The view from Langley, Virginia

12 Feb

Caitlin Johnstone today:

It would be more efficient and straightforward if all English-language news media were run directly out of CIA HQ in Langley, Virginia. Reporters could cut out the middleman and drop the charade of presenting unproven assertions by western intelligence agencies as “scoops” they picked up from “sources”.

Right now mass media are churning out stories of “intelligence” that Putin will invade Ukraine very soon, citing government officials and anonymous sources. We’re never shown the “intelligence”, nor any evidence of its veracity; simply told what opaque and unaccountable government agencies want us to believe about a foreign government. We’re not even reminded in these CIA press releases that western intelligence agencies have an extensive history of lying about exactly this sort of thing, and we’re certainly not informed that Kyiv appears to be ramping up aggressions in eastern Ukraine.

Seriously, look at this absurd tweet on February 11 by CNN’s Natasha Bertrand:

Scoop: US and allies have new intel that suggests Russia could be planning to attack Ukraine prior to end of Olympics, contrary to previous assessments. New intel comes as officials have dramatically ramped up the urgency of public warnings related to Ukraine in past 24 hours.

That’s not a “scoop”. That’s a news media employee repeating something she was told either directly or indirectly by the western intelligence cartel. She’s literally just telling us what an immensely powerful spy intelligence agency told her to say. And that’s become the norm for mass media reporting on all nations the western power alliance doesn’t like, especially Russia.

You can read her in full here but – spoiler alert – having reminded us that propaganda only works when we don’t know we’re being propagandised, Caitlin ends with this:

In an actual free society with an actual free press, the very idea of this would be outrageous and if such a thing ever occurred it would be immediately condemned as journalistic malpractice with severe consequences for everyone involved. In an inverted totalitarian dystopia with the most effectively propagandized population on earth, it’s just treated as normal.

Or as I find myself saying more and more, however bad you think our media – and therefore our so-called democracy – is, the reality is likely to be worse.

(See also, “we have evidence” is NOT evidence – in particular the video captured exchange between reporter Matt Lee and State Department spokesman Ned Price.)

* * *

4 Replies to “The view from Langley, Virginia

  1. Meanwhile, here are the latest invasion report updates:

    It’s definitely going to be Ash Wednesday!”

    “No. Hang on a minute. Scrub that. The invasion will now be on Shrove Tuesday.”

    “Latest ‘intelligence’ reports indicate the balloon will go up on Rosen Montag.”

    “We now have definitive proof tanks will role across the border between Belarus and Ukraine on Maundy Thursday afternoon to coincide with the Queen giving out the Maundy Money.”

    “Okay. It’s now going to be on Good Friday due to adverse weather conditions.”

    “Hang onto your Easter bonnets. It’s most certainly going to be Whitsuntide Monday.”

    “The bastards! They’re going to disrupt the Notting Hill Carnival & go in on August Bank Holiday weekend.”

    “What year, you say?”

    “HTF should we know? We’ve been predicting this ‘imminent’ invasion since 2014!”

  2. Nice one Dave!
    But as a 3rd generation Atheist, I`m not familiar with the Maundy thang!
    Whats that all about?
    Cheers
    Billy. ( Back in the Big D)

    • Not sure about the religious meaning of Maundy Thursday to be honest Billy.

      I only know three things about it.

      It’s the day before Good Friday. The Queen gives out something called ‘Maundy Money’ to, I think it might be, about a 100 selected worthy souls (don’t know how that works or what the criteria is). And UK Civil Servants used to get Maundy Thursday afternoon off work as part of two and half days in the year known as ‘Privilge Days’ (the other two days were the day after Boxing Day and the Queen’s Birthday).

      Speaking of the Queen’s birthday reminds me of a Corperal we had posted to us from a unit in Berlin in the mid 70′ s. A weird individual who sent a Christmas Card and a Birthday Card to two people every year.

      One was the Queen. The other was Rudolph Hess.

      As you reside in Germany you’ll already be familiar with Rosen Montag.

      Update. Donny Osmond assures me the invasion will take place on the Twelfth of Never

Leave a Reply to Dave Hansell Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *