Tag: propaganda

Russian ‘Independent’ Media Surprised Their Funding Came From USAID, Express Anger

Russian independent media has had a rough decade in Moscow, with many forced to leave for Baltic nations or other jurisdictions to be able to report freely.

The Kremlin long has put out a narrative that most of this ‘independent media’ was on the payroll of the American intelligence services.

Now that the Kremlin narrative has turned out to be true, there is shock, surprise, and even anger being expressed by Russian independent media personalities.

Yulia Latynina was one of the main stars of liberal journalism, a permanent host of Ekho Moskvy and one of the most caustic critics of the Russian government. Much has changed in the last three years, writes a journalist interviewing her recently on this subject.

What prompted Yulia, who is still listed as a foreign agent in Russia, to reconsider her attitude to the war, Ukrainian activists and liberal journalists? What does she now think about the empire and the new world order that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are writing? What conclusions did she draw from the USAID story and what is her response to dissatisfied subscribers?

“My ideas about what was happening began to change when I read a very laudatory book by Franklin Foer about Biden. And then I read a recently published book by Bob Woodward. “

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Bibas family threatens to sue Israeli govt as official propaganda on hostage killings unravels

The Bibas family demands the Israeli government cease exploiting the deaths of their family members for propaganda purposes as layers of evidence support claims an Israeli airstrike killed them.

The relatives of an Israeli family killed while in Hamas captivity in Gaza have demanded the government stop making statements attributing blame for the killings of their loved ones, threatening to “take all legal measures at their disposal” if the Netanyahu administration refuses to comply. The request came three days after a declaration by Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari that Palestinian “terrorists” had “deliberately” killed two young members of the Bibas family “with their bare hands.”

Lawyers representing surviving members of the Bibas family have accused government ministries of seeking to exploit their plight for propaganda purposes, complaining “the family continues to receive, surprisingly, repeated inquiries from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Information System… with the aim of satisfying the public’s voyeuristic instinct.”

“Although it is surprising that it is necessary to request and emphasize this,” the lawyers continued, “we ask once again and in every language of request that all parties” be instructed “not to contact the family, nor to speak with any professional party entrusted with conducting the examinations regarding the circumstances of the murder and the condition of the deceased.”

Read the Bibas family’s letter to Netanyahu and other officials here.

The Bibas family has become a symbol of the plight of Israelis taken captive on October 7, but the truth behind their experience remains obscured by official spin. All four family members were taken captive on Oct. 7, but the father was separated in the chaos. 

While he survived his time in Hamas and was later released to Israel, his wife, Shiri, and two young sons, Kfir and Ariel, were killed while in the custody of the Mujahedin Brigades, a smaller, lesser known faction. According to a Mujahedin Brigades commander, “When [Shiri Bibas] was captured [on October 7], we sent her children with her out of compassion for them. The Israeli occupation killed her along with her children after bombing them along with their captors.”

The commander also declared that Shiri Bibas had served as a soldier in the Israeli army’s Unit 8200 intelligence division, which spies on and seeks to compromise Gaza residents, and later served in the army’s Gaza Division.

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Israel says it knew Bibas family was dead despite claiming they might be alive

The Israeli military acknowledged on Friday it knew the Bibas family was dead in captivity in Gaza despite previously insisting they might be alive.

Hamas said in November 2023 that Shiri Bibas, 32, and her two children, Ariel, aged four, and nine-month-old Kfir, were killed in an Israeli air strike. 

However, the Israeli military continued to demand their release alive.  

Military spokesperson Daniel Hagari on Friday confirmed the death of the two babies “no later than November 2023” following the return of their bodies by Hamas as part of the ceasefire agreement. 

During a news conference, Hagari said the Israeli military had intelligence that they were already dead but could not announce it to the public. 

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Trump Deputy Chief Of Staff Blasts Media Propagandists To Their Faces

The White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller torched fake news reporters Thursday during a briefing for playing along with the charade for years that Joe Biden was mentally fit, before giving them a lecture about how government works.

“Many of the people in this room for four years failed to cover the fact that Joe Biden was mentally incompetent and was not running the country,” Miller told leftist media correspondents.

He then noted that to counter the ridiculous leftist talking point that Elon Musk is an unelected bureaucrat, the media was in need of “a brief civics lesson.”

Miller then began his short but ever so sweet fact smackdown.

“A president is elected by the whole American people. He is the only official in the entire government that is elected by the entire nation. Judges are appointed, members are Congress are elected at the district or state level,” he noted.

“The Constitution, Article II, has a clause known as ‘the vesting clause,’ and it says ‘the executive power shall be vested in ‘a’ president — singular. The whole will of democracy is imbued into the elected president. That president then appoints staff to impose that democratic will onto the government,” he continued.

“The threat to democracy — the existential threat to democracy — is the unelected bureaucracy of lifetime, tenured civil servants who believe they answer to no one; who believe they can do whatever they want without consequence; who believe they can set their own agenda, no matter what Americans vote for,” Miller explained.

“So, Americans vote for radical FBI reform, and FBI agents say they don’t want to change. Or Americans vote for radical reform on our energy policies, and EPA bureaucrats say that they don’t want to change. Or Americans vote to end racist DEI policies, and lawyers at the DOJ say they son’t want to change,” Miller further outlined.

“What President Trump is doing is he is removing federal bureaucrats who are defying democracy by failing to implement his lawful orders, which are the will of the whole American people,” Miller asserted.

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Zelensky Could Be Ousted As Trump Demands Ukraine Election

There are concerns that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky could be ousted from office after President Donald Trump said that Kyiv should hold elections, according to British newspaper The Telegraph.

Newsweek has reached out to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine for comment via email.

Why It Matters

Zelensky was made Time Magazine’s person of the year in 2022 for his “success as a wartime leader” and has been lauded as the face of Ukrainian resistance to Russia’s invasion. His exit from office could drastically change the outcome of the war and the achievement of security guarantees for Ukraine.

Ukraine hosting an election also raises the concern that Russia could interfere in the poll and install a pro-Kremlin leader who would be more amenable to Moscow’s terms to end the war.

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Public Trust Fallout of the HHS’s COVID-19 PR Campaign and the Systemic Oversight on Waning Vaccine Immunity

“Probably the most important recommendation: HHS should never again adopt a policy of silencing dissenting scientists in an attempt to create an illusion of consensus in favor of CDC groupthink.” – Dr. Jay Bhattacharya

The “We Can Do This” campaign was a nationwide public health messaging initiative launched by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to promote COVID-19 vaccination, masking, and other pandemic-related measures. From August 2020 to June 2023, the campaign was developed in partnership with the Fors Marsh Group, a behavioral research and advertising firm, and was backed by over $900 million in taxpayer funds.

A House Report confirms that HHS, CDC, and the “We Can Do This Campaign” repeatedly overstated vaccine effectiveness, falsely claimed vaccines prevented transmission and dismissed natural immunity. The narrative changed only when real-world data forced them to retract their earlier statements.

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In Defense of Conspiracy Theorists

Full disclosure: I am a fellow at Brownstone Institute.

I’ve recently become aware of at least one “gatekeeper of the news” who’s becoming increasingly concerned that groups like Brownstone Institute have gone overboard advancing “conspiracy theories.”

I definitely disagree with the opinion that Brownstone’s writers are becoming “conspiracy theorists,” a common pejorative used to dismiss the views of those skeptical of “authorized narratives.”

Now, more strongly than ever, I believe “conspiracies” exist and, indeed, it’s proper and imperative for writers to point out where they do exist.

Quick aside: This essay was motivated by a news curator, a person I consider a friend, who chose to not run my recent essay “Why the placebo nation of Sweden didn’t matter.” The editor mentioned his concerns that Brownstone “has gone off the deep end with all of its conspiracy theories.”

It doesn’t hurt my feelings when an editor chooses to not publish a piece I’ve submitted, especially editors who have run many of my articles and someone who, on many issues, shares my views. Editors can publish (or not publish) pieces for whatever reasons they think are important to their organizations.

With this piece, I’m not trying to anger a friend who has gone against the “pack” by publishing many contrarian essays and articles. However, the fact that this editor chose not to publish this particular essay does give me an opportunity to address the “conspiracy theorist” charge.

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Thomson Reuters, a Far-Left Propaganda Arm, Receives Funding from the U.S. Department of Defense for ‘Active Social Engineering Defense Large-Scale Social Deception’ — Elon Musk Responds

Thomson Reuters Corporation, the parent company that both owns Thomson Reuters Special Services LLC (TRSS) and the far-left propaganda arm Reuters News, has been funded by none other than the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).

Recent investigations have revealed that Thomson Reuters Special Services LLC was awarded a contract by the Department of Defense titled “Active Social Engineering Defense (ASED) Large Scale Social Deception (LSD).”

Thomson Reuters Special Services LLC (TRSS) is a U.S.-based subsidiary of Thomson Reuters that provides software and information services to U.S. government agencies.

TRSS reports to an independent Board of Directors and operates under the oversight of the U.S. Department of Defense to offer classified and sensitive services to the U.S. Government.

The contract, identified as FA865018C7886, was awarded in 2018 with a value of approximately $9.1 million. You can view the contract details at USASpending.gov.

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After Trump Starts Mass Deportations, the UK Government Tries To Look Tough, Divulges Footage of the Secret Flights Sending Back Foreign Criminals and Failed Asylum Seekers

The Donald J. Trump administration is like a hurricane blowing through Europe, and nothing is the same, anymore.

And we are not just talking about the trade tariffs – many aspects of Trump’s administration are having a disruptive impact in European political establishments, beginning with the hardcore changes in immigration policy.

Now, we see the UK Labour government trying to look like there are vigorously tackling the matter, and the Home Office, today (10) released videos and photos of foreign criminals and failed asylum seekers being deported from Britain.

These images have been published for the first time – showing that up to five security escorts may be needed for every migrant.

The Telegraph reported:

“In an attempt to show Labour’s tougher approach to illegal migrants, the Home Office has released pictures showing five escorts in high-viz yellow vests with body-worn cameras surrounding a single migrant as he is ushered up the steps onto a chartered plane to be returned to his home country in Europe.

The previously secret, high-security deportation flights have been filmed for the first time as Sir Keir Starmer tries to head off the political threat from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and demonstrate to a skeptical public that Labour is getting tough on illegal migration.”

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Wikileaks: USAID Spent Half-Billion Influencing Journalism through Shady NGO “Internews Network”

The fallout and aftermath of Elon Musk’s investigation into USAID as part of President Trump’s radical revolution in his second-term in office, has revealed stunning reports of government funding for far-left efforts and wasteful efforts. Musk has said that Trump has authorized him to look into the Department of Education, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and explosively, the Pentagon.

Wikileaks is now claiming that another part of the far-left USAID funding has been influencing foreign and domestic media with nearly half-a-billion dollars in U.S. taxpayer funding for the “Internews Network”, a non-profit funded primarily by the government that trained journalists, pushed certain news and agenda that fit the government’s desires, and also that the network developed “exclusion lists” that were meant to pressure advertisers to bankrupt other media outlets that did not serve the government’s agenda.

The U.S. government was also pushing such ‘exclusion lists’ through a variety of other state-supported organizations and entities, such as the Stanford Internet Observatory, the University of Washington, Yale, Newsguard, and by coercing big tech companies like Facebook, Amazon, and Google. This was all part of the left’s Censorship Industrial Complex.

The Gateway Pundit is litigating against the government at the moment in Missouri v. Biden on related issues about censorship, deplatforming, and demonetization.

Internews supported and funded those censorship efforts.

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