"Propaganda, the Press, Censorship..." PART 4/5

http://www.democracynow.org
August 07, 2007
Freedom Next Time: Filmmaker & Journalist John Pilger on Propaganda, the Press, Censorship and Resisting the American Empire

"Liberal Democracy is moving toward a form of corporate dictatorship. This is an historic shift, and the media must not be allowed to be its façade, but itself made into a popular, burning issue, and subjected to direct action," said John Pilger. "That great whistleblower Tom Paine warned that if the majority of the people were denied the truth and the ideas of truth, it was time to storm what he called the Bastille of words. That time is now." We spend the hour airing a recent lecture by the acclaimed Australian filmmaker and muckraker.


When Rupert Murdoch won his bid to take over Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal last week, the Australian media baron brought one of America's oldest, most respected and widely circulated newspapers into his vast media empire. Murdoch's News Corp media conglomerate owns more than 175 other newspapers as well as the Fox Television network, 21st Century Fox film studios, several satellite networks, MySpace.com, HarperCollins, and much more.

Besides amassing a media empire, Murdoch has repeatedly been accused of using his media holdings to advance his political agenda. In 2003, all of Murdoch's 175 newspapers supported the Iraq invasion. He spoke to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in the lead-up to the invasion, some in Blair's inner circle even called him "the 24th member of the [Blair] Cabinet."

After the announcement of the five billion dollar sale, Murdoch told the New York Times that in order for the Wall Street Journal to remain editorially independent it needed to make healthy profits. Murdoch said, "The first road to freedom, is viability."

Well, one of Rupert Murdoch's fellow countrymen, an Australian who also resides in Britain, strongly disagrees. John Pilger--the eminent investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker--is a harsh critic of the corporate media. Pilger began his career in journalism close to half a century ago. He has made over 50 documentaries and is the author of numerous books, his most recent is titled "Freedom Next Time: Resisting the Empire."

Today, we spend the hour with John Pilger talking about journalism, war, propaganda, and silence.

http://www.democracynow.org

Category:

Education

Tags:

• communications
• social
• science
• humanities
• America
• News
• Journalism
• Propaganda
• Press
• Censorship
• Pilger
• Film
• Documentary

[stone1home]

Regrading nuclear weapons, this guy is especially spot on. Wow.

This guy is amazing on the full range of realities.

[lysol420]

Hehe Democracy now should change its name to Humanity now.. :)

[TR41LBL4Z3R]

press 8 reapeatedly and he says shitshitshitshitshitshit

[uncleadolf]

I don't assume America to be any different, but the BBC reports on Afghanistan are totally varnished. We had one whole night of programming last Rememberance Day that told the story of every British soldier killed in Afghanistan. I don't think I've ever heard the name of a single Afghan civilian killed by us on the primetime news.

[uncleadolf]

the UK or US are to Iraq but the Israeli papers do give a less varnished view of the conflicts. Its possible to use the paper's archives to build up a picture of the entire war, and Haaretz particularly reports on decison making at the highest level on a regular basis. For Afghanistan and Iraq, it took the leaked war logs to provide the same kind of picture. And in regards to the situation there now, we are at the mercy of the media who have totally failed to provide a picture of the war.

[uncleadolf]

The boycott motion mentioned was rescinded less than half a year later. For all its faults, Israel has a newspaper like Haaretz which is far more anti-war in its editorals than anything we can read in the UK, except for Robert Fisk. Even the right wing papers like Yedioth do not have the same kind of power parroting as the Western press. The Jerusalem Post does, but is the most right wing paper. Obviously it is in a smaller area and closer to Israel than

[frickadele]

Clinton killed 1 million people... 500 thousand children...in Iraq. By definition...that makes him a "made man." Before being inducted... a potential "made man"... is required to carry out a contract killing... thus, murders committed for person reasons... don't count. 1 million dead makes clinton... in future brainwashed text books.... Clinton the Great. History is always written by the hoods.