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Americans and reality
Robert Parry: The Reagan presidency further detached Americans from world reality. Part 3
Robert Parry is an American investigative journalist. He was awarded the George Polk Award for National Reporting in 1984 for his work with the Associated Press. In 1995, he established Consortium News as an online ezine dedicated to investigative journalism. From 2000 to 2004, he worked for the financial wire service Bloomberg. Major subjects of Parry's articles and reports on Consortium News include the presidency of George W. Bush, the career of Army general and Bush Secretary of State Colin Powell (with Norman Solomon), the October Surprise controversy of the 1980 election, the Nicaraguan contra-cocaine investigation, the efforts to impeach President Clinton, right-wing terrorism in Latin America, the political influence of Sun Myung Moon, mainstream American media imbalance, United States Defense Secretary Robert Gates, as well as international stories . Parry has written several books, including Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & "Project Truth." (1999) and Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq (2004).
See Part 1 at: http://current.com/items/89369029_america_pays_the_pipe...
See Part 2 at: http://current.com/items/89370644_america_pays_the_pipe... Robert Parry: The Reagan presidency further detached Americans from world reality. Part 3 ... more -
Secrets and shams of political polls
In the 13 years David Moore worked for the Gallup Poll, he learned that media polls are not used to uncover the will or thoughts of the public, but rather to manufacture a public opinion that grabs the attention of journalists and can be used to fill media news holes.
Now the founder of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center and former managing editor of the Gallup Poll draws on first-hand experience as well as the history of modern media polling practices focusing particularly on the four most influential polls: New York Times/CBS News, Washington Post/ABC News, Pew Research, and USA Today/Gallup to reveal the inner-workings of pollsters and the cycle of bias that tends to promote the powerful and suppress dissent in his new book; The Opinion Makers: An Insider Exposes the Truth Behind the Polls.
According to Moore, in the fall of 2007, media pollsters reported a solid lead for Hillary Clinton among Democratic primary candidates and crowned Rudy Giuliani the national Republican frontrunner. Clinton's lead evaporated in the first contest and Giuliani later dropped out of the race without having won a single delegate.
Early in the campaign season, pollsters refused to report the simple truth that the election was wide open. It makes for better headlines to pretend that there are front-runners and under-dogs. They love to show a wildly fluctuating electorate rather than to reflect a far less interesting reality that months before an election many voters are undecided, Moore says.
Media pollsters will do everything they can to beat such an undecided voter into oblivion, so they can begin horserace coverage long before the race track has even opened, he says.
Analyzing pollsters problematic methodology, such as shrinking and skewed samples (for example, the difficulty of reaching a broad base of people on landline phones) and forced-choice format in which respondents are forced to pick an answer even if they don't know or don't have a strong opinion, Moore reveals how polls distort voters election preferences as well as the public's support for or opposition to government policies. The net result, he says, is that polls give false readings of which candidates voters prefer and what the public wants, which ultimately determines the democratic process.
In his new book, Moore shows how polls create a legitimacy spin cycle. Those in power frame an issue to favor their position, while the press limits its coverage of sources that might disagree with the administration. Pollsters, in turn, develop surveys to dovetail with the news stories and the people many of whom have little idea of what is happening beyond the limited information presented to them by the news media are pressured into answering questions that reinforce the original position of those in power.
Furthermore, the manipulation of voter preferences in pre-election polls misleads politicians, the public, and journalists into believing that voters have made up their minds months even years ahead of the election. Moore analyzes the polling failures from 2008 presidential primary contests including the New Hampshire debacle in which 11 different polls forecast a solid win by Sen. Barack Obama; instead, Hillary Clinton took the Granite State and recharged her candidacy.
His analysis underscores how early national polling of the electorate actually reveals nothing about the dynamics of what is a state-by-state nomination contest. Even though most in the media know they shouldn't use national polls as primary contest predictors, many do, often negatively affecting lesser known candidates ability to raise money, attract volunteers, obtain media coverage, and in the end, stay in the race, Moore says.
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A threat to democracy the way they are conducted now? You bet. In the 13 years David Moore worked for the Gallup Poll, he learned that media polls are not used to uncover the will or thoughts of th... more -
Leading journalists expose major media manipulations
The riveting excerpts below are from the revealing accounts of 20 award-winning journalists in the highly acclaimed book Into the Buzzsaw. These courageous writers were prevented by corporate media ownership from reporting major news stories. Some were even fired or laid off. They have won numerous awards, including several Emmys and a Pulitzer. Join in building a better world by helping to spread this news across the land.
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Jane Akre—Fox News. After our struggle to air an honest report [on hormones in milk], Fox fired the general manager [of our station]. The new GM said that if we didn’t agree to changes that the lawyers were insisting upon, we’d be fired for insubordination in 48 hours. We pleaded with [him] to look at the facts we’d uncovered. His reply: “We paid $3 billion dollars for these stations. We’ll tell you what the news is. The news is what we say it is!” [After we refused] Fox’s GM presented us an agreement that would give us a full year of salary, and benefits worth close to $200,000, but with strings attached: no mention of how Fox covered up the story and no opportunity to ever expose the facts. [After declining] we were fired. (click for more)
Dan Rather—CBS, Multiple Emmy Awards. What's going on is a belief that you can manipulate communicable trust between the leadership and the led. The way you do that is you don't let the press in anywhere. Access to war is extremely limited. The fiercer the combat, the more the access is limited, [including] access to information. This is a direct contradiction of the stated policy of maximum access to information consistent with national security. There was a time in South Africa when people would put flaming tires around people's necks if they dissented. In some ways the fear [now in the U.S.] is that you will have a flaming tire of lack of patriotism put around your neck. That fear keeps journalists from asking the tough questions. I am humbled to say, I do not except myself from this criticism. (click for more)
Monika Jensen-Stevenson—Emmy-winning producer for 60 minutes. Robert R. Garwood—14 years a prisoner of the Vietnamese—was found guilty in the longest court-martial in US history. At the end of the court-martial, there seemed no question that Garwood was a monstrous traitor. Several years later in 1985, Garwood was speaking publicly about something that had never made the news during his court-martial. He knew of other American prisoners in Vietnam long after the war was over. He was supported by Vietnam veterans whose war records were impeccable….My sources included outstanding experts like former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency General Tighe and returned POWs like Captain McDaniel, who held the Navy’s top award for bravery. With such advocates, it was hard not to consider the possibility that prisoners (some 3,500) had in fact been kept by the Vietnamese as hostages to make sure the US would pay the more than $3 billion in war reparations. [After the war] American POWs had become worthless pawns. The US had not paid the promised monies and had no intention of paying in the future. (click for more)
Read what other journalists have to say:
http://www.wanttoknow.info/008/080916_mass_media_manipu... The riveting excerpts below are from the revealing accounts of 20 award-winning journalists in the highly acclaimed book Into the Buzz... more -
Media and Neural Linguistic Programming used in a purposefully disarming way!
This is so interesting - 3 parts of ten minutes each - it is a companion piece of sorts to beedees post on the BBC doc "Century of the Self". I hope you have some time to take a look. This is so interesting - 3 parts of ten minutes each - it is a companion piece of sorts to beedees post on the BBC doc "Century ... more
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Never mind social media, how about social hacking?
One of the basic tools of any good hacker has always been the ability to utilize the concept of social engineering as made famous by people like Kevin Mitnick and the Badir Brothers. The idea being -– according to Wikipedia — that “All social engineering techniques are based on specific attributes of human decision-making known as cognitive biases. These biases, sometimes called "bugs in the human hardware," are exploited in various combinations to create criminal attack techniques.”
While this type of ploy has been used to gain access to computer systems for various reasons, it also raises an interesting idea of it being used to get people to willingly do things on the Web that they might not think of doing on their own. Its possible that this is just another form of the mob mentality that we see in things like flash mobs, but isn't this just another form of social hacking?
Long before things like social networks and social media were the hot buzzwords used to spark VC feeding frenzies, Web forums and newsgroups were the main social communication tool. People would scour Web forums to spread news about people or products, good or bad. The overall effect of this type of promotion was usually limited, but it was still possible to get people riled up over something on a much larger scale.
Then along came blogs and the ability to instantly publish or comment about a person or a product. It provided a much easier way to galvanize people into acting, even if only verbally. To this mix now come things like Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, or any number of instant social tools that can broadcast your message instantly around the world to a potentially unlimited number of people. The effect being that within minutes you can galvanize an immense number of people into a single action.
One of the best of the classic online flash mobs can be seen anytime anyone says something negative about Apple products. The moment someone posts something like this, whether on a Web forum or a blog, you can be sure that in very short order the site will be inundated with Apple’s faithful arguing against whatever has been said. This varies from intelligent discussion to hateful things being said about the person who wrote the post.
Bring this forward to today and we see, as Svetlana Gladkova at Profy.com points out in a post, just how easy it could be to cause a major news group to pull down a service because of a social hack.
CNN editors expected to receive opinions from the site’s main target audience (which definitely is not in Russia) but what it received instead were mainly votes from Russia with the first answer getting 92% of votes (or over 329 thousand of people).
How did this happen? Very simple actually. The information about the CNN poll quickly made it to the Russian blogosphere (it is impossible to determine where it all started because of the huge number of posts on the topic) and bloggers started encouraging their readers to go to CNN and vote for the first option. The news was quickly disseminated over an enormous number of the Russian blogs and the results were predictable: 92% supported the official point of view of Russia.
The reality is that even with the simple social media tools that we have today it would be incredibly easy to use them to organize people unknowingly to attack the Web presence of a person or brand. Just as we can see daily on services like Twitter, where people are being directed to charities or new products, this group mentality could potentially be used as in the CNN story to cause damage. Why use things like botnets when you can just as easily obtain the same results by using social media - and it’s legal to boot.
Is it really that large of a step before incidents like the one that happened with CNN become part of the norm? Are we really beyond being used in such a way without even realizing that we have been a part of a social hack attack? Would you even realize it if you had been socially hacked? One of the basic tools of any good hacker has always been the ability to utilize the concept of social engineering as made famous by p... more -
"Prophetic movie from 30 years ago has completely come true"
This is the movie called Network. It was released almost 30 years ago and everything presented in this film, which at the time was extremely controversial, has come true. I mean everything.
Terrorism has become a scripted reality TV show. News has become the biggest business in the world. It can make or break presidents, popes, prime ministers, etc. The television has become the mighty oracle of the this 21st century Roman/Babylonian world.
Everybody should see this movie. There are now three entire generations that have learned everything they know from the television. It has robbed them of the true reality, which is our common humanity. If there ever was something that matched the "BEAST" of revelations, it is the current state of mass television and it's constant stream of mindless dribble; demanding "watch me, do as I say, obey, procreate, consume."
When many of us came here to Current, we got the impression that finally there was going to be a beacon of truth and hope in this failing world controlled by Main Stream Media. Current inspired our imagination to defy the great Puppet Master by creating our own content and bringing the news stories to the general public.
But now a dark cloud hangs over the silver lining, what will happen in future is anyones guess, but I would like to bet on the diligence of a few individuals who carry their torches of truth. There are many things in this movie that will shock and awe you about how on target this film really was. Whoever came up with this story surely must have had dreams or seen a vision of the future to have predicted so many things about television and its power to shape the minds of human beings.
What do you think? This is the movie called Network. It was released almost 30 years ago and everything presented in this film, which at the time was ext... more -
Supreme Court Slashes Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Fine to One-Tenth of Original $5 Bill...
Just another example of our flawed system protecting the corporate criminals of our time...
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Obamas twisted truth- The Small-Donor Fallacy
One way Obama makes you think he's for you
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Murdoch of Fox News admits manipulating the news for agenda
Why we can't rely on FOX for the truth
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Interpreting Media 3- You Thoughts Continued
I just wanted you to have all three of the videos and to gather your opinions on this; it's validity, how deep it goes, ect., ect. I just wanted you to have all three of the videos and to gather your opinions on this; it's validity, how deep it goes, ect., ect... more
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Interrpretting Media 2- Your thoughts again?
This is the second of three videos,.... just adding it up here as a continuation because I find I find it interesting. Please continue to add your comments and thoughts about the validity of these videos and how deep and often this occurs. Oh, and this is the site the professor was talking about http://www.st911.org/. This is the second of three videos,.... just adding it up here as a continuation because I find I find it interesting. Please continue... more
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Intrepretating Media- Your Thoughts
How do you feel about this? Do you think these examples were intentional? Is this really manipulation? If so, how badly do you think our media munipulates things? How do you feel about this? Do you think these examples were intentional? Is this really manipulation? If so, how badly do you think o... more
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Al Gore's The Assault On Reason A Transference Of Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson and Al Gore. Both spokesmen for truth, both statesmen of exemplary principle. But are we truly heeding their words?
"My hope that we have not labored in vain, and that our experiment will still prove that men can be governed by reason." --Thomas Jefferson to George Mason, 1791. ME 8:124
"I have so much confidence in the good sense of man, and his qualifications for self-government, that I am never afraid of the issue where reason is left free to exert her force." --Thomas Jefferson to Comte Diodati, 1789. Papers 15:326"
Let common sense and common honesty have fair play, and they will soon set things to rights." --Thomas Jefferson to Ezra Stiles, 1786. ME 6:25
"A government of reason is better than one of force." --Thomas Jefferson to Richard Rush, 1820. ME 15:284
"This blessed country of free inquiry and belief has surrendered its creed and conscience to neither kings nor priests." --Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, 1822. ME 15:385
"It is surely time for men to think for themselves, and to throw off the authority of names so artificially magnified." --Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 1820. ME 15:258
snip
And that is why I have to type this as well as a supporter of Al Gore who is now on my third time reading The Assault On Reason which to me is the Jeffersonian doctrine of our time: Al Gore stated right from the beginning that this book is not a 'candidate' book, and that is correct. It is a serious look in the mirror not only for those in our government who have abandoned reason in exchange for the politics of fear, propaganda, and expediency of men over the rule of law, but more so for the complicit corporate media that is their accomplice, and even more so for the citizens of this country used by that fear, propaganda, and expediency who on the whole constantly complain about the state of affairs but who never seem to want to get their hands dirty when it comes to truly standing up for it. This book is a primer for them in doing that, and yet I don't get the feeling that is how many see it and that is disappointing to me.
I have stated many times how I would feel regarding Mr. Gore leading us in a system envisioned by Jefferson, and I am absolutely heartbroken at the turn of events these past eight years after fighting for him for so many years before that. He will always be my president, and has been since December 13, 2000. However, as he has stated as well, this is not about him but about all of us, and he has done more for this world as a statesman than any of the cretins that stole this Democracy from us and for that he will have my undying respect because he has done it and continues to do it against all odds with a conscience and moral awareness I frankly do not believe politicians possess or are allowed to possess.
He is the premiere American statesman of our time which has come with many years of service through wisdom and pain, and the words I read and am again reading in his book were not read with the eyes of someone just looking to use quotes in them to prop him up as a 'candidate' in a toxic system that wronged him and us for political expediency. I see clearly what he is talking about in this book. And what he is talking about is exactly what Thomas Jefferson spoke of in his time when he was one of the premiere American statesmen: and that is that a Democracy is only as 'Democratic' as the people make it. It cannot be done from the cheap seats. It must be hands on or it is lost. And that does not always mean from a political place, for surely as we have seen those who work outside to bring change inside have been more successful in bringing that change.
more at the link. Thomas Jefferson and Al Gore. Both spokesmen for truth, both statesmen of exemplary principle. But are we truly heeding their words? ... more -
Bill Maher Show: Joe Scarborough says "People in the media are really afraid....
Watching Bill Maher this morning and Joe Scarborough is one of the panelists. The topic comes up about the fact that if you say something critical about Obama, you are a racist, if you say something critical about Hillary, you are a misogynist, and if you say something critical about McCain, you are ageist.
Scarborough then says that it's true, if you say something critical about Hillary Clinton, there are organizations that dedicate their lives to making that media personalities life a living hell by massive letter, email, phone in and blogging campaigns seeking that the head of that media personality be placed on the chopping block (loose their jobs) that it has got all the media personalities he knows REALLY AFRAID!
This made me have a really good laugh this morning and if you get a chance to see it I highly recommend it.
Hey and all you folks out there that participate in this fear mongering against media personalities......KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!
I absolutely love it........MEDIA PERSONALITIES AFRAID TO SPEAK THEIR BABBLE ON THE AIR FOR FEAR OF CONSUMER RETRIBUTION!
What do you guys all think? Watching Bill Maher this morning and Joe Scarborough is one of the panelists. The topic comes up about the fact that if you say someth... more -
Creating a Non Violent World - Is it Really Possible?
Introduction—Confronting the Ideological Beast
America is desperately searching for heroes! If this were not true we would not see the incredible success of blockbuster action movies featuring mostly males with superhuman powers who fight for the underdogs by battling greed, injustice, and corruption of power. We have all seen time and again, story after story, encounters between the forces of good and the forces of evil; and we are constantly being challenged to take a side and fight. The emphasis of popular culture in mass media is a perpetuation of violence as the primary solution to the problem of enforcing the American Dream—“The Myth” (Hedges); like Superman fighting for “truth, justice, and the American way of life.” This portrayal of violence as a necessary judicial tool works inevitably to subjugate the most vulnerable people of our planet, namely women and children. It accomplishes this by portraying unrealistic ideologies and distorting and exaggerating differences among race, class, gender, age, sexuality, and especially religion. The media uses images that “shock and awe” our sensibilities—causing us to constantly react—deflecting our attention away from resistance and away from collective empowerment. “One of the most obvious signs of widespread acceptance of violence is the amount of it that routinely appears in media.” (Wood 314) Violence has become a pervasive part of our reality causing us to react with fear—a state in which we can be easily controlled and manipulated.
The media is a multinational enterprise—an “Eminent Domain”—which is the luxury of a privileged few who influence our popular culture and control the mechanism through which the mythologies of popular culture are transfixed. Its primary existence serves to preserve their control of global socio-economics in posterity by bombarding us with so much violence that we scarcely have time to be aware of the fact that we are being manipulated. However, there are those subtle geniuses who emerge from the frontlines and through personal experience have concluded that the status quo is a never ending merry-go-round leading to the annihilation of both sides. In other words, they have come to realize that hero fixation is a sickness that symbiotically—Ying Yang, 69—enforces victimization. These geniuses work behind the scenes influencing the media content, often changing its’ focus or challenging accepted norms. Although there are many people who are actively participating in efforts to transform the socio-economic landscape on many different fronts whether through academia, media, or politics, the most effective means to communicate ideas is through writing. Introduction—Confronting the Ideological Beast ... more -
Israeli blood more media worthy than Palestinian blood?
The conflict between Palestine and Israel is thought by some to be the most polarised debate in modern history but how much of that anger and steadfast opinion, if any at all, is down to media manipulation? The news that a suicide bomber had breached security checks and attacked an Israeli town made headline news the world over yesterday. The coverage sparked frustrations from Arab media watch agencies that it was receiving disproportional coverage. To claim that this was not newsworthy seems ludicrous - after all three people had been killed in a sovereign state by an external force; by definition it is newsworthy. But is there a balance to be made on proportional coverage?
Is it fair for some bloggers and reporters to say that news of casualties on the other side of the conflict, namely Palestinians, very rarely make headlines? Are there casualties in Palestine? How are we to know? Before the bomb happened The Times published a disgruntled letter from an Arab media watch organisation that claimed 373 Palestinians were killed in 2007, 290 of which were in Gaza. According to the letter, Palestinian militant groups killed a comparatively small number - 13 Israeli's. Are the figures accurate? The BBC reported that in 2006, 660 Palestinians were killed compared to 23 Israelis, a strong source if ever there was one. Just today, six Palestinians are reported to have been killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza, but has this become such a common occurrence that it is no longer headline news?
Is it fair to boil down the conflict to a simple game of numbers? Is it an unfortunate side effect that the tactic of a suicide bombing commands more media attention than the on-going tactics of ground incursions used by the Israeli army or something more institutional?
Sources:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/letters/articl...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6309029.st...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6215769.st...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7228566.st...
Your thoughts are not only welcome, but required, so please add your comments to the thread. The conflict between Palestine and Israel is thought by some to be the most polarised debate in modern history but how much of that an... more -
Religions and Multinational Corporations - Two headed monster - Same Beast!!
To access the video, scroll down on the page and click on the link for "Corporations" clip is 2 minutes and 9 seconds. (Couldn't figure out how to embed the video sorry.)
Watch this video from Ramtha the Enlightened one, a spirit being channeled by JZ Knight. This clip is from a video called "Where Angels Fear To Tread". The video is available on Ramtha's website for $10. It is extremely well done and produced and directed by one of the directors of the hit movie "What The Bleep Do We Know" Mark Vicente.
"What is government but the incorporated fending for their own. We need to empower the individual; we need an army of remarkable individuals in this war on ignorance, poverty, and despair. One human being at a time we are embarking on a wondrous journey of self discovery and empowerment. We all have the power to change reality; we need you, the world is waiting."
Jubal aka (Jon Jaramillo) To access the video, scroll down on the page and click on the link for "Corporations" clip is 2 minutes and 9 seconds. (Coul... more -
Victim: Gang-Rape Cover-Up by U.S., Halliburton/KBR
KBR Told Victim She Could Lose Her Job If She Sought Help After Being Raped, She Says What the hell is going on over there?
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NIE - Why are so many media experts and government officials attacking it?
"It's not the intelligence community's job to "object" to the Iranian program, it's their job to evaluate factual evidence. And the entire declassified portion of the NIE was less than a thousand words long. Nothing got more than a few sentences of emphasis.
You can decide for yourself whether you believe the NIE, but its actual conclusions are straightforward: Iran wants a nuclear bomb; it has the scientific capability to produce a nuclear bomb; it's continuing to enrich uranium; and it might decide to restart its bomb program in the future. But for now, based (apparently) on new intelligence collected earlier this year, the program is halted and there's evidence that international pressure and sanctions might keep it that way."
Quoted from Article
This link will take you to the article on this issue. It appears that the Intelligence Community has addressed all the issues that the experts are saying haven't been addressed.
It seems the war drum beat is persisting and getting louder. "It's not the intelligence community's job to "object" to the Iranian program, it's their job to evaluat... more -
Why does the left blogosphere exist? Because our media is broken.
Because our traditional media figures are incapable of doing their jobs. Because they've lost their way and have become lazy and inattentive and search for shortcuts where they can pop off their opinions without being truly responsible for those opinions. Because our traditional media figures are incapable of doing their jobs. Because they've lost their way and have become lazy and... more
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Media Manipulation
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Media Manipulation
