The establishment media is dying. This is not a biased view coming from “alternative media,” it is a fact borne out by metrics and opinion polls from within the establishment itself. It was true before the recent election, and is guaranteed to accelerate after their shameless defense of non-reality which refused to accept any discontent among the American population with standard politics.
Now, with egg on their face after the botched election coverage, and a wobbling uncertainty about how they can maintain multiple threads of a narrative so fundamentally disproven, they appear to be resorting to their nuclear option: a full shut down of dissent.
Voices within independent media have been chronicling the signposts toward full-on censorship as sites have encountered everything from excessive copyright infringement accusations, to de-monetization, to the open admission by advertising giants that certain images would not be tolerated.
However, until now these efforts have appeared random, haphazard, and rife with retractions and restorations of targeted sites and content. A massive backlash of reader outrage toward these restrictive measures has confirmed that most consumers don’t like the idea of being given boundaries to their intellectual freedom.
That said, there has been a notable increase of hoax websites beginning to populate the information stream. We can attest that this has been an incredible annoyance as we are bombarded daily with new outrageous claims and rabbit holes that readers expect us to sift through.
Most times, a cursory glance at the “About” page or any disclaimers quickly shows where this information is coming from. Other times, a bit of common sense and discernment about why a site that has just appeared on the scene (check Alexa for this info) would have “EXCLUSIVE” “BREAKING” content under the banner of an apparent local news channel or a name that is the twisted version of a legitimate news outlet.
But even with those caveats, we’ve all been taken in at one time or another and have had to retract or update articles as necessary, or apologize to our e-mail list for sending out a given link. This does jam up the works, but it is the tax we all must pay if we believe in the free-market of ideas and information. We’re not perfect, but at least we have never been deliberately misleading like CNN and others often have been.
The government recently legalized using propaganda against US citizens. They wielded all of their establishment media force to sell their lies. And now they’re frustrated that people still prefer the truth as they see it naturally.
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As The Verge highlighted in a recent article, “Two-thirds of the world’s internet users live under government censorship.” Although this is roundly decried by establishment media as evidence of “declining freedom,” this is exactly the path we are heading toward at the behest of that same media within those areas that have managed to thwart such a reality.
The voices of the corporate media are making a show of calling Facebook to task for evidently not having stringent enough algorithms to discern legitimate news from deliberate hoax. We are being told that this very likely led to the election of Trump, and that this has become a major problem in need of a major solution.
The first shots are being fired as we speak. Yesterday we learned that Facebook and Google would take swift action against “fake news” by de-monetizing or banning them outright.
“Moving forward, we will restrict ad serving on pages that misrepresent, misstate, or conceal information about the publisher, the publisher’s content, or the primary purpose of the web property,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement given to Reuters. This policy includes fake news sites, the spokesperson confirmed. Google already prevents its AdSense program from being used by sites that promote violent videos and imagery, pornography, and hate speech.
(Source)
This is problematic on a number of levels, not least of which is the vague notion of what constitutes violent imagery and hate speech. War, of course, is what should first come to mind when thinking of violence. Police shootings and other clashes might qualify as well, but routinely populate the most mainstream of sources. And one person’s hate speech is another person’s dissent.
The second component is that of transparency, where we see claims about any effort to “conceal information about the publisher.” Again, very vague, but as any journalist worth their salt knows, it is anonymity which leads to the truth more often than not, especially when threats against journalists and whistleblowers are demonstrably on the rise.
Today, the mainstream media named us as one of the top “fake news” sites to avoid. It’s quite an honor.
US News (linked above) has published a list of websites that it deems unworthy of support, and is essentially urging to be de-monitized or banned based on the previous calls to action.
Here are several fake news sites that have become popular on Facebook, and which should be avoided if you’re looking for the facts:
Firstly, the grouping of satire, hoax, and propaganda is troubling, as the definitions of each aren’t even remotely related to one another.
Satire is literature and has a tradition dating back thousands of years; it has been recognized as an essential component of intellectual and political freedom. A deliberate hoax, we can all agree, is lacking integrity, purposely deceptive, and can be legitimately harmful or dangerous. Propaganda, though, is aligned with the State; and most commonly is directed and funded by the State. That is a serious accusation and one that is entirely without merit for this website. It is also an especially ironic and dubious accusation coming from an outlet called US News.
Yet we’re proud to be biased for peace, love, and liberty. Anyone against those principles is serving fake news as far as we’re concerned.
All of this is to say that we are entering dangerous new territory, as the Internet itself is under a new regime with the transfer to ICANN, an international body. If 2/3 of the globe is under digital dictatorship, what else is the likely outcome from such international control over information?
However, it is also an exhilarating time to be a part of such mammoth upheaval, where the entrenched apparatus of the State itself has declared information to be its enemy and to acknowledge that it must do everything in its power to maintain its tenuous monopoly on the truth.
The unfortunate reality for them is that the truth will always be simpler and, therefore, more efficient to disseminate than the complexities of lies and true propaganda.
This article may be freely shared in part or in full with proper attribution and source link.
Image Credit: Pixabay.com
Saddam’s nukes, Assad’s gas, torpedoes in the Gulf of Tonkin, human-caused global warming; and they have the nerve to say WE are fakes?!?
…don’t forget…we just acknowledged the 26th anniversary of those poor Kuwaiti babies being thrown from their incubators….
RJ O’Guillory
As told by the daughter of a Saudi diplomat posing as an Iraqi
….sobbingly…but wasn’t she playing a Kuwaiti nurse or something?
RJ
Or the granddaddy of ’em all, the Warren Commission…
…I think the…”grand-daddy”…of them all was Pearl Harbor. We have been told for decades that it was surprise attack, when we know that FDR set up the Japanese… declared war on them by placing an illegal naval blockade on them…(an act of war)… and FDR knew their codes, their fleet location…and they knew of the day of the attack.
RJ O’Guillory
No, you’re right….forgot about THAT one…’Day of Deceit’ proved it..
A “day that will live in infamy” for sure, but after 75 years, one has to take a different view of whose “infamy.”
I met a Swedish guy in Regents Park 3 months ago and he said that oil and oil money paid for his expensive flat. He was talking away about various things, then he said that he found it unforgivable how the Americans and English had painted the Iraqis in Kuwait. He was involved in trying to stop the fires. He was adamant that they paid for everything and that the terrible stoeres about them had no basis at all. He was an unusual character indeed.
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I like to share this quote by you with people who seem unwilling to confront the truth.
“Most people prefer to believe their leaders are just and fair even in the face of evidence to the contrary, because once a citizen acknowledges that the government under which they live is lying and corrupt, the citizen has to choose what he or she will do about it. To take action in the face of a corrupt government entails risks of harm to life and loved ones. To choose to do nothing is to surrender one’s self-image of standing for principles. Most people do not have the courage to face that choice. Hence, most propaganda is not designed to fool the critical thinker but only to give moral cowards an excuse not to think at all.”
It would be more useful if you gave us the name of the person with whom the quote originated.
You’re right, it was an oversight on my part. I thought I had because I was responding to him, but the quote is by Michael Rivero.
Globalism cannot succeed without the destruction of the Western FREE Nations, including Freedom of speech and freedom of association in ANY form, including online (dissent). Globalism must destroy the 1st world and silence all dissent or contrarian or alternative views. This is a takeover from within of the USA, IMHO.
They are troubled by “Fake News”?!? What about being troubled by the propaganda -the false narrative- of the government that the MSM proposes to be the gospel news? What about the MSM blacking out major news events like the Dakota Pipeline and how the US Government has sent in paid private “security” thugs along with the government’s paramilitary police to harass Native Americans, private landowners, and peaceful protestors who are only exercising their First Amendment Rights in speaking out against the corporate fascist state? What about the MSM being in collusion with the Democratic Party in supporting a flawed losing candidate that could not even beat an orange and thinned skinned Umpa Lumpa because she was so corrupt and untrustworthy as well as covering up the truth about her when it was offered by WikiLeaks and the rest of the worldwide media? Care to elaborate if the MSM is concerned about its history of failed concern over fake news when it comes to the Gulf of Tonkin, Saddam Hussein having WMD’s, or Assad’s gas and chemical weapons usage, or how about the government’s murky narrative of 9-11 in the wake of all we have learned with Saudi Arabia and a million other flaws in their story?
NEWS FLASH: We are in a political revolution that has tried to be peaceful, yet the MSM lies and distorts the peaceful protestors of Sanders supporters and other popular grass root initiative and causes as being “socialist anarchists” when in fact the government is a fascist state that literally does not know the difference between left and right causes and refuses to allow a common middle ground that is a fair and level playing field for us all. Those that control the media control the mind of the masses. And those that would seek to suppress peaceful political revolution make violent revolution inevitable. The MSM is dying a needed death and we are seeing the rise of independent national and international journalism on the worldwide internet because the MSM has failed to be a fair and objective independent press. The 4th estate has been abducted a long time ago. The political revolution is not being covered by the MSM. The political revolution is broadcast on the internet and is moving to the streets where the people march for human rights, a fair and level playing field and justice for the 99% and not the parasitic elite who feed off the backs of We The People.
All you have to do is go on you tube and type in ‘scripted news’ and you will see plenty of proof that the msm is just telling the public what they’re told to tell us. In 2012 there were two east coast news people who quit on the air, so they could tell the public why they were quitting. The reason was because they weren’t allowed to report real news.
“Whoever controls the media, controls the mind.” Jim Morrison~ These are governments, corporations, and principalities, and they not only want to govern our minds, they want absolute temporal, physical, emotional, psychological, mental, and spiritual domination and control over everyone’s.
It does make me warm and fuzzy when I think about how the dissemination of truth tossed a massive cog in their wheel of tyranny enough to slow them down, possibly forcing them to deploy Plans B which we all know are inferior to Plans A. Even the visual of them scrambling for cover gives me deep satisfaction.
Great article, and bittersweet news for this site, one of the only websites that will let me cite the law and documented history, so thanks for that. Congratulations, AP, well done~ You’re officially a public thorn in both sides of their two faces, and I hope these little wounds grow, fester and rot, infecting every appendage, organ and orifice from which they yammer their filthy lies, until they starve, wither and perish due to lack of circulation and nourishment. Rock on~
When ya point one finger…..
The so called mainstream media have proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that they are never to be trusted about anything! They have proven themselves to be pathological lying psychopaths! They have lost all credibility and have now stooped to telling us that they will now be truthful.. what a laugh.
They’re through and they can’t even see the truth of their own self inflicted demise! This projecting bs that that the alternative media is fake is just unfathomable!
Anyone listening to Activist Post, Info
Wars, etc. were the only people not surprised by Trump’s victory because they
knew what was really going on unlike the Watchers of MSM – which would include
all of Hillary’s supporters.
This is serious – all free-loving people and groups have to get
organized together – throughout all of North America. Start our own server
(like Google, Yahoo) . Freedom loving people around the world can have their
own truth band while the Borg can stay with their Pharmaceutically induced
stupor.
“We are grateful to the Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries.” -David Rockefeller, Bilderberg 1991 (Baden-Baden Germany)
This speech from the ‘Penguin’…was the harbinger of things to come for the full onset of 0.01%’s unleashed NWO juggernaut ….talk about extreme hubris coming from this megalomaniacal ponerology of self appointed gangsters.
..’unfuknbeeleeevably’ believable Chutzpah!…. in the existential present 2016/17!
I haven’t trusted the msm news for a long time, but in all out honesty some of these alternative news have been guilty of propaganda too. Just an observation. I would suggest that truth seekers should question ALL news mainstream and the so-called alternative
Like when you type out a truth on a named site and they block it that most certainly tells me they are one sided.
The MSM is dead.
Long Live these alternate sites. So long as ICAAN allows.
probably should be tracking IP’s in your .hosts or hosts files.
Sounds like a bunch of folks that aren’t happy with the glitz and glitter of the boob tube.
BTW: Congrats AP I didn’t realize that many were following (I don’t have a fb account).
I et all my “fake” news from MSM. I get real news and truth from about three or four the MSM lists as “fake” sources. Funny how I really don’t bother looking at fake news much at all any longer. Sure, I watch some mainstream tell lie vision shows, movies but these are few and far between. Me and wife put Law & Order on at times, NCIS as ‘background’. I still like good old Andy, Three Stooges, Marx Brothers, M*A*S*H at times in small doses, Murder She Wrote (although I’m starting to believe she herself is a serial murder what with there always being murder going on around her), Gilligan’s Island, Mork & Mindy. You know, I watch the “important” crap. *chuckles*
You watch mash?! Now, there’s more zionist propaganda.
What about the rightwing media empire: Rush Limbaugh, Mike Savage, Breitbart, FOX, Hannity, Blaze, Daily Caller, Mark Levin, etc…???
The reality of this was seen last night on CNN when the host Anderson Cooper (CIA) had Glen Beck on for an inordinate time mumbling about some “Alternate Right” news program and how evil they were as “White Extremist Racists” … it made no sense to me at the time, but in reading this it makes perfect sense in retrospect.
And does Activist post protect your freedom of Speech?
Are Google and Facebook going to block The Huffington Post from their newsfeeds? Have you see HuffPo lately? Pure propaganda. If you’re a writer like David Seaman who entertains an independent thought, you get banned for life. Google isn’t simply a company–it’s an information monopoly. This is essentially a violation of the First Amendment. Trump should not allow it.
“Fake news” = ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, WP, NYT, I have checked out a lot of their stories in the past 3-4 months and found spinning, twisting, and out right lies and most of all opinions. That is not news reporting but tabloid garbage. So now that people go elsewhere for information they are being censored and destroyed. This is not free speech or freedom of the press, more control of the people.
You have to know from reading Revelation that they will not repent. No, all they do (according to scripture) is double-down and get more blasphemous and evil.
Anyways, what do you make of this connect-the-dots…
Rev.16:13, “”And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.””
PAIRED ALONGSIDE THIS…
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/73e02f620718422847e89ca5f28b6f431c97d44be17ded3f9f3ec70d42199ab9.png
The can do as as they please , the MSM liars are finished because their audience continues to question and despise them , pretty soon they won’t have an audience.