Tag: Propaganda

Truth And Lies

That seems to be the way of things these days…..we have truth and we have lies and it is up to the individual to ascertain which is which…..and there in lies the problem…..thanx to social media and the media itself have blurred the lines…..

This first story was written in 2020…..but it still helps the understanding….

Many of us are familiar with the quotation, “Repeat a lie often enough and people will eventually come to believe it.”

Not ironically, the adage — often attributed to the infamous Nazi Joseph Goebbels — is true and has been validated by decades of research on what psychology calls the “illusory truth effect.” First described in a 1977 study by Temple University psychologist Dr. Lynn Hasher and her colleagues, the illusory truth effect occurs when repeating a statement increases the belief that it’s true even when the statement is actually false.[1]

Subsequent research has expanded what we know about the illusory truth effect. For example, the effect doesn’t only occur through repetition but can happen through any process that increases familiarity with a statement or the ease by which it’s processed by the brain (what psychologists in this context refer to as a statement’s “fluency”). For example, the perceived truth of written statements can be increased by presenting them in bold, high-contrast fonts[2] or when aphorisms are expressed as a rhyme.[3]

According to a 2010 meta-analytic review of the truth effect (which applies to both true and false statements),[4] while the perceived credibility of a statement’s source increases perceptions of truth as we might expect, the truth effect persists even when sources are thought to be unreliable and especially when the source of the statement is unclear. In other words, while we typically evaluate a statement’s truth based on the trustworthiness of the source, repeated exposure to both information and misinformation increases the sense that it’s true, regardless of the source’s credibility.

The illusory truth effect tends to be strongest when statements are related to a subject about which we believe ourselves to be knowledgeable,[5] and when statements are ambiguous such that they aren’t obviously true or false at first glance.[4] It can also occur with statements (and newspaper headlines) that are framed as questions (e.g. “Is President Obama a Muslim?”), something called the “innuendo effect.”[6]

View at Medium.com

Now this report on the mass media and its part at spreading the manure….

A recent case rightly illustrates the confounding way truth and lies spread in mass media. On June 15, 2017, The New York Post published this headline: “Breatharian Couple Survives on the Universe’s Energy Instead of Food.” Now, The New York Post is a big paper—the sixth largest, by circulation, in the United States—and it’s an old paper, established in 1801 by Alexander Hamilton. But headlines like this show that even the mainstream media can sometimes stretch the truth, or just ignore it completely.

In skimming the New York Post article, it’s not just the headline, but the whole article is silly. And this was not an April Fool’s joke. The article says “Husband and wife Akahi Ricardo and Camila Castello believe that food and water aren’t necessary and humans can be sustained solely by the energy of the universe.” They’ve eaten, we’re told, just three times a week since 2008, and even then only a piece of fruit or vegetable broth. Furthermore, the couple didn’t eat a single thing for three years. Ms. Castello didn’t eat during her first pregnancy, either, because as she declared, “I knew my son would be nourished enough by my love.” 

For the record, people can’t survive without nourishment, and we are required to get our nourishment from food. These facts should not be controversial. But the New York Post article presented the story of this so-called Breatharian couple as fact. There wasn’t a word of skepticism, or an iota of fact-checking, or even a hint that this story wasn’t literally true.

Truth and Lies in Mass Media

On a side note….did the AP strike a deal with Nazi Germany for propaganda purposes…..you knew that eventually I was going to interject some history….

Even the Associated Press has its secrets.

A recent report, declassified by the AP itself, discloses information about the news outlet’s coverage of WWII, and the role that Nazi soldiers may have had in it. According to the internal report released Wednesday, the AP made a deal to exchange photos with Nazi soldiers. The photos were run in American newspapers, without crediting their origins. In turn, AP photos were used by Nazi soldiers for Nazi propaganda.

An investigation was open into the long-secret arrangement after German historian Harriet Scharnberg published an article in March of 2016 accusing the AP of Nazi cooperation. Scharnberg’s research pointed out that pictures supplied by the AP were being published in propaganda publications, such as “Der Untermensch” (The Subhuman). Scharnberg also stated that by submitting to “Schriftleitergesetz“ or editors law, the AP relinquished control of the content that they released to German publications. Therefore, the AP’s content fell under instruction not to print any material “calculated to weaken the strength of the Reich abroad or at home.”

https://www.salon.com/2017/05/11/the-associated-press-reveals-secret-propaganda-deal-with-nazis/

Media spreading manure goes back a ways…..

Who do you trust?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Office Of Perception Management

The War Department’s clever name for a propaganda machine.

But they do not need it for we have clarity and transparency in our democracy. (that is sarcasm in case you missed it)

Would our government use propaganda?

You bet your ass they would especially when public approval is needed they will lie and misinform to keep the public dazed and confused makes acceptance of crappy policies palatable.

But let’s go back to the 1980s and the Reagan admin……

Not long after the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration launched what it called the Office of Strategic Influence, which would seek to “counter the enemy’s perception management” in the so-called war on terror. But it quickly became clear that the office, operating under Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, would be managing those perceptions with its own disinformation.

As the New York Times reported at the time, its work was to “provide news items, possibly including false ones, to foreign journalists in an effort to influence overseas opinion.” In the nascent Internet age, observers worried the propaganda could boomerang back on Americans.

“The question is whether the Pentagon and military should undertake an official program that uses disinformation to shape perceptions abroad,” the Times reported in 2004. “But in a modern world wired by satellite television and the Internet, any misleading information and falsehoods could easily be repeated by American news outlets.”

Now, two decades later, “perception management” is once again becoming a central focus for the national security state. On March 1, 2022, the Pentagon established a new office with similar goals to the one once deemed too controversial to remain open. Very little has been made public about the effort, which The Intercept learned about through a review of budget documents and an internal memo we obtained. This iteration is called the Influence and Perception Management Office, or IPMO, according to the memo, which was produced by the office for an academic institution, and its responsibilities include overseeing and coordinating the various counter-disinformation efforts being conducted by the military, which can include the U.S.’s own propaganda abroad.

Inside the Pentagon’s New “Perception Management” Office to Counter Disinformation

I have been saying this for decades….[lus with social media I am sure that some of us have been a target for the trash spread by the Pentagon and its contractors.

Americans bad mouth Joseph Goebbels and his Ministry of Truth…..looks like we have some that are following the textbook to a tee.

Pay attention or be stupid your choice.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Does Propaganda Really Work?

Short answer is….yes it does!

Propaganda has been used extensively by governments and now the media and social media has joined in the brainwashing of the people.

Interesting article that looks at the way propaganda has successfully controlled the minds of the people….

In the 1970s, I met one of Hitler’s leading propagandists, Leni Riefenstahl, whose epic films glorified the Nazis. We happened to be staying at the same lodge in Kenya, where she was on a photography assignment, having escaped the fate of other friends of the Fuhrer. She told me that the ‘patriotic messages’ of her films were dependent not on ‘orders from above’ but on what she called the ‘submissive void’ of the German public.

Did that include the liberal, educated bourgeoisie? I asked.  ‘Yes, especially them,’ she said.

I think of this as I look around at the propaganda now consuming Western societies.

Of course, we are very different from Germany in the 1930s. We live in information societies. We are globalists. We have never been more aware, more in touch, better connected.

Are we? Or do we live in a Media Society where brainwashing is insidious and relentless, and perception is filtered according to the needs and lies of state and corporate power?

The United States dominates the Western world’s media. All but one of the top ten media companies are based in North America. The internet and social media – Google, Twitter, Facebook – are mostly American owned and controlled.

In my lifetime, the United States has overthrown or attempted to overthrow more than 50 governments, mostly democracies. It has interfered in democratic elections in 30 countries. It has dropped bombs on the people of 30 countries, most of them poor and defenceless. It has attempted to murder the leaders of 50 countries.  It has fought to suppress liberation movements in 20 countries.

The extent and scale of this carnage is largely unreported, unrecognized; and those responsible continue to dominate Anglo-American political life.

In the years before he died in 2008, the playwright Harold Pinter made two extraordinary speeches, which broke a silence.

Silencing the Lambs: How Propaganda Works 

I have written about this subject many times and still no one seems to care as long as they can find anything that will confirm that their thoughts are accurate.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Ukraine–The Propaganda War

It is no secret that I have not been at all happy about the US involvement in the Russia/Ukraine conflict. I have said that it was more about a war of words and PR stunts than the saving of democracy.

This conflict has been a battle of opposing propaganda.

What the mainstream media fail to see in the coverage of the current Ukraine crisis is that there is no text (narrative) without context. Long before the mainstream US (and UK) media launched a worldwide propaganda war against the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, the CIA had laid the foundations of the conflict in the early years following the Second World War – the Cold War. Friends (Soviet Union) became enemies and enemies (Germany, Japan) became friends. The CIA used the Nazi sections of the Ukraine nationalist movement to “crack apart” (the CIA’s words) the USSR through efforts to sabotage, divide, and destabilize the Soviet Union. In this projcct, they worked most closely with the violently anti-semitic, anti-communist, and anti-Russian group, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists-B, led by Stepan Bandera.

During the early part of World War II, Bandera had been in charge of OUN’s more ruthless faction that collaborated with the Nazi occupation and actively participated in the slaughter of millions of Poles, Ukrainian Jews, and ethnically Russian communists in the region. A CIA clandestine operations chief in Berlin at the time, Peter Sichel, stated that “They [OUN] were Nazis, pure and simple,” and indeed, “Worse than that, because a lot of them did the Nazis’ dirty work for them.” More recently, under pressure from the extreme right-wing forces in the country, including the Azov Battalion, Bandera was proclaimed by the president, Viktor Yushchenko, as “Hero of Ukraine,” the country’s highest honor, a status that was later abrogated by his successor, Victor Yanukovych.

Russia-Ukraine Conflict: The Propaganda War

The latest Vogue article has shown just how this propaganda war is playing out…..

The president and first lady of Ukraine have posed for a romantic photoshoot with Vogue magazine, wherein President Volodymyr Zelensky waxes poetical about his love for his darling wife.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: how is Zelensky making time for a Vogue photoshoot amidst his busy schedule of PR appearances for other major western institutions?

I mean this is after all the same Volodymyr Zelensky who has been so busy making video appearances for the Grammy Awards, the Cannes Film Festival, the World Economic Forum and probably the Bilderberg group as well, and having meetings with celebrities like Ben Stiller, Sean Penn, and Bono and the Edge from U2. It’s as busy a PR tour as he could possibly have without having a discussion about the strategic importance of long-range artillery with Elmo on Sesame Street.

Oh yeah, and also isn’t there like a war or something happening in Ukraine? You’d think he’d probably be somewhat busy with that too.

https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/07/27/the-phoniest-most-pr-intensive-war-of-all-time/

Do you truly believe that this conflict is about democracy?

Seriously?

In February 2021, by order of President Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine shut down three domestic television channels, accusing them of spreading Russian “propaganda.” Three months later, Zelenksky arrested Viktor Medvedchuk, who was at the time leading the second-biggest party in Ukraine’s national parliament, the pro-Russia and Eurosceptic Opposition Platform for Life (OPZZh).

Zelensky didn’t have trouble incinerating vaunted democratic norms well-before Russia crossed the Rubicon into Ukraine this year. So it was no surprise when he did it again amid the war in late March, invoking emergency powers under martial law to nationalize TV channels and ban 11 opposition parties, including OPZZh — all supposedly done in the name of combating Russian misinformation and Russian sympathizers, even though OPZZh’s then-chairman, Yuriy Boyko, denounced the war and called for a ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine. Zelensky, however, wouldn’t miss another opportunity to clip the wings of political opposition in his country, certainly not now that Western media rationalizes and glorifies his every move.

Please save the democracy BS for the idiots that pretend that this is a noble cause.

This conflict is falling out of the headlines to be replaced by the Taiwan/China situation…..something had to be done to keep the cash flowing….best way to do that is with a bit of propaganda.

Look for more of this selling the war to the American public and to the Congress.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is The News Really Just Propaganda?

I have made no bones about what I think of the MSM…..I have been watching the news out of Ukraine and I have seen very little that was actual news but rather propaganda to make all the waste by government acceptable…..but I am not alone….

Perhaps another potential title for this article might that be of Journalism “as” Propaganda, since a large section of what we perceive to be journalism – such as, the gathering, assessing, creating, and presenting of news and information – have become mere propaganda. Worse, in recent years, reporting the truth has been slowly converted into the production of mass deception and mass ignorance.

What we see as “the news” can boil down to the so-called Pseudo Events manufactured by a sophisticated global PR industry. It is called Public Relations (PR) to avoid the ugly word “propaganda”. PR/propaganda present global news stories – some of which have proven to be rather fictional like the infamous but non-existent Weapons of Mass Destruction. Many of them are generated as new machineries of international propaganda.

A good example is the UK paper, The Daily Telegraph when it published an event “before” it had happened. Six hours before it actually happened, The Daily Telegraph reporter Toby Harnden described the hanging of Saddam Hussein. While The Guardiancalled such journalists as Media Monkeys, there is a system behind things like these – they are by no means individual mishaps.

Rather, falsehoods, distortions, and outright propaganda – as the Ukraine war shows almost every day –  seem to run through global media outlets – an industry which is supposed to be dedicated to the very opposite: truth telling.

War Propaganda, Pseudo-Events and the Global Village Idiot

Just a few of my thoughts on how the media helps spread misinformation….

Ukraine And The Media

There is more……

The Pro-War Media

And even more…..

Is The Media Failing Us?

Allowing corporations to own the distribution of news was the worse idea of the Clinton presidency….and this is the outcome…..

Far too often, the elite U.S. press has been a reliable mouthpiece for Washington’s dubious foreign policies. That was true during the Cold War, except for a brief period of disillusionment and dissent once the Vietnam War became such an obvious debacle. That period of more vigorous scrutiny and skepticism did not last long, however. When George H. W. Bush launched his drive for U.S. military intervention in the Persian Gulf to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait, CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other elite outlets were fully on board with that agenda, as their shamelessly biased treatment of the relevant issues confirmed. That pro-interventionist bias became even more flagrant during the Balkan crises of the 1990s, the lead-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, and Washington’s subsequent campaigns for forcible regime change in Libya and Syria. There was very little daylight between the official U.S. government positions on those issues and the dominant media narratives.

A similar pattern has emerged with press coverage of the war in Ukraine. Once again, pro-interventionist accounts dominate the airwaves and the leading editorial and op-ed pages. That was especially true of the first weeks of the war, when the media overwhelmingly supported the argument that America must “stand with Ukraine.” The imbalance has eased slightly as concerns about the costs and risks of the Biden administration’s policy of lavishing military and financial aid on Kiev mount. Nevertheless, hawks still provide the vast majority of commentaries on the war in top-tier establishment forums.

The Elite Press Remains the Handmaid of War

And since most people do not have the ability to look for confirmation of the crap the MSM spread…..propaganda is the best tool for societal control.

So the truth has become fluid…subjective if you will….disinformation is the rule for the news these days…..

Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) has an article out titled “‘Disinformation’ Label Serves to Marginalize Crucial Ukraine Facts” about the way the mass media have been spinning that label to mean not merely the knowing distribution of false information but also of information that is true but inconvenient to imperial narrative-weaving.

“In defense of the US narrative, corporate media have increasingly taken to branding realities inconvenient to US information goals as ‘disinformation’ spread by Russia or its proxies,” writes FAIR’s Luca Goldmansour.

Online platforms have been ramping up their censorship protocols under the banner of fighting disinformation and misinformation, and those escalations always align with narrative control agendas of the US-centralized empire. Just the other day we learned that Twitter has a new policy which expands its censorship practices to fight “misinformation” about wars and other crises, and the Ukraine war (surprise surprise) will be the first such situation about which it will be enforcing these new censorship policies.

https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/05/23/theyre-worried-about-the-spread-of-information-not-disinformation/

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Americans To Provide Russian Propaganda

If this report is true then those trigger happy Americans that had to dash off to Ukraine to the new partisans will provide Russia/Putin a wealth of new propaganda for the folks back home.

Two US military veterans from Alabama are thought to be the first Americans captured by Russia while fighting for Ukraine. Alexander Drueke, 39, from Tuscaloosa, formerly of the US Army, and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, from Hartselle, formerly of the Marine Corps, volunteered to assist in the war effort but are now missing and feared to have been taken prisoner, according to family members, who are in contact with US congressional offices and the US Embassy in Ukraine, per the Guardian and Washington Post. “If it’s true, we’ll do everything we can to get them safely back home,” says John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications.

Family members tell CNN that the men haven’t been heard from since June 8, when they said they would be spending a few days on a mission. Another fighter, who provided CNN with photos of the men’s passports and entry stamps into Ukraine, said both vanished during a battle near the town of Izbytske, northeast of Kharkiv, on June 9, while under the command of Ukraine’s 92nd mechanized brigade. He described the battle as “absolute chaos,” with “about a hundred plus infantry advancing on our positions. We had a T72 firing on people from 30, 40 meters away.” The man said searches failed to turn up any sign of the men but a Russian propaganda channel on Telegram later claimed “two American mercenaries” had been captured, per the Telegraph.

Drueke’s mother, Lois “Bunny” Drueke, said her son told her he would be training Ukrainians on how to use US-made weapons, per the Post. He said “if [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is not stopped there he is not going to be satisfied, he will become emboldened and eventually Americans will be threatened,” she told CNN’s AC360 on Wednesday, appearing with Huynh’s fiancee, Joy Black. Huynh “really had this gnawing at his heart and this big burden on him to go and serve the people however he can,” Black said. “I’m still very proud of him. I just want to see him back safely.” (Russia has sentenced three foreign nationals to die for fighting on behalf of Ukraine, in what UK officials say is a violation of the Geneva Conventions.)

Like I said…..if true Putin just got boost to his war propaganda machine.

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

What Is A “Spin Doctor”?

I am sure this ought get some interesting comments….that is if the post is read….most times the title alone gets the juices flowing for some.

We hear the term ‘spin’ daily….every issue that we think is important has a group that will make you believe their spin (propaganda)…..

But what is a ‘spin doctor’…..a spokesperson employed to give a favorable interpretation of events to the media, especially on behalf of a political party.

But let’s look at the idea…..

Ever since the ideological mastermind of modern public relations – Edward Bernays – suggested to modernize the word “propaganda” by calling it public relations, PR and Spin (a form of propaganda) had been with us. And, today, our world is overflowing with ideas that are shaping “professional” spin doctors.

The top ten firms employing rafts of spin-doctors are companies, for which most of us have probably never heard of, namely: Edelman, Weber Shandwick, BCW, FleishmanHillard, Ketchum, Brunswick, MSL, BlueFocus, Real Chemistry, (and my personal favorite) Hill+Knowlton. They are ready to give the pathologies of capitalism a nice face.

These propaganda companies – euphemistically re-labeled “PR firms” – employ thousands of communication experts. These firms seek to achieve what PR’s Godfather, the aforementioned Edward Bernays, had set out for them to do when he said:

“the significant revolution of modern times is not industrial or economic or political but the revolution which is taking place in the art of creating consent among the governed.”

Creating consent among “the governed” (as he called us) to have a positive, if not supportive, attitude to capitalism, is the job of public relations. Its spin is a form of propaganda. This is achieved, for example, through knowingly providing a biased interpretation of an event. Unsurprisingly, this also includes corporate campaigning to influence public opinion – creating a positive image – about companies, corporations, and ultimately – capitalism.

What Spin Doctors Do

There is no better example of ‘spin’ than the current situation in Ukraine…..the media with the help of ‘spin doctors’ have the American people oozing with admiration for Ukraine’s leader…..they helped turn chicken manure into sirloin for the defense industry and in turn created a ‘hero’.

I admit that I have been leery of the Zelensky admiration society….there is something more there…..more than the orchestrated appearances and speeches.

It must be understood that escalation takes us in the wrong direction, because a war against a nuclear armed power can’t be won. Without this crucial realization the most impossible things become possible, like a hero saving the world. Of course it’s essential to have inspiration and motivation in trying times, but it’s also essential to be practical.

The reason why we should not admire Zelensky is because he doesn’t seem very committed to de-escalating the war. He has said that acquiring more weapons will definitely make him win the war; a powerful argument on its own, but when one considers that only a negotiated settlement can end the war, it dissolves into an impossible promise.

Zelensky’s seeming intransigence makes the possible solutions to the war even more bewildering. If a noble goal is to prevent a nuclear war, shouldn’t there be more emphasis on diplomacy? Yet Zelensky relentlessly implores the world for more and more weapons. Without any appearance of alternatives it’s very easy to assume that more weapons are the answer to ending the war and bringing peace.

Why We Should Not Admire Zelensky

I am not saying that we should totally abandon Ukraine….all I am saying is that there is always two sides and so far our cracker jack media gives one side and one side only….they seldom do what they were trained to do….look beyond and beneath every story.

‘Spin’ is just a more acceptable term for propaganda…the problem is few bother to check the stories out as a complete report of one side of the coin.

Where does your opinion come from….?

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Will The Real Zelensky Please Stand Up

***Once again I need to state that I am by NO means in support of Vlad the Invader and his actions against Ukraine***

Most Americans are in awe of the bravery that the president of Ukraine has shown in the face of the Russian invasion….most because to the image that the MSM has presented to its daily consumer.

I am not one of those people for I think there is more that is not given to the public….what we see is only ‘spin’…….I recently tried to show the other side of the coin (so to speak)….

https://lobotero.com/2022/04/08/our-man-zelensky/
 
https://lobotero.com/2022/04/12/zelensky-part-2/
 
Believe what you are programmed to believe….but at least read this interview with a Ukrainian that knows the person…..the interview is posted on the Grey Zone site…..
A comedic actor who rose to the country’s highest office in 2019, Volodymyr Zelensky was virtually unknown to the average American, except perhaps as a bit player in the Trump impeachment theater. But when Russia attacked Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Zelensky was suddenly transformed to an A-list celebrity in US media. American news consumers were bombarded with images of a man who appeared overcome by the tragic events, possibly in over his head, but ultimately sympathetic.  It didn’t take long for that image to evolve into the khaki-clad, tireless hero governing over a scrappy little democracy and single-handedly staving off the barbarians of autocracy from the east.
 
But beyond that carefully crafted Western media image is something much more complicated and less flattering. Zelensky was elected by 73 percent of the vote on a promise to pursue peace while the rest of his platform was vague. On the eve of the invasion, however, his approval rating had sunk to 31 percent due to the pursuit of deeply unpopular policies.
 
Ukrainian academic, Olga Baysha, has studied Zelensky’s rise to power and how he has wielded that power since becoming president. In the interview below, Baysha discusses Zelensky’s embrace of neoliberalism and increasing authoritarianism, how his actions contributed to the current war; his counterproductive and self-absorbed leadership throughout the war, the complex cultural and political views and identities of Ukrainians, the partnership between neoliberals and the radical right during and after Maidan, and whether a Russian takeover of the entire Donbass region might be less popular among the local population than it would have been in 2014.
 
There is always more to the story than the PR that corporate media gives the public and so it is with Zelensky……he may not be the savior of democracy that he is portrayed.
 
I have noticed that many do not want to hear any of this for it challenges their mindset and that would mean they would have to reassess their undying loyalty.
 
Yes I think the US is wasting needed funds on Ukraine….the same way we have done since the 1980s.
 
This country is slipping into a manure pit and our elected cowards are worried about some country half a world a way…..and the peasants cheer.
 
Turn The Page!
 
I Read, I Write, You Know
 
“lego ergo scribo”

Ukraine And PR

Yes Irene this conflict has a large element of public relations attached to it……my first question is how much is the PR campaign costing the US….oh my bad….Ukraine?

Since the beginning I have been one voice questioning the reporting and the ‘news’ coming out of Ukraine with the invasion of the forces of ‘Vlad the Invader’…..in a recent I stated my concerns…..

https://lobotero.com/2022/03/04/ukraine-and-social-media/
 
Now my concerns have legs….NATO commander who told the Washington Post, “They are really excellent in stratcom — media, info ops, and also psy-ops.” The Post ultimately conceded that “Western officials say that while they cannot independently verify much of the information that Kyiv puts out about the evolving battlefield situation, including casualty figures for both sides, it nonetheless represents highly effective stratcom.”
 
If the news cannot be verified then it is hearsay, something I have been saying since the start of this conflict.
 
Ukraine has an army of PR pitchmen, lobbyists and propagandists….

Since the Russian offensive inside Ukraine commenced on February 24, the Ukrainian military has cultivated the image of a plucky little army standing up to the Russian Goliath. To bolster the perception of Ukrainian military mettle, Kiev has churned out a steady stream of sophisticated propaganda aimed at stirring public and official support from Western countries.

The campaign includes language guides, key messages, and hundreds of propaganda posters, some of which contain fascist imagery and even praise Neo-Nazi leaders.

Behind Ukraine’s public relations effort is an army of foreign political strategists, Washington DC lobbyists, and a network of intelligence-linked media outlets.

…

Key to the propaganda effort is an international legion of public relations firms working directly with Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to wage information warfare.

According to the industry news site PRWeek, the initiative was launched by an anonymous figure who allegedly founded a Ukraine-based public relations firm.

“From the first hour of war, we decided to join the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to help them distribute the official sources to show the truth,” the nameless figure told PR Week. “This is a hybrid war: the mix of bloodily struggling fight with a huge disinformation and fake campaign lead by Russia [sic].”

According to the anonymous figure, more than 150 public relations firms have joined the propaganda blitz.

Ukraine’s Propaganda War: International PR Firms, DC Lobbyists and CIA Cutouts

This war has become a profit making industry…..makes the old saying “war is good business” all the more true.

Once again I urge my readers to look at this conflict without the veil of emotions…..for emotions make the deaths of hundreds more acceptable.

I refuse to make my observations on the shoulders of emotional reactions….I can separate my emotions from the situation.

Please do not accept what you are told….look beyond and find the real story.

Please do not believe for a moment that I am apologizing for Putin….if you do then you would be wrong.

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Ban The Opposition

After 3 weeks of constant conflict the president of Ukraine, Zelensky, has done what ‘leaders’ do in time of war….ban any political opposition and nationalized the media……control of the political process and the machine for propaganda must be in the hands on the party in power.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky banned 11 opposition political parties and nationalized media. Any activities supporting the parties labeled “pro-Russian” are now illegal.

Axios reports the list of parties now banned include: Platform For Life, Shariy Party, Nashi, Opposition Bloc, Left Opposition, Union of Left Forces, State, Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine, Socialist Party of Ukraine, Socialists Party, and Volodymyr Saldo Bloc.

Platform for Life is Ukraine’s largest opposition party and currently holds 44 seats in parliament. Last year, The party’s leader, Viktor Medvedchuk, was accused of treason and placed under house arrest.

Another targeted party, Nashi, is led by Yevhen Murayev. The UK previously accused Murayev of working with Moscow to overthrow the Ukrainian government. However, Murayev was sanctioned by Russia in 2018.

Ukraine’s Russian minority has faced increased discrimination since the 2014 coup. The opposition parties largely represent the 17% of the Ukrainian people who are ethnic Russians. Language and cultural laws have targeted Russian movies, including one starring Zelensky.

The new presidential order is a part of Zelensky’s effort to create a unified political narrative in Ukraine. He has announced an information policy that combines “all national TV channels…[into] a single information platform of strategic communication.”

(antiwar.com)

Personally I have a problem with these moves….only one voice for the ‘news’…..I realize that Ukraine is fighting for their very existence and these moves are part of the program of survival….

Only one voice could be disastrous….abuses will be in the wind.

Any thoughts on this turn of events?

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”