Distortion, Fabrication, and Falsification in the Financial Press

Written on November 5th, 2015 in comment, politics Comments Off

… Western Mainstream Extremism – Published on Dissident Voice, by James Petras, Nov 3, 2015.

With the collapse of the Communist countries in the 1990s and their conversion to capitalism, followed by the advent of neo-liberal regimes throughout most of Latin America, Asia, Europe, and North America, the imperial regimes in the US and EU have established a new political spectrum, in which the standards of acceptability narrowed and the definition of adversaries expanded … //

  • … The ‘Media Troika’: the Financial Press and Political Warfare:
    The major financial newspapers of record in the United States have played a key role in disseminating the post-communist political line regarding what are acceptable capitalist policies: The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the New York Times (NYT), and the Financial Times (FT) – the ‘Troika’ – have systematically engaged in political warfare acting as virtual propaganda arms of the US and EU imperialist governments in their attempts to impose and/or maintain vassal state status on countries and economies, ‘regulated’ according to the needs of Western financial institutions … //
  • … The Troika’s Targeted Regimes: Trumpeting Their Sins and Denying Their Successes: … //
  • … The Troika Maligns Russia: … //
  • … // (plus many) …

… Conclusion:

The Troika: the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and the Financial Times have repeatedly made false prognoses regarding the economic performances of governments targeted for ‘regime change’. Their economic predictions were repeatedly wrong and their readers among the investor public would have lost their shirts if they had taken their cues from the Troika’s editorial pages and bet ‘short’ against China and the rest.

Their perverse denunciations of Russian and Chinese military defense activities are sharpening world tensions. Their support for ethnic separatists in the Russian Caucuses and western China has encouraged acts of terrorism leading to the deaths of hundreds of Chinese workers murdered by Uighur and Tibetan terrorists, hundreds of Russians at hands of Chechen terrorists and thousands of Russian-speakers in Ukraine’s Donbas region.

The Troika cannot be relied on for reliable information, especially regarding the economic, political and foreign policies of US and EU adversaries (those targets for ‘Regime change’).

At most their polemical screeds give the discerning reader an insight into the propaganda line promoted by the Western powers.

Moreover in recent times, the Troika has become even more strident and militaristic than the ruling elites. The Troika’s armchair generals mocked Obama for not sending ground troops into Syria; chastised the US and EU for signing the nuclear agreements with Iran; and embraced Israel’s systematic murder of Palestinians.

Unreliable and more given to strident invective than reporting the facts in a balanced way, the Troika has lost credibility for intelligent, serious readers who strain to ‘read between the lines’ when they write that a government is ‘unpopular’ during elections. More likely than not, the incumbents sweep the elections and retain popular majorities as has been the case so far in Russia, Argentina, Venezuela and elsewhere.

If and when the Troika succeeds in promoting more wars, as it has been doing in Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia, each and every militaristic adventure will lead to economic and social disasters spawning millions more refugees.

When imperial governments, like England, adopt conciliatory policies toward China, eschewing zero sum confrontations, in favor of win-win cooperation, the Troika’s armchair generals are sure to mock and accuse the conservative government of ‘kowtowing’ to authoritarians – dismissing the $30 billion dollar investment deals.

The Troika has gone far beyond its earlier role of presenting the line of imperial regimes. They now march, rather independently, to the military drum of real and imagined nuclear warriors and terrorists. Welcome to the “free press” and the ‘lies of our Times’!

(full long text).

(James Petras is author of Extractive Imperialism in the Americas: Capitalism’s New Frontier (30 Nov 2015) (with Henry Veltmeyer) and The Politics of Empire: The US, Israel and the Middle East (2014). Read other articles by James, or visit James’s website).

Links:

Hotspots: Europe debates Initial Reception Centers for Refugees, on Spiegel Online International, by Peter Müller in Brussels, Nov 3, 2015: Angela Merkel is hoping that a proposal for more reception centers in areas where refugees land at Europe’s external borders will ease the influx into Germany. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely to happen anytime soon. Jean Asselborn generally views the world through the sober lens of a diplomat. The Luxembourg politician is one of Europe’s longest-serving foreign ministers and his country currently holds the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union. A short while ago, however, during a visit to the Greek island of Lesbos, Asselborn lost his composure …;

First evidence of elusive ‘ghost particles’ found inside particle accelerator, on Russia Today RT, Nov 3, 2015;

Heute Show 30.10.2015, ganz, 37.49 min, von TheHeuteShow HD am 30. Okt 2015 hochgeladen;

… und noch dies / and this:

  • Spezielle Hypothese zur Flüchtlings-Invasion: Wer steuert die Flüchtlinge *, 51.23 min, von 7777Funki am 12. Okt 2015 hochgeladen;

    • * mentionned in this video – Who steers the refugee track – the hypothesis is: during their track, many refugees receive mobiles (IT provider?). Later, when Europe has to be destabilized, these young bored men are activated for the hidden rainmaker’s goal.

mein Kommentar / my comment:

  • wer mit Verschwörungstheorien umgehen kann, kann Sinn in dieser Behauptung finden. Wer nicht, wird wohl diese Masse junger, bald gelangweilter Männer noch genauer beobachten.
  • who beliefs in conjuration theories may may find sense in this argumentation. Who is not believing this may observe better this crowd of young, soon bored men.

Im Video genannter Artikel / article mentionned:

see also:

classic aristocratic leadership on Google Web-search – resp. – klassische aristokratische Führung auf Google Web-search;

25,000-30,000 foreigners fighting for ISIS – Russian dep. defense minister, on Russia Today RT, Nov 4, 2015;

Ipsokratische Führung – Zukunft der Medien, die klassische Medienbranche verschwindet, auf GDI IMPULS Nr 2, 2013, von Detlef Gürtler, Schweizerisches Institut für Betriebsökonomie SIB, 10 pdf-Seiten: … wer Wirtschaft als Krieg versteht, wird sich keine andere Organisationsform als Hierarchie vorstellen können.

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