Day: June 11, 2010
MEDIA LENS ALERT: HEADSHOT – PROPAGANDA, STATE RELIGION AND THE ATTACK ON THE GAZA PEACE FLOTILLA – PART 1
9 June, 2010 — MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media
The most potent propaganda relies on language loaded with hidden implications. In a recent speech, journalist Robert Fisk noted:
“When we westerners find that our enemies – al-Qaeda, for example, or the Taliban – have set off more bombs and staged more attacks than usual, we call it a spike in violence. Ah yes, a spike!
“A spike in violence, ladies and gentlemen is a word first used, according to my files, by a brigadier general in the Baghdad Green Zone in 2004. Yet now we use that phrase, we extemporise on it, we relay it on the air as our phrase.”
(english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/05/201052574726865274.html)
It seems reasonable to assert that violence has spiked in, say, Afghanistan because violence +has+ increased. But having accepted this reasonable, open implication, we will likely also accept the hidden prediction – that the rise in violence will be followed by a rapid decline. This is important because if we believed the violence might be long-lasting, perhaps worsening, then we might become concerned, outraged – we might even feel prompted to take action. A spike suggests that, by the time we get round to doing something, the problem may already have gone away.
VTJP Palestine/Israel Newslinks 10 June, 2010: Torture Of Palestinian Child Prisoners “Widespread And Institutionalised”
ColdType JUNE 2010 Issue
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1. INSIDE YOUR 64-PAGE COLDTYPE READER
COVER STORY – Peace, Pirates & Propaganda: 17-Page Special Report on Israel’s Attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla with Contributions from Alan Maas, Daniela Perdomo, Mary Rizzo, Jonathan Cook, Craig Murray, William Bowles, Dennis Bernstein & Jesse Strauss
PLUS: Great essays from top writers: Obama and the Drones, Pedophiles and Popes, the Red Menace, Robert Mugabe, an Author’s Father, a Child In Guantanamo, Two Fresh Looks at Illegal Immigration, the Need for a Few Good Communists, Blaming the Poor While Taking Their Money, the Heresy of Greece, Ignoring the Lessons of the Big Bail-Out and Why General McChrystal Should Just Bring His Troops Home
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2. THIS MONTH’S READER EXTRA is There’s No Power On Earth That Can Stop It! – A 20-page Excerpt from Stan Cox’s New Book, Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World
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PLUS FIVE ESSAYS & BOOK EXCERPTS
3. The Politics Of Fear, an excerpt from Loretta Napoleoni’s new book, Terror And The Economy
4. Death At Sea: How Obama’s Timidity Led To The Attack On The Gaza Freedom Flotilla, by Ray McGovern
5. Oil Rush To Hell, by Michael Klare
6. Projectile Dysfunction: Iron Dome, Israel, Trident And The Media, by David Edwards
7. Lost In The Fearless Plain, by Joe Bageant
Enjoy! (and if you don’t, let us know why)
Tony Sutton (Editor)
The New Dark Age 