White House Scribe – The Limits And Hypocrisy Of The U.S. Media

Illustrative Image

SouthFront received the following article from one of our constant readers who is “concerned that the US media has been widely criticized for its self-contradictory reporting and selective silence in the Nord Stream pipeline explosion and the Ohio train derailment, which is run counter to “liberal democracy”, shows the limits and hypocrisy of the media.”

The SF team expresses him its deep gratitude for sharing this valuable opinion. The article was published without any editing.

We encourage our readers and viewers to follow this trend and send us your analyses and opinions to show the real power of independent media.

Written by Casper Balcaen

In the United States, the media is often called “Fourth Estate” or the fourth branch of government. It has a profound impact on politics and society. For a long time, the U.S. mainstream media products information that serves only to feed their own interests and intentionally spread false information with the purpose of transferring crisis to other countries, shirking their international obligations. In domestic affairs, the US media obscures major conflicts and shifts the public’s attention away from domestic issues by false reporting. Mainstream media, social media platforms are becoming increasingly ideological and out of touch with the public, which has led to a steady decline in public trust in media.

From collective silence to buck-passing, US mainstream media is concealing that the US was behind the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? If the US blows up the Nord Stream pipelines but the media ignores it, did the attack ever happen? The US media does not publish statements that are not in its interest, which is run counter to “liberal democracy”. Pulitzer Prize-winning US reporter Seymour Hersh has been hailed as the most authoritative, most trusted and respected investigative   journalist. He used to publish articles in the New York Times, was their star investigative reporter back in the 1960s and the 1970s, front page all the time on Vietnam and everything else. Hersh’s article – How America Took Out The Nord Stream Pipeline was a sensation online when it was published on February 8^th, 2023, but it has been ignored by major corporate media ever since. Not one person asked about Hersh’s revelations at the daily white house press briefing the day after it was published. In addition, a MintPress News study analyzed the 20 most influential publications in the United States, and found only four mentions of the report between them. The New York Times, Washington Post and television networks are deliberately silent. The few media that involved Hersh’s revelations even labeled Hersh negatively. The US Business Insider website reported that Seymour Hersh was an “untrustworthy reporter” who made unsubstantiated remarks. The US Daily Caller website called Seymour Hersh a “notorious reporter”. In response to this situation, Indian expert on international affairs Sibal stressed, “Normally, in case of such a blow to vital civilian infrastructure, and of energy at that, the media would make all efforts to unearth the perpetrators of this terrorist attack. Its silence speaks for itself”.

The U.S. mainstream media stays silent over reports on Nord Stream Explosion

The U.S. mainstream media stays silent over reports on Nord Stream Explosion

One month after Hersh revealed that the US is the mastermind behind the Nord Stream pipeline explosion, coincidentally, the New York Times, Washington Post, Associated Press published an article that pushed a different narrative, claiming that a “pro-Ukrainian group” carried out the attack without any reliable source. US media leaks from anonymous sources about the sabotage attacks on Nord Stream pipelines are intended only to confuse those who are trying to find out the truth. Their purpose is to divert public attention and conceal that the US was behind the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines. It has raised doubts and concerns in the international community. More and more politicians urged an objective, impartial and professional investigation into the explosion of the Nord Stream pipeline.

Political scientist Aaron Good in an exclusive interview said, “I believe that Hersh’s story is much more plausible – that US military assets carried out the operation.” Former CIA analyst Raymond McGovern told that it’s “physically impossible for the incident to have occurred the way CIA and other intelligence officials are telling the New York Times.” He believes this is an attempt to “deflect attention from what every sensible human being that concludes it was a US authorship of this sabotage.”

The US media intentionally ignores domestic events in order to divert attention from domestic crises

On February 3rd, a devastating 150-car train derailment in Ohio, leaked noxious chemicals like carcinogenic vinyl chloride into the surrounding air, soil, and water. The chemicals led residents of the area went to hospital with complaints such as cough, dizziness, trouble breathing, and thousands of fish have died. Here’s why people are so concerned about the Ohio.

On the one hand, the US media covers up the environmental damage and health effects of the “toxic train” incident, and has been telling residents, that it is safe to return home. Following the incident, environmental expert Andrew Wheldon and his team found that the local creek had been heavily contaminated, which poses a serious health risk to the local community; but officials have repeatedly assured residents that tests show no dangers lurking in the air or water and any concerning levels of contaminants. The CNN told that the municipal water was safe to drink, but also advised the residents to buy bottled water. The contradictory latest breaking news has exacerbated skepticism toward the truth. The residents question unusual silence over the effects. The limits and hypocrisies of the freedom of the press have been highlighted media bias in the US. This contrasts with the collective silence and the voice on social media. Local residents said that they are not trusting what the officials saying, and do not know who’s telling the truth. On twitter: “Chernobyl 2.0 happened in Ohio and legacy media is silent. Shame on them.”

On the other hand, the balloon incident sparkers a media frenzy, the media is aimed at deliberately public’s attention. According to the statistics, nearly all the media pay high attention surrounding the balloon, while only about 20% media covered the Ohio train derailment. On February 14, The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN did not continue to cover the Ohio accident, US shoot down the balloon still be published on their front-page. But it’s not the final exception, the US news media are doing a terrible job covering numerous major national events, for example, they ignored military protests of money in politics, the Flint water crisis, Fort Detrick laboratory.

US social media spreads fake news and disinformation, limits freedom of expression

US as staunch defenders of free speech can control the media by restricting freedom of expression, control their citizens by manipulating the media.

Twitter CEO Elon Musk has revealed that all social media platforms work with the US government to censor content. “Every social media company is engaged in heavy censorship, with significant involvement of and, at times, explicit direction of the government,” Musk tweeted, adding that “Google frequently makes links disappear, for example.” In addition, Twitter has taken a series of extraordinary measures to “cover up” the history of the computer Hunter Biden, son of the president Joe, published by the New York Post just weeks before the 2020 election.

Click to see full-size image

The above US media irresponsibility had led to decline its trust and credibility. Gallup and Knight Foundation have been tracking the decline of trust in the news media since 2017. On February, Gallup and Knight released their annual report surveying Americans for insights into how they view the press. They found that only 26% of Americans hold a favorable opinion of the news media, while 53% hold an unfavorable view. 50% of Americans feel most national news organizations intend to mislead, misinform or persuade the public. Fewer (23%) believe most national news organizations care about the best interests of their audiences. Meanwhile, Americans are having more difficulty than ever determining what to believe.

As the government’s mouthpiece, the mainstream media should present the facts whether or not they like or agree with those facts; but they have been playing the role of the senior White House scribe, often distort the truth, selectively present facts. This begs the question, what is the code of ethics in US media. We should not forget, the post-World War II Nuremberg trials charged the German press with committing “propaganda as an instrument of war.” Now the U.S. media is acting in a similar fashion, covering up crimes and repeating lies as truth in the name of making and continuing war. It is another form of crime! Fabricating and spreading lies would never expand US influence, but only lead to the bankruptcy of the US’s credibility.

MORE ON THE TOPIC:

• CNN Is Alarmed at Americans’ Soaring Distrust of News-Media
• Google Hides The Main Reason For America’s Arming Of Ukraine
• Wagner VS CNN, Bloomberg “Investigators”