griz wrote:U.S. public distrust of the mainstream media, or MSM, is now so great that the more they attacked Donald Trump during the presidential election, the more his credibility and popularity grew, retired Canadian diplomat Patrick Armstrong told Sputnik.
One of the reasons Trump won was that the more the MSM reviled him, the more support he gained.
“If the liars accuse him of something, he must be innocent of it,” Armstrong explained.
A survey by research firm TNS UK, commissioned by Sputnik and released Thursday, showed that 80 percent of Americans considered domestic media coverage of the 2016 campaign was biased toward one or the other of the major-party nominees.
Armstrong said he believed the 80 percent distrust figure was in reality too low and that an even higher percentage of Americans refused to believe the distortions they were fed through the New York and Washington-based national media.
“Why as few as 80 percent? The bias and general worthlessness of the MSM as a source of information has been apparent for years,” he said.
The corporate controllers of the main US broadcast, print and online media platforms had been certain Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton would win the national election and had rallied to support her, Armstrong explained.
“In this particular case, as Wikileaks shows, the owners of the US media had invested in a Clinton future and the Clintons had invested in the media,” he noted.
The extremely biased and hostile coverage of Trump, Russia and other subjects would continue while the media and its spokespersons would go on denying that such bias even existed, although it was now obvious to everyone, Armstrong predicted.
“The principal difference between [tiny local news outlets like] the Eatanswill Gazette and the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Economist and the rest of them is that the former freely admitted its bias,” he added.
Armstrong advised that the only way the American public could continue to retain its independence of mind in the face of such sustained efforts to politically brainwash it was to abandon the mainstream media entirely and opt for alternative and independent sources.
He also recommended that US colleges close down their schools of journalism that had completely failed to inculcate values and habits of independent thinking and critical analysis in almost all of their graduates.
“What to do? Turn off your TV, cancel your newspaper subscription and let them go bust faster. Oh, and shut down all the ‘journalism degree’ mills,” Armstrong said.
Until his retirement, Armstrong was a Canadian diplomat who was a specialist on the Soviet Union and Russia. He previously served as political counsellor in the Canadian Embassy in Moscow.
It would be hilarious, if it wasn't so sad.
You do realize that Sputnik and Russian Times are important tools in the desinformation campaign Putin uses to further his cause? Remember that there is no free press in Russia. They are telling you exactly what Putin wants them to tell you. They are all toeing the party line. And since Assange went into hiding, he is desperate to not be forgotten while the only new material he has is what the Russians feed him, so he is basically just another mouth piece for Russia these days. Sad. He used to be relevant. Even important. Now he is just Putin's stooge and one of the tools he used to get Trump elected.
Putin's two greatest concerns have been the growing power of Nato and the EU.
He has now succeeded in convincing the Brits to vote for Brexit, thus weakening the EU, and he has managed to get an isolationist president elected in the USA; a president who has no problems with Russia's invasion of Crimea, who talks about scrapping Nato and whose protectionist ideas will weaken the American influence around the world ( specifically, by scrapping the trans-pacific trade agreement, Trump is basically ceding Asia to China).
Not only that, Putin has also managed to get his preferred candidate elected in Moldavia, and the extreme right wing parties he is supporting are gaining traction throughout Europe.
The western nations have been naive, and Putin has taken advantage of our tradition of free press and lack of censorship. He is also using the classical KGB technic of accusing the opponent of what you yourself is doing. Thus he is feeding us tons of lies while insisting that our media is lying. It's classic. And you are buying it hook line and sinker.
It's getting scary, really. In country after country nationalism is rearing its ugly head again.
We thought it was soundly crushed in WW2, but things are beginning to look very much like the 1930's again.
Back then everyone was blaming the Jews for everything, this time it's the Muslims. But other than that...
High unemployment in many European countries. Rising nationalism. An isolationist USA. Increasing distrust in democratic institutions and the media. People yearning for a strong leader. Protectionism. Xenophobia.
We've been down this road before, and it did not end well.
