Tag Archives: propaganda

Reality Check

Reality Check: 3 Things You Need to Know About Sinclair News Anchors Parroting the Same Script

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There is a new video making the rounds of news anchors from Sinclair-owned TV stations, all saying the exact same thing.

All of them.

When you put the news anchor clips together, they are speaking in unison. So what is this video, why are these news anchors reading like drones, and is there a bigger issue here?

Let’s give it a Reality Check.

Next week we will break down the big picture, but today I want to show you the Sinclair news anchor clip and tell you what’s going on here in three main main points.

Before I get to my three points, let me say that I actually know some of the anchors in that video. Some work in Cincinnati for the the Sinclair station there. Others are in El Paso at the Sinclair station there. And some of those journalists, I have worked with before.

Okay, so point No. 1: So what is this video?

Well first, it’s not news. Clearly, this is a promotional segment which the stations are recording in order to express why they are unique. It is done everyday in local television stations.

What’s different about this promotional segment is that Sinclair clearly has one promotions director who is sending down the same copy to all its television stations. They seem to have thought that people in those markets would never know that anchors in multiple markets are reading the same thing. But thanks to the Internet, we know.

Point No. 2: this video is clearly evidence of the fact that these anchors from various markets are simply reading what they are told.

And that happens in every TV market in the country, every day.

Anchors have a job and that job is to sell the copy. But they are not allowed to change the copy. In fact, a friend of mine who works at one of those stations says that station management was required to have the script read, word-for-word, exactly how it was written. They couldn’t even substitute the word “hi” for “hello.”

Point No. 3: this video highlights the biggest problem with media consolidation.

When one company owns so many television stations, they have the ability to push messaging however they choose to vast parts of the country. Now, some people want to jump all over this because it’s Sinclair, which is seen seen as friendly to President Trump. But to raise the alarm over just Sinclair is disingenuous, because media consolidation has been happening for for years. And it’s not just Sinclair that controls messaging.

Next week, we’ll break down how local media consolidation is happening across America, and why decentralized media, thanks for cryptocurrency like Dash Digital Cash, is the answer.

That’s Reality Check. Let’s talk about that on Twitter and Facebook.

Election, Government Accountability, Politics, US, Videos

Award-Winning Journalist Tackles Root of 2016’s “Fake News” Dilemma

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Las Vegas, NV— A recent Tedx talk given by Emmy-winning investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson at the University of Nevada examined the “fake news” narrative that took the U.S. by storm during and following the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

While Attkisson acknowledged that fake news has long existed in various forms, she said that noticed something different taking root within U.S. mainstream media in 2016. Suspecting that the origins of this growing “fake news” narrative were less than organic, Attkisson began researching and said that she connected the origins of this phenomena to a non-profit organization called “First Draft,” which, she notes, “appears to be the about the first to use ‘fake news’ in its modern context.”

“On September 13, 2016, First Draft announced a partnership to tackle malicious hoaxes and fake news reports,” Attkisson said. “The goal was supposedly to separate wheat from chaff, to prevent unproven conspiracy talk from figuring prominently in internet searches. To relegate today’s version of the alien baby story to a special internet oblivion.”

First Draft was assembled back in June 2015, according to a report from Fortune. The coalition included Facebook, Twitter and 30 other news and tech companies.

Just a month later, then-President Barack Obama proclaimed “fake news” to be a threat.

“He insisted in a speech that he too thought somebody needed to step in and curate information of this wild, wild West media environment,” she said, pointing out that “nobody in the public had been clamoring for any such thing.”

Attkisson noted how quickly the topic of “fake news” came to dominate US mainstream media as if corporate media had received “marching orders.”

“Fake news, they insisted, was an imminent threat to American democracy,” Attkisson said, noting that “few themes arise in our environment organically.”

“What if the whole anti-fake news campaign was an effort on somebody’s part to keep us from seeing or believing certain websites and stories by controversializing them or labeling them as fake news?” Attkisson questioned.

Upon investigation, Attkisson discovered that one of the major financial backers of First Draft’s anti-fake news coalition was none other than Google, whose parent company, Alphabet, was chaired by major Clinton supporter Eric Schmidt until Dec. 2017. Schmidt “offered himself up as a campaign adviser and became a top multi-million donor to it. His company funded First Draft around the start of the election cycle,” Attkisson said. “Not surprisingly, Hillary was soon to jump aboard the anti-fake news train and her surrogate, David Brock of Media Matters, privately told donors he was the one who convinced Facebook to join the effort.”

Attkisson noted that “the whole thing smacked of the roll-out of a propaganda campaign.” The award-winning journalist then explained that Trump accomplished a “hostile takeover” of the term. “Something happened that nobody expected. The anti-fake news campaign backfired. Each time advocates cried fake news, Donald Trump called them ‘fake news’ until he’d co-opted the term so completely that even those who [were] originally promoting it started running from it, including the Washington Post.”

Attkisson advised that “powerful interests might be trying to manipulate” perceptions of society. “When interests are working this hard to shape your opinion, their true goal might just be to add another layer between you and the truth,” Attkisson said.

h/t PJ Media

Featured, Government Accountability, US

New Emails Show Press Literally Taking Orders From Hillary

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By Blake Neff – The emails were obtained by Gawker as part of a large Freedom of Information Act request it made back in 2012. They show a 2009 exchange between Marc Ambinder, then-politics editor of The Atlantic, and Philippe Reines, a close assistant and adviser to Clinton during her days as Secretary of State.

Ambinder asked Reines for an advance copy of a speech Clinton was scheduled to give at the Council on Foreign Relations. Rather than simply say yes or no, Reines cut a deal with Ambinder, turning over the speech provided Ambinder agreed to three conditions:

[quote_box_center]1) You in your own voice describe [the speech] as “muscular”

2) You note that a look at the CFR seating plan shows that all the envoys — from [Richard] Holbrooke to [George] Mitchell to [Dennis] Ross — will be arrayed in front of her, which in your own clever way you can say certainly not a coincidence and meant to convey something

3) You don’t say you were blackmailed![/quote_box_center]

Ambinder agrees in the exchange, and his subsequent article shows that he followed Reines’ demands to the letter. Clinton’s speech is dubbed “muscular” in the second sentence, and the suggestive arrangement of Holbrooke, Mitchell, and Ross is noted immediately afterward. Ambinder never reveals that he was fulfilling demands made by Reines. In essence, in return for a scoop, Ambinder allowed Clinton’s team to dictate part of his coverage.

The Atlantic has updated the nearly seven-year-old article to reflect Gawker’s revelations.

“On February 9, 2016, Gawker called the reporting of this post into question. It is The Atlantic’s policy never to cede to sources editorial control of the content of our stories,” the magazine said.

Ambinder wasn’t the only person who may have followed demands from Reines. Mike Allen of Politico also used the “muscular” label for Clinton’s speech, and he also made a note of the arrangement of figures like Holbrooke and Ross. Allen taking orders from Reines wouldn’t be a huge shock, as it was recently revealed that Allen allowed Reines to ghostwrite an item in his popular daily Playbook email.

Ambinder is still a contributing editor at The Atlantic, but his main job is now as editor-at-large of The Week. Ambinder justified his action by saying he also corresponded with Reines by phone and that the email record was at best an “incomplete” log of what happened.

“Since I can’t remember the exact exchange I can’t really muster up a defense of the art, and frankly, I don’t really want to,” Ambinder told Gawker. “I will say this: whatever happened here reflects my own decisions, and no one else’s.”

Ambinder’s willingness to essentially produce Clinton press copy is particularly notable given an article he wrote in 2015 claiming the press would have a combative relationship with a Clinton presidential campaign.

“They’ll give her no quarter, and they’ll provide a good source of accountability tension until Walker (or whomever) emerges from the maelstrom,” he predicted.

Ambinder’s behavior isn’t necessarily a surprise, though, based on other emails Gawker published that showed an almost sycophantic attitude towards Clinton. In one brief message to Reines he said Clinton “kicked A[ss]” on Meet the Press, and in another he effusively said Clinton was “PITCH f#$*& PERFECT” at a press conference.

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Editor’s Pick, Featured, Foreign Policy, Opinion, Politics

The Hersh Bombshell: “Allies” were guarding and funding America’s worst enemy

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According to veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, the story the Obama Administration told about the killing of Osama bin Laden was just that- a story.

Hersh claims that the Pakistani military knew of the U.S. mission; that bin Laden was a prisoner in Abbottabad since 2006; that an ex-Pakistani official told the U.S. where bin Laden was in exchange for $25 million; and that there was no fire fight in bin Laden’s alleged compound.

The White House calls the claims baseless with too many inaccuracies to check each one.

Some have noted that it’s difficult to dismiss Hersh’s claims. “You don’t believe a story until it’s officially denied,” said Afshin Rattansi on RT.com.

The mainstream media has been aiming to discredit the story.

“The United States media won’t have it,” added Rattansi, who pointed out that Hersh had to get it published in the London Review of Books. “He can’t get them published in the land of the free.”

Hersh is a longtime contributor to The New Yorker.

In an article in New York magazine, Hersh said his relationship with The New Yorker has been tense and that they had already written a long-form feature about the killing of bin Laden, which focused on the action movie narrative from the administration.

Is Hersh’s story true? What do members of the U.S. military think of Hersh’s claims?

TruthInMedia.com’s Joshua Cook talked to a high ranking officer in the U.S. Army who said, “The Hersh article seems quite credible.”

One former Navy Seal told Cook, “Everyone in politics kills each other off with facts and fantasy.”

But it seems, according to Hersh, that the Bin Laden raid was just that- pure fantasy. “White House cooperated with Zero Dark Thirty. They did not cooperate with Seymour Hersh,” said Rattansi, pointing out that the Obama Administration provided guidance to the makers of Zero Dark Thirty, a Hollywood film about the mission to kill bin Laden.

One of the most disturbing points in Hersh’s article is the claim that the Pakistanis captured Osama bin Laden in 2006 in the Hindu Kush and the Saudis were financing the Pakistanis to keep him from the U.S.

Hersh told Scott Horton in an exclusive interview that Saudi Arabia financed this imprisonment, so Bin Laden wouldn’t reveal who was funding him (Listen here at 10:45).

The New York Times makes an important point: if Pakistan knew where bin Laden was or were holding him in prison as they claim, they were complicit in hiding a man charged with international terrorism and on the United Nations sanctions list.

It certainly makes one wonder even more about those censored 28-pages of the 9/11 report. What lengths will the U.S. government go to protect the Saudi royal family and our so-called allies who finance global terrorism?

For more on this story, click here.

To see RT America’s full interview with Seymour Hersh, watch here:

Police State

UPDATE: CNN Lied About “Right-Wing” Extremism Threat Greater Than ISIS

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Despite a widely circulated article from CNN, the latest DHS report on extremism does not state that Right-Wing Extremism is more dangerous than ISIS.

Last week we reported on the newly released  intelligence report produced by the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigations which called attention to an apparent domestic terror threat from ” right-wing sovereign citizen extremists.”

The report claimed that there have been 24 sovereign citizen attacks in the United States since 2010. According to the report these “extremists” believe they are not bound by the law and will assert their rights on a regular basis when confronted by police. This could be a traffic stop or refusing to obey court orders.

Now Reason.com has obtained the actual report – CNN failed to show a copy of  the report – and it offers stark contrasts from what was originally reported. Despite CNN claiming that the threat from sovereign citizens was greater than ISIS or included “right-wing” extremists, the report does not state that at all. In fact, the entire report does not even use the term “right-wing” or even mention the Islamic State. Statements on the alleged danger of right-wing extremists came from a separate report and quotes from the Southern Poverty Law Center. Not the actual report itself.

Some key points CNN failed to mention include the fact that the majority of individuals who identify as sovereign citizens are nonviolent. Instead the report focuses on  “sovereign citizen extremists,” or SCEs. The report finds that violence from these individuals is at best sporadic and expected to stay “at the same sporadic level” in the coming year. The violence in these cases is rarely planned in advance, the report concluded. This can include plotting a murder or sending threatening letters, however they tend to be traffic stops gone wrong. Twenty-four cases of violence connected to this apparent movement have been documented since 2010. Only 2 of those 24 cases involved SCEs successfully killing anyone. Hardly the growing threat CNN wants you to believe.

As I wrote last week, when governments criminalize innocent actions of free people there will be resistance. When governments propagandize the people to mistrust those who assert their rights, there will be division. Ultimately it is up to each of us to communicate with our neighbors and family members so they understand the difference between those pursuing violence and those attempting to live free. A full list of the incidents from the DHS report appears below.

One last thing to remember as you look at these 24 incidents: At least one of them (Schaeffer Cox) was arrested after being encouraged and essentially entrapped by federal authorities. Knowing the FBI’s history with creating or encouraging terror attacks using confidential informants, it is important to take the information provided by the DHS with a grain of salt.

Click here for an interactive map of the incidents.

• March 2010: Brody James Whitaker shoots at the Florida State Highway Patrol after a traffic stop.

• April 2010: Walter Fitzpatrick plans a “citizens’ arrest” of a Knoxville jury foreman who refused to indict President Barack Obama.

• May 2010: Jerry and Joseph Kane get into a shootout with the police after a traffic stop. They kill two officers and are themselves killed.

• June 2010: A sovereign citizen begins a multi-year series of written and verbal threats against law enforcement officials in Sweetgrass, Montana.

• September 2010: Victor Dwayne White of West Odessa, Texas, shoots and wounds two sheriff’s deputies and a utility worker who came onto his property to access an oil well. A 22-hour standoff ensues.

• January 2011: David Russell Myrland is arrested after threatening to use “deadly force” if necessary to “arrest” the mayor of Kirkland, Washington, and other officials.

• March 2011: Francis Shaeffer Cox conspires with confederates to kill a judge and an IRS officer in Anchorage, Alaska.

• June 2011: A domestic disturbance call brings police to the home of William Foust in Page, Arizona; Foust is shot and killed in the ensuing altercation.

• July 2011: James Tesi of Colleyville, Texas, fires on police after an attempted traffic stop.

• November 2011: A property dispute brings the authorites to Rodney Brossart’s home in Lakota, South Dakota. He threatens to shoot the officers, and a stand-off follows.

• February 2012: Vahe Ohanian visits a California Highway Patrol station and a sheriff’s station in Santa Clarita, California, threatening to “snipe” officers. (*)

• February 2012: Matthew O’Neill pleads guilty to sending an envelope containing white powder to the Colorado Department of Revenue.

• August 2012: In LaPlace, Louisiana, a traffic stop leads to two shootouts with members of a small sovereign-citizen group headed by Terry Lyn Smith, one at the vehicle and the second at a trailer park. Two police officers are killed and three wounded.

• September 2012: Phillip Monroe Ballard attempts to solicit the murder of the judge presiding over his tax trial. • March 2013: Jeffrey Allen Wright of Navarre, Florida, threatens officers with a gun when they try to serve a warrant. He is shot and killed.

• June 2013: In Snellville, Georgia, a man sends police a letter threatening death if they interfere with members of a sovereign-citizen group called the “Embassy of Granville.”

• June 2013: Lewis Pollard points a gun at officers at his Fruita, Colorado, residence. He is shot and killed.

• July 2013: Eric Stanberry Jr. pulls a gun on a security guard outside a Nashville strip club, identifying himself as a “sovereign peace officer.” Police tase him.

• July 2013: An incarcerated sovereign citizen plans to kill a federal agent and a witness.

• July 2013: David John McCormick refuses to let the Coast Guard board his boat. After lunging at one of the crew, he is arrested for assaulting a federal officer.

• August 2013: David Allen Brutsche and Devon Campbell Newman are arrested for allegedly planning to “arrest,” “try,” and “execute” police officers.

• March 2014: Israel Rondon of Middleburg Heights, Ohio, fires at deputies serving a warrant. He is killed.

• June 2014: When deputies try to serve an eviction notice on Earl Carlson Harris of Ashland, Oregon, he threatens them with a rifle and is killed.

• June 2014: On federal land in Nevada County, California, Brent Douglas Cole allegedly fires at employees of the Bureau of Land Management and the California Highway Patrol as they attempt to tow vehicles from Cole’s unsanctioned campground.

Government Accountability, Politics, US

Propaganda? Republican Indiana Governor Mike Pence to Launch Government-Run News Site

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At the end of February, Republican Indiana Governor Mike Pence plans to debut a news website called “Just IN” which will compete head-to-head with independent news outlets. According to The Indianapolis Star, the site will feature articles written by employees of the Pence administration. Pence’s office has tapped former Indianapolis Star writer Bill McCleery to oversee the project. The site will reportedly contain a mix of news articles, personality profiles, and feel-good stories.

The price tag on the taxpayer-funded news project is as-yet unknown, but The Indianapolis Star uncovered state records indicating that Just IN already has two full-time employees who are being paid a combined total of $100,000. The news service will be steered by a board of directors and editorial board appointed by Governor Pence. Bill McCleery will also serve on Just IN‘s editorial board.

Pence’s administration has sent mixed signals about the purpose of the site. On the one hand, administration officials have portrayed the news outlet as a high-style, glorified press release distribution service to assist the media in obtaining breaking news from the governor’s office. On the other hand, state documents describing the site said, “We expect reporters to find the site useful, and some features are designed specifically for media professionals. Just IN, however, will function as a news outlet in its own right for thousands of Hoosiers.”

Critics claim that Just IN will feature articles with a pro-administration slant and will compete directly with independent news sites using taxpayer funds. Hoosier State Press Association executive director Steve Key told The Indianapolis Star, “It’s not uncommon throughout history for governments to do what they can to control the message. Is that done in a benign way because they’re trying to get more info out to the public, or is it done with hidden motivations in making sure their message is seen in the best light possible?”

A tweet written by Indianapolis Star investigative journalist John Russell and cited by The Huffington Post said, “Every professional journalist in Indiana should join me in denouncing Gov. Pence’s state-run ‘news service.'” Journal Gazette reporter Niki Kelly tweeted about Just IN and asked, “So what happens if I ask a state agency for specific information? Do they write my story before I do?”

Portland Commercial Review publisher Jack Ronald, who, during the late ’90s, traveled to former Soviet states to assist journalists in creating independent media outlets in the wake of the Soviet Union’s collapse, said, “I have no problem with public information services — the Purdue University agriculture extension service does a great job. But the notion of elected officials presenting material that will inevitably have a pro-administration point of view is antithetical to the idea of an independent press.”

MSNBC writer Steve Benen wrote, “What’s unfolding in Indiana sounds an awful lot like taxpayer-funded propaganda from the Pence administration.”

Governor Mike Pence is rumored to be considering a 2016 run for the Republican nomination for president. CNN notes that Pence said in 2005, “As a conservative who believes in limited government, I believe the only check on government power in real time is a free and independent press.”

Foreign Policy, International, US

NYPD on alert after ISIS video release

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The New York Police Department is on high-alert after ISIS re-released a propaganda video which tells people to murder “intelligence officers, police officers, soldiers and civilians” throughout the US.  

The specific propaganda video was originally released in September 2014, but following the events in France last week, the NYPD is taking the resurgence of the video seriously.

An internal memo released throughout the NYPD told officers to “remain alert and consider tactics at all times while on patrol,” according to FOX News. Similarly, the Sergeants Benevolent Association, a police union in New York City, sent out an email to union members which reads, “Pay attention to your surroundings. Officers must pay close attention to approaching vehicles . . . Pay close attention to people as they approach. Look for their hands.”

However, the NYPD’s deputy commissioner for counterterrorism, John Miller, said according to CNN, “I don’t think that we are under any more threat … or any less threat than we were the day before.” Miller also said the NYPD has not detected any specific threats in New York City, but the NYPD has stepped up their police presence at central locations throughout the city, such as in Times Square.

Mayor Bill de Blasio told the citizens of New York City to also be on the lookout for anything suspicious. “We are the number one terror target, and that has created in us a sense of vigilance every day,” said de Blasio according to CBS New York. “There is no down day. There is no day when we’re less vigilant. We’re vigilant every day,”

The NYPD was not the only agency to take notice after the video resurfaced.

The FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are also taking the video seriously. These agencies released a nationwide bulletin to law enforcement offices with similar warnings found in the NYPD memo as well as the union released email.

Senator Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said he hopes intelligence agents in the U.S. are prepared and ready to prevent attacks similar to those carried out in France last week. “What we have to do,” said Menendez, “is be able to create a sense in communities of the importance of high alert, of vigilance, of being able to share information.”

International, Politics, US

Cuban Prisoner Swap Scandal: Feds Paid Reporters to Publish Propaganda Against Cuban Five

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President Obama took historic steps recently to normalize relations between the United States and Cuba, bringing an end to leftover tensions from the Cold War and ending hostilities with a nation that once served as Russia’s potential launch pad for attacks on US soil. In so doing, he negotiated a prisoner swap, trading the three still-incarcerated members of a Cuban intelligence cell called the “Cuban Five” for two Americans, US Agency for International Development contractor Alan Gross and Central Intelligence Agency spy Rolando “Rollie” Sarraff Trujillo, who had been incarcerated in Cuba. However, one story that the mainstream media outlets missed regarding the Cuban Five unfolded a few years ago beneath the headlines.

Russia Today noted back in 2010 that a group called the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five obtained evidence via a Freedom of Information Act request which the group says shows that, in the period leading up to the trial that convicted the Cuban Five, the US government paid reporters to produce propaganda condemning the accused spies. The above-embedded video by Russia Today, which dates back to 2010, prior to Obama’s Cuban relations reset, features an interview with National Committee to Free the Cuban Five coordinator Gloria La Riva in which she explains in great detail the government’s effort to systematically smear defendants in a criminal trial.

Cuban Five supporters claim that the group of five Cuban intelligence agents, Gerardo Hernández, René González, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, and Fernando González, were not in the United States to spy on the government, but were instead investigating a terrorist ring, in coordination with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, that had taken hold among Cuban refugee camps in Miami and launched a series of bombings in Havana. Notorious terrorist and sometimes-CIA-operative Luis Posada Carriles, an anti-Castro radical, was accused by the Cuban government of masterminding the attacks. Opponents of the Cuban Five believe that the group attempted to spy on the US military and that one of them in particular, Gerardo Hernández, had provided intelligence to the Cuban government that led to the downing of two planes that killed four American pilots back in 1996.

Gloria La Riva said that, after the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested the Cuban Five in 1998, US officials secretly paid journalists working in Miami, where the alleged spies were set to stand trial, to saturate the market with media condemning the group, allegedly in an effort to influence potential jurors. She claimed that the payments were issued through two obscure US agencies, the Broadcasting Board of Governors for Radio and TV Martí and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting. Manipulating public opinion by disseminating state-sponsored propaganda to influence a criminal trial violates US law.

Cuban Five member René González, who had the lightest punishment of the group, was released in 2011 after finishing his sentence. A second member, Fernando González, was released in February of 2014, also at the end of his prison term. The three remaining members, who were released in President Obama’s prison swap, had been sentenced to spend life in prison, with Gerardo Hernández having been sentenced to two life terms.

International, Politics, US

U.S. Encourages Coalition Partners to Intensify Fight Against ISIS… Online?

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On Monday, United States officials met with representatives from Britain, France, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Emirates in Kuwait City to discuss the current operation against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

The U.S. encouraged its coalition partners to increase the fight against the Islamic State militants’ presence on the Internet, and to further combat the recruitment campaigns and other propaganda spread by the group through social networking sites such as YouTube and Twitter.

According to RT, ISIS has “embraced online media as a place to recruit people and spread their propaganda worldwide,” by releasing videos such as the one titled “There Is No Life Without Jihad,” which “allegedly shows a line-up of militants who came to Syria and later to Iraq from all over the world.”

The coordinator of the operation against ISIS, retired U.S. General John Allen, said that the group is using a “horrendous brand of warfare,” which “recruits and perverts the innocent.

According to Allen, the only way to defeat the group is to “deny the legitimacy of the message it sends to vulnerable young people.”

“I strongly encourage participants to set forth tangible work plans that will directly and rapidly counter ISIL’s propaganda in cyberspace and the press,” said Allen, using an alternative acronym to describe the group.

Yahoo News reported that, “concern is growing over the group’s online influence in attracting foreign fighters and promoting attacks by disaffected Muslims on Western targets.”

The Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Richard Stengel, highlighted the need for an “information battlefield,” to aid the campaign against ISIS.

“Whatever we do collectively on the battlefield needs to be amplified on the information battlefield,” said Stengel.

Following the meeting in Kuwait City, the coalition partners released a joint statement saying that they had discussed ways to strengthen the resistance against ISIS, which included “actively opposing the recruitment of foreign fighters and encouraging important religious and social leaders, opinion makers, and the millions of young people who oppose violent extremism to raise their voices through traditional and social media.“

Election, US

New political ads feature James Foley’s beheading

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The video showing the beheading of American journalist James Foley is likely being used as part of the propaganda machine behind ISIS, but the group Secure America Now is also using the footage in their own political advertisements.

The conservative group used the footage as part of multiple campaigns meant to target vulnerable Democratic senators throughout the country.  One ad meant to target Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), features the footage of Foley with a voice over saying, according to the Hill, “While radical Islamists threaten to attack America, and millions cross our border undetected, President Obama and Sen. Shaheen have done nothing.” 

John and Diane Foley, the parents of James, have come out against the use of their son’s final moments for advertisement purposes.  “I think it is deplorable, and I think it should be taken down,” said John Foley, according to Politicus USA.  Diane also commented on the ad saying, “It makes me very sad that people would use the brutality of our son’s death for their own political purposes.”

The head of Secure America Now, Allen Roth, originally defended the use of the footage for the group’s political ads, saying, according to Mediaite, “The image has appeared around the world millions of times… We meant no harm.”

However, after negative publicity from both political parties in New Hampshire and Foley’s parents, the ad was removed from online campaigns in New Hampshire.  Secure American Now released a statement to accompany the removal of the video which reads:

“It has been brought to our attention that a news report image of American hostage James Foley that appeared in a Secure America Now video has upset his parents, so we have decided to take the video down. The purpose of the video was to draw attention to Washington’s failure to secure our borders from real threats by terrorists. That remains our objective and we will continue to engage in this public debate.”

The ad is also reportedly being used in Louisiana, Colorado, and Arkansas to denounce Democratic senators who hold seats in each state.  Whether or not the ads featuring the footage of Foley have been taken down in those states has not yet been confirmed.

International, Politics

Absent leader raises questions from around the globe

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While part of the propaganda machine within North Korea thrives on presenting their country and leader as strong, powerful, and unconquerable, the recent absence of the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has many people asking what is happening with the supreme leader?

The last time Kim was seen in public was at the beginning of September when the leader was seen at a concert with his wife within the “hermit kingdom.”  Since then, Kim has missed several high profile events, according to Chron, and the absence of Kim’s media presence has led many to speculate on his disappearance.

One theory is the leader has been ousted from power by way of a coup, and an image showing a bloody Kim being seemingly dragged out of a hallway was said to be “evidence.”  However, this theory was proven false as the urban legend and rumour website Snopes pointed out the image in question was a near identical photo to one captured a few years ago while Kim visited a unit of the Korean People’s Army.

Health problems are a more plausible explanation for the leader’s absence, but what kind of health problems?

Gout, diabetes, a heart ailment, mental illness, a leg injury, and a brain hemorrhage, are all reasons people have said Kim has been absent, but none are confirmed. One North Korean lawmaker even asked Amd. Choi Yoon-hee, the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in North Korea, if Kim was brain dead.  Choi promptly said there were no problems with Kim “severe enough to disrupt his status as ruler of the country.”

In fact, North Korea’s UN ambassador, Hyan Hak Bong, told the BBC Kim was healthy and there was no reason to worry about his health, despite North Korean media reports in early September saying Kim was suffering “discomfort.”

While the world is questioning Kim’s absence from the media, Scott Snyder, an expert on Korea who has been working with the Council on Foreign Relations, says the cult of personality established within the country is so strong, “the people feel Kim’s presence even when he is absent.”

Kim currently has no known heir, and the line of succession has followed the Kim family since Kim Il-sung ceased power in 1948.  This has led some to say Kim is indeed ill and his sister, Kim Yo-jong, has been acting with Kim’s voice.

What is strange though is in Kim’s absence, a three-man delegation was sent to Seoul, accompanied by a personal message to South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye, with the intention of opening North-South dialogue.  So if Kim is currently unable to make decisions from health ailments, or is incapacitated in some way, who is trying to open these dialogues?

Featured, Politics, Swann TV, US, Videos

Ben Swann on Jay Carney’s Move To CNN, “He’s A Propagandist”

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Ben Swann appeared on RT show “In The Now”, Thursday to talk about the move by former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney to his new job as political analyst for CNN.

Swann explained that Carney’s role is no different at CNN than it was at the White House, claiming that the only difference now is that Carney isn’t wearing a tie. When asked why CNN would hire Carney, Swann replied,

“Why would Fox hire Dana Perino, why would MSNBC hire David Axelrod? (MSNBC also hired former Obama Press Secretary Robert Gibbs) They hire these guys because they fit the political agenda. The network thinks, ‘Here is someone who has lots of contacts, someone who has lots of access and they will be able to get us exclusive stories and be able to bring us fresh insight and they have a hint of celebrity to them.”

Swann goes on to explain that while there is nothing unethical about hiring former press secretaries, cable channels and news networks should not pretend that these people are journalists.

“In reality, they are just propagandists. That’s what they do in their official capacity while working for the White House and that is what they transfer (to a news network) to do. Look, its not about hating on these guys for taking these positions but they are not journalists. Jay Carney was at one time a journalist but he gave that up when he went to work for the White House.”

Carney joins a long line of press secretaries to move into network news. Carney’s predecessor Robert Gibbs joined MSNBC as a contributor immediately after resigning his post as President Obama’s Press Secretary. George W. Bush‘s press secretary Dana Perino now hosts “The Five” on Fox News. Bush’s two other press secretaries Ari Fleischer and the late Tony Snow, each joined CNN following their White House runs. Former Clinton press secretary Dee Dee Myers hosted CNBC’s “Equal Time” following her White House stint.