{"id":142938,"date":"2019-09-16T12:00:49","date_gmt":"2019-09-16T11:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=142938"},"modified":"2019-09-13T11:08:11","modified_gmt":"2019-09-13T10:08:11","slug":"will-npr-now-officially-change-its-name-to-national-propaganda-radio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/09\/will-npr-now-officially-change-its-name-to-national-propaganda-radio\/","title":{"rendered":"Will NPR Now Officially Change Its Name to National Propaganda Radio?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in the 1960s, the CIA official Cord Meyer said the agency needed to \u201ccourt the compatible left.\u201d\u00a0 He knew that drawing liberals and leftists into the CIA\u2019s orbit was the key to efficient propaganda.\u00a0 Right-wing and left-wing collaborators were needed to create a powerful propaganda apparatus that would be capable of hypnotizing audiences into believing the myth of American exceptionalism and its divine right to rule the world.\u00a0 The CIA therefore secretly worked to influence American and world opinion through the literary and intellectual elites.<\/p>\n

Frances Stonor Saunders comprehensively covers this in her 1999 book, The Cultural Cold War: the CIA and the World of Arts and Letters<\/em>, and Joel Whitney followed this up in 2016 with Finks: How the CIA Tricked the World\u2019s Best Writers<\/em>, with particular emphasis on the complicity between the CIA and the famous literary journal, The Paris Review<\/em>.\u00a0 By the mid-1970s, as a result of the Church Committee hearings, it seemed as if the CIA, NSA, FBI, etc. had been caught in flagrante delicto <\/em>and disgraced, confessed their sins, and resolved to go and sin no more.\u00a0 Then in 1977, Carl Bernstein wrote a long piece for Esquire<\/em> \u2013 \u201cThe CIA and the Media\u201d \u2013 naming names of journalists and media (The New York Times, CBS<\/em>, etc.) that worked hand-in-glove with the CIA, propagandizing the American people and the rest of the world.\u00a0 It seemed, which is the intent of a \u201climited hangout,\u201d as if all would be hunky-dory now with the bad boys purged from the American \u201cfree\u201d press.\u00a0 Seemed to the most na\u00efve, that is, by which I mean the vast numbers of people who wanted to re-stick their heads in the sand and believe, as Ronald Reagan\u2019s team of truthtellers would announce, that it was \u201cMorning in America\u201d again with the free press reigning and the neo-conservatives, many of whom had been \u201cconverted\u201d from their leftist views, running things in Washington.<\/p>\n

So again it is morning in America this September 6, 2019, and the headline from National Public Radio announces the glad tidings that NPR has named a new CEO.\u00a0 His name is John Lansing, and the headline says he is a \u201cveteran media executive.\u201d\u00a0 We are meant to be reassured.\u00a0 It goes on to say that Mr. Lansing, 62, is currently the chief executive of the government agency, The U.S. Agency for Global Media<\/a>, which oversees Voice of America, Radio and Television Marti, and Radio Free Europe\/Radio Liberty, among others.\u00a0 We are furthermore reassured by NPR<\/a> that Lansing \u201cmade his mark in his current job with stirring defenses of journalism, free from government interference.\u201d The announcement goes on to say:<\/p>\n

Lansing has earned an advanced degree in political agility. At the U.S. Agency for Global Media, Lansing championed a free press even as leaders of many nations move against it.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018Governments around the world are increasingly cracking down on the free flow of information; silencing dialogue and dissent; and distorting reality,\u2019 Lansing said in a speech he delivered in May to the Media for Democracy Forum. \u2018The result, I believe, is a war on truth.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

He continued: \u2018Citizens in countries from Russia to China, from Iran to North Korea, have been victimized for decades. But now we’re seeing authoritarian regimes expanding around the globe, with media repression in places like Turkey and Venezuela, Cambodia and Vietnam.\u2019<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So we are reassured that the new head of NPR, the chief of all U.S. propaganda, is a champion of a free press.<\/p>\n

Perhaps NPR will soon enlighten the American public by interviewing its new head honcho and asking him if he thinks Julian Assange and Chelsey Manning, by exposing America\u2019s war crimes, and Edward Snowden, by exposing the U.S. government\u2019s vast electronic surveillance programs of its own citizens, deserve to be jailed and exiled for doing the job the American mainstream \u201cfree press\u201d failed to do. What NPR failed to do.<\/p>\n

Perhaps they will ask him if he objects to the way his own government \u201cinterfered\u201d in the lives of these three courageous people who revealed truths that every citizen of a free country is entitled to.<\/p>\n

Perhaps they will ask him if the U.S. government\u2019s persecution of these truthtellers is what he means by there being \u201ca war on truth.\u201d\u00a0 Perhaps they will ask him if he thinks the Obama and Trump administrations have been \u201cdistorting reality\u201d and waging a war on truth.<\/p>\n

Perhaps not. Of course not.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t laugh, for the joke will be on you if you listen to NPR and its sly appeal to \u201cliberal\u201d sensibilities.\u00a0 If you are wondering why we have had the Russia-gate hoax and who was responsible (see\/hear Russia expert Prof. Stephen Cohen here<\/a>) and are now involved in a new Cold War and a highly dangerous nuclear confrontation with Russia, read Lansing\u2019s July 10, 2019 testimony<\/a> before the House Appropriations Sub-Committee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs: \u201cUnited Sates Efforts to Counter Russian Disinformation and Malign Influence.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

Here is an excerpt:<\/p>\n

USAGM provides consistently accurate and compelling journalism that reflects the values of our society: freedom, openness, democracy, and hope. Our guiding principles\u2014enshrined in law\u2014are to provide a reliable, authoritative, and independent source of news that adheres to the strictest standards of journalism\u2026.<\/em><\/p>\n

Russian Disinformation<\/u><\/em>.\u00a0 And make no mistake, we are living through a global explosion of disinformation, state propaganda, and lies generated by multiple authoritarian regimes around the world. The weaponization of information we are seeing today is real. The Russian government and other authoritarian regimes engage in far-reaching malign influence campaigns across national boundaries and language barriers. The Kremlin\u2019s propaganda and disinformation machine is being unleashed via new platforms and continues to grow in Russia and internationally. Russia seeks to destroy the very idea of an objective, verifiable set of facts as it attempts to influence opinions about the United States and its allies. It is not an understatement to say that this new form of combat on the information battlefield may be the fight of the 21st century.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then research the history of Radio Free Europe\/Radio Liberty, the Voice of America, Radio and Television Marti, etc.\u00a0 You will be reassured that Lansing\u2019s July testimony was his job interview to head National Propaganda Radio.<\/p>\n

Then sit back, relax, and tune into NPR\u2019s Morning Edition.\u00a0 It will be comforting to know that it is \u201cMorning in America\u201d once again.<\/p>\n

__________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Edward Curtin is a writer whose work has appeared widely. He is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a>. Website: <\/em>Behind the Curtain<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in the 1960s, the CIA official Cord Meyer said the agency needed to \u201ccourt the compatible left.\u201d He knew that drawing liberals and leftists into the CIA\u2019s orbit was the key to efficient propaganda. Right-wing and left-wing collaborators were needed to create a powerful propaganda apparatus that would be capable of hypnotizing audiences into believing the myth of American exceptionalism and its divine right to rule the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":108249,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[133,120,378,234,109,287,70,126,172],"class_list":["post-142938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","tag-cia","tag-conflict","tag-journalism","tag-media","tag-politics","tag-power","tag-usa","tag-violence","tag-west"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}