Agenda screen cap: August 22 2015
Just a brief glimpse of the ongoing narrative creation and control as revealed by the front page of the Guardian.
So, what do we have here?
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1) Despite the spying, illegal wars, torture and support for nazi genocide, Americans are actually heroes; saving Europe from
Muslims“terrorism”. Would this story have been front page if a French shopkeeper or – God forbid – an off-duty Russian soldier had done the deed? We leave it to you to decide. - 2) Latin American people just like killing each other. No need to explore any further than that. Just bank on the headline having the right effect and most readers having little knowledge of the history of US involvement in “bringing democracy” to the region. For those who click, add a little superficial critique of the police and government of El Salvador, devoid of context or detail. Move on.
- 3) If Jeremy Corbyn wins the Labour leadership election it will be a)the end of civilisation as we know it and b)due to “infiltrators” who should therefore not be allowed to vote, because they will do it wrong and don’t hold the right opinions. So charming to see the Graun getting behind the idea that some people/votes are more equal than others. How long until someone suggests these “infiltrators” are all Putinbots?
- 4) Donald Trump is ridiculous and also a safe target. Talk about him and his sometimes ludicrous pronouncements and it gives liberal Graun readers the impression there’s a real ideological divide and debate between him and Clinton, or between Republican and Democrat. They feel reassured that democracy is happening, when of course it is not, and if it ever were to happen the people in charge would do their best to stop it immediately (see above).
- 5) China = Bad. Because of Pollution due to all that nasty Industry they insist on having. See how lucky we in the west are that the oligarchs closed ours down and moved it to…well, China?
- 6) North and South Korea just can’t get on. Nothing to do with us.
- 7) Clickbait. Clickbait. Clickbait…oh, and, yup more clickbait.
- 8) Oh yeah, underneath all this, there was a guy shot by UK armed response police today, in his own home, who may – or may not – have been armed….
…But no biggie. Just scroll down to that story in lovely reader-friendly pink about the first transgender TV star!!!
Everything is awesome!…
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Today i was placed on premoderation and my comment deleted for stating that in my opinion Ukraine was a basket case run by gangsters and neo fascists.
Hi Catte,
Thanks for posting that story by Telesur and also for the acknowledgement.
I have a suggestion. Your critique above, as well as every other critique of the Guardian, should be forwarded to the Guardian Editors with your compliments. It is too easy for them to ignore what is being said here.
My own beef is with their etiquette police who censored a number of my posts simply because they didn’t comprehend them and then permanently banned me for a two line sarcastic comment about Sean Walker. Accordingly, in the future, whenever I slam them elsewhere for any reason, I plan to send a copy to their etiquette police and one to their senior editor (along with a stinging cover note of course). They may not read them, but I’ll never tire of sending them.
Keep up the good work.
You are most welcome Brad! We appreciate any-and-all of the tips/submissions we get. Running a news team with only a handful of people is hard work.
All of us here are more than familiar with The Guardian’s rather selective policy re: comments. Their censorship is the only reason we exist! And rest assured, it is our policy to bring our website and views to the attention of Guardian “journalists” and editors whenever possible.
Thanks for the encouragement!
Hey guys, in case you missed it, here’s another case of blatant lying in the Guardian in regard to recent unrest in Ecuador. This video report from Telesur goes after the Guardian by name for their propaganda. They’re really becoming a propaganda rag.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article42695.htm
“Donald Trump is ridiculous and also a safe target. Talk about him and his sometimes ludicrous pronouncements and it gives liberal Graun readers the impression there’s a real ideological divide and debate between him and Clinton, or between Republican and Democrat.”
It may be even worse than you suspect, Catte. Some have started to believe that Trump is actually a Clinton-plant sent to wreck the other party: http://inequalityreport.org/2015/08/09/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-black-lives-matter-the-theft-of-an-election/