Lies, Damned Lies and the Mainstream Media – Don't Be Fooled

Lies, Damned Lies and the Mainstream Media – Don't Be Fooled

“It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled” Mark Twain For the first time I reached for my Mark Twain book of quotes while I considered the thrust of what I wanted to convey in this column. The truth is what I want to say justifies a book or two rather than a single opinion piece and…

The German Soldiers of World War II: Why They Were the Best, and Why They Still Lost

The German Soldiers of World War II: Why They Were the Best, and Why They Still Lost

The German soldiers of World War II have often been portrayed, both during the war and in the decades since, as simple-minded, unimaginative and brutish. Hollywood movies and popular U.S. television shows have for years contrasted confident, able and “cool” American GIs with slow-witted, cynical and cruel Germans. “Propaganda is an inescapable ingredient of modern…

The US Mainstream Media Prefer Confrontation to Cooperation

The US Mainstream Media Prefer Confrontation to Cooperation

The Washington Post is a noisily anti-Russian newspaper which every weekday by email produces for subscribers (of whom I am one) the Daily 202 (“Power Post — Intelligence for Leaders”) which covers US politics, a little international stuff, and a section called “There’s a Bear in the Woods” aimed at denigrating, belittling and generally insulting Russia. The Post is…

A New Narrative Control Firm Works to Destroy Alternative Media

A New Narrative Control Firm Works to Destroy Alternative Media

The frenzied, hysterical Russia narrative being promoted day in and day out by western mass media has had two of its major stories ripped to shreds in the last three days. A report seeded throughout the mainstream media by anonymous intelligence officials back in September claimed that US government workers in Cuba had suffered concussion-like…

How War Propaganda in the Film Industry Really Works

How War Propaganda in the Film Industry Really Works

As the co-authors of National Security Cinema, we have become known — rather inaccurately — for encouraging two major ideas: 1. That the government is really important in making movies more militaristic. 2. That Hollywood doesn’t produce dissenting films. While the first of these is somewhat true it is a simplification, the second is a falsehood. The…