Amy Goodman on Democracy Now explains how President Obama’s Afghan drawdown will leave the US occupation at his pre-surge levels.

MEDIA ROOTS– For decades, propaganda has been increasingly used by government’s worldwide as a tool for manipulating the masses. Mussolini’s fascism and Hitler’s Nazism made extensive use of propaganda to retain control over their societies. However, it’s easy to overlook how major democracies routinely and habitually use propaganda for the same purposes as the aforementioned systems of governance.

Here in the United States, while the “War On Terror” and its accompanying “War On Truth” continues unabated, it is worth examining the US government’s extensive and shameless use of propaganda to rationalize its criminal acts and to control its citizenry.

Presently, the US government kidnaps people off streets worldwide and sends them to third world dictatorships to be tortured. This practice of kidnapping and exporting torture is ambiguously called “extraordinary rendition,” and all references to torture are downplayed as mere “harsh interrogations” or alternatively, “enhanced interrogations,” as if the person on the receiving end of torture were obtaining some sort of premium service.  

The US press has helped the indoctrination process by regurgitating these propaganda terms without question. The NY Times referred to waterboarding as “enhanced interrogation” as soon as the US government started torturing, while previously having called it “torture” when done by other regimes. Moreover, when President Obama entered office, his administration re-branded the “War on Terror” to a much more vague and open ended term: “overseas contingency operations.” The obsequious press then diligently followed suit, as they always do.

What sort of ludicrous terminology can we look forward to next in the US propaganda effort?

Maybe I can speed things along by suggesting some equally as absurd euphemisms. First, it’s time for some RE-re-branding. “Harsh interrogation technique,” which has become a bit stale, should now be referred to as “coercive physical contact”.  Also, the almost poetic term of “extraordinary rendition,” should be changed to a more explanatory term: “exceptional global removal.”

Even the name for the US government’s Department of Defense is Orwellian. The Department of Defense should really be called The Department of War and Imperialism, but the latter sounds so much more gentle.  After all, who would object to our brave soldiers defending our country against enemies of foreign lands?

Our leaders in Washington don’t lie to us about these wars, they merely present us with an “alternate version of historical events.”  President Obama has taken his assault on reality even further with his latest explanation of our Libyan engagement as–get this–“kinetic military actions.” Rather than describe the reality of the US military raining bombs on Libyan military positions, we are apparently using a “missile-based approach” to Libya instead.

One musn’t forget murder, which is something the US government does well and plenty of. Government propagandists could make the act so much more palatable by referring to murder as a “non-temporary incapacitation.” Just imagine:

“Your Honor, I did not MURDER those innocent men, women and children; in fact, I’m outraged by the accusation. I merely incapacitated them in a non-temporary manner!”

Perhaps the US government’s dictator allies around the world are not dictators after all.  Alternatively, they are “political authority figures who sometimes engage in exceptional global removal, coercive physical contact and non-temporary incapacitation.” It just rolls off the tongue so nicely, doesn’t it?

For their coup de grace, Washington’s propaganda machine could also change, er rather “re-describe,” the word propaganda itself to “augmented-reality statements'” made by politicians for “non-truthful purposes.”

You see, I’ve just accomplished something important here.  I’ve made heinous acts and other political crimes sound pleasant, uplifting almost– and dare I say it, downright presidential.

Written by Tom J. Wright

Photo by Flickr user Shannonyeh.photography

MEDIA ROOTS– “We are awash in electronic hallucinations. The worse it gets, the more we retreat into those hallucinations. Dying cultures always sever themselves from reality, because reality becomes so difficult to face, and we’re no exception to that.” –Chris Hedges, interview with Media Roots

Of Tiger Blood and Birthers

During the first four days of the corporate media’s fanatical coverage of actor Charlie Sheen’s drug-addled, tiger-blooded neurosis, four more US soldiers were killed in combat in Afghanistan. Yet, CNN only took notice after a Facebook campaign initiated by a fellow soldier went viral, which pitted the coverage of fallen soldiers against the celebrity addict. The campaign galvanized tens of thousands of people to write the following on their Facebook pages:

“Charlie Sheen is all over the news because he’s a celebrity drug addict, while Andrew Wilfahrt 31, Brian Tabada 21, Rudolph Hizon 22, Chauncy Mays 25, are soldiers who gave their lives this week with no media mention. Please honor them by posting this as your status update.”

In addition to the nonstop updates about Charlie Sheen’s “winning” streak, ABC’s 20/20 and CNN’s Piers Morgan cleared hour long time slots for Sheen to rant about his wild escapades and delusions of grandeur. Good Morning America also dedicated an entire show to broadcast live from Sheen’s Hollywood home for a revelation not to be missed: his urine drug test results.

Showbiz mogul Charlie Sheen and his gaggle of euphemisms became quintessential brand name news, virally marketed by frothing media outlets worldwide. The public platform given to his breakdown resulted in him gaining a record breaking one million twitter followers in just one day, a feat which begat another onslaught of corporate news coverage.

Less than two weeks later, the devastating earthquake and nuclear disaster in Fukushima caused a brief switch in coverage to focus on the tragedy. However, once Donald Trump, billionaire real estate mogul and reality TV star, announced his presidential run and reignited the distracting “Birther” controversy surrounding questions about President Obama’s birth certificate, the corporate media unquestioningly followed suit, propping up the non-issue to the forefront of political discourse.

There were barely any more discussions about the global implications of Fukushima’s nuclear meltdown and the importance of pursuing sustainable energy alternatives. Instead of emphasizing the dangerous fact that there are 23 nuclear reactors in the US designed almost identically to those in Fukushima, the corporate media irresponsibly focused on Trump’s crazed news “Birther” claims. Although the Fukushima crisis still loomed heavy, the media’s focus shifted again- along with the American public’s attention span.

As Charlie Sheen’s downward spiral and Trump’s “Birther” issue reigned supreme in the corporate press, the US government continued its controversial bombing campaign against Libya unabated, potentially in violation of international law (something the nation’s media should likely address instead of the latest Sheen or Trump distractions). The obsession over such superficialities dilutes rational debate on aspects of American foreign policy, like the affordability of spending $40 million a month in Libya when our country is already racked with debt, or the sheer contradiction of bombing other countries for “humanitarian” reasons.

Palin Saturation Bomb

When the popular reality television show Dancing With the Stars approached its season finale, the airwaves became saturated with the devastating news that Bristol Palin’s winning streak on the show might have been *gasp* rigged by tea party enthusiasts. This meaningless topic wasn’t just hot on Entertainment Tonight or TMZ, but was extensively covered in Time, CNN, Washington Post, NPR and a slew of other corporate media outlets, which seemed far more engrossed in such potential fraud than in the far more serious national election irregularities of the past decade. The cultural fixation on the Palin family’s crazy antics- from Sarah Palin’s misquotes of important facets of American history to Bristol’s plastic surgery and pregnancy out of wedlock- props up the notion in the mainstream that the more insane one acts, the more fame is a reward.

Thanks to the corporate media’s crazed and yo-yo “news” coverage of everything Palin, she has turned into one of the most titillating household showbiz names in the US, despite her having made a mockery of the political process in quest for celebrity. Yet, her role in the establishment is an enigma- one day she’s a politician, the next she’s starring in her very own reality TV show about her “down home” Alaskan lifestyle.  The lines are blurred by the corporate news media, and the public becomes slack-jawed and Palinized as a result by this incessant matrix of Junk Food News and Abuse.

The week prior to the earth shattering revelation that Bristol Palin might not be worthy of the Dancing with the Stars trophy, two important stories cycled through the corporate media with very little discussion about their political and societal repercussions. Robert Mueller, Director of the FBI, met with Google and Facebook to coordinate an intensified push to expand online government wiretapping. These extensions of online surveillance could effectively create a “chilling effect” among Internet users, who might suppress or monitor their speech more carefully in fear of being penalized by the government.

Another story overshadowed by Palin melodrama was that of US Army Sergeant Chuck Luther. Sgt. Luther gave heart-wrenching Congressional testimony describing his experience of being tortured at the hands of fellow US Army officials. He was confined to a small closet and deprived of sleep for a month until he signed documents that made him ineligible to receive health benefits for wounds incurred during combat. This story could have exposed a systemic problem of abuse and censorship all the way up the military chain of command if it were properly covered and investigated.

The establishment press’ version of political news exploits the personal lives of political players like Trump and Palin, instead of dissecting their stances on domestic or foreign policy. By sensationalizing inane trivialities and under reporting the real news, Junk Food News coverage grossly distorts the context and relevance of important issues in the political discourse. Whatever topics the corporate press deem worthy enough to cover at length will invariably skew the public’s perception away from the issues that should be most relevant to their lives: food, water, shelter, jobs, and education in relation to so-called defense spending- not sex scandals, drug abuse or “reality” television.

Written by Abby Martin as an intro for the chapter Junk Food News in Project Censored’s 2012 book.

Photo by flickr user ssoosay

THE ATLANTIC WIRE– We were joking when we wrote that McDonalds was singlehandedly reviving the U.S. economy by hiring 62,000 employees in a single day in April. At the time, it didn’t feel like the recovery hinged on the creation of low-paying, temporary McJobs. Well, on the heels of today’s pessimistic report saying that just 54,000 jobs were added in May, the fast food chain’s effect on the economy is looking impressive to MarketWatch:

McDonald’s ran a big hiring day on April 19 — after the Labor Department’s April survey for the payrolls report was conducted — in which 62,000 jobs were added. That’s not a net number, of course, and seasonal adjustment will reduce the Hamburglar impact on payrolls. (In simpler terms — restaurants always staff up for the summer; the Labor Department makes allowance for this effect.) Morgan Stanley estimates McDonald’s hiring will boost the overall number by 25,000 to 30,000. The Labor Department won’t detail an exact McDonald’s figure — they won’t identify any company they survey — but there will be data in the report to give a rough estimate.

Read more about McDonald’s Could Account for Half of May’s Job Growth.

© 2011 The Atlantic Wire

Photo by Flickr user thms

Podcast Show #45 – The Boiling Frogs Presents Paul Craig Roberts

“Paul Craig Roberts joins us to discuss the September 11 terrorist attacks as the defining event of our time, which has launched our nation on interminable wars of aggression, a domestic police state where the American President is a Caesar and completely above the law. He describes the US corporate media’s role today, which is to serve the government and the interest groups that empower the government, their astonishing blackout on legitimate investigations regarding 9/11 such as the investigation results supported by more than 1500 architects, and how currently the majority of Americans are ruled by propaganda and with little regard for truth and little access to it. Mr. Roberts talks about the conflicting, ever-changing and in many ways dubious accounts of the killing of Osama Bin Laden, the Military Industrial Complex’ need for the next ‘black hat,’ the question of China, and more!

http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/podpress_trac/web/3802/0/BF.0045.Roberts…

Paul Craig Roberts is a former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury and former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He has been reporting on executive branch and cases of prosecutorial abuse for two decades. He has written or co-written eight books, contributed chapters to numerous books, and has published many articles in journals of scholarship. A new edition of his book, The Tyranny of Good Intentions, co-authored with Lawrence Stratton, a documented account of how Americans lost the protection of law, has been released by Random House. Mr. Roberts has testified before congressional committees on 30 occasions on issues of economic policy, and has been a critic of both Democratic and Republican administrations. His writings frequently appear on OpEdNews, Prisonplanet.com, Antiwar.com, Lew Rockwell’s web site, CounterPunch, and the American Free Press.”

Photo of Abby Martin in SD 9/11 Truth march, Balboa Park