CALIBAN

I wasn't really sure how to title this post, which is chiefly about what I believe was the final 'column' of Consortium News founder Bob Parry, before his untimely death on January 27, 2018. It is an outstandingly honest, determinative, yet at the same time very disquieting, manifesto on the demise of journalism in the United States which requires a complete reading from start to finish (easily done in one sitting). If I were to go against my better judgement and highlight a small piece of the manifesto, it would be the following:

What is perhaps most alarming about the past year of Donald Trump is that the mask is now gone and, in many ways, all sides of Official Washington are revealed collectively as reflections of Donald Trump, disinterested in reality, exploiting “information” for tactical purposes, eager to manipulate or con the public. While I’m sure many anti-Trumpers will be deeply offended by my comparison of esteemed Establishment figures with the grotesque Trump, there is a deeply troubling commonality between Trump’s convenient use of “facts” and what has pervaded the Russia-gate investigation.

It isn't just the narrow issue of Russia-gate, nor for that matter Ukraine-gate, which has supplanted or perniciously extended the former, that concerns me here. It even extends beyond the mostly "bi-polarized" political context that Parry refers to in his excellent manifesto on journalism. In fact, Parry hints at it when he mentions Seymour Hersh, and the staging of the chemical weapons attacks in Syria. Perhaps one positive (and accidental) outcome of the whole Trump affair is the sudden return to prominence of the term "Deep State". While necessarily ambiguous a term, the amorphous and secretive "Deep State" manifests itself concretely and precisely through journalism - that of the establishment or "mainstream" media.

It is an uphill battle to effectively thwart the lies, half-truths and outright propaganda of the mainstream media. Yet it becomes a necessity in a world of false flags, used to justify innumerable wrongs. Nonetheless as difficult and "uphill" a task it may be, one must be relentless. Why? In the end, quod ratio non quid, saepe sanavit mora!

Labels: world affairs