Americans Bloated With Imperialist Propaganda

Former Egyptian President Gamel Abdel Nassar greets Col. Muammar Gaddafi of Libya after the Al-Fateh Revolution of September 1, 1969. Nasser would pass the following year., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Americans bloated with propaganda

Friday, 09 December 2011 00:00
Farirai Chubvu
Zimbabwe Herald

With the Statue of Liberty facing East, the hemisphere the brigandsa who decimated Amerindians associated with repression, the United States gave itself the undeserved moniker, "the Free World." The uninitiated believe the propaganda that all is lekker in America, even our own senior musician, Thomas Mapfumo dedicated a song, Big in America, to that myth prompting another Chimurenga musician, Robbie Chagumuka, may his soul rest in peace, to counter with the song, Big in Zimbabwe.

Be that as it may, in the US, so-called prestigious publications will print the most outrageous information without attribution, investigation or proof of very serious charges.

When Americans think of propagandised people, they think of the now defunct Soviet Union or Nazi Germany or perhaps a banana republic dictatorship of the sort supported by their governments.

Very few of them would think of themselves as being under the sway of a government and corporations who work hand-in-glove to tell outright falsehoods or hide important information that is inconvenient for them.

Americans are victims of a government intent on keeping them misinformed or silent in the face of its wrongdoing worldwide, but they work hand-in-hand with a media almost entirely owned by corporations.

The interests of the people are rarely in sync with the interests of these corporations, and the result are media which work with the government which consciously works to misdirect our attention or have us believe outright lies.

Almost every major news story gives the world an example of this terrible phenomenon. We are all told Iran is on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons capability, but we are not told that it has the right to do so as a signatory of the Non Proliferation Treaty.

To add insult to injury, there isn't any proof that Iran has even acquired this capability.

But Israel is chomping at the bit to attack Iran, and its lackey state, the United States of America, will not stand in its way. The corporate media never tell us that Israel, a country which is not a signatory of the NPT, has an arsenal of an unknown number of nuclear weapons.

A simple and easily provable fact, that the nation which casts itself as the victim of a potential nuclear power is itself nuclear, is rarely mentioned. One might read the New York Times and Washington Post everyday and watch one of the broadcast or cable news networks at night, and not be aware of this information.

"Government sources say," ‘‘we are barred from reporting from inside hence we cannot verify this report'' are the buzz phrases for falsehoods told in the name of the state. So-called prestigious publications will print the most outrageous information without attribution, investigation or proof of very serious charges.

The Washington Post prints a story, quoting an anonymous source, claiming that Gaddafi's Libya not only was in possession of a mustard gas stockpile, but also that it was supplied by Iran. When Israel and/or the US attack Iran none of the highly paid anchor men or women or reporters who have access to the administration will stray far from the official party line.

That is why one president is as dangerous as any other. The system rewarded the liars who drove America to war against Iraq. The anti-Iranian warmongers will probably fare equally well.

Foreign policy has long been the domain of the big lie, but reporting or the lack of reporting on important domestic issues are either twisted in favor of the powerful or ignored altogether.

The sins of omission are as dangerous as the sins of the bald faced lie. Did any major newspaper report on the week-long Georgia prison strike which took place one year ago?

This phenomenal story of incarcerated Bloods and Crips working hand in hand with members of Aryan nation should have been frontpage news. But it was ignored, and the country lost an opportunity to be informed that their nation has the largest prison system on the planet and that it profits quite literally from their slave labour.

The press corps in Libya, who actively assisted Nato in destroying that nation, committed international war crimes in the process. They will never reveal their own evil doing nor will they be called to account by a public that doesn't even realise the magnitude of their crimes.

Anyone who is resistant to the notion that the US is awash in propaganda need look no further than the case of Anwar al-Awlaki.

Barack Obama ordered the killing of an American citizen who was never charged with a crime. He then directed his minions to reveal to the New York Times the existence of a secret, extra legal memo which justifies his actions.

The Times no doubt celebrated their role as court favourites and ignored the role that a newspaper ought to play in reporting a story that should have resulted in a presidential impeachment.

Americans love to say that they live in the greatest country in the world.

Such a nation will be hard pressed to admit that they can trust little of the information they get.

The nexus of a corrupt governmental structure and a corporate media results in nonsense on a good day and misinformation on a bad one.

The US is not great, it is just powerful and dangerous.