Yesterday’s post addressed the wholesale propaganda war being waged against consumers of US news. The purpose of this particular campaign is several fold:
First, the ultimate political goal is to force Venezuela back into the international fold of global capitalism (sometimes called neoliberalism), thereby reopening its doors to American corporate interests (especially our oil companies);
Second, to persuade the American people that economic sanctions and even military action against Venezuela is entirely justified, should we decide to act in those ways. (Note – the US has already imposed severe economic sanctions against Venezuela which are helping to cripple the nation’s economy and its supply of consumer goods).
Third, propaganda – which is the standard diet dished out to every American who depends on the major corporate news outlets – serves as the information artillery barrage used to soften up the American battlefield of public opinion long before our government unleashes the military on “the enemy.”
Making the general public believe that, once again, the US has been 
“forced” into using our military as “the last resort” in “fighting for democracy, freedom and human rights” in another part of the world, keeps the public subdued, pliable and supportive of The Empire’s latest acts of international barbarism.
In addition to yesterday’s information, here are several more video reports from journalists working in Venezuela that help to fill out this picture.
First, reports from Abby Martin’s The Empire Files: She walks the streets of Venezuela, goes shopping in the stores, reads the newspapers, attends
demonstrations, interviews people on both sides of the confrontations, including average people and their political leaders.
I think Martin is one of the most important journalists working today. Granted, her personal interviews can be needlessly profane, but from all I have seen, her journalism is excellent. Check out:
Why Socialism Keeps Winning in Venezuela (24 minutes)
Venezuela’s Constituent Assembly: Dictatorship or Democracy? (26 minutes)
Abby Martin Fact-Checks “No Free Press in Venezuela” Claim (3:39 minutes)
Inside Venezuela’s Markets: Propaganda vs. Reality (22 minutes)
Abby Martin Meets the Venezuelan Opposition (26 minutes)
For another thorough analysis of the Venezuela issues, here is Michael Prysner’s excellent response to John Oliver’s recent segment on Venezuela during his
HBO comedy show. Granted, it is 45 minutes long, but you don’t have to watch it all at once. Prysner takes the time to debunk, point by point, all of Oliver’s thoughtless repetitions of the mainstream media’s statements on Venezuela. You can easily follow up on Prysner’s work online.
You can also find similar analysis from others by searching sites like the Real News Network, teleSUR English, RT News, and RT America.
Here are some of my thoughts on becoming a well-informed, thoughtful news consumer.
In order to find this type of journalism – that is, REAL journalism, something that the corporate media abandoned many years ago because their top executives decided that it did not make enough money – we must turn to independent, genuinely investigative journalism. Most of these folks nowadays work for online publications and video outlets (check out youtube).
I give greater attention to journalists who report from the ground inside the relevant country, especially those who speak the language (for instance, Abby Martin’s reports from Venezuela; she is fluent in Spanish) and interview their subjects on their own or at least use a translator by their side.
The kinds of journalists I am talking about are people like Max Blumenthal, Dan Cohen, Glenn Greenwald, Abby Martin, Michael Prysner, Amy Goodman, Jeremy Scahill, Iona Craig, Eva Bartlett and others too numerous to list. You can find them if you begin to look.
Another good source for alternative perspectives appears in outlets backed by foreign governments. I watch and read them as much as I do US news.
Places like RT (Russia Television), Al Jazeera (coming from Qatar) and teleSUR (financed by the governments of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Uruguay and Bolivia). Yes, these broadcasts will certainly have their own biases, but all US media are biased, as well. They certainly are no more biased, and in many, many instances they are much less biased, than any of our American news corporations.
Furthermore, foreign news stations typically offer a different perspective on the world’s problems. It is good and necessary to break out of the American bubble. We need to stop looking at ourselves in the mirror and learn how other people from around the world view us.
For instance, did you know that when the people of the world are asked 
which nation poses the greatest threat to world peace, the United States (not Iran, Russia, China or North Korea) tops the list (here and here)?
Finally, no one can say that they are well-informed until they look at all sides of an issue.
If I don’t know what the other side is saying or thinking – not from my perspective but from their perspective – if I haven’t engaged the evidence used in their arguments; if I don’t understand how they are refuting my arguments, then I simply don’t know what I am talking about.
We need to listen to alternative voices, perspectives and analyses. Things that not nearly enough Americans do. And, I am afraid, that American Christians tend to be among the worst at gathering a diversity of perspectives from which to learn. (OK, I have to say this: Please, TURN OFF THE CHRISTIAN RADIO AND TV NEWS BROADCASTS. MOST OF IT IS PURE PROPAGANDA AND LIES. SUCH BLINDNESS ONLY SERVES TO KEEP THE CHURCH IGNORANT, OFFENSIVE AND PLIABLE TO AMERICAN CORPORATE & IMPERIAL INTERESTS).
Our Creator gave us minds for thinking not strings for pulling.
