{"id":233797,"date":"2023-04-24T12:00:43","date_gmt":"2023-04-24T11:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=233797"},"modified":"2023-04-21T03:41:48","modified_gmt":"2023-04-21T02:41:48","slug":"it-may-be-in-no-ones-interest-to-reveal-more-cancelling-facts-that-challenge-establishment-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2023\/04\/it-may-be-in-no-ones-interest-to-reveal-more-cancelling-facts-that-challenge-establishment-power\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It May Be in No One\u2019s Interest to Reveal More\u2019: Cancelling Facts That Challenge Establishment Power"},"content":{"rendered":"

18 Apr 2023 – <\/em>As we have noted<\/a> before, a systemic feature of state-corporate media is propaganda by omission<\/a>. Missing out salient facts, informed commentary and context about the machinations of government and big business means that the public is less able to:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Understand the world around us;<\/li>\n
  2. Challenge state-corporate power; and<\/li>\n
  3. Bring about the fundamental changes in society that have never been more necessary.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Current examples are legion, as we will see in the selection that follows.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a>

    Henry Nicholls \/ Reuters<\/p><\/div>\n

    1. Journalists Pushing For Less<\/em> Transparency<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    Last week, 21-year-old US airman Jack Texeira was arrested following<\/a>, as BBC News put it:<\/p>\n

    \u2018[a] leak of highly classified military documents about the Ukraine war and other national security issues.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Former UK diplomat Craig Murray pointed<\/a> to a disturbing aspect of the case, namely, that Texeira was:<\/p>\n

    \u2018tracked down<\/a> by UK secret service front Bellingcat in conjunction with the New York Times and in parallel with the Washington Post, not to help him escape or help him publish or tell people his motives, but to help the state arrest him.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Bellingcat has been examined by, among others, Kit Klarenberg of the Grayzone<\/a> who reported<\/a> that the supposedly \u2018independent, open-source investigations\u2019 website has \u2018accepted enormous sums from Western intelligence contractors\u2019.<\/p>\n

    As for the New York Times and Washington Post, US journalist Glenn Greenwald noted<\/a>:<\/p>\n

    \u2018It is indescribably shocking and sickening that the nation\u2019s two largest media outlets were the ones who did the FBI\u2019s work and hunted for the leaker and outed him.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Almost as bad, he said, was that rather than press the government during a Pentagon press conference about the content<\/em> of the leaked documents, journalists actually pushed<\/a> for greater clampdowns on security leaks.<\/p>\n

    Murray added<\/a>:<\/p>\n

    \u2018I am not at all surprised by Bellingcat, which is plainly a spook organisation. I hope this enables more people to see through them. But the behaviour of the New York Times and Washington Post is truly shocking. They now see their mission as to serve the security state, not public knowledge.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    He also observed that, over the past week or so, \u2018nothing has been published [from the leaked material] that does not serve US propaganda narratives.\u2019<\/p>\n

    Very little, if anything, has been reliably presented about Texeira\u2019s motives in releasing these state documents. Murray warned readers to be sceptical of attempts to portray him as simply a \u2018rampant Trump supporter\u2019 or \u2018inadequate jock\u2019 trying \u2018to boast to fellow gaming nerds.\u2019<\/p>\n

    Murray concluded:<\/p>\n

    \u2018We should remain suspicious of attempts to characterise him: I am acutely aware of media portrayals of Julian Assange which are entirely untrue.\u2019<\/p>\n

    <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    2.\u00a0 Cancelling Julian Assange<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    April 11 marked four years<\/a> since Julian Assange, co-founder of WikiLeaks, was forcibly removed from the Ecuadorian embassy in London and imprisoned in the high security Belmarsh prison. He and his lawyers have been fighting the prolonged threat of extradition<\/a> to the US, where he would likely spend the rest of his life in a \u2018Supermax\u2019 prison. His \u2018crime\u2019 has been to expose the nefarious activities, including serious war crimes, of the US and its allies.<\/p>\n

    As Alex Nunns, author and former speechwriter for Jeremy Corbyn, noted<\/a>:<\/p>\n

    \u2018Probably the world\u2019s most significant and famous journalist has been in prison for four years today for his work \u2013 not in Egypt or China or Russia, but in Britain, a country that lectures others on free speech. His imprisonment is entirely political. He should be free.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Media Lens has documented<\/a> the grotesque smears<\/a> and mischaracterisations of Assange over many years, not least by the Guardian, as well as the dearth of coverage of his plight and what that means for real journalism, freedom of speech and democracy.<\/p>\n

    In a piece for international media organisation Peoples Dispatch<\/a>, political writer Amish R M summarised<\/a> key facts that state-corporate media have buried<\/a> about Assange. These include:<\/p>\n