The Prostitutes of Propaganda
By Ken Nichols O’Keefe - December 2002

This article makes clear my understanding that the major corporate media are today most responsible for the ignorance and division that so seriously afflicts humanity. As long as we (the people) allow this blatant propaganda to shape popular thought, we will have confusion, division, injustice and war. If however we (the people) take control of the dissemination of “news” in a way that reflects the interest of the majority, rather than a tiny minority, we will find that solutions are far more prevalent than the problems. Solving this one problem (propaganda serving the few) will literally allow us to solve every other major problem we have, therefore, public control of news and information is in my opinion the single most important action we the people can take.

Despite the undeniable integrity and ethics of many media agents around the world, these people are unquestionably the minority. By the nature of the system the media agent’s role is to perpetuate the “necessary illusions” that nurture ignorance, injustice and war. Nowhere is this more real and dangerous than in America, and indeed it is the American corporate media giants that dominate our global media system. Should the mushroom clouds rise and World War III become a reality we will in great part have those who control these corporate giants, their minions, and our own ignorance to thank.

"Politics is a pendulum whose swings between anarchy and tyranny are fueled by perpetually rejuvenated illusions." – Albert Einstein

Like perhaps most who enter politics, medicine, and social work in general, media agents start off thinking theirs is a noble profession. They believe the media investigates and exposes the truth, providing the people with important information thereby allowing us to make intelligent informed decisions. In reality they are just as naive as most who read or watch the “news.”

"Our system works much differently (than the former Soviet system) and much more effectively. It is a privatized system of propaganda, including the broad participation of the articulate intelligentsia, the educated part of the population. The more articulate the elements of these groups, the ones who have access to the media, including intellectual journals, and who essentially control the educational apparatus, they should properly be referred to as a class of "commissars." That's their essential function: to design, propagate and create a system of doctrines and beliefs which undermine independent thought and prevent understanding and analysis of institutional structures and their functions. That's their social role. I don't mean to say they're conscious of it. In fact they're not. In a really effective system of indoctrination the commissars are quite unaware of it and believe that they themselves are independent, critical minds. If you investigate the actual productions of the media, the journals of opinion, etc., you find exactly that. It's very narrow, very tightly constrained and grotesquely inaccurate account of the world in which we live." - Noam Chomsky

The global media propaganda system and “higher learning,” washing brains and making gains. How is it possible that ‘We the People’ have allowed ourselves to become as stupid as we are today?

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." – Albert Einstein

Let me give just one example of stupid; Today, by consent of our global “leaders,” a nation that totally disregards international opinion, the world’s most arrogant, hypocritical and dangerous nation, the leader in ecological destruction, weapons production and proliferation, violence, and yes terrorism, is the same nation leading us in our global “War on Terror.” Does anyone with half a brain or even an ounce of independent thought actually believe the policies of America are serving to make our world more “peaceful” and “free”? So why is it that the major media and our “leaders” are complicit in this madness? Because our indoctrination, inaction and stupidity allow it, and therein lies the real problem, independent thought, where has it gone and how the hell did we lose it?

"For those who stubbornly seek freedom, there can be no more urgent task than to come to understand the mechanisms and practices of indoctrination. These are easy to perceive in the totalitarian societies, much less so in the system of 'brainwashing under freedom' to which we are subjected and which all too often we serve as willing or unwitting instruments." – Noam Chomsky

“I pledge allegiance, to the flag, of the United States of America, and to the republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.” Reciting these words every school day as I did has a way of depleting independent thought. My childhood “education” embedded this ridiculous pledge in my brain forever and yet I learned virtually nothing of the United States Constitution, the “Pride of America,” until I studied it independently.

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school." – Albert Einstein

From the beginning we are “taught” fairy tale history where black is white, white is black, and tyrants are heroes. We are conditioned to trust the “experts,” the politicians, and of course, the media. So we do, and the disempowerment of the individual is the result.

"Truth, which is permanent, eludes the historian of events. Truth transcends history." – Mahatma Gandhi

And now the news;
Our top story; Jacques Cousteau warns, “the oceans are dying.” Ecologists say global biodiversity is being lost in catastrophic proportions. The United States concedes that Global Warming is no longer a theory and pulls out of the Kyoto Protocol. IMF Chairman Horst Koehler warns that global economic indicators give cause for concern, Jacques Chirac calls for “partnership.”

Next in the news; 33 million people go hungry in the world’s richest nation. Nearly one billion go hungry worldwide. Tens of thousands are starving daily, but there is more than enough food to feed them all. WTO Minister Tim Fischer argues that global hunger and starvation is a complex geo-political issue. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan assures us that “progress” is being made and the focus and commitment of world leaders at the 2002 Earth Summit gives “cause for hope.”

Next in the news; America currently has 7000 plus nuclear weapons targeting major cities around the world. President Bush calls the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty of 1972 “out of date” and announces U.S. withdrawal from the treaty. U.S. Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld angrily defends the United States right to violate the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, declares deployment of nuclear reactors and weapons in space to continue as planned. Bush calls Ariel Sharon “A man of peace” and Sharon calls the IDF rocket attack that killed an “accused terrorist” and several civilians “regrettable” yet “successful.” Shimon Peres declares “We must be vigilant in our fight against terror.”

Our final story; Colin Powell says the pre-emptive Bush Doctrine targeting “potential threats” is necessary to provide “security” for the American people. The U.S. budget soars to $360,000,000,000. America now spends more on its military than all other nations combined. The Pentagon confirms its authority to use nuclear weapons in response to non-nuclear attacks on Israel, Taiwan, or South Korea. George W. Bush declares America is “A peaceful nation” and says, “If you’re not with us, you’re with the terrorists” then warns that Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein are the greatest threats to the “peace and security of our world.”

This just in; the United Nations Security Council votes unanimously for U.S. “immunity” in the newly formed International Criminal Court in response to America’s claims that its “sovereignty” is at stake. Yemenese Government officials confirm that a CIA ‘Hellfire’ missile has killed 6 “suspected terrorists” including one U.S. citizen in Yemen.

And that’s the “news.”

It is common however, for reasons of legitimacy, that meaningful stories are reported perhaps once or twice, such as the BBC story of the Carlyle Group. Yet in America the top story for over a year was Bill Clinton’s blowjob. Anyway, the Carlyle Group is the eleventh largest defense contractor in the world, so obviously it is most profitable in times of war. Well it just so happens that George Bush Sr. is Carlyle’s Senior Advisor, and as such he has met with the bin Laden family at least twice (1998 & 2000). The bin Laden family subsequently became investors in the Carlyle group.

"If you do business with terrorists, if you support or sponsor them, you will not do business with the United States of America." - George W. Bush, 24 September 2001

Here’s a story - 1) The Bush and bin Laden families are doing business together. 2) Wanted fugitive and indicted terrorist Osama bin Laden meets with a CIA official in July 2001at an American hospital in Dubai. 3) George W. Bush issues Executive Order 199I telling the FBI to “back off” investigating Osama bin Laden’s brother two months before the 9-11 attacks. 4) Bush and Cheney refuse to allow any independent investigation into 9-11, etc., etc. Sounds like a great story to me, but I wonder why so many people watching and reading the “news” know little to nothing about any of this? How is this possible?

"The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media." - William Colby - former Director of the CIA (he later died in a swimming "accident")

Here are the facts, there are less than ten multi-national corporations that virtually control news and information worldwide; Time Warner (USA), Disney (USA), Bertelsmann (Germany), Viacom (USA), Westinghouse (USA), News Corporation Ltd. (USA), General Electric (USA), Sony (Japan), Seagrams (Canada). Who controls these corporate giants?

"The minority, the ruling class at present, have the schools and press, usually the Church as well, under its thumb. This enables it to organize and sway the emotions of the masses, and make its tool of them." – Albert Einstein

These media giants are controlled by extremely sadistic people who make money on the world’s oil dependency, drug dealing (legal and illegal), the raping of our natural world, weapons production and distribution, and of course, war. These are their interests and the “news” assures profitability in all of the above.

“There is no such thing, at this date of the world’s history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it… The business of the Journalist is to destroy truth; To lie outright; To pervert; To vilify; To fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it and what folly is this toasting an independent press?” - John Swinton, former Chief of Staff, The New York Times, circa 1880

My how times haven’t changed. I say loud and clear, until the public takes control of all major news and information we will never defeat tyranny, we will never have peace. It is sad but true; too many people are lazy, ignorant, cynical, overworked, afraid, or simply overwhelmed to seek out legitimate and objective news and more importantly, solutions. As long as the major media pumps out its rubbish the masses are going to buy it, believe it, and be the disposable slaves, the “sheeple,” that the system needs them to be.

“We are the tools and vassals for rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and or lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.” - John Swinton

To humanities quislings, the major media reporters and journalists, I pity you. You are disposable slaves selling your souls in the service of tyrants. I have met many of you, and I have seen the ignorance, denial and shame in your eyes. You are the Prostitutes of Propaganda, you’re bosses are the Pimps, and ‘We the People’ are the Johns, gettin fucked.