions that he does are ludicrous and unfounded.”

‘Anti-Christian at the BBC’

The BBC’s anti-Christian bias has been highlighted in recent years, by the Corporation’s own staff.

In 2006, Andrew Marr, the BBC’s former political editor, said: “The BBC is not impartial or neutral. It’s a publicly-funded, urban organisation with an abnormally large number of young people, ethnic minorities and gay people.

“It has a liberal bias not so much a party-political bias. It is better expressed as a cultural liberal bias.”

In 2011 a former BBC news anchor, Peter Sissons, said “left-wing bias is at the core of the BBC, in its very DNA”.

He went on to say: “[At the BBC] Islam must not be offended at any price, although Christians are fair game because they do nothing about it if they are offended.”

In 2013, former presenter Roger Bolton said the BBC thinks Christians who disagree with gay marriage are “throwbacks who are damaging the Church”.

He went on to add if the BBC interviews a Christian who objects to abortion on religious grounds, “they are treated as though they are just a bit barmy”.

‘Islamic State are Muslims and their doctrine is Islamic’

Mr Ahmed is the first Muslim to hold the position of Head of Religion and Ethics at the BBC. At a Lapido event in June, in response to criticism of the BBC’s use of the term ‘so-called Islamic State’, he stated that “The Islamic State are Muslims and their doctrine is Islamic.“

Christian Concern’s Director of Islamic Affairs, Tim Dieppe, commented on the admission saying: “Ahmed is quite right to state that the Islamic State is Islamic. Christians should be unafraid to proclaim the Islamic basis for the brutal behaviour of the Islamic State. In this way we are loving our Muslim friends who need to recognise the true nature of Islam and come to experience the love of Christ.”

Listen to Tim Dieppe discuss the petition on Premier Radio’s Your News.

Source

— The BBC is morally bankrupt – a true reflection of society

— We need a referendum on the vile BBC

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Watch the Tense On-Air Exchange That CNN Edited Out of Christiane Amanpour’s Interview with RT Host

“CNN censoring interviews and towing the line of the administrations?

Why else would they be called the Communist News Network?”

 

Russia Today, Russia’s state-run cable news channel, is going after CNN after the American outlet seemingly edited out RT host Anissa Naouai’s harsh criticism of CNN and one of its hosts, Christiane Amanpour.

It should first be noted that many news outlets regularly edit pre-taped interviews. Amanpour even told Naouai that some of her personal attacks would be edited out of the final product. However, RT’s claims that many of Naouai’s criticisms of CNN were also removed appear to be rooted in some truth.

RT later published the full transcript of the CNN interview. Mediaite later highlighted some of the most contentious moments.

In one tense segment that was edited out, Naouai slammed CNN for airing a video of a “supposed helicopter being downed by these anti-Kiev fighters” that ended up being from Syria.

“We went online; we checked the video. The video was from Syria. We never even saw a retraction from CNN. So it’s a little difficult to judge,” she added, defending RT’s news coverage.

In another exchange, the RT host essentially accuses Amanpour of propagating the “line of the State Department for over 15 years.”

NAOUAI: …[I]t’s an absurd question coming from someone that’s propagated the line of the State Department for over 15 years. I mean, it’s absolutely absurd.

AMANPOUR: Well, are you talking to me?

NAOUAI: Yes. Absolutely I’m talking to you. Who else would I be talking to?

AMANPOUR: Are you talking to me?

NAOUAI: Absolutely.

AMANPOUR: You’ve got to be kidding me.

NAOUAI: You’ve propagated the line of the State Department for over 15 years, starting with Yugoslavia and all the way into Syria. And now you’re doing it for Ukraine, essentially. Absolutely, I’m talking to you.

AMANPOUR: Oh, my goodness. Have you seen any of my reports about Syria? Have you seen any of my reports about Syria?

NAOUAI: I’ve seen lots of your reports and in not one report where you find you questioning the United States government and their policy. And we, with our Russian propaganda, question those arms to the FSA, question those arms to al-Nusra and other leagues. And now today we have ISIS.

Here’s the edited interview that ended up airing on CNN:

Now watch the full, uncut video of Naouai’s side of the interview below:

Source

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Media: The Associated Press Gets a Taste of Its Own Medicine

Associated Press feels the wrath of the Orwellian police state government it helped put into power

Associated Press reporters are outraged over recent revelations that the Obama administration engaged in a “sweeping seizure” of the private phone records of AP reporters as part of a Justice Department investigation. No probable cause was given to anyone, and hundreds of AP reporters were simply deemed guilty by the government as their phone call records were confiscated without explanation.

Politico is now reporting:

The behind-the-scenes anger — and heads-down determination of the AP staff members to keep doing their jobs amid the extraordinary public flap — comes as top executives from the wire service have mounted an aggressive public pushback against DOJ, calling its snooping a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” in a letter fired off to Attorney General Eric Holder. And yet something of a bunkerlike atmosphere has taken hold at the AP in Washington with no bureau-wide meetings or announcements about the DOJ’s action, AP sources told POLITICO.

But what’s not being reported is that the Associated Press helped create the very police state it now condemns for violating its freedoms and privacy.

How AP helped build a tyrannical government

Over the last several years, AP has come down on the side of big government on practically every story, routinely attacking the Bill of Rights, demonizing protectors of the Constitution and endorsing government monopolies over everything from health care to the money supply.

The AP, in fact, falsely refers to itself as a “news organization” when the truth is that it has functioned far more like a big government propaganda mouthpiece that anything resembling independent news reporting.

In addition, the AP all but declared war on alternative medicine back in 2009, and their reporters openly and willfully lie about water fluoridation, yet another big government program to poison the people.

The AP apparently thought that if it went along with the tyranny, it would be given a pass by the oppressive, criminal government now in power in the United States of America. But they were wrong: Going along with the police state does not make you immune to it, and now the AP is coming to learn that the hard way.

Suddenly the AP is crying wolf

Continue reading…

What is Media Manipulation?–A Definition and Explanation

If you don’t know, you should. Because media manipulation currently shapes everything you read, hear and watch online. Everything.

In the old days, we only had a few threats to fear when it came to media manipulation: the government propagandist and the hustling publicist. They were serious threats, but vigilance worked as a clear and simple defense. They were the exceptions rather than the rule—they exploited the fact that the media was trusted and reliable. Today, with our blog and web driven media cycle, nothing can escape exaggeration, distortion, fabrication and simplification.

I know this because I am a media manipulator. My job was to use the media to make people do or think things they otherwise would not. People like me are there, behind the curtain, pulling the puppet strings. But that is about to get harder: I’m spilling my secrets to you and turned my talents from exploiting media vulnerabilities to exposing them—for your benefit.

When the news is decided not by what is important but by what readers are clicking; when the cycle is so fast that the news cannot be anything else but consistently and regularly incomplete; when dubious scandals scuttle election bids or knock billions from the market caps of publicly traded companies; when the news frequently covers itself in stories about ‘how the story unfolded’—media manipulation is the status quo. It becomes, as Daniel Boorstin, author The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America, once put it, a “thicket …which stands between us and the facts of life.

Today the media—driven by blogs—is assailed on all sides, by the crushing economics of their business, dishonest sources, inhuman deadlines, pageview quotas, inaccurate information, greedy publishers, poor training, the demands of the audience, and so much more. These incentives are real, whether you’re the Huffington Post or CNN or some tiny blog. They warp everything you read online—and let me tell you, thumbnail-cheating YouTube videos and paid-edit Wikipedia articles are only the beginning.

Everyone is in on the game, from bloggers to non-profits to marketers to the New York Times itself. The lure of gaming you for clicks is too appealing for anyone to resist. And when everyone is running the same racket, the the line between the real and the fake becomes indistinguishable.

The Rise of the Manipulator

At top of the pantheon of the media manipulators, of course, sits the late Andrew Brietbart. “Feeding the media is like training a dog,” he once said, “You can’t throw an entire steak at a dog to train it to sit. You have to give it little bits of steak over and over again until it learns.” And learned it did: they followed his lead exactly in the Shirley Sherrod story, and continue to fall for the manipulations of his student, James O’Keefe, who has ravaged NPR, ACORN, and many other liberal organizations.

But in this rising class, I also place some unlikely figures. Michael Arrington, former editor and founder of the popular blog TechCrunch. Manipulator is the only word for Arrington, a man who once said “Getting it right is expensive, getting it first is cheap” and made $25 million from around that fact. Nick Denton and his cabal of Gawker writers—partially paid by how many visitors their posts get—use the same tricks to get your attention and sell it to advertisers. You can see it in how Brian Moylan, one of Denton’s minions, once explained the art of online headlines: “[the key is to] get the whole story into the headline but leave out just enough that people will want to click.”

And the old threat of government abuse of the media? We know that the Bush administration was a pro at it. Think of Dick Cheney leaking bogus information to Judith Miller at the New York Times as an anonymous source and then citing himself (without disclosing the conflict) to justify the build up to the war in Iraq. He planted the information which he then alluded to as support. That happened in 2002. Today, this loop is even easier, because as political strategists like Christian Grantham admit, “Campaigns understand that there are some stories that regular reporters won’t print. So they’ll give those stories to the blogs.”

So it goes: manipulators on both sides of the equation—the writers and the marketers and press agents—all influencing the news to their own benefit. I know because I used to be one of them. I plied the trade for bestselling authors and billion dollar brands. I can recognize manipulation when I see it…because I invented many of the plays myself.

Where It Comes From and What to Do About It

Media manipulation exploits the difference between perception and reality. The media was long a trusted source of information for the public. Today, all the barriers that made it reliable have broken down. Yet the old perceptions remain. If a random blog is half as reliable as a New York Times article that was fact checked, edited and reviewed by multiple editors, it is twice as easy to get coverage on. So manipulators (myself included) play the volume game. We know that if we can generate enough online buzz people will assume that where there is smoke there is fire…and the unreal becomes real.

This all happens because of the poor incentives. When readers don’t PAY for news, the creators of the news don’t have any loyalty to the readers either. Everything is read one off, passed around on Facebook and Twitter instead of by subscription. As a result, there is no consequence for burning anyone. Manipulators can deceive journalists because journalists are not held responsible for deceiving readers.

To combat these manipulations, we must change the incentives. If we want loyalty to the truth, we must be loyal to the people who provide us with it—whoever they are. This probably means paying for information in one form or another. It means we have to be more patient. Good information takes time to acquire after all. The idea that news can be given to us iteratively and reliably is preposterous. Screw Michael Arrington. I’d rather have my news right than first.

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The Illusion of Net Neutrality: Political Alarmism, Regulatory Creep, and the Real End to Internet Freedom

In The Illusion of Net Neutrality, coauthors Bob Zelnick and his daughter, Eva Zelnick, sound the alarm on how the ever-increasing threat of regulations, rules, and powerful competing interests could strip the Internet of its unfettered, open nature—the very framework that has allowed it to become a life-altering invention.  In just two short decades, this powerful global information and retail powerhouse has changed the way we communicate, how we stay informed on national and world events, how we manage our health and finances, and how we research virtually any subject—from genealogy to astrology.

In their riveting, cautionary treatise, the Zelnicks clearly and simply outline the technologies and factors that allowed the Internet to evolve and to become such a society-changing force in such a short period of time. They also carefully lay out the imminent threats that could rob the Internet of its full potential. They expose “network neutrality” for what is truly is, explain how FCC regulations would harm the Internet, and, in the end, make a strong, compelling case for an independent, unregulated Internet.

Bob Zelnick is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, a professor of national and international affairs at Boston University, and, as a former longtime ABC News correspondent, a frequent television analyst.

Eva Zelnick, who specializes in public policy and Internet-related issues, is a cum laude graduate of the University of Virginia and Boston University’s School of Law.

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Relevant reading

YouTube puts Germany into digital dark ages

 

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Global Media: Darkness In The Minds of The Producers?

They accuse, belittle and insult the continent of Africa at will. In the 21^st century, they still talk about Africa as if it is a small state, show their readiness to pick every ‘possible’ negative event in the continent and send subliminal messages, beamed at global radio and television audiences. The Western Media which gives very little attention to the fate of African states, continues to devote a large portion of its resources and energy towards painting the great continent of Africa in a negative light. Why is it? Is it because Africans don’t complain much about the past injustices, and are not as loud, aggressive and deadly as South Asians and Arabs? Or is it simply because Africa is the Cradle of Humanity, hence a superior continent?

Yesterday, while Ethiopians and other Orthodox Christians were celebrating the coming of the Holy Spirit on the twelve disciples of Jesus on the day of Pentecost, the British monarchy “by coincidence” chose this very day for the celebration of their own version of “Jubilee”, described, Queen Elizabeth II’s diamond jubilee – a celebration devoted to monarchy and military might. I have nothing against about their fun and festivities, but it’s amazing to observe that neither Christmas nor Easter get this much public and media attention in ‘New Britain”. There were protests and unsympathetic reactions when the Vatican Pope visited the UK two years ago – a very dangerous sign of ignorance and poor hospitality.

On this very day, 15 people were killed and dozens wounded in Nigerian church attack, and a plane with 153 passengers crashed, killing all 153 people aboard and at least 10 on the ground.

As the ‘real Christian Jubilee’ is about celebrating justice, peace and the equality of all people as created in the image of God, Western Media organizations who commonly employ to specifically dump negative news materials and information when reporting, communicating, or disseminating anything concerning Africa, have used such tragic occurrences like the one in Nigeria to blame, belittle and insult the whole of Africa and Africans. Mind you, Nigeria is one of the 54 member states of the “Commonwealth”, of which 16 belong to the so-called Commonwealth realm.

Minutes after the crash of “Dana Air” in Lagos — way before the cause of the crash has yet not been revealed, the medias immediately pointed their fingers at the incompetence of “Africans”, the incapability of “Africans” to fly a plane, as they’re collectively named.

Mind you, “Dana Air” which began operations in 2008 is privately operated and Indian-owned, and the pilot of the plane was American, the co-pilot Indian – the airliner was recently awarded the title of “Best Safety and Security Conscious Airline in Nigeria” Yet, the whole propaganda machine repeatedly preferred to emphasize on the “bankrupt” and “incompetence” nature of Africans. What to gain?

It’s known that media conditioning shapes, molds, and monopolizes those images, references to Africa are received sometimes with disdain and contempt. Even some western-educated Africans, who have virtually no cultural competence, actually contribute to how Africa is projected globally. Ashamed of their “heritage and historical past” they side with media characterizations projected through such stories and specials, by telling them what they only want to hear.

Listen to this program episode from the Africa-bashing broadcaster, the BBC – WorldHaveYourSay

Listen attentively to the words used by the moderator, notice which self-hating, self-promoting African representatives have been selected to sound off on the program. Shameless!

The cause of the crash is still unknown, yet, this one example proves the denigrated global image of Africans which was put by Europeans for decades is now baring its fruits among many in the West. Despicable comments and their ‘popular’ ratings on many of the blogs and forums – whether it concerns the church bombings, the plane crash, or the reluctance of Black football players heading, in particular to Orthodox Ukraine for the European Championship (Poland and Ukraine host) — you will be able to notice the artificial image which is as dark as the pervasive fear conjured up in the their minds.

• The UK: Every black man I met where England will play has been beaten up by racists
• The USA: Pilot signaled trouble moments before crash

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a href=”http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/nigeria/9309339/Bodies-recovered-from-passenger-plane-crash-site-in-Lagos.html”