by Dee McLachlan
Are governments paying to spread propaganda or Fake News?
The Telegraph published an article on the “Freedom on the Net” report — which claimed that at least 30 governments around the world are employing “keyboard armies” — paying commentators, trolls, using bots, and fake news to spread propaganda and attack critics.
Interestingly Australia was not on the list. But Australia has the ABC to spread any narrative they wish — and ABC’s QandA program on Monday nights does just that.
QandA
I can no longer watch the ABC on Monday night. My stomach turns when I hear the undiluted propaganda that gushes out from the QandA studio. Over the years, the questions and answers seem to have become more scripted, the discussions more spurious, and the guests glowing with greater self-importance.
Below I present an extract of the transcript on election meddling, with my comment, from last Monday night’s program (26/2/2017). But before I do, I’ll address the first question — which addressed historic comments made by the newly appointed Deputy Prime Minister, Michael McCormack.
In 1993 McCormack had written an editorial describing the LGBTI community as “sordid” and “unnatural”, and also blaming same-sex-attracted people for the spread of AIDS. The discussion, which I won’t detail, went on about how it was a different world back then. But, I point Tony Jones, the host of QandA, to an article published in Gumshoe News, entitled: The Man-made Origin of HIV/AIDS: This is NOT Fake News. The article, by Alan R Cantwell, M.D., states that his research suggests HIV entered the gay population via an experimental hepatitis B vaccine that had been contaminated by a chimpanzee virus.
Tony, wouldn’t this make an excellent segment in your program — to get Alan Cantwell on your panel. But I’m sure that will never happen. Maybe next week you’ll have an “expert” on Air Bags, and we will learn about how the government is going to handle the recall of 2 million plus cars — as a result of one Australian death. A reminder: thirty-five million people worldwide died of AIDS.
Election Meddling and Russia
Back to QandA and the transcript from the Monday night’s program. On the panel were: British politician Harriet Harman, Liberal Senator Zed Seselja, Shadow Minister for Justice Clare O’Neil, British philosopher Anthony Grayling, and sometimes ABC broadcaster Catherine McGregor .
The second question, probably scripted well in advance, was about Russian Election Meddling:
“COOPER GANNON: After the recent Russian interference in the US election, we’ve been told that they were able to use social media to further their agenda. Considering that 79% of us use social media, what can be done to block false information being spread to a large number of Australian voters in a similar scenario?
“TONY JONES: Catherine McGregor?
“CATHERINE McGREGOR: Thanks for that question, and it raises a very broad issue about the fact that we’re now living in the information age… [Blah blah about the military, then] …The Russians definitely intervened in the 2016 presidential election. Only absolute cranks deny that now. As to whether the president of the United States was complicit in that, I give him the benefit of the doubt until there’s an absolute smoking gun, but it is quite clear that the Clinton campaign was targeted specifically at the direction of the Kremlin.
“There are a number of issues around this. Putin was obsessed with Clinton. He’s paranoid about the United States, per se… he was the first foreign leader to ring George Bush on 9/11. He believed there would be a modus vivendi emerge between United States and Russia against Islamic extremism.
“Then the invasion of Iraq occurred, and the rhetoric from the neo-cons, particularly, started to terrify him.”
I think President Putin’s fear was completely justified. I interrupt McGregor’s long propagandized answer by pointing out that Putin was probably aware, through Intel, of the US’ plans to destroy seven countries in five years in the Middle East and Africa. Gumshoe has often written about what Ret. General Wesley Clarke revealed in 2007. He said:
“This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.” [Video here]
Why has the ABC never presented this appalling revelation? Well over a million people have been killed as a result of these invasions.
Yet, the ABC is happy to let McGregor trash the Russian president. To continue with the ABC transcript:
“CATHERINE McGREGOR (continued): Observers of the Kremlin say that two things have really wounded this guy’s psyche. One was he was a station chief in Dresden for the KGB when the Berlin Wall came down. He rang head office from Dresden with a riot outside, and no-one answered the phone. And everything this man had believed in, as a loyal operative of the KGB, was shattered, and he regarded it… And he said it on the public record in Munich in 2007 – that the collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest cataclysm of the 20th century.
Tony, what about a discussion over Operation Cyclone — about the US funding the mujahideen, in Afghanistan, in the 80s to disrupt the USSR. To continue:
“TONY JONES: …how serious is that as a threat? Does it extend beyond the United States?
“CATHERINE McGREGOR: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
“TONY JONES: The questioner wanted to know if it could happen here.
“CATHERINE McGREGOR: Yeah. Well, it already is. The Australian Signals Directorate published, in its public reporting, that there were at least 1,200 cyber incidents, or so-called, in 2015… And the Russians have – part of their strategic culture, going right back to the Soviet era – have hard-wired into their military and intelligence apparatus the concept of an information war.
“…but we basically operate within the laws of armed conflict. [Really?] They draw no distinction between situations of peace and war. They [Russia] have a doctrine that says that they are constantly in struggle with the West.
I can’t resist to intervene, and point out, that it is the US that is constantly in war status. It is the US that maintains nearly 800 military bases in more than 70 countries — and the country that has deliberately “moved in” and “surrounded” Russia. Whereas, the majority of Russia’s military bases and facilities are located in former Soviet republics. You only have to listen to a few of Putin’s interviews to realize who the aggressor is. To continue:
“TONY JONES: So, this is war by another means, is what you’re…?
“CATHERINE McGREGOR: Absolutely. “The pen is mightier than the sword,” is the cliche. And they call it information operations. They saw the fault lines in US society and the fracture points. They didn’t create them. They’re a function that I’m sure the professor will talk about much more in his dissertation later on. But the fault lines in our political system… And I think the Electoral College lent itself particularly to destabilisation, because it allows very narrow casting of messages that can be amplified. And they mobilise people through bot farms, through a thing called the Internet Research Agency which is run by an oligarch close to Putin himself.
“So, Putin’s an interesting character. He was obsessed with the death of Gaddafi. He watches that on replays…” [She is then cut off.]
What? What was McGregor about to imply, before being cut off by Jones? That Putin is a depraved? Perverted?
And, when asked, the next panel member, Anthony Grayling, said:
“A.C. GRAYLING: …I mean, agree with all that [What McGregor said]… talk about our friend Mr Putin – it’s in his interests to weaken the EU and to distract them.”
McGregor, an ex-military officer and historian, should do her research. The West had long planned the destruction of Libya, and orchestrated the “assassination” of Gaddafi. Putin understands the West’s modus operandi — which Australia blindly supports — and said this in the past about the invasion of Libya:
“…a case study in Western intervention: stir up protests, give them rhetorical support and diplomatic cover, and, if that doesn’t work, send in the fighter jets,”
The ABC is constantly disparaging about Russia and Putin, and continues to proliferate the “scripted” negative narrative. For example, the foreign correspondent team went searching for a protest in Moscow, and this is what they wrote on the 4th of December, 2017, entitled: Step aside, Vladimir Putin — a new generation is rising.
Of course the ABC should be reporting on world affairs, but there seems to be no balance. Why not present a balanced view — like this report in Vox. Lisa Dickey on 14/2/2017 wrote “I’ve been visiting Russia for nearly 30 years. I’ve never seen Russians prouder than under Putin.” The article, not all glowing, is about how, in 1995, the country was in shambles — and that many believe it is Putin that turned it around.
I would like to know what McGregor was going to say about Putin’s “obsession” with Gaddafi’s death (before she was cut off).
Putin was highly critical of NATO’s military intervention after the revolution in Libya in 2011, and in the video below (from 0.30 – 2.00), Putin questions the Coalitions’ bombing of the palaces, and their resources grab in Libya. (This was filmed before the death of Muammar Gaddafi.)
The ABC Propaganda Machine
The ABC QandA program can be viewed here.
As I have said. Australia does NOT need government-paid trolls to spread their fakeries. They already have the tax-payer funded ABC to do just that.
I think I’ve commented on Gumshoe before about extent of my disgust with the ABC, my vehement opposition to the use of my (significant) tax dollars to fund it and the monumental psy-op that it has visited on the Australian people.
To re-iterate, the ABC is a daily disgrace and in blatant contravention of its charter to be objective. It is so far left by now that it would be too radical for Trotsky. The only way it is objective is that it is objectively biased. I strongly oppose its continued funding by tax dollars and would love it to be de-funded forthwith. It should have to exist on its own merits and be user-funded.
However, I suspect it would still have willing user funding because the ABC has pulled off one of the great psy-ops of all time. The ABC, like government, academia, education and increasingly MSM and corporate Australia, is full of graduates, brain-washed by Marxist lecturers who infiltrated during the long march through our universities since the 1960s. They have managed to move the Overton window so far to the left that the average ABC viewer now holds views considered radical 15 years ago.
But rather than knowing the truth, namely that they have been indoctrinated by the propaganda arm of the leftist deep state, they believe that their views are those of the enlightened intelligentsia, elite and superior to those of the unwashed masses.
This is the 2nd greatest psy-op in Australian history – after P.A.
I agree with everything Richard said except de-funding the ABC. Rather, the ABC News Dept should be taken over by Gumshoe. Taxpayers should be paying for what our team does for free.
Would the legal eagles please try to identify any crimes being committed by ABC staff? I have a feeling there are many.
For example, if the AIDS disease was created for genocidal purposes, as I think it was, and the reporters try to steer us off of thinking this, is that a crime?
We have more than enough liars here in Australia willing to take to the airwaves, why then do the ABC import foreign liars to support their programs?
Claiming political/religious neutrality would have to be the ultimate conceit
Sometimes the panel and particularly the so-called host are so blatantly biased that it is almost funny
Well there’s nothing wrong with being biased; everyone has preferences. “Problems” only arise when they’re not owned as such.
Dee, This is a necessarily savage, on the money indictment on what is happening to “(y)our ABC”, as it is going the way of the BBC. What gob smacks me to the max is not so much that one of my ardent right-wing acquaintances still clings to the fantasy the ABC is loony-toon left-wing fiefdom, is that there are are millions out there just like him. I don’t watch the ABC anymore, and when I do I watch any political commentary channels these days I’d much rather tune in to RT itself. They understand “nuance” and “balance”. As for Catherine McGregor, she is nothing but an overpaid, over-opionated imperial troll whose dancing to the tune being played by the Beltway Bedlamites; it’s either that or she is a complete moron when it comes to understanding the geopolitical forces that are shaping the world.
Back in the day, the ABC wouldn’t touch someone like her with a forty foot barge pole. She knows there’s no evidence for the claims she is making, and it’s utter nonsense she is sprouting. Even if — a very big if — the Russians did meddle in America’s precious democratic processes, consider the following that I posted on Facebook recently, and it was in response to the article included in this link here. This was a Time piece chronicling the adventures of Uncle Sam’s minions in their meddling in the political affairs of Russia during the ill-fated (for the Russians) Boris Yeltsin era. The article and my commentary should bring the matter into much sharper relief for all but the most imperially minded, preternaturally ignorant, or ideologically myopic.
https://off-guardian.org/2018/02/19/yanks-to-the-rescue-times-not-so-secret-story-of-how-american-advisers-helped-yeltsin-win-the-1996-presidential-election/
“G’Day Comrades, After all the asthma-inducing umbrage, indignation, and faux outrage expressed by certain individuals and groups over the (non)scandal du jour (or should we say du an?) that is the so-called Russia-gate affair, this be a sobering piece for all of us to reflect on (see link above*). Given this week’s (spoiler alert: ‘pisstake’ ahead) ‘startling’ revelation from Slick Willy’s former CIA chief James Woolsey that The Company “only ever interferes” in the affairs of other countries “for their own good” (read: “this coup is going to hurt us more than it’s going to hurt you!”), it is useful to reflect on the degree to which the U.S. interfered in the affairs of post-Soviet Russia, to the extent that it was almost brought unstuck as both a viable political and economic entity. This is of course something Putin himself has not forgotten. Nor should he be expected to.
As Woolsey so memorably recollected for posterity — to his own obvious supercilious amusement to boot — Russia is just one of several baker’s dozen of countries that have been the recipients of Uncle Sam’s munificence (aka “meddling”) over the past several decades. As my ‘bolshie’ compatriot Caitlin Johnson and I are oft at pains to emphasise, this includes my own country Australia, America’s unofficial 51st state, an unerring first-cab-off-the-rank accomplice in endorsing no-questions-asked the enterprise of empire expansion. Of course according to Woolsey, America interferes in other countries’ affairs ‘only for a very good cause [and] in the interests of democracy’. Yet there are all too few examples where anyone can point to America’s interference and meddling serving the democratic interests (by any way it might be objectively measured) of any given country one might name.
Whatever the Russians might have done by way of facilitating President Boris Bluff ‘n Bluster’s (Trump = America’s Yeltsin?) improbable rise to the Oval Orifice — all allegations and accusations to that effect still unencumbered by anything remotely resembling hard, concrete, tangible evidence — it fails any and all comparability tests one might reasonably apply. Suffice to say, even if the mischievious gremlins in the Kremlin did play fast and loose with America’s much ballyhooed democracy — even under their own (ahem) careful management a rickety construct at the best of times — well might we say, “hell hath no fire and fury like an exceptional and indispensable empire finally realising that what it deems good for the bear might actually be deemed (by the bear or anyone else) to be equally good for the eagle too”.
One suspects the preternaturally patient Russian president Vladimir Putin instinctively understands this reality, although the man is too politically savvy and diplomatic to rub the Americans’ noses in it. He still occasionally refers to the U.S. as “partners”, In doing so he thereby stretches — not unlike his aforementioned “patience” — the very definition of the word to breaking point. Or it might suggest that the Russians apply a very different meaning to the word. The eagle can ‘peck the bear’ every which way from the Sabbath, but heaven forbid the bear ruffles the eagle’s finely coiffed plumage! I believe the Russians have a word that sums up this whole affair, and this time the meaning/translation is as clear as mud as it were! It’s called “hypocrisy”. OK, I made that last bit up. But the rest you can take to the bank! What say you comrades? Am I on to something here?
GM, Editor, poxamerikana.com
Thanks for the extended comment Greg. You are so right about the Yeltsin era. Total interference.
Your’e on the money.
The Russians have another word, for which there is no direct English translation. In cyrillic script, it looks like this.
недоговороспособны-
It means “not agreement capable” Seems very apt when talking about recent US foreign policy under the last several administrations.
test
FOFF
Ned, Not sure why ya gettin’ blocked.
oh well I can overcome the control freaks with screen shots in future?
reply fail.
sell the ABC.
As the Government was bought & sold a while back I’d say that’s a fait accompli
4
WEIRDOS
Algorithim
32much
Ned, there’s a video I’ve been wanting to share with you for a while. Maybe this is the right time…
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Sorry, everybody, that is not the one I meant to send.
Sorry Ned. I don’t dare try again. Too techie for me.
Catherine McGregor-
“The Russians definitely intervened in the 2016 presidential election. Only absolute cranks deny that now.”
Well NOT according to Rep.Adam Schiff- Senate Committee on Intelligence.
“‘Leaker’ Adam Schiff CONCEDES (finally): ‘No evidence of Trump-Russia collusion’
What is your agenda Catherine??
One can identify the day the ABC transitioned from pseudo-independent news media to unashamed political propaganda when it commenced interrupting the news and important interviews, with politician’s speeches and media interactions. Even significant news items now must give way to boring speeches bereft of substance.
I can state with absolute certainty that a hostile foreign power can invade and occupy this country with no risk of being reported on the ABC news… or anything else Murdoch and Lowy control. It is happening as we speak.
So right