Leaks are Real - News is Fake

haymarket · Feb 19, 2017

Thoreau72 said:
Advancing a propaganda agenda based upon an untruth might very well be compared to Trump's assertions, though IMO in that specific case about Trump's rantings about the election, I cannot discern the propaganda agenda. More likely it's just the musings of a pathological liar, similar to Dubya's crazy talk.

I would offer that the propaganda agenda is Trump trying to pretend he has some great mandate to go forth and do great things by trumpeting this great EC margin.... which is false.

An example of a propaganda agenda would be the notion that the Global War On Terror is very real and legitimate, and that all Americans should be, therefore, very afraid. Fear mongering is a propaganda agenda based upon numerous untruths and staged events. The role the media plays is crucial, and Scott Pelley contributed mightily, on TV, as the San Bernardino story broke. He did that by completely ignoring and brushing away very compelling testimony by witnesses present at the event. He explained his dismissal by saying "but the authorities have told us that it was a man and his wife", about as plain a demonstration of fake news and boot-licking as one could perform

Reports from the scene as story breaks - especially one using violence or terrorism or both - are often the least dependable and I would suggest we all have learned that by this point - including t hem media themselves. Over and over again we hear about multiple shooters when it turns out there is but a single shooter and the media points out that different individual reports led to that mistake.

I really cannot speak to your criticism about Pelley and San Bernadino with the husband and wife issue. Your recollection and knowledge about this event is far better than mine so I will not venture into those specifics.

Thoreau72 · Feb 19, 2017

haymarket said:
I would offer that the propaganda agenda is Trump trying to pretend he has some great mandate to go forth and do great things by trumpeting this great EC margin.... which is false.

I agree with your first sentence.

And in general terms, I do understand your statement regarding the statements of eye witnesses.

In that case however, several eye witnesses, not related in any way, corroborated what Pelley so quickly dismissed.

And for the thread topic, Pelley's quick dismissal of apparent facts, IN FAVOR OF "the authorities have told us thus-and-so" goes right to the heart of the matter of fake news and advancing an agenda by way of untrue or incomplete stories. Sad to report, at the management and editorial level, today's media is but a government lap dog.

And I screwed up with the software here, so part of your post is missing.