Propaganda // Current

Swine Flu Hysteria of 1976 Repeating Itself

CBS "60 Minutes" documentary on the swine flu epidemics of 1976 in the U.S. It went on... more

TheEmpireGuy
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IRS disclosures show extent of oil and coal lobbying

phttp://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/11/18/18greenwire-irs-disclosures-show-extent-of-oil... more

JanforGore
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2 days ago
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Fox News' year in apologies: fake videos, false info, cutting and pasting from GOP

On November 19, co-host Jane Skinner apologized for Happening Now "mistakenly" airing... more

slarabee
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Blame the Internet for Ft. Hood?

Talking about extreme views...

Jenime
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5 days ago
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Obama’s Propaganda Scandal Exposed

Obama Propaganda Scandal

blogspression1
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9 days ago
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Birther Lawsuit Witnesses: Orly Taitz Told Us To Lie

In his decision dismissing a lawsuit filed by Orly Taitz late last month, U.S.... more

slarabee
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9 days ago
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More Americans Acknowledge that Fox News is Biased

It took me a simple Google search: 1) I typed in "faux news" 2) I clicked the... more

sunkisthappy
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11 days ago
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World Freedom Day ( To the Tune of Annie Get Your Gun )

I guess the Nobel from the Onion made me irritable. When I saw someone had the idea to... more

opit
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12 days ago
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Hannity concocts smear that Obama at fault for Ft. Hood shooting

Sean Hannity speculated that "there is a chance our government knew all about" alleged... more

slarabee
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12 days ago
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Mustafa Barghouti will be a better leader for the Palestinians - video

If you are wondering about Dr. Barghouti, you're not alone. As of late, it seems that... more

Ishtar56
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A message from Dr. Vandana Shiva: help us fight for the truth

ttp://truefoodnow.org/campaigns/messagefromvandanashiv/

Have you seen this advertisement? Couched deep within the green-washed rhetoric of a recent Monsanto ad is an egregious claim:

Producing more. Conserving more. Improving farmers’ lives. That’s sustainable agriculture. And that’s what Monsanto is all about.

Oh, really?

While the mainstream media and Big Ag pundits seem all too happy to watch how Monsanto and other biotech companies spin and co-opt the term “sustainability,” we at the Center for Food Safety (CFS) are on the front lines fighting against the corporate take-over of our food, farms, and future; advocating for REAL, sustainable, solutions to the problems of the biotech industrial agriculture model.

Over the next month, CFS will be bringing you videos from some experts with whom we work closely in the trenches—Michael Pollan, Vandana Shiva, Anna Lappé, and CFS’s Executive Director Andrew Kimbrell—to help us tell you the real truth about the false claims put forth by Monsanto and other biotech companies. We’ll share with you why these leading activists support the work of the Center for Food Safety.

CFS has been fighting on your behalf since 1997. We have accomplished a lot – we’ve stopped GMO crops including wheat, rice, and alfalfa, and also dangerous pharmaceutical-producing crops. We’ve beat Monsanto in the courts, but they have the substantial resources to continue to challenge CFS; just this week, they asked for the U.S. Supreme Court to consider yet another appeal of our successful lawsuit stopping GMO alfalfa.

We can only accomplish these victories with the support of members like you. Please join Vandana Shiva in supporting our work, to raise the funds we need to continue to fight Monsanto in the courts, and to combat the twisted version of “sustainability” biotech company marketers are trying to foist on the world. We need your help, right now, to raise our goal of $100,000 this Fall — less than the amount Monsanto spent on just ONE AD on the back page of The New Yorker (about $140,000), to support our important workttp://truefoodnow.org/campaigns/messagefromvandanashiv/ Have you seen this... more

JanforGore
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17 days ago
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MPAA Propaganda Hits 60 Minutes

The MPAA scored a victory last night when millions of people tuned in to CBS’s 60... more

atomiclegion
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19 days ago
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60 Minutes Puts Forth Laughable, Factually Incorrect MPAA Propaganda On Movie Piracy

31 years ago, in 1978, the television program 60 Minutes put on an episode about the awful threat of "video piracy" to the movie industry. Featuring the MPAA's Jack Valenti, the episode focused on how the VCR was going to destroy the movie business because anyone could copy and watch a movie in the privacy of their own home. Of course, in retrospect, that episode is hilariously wrong. You would think that, given how wrong they got it thirty years ago on this particular subject, 60 Minutes would be a bit more careful taking on the same subject again.

No such luck.

CBS's 60 Minutes has made itself out to be more of a laughingstock than usual when it comes to "investigative reporting," putting on an episode about "video piracy" that is basically 100% MPAA propaganda, without any fact checking or any attempt to challenge the (all MPAA connected) speakers, or to include anyone (anyone!) who would present a counterpoint. The episode is funny in that it contradicts itself at times (with no one noticing it) and gets important (and easily checked) facts wrong. And, of course, it basically mimics that old episode that history has shown to have been totally (laughably) false.

The report opens with the claim that counterfeit movies is where organized crime is making its money these days. Fascinating. Except they don't show any proof whatsoever that organized crime has anything to do with movie piracy at all. They just claim it, talk about Mexican gangs, and then assume it must be true. But, of course, most of the report actually focuses on the internet and file sharing of movies -- which completely goes against the claim that organized crime is "making its money" off of video piracy. After all, reports have shown that online file sharing has actually been putting DVD counterfeiters out of business. You would think that the "journalists" at 60 Minutes might have noticed this contradiction.

A big chunk of the episode is taken up by director Steven Soderbergh, who has come out in the past touting the MPAA's line before, so it's no surprise that he does so again. He claims that "piracy is costing Hollywood $6 billion a year at the box office." Does he mention that Hollywood has been making more and more and more at the box office every year the past few years? Oops. No. Did the reporters at 60 Minutes look into this fact and bring it up? Of course not. The entire story appears to be an MPAA press release, so you don't want to cloud it with pesky facts that prove they don't know what they're talking about.

Next up, Soderbergh claims that fewer movies are getting made thanks to movie piracy. Uh huh. Another checkable fact. Another one wrong. It was recently summarized, according to the movie industry's own numbers:

2004 Total Movies Released: 567 Total Combined Gross: $9,327,315,935
2005 Total Movies Released: 594 Total Combined Gross: $8,825,324,278
2006 Total Movies Released: 808 Total Combined Gross: $9,225,689,414
2007 Total Movies Released: 1022 Total Combined Gross: $9,665,661,126
2008 Total Movies Released: 1037 Total Combined Gross: $9,705,677,862
2009 Total Movies Released: 1177 Total Combined Gross: $7,596,626,766
(2009 figures incomplete, total movies scheduled to be released, gross to date)

Read the rest of this story at http://techdirt.com/articles/20091101/1818186751.shtml31 years ago, in 1978, the television program 60 Minutes put on an episode about the... more