VLADIMIR PUTIN AND US MEDIA BIAS

Yesterday I blogged about the possibility that the recent report of the Chinese government about U.S. human rights violations may be heralding a new stage in a stepped up propaganda war against the USA. I suggested, you'll recall, that this may signal a heightened Chinese effort, to parallel and perhaps supplement, Russia's considerably successful RT(Russia Today), and that if such a propaganda offensive was underway on the part of the BRICSA nations, that one might look next to similar statements from India in the future, particularly if it couples that nation's own experience with GMOs and American companies backing them, and the issue of human rights. As most readers here are aware, I've been predicting that the BRICSA nations will inevitably become players in world agriculture markets, challenging American GMOs with the sale of NON-GMO seeds and crops.  Couple that to the issue of human rights, and those nations would have a powerful propaganda tool on the stage of world opinion.

That we are indeed in the midst of a propaganda war has always seemed evident to me from the way that Western lamestream media villifies Russian President Vladimir Putin. Don't get me wrong, I don't view Mr. Putin as a paragon of virtue and wisdom. But neither do I view him as a Stalinist throwback or a sock puppet. Strongman? Yes, absolutely. But an articulate one, and at least on the stage of international statecraft, an astute one. An unqualified evil? No.

Consider this article on western media bias against Mr. Putin that appeared - surprisingly! - in The Nation magazine:I link this lengthy but important article here because of its intrinsic importance after the recent events in the Ukraine and Crimean peninsula:

Distorting Russia How the American media misrepresent Putin, Sochi and Ukraine.

I want to draw your attention to three paragraphs in particular:

"The history of this degradation is also clear. It began in the early 1990s, following the end of the Soviet Union, when the US media adopted Washington’s narrative that almost everything President Boris Yeltsin did was a “transition from communism to democracy” and thus in America’s best interests. This included his economic “shock therapy” and oligarchic looting of essential state assets, which destroyed tens of millions of Russian lives; armed destruction of a popularly elected Parliament and imposition of a “presidential” Constitution, which dealt a crippling blow to democratization and now empowers Putin; brutal war in tiny Chechnya, which gave rise to terrorists in Russia’s North Caucasus; rigging of his own re-election in 1996; and leaving behind, in 1999, his approval ratings in single digits, a disintegrating country laden with weapons of mass destruction. Indeed, most American journalists still give the impression that Yeltsin was an ideal Russian leader.

"Since the early 2000s, the media have followed a different leader-centric narrative, also consistent with US policy, that devalues multifaceted analysis for a relentless demonization of Putin, with little regard for facts. (Was any Soviet Communist leader after Stalin ever so personally villainized?) If Russia under Yeltsin was presented as having legitimate politics and national interests, we are now made to believe that Putin’s Russia has none at all, at home or abroad—even on its own borders, as in Ukraine.

"Russia today has serious problems and many repugnant Kremlin policies. But anyone relying on mainstream American media will not find there any of their origins or influences in Yeltsin’s Russia or in provocative US policies since the 1990s—only in the “autocrat” Putin who, however authoritarian, in reality lacks such power. Nor is he credited with stabilizing a disintegrating nuclear-armed country, assisting US security pursuits from Afghanistan and Syria to Iran or even with granting amnesty, in December, to more than 1,000 jailed prisoners, including mothers of young children."(Emphasis added)

What really rankles the Anglosphere oligarchs and pathological plutocrats who control the Western media is that Mr. Putin put a stop to the rape of Russia by its own oligarchs, and who stands up for Russia's national interest, including those interests on its "periphery." The fact that the demonization of Russia is once again approaching  Cold War levels - and I personally view it as already being there - should give one pause, less about the sanity and direction of Russia's policies, but rather more about our own. There is little doubt that the USA led the charge - in spite of assurances from former President GHW Bush to former General Secretary Gorbachev - to encircle and emasculate Russia, and this too, well underway under Mr. Yeltsin, Mr. Putin put a stop to.

I remember years ago, during the unfolding drama of the Kennedy assassination, when I was home sick from school glued to the television set, watching SeeBS news anchor Walter Cronkite reporting on a statement by one Mr. Valerian Zorin, who had been the Soviet Union's ambassador to the United Nations. (It was Mr. Zorin to whom Adlai Stevenson said the now famous words that he would wait until hell froze over on whether or not the pictures being displayed showed Soviet missiles in Cuba, or not.) But during the Kennedy assassination, Mr. Zorin issued an official statement on Moscow radio, that in the context of what has come to light in JFK research much less "propogandistic"  than Cronkite's characterization of it. Said Mr. Zorin(as read by Cronkite): "Those who know how the security of President Kennedy is organized, know that it's not possible for such a fanatic(i.e., Oswald as lone nut) to commit such an assassination. A political crime, thoroughly prepared and planned, has taken place. It is not accidental that it took place in the southern states, which are well-known as a stronghold of racists and other fascist scum. It is precisely here that Goldwater, who is one of the contenders for the presidency, gets his support." (Note, in his broadcast, Mr. Cronkite erroneously reports Zorin's first name as Valentin, not Valerian).

As it now turns out, of course, that very early Russian assessment of the coup taking place within America, made by Mr. Zorin, and so contemptuously dismissed by Cronkite, is probably the truth.

Something to remember the next time you hear the talking heads on the media demonizing Russia for protecting its own interests, and creating yet another climate of confrontation and brinksmanship with a country that is not to be trifled with.

See you on the flip side.

 

Posted in

Joseph P. Farrell

Joseph P. Farrell has a doctorate in patristics from the University of Oxford, and pursues research in physics, alternative history and science, and "strange stuff". His book The Giza DeathStar, for which the Giza Community is named, was published in the spring of 2002, and was his first venture into "alternative history and science".

11 Comments

  1. yankee phil on March 15, 2014 at 1:14 am

    Interestingly enough Mr. Zorin would have inside knowledge of the american political plot behind the assasination of the President because Rheinhard Gehlen , the former head of the BND thrown out of office at Kennedy’s insistance (yankee and cowboy war,1974) was directly involved in the plot and the KGB had penetrated his organization to a point where Russia would be privy to some of the details,perhaps more even than the legitimate end of the CIA.



  2. marcos toledo on March 14, 2014 at 11:00 am

    With the USA returning to the poll tax days via voter ID though we have voter ID here in Puerto Rico. We know what these scum bags are really up to. So they who live in glass houses shouldn’t go around throwing stones. So whatever Vladimir Putin human failings he is looking out for Russia interest that more than you can say about the parasites that run the USA.



    • marcos toledo on March 14, 2014 at 11:46 am

      Addendum as Dick Gregory wrote in his book “Tell Me No Lies” America has always needed it’s Injun an Russia is it along with China, Catholics, Islam and the other scapegoats you can fill in the blanks.



  3. Robert Barricklow on March 14, 2014 at 9:28 am

    I “study”, in broad stroke, a number of media outlets to get a sense of the “propaganda” purpose & direction. Political weather vanes are political cartoons. Of late, they’ve all painted Putin darkly. This sickens me, as I would enjoy a true politically charged atmosphere speaking to a healthy vibrant political economy. Sadly the USA speaks to a Sheldon Wolin type of Inverted Totalitarianism, aka Democracy Inc.
    They did the same w/Yeltsin painting symbolizing liberty, literary drunk with it. How can the “public” fall for this OBVIOUS propaganda. You’d think they would be as sophisticated as they were with the JFK coup d’état. And as far as Walter Cronkite/And that’s the way…I read the teleprompter.

    The Russians used to joke that their history
    changed like the Texas weather.
    Now the tables have turned.



  4. loisg on March 14, 2014 at 8:43 am

    Well I’m not so willing to whitewash his activities to that extent, all you have to do is listen to Pussy Riot, other dissenters in Russia, and see what he has done to the LGBT community to see that he is becoming something of a tyrant. I dont think its fair to justify his actions based on what one thinks a previous leader has done,since so many of the protesters in that country say that Putin has gone rogue, as it were. But as to the financial aspects of that country and the American media response to his activities in that arena, just remember that American mainstream media is controlled by the oligarchs in this country. Our media is propaganda but so is RT, so I take them both with the same grain of salt. Just my two cents.



  5. basta on March 14, 2014 at 6:39 am

    Bingo! Indeed, if you are to believe the propaganda, Russia is not allowed to have any legitimate national interests. Insanity.

    A close friend traveled to Moscow recently on business and while there made use of translator who had translated meetings with Putin. She noted to my friend that the European head of state always prefaced his remarks by saying, “I think that…” and Putin always said, “Russia’s position is that…”

    While there, another Russian who works in the cultural milieu said to my friend that the West has no conception of how Putin is regarded in Russia, and that he is considered “a great man,” in the traditional Russian meaning of the word “great.” He said that there are three “great” Russians: Catherine the Great, Peter the Great and Vladimir Putin.

    The West is seriously misunderestimating Putin at its peril, and had better not believe its own propaganda.



    • Konsti on March 14, 2014 at 8:51 am

      There are so huge propaganda in Russia through centuries that some people do think Peter I and Catherine II were “Great”. But actually the “Great” was Ivan IV.
      And Mr. Farrell wrights as “Stalinist throwback” would be something terrible. In Russia we have all kinds of official competitions in media or Internet on the best rulers in history. Usually Stalin wins. But the official propaganda still pretends Peter or Catherine are people’s favor.But you right about Putin. During past month his rating had raised from 64% up to 74%. And many people do think that Putin is continuing Stalin’s policy.



      • Solfeggio on March 15, 2014 at 6:12 am

        I liken that to the divergence in American opinion regarding Lincoln, where some view him as saint, as orhers as tyrant. Without having a true accounting of history we are blind but for what little we can do with reason and seeking out that more nuanced view.

        Sadly, after the imposition of a national security cloak to literally obscure history in tandem with propaganda, we lack the transparency to evaluate such facts. Think of the many skeletons and mound cultures of American antiquity, all denied by Establashment orthodoxy despite at one time being well known and accepted fact, ironically even discussed once in a speech by Lincoln. And just as our country was once more brave, and that our last government pronouncement was congruent with conspiracy, the recent 50th anniversary showed an aberrant reversion to a mythical dream. It was as uf we we all decided to play a game with reality itself; and from henceforth, Santa Claus is not onky real, he is an alleged terrorist. How can grown men and women sustain such doublethink without pangs of conscience? Simple, reality is now weaponized.

        The 50th Anniversary of JFK’s assassination represented for all the word to see the essence of our national character: we have no shame. But as I insist, and will continue to do so, the real dillemna is that we as a human race are suffering from an epistemological crisis; I keep hammering at this point.

        But since that seems so abstract a term, let me illustrate what is clearly relavant to our lives is the self evident fact that we are no longer — if ever we were — a Republic governed by the consent of the people.

        Other countries ban GMO foods, and yet in health conscious and liberal California, we could not pass a referendum recently that would merely LABEL such foods despite the clear mandate to do so. Clearly the elections are fraudulent, and so even in a practical, legal sense, we are an illegitimate state, inconsistent with its iwn internal jurisprudence.

        Fill in the blanks, and what we have — shrouded under our ongoing dialectic about this problem in perennial alternative discussion — is an inability to directly and immediately rectify the situation, especially in light of all the historical precedents and evidence gazing at us with pleas for mercy.

        But I ask you, is Alex Jones using his platform and supposed genuine patriotic character to organize his followers in equal proportion and fervor to the dystopia and constant apocalyptic fear he rants about daily?

        Conversely, will the thoughtful, compassionate anti-war libetal minds such as Chris Hedges and David Swanson directly address 911?

        No, unless one is ready to dispose of both coin and life — hopefully in tandem with others who may be good persons but intimidated — there will only be spectatorship of your own dignity, culture, health, and opportunity murdered in the public square as we discuss it ad infinitum, as if we all have a latent but unconscious belief that “someone” will do something about it all.

        Or we might vascillate into aversion, and try to “unknow” what we know. But in all cases, the response is the same: passivity and even compliance in our own demise. We may dismiss the bread wnd circuses of the majority of ignorant America, drowning as they are in reality TV, football games, and technology exhuberism, but are we not consuming just a different brand of bread and circus act, this time featuring a cast of awake truth seekers and their multitude of forums, radio shows, and bitter editorializing?

        I am still stunned when even some of my favorite researchers debate various aspects of 911 or JFK as if our hope lies in some missing clue that remains hidden in the debris of all our heinous acts, as if it were just the lack of that perfectt puzzle piece, synthesis, or smoking gun that would tip the scales toward that elusive justice, when in fact this too is part off an internal psychological denial of the unspeakable reality we find ourselves in. Releasing the files, having another 911 investigation, is but appealing to a criminal to infict himself. It is sophmoric.

        We know so clearly what we oppose, but do we collectively know what we want in its place, in concrete, applicable terms, and if there is a way to achieve this in the pragmatic movement of our actual bones, energy, resources, and ACTION?

        What is wisdom, a thing to be held secret to ourselves as islands adrift to the great chain of beings out there suffering, or a manner by which knowledge elevates us to transmute our knowledge — well cultivated among others of the same disposition such as in this arena and others — into that greater Wisdom which just might recognize that no man is free if another is in bondage, that we all rise and fall together on some sublime current of being, each of our diverse realities inextricably tied to one another, such that there is no escape from any tyranny “out there” that does not first conquer the tyranny that holds us in inertia “in here”, our own comfort zone, beliefs, and precious sense of self.

        We say we are awake, but yet we still behold the nightmare.

        And so I ask myself the same question, “Am I awake?” Or is my awakening but another distortion, another division, another dependency on my awoken brethren? Could even the ceaseless solving of puzzles be yet my circus, until such time as I am shaken awake by a far graver calamity that might have been averted if I did not so foolishly declare I was once wise, or that I was awake, or that perhaps as I listened to the right and truthful choir as it sang back to me beautifully, I found a bizarre contentment in my belonging to this new clique of people that I could hold sacred against the profane, and just maybe… I could just choose this dream a wee bit longer over the rude awakening that is always pushed a few leagues ahead, like a cozy snooze button if you want a cool metaphor.

        For we all know know that truly waking is a cessation of the seamless continuity, the perceived normalcy bias, the hanging on just a bit longer to creature comforts concurrent with the postponing just a bit longer of those fears of battle that the truly waking mind — in its omniscient compassion — would eagerly rise like a god to confront, to claim its sovereignty, ameliorate the pain that everywhere burns, and declare in all realms the prerogative for justice in the eternal now.

        But perhaps that sublime image is but another drifting thought the mind observes for a moment, finding an ephemeral curiosity about it, before drifting off back into the status quo of our still slumbering kingdom of heaven.

        Wake, wake man! For no god can save you until tou realize you are the very agent of God, Her messenger, soldier, healer, engineer, and revolutionary catalyst through which only Her divine will is manifest. If you look about you to see ruins of your life and city, blame no one but this dream that you too — with divine powers unnoticed — are perhaps creating even now.

        Vanity, vanity, all is vanity…

        With Love
        S

        “Be these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.”

        Ecclesiastes 12:12



        • Konsti on March 15, 2014 at 2:13 pm

          I do consider that Solomon’s parts of the Bible(or Tanakh) are less distorted, muddled and do worth to be quoted.

          God will not change the condition of the people until they change themselves.



        • DaphneO on March 15, 2014 at 5:15 pm

          Thank you Solfeggio. Your post was amazingly profound, on a few levels. I was stunned as I read, as some of those thoughts had also been mine. Especially, does it somehow boost our egos to “know” more than others? I hope not. Are we just creating more divisions between mankind? Again, I hope not.

          I reality, I know so little.

          I thank you again for giving us so much wisdom and so much food for thought.
          Daphne



        • Robert Barricklow on March 15, 2014 at 6:01 pm

          Saint Augustine
          “Give me chastity & consistency…
          but not just yet.”



Help the Community Grow

Please understand a donation is a gift and does not confer membership or license to audiobooks. To become a paid member, visit member registration.

Upcoming Events