Saturday, July 21, 2012

Journalism v. Propaganda

Journalism v. propaganda
The US and Israel blame Iran for the suicide attack in Bulgaria, but offer no evidence for the accusation

BY GLENN GREENWALD

 Glenn Greenwald noticed the same thing I did. That America's media immediately took up the cry that this was Iran, and that they did so based on no facts whatsoever .... only that PM Netanyahu and later the US Gov said it was so.

Neither is exactly a reliable source. Anyone remember Iraq WMDs? Or that portions of the US Gov have been saying that Iran is developing nuclear weapons when the IAEA, US intelligence and most of the intelligence agencies in the world have been saying they have not been for nearly a decade now.

Shouldn't journalists ask for some proof? Or maybe talk to the authorities in Bulgaria where this happened and see what they say?
"...even though the Bulgarian Foreign Minister said: “We’re not pointing the finger in any direction until we know what happened and complete our investigation.” All The Paper of Record knows is that U.S. and Israeli officials have blamed Iran and Hezbollah, and — as usual — that’s good enough for them. Identified, Confirmed and Corroborated."

This is no longer journalism.  Which means no sensible or thinking person should be paying any attention to it.  If you want to understand the world, the first thing to do is to stop reading the NYT or paying attention to any other news source that tells you this.  If you do, then in order to really understand the world, you have to be able fact-check what they tell you and get the lies, like that Iran is surely behind this, out of your head.  Its easier just to pay no attention at all to this junk.

Use this is as a test.  Right now, if any news source tells you that Iran is behind this, without any real, tangible proof what-so-ever, then you should stop paying any attention to what they say.

Do I know if Iran was behind this?  No.  Do I know that Iran was not behind this?  No.  What I know is that there are no facts available yet.  So anyone who's telling you either statement is feeding you BS.

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