Let Us Not Forget that the Obama Administration Amendment of the Smith-Mundt Act has Paved the Way for the Mainstream Media to Officially Publish Fake News. Yes as of 2013, the US Government Can Legally Lie to the American Public.
Mainstream media or MSM has the power to influence a large number of people, helping shape prevailing current of thoughts. But because they are biased while pretending to be neutral, their influence is often questionable.
Svend Robinson could not have said it better. Taken from Robert McChesney’s Rich Media, Poor Democracy he was quoted saying, “After you’ve had somebody say to you for the thousandth time, How come we never hear about these issues in the media, you start to realize that the media itself is an issue”.
Fun Fact: Ninety percent of of the Media is owned by six corporations.
In the United States, mainstream media is about bias, omissions, inaccuracy, and distortion. This reality is acknowledged by many outside of the country, but something average American citizens have difficulty viewing in an objective manner. Yet today with the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act, which, for a long time, prohibited the government from using propaganda intended to influence foreigners and US citizens, domestic propaganda is widely available. The deep state calls the shots and the media lapdogs circulate in concert.
The Broadcasting Board of Governors claims that they only intend to “inform, engage, and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy”. But because their specialty is adding propaganda into the information flow, lies that have been sold as truth to foreigners are now finding their way to the doorsteps of every American.
Although hidden within the NDAA, the amendment gives the State Department and Pentagon the power to utilize all forms of media to coerce the American public to believe and accept whatever version of truth the government wants to provide them.
A Pentagon official voiced concerns over the law, saying that it removes protection for Americans from the distortion of mainstream media. With the restriction of the Smith-Mundt Act lifted, “It removes oversight from the people who want to put out this information. There are no checks and balances. No one knows if the information is accurate, partially accurate, or entirely false”, he said.
It no longer matters (legally) whether the information disseminated by the United States Deep State is true, partially true, or completely false. Given that the mainstream press has been spewing fake news in order to demonize the independent media, issues and concerns over the kind of influence MSM will have on American citizens have increased.
The federal government approved the amendment claiming that it needs the freedom to circulate their own propaganda designed to effectively combat terrorism. They say that, “If terrorist groups like al-Qaeda can use the internet to influence the public, the government should have that capacity too.”
According to Commander Bill Speaks, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) spokesman, the “online persona management service” they use to spread propaganda overseas “supports classified blogging activities on foreign-language websites to enable CENTCOM to counter violent extremist and enemy propaganda outside the US.”
“The first casualty of war is truth.” -Hiram Johnson
So now the psychological operations designed to manipulate foreigners via broadcasting materials on local radio stations and TV networks makes content agitprop to Americans. The deep state and establishment politicians running cover for those bureaucrats, do not like the fact that Trump is putting America first and making dramatic changes to their ivory towers. Hence the ridiculous mess that is today’s mainstream media.
