The Intercept's Glenn Greenwald recently called out the US media over their attempts to delegitimize journalists and investigative reporters who seek to go outside the mainstream's structure and only refer to their own reporting as "real reporting." Clearly, Greenwald knows the history of propaganda and lies that the US media has been engaged in, especially CNN.
Greenwald, who worked closely with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden to expose illegal domestic spying done by the US government, took to Twitter in a series of tweets to point out how the media seeks to propagandize the people concerning US wars.
"One of the favorite phrases the US media loves to recite to justify and elevate what they do, and to delegitimize their critics and those who do journalism outside of their structures, is 'real reporting,'" he tweeted.
"The role of the US media, as always with US wars, has been to suppress, ignore, justify, or propagandize," he added.
https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1039834989075025921
- ggreenwald
That's not all, he went on to present evidence from the media itself as to how it engages in such actions as they cover for the US continuing to assist Saudi Arabia in attacks on Yemen, including an attack on a bus by US-Saudi coalition that killed 40 children.
In doing so, Greenwald posted a clip of Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) on CNN in which he attempted to stop the US from supplying Saudi Arabia in 2016 with bombs and other weapons it was using to attack Yemen. Then pay attention to CIA-controlled puppet Wolf Blitzer attack him for why that was a bad and radical idea.
"In the scheme of deciding who is good and who is bad: what weight do we give to those who assisted the Saudis in destroying Yemen and creating one of the world's worst humanitarian crises versus those who tried to stop that? What role has the heroic US media played in this?" Greenwald asked.
https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1039833844667572224
- ggreenwald
Tyler Durden adds to this:
It is indeed a stunning piece of cable news history that rivals Madeleine Albright's infamous words during a 1996 60 Minutes appearance where she calmly and coldly proclaimed of 500,000 dead Iraqi children that "the price is worth it".Now, to be quite honest, I'm not a huge fan of Greenwald, but on this subject and on the exposing of our government's unlawful surveillance of its own people, he is spot on and we know for a fact that our media is engaged constantly in propaganda.As part of the clip that Greenwald resurrected from internet obscurity, CNN's Wolf Blitzer railed against Senator Paul's opposition to a proposed $1.1 billion US arms sale to Saudi Arabia by arguing that slaughter of Yemeni civilians was "worth it" so long as it benefits US jobs and defense contractors.
At the time of the 2016 CNN interview, Saudi Arabia with the help of its regional and Western allies — notably the U.S. and Britain — had been bombing Yemen for a year-and-a-half, and as the United Nationsnoted, the Saudi coalition had been responsible for the majority of the war's (at that point) 10,000 mostly civilian deaths.
Greenwald's epic rant against a media mainstream establishment for which this kind of exchange tends to occur during those rare moments a 'contrarian' thinker is actually invited on a major network began as follows:
Many people have strong opinions about which TV hosts you are and are not allowed to be interviewed by. The CNN personality who suggested that the US should continue to arm the Saudis to destroy Yemen to maximize defense industry profits - Wolf Blitzer - is on the "allowed" list.In the scheme of deciding who is good and who is bad: what weight do we give to those who assisted the Saudis in destroying Yemen and creating one of the world's worst humanitarian crises versus those who tried to stop that? What role has the heroic US media played in this?
He continued to unpack the role of US media in deciding "who is good and who is bad" for the American public:Beyond Rand Paul (R-KY) one of the other few consistent voices in Washington objecting to the US/UK/Saudi destruction of Yemen since it began in 2015 is Chris Murphy (D-CT). The role of the US media, as always with US wars, has been to suppress, ignore, justify, or propagandize.And who is on the mainstream media's "allowed list" which by design bestows automatic legitimacy on "real reporting" while simultaneously keeping critics outside mainstream and prominent platforms?Greenwald explicates and defines these terms as follows:
One of the favorite phrases the US media loves to recite to justify and elevate what they do, and to delegitimize their critics and those who do journalism outside of their structures, is "real reporting." There's never a discussion of what they mean by that. There should be.Many people have strong opinions about which TV hosts you are and are not allowed to be interviewed by. The CNN personality who suggested that the US should continue to arm the Saudis to destroy Yemen to maximize defense industry profits - Wolf Blitzer - is on the "allowed" list.
I previously wrote on the fact that the US legalized propaganda being used on the American people. Greenwald is right in his assessment and unless you are completely blinded by some party loyalty, which I realize many are, you will see the truth of what he is saying.