Realized this while watching these [1, 2, 3] scenes of Dr. Strangelove. If these videos get deleted, then one of these scenes is at approximately 74 minutes and 30 seconds into the movie. You never get to hear [even a word] or see Dimitri Kissoff, the Soviet Premier. Yet you develop an image of the Premier based on what the US President speaks and the way he reacts. You feel that the Premier drinks excessively, listens to loud music while at work, gets "mad" and "hysterical", and so on [and yet you haven't actually seen or heard the man even once]. The stereotypical image of any Soviet / Russian leader that the US media has carefully implanted in your head - over the decades - quickly gets confirmed, without you ever having seen or heard the man directly.
That's how US media creates tyrants out of normal men. Men who happen to be leaders of nations that are "defiant" to US hegemony. The US media demonizes these men and presents such distorted and twisted images of these men to the public/viewers that stupid Americans/Europeans/Westerners start to believe that these men are so full of evil that they must be annihilated without delay. So they hardly ever show full-length videos of Assad speaking [else you'll get to know the real truth that he's a sensible man and a patriot - whereas it is in reality your own America that is the real monster], and when they do air tiny clips of him, they pick portions and sentences such that the surrounding context gets hidden so that his statements appear evil/devilish without the necessary context [and anything sensible and wise he says is simply not shown]. Same with Saddam and same with the North Korean leader.
Update [10-Mar-20]: Following paragraph in this NYT story is crucial. Alternative link.
"Disputes between intelligence agencies and oversight committees are not unusual. The agencies are frequently reluctant to share direct intercepts of conversations or to allow their individual officers or analysts to provide information directly to the committees. Instead, they prefer to turn over analytical reports that have been reviewed by agency leadership. The committees often press for more raw forms of intelligence."
This practice of only publishing/releasing "processed" analysis rather than raw data is exactly what US media does. Instead of directly airing Assad's interview, for example, they do a news story in which they mix their own allegations, half-truths, lies, spins, and remove vital statements, play with the context, and so on, until a perfectly sensible leader with good judgment and good intentions starts to look like a bloodthirsty tyrant [thus justifying wars].
Update [25-Mar-20]: Donald Trump has effectively solved the above problem by talking directly to the public via Twitter [and Facebook, to a lesser extent], bypassing any middlemen. This has ensured that his unfiltered thoughts/voice/words reach the public without the intermediary "processing" done by the news media complex. This is what other leaders such as Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad need to do, so that the nefarious repackaging/modifications done by Western newspapers are avoided [to some extent].
Update [10-Mar-20]: Following paragraph in this NYT story is crucial. Alternative link.
"Disputes between intelligence agencies and oversight committees are not unusual. The agencies are frequently reluctant to share direct intercepts of conversations or to allow their individual officers or analysts to provide information directly to the committees. Instead, they prefer to turn over analytical reports that have been reviewed by agency leadership. The committees often press for more raw forms of intelligence."
This practice of only publishing/releasing "processed" analysis rather than raw data is exactly what US media does. Instead of directly airing Assad's interview, for example, they do a news story in which they mix their own allegations, half-truths, lies, spins, and remove vital statements, play with the context, and so on, until a perfectly sensible leader with good judgment and good intentions starts to look like a bloodthirsty tyrant [thus justifying wars].
Update [25-Mar-20]: Donald Trump has effectively solved the above problem by talking directly to the public via Twitter [and Facebook, to a lesser extent], bypassing any middlemen. This has ensured that his unfiltered thoughts/voice/words reach the public without the intermediary "processing" done by the news media complex. This is what other leaders such as Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad need to do, so that the nefarious repackaging/modifications done by Western newspapers are avoided [to some extent].
No comments:
Post a Comment