Does Our News Feed Free Us or Enslave Us?

25 Tevet 5776

“The National Security Act (passed in 1947) allows US Intelligence to begin any action, at any time, without asking anybody. In addition, US Intelligence may postpone indefinitely any report of such activity simply by claiming that making the report would harm the "national security" of the United States. This is a recipe for absolute power. It follows that the National Security Act of 1947 gave US Intelligence the power—if not the explicit authority—to corrupt the press in secret. This article will argue, and document, that this is precisely what US Intelligence has done. Naturally, this raises the sharpest possible questions about the integrity of US democracy.”
 —Francisco Gil-White, Historical and Investigative Research

“…giving a distinct and independent power to do any act they please which may be good for the Union, would render all the preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless.” —Thomas Jefferson, 1791

***

The news we read, hear and practically breathe every day is where deception and illusion begin in our time, no matter where we live in the world. And that includes Israel as much as anywhere else. Most people have a philosophy today that the news is not to be believed. Sometimes we can’t quite put our finger on it, and sometimes we can; either way we don’t understand why even after mountains of corrections have been published, too little and too late after the fact, the media groups don’t seem to learn their lesson and get it right henceforth. We certainly don’t know that this atmosphere was created deliberately under the rubric of US law and spread throughout the world by US agents. 

Why would they do such a thing? Professor Gil-White continues, 

“…since a person’s interests are largely determined by his or her position in the socio-economic structure, it follows that the power elite will tend to have interests quite at variance with those of the majority of the population. In fact, their ideology may be completely different—even opposite.

“Is this a problem? Not if the majority has sufficient oversight over what the power elite is doing, for in this case government officials who violate the wishes of the majority can be democratically replaced with others who do respect what the people want. 

What can produce the sufficient level of oversight? A free and competitive news market.”

Aha. Have you noticed that the same few news organizations do all the reporting, and they all report the same news? You even think that if one of them deviates, something is wrong. Your only actual choice is your favorite anchor person, if you watch the news — and if you don’t, you have your pick of favorite situation comedies or other distractions that pass for television entertainment.

I have some theories about how some of this was done and how it continues to be done today. If they make any sense, you might want to follow your “nose” and see where it leads. But the results are laid out quite clearly by our instructor: 

“When the product is news, in a free and competitive market we should see better-quality news services exposing the biases, inaccuracies, or lies in inferior news services. Why? Because deviations from the truth are synonymous with a lower-quality news product; if more reliable alternatives are known to be available, consumers will flock to those. In a free news market, therefore, the different media services will savagely attack each other. As a result, untruths will have poor stability. But in order to have such a free market of information—what is called a ‘free press’—the companies producing news must not be controlled by the local government or a foreign one, and they must be independent of each other, so that they indeed compete to inform news consumers.

“Without a free press, democracy is impossible.”

The way things are now, there is no high-quality news today, except for those very few who are content with requesting donations from their consumers so that their news providers will receive a much lower salary for their work than their colleagues in the major networks — or in some cases even no pay at all.

Examples in Israel are Arutz 7 and Kol haYehudi, both Web sites. A7 used to be a radio station operated in a ship on the Mediterranean; but the local powers-that-be took it off the air because of traffic violations (HaAretz says radio piracy, if you can get this article; if not, you might have to Google it), while a similar leftist-leaning pirate station was untouched for the same infringement. Avraham "Abie" Nathan was the leftist broadcaster, while Ya'akov "Katzeleh" Katz was the rightist one.

I need to stop and explain something here: I’m not speaking of the so-called “public” stations (which, by the way, seem to be a near-unique phenomenon of the US because there the norm is networks supported by business – the bigger, the better – and whose agenda is being furthered by this? Certainly not the product- or the television-consumer’s), which are nothing more than a way to have subscribers contribute to their own brainwashing, as well as having big business pay for it. (Are we really so stupid that we don’t realize that public and commercial networks work together?) The budgets on these stations are somewhat below the “normal” commercial stations, but nonetheless very viable. All staff gets paid a more-than-decent living wage, and volunteers are welcome but not absolutely necessary.

In Israel the government makes citizens pay for television. Not the devices that show us the television programming, which of course are purchased at electronics stores, but the programming itself: It is called the television license fee. Wikipedia says the television stations the IBA (Israel Broadcasting Authority) oversees are often sponsored by commercial entities; in addition, reforms are on the way: the TV tax is supposed to be abolished (first in March 2015, now delayed to this March). I'm not holding my breath. 

At least radio here is allowed to be commercially supported, and therefore free for the citizens. Otherwise, how would we know what is going on in the world? (Or do we?)

When we made aliyah we made sure we neither bought a television nor participated in any television-watching from any of our dwellings since we arrived in Israel. Yet the IBA tried to bill us for back payments on a service we had never used, going back to even before our aliyah! Fortunately, I was able to write them a letter explaining our circumstances and that I had a neighbor who kindly corrected a couple of mistakes in my writing before I faxed it to them. They never tried to bill us again. They lost that money – and likely lost a lot more trying to fish for people who would go for that scam because they didn’t understand a) the Hebrew in the letter or b) that they really didn’t have to pay if they didn’t have TV/telly! I have no idea how much staff got paid there, but a few years ago, the Authority announced that it was going to dissolve. My research for this article shows that it hasn't gone away, but instead will become the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation in March 2016. I won’t know how Israeli television stations will run, since I still don’t watch and my friends don’t watch either.

Back to the point: What I am speaking of is a news-providing station that is willing to run on an extremely low budget and even have staff volunteer their vital services. Even these would understandably have a hard time resisting when presented an offer for money that usually comes hard to them, coming either from an agenda-laden foundation or even a government agency. Media is expensive: equipment, training, you name it. If there are some news agencies that get a lot of sponsorship from outside, they’re beholden to whomever is giving it to them, or giving them the price break. That outside agenda again, this time applied from the global or national media provider(s) to the local media provider. If the locals refuse, the G/NMP might just cause legal problems, as they did with Arutz Sheva.

So, to where has this led us? Trials by media? Live-on-television or -Internet displays of burning and beheading? Why not. They're the circuses (without the bread, so provide your own) of the Romans all over again. The difference between opinion and fact, truth and falsehood, light and darkness? Erased. Democracy or police state? It's all the same thing, don't you know! Egypt — Mitzrayim, trapped in the straits — all over again.

It's all fiction anyway, according to those who think they run the show. They would like us to forget about the One behind the curtain, with whom we will all meet at the end for "lessons learned" and judgment.

Bottom Line: Since we all know about the big agenda of the “powers that be” to take Israel down and worldwide Jewry with it, we Israelis can know with certainty that our mainstream media, along with the rest of the world's, are completely compromised as a matter of AMERICAN (US) national security. This includes the ongoing attack on our self-image as a nation and what is good and bad for our country; who is a patriot and who is a traitor; what sort of values we should live by; who gets out of jail with blood on his hands and who gets interrogative torture for doing nothing wrong; and which wing's laws and philosophy get enforced, and which wing's don't. 

Not to mention the products we buy, an increasing percentage of which are provided by the nations at their whim and sufferance¹, and not through our own efforts!

If there is any truth in the news, it is provided by people whose money sources are clean and untainted, and reporters, analysts and commenters who have a strong moral compass and will speak the truth regardless of consequences — which we sorely lack today.

Sorry, folks. Democracy as once practiced in the United States died an unnatural death in 1947. What replaced it is a fake, phony shadow covering most of the world that better resembles George Orwell’s 1984 but may have not made it there yet; but in some ways it is worse (our technology is far more advanced than Orwell could have imagined.). Its alternative is outright dictatorship — especially characterized by the Muslim world, but also present in any part of the world dominated by Communism, whether by law or by philosophy.

I wonder what Mr. Orwell would say if he were alive today. But also, Samson, Deborah the judge and prophetess, and Joshua. Without them, and many others, and the G-d-given writings we still carry around, study and use to guide worship, we Jews might not have courage at all to press forward.

But, press forward we do. Only G-d can save us from this horrible evil and help us overcome the evildoers, both internal and external; and when it is over He expects us to live for Him, and Him alone. Maybe it’s time to call for complete redemption from the Creator of All?

¹An interesting example occurs with Israeli wheat, which apparently is suitable for pasta, and not for bread. In private conversation I have been told that we sell the raw wheat to Italy, which makes our pasta products and sells them back to us at a markup! It’s quite a deal in their favor! Why can’t we just make our own?

A religious example would be the expensive Borsalino hats many Haredi men wear. They come from a non-Jewish company, also in Italy. Would it be so difficult for us to make our own hats?

By what contract are we bound to deal with people who hate us and want us dead, either through their own hand or one they pay to do the job?

More reading:

National Security Act of 1947 in its entirety (The original government document linked from Prof. Gil-White’s site does not exist anymore; you can find plenty to chew on here. Hopefully all the documents will not disappear before you’ve had a chance to read what you wish from them.)

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