Psywar

There’s not much to be said about Metanoia’s “Psywar” except that it bears watching. A history of the public relations industry, this outstanding documentary explores the highly deleterious impact of organized and well-funded propaganda efforts on a would-be democratic society. [END] Permalink: Psywar

Evidence of Revision 2: Vietnam and LBJ

This is part two of six of “Evidence of Revision,” an eight-hour video collection which covers many a taboo subject in American history including the assassinations of JFK, RFK and MLK, the causes of the Vietnam war, the social uprisings of the 1960s and ’70s, the Jonestown massacre, government mind control programs such as MKULTRA, and vote rigging and political corruption at the highest levels. This installment, which opens with another great “conspiracy” montage, picks up where part one left off, with the assassination of John F. Kennedy and a review of Kennedy’s public stances, continues into the escalation of the Vietnam conflict into a full-blown and terrible war under the notoriously corrupt Presidential administration of Lyndon Johnson, and concludes with a review of the House Select Committee on Assassinations and related topics, including FBI operative Lee Oswald’s 201 File. [END] Permalink: Evidence of Revision 2: Vietnam and LBJ

Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism

This media-critical film from Robert Greenwald singles out Rupert Murdoch, his giant News Corporation and its far-right Fox News channel for some well deserved thrashing. The video was produced in 2004; this video from Rachel Maddow updates Fox News’ overlaps with the far-right Republican Party to late 2010. As recent elections have shown, however, simply pointing a finger at the Republicans, no matter how justified, is not going to be enough for the Democrats as a campaign strategy. And would a majority of Democrat wins really make for a significantly better America? The standards have fallen way too far across the board and it’s going to take a lot more than rule by the “Republicans Lite” to get things where they need to be. [END] Permalink: Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism

Orwell Rolls in His Grave

Robert Kane Pappas’ “Orwell Rolls in His Grave” is probably the premier video overview of what is wrong with the media today and how American democracy has suffered as a result of the faults of this essential part of a self-governing society. Featuring Robert McChesney, Mark Crispin Miller, Bernie Sanders and others, “Orwell” covers a wide range of topics from the depoliticizing of the American public at the hands of the infotainment-oriented “news” agencies to the widespread media consolidation following the sweeping deregulations of the Reagan era. [END] Permalink: Orwell Rolls in His Grave

Lies of the Iraq War

Here, the CBC walks us through some of the many flaws in the casus belli that led to the U. S. military and the private mercenary firms that they contracted to aid them, and to share in the loot, both foreign and domestic, entering Iraq with the intention of overthrowing Saddam Hussein in 2003. While some attention is given here to reporter Seymour Hirsch’s take on the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), a “neoconservative” think-tank who have been credited as the authors of the plans for the war, as a group of utopian idealists, it ought to be considered that the PNAC plans revolve around the astoundingly violent concept of “full spectrum dominance” by the U. S. worldwide which includes even the will to deny other nations the use of outer space. Theirs is literally a proposal of world conquest. “Former” CIA operative Robert Baer also adds what should be the already obvious fact that there is “no evidence” that Saddam Hussein had any links to the 9/11 attacks, perhaps to imply the “Afghanistan-war-good, Iraq-war-bad” line of argument which has been taken up by many members of the Democratic Party. However, there is also questionable evidence at best that “Al Qaeda,” however that term may be defined, was linked in any way to the 9/11 attacks, itself, as FBI publicity chief Rex Tomb has told reporters that there is, quote, “no hard evidence” even that Osama bin Laden, when it gets right down to it, was responsible for 9/11. The current state of the Afghanistan war, ostensibly being fought against these same “Al Qaeda” terrorists, now nine years on with no end in sight and almost no “progress” of any kind by any definition having been made, except, perhaps, in the financial sense for those “in the club,” ought to speak to the intentions of those who originated these claims in the first place. [END] Permalink: Lies of the Iraq War