Noam Chomsky: The Military Is Misunderstood

MEFblog

Published on Mar 12, 2013

Noam Chomsky speaking at the CPE press conference about the myth of free market capitalism in the United States.

Noam Chomsky – Keeping the Poor Frightened

koloneltuesday

Uploaded on Aug 13, 2010

Noam Chomsky lecture at MIT February 15 2004 full video available at http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/182

Propaganda Terms in the Media and What They Mean – Noam Chomsky

The Film Archives

Published on Jun 1, 2012

The United States and the Soviet Union both used propaganda extensively during the Cold War. More Chomsky: https://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=U…

Both sides used film, television, and radio programming to influence their own citizens, each other, and Third World nations. The United States Information Agency operated the Voice of America as an official government station. Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, which were, in part, supported by the Central Intelligence Agency, provided grey propaganda in news and entertainment programs to Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union respectively. The Soviet Union’s official government station, Radio Moscow, broadcast white propaganda, while Radio Peace and Freedom broadcast grey propaganda. Both sides also broadcast black propaganda programs in periods of special crises.

In 1948, the United Kingdom’s Foreign Office created the IRD (Information Research Department), which took over from wartime and slightly post-war departments such as the Ministry of Information and dispensed propaganda via various media such as the BBC and publishing.

The ideological and border dispute between the Soviet Union and People’s Republic of China resulted in a number of cross-border operations. One technique developed during this period was the “backwards transmission,” in which the radio program was recorded and played backwards over the air. (This was done so that messages meant to be received by the other government could be heard, while the average listener could not understand the content of the program.)

When describing life in capitalist countries, in the US in particular, propaganda focused on social issues such as poverty and anti-union action by the government. Workers in capitalist countries were portrayed as “ideologically close”. Propaganda claimed rich people from the US derived their income from weapons manufacturing, and claimed that there was substantial racism or neo-fascism in the US.

When describing life in Communist countries, western propaganda sought to depict an image of a citizenry held captive by governments that brainwash them. The West also created a fear of the East, by depicting an aggressive Soviet Union. In the Americas, Cuba served as a major source and a target of propaganda from both black and white stations operated by the CIA and Cuban exile groups. Radio Habana Cuba, in turn, broadcast original programming, relayed Radio Moscow, and broadcast The Voice of Vietnam as well as alleged confessions from the crew of the USS Pueblo.

George Orwell’s novels Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four are virtual textbooks on the use of propaganda. Though not set in the Soviet Union, these books are about totalitarian regimes that constantly corrupt language for political purposes. These novels were, ironically, used for explicit propaganda. The CIA, for example, secretly commissioned an animated film adaptation of Animal Farm in the 1950s with small changes to the original story to suit its own needs.

The United States and Iraq both employed propaganda during the Iraq War. The United States established campaigns towards the American people on the justifications of the war while using similar tactics to bring down Saddam Hussein’s government in Iraq.

The extent to which the US government was guilty of propaganda aimed at its own people is a matter of discussion. The book Selling Intervention & War by Jon Western argued that president Bush was “selling the war” to the public.

President George W. Bush gave a talk at the Athena Performing Arts Center at Greece Athena Middle and High School Tuesday, May 24, 2005 in Rochester, NY. About half way through the event Bush said, “See in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.”

People had their initial reactions to the War on Terror, but with more biased and persuading information, Iraq as a whole has been negatively targeted. America’s goal was to remove Saddam Hussein’s power in Iraq with allegations of possible weapons of mass destruction related to Osama Bin Laden. Video and picture coverage in the news has shown shocking and disturbing images of torture and other evils being done under the Iraqi Government.

PBS American Experience Rachel Carson

dan alexander

Published on Feb 9, 2017

The pale red dot: colonising Mars and beyond

Oxford Martin School

Streamed live 11 hours ago

The great astronomer Carl Sagan envisaged Earth as a lonely life-raft in the cosmic ocean: a ‘Pale Blue Dot’ carrying all of humanity. However this state leaves us tied to the fate of our planet. To ensure our survival as a species, many advocate becoming interplanetary, colonising and perhaps terraforming other worlds. Join us to debate the feasibility of such an endeavour, to answer the ultimate question: can we — and should we — colonise Mars?

Oxford Martin School,
University of Oxford
www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk

Donald Trump & Theresa May Spell Climate Disaster say UK Protesters

TheRealNews

Published on May 2, 2017

UK protesters demand a million climate jobs, a halt to fracking and divestment from fossil fuels

UN: 1.4 million malnourished children at risk of disease

CGTN Africa

Published on May 2, 2017

The United Nations children’s agency has warned that the severity of drought hit Somalia, will count 1.4 million acutely malnourished children at risk of life threatening diseases by the end of the year, up 50% from late 2016. 275 000 of those children are expected to be so severely malnourished that they could easily die. Unicef spokesperson Marixie Mercad has said such children “are nine times more likely to die of major killers cholera, diarrhoea or measles. The warning comes as Somalia faces the threat of its third famine in 25 years of civil war and anarchy. The dire drought and food situation has forced more than 615 000 people to flee their homes since last November, in a country where 1.1 million people are already internally displaced. The UN has appealed for $720 million to provide aid to Somalia this year, of which it so far has received 415 million dollars. At least 260 000 people died in the 2011 famine in Somalia – half of them children under the age of five.

May Boeve: Rebuilding our Democracy

Climate One

Published on May 2, 2017

With the People’s Climate March as the backdrop, Climate One travelled to Washington DC for the New Political Climate program. 350.org Executive Director, May Boeve discussed her thoughts on rebuilding our democracy in the age of Donald Trump.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse Battles Climate

Climate One

Published on May 2, 2017

With the People’s Climate March as the backdrop, Climate One travelled to Washington DC for the New Political Climate program. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, (D) Rhode Island, talked about the challenges for Congress tackling climate change.

Why Tim DeChristopher Went to Prison for His Protest

Moyers & Company

Published on May 24, 2013

In December 2008, during the closing weeks of the Bush White House, 27-year-old environmental activist Tim DeChristopher went to protest the auction of gas and oil drilling rights to more than 150,000 acres of publicly-owned Utah wilderness. But instead of yelling slogans or waving a sign, DeChristopher disrupted the proceedings by starting to bid. Given an auction paddle designating him “Bidder 70”, DeChristopher won a dozen land leases worth nearly two million dollars. He was arrested for criminal fraud, found guilty, and sentenced to two years in federal prison — even though the new Obama Administration had since declared the oil and gas auction null and void.

DeChristopher — who was released less than a month ago — joins Bill to talk about the necessity of civil disobedience in the fight for justice, how his jury was ordered to place the strict letter of the law over moral conscience, and the future of the environmental movement. Bidder 70, a new documentary chronicling DeChristopher’s legal battle and activism, opened May 17. DeChristopher is co-founder of the grassroots environmental group Peaceful Uprising.