Fake Nooze

BRT has channeled Network and George Orwell ad nauseam as both sources spoke truth to power in ways not even contemplated in today's frenzy over fake news and the mainline press who portend to "know" the truth based on unsubstantiated and anonymous "sources" who tell us rubes where fake news comes from and how to "combat" it when one faces it.

On Wednesday, U.S. congressional negotiators approved $160 million to combat what they deem foreign propaganda and the alleged Russian campaign to spread “fake news.” The measure is part of the National Defense Authorization Act and gives the State Department the power to identify “propaganda” and counter it.

This bipartisan stampede into an Orwellian future for the American people and the world’s population follows a shoddily sourced Washington Post article that relied on a new anonymous group (propornot) that identified some 200 Internet sites, including some of the most prominent American independent sources of news, as part of a Russian propaganda network.

Typical of this new McCarthyism, the report lacked evidence that any such network actually exists but instead targeted cases where American journalists expressed skepticism about claims from Western officialdom.

Consortiumnews.com was included on the list apparently because we have critically analyzed some of the claims and allegations regarding the crises in Syria and Ukraine, rather than simply accept the dominant Western “group thinks.”

Also on the “black list” were such quality journalism sites as Counterpunch, Truth-out, Truthdig, Naked Capitalism and ZeroHedge along with many political sites ranging across the ideological spectrum.

Yours truly checked out propornot and Robert Perry is right, no verification regarding the sites purported to be purveyors of fake news is given other then copious bloviation, which means slander becomes a viable response to environments as questionable as this.