There was a time when I used to believe the "BBC" wholeheartedly, but then an accidental click took me to the "Media Lens" and then I saw, what I should have seen from the very first time, which indeed led me to Jonathan Cook, Thank you JC!
In reference to the BBC Panama Documentary on Anti-Semitism within Labour Party, John Pilger wrote "the BBC is the most refined Propaganda Service in the world...".
There are three media outlets that I relied on twenty-five years ago for news, and for the most part I believed that what I was being told was honest reporting. They were; the BBC, The Guardian, and The New York Times. Their domestic reportage was usually reliable and fair and balanced, however when it came to reporting on foreign policy they were always highly suspect, particularly TNYT if the story concerned the Middle East and Israel, although there was never a US war of intervention TNYT didn't like.
Today I don't trust any of these three media outlets, either in domestic reporting and absolutely never regarding foreign policy and US wars of intervention. They unashamedly and consistently lie, but not only that, they are caught lying, time and time again, yet they never correct the story or apologise for getting it totally wrong, myb with a few exceptions that are always too late and after the damage is done, and Judith Miller's 'aluminum tubes' story is the best example of this.
But, what I witnessed in the UK with the destruction of Jeremy Corbyn, who grew the Labour Party into the biggest political party in Europe with a radical agenda of hope at home and fairness in foreign policy, was so far beyond the Pale to make me sick of ever believing that we can change anything! If we couldn't get political party led by a man regarded by his own constituents as the most honest and trusted politician in Parliament, then there is no hope at all of ever electing an honest government from this point on.
The most guilty party in Corbyn's destruction was the media, and particularly The Guardian and the BBC in the UK, who not only failed to do the most basic honest reporting on the man, but they shamelessly undermined, smeared, dissembled, obfuscated, buried inconvenient facts and told damnable lies and simply made up stories that never happened!
It was the most shameful and dishonest media campaign I have ever witnessed in my 50 years in the Labour Party, and even more stunningly...it was the Parliamentary Labour Party and the Labour Party Establishment (that I paid my dues to!) with the help of these outlets who twice did their utmost best to destroy Corbyn and ensure that the Tories, led by incompetents, liars, and racists, continued their destruction of British society and along with it the NHS.
It feels like a reckoning is soming, but it needs millions ofpeople in EU and the Five Eyes to come out of the corporate medias left and right wing echo chambers for the reckoning to be to the benefit of humanity.
Excellent article, thank you! Most people in western nations, even those who say they don't trust the "mainstream media" are still thoroughly brainwashed by it. They're also brainwashed by their friends and relatives via the same media. Corporate media society-wide groupthink is what it is. It's very, very sad and also very, very dangerous. I've tried saying to many friends and relatives, why would you trust a corporation to tell you the truth when by law all they can consider is profits, and I get blank stares. It's incredibly hard to know what can be done to lift the veil of ignorance, and until that is figured out, we're traveling over the speed limit on a highway to hell.
A good test for the BBC would be for it to make a strictly factual history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its impact on the Palestinian people. Preferably produced by yourself or John Pilger perhaps. The anniversary of the Nakba would be appropriate – the Beeb seemingly never misses the opportunity of an anniversary (75 years of the RAF, the death of Victoria Wood etc……).
Of course the BBC could never make such a programme. It would be too painful to view, and inevitably be branded as antisemitic. What would happen to the licence fee then?
I.spend most winters in South Africa. The various media there, including the public broadcaster SABC, get much of their foreign coverage from the Beeb. I explained to people there that the BBC is the most subtle of propagandists. They will tell you 19 truths and then 1ie. But the lie is the key. Everything else is aimed at building trust. The Beeb is the most egregious propagandist in the world. And, therefore, the most dangerous.
A policeman told me “If it ain’t on the BBC, it did not happen!” and a whole series of mega-sarkies shot through my mind:
“So - unless your birth was announced by Auntie you don’t actually exist?”
“The BBC neglected to mention that Next-door’s dog barks whenever anyone passes by. That never happens?”
“British birds and insects are vanishing but THAT isn’t happening until we see it on the Beeb?”
The intensity of my confusion rendered me silent. How does one explain to a rookie cop that his totalitarian brainwashing could be classed as a mental illness?
From outside the UK and US, it is easy to see that television is not a great source for your world news. While saving my license fee, I send my subscriptions to a mixture of Substack, YouTube, Rumble and yes, Twitter journalists. The Syria gas attacks and the WMD fairy tales, as reported by the BBC, make me wonder if that old Panorama story of spaghetti bushes was really a test of gullibility; now called predictive programing.
There was a time when I used to believe the "BBC" wholeheartedly, but then an accidental click took me to the "Media Lens" and then I saw, what I should have seen from the very first time, which indeed led me to Jonathan Cook, Thank you JC!
In reference to the BBC Panama Documentary on Anti-Semitism within Labour Party, John Pilger wrote "the BBC is the most refined Propaganda Service in the world...".
There are three media outlets that I relied on twenty-five years ago for news, and for the most part I believed that what I was being told was honest reporting. They were; the BBC, The Guardian, and The New York Times. Their domestic reportage was usually reliable and fair and balanced, however when it came to reporting on foreign policy they were always highly suspect, particularly TNYT if the story concerned the Middle East and Israel, although there was never a US war of intervention TNYT didn't like.
Today I don't trust any of these three media outlets, either in domestic reporting and absolutely never regarding foreign policy and US wars of intervention. They unashamedly and consistently lie, but not only that, they are caught lying, time and time again, yet they never correct the story or apologise for getting it totally wrong, myb with a few exceptions that are always too late and after the damage is done, and Judith Miller's 'aluminum tubes' story is the best example of this.
But, what I witnessed in the UK with the destruction of Jeremy Corbyn, who grew the Labour Party into the biggest political party in Europe with a radical agenda of hope at home and fairness in foreign policy, was so far beyond the Pale to make me sick of ever believing that we can change anything! If we couldn't get political party led by a man regarded by his own constituents as the most honest and trusted politician in Parliament, then there is no hope at all of ever electing an honest government from this point on.
The most guilty party in Corbyn's destruction was the media, and particularly The Guardian and the BBC in the UK, who not only failed to do the most basic honest reporting on the man, but they shamelessly undermined, smeared, dissembled, obfuscated, buried inconvenient facts and told damnable lies and simply made up stories that never happened!
It was the most shameful and dishonest media campaign I have ever witnessed in my 50 years in the Labour Party, and even more stunningly...it was the Parliamentary Labour Party and the Labour Party Establishment (that I paid my dues to!) with the help of these outlets who twice did their utmost best to destroy Corbyn and ensure that the Tories, led by incompetents, liars, and racists, continued their destruction of British society and along with it the NHS.
Thanks - fyi - some good independent journalism in Lisbon reposted https://substack.com/@maryhollowell/note/c-16869019
Excellent article.
I really do wonder what will happen.
It feels like a reckoning is soming, but it needs millions ofpeople in EU and the Five Eyes to come out of the corporate medias left and right wing echo chambers for the reckoning to be to the benefit of humanity.
If not, 1984 here we come .....
Excellent article, thank you! Most people in western nations, even those who say they don't trust the "mainstream media" are still thoroughly brainwashed by it. They're also brainwashed by their friends and relatives via the same media. Corporate media society-wide groupthink is what it is. It's very, very sad and also very, very dangerous. I've tried saying to many friends and relatives, why would you trust a corporation to tell you the truth when by law all they can consider is profits, and I get blank stares. It's incredibly hard to know what can be done to lift the veil of ignorance, and until that is figured out, we're traveling over the speed limit on a highway to hell.
A good test for the BBC would be for it to make a strictly factual history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its impact on the Palestinian people. Preferably produced by yourself or John Pilger perhaps. The anniversary of the Nakba would be appropriate – the Beeb seemingly never misses the opportunity of an anniversary (75 years of the RAF, the death of Victoria Wood etc……).
Of course the BBC could never make such a programme. It would be too painful to view, and inevitably be branded as antisemitic. What would happen to the licence fee then?
Bob Gladding
I.spend most winters in South Africa. The various media there, including the public broadcaster SABC, get much of their foreign coverage from the Beeb. I explained to people there that the BBC is the most subtle of propagandists. They will tell you 19 truths and then 1ie. But the lie is the key. Everything else is aimed at building trust. The Beeb is the most egregious propagandist in the world. And, therefore, the most dangerous.
A policeman told me “If it ain’t on the BBC, it did not happen!” and a whole series of mega-sarkies shot through my mind:
“So - unless your birth was announced by Auntie you don’t actually exist?”
“The BBC neglected to mention that Next-door’s dog barks whenever anyone passes by. That never happens?”
“British birds and insects are vanishing but THAT isn’t happening until we see it on the Beeb?”
The intensity of my confusion rendered me silent. How does one explain to a rookie cop that his totalitarian brainwashing could be classed as a mental illness?
From outside the UK and US, it is easy to see that television is not a great source for your world news. While saving my license fee, I send my subscriptions to a mixture of Substack, YouTube, Rumble and yes, Twitter journalists. The Syria gas attacks and the WMD fairy tales, as reported by the BBC, make me wonder if that old Panorama story of spaghetti bushes was really a test of gullibility; now called predictive programing.
I gave up on the BBC 20 years ago but it has definitely gotten progressively worse since then.
"Disinformation" = "anything that goes against the current narrative".