Fear is the key

 

 

‘News’ and ‘politics’ are now only made, only take place on social media, preferably on twitter or the competing ‘telegram’. It seems that there are no journalists left working who’re worthy of this label, i.e. those who were taught to check and re-check what they are reporting about and moreover to separate their opinion from the factual report. 

In the olden days anything which could not be verified independently was simply not reported as ‘news item’. Gossip from ‘sources’ found their way into opinion pieces but were not news. For some years we’ve observed the slow deterioration of proper reporting, of using tweets as ‘material’ for reports. We’ve noticed that more and more often the personal opinion of a writer was mixed into their factual reporting. Certainly writers and journalists have their own political worldview, their opinions, and thus are incapable of writing without bias. But at least in the olden days ordinary readers were able to select between publications which mirrored their own political stances. Not for nothing was the DT known as ‘Torygraph’.

Now the MSM don’t even pretend to be ‘unbiased’, they don’t even pretend to check out the veracity of ‘a story’. During the covid years we’ve become aware that our MSM, across the board, became the propaganda outlets for the government’s, that is SAGE’s, policies. Looking back, this now appears to have been a preliminary exercise which has taught editors and writers to abandon even the pretence of neutrality.

The latest trick, all the way down from ‘news agencies’ to the newsrooms in our MSM, is to publish any tweet and ensuing accusation with the rider ‘we couldn’t verify this independently’. In a court of law this would be inadmissible as ‘hearsay’. In today’s MSM it’s splashed across the front pages anyway, aimed to create ‘a mood’, to stir up emotions. The emotions being stirred this morning are ‘Putin is a barbarian – he uses poison gas’ and thus “we” must do something about this.

I’ve done some detective ‘work’ in order to document how this latest ‘outrage’ has been manufactured. First, see the original tweet, posted yesterday evening, which kicked this off:

“The Azov Regiment reports that about an hour ago #Russian troops used a toxic substance of unknown origin against Ukrainian military and civilians in the city of #Mariupol. The victims suffered from respiratory failure and vestibulo-attack syndrome.” (link)

Later yesterday evening Reuters came with the inevitable utterance from Mr ‘e, calling for ‘moar sanctions’. The title of Reuters’ report is indicative: “Ukraine’s Zelenskiy warns Russia could use chemical weapons, calls for more sanctions” (link). That whole concoction is heaving with quotes from ‘experts’ such as the mayor of Mariupol and the Pentagon press secretary, all carefully saying that they don’t know ‘for sure; that this report is not ‘verified’. I’ll just quote the latter:

“Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said the United States was aware of the reports. “We cannot confirm at this time and will continue to monitor the situation closely,” Kirby said. “These reports, if true, are deeply concerning and reflective of concerns that we have had about Russia’s potential to use a variety of riot control agents, including tear gas mixed with chemical agents, in Ukraine.” (link)

The tenor of these utterances is ‘we might not know if this has taken place, but “Russia = bad”, therefore they could have done it’. In essence, Reuters, by reporting what these personages said, prepares the hymn sheet for the MSM across the west, for this morning’s ‘outrage’.

Next, there’s a report of a tweet by an ‘Ukrainian Lawmaker’ (WTF is a ‘lawmaker’? Why not use ‘MP’ or ‘representative’?) which was picked up by news agencies and then repeated by the MSM, here by DT:

“Ukrainian lawmaker Ivanna Klympush said Russia had used an “unknown substance” in Mariupol and that people were suffering from respiratory failure. “Most likely chem.weapons!” she tweeted.” (paywalled link)

The German paper ‘Die Welt’ has apparently found another tweet, reporting this morning (my emphasis):

”the Azov regiment, which is also fighting in Mariupol, announced on Monday evening that Russian forces had dropped an unknown chemical substance over the city by means of a drone. Initially, there was no confirmation of this from other Ukrainian military sources. Former Azov commander Andryi Bilezkyi reported on Telegram about three people with signs of poisoning.” (paywalled link in German, machine-translated)

Three people with ‘symptoms’? Omigawd, that’s terrible, innit! And finally, here is Miz Truss, dutifully reported in the DT:

“The Foreign Office is trying to verify reports that Russia has used chemical weapons in an attack on the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol, Liz Truss has said. “[…] We are working urgently with partners to verify details,” the Foreign Secretary wrote on Twitter. “Any use of such weapons would be a callous escalation in this conflict and we will hold Putin and his regime to account.” (paywalled link)

I leave it to your imagination how Miz Truss and her civil serpents, how western media will be able to ‘verify’ this claim. After all, Mariupol is occupied by Russian troops, with the exception of the Azovstal factory area where the last Aziv fighters are bunkered up.

I shall refrain from asking why the Russian military would use ‘a chemical substance’ over an area which they occupy and where their troops are fighting. One could of course let one’s imagination free rein and claim these troops must have been given an antidote. Also, this ‘news’ is nicely indicative of the ‘inept Russian military’: their ‘chemical attack’ only affected three people.

All this outpour of outrage, this manufacture of yet another narrative of ‘we must fight against the barbarian Putin’ might perhaps only be about filling spaces in the tedious news reports about ‘brave Ukraine’. It might on the other hand be used to prepare ‘public opinion’ to defend any subsequent chemical attacks by those ‘Ukrainian heroes’ on the civilian population. There were numerous reports from the Russian Ministry of defence on how Ukrainian military have mined chemical industrial complexes in order to release noxious substances affecting the towns and villages from which the retreat.

Of course, not only do “we” not believe a word any Russian says, “we” don’t even look at their sites or twitter accounts, or rather: we’re prevented from doing so thanks to our benevolent government which wants to save us from noxious propaganda. Certainly Miz Truss won’t contact Mr Lavrov to as for clarification.

Meanwhile, nothing else has happened in the world worthy of reports and articles in our MSM. There’s another case of blatant robbery of Russian property in Poland (link), regardless of consequences (link). There’s Pakistan where Imram Khan has been deposed thanks, allegedly, to US meddling (link). For an overview of more US political meddling, there’s this article In Indian Punchline under the title “Asian fault lines of Biden’s war on Russia” (link). All that is of no interest to our MSM who are addicted to a daily dose of ‘Mr ‘e sez …’

Forgive me for going on at length about this profound journalistic failure. It’s no longer another reason for why we don’t believe a word the MSM and by extension the government are saying. These ‘news’ might be the precursor to prepare us for our military engagement in the Ukraine: ‘boots on the ground’.

Not even during the first covid lockdown have I felt so helpless in the face of blatant government manipulation.

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