Orwellian Glossary

Michael Greenwell has some lovely definitions in his guide to political Newspeak.

Multiculturalism - respecting the symbols, values and idiosyncrasies of all colours, creeds and religions - provided that is, that they can be co-opted into a neoliberal economic order and packaged in plastic and sold off. If it is not possible to do this then the adherents of whichever ideology it is must be considered to be “depraved opponents of civilisation itself.”

Hearts And Minds - These days we are often told that the battle for “hearts and minds” is more important than the physical battle with weapons. This seems a little confusing - presumably the western armies are hoping to pick up the pieces of these hearts and minds from the towns and villages where they have blown them up? Any other explanation seems unlikely, as it is difficult to convince people of your good intentions when you are bombing them.

Or perhaps it relates to what Chuck Colson, former aide to Richard Nixon said, “When you’ve got them by the balls their hearts and minds will follow”.

Check out the full piece: Politician-Speak Translated

The Chimeric Debate

The comments on Craig Murray's excellent blog are always worth reading. Here's one which chimes with my thoughts:

"I have to say that I find it frustrating that the discussion continues, even on your blog, into the whys and wherefores of terrorism. This is exactly as designed, and the longer it goes on the further we will be from the truth. There is no solution to the problem being discussed because it is a chimera, that was created to justify all the murder, looting and tightening of security."

Source: Craig Murray post

Indeed, the debate continues to be manipulated.

Operation Hollywood Brainwashing

"If you think of propaganda Lassie is not the first thing that springs to mind. Nevertheless, over the years, Lassie and hundreds of other TV shows and movies have been made with assistance and/or script ‘advice’ from the US government.

"Operation Hollywood was from the CBC’s passionate eye programme. It centres on the book of the same name by Dave Robb, who was an investigative reporter for a Hollywood trade paper. He began to look through some of the documents detailing the various involvements of the US government in the movie industry and was astonished by the depth of the collaboration.

"He runs through a list of films. See if you can spot a pattern…
Military Assistance:
Top Gun; Patton; Pearl Harbour

No Assistance:

Full Metal Jacket; Platoon; Three Kings"

Read: Operation Hollywood and the Pentagon

Lacing the Media with Messages

'Relying heavily upon established circles of contacts within the nation's media elites, Dulles recruited key members of the media to work directly for the CIA under Operation Mockingbird. Mockingbird was a psychological information campaign against the American people. In a campaign that would lead to acceptance of blanket secrecy for "national security", "the Red Scare" became the excuse for spending vast sums of money on weapons systems and an increase in covert operations both in foreign countries and within the United States. In the 1950s and 1960s, movies, news articles, books, radio and television programs were carefully laced with anti-communist messages and images designed to produce an acceptance of the policies being promoted by the defense elite's propaganda machine.

"Among the executives who lent their cooperation to the Agency were William Paley of the Columbia Broadcasting System, Henry Luce of Time Inc., Arthur Hays Sulzberger of the New York Times, Barry Bingham Sr. of the Louisville Courier-Journal and James Copley of the Copley News Service. Other organizations which cooperated with the CIA include the Associated Press, United Press International, Reuters, Hearst Newspapers, Scripps-Howard, Newsweek magazine, the Mutual Broadcasting System, The Miami Herald, and the old Saturday Evening Post and New York Herald-Tribune. By far the most valuable of these associations, according to CIA officials, have been with The New York Times, CBS, and Time Inc."'

"The CIA and the Media", Carl Bernstein, Rolling Stone, Oct 20 1977

From: Project Censored: US Electromagnetic Weapons and Human Rights (pdf file)

US Ministry of Propaganda

The U.S. has previously admitted that it is running a campaign to plant fake news stories and articles in Iraqi papers in an effort to improve its tarnished image in the country...

"Economic and media globalization, however, have shrunk the planet in ways that blur the distinction between foreign and domestic propaganda. This has been acknowledged in the U.S. Defense Department's Information Operations Roadmap, a 74-page document approved in 2003 by Donald Rumsfeld. It noted that "information intended for foreign audiences, including public diplomacy and PSYOP [psychological operations], increasingly is consumed by our domestic audience and vice-versa. PSYOP messages disseminated to any audience... will often be replayed by the news media for much larger audiences, including the American public."

"...You can't be creating a model for democracy while subverting one of its core principles, a free independent press." When the program was exposed, government officials responded with contradictory statements. The White House denied any knowledge of the program, and Donald Rumsfeld said at first that it was "troubling..."

Rumsfeld's Fake News Flop in Iraq

Fake News Stories on TV

Federal authorities are actively investigating dozens of American television stations for broadcasting items produced by the Bush administration and major corporations, and passing them off as normal news…

Investigators from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are seeking information about stations across the country after a report produced by a campaign group detailed the extraordinary extent of the use of such items.

The report, by the non-profit group Centre for Media and Democracy, found that over a 10-month period at least 77 television stations were making use of the faux news broadcasts, known as Video News Releases (VNRs). Not one told viewers who had produced the items.

Bush 'planted fake news stories on American TV'

Not thinking

'The proles are not human beings,' he said carelessly. 'By 2050 – earlier, probably – all real knowledge of Oldspeak will have disappeared. Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Byron – they'll exist only in Newspeak versions, not merely changed into something different, but actually changed into something contradictory of what they used to be. Even the literature of the Party will change. Even the slogans will change. How could you have a slogan like "freedom is slavery" when the concept of freedom has been abolished? The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact there will be no thought, as we understand it now. Orthodoxy means not thinking – not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.'