There is already a serious problem in modern discourse with the term “independent media,” a phrase commonly defined as any media outlet, no matter how big an empire it is, that is not owned or funded by the state (as if that is the only form of dependence or control to which media is subject). But even at this extremely low bar, all these outlets fail. Indeed, Weimers’ warning underlines the fact that none of them are independent in any meaningful way. They are, in fact, completely dependent on USAID for their very existence.
Not only that, but some USAID-backed journalists candidly admit that their funding dictates their output and what stories they do and do not cover. Leila Bicakcic, CEO of Center for Investigative Reporting (a USAID-supported Bosnian organization), admitted, on camera, that “If you are funded by the U.S. government, there are certain topics that you would simply not go after, because the U.S. government has its interests that are above all others.”
While USAID specifically targets foreign audiences, much of its messaging comes back to America, as those foreign outlets are used as credible, independent, and reliable sources for newspapers or cable news networks to cite. Thus, its bankrolling of foreign media ends up flooding domestic audiences with pro-U.S. messaging as well.
American soft power has been crippled worldwide. You really have to ask yourself when the moderators of Wikipedia are going to go ahead and edit the Cold War page.
People have been joking about fake as hell NGOs being used for espionage and misinformation for decades, but its weird they they’re actually throwing away their leverage across the board.
Unless they plan to just move the funding to another organization like the CIA.
“any media outlet, no matter how big an empire it is, that is not owned or funded by the state” is not the common definition of “independent media” (it’s not even the definition given in the hyperlinked definition). “Independence” in this context refers to journalistic independence.
the only media i care about is people or outlets supported by small donations from regular people & lots of transparency about their sources. if otherwise, they can go fuck off
i love mintpressnews. their links were and probably still are banned on facebook and instagram and probably more places. the great firewall of the US is too good
Their links are banned on .world as well.
.stormfront Putting the Fed in fediverse as always.
I wonder if they’re really that stupid to give up this super-efficient means of soft power over some progressive things they’ve done or intentionally handing influence in parts of the world to Russia for a bit of money for themselves while taking a calculated risk of maybe having to retake control militarily (which is more costly but could be a problem for the next admin).
Part of the problem is that sufficient wealth seems to destroy people’s understanding of consequence. They don’t experience them very often, and so reach a point where they can simply pursue whatever their feelings tell them to do and the world magically restructures itself to allow them to do so.
Combine this with how the incentives of the social system result in the people who are most likely to pursue a selfish course being the most financially successful- you get a recipe for short-sighted, ignorant and self-important nonsense.
Trump is a Russian agent. It immediately explains everything he does.
It’s never a good idea to confuse shared class interests with a wacky conspiracy theory.
Based if true! Death to Amerikkka!
If Trump is indeed a Russian agent, why not make him use the soft power to actually help shift the narrative in favor of Russia?
The Russians aren’t stupid enough to rely on and big-mouthed idiot like Trump.
An American in America does something stupid in a deeply American way:
BlueAnon liberals: “this is clearly the fault of foreigners!”
It’s hard for me to believe that Occam’s Razor applies here. It’s hard for me to believe that someone this stupid can become president and think he’s doing something good for America.
So he became president to do something bad to America, and he does it in the way Putin says to.
It’s hard for me to believe that Occam’s Razor applies here. It’s hard for me to believe
LOL! Occam’s Razor is a universal principle, it applies everywhere. Ohhh but, “it’s hard for you to believe”, never mind then, clearly let’s just reject all reason.
So he became president to do something bad to America, and he does it in the way Putin says to.
Amazing how shitlibs have decided to create their own version of Qanon.
Ok buddy dude
“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.”
- Jean-Paul Sartre
Russia isnt that big or powerful, and is much less so today than 2 years ago.
While it is true that the tail doesn’t wag the dog, it’s false to claim Russia isn’t big and is shrinking.
In terms of GDP PPP it’s the 4th biggest economy in the entire world, bigger than Japan. The war has put a dent in their European exports but domestic markets are booming.
It doesn’t explain his anti-China stance. China is an important economic and civic partner with Russia, it’s a very strong relationship.
It does when you realize that China isn’t Russia’s partner, it’s the dishonest business partner you do business with when you have no other options
Racism.
What? China is the largest trading partner for the great majority of the world. It’s the partner of first resort.
- Wall Street Journal: Mueller Doesn’t Find Trump Campaign Conspired With Russia
- Jacobin: Democrats and Mainstream Media Were the Real Kremlin Assets
- Washington Post: Russian trolls on Twitter had little influence on 2016 voters
- Jacobin: It Turns Out Hillary Clinton, Not Russian Bots, Lost the 2016 Election
- Matt Taibbi: Move Over, Jayson Blair: Meet Hamilton 68, the New King of Media Fraud The Twitter Files reveal that one of the most common news sources of the Trump era was a scam, making ordinary American political conversations look like Russian spywork
- Jacobin: Why the Twitter Files Are in Fact a Big Deal On the Left, there’s been a temptation to dismiss the revelations about Twitter’s internal censorship system that have emerged from the so-called Twitter Files project. But that would be a mistake: the news is important and the details are alarming.
- MSNBC Repeats Hamilton 68 Lies 279 Times in 11 Minutes
- Matt Taibbi: WMD, Part II: CIA “Cooked The Intelligence” To Hide That Russia Favored Clinton, Not Trump In 2016
- Chris Hedges: Why Russiagate Won’t Go Away
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BlueMAGA sure love their homophobia
Explain why you can’t help but make homophobic remarks that I have to remove then.
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So let’s assume a man sucking a cock as an insult isn’t homophobic, so is being active in sex bad?
You can criticize people without mocking the world’s oldest profession. You can criticize people without calling them a cocksucker.
It’s also framed in a misogynistic manner, even though both parties are men the whole reason it can be seen as insulting is by alluding to shame for subservient sexual actions traditionally used to reinforce gender roles.
Nothing wrong with oral, or with consensual subservience in bed, so therefore it must draw on historical shame to be insulting, just like using “gay” as an insult even though there’s nothing wrong with that either.
This was an incredible read. All the liberal media lamenting the loss of USAID, but an estimated 90% of the funds were actually used to further CIA goals. Crazy. 10/10 would read again.
now read their articles on tiktok, twitter, facebook, etc
Though I’m sure some of them will find new funding through whatever new channels the Trump administration builds.
Hilarious photo!
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If USAID appears as horrific to the general public, and not really news for many people with a critical mind, just imagine what its proposed replacement will be like under Trump.
Not too many administrations ago a USAF intelligence organization was formed directly under presidential supervision as chief, and came into contradiction with NSA/CIA. Then there was HSA which had a green light by past administrations to violate the constitution at will and simply blanket any enemy as a national security matter.
Of all those corporate/state tools against humanity and rights, USAID has outlived its purpose. But don’t get too happy, they are just burying it in a good moment to start clean, without historic responsibilities carried on.
At least the whole world knows that trump is a raving lunatic, incapable of honesty, empathy and integrity. Invoking his name to justify sleazy propaganda perpetrated by others doesn’t wash
Doesn’t every government do this?
No? You’re not going to find a huge network of propaganda outlets funded by New Zealand, or Botswana, or Ireland, etc.
Not America, the greatest country in the world according to Lemmy.world, at least they must think that to always uncritically consume their propaganda.
I don’t usually look at which instance a news article comes from, but in lemmy world I can tell it’s them by the comments. They are a little creepy.
.world is if the white dudes from get out had their own instance.
I used to think people who used the phrase “blue maga” were trolling a little bit, but that’s what they are politically over there. Joe Biden was the only candidate who could win, even when it was obvious that he has dementia or something.
Yeah but this is a pick on the US post, and that thinking ruins their narrative.
Only one country has over 800+ external military bases. The rest of the world combined only has ~20.
The US is easily the most evil country in world history.
It’s more that as the World Hegemon, the US’ propaganda network is far more extensive and developed, and defunding USAID is exposing that side.
Yeah sadly the consolidated the more nefarious regime change part into the state department.
Pick on the US? Lmao oh no, the poor widdle fascist empire. Leave the Nazis alone.
All for-profit media is state run.
That’s dactuslle innacurate
That’s factually inaccurate.
It doesn’t matter how many times people post stuff like this, Mint Press News is no more credible than One America News. The only real difference is that one is pushing propaganda from the left (-ish, since Russia ain’t exactly left), and the other is pushing propaganda from the right.
According to whom, Media Bias/Fact Check? According to Ad Fontes Media’s horseshoe theory of journalism?
Mint Press is at least as credible as anything coming from the big news agencies, none of which ever mention the 1.6 billion earmarked for anti-China propaganda alone.
at least as? it’s at least a million percent more credible. US media is ALL controlled by the CIA.
And those not directly controlled are coerced into subservience by the knowledge of what they did to Gary Webb, Julian Assange, and thousands upon thousands of others.
Are you saying the claims made in the article are lies?
They’re saying they desperately need a reason not to read.
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To quote a bit of context from your link:
MintPress News supported former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, and the governments of Russia and Iran. It opposes the governments of Israel and Saudi Arabia, and reports geopolitical events from an anti-Western perspective.[6] In one contentious article, MintPress News asserted that the Ghouta chemical attack in Syria was perpetrated by rebel groups rather than by the Syrian government, a claim pushed by the Russian and Syrian governments and rejected by much of the international community.[4]
MintPress News was a major media domain that spread disinformation about the White Helmets, a Syrian volunteer organization.[7] The site has been accused of regularly publishing pro-Russian propaganda,[8] and has been described as a conspiratorial website by media studies and disinformation scholars.[9][10]
MintPress News is headquartered in Minnesota, where it operated one office location until 2014.
People will link to wikipedia listing off banger after banger about how based MintPress is, then try to paint all of the basedness as cringe.
Ah yes, Wikipedia, the shitlib Holy Scripture.
