Propaganda

Denver's Insidious Commie Bike Plot

by Anne Landman — August 6, 2010 - 12:08am

Colorado Republican gubernatorial candidate and Tea Party favorite Dan Maes warned crowd of supporters that Denver's new bicycle sharing program is really a disguised plot by the United Nations to "rein in American cities" and put the en

Main Source: 
Denver Post, August 4, 2010

Breitbart's Unbelievable Exploits

by Anne Landman — July 26, 2010 - 10:58pm

After the media exposed conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart's smear of former Agricultural Administration employee Shirley Sherrod as race-baiting, Media Matters listed a string of other sensationalized stories Bretibart has spread that he based on sheer speculation

Main Source: 
Media Matters, June 21 2010

"Big Shopping Malls" and "No Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza"

by Steve Horn — July 26, 2010 - 4:30pm
  • Topics: Journalism, Human Rights, International, Media, Propaganda, Public Relations

    • Recently, the newest batch of Israel-related hasbara was released on a mass scale by the Israeli news website, Ynetnews, which is the online English language news website of Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel's most-read news source. It is akin to the New York Times or the Washington Post of the United States, and one of Israel's news sources of prominent distinction.

    "There Is No Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza"

    The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel hasbara-extraordinaire, Felix Frankfurter, Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and Alan Dershowitz, are both on the record as saying that "there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza." They are not outliers in holding that opinion. Indeed, former neo-conservative Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, the current Foreign Minister of Israel, Avigdor Lieberman, Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren, as well as Netanyahu spokesman Mark Regev, are all on the record sharing these sentiments.

    The Blame Game Double Standard

    by Maxwell Abbott — July 21, 2010 - 3:27pm
  • Topics: Media, Propaganda, Rhetoric

    • Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Steele's latest gaffe turned a lot of heads when, speaking at an RNC fundraiser, Steele stated that the war in Afghanistan is "a war of Obama's choosing" that the American public does not want. It is obviously ludicrous to assert that the war in Afghanistan, which began in October of 2001, when Barack Obama was a state senator, was somehow chosen by the sitting president. The statement caused conservative firebrand William Kristol to call for Steele's resignation. A dismayed Kristol stated that Steele's blunder put him "at odds with 100% of the Republican Party." Unfortunately, Kristol is totally wrong to say that all Republicans disagree with Steele. While Steele's statements may be extreme, they fall in line with a widespread pattern of conservative efforts to blame Obama for problems created by President Bush.

    The Newest Hasbara Group in Town: the Emergency Committee for Israel

    by Steve Horn — July 13, 2010 - 3:45pm
  • Topics: Advertising, Right Wing, Front Groups, Propaganda, Public Relations

    • There's a new player in the game that is pro-Israel lobby hasbara in the United States: The Emergency Committee for Israel, which is running an ad attacking House Representative Joe Sestak for his positions on Israel.

    The Committee has arisen just in time for the 2010 mid-term elections campaign season, and right in the middle of what have been, albeit weak and mostly a public relations stunt, a push for peace talks, mediated by the Obama Administration, between the Benjamin Netanyahu-lead Likud coalition of the Israeli government, and the Palestinians. Even the facade of Obama pushing for negotiations for a two-state solution and holding both sides of the conflict accountable, though, is too much for this new committee, which explains why it has arisen from the dust.

    Energy in Depth's Disinformation Freakshow

    by Steve Horn — July 13, 2010 - 11:38am
  • Topics: Front Groups, Energy, Environment, Propaganda, Public Relations, Science

    • Energy in Depth and the gas industry are deploying spin doctors to counter a new documentary being aired nationwide on HBO. This time around, the truths unearthed about what the impacts would be of methane gas drilling into the Marcellus Shale unveiled by the film Gasland, by scientists, and by investigative journalists, are all victims of a prolific oil industry smear campaign.

    Quick refresher: Marcellus Shale is an extensive underground formation of shale in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and other states in the region that has received renewed attention both because of new estimates of the quantity of methane gas believed to be under these rocks, and because of the significant environmental concerns that have been raised about the method of extracting the gas from the shale. "Hydrofracking" is a process in which a fluid is injected at high pressure into oil or methane gas deposits to fracture the rock above and release the liquid or gas below. The process uses enormous amounts of drinkable water, along with toxic chemicals. It also releases radioactive materials and other hazardous substances within the shale deposits, a fact that has raised significant environmental and health concerns.

    BP: Mitigating Exposure, Controlling the Response and Making Edward Bernays Proud!

    by Steve Horn — June 29, 2010 - 4:14pm
  • Topics: Corporate Social Responsibility, Journalism, Corporations, Media, Propaganda

    • British Petroleum has stooped to a new low, if that's at all possible.

    As if spewing over 80 million gallons into the Gulf of Mexico were not a sufficiently criminal activity, they are now attempting a cover-up and have facilitated, working alongside the police of New Orleans, a blockade of sorts of hard-hitting journalists from getting their hands on what's actually taking place in the ravaged Big Easy. It is truly a sham of epic proportions.

    And now, word of a big hurricane with winds of up to 90 MPH rolling into town has surfaced. Trouble, it appears, has just begun in the Bayou.

    Mitigating the Exposure

    Mother Jones, known for hard-hitting, deep-digging, no-holds-barred journalism, has approached coverage of the on-going and seemingly perpetual BP oil spill with the same vigor as usual in its reporting. Unfortunately, they've got some competition, or as astronaut Jack Swigert of Apollo 13 once said before going down, "Houston, we've had a problem!" The problem? BP is doing everything in its power to stop journalists dead in their tracks and scare them away from exposing their crime of poisoning the Gulf.

    The Fake, Media-Generated "Anti-Incumbent Rage"

    by Anne Landman — June 10, 2010 - 6:59pm

    The narrative the media is feeding the country this election season is that voters are enraged, and an anti-incumbent wave is sweeping across the country, striking terror in incumbents' hearts. But if that's really the case, then why were so many incumbents voted back into office in last Tuesday's election?

    Main Source: 
    The Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC), June 10, 2010

    Israel's Spin Machine: It Keeps Spinning, and Spinning, and Spinning

    by Steve Horn — June 9, 2010 - 6:08pm
  • Topics: Activism, Human Rights, International, Lobbying, Propaganda, Public Relations, Social Justice, War / Peace

    • As per usual, when push comes to shove, the right-wing Israeli government, along with the Israel Defense Forces spinmeisters, have gone back to the simple formula: when they do something illegal and barbaric, blame the victim, for the United States will obligingly agree and stand by that narrative. Like always, while the rest of the world protests in condemnation and speaks out against Israel's actions and crimes, the U.S. government stands by complicitly, continuing to shower Israel with over $3 billion per year in military aid into perpetuity.

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