The view from Langley, Virginia

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.)

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