Wednesday, June 29, 2005

“Disinformation Now!”

hey...

nobody's perfect...

i wonder though...

tactically...

this is a hot-potato...

i mean...

it's one of these unmentionables...

like a nuclear trump card...

it could blow-up in your face...

then again...

this is just a blog...

Amy's got a hit TV show...

like Jon Stewart's...

and...

c'mon...

that's really cool...

like having a hit movie...

like Michael Moore's...

that would be wikkid...

so...

i still hate to say it...

but why should we "hate" to "say" anything...

still...

mainstream street-cred is key...

if you can't get that...

if the villagers chant...

"burn 'im! he's a witch! burn 'im!"...

you're screwed...

it's too bad...


(...)

then again...

this is just a blog...


(...)

Amy Goodman, Left Gatekeeper

by Scott Loughrey

SOURCE - http://baltimore.indymedia.org/newswire/display/6523/index.php

Amy Goodman should be regarded as a Left Gatekeeper (LG). Left Gatekeepers, like the journalists in George Orwell’s 1984, function to promote the official propaganda of the state. They amplify what is not credible while excluding other voices from challenging the government’s lies of the day.

(...)

Amy Goodman used to be a hero of mine. She was particularly heroic in the 1991 massacre by Indonesian military forces in a Santa Cruz, East Timor graveyard. Her deeds there (along with journalist Alan Nairn’s) are the kinds of events that people would get medals for by the President in a sane world.

However, since 9/11/01 Amy Goodman (and her internet/radio program Democracy Now!) has achieved enormous popularity while continuing to fail to challenge the Bush regime where doing so is most needed. In particular, whenever the topic of terrorism on US soil is brought up on her program she can be counted upon to repeat government propaganda.

(...)

By broadcasting the government’s official story of 9-11 Democracy Now! continues to reiterate faulty science. For example, a key component of the Bush regime’s propaganda includes the implication that the number 650 is equal to the number 2000. If more Democracy-activists were aware that the Bush regime was making this assertion it could galvanize the resistance to it. Still, Amy Goodman and DN! continue to tolerate the lie that the two numbers are equal. To the disgust of a growing number of people DN! refuses to include a guest on her show which disputes this (and similar) scientific point(s) advanced by the government.

(...)

Last September (9/23/03) Democracy Now! made one of its very rare forays into discussing the events of 9-11. Amy Goodman had on two guests, Peter Lance and Richard Miniter. Amy billed the meeting as a “debate”. Both men are authors and were prominently hawking their recent books. Crucially, neither man contradicted the other much.

(...)

was this by design?

how the hell do you discuss this?

one may have to frame the conspiracy as being challenged...

otherwise there is absolutely no way some people will give conspiracy a chance...

curiously the guests didn't contradict each other...

curiously DN! still called it a debate...

curiously DN! usually do their homework...

curiously DN! must have known...


(...)

650 = 2000

Amy Goodman needs to allow an articulate guest to appear on her program capable of mentioning that it is impossible for burning jet fuel to have caused the destruction of the North and South towers of the World Trade Center. Jet fuel is refined kerosene, which burns at about 650 degrees Fahrenheit in the open air. Meanwhile, steel cannot be forged adequately until it is heated up to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit for a significant amount of time.

(...)

i don't believe it...

i don't know why...

i don't believe it...

they must have made it up...

they must be lying just for the fun of it...

man...

a bunch of sicko's i tell ya...

just go and get cable ya crazy bastards...


(...)

i have no PhD in "jet fuel"...

nor a PhD in "kerosene"...

nor a PhD in "smelting"...

so...

it's unbelievable...

it's unverifiable...

it's un-googleable...

and thus...

it's impossible...


(...)

i don't believe it...

after all...

i have absolutely no proof...


(...)

Morpheus

"I imagine that right now you're feeling a bit like Alice, tumbling down the rabbit hole."

"You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he is expecting to wake up. Ironically, that's not far from the truth."

"Unfortunately, no one can be told what The Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself."

"I'm trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You're the one that has to walk through it."

"You take the blue pill, the story ends here, you wake up and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill...and I'll show you just how deep the rabbit hole goes."

(...)

More-pheus

"The Matrix is a system Neo, that system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see?. Business men, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still part of that system, and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand most of these people are not ready to be unplugged, and many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it. Were you listening to me Neo, or were you looking at the woman in the red dress? Look again."

(...)

Trinity

"Wake up Neo."

"Follow the white rabbit."

(...)

An exchange with a Pacifica staffer

A Pacifica employee writes:

"Dear Scott:

Is it only on the issue of 9-11 that you feel Amy Goodman is deceiving or keeping information from the public? Or do you feel it she does this often and consistently?

It seems to me that, except for 9-11, she regularly and vigorously challenges the projects, policies, and pronouncements of those in power. If this is so, what reason would she have for reversing her practice on just this one issue?

Do you feel she mouthes the 'official' explanation out of a hidden agenda, or because she may sincerely believe it? The former does not seem to be consistent with the general thrust and content of her show throughout the years."

My reply:

"She's not deceiving. It isn't like she has a full understanding of what she's saying. It is more that she is incurious. She has shut off large intellectual discussions and because she isn't exposed to them, she has no need to question the ideas behind them.

A book could be written about the propaganda function she provides the Bush regime. Bush and his current spokesperson (Scott McClellan) are famously inarticulate. Meanwhile, Amy, with her arresting eyes and very sincere appearance lends enormous credibility to propaganda elements used by the Empire.

I singled out Amy in the article to try to reach a segment of her fanbase. However, the same points I made with her could be made with Counterpunch, Z Magazine, Norman Solomon, Noam Chomsky, Edward Herman, etc. In their own ways they are each performing the propaganda function of telling their audience that Al Qaeda really exists; that it destroyed the WTC; that Saddam Hussein is really captured; that a war has been taking place in Afghanistan, etc.

When you have Noam Chomsky telling his audiences that he refuses to look into 911 anomalies then he has confirmed the official story of 911. His stature means far more than if Bush or McClellan say something about it. In truth, the Bush regime has to be counting on Chomsky and Goodman to sell these fictional propaganda elements. They are being used, and AG and NC don't seem to mind.

I read Michel Chossudovsky (www.GlobalResearch.ca). Chosso attacks the Bush regime by attacking their propaganda on a regular basis. He's infinitely more valuable to the Resistance than is Chomsky at this time. (I have been a Chomsky admirer for years.) However, Chosso has never been on Amy's program and there seems to be no plans for him to make his debut. That's an enormous ommission from AG. It also personifies in a nutshell the difference between truly fighting them and actually repeating their propaganda.

peace,
Scott"

(...)

"ding! ding! ding!"

great round...

maybe it's just me...

but i'm tempted to call this one a draw...


(...)

Epilogue:

Rabbit-holes are fun...

The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions

Professor David Ray Griffin

VIDEO
Broadcast On C-Span 2
Thursday, April 28, 2005

David Ray Griffin is professor emeritus at the Claremont School of Theology, where he taught for over 30 years (retiring in 2004). He has authored or edited over two dozen books, including "God and Religion in the Postmodern World," "Religion and Scientific Naturalism," and "The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11."

Professor Griffin covers topics he says have been inadequately answered by the commission. These include questions surrounding the attack on the Pentagon, the way in which the World Trade Center towers collapsed, and the behavior of President Bush and his Secret Service detail following notification that a second plane had hit the WTC. The talk was hosted by the Muslim- Jewish- Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth (www.mujca.com) and took place at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Includes Q&A.

SOURCE - http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8765.htm