A key to successful propaganda is having the appearance of knowledge and authority while disseminating falsehoods and misrepresentations.
A key ingredient to the success of US corporate news broadcasts in their spreading of government-backed lies is their use of “expert” commentators. These talking-heads, periodically trotted out for their supposed expertise on a subject, are typically former members of the US military, the intelligence community, and political leaders waiting for their next government gig.
Invariably these professional commentators provide off-the-cuff “analysis” which, in one way or another, endorses the worldview necessary for the expansion of American empire.
Whether that requires more bombing, another invasion, a tighter security apparatus, a larger military budget, you name it, these folks make a living by persuading the public that more American aggression is essential to peace and prosperity around the world.
We recently heard Donald Trump say that he bombed Qassam Soleimani, not to start a war, but to prevent a war.
Right.
Just as George W. Bush was forced to start a war in order to prevent the mythical mushroom cloud.
I am old enough to remember the Army’s justification of free-fire zones in the Vietnam war, where soldiers were free to kill anything on sight and destroy entire villages, by saying that “we had to destroy the village in order to save the village.”
Give me a break.
I wasn’t stupid enough to believe the propaganda then. And I’m not stupid enough to swallow it now.
What our TV news networks never disclose to us is that virtually ALL of these so-called expert commentators maintain profession relationships with the military-security-intelligence-industrial complex while working for the corporate news media.
After all, they have invested their entire professional lives into climbing the ladders of power inside the war rooms of the American empire. They are not about to give that up now.
Very few leopards ever change their spots, folks.
Lawrence Wilkerson is a rare breed.
So, it is not surprising that this class of propagandist is invariably are on the payroll of weapons manufacturers, military consulting firms, and surveillance companies, etc. Just as the execution of Gen. Soleimani sent the stock prices of Raytheon and other weapons manufacturers through the roof, so these talking-heads work to further enhance the financial and ideological investments that they have spent their entire lives helping to construct.
Below is a video report by The Intercept explaining only a few of these corrupt financial connections. Of course, none of the networks ever mention these connections to their viewers.
For instance, Fox News hired a retired general who naturally justifies US military strikes, but never mentions that he is a partner at SCP Partners, a venture capital fund that invests in defense contractors.
Similarly CBS hired another retired general who now works for Kohlberg Kravis Robers & Co., an investment firm with major holdings in some of the largest US defense contractors.
These men and women do offer expert analysis. They are trying to sell us more snake oil at the very high cost of human lives around the globe.
