From: Rense.com
Media Manipulation Of 9/11 Truth
By Stephen Lendman
9-6-11
In February 2003, a Florida Court of Appeals unanimously ruled for Fox News, saying no rule or law prohibits distorting or falsifying news.
Just as Wall Street, war profiteers, Big Oil, Big Pharma, and other corporate favorites steal with impunity, it’s OK for America’s media to lie.
The ruling pertained to a 1996 Jane Akre/Steve Wilson Fox affiliate WTVT, Tampa reports on bovine growth hormone (BGH) dangers, Monsanto’s hazardous to human health genetically engineered milk additive.
At first, the station loved them. Later, however, Fox executives and their attorneys ordered its reporters to admit falsifying evidence and produce bogus reports on BGH safety.
They refused, threatened to inform the FCC, were fired, and sued. A district court jury decided on their behalf, awarding Acre alone $425,000 in damages.
Fox appealed and won, the Appellate Court saying Acre wasn’t protected under Florida’s whistleblower statute, loosely interpreting it to mean employers must violate an adopted “law, rule, or regulation.”
In other words, Fox simply followed “policy” entitling its stations to lie – whether on product safety or falsifying facts about anything, including 9/11 truth.
In 2005, Project Censored chose this story among its top 25 most important, titled “The Media Can Legally Lie,” and lie they’ve done about 9/11 from that day to the present.
Those old enough to remember won’t forget, including how media distortions turned it into perhaps the most hyped ever spectacle, especially on television.
For days, images of planes hitting the twin towers and their collapse were aired repeatedly.
[…]
Both wars rage today, besides Obama’s naked aggression, notably against Libya – another nonbelligerent country America and its NATO allies systematically destroyed, butchering tens of thousands of Libyans on the pretext of protecting them.
America’s post-9/11 decade is best called its visible fall from grace, waging permanent wars on humanity for wealth and power, never for falsified hyped reasons everyone needs to understand and condemn.
But don’t expect America’s media to explain. They’re, in fact, complicit by regurgitating official lies, vilifying Islam, and resonating war fever discourse for intervention, featuring one-sided reports and commentaries.
Absent was critical debate. Vital questions weren’t asked. Militarism instead was promoted as the solution to “global terrorism.”
For days, political and military officials and spokespersons shared air time with so-called national security state experts and various crackpots, ranging from right-wing to hard-right to the lunatic fringe.
The common theme argued was that America was at war with Islam, Samuel Huntington’s racist “clash of civilizations” notion, “good v. evil,” “freedom (and our) way of life” against “forces of darkness.”
Bush administration officials used cowboy metaphors, including wanting bin Laden “dead or alive,” calling its campaign a “crusade” until criticism forced its change to “Operation Enduring Freedom,” and vowing to “smoke out and pursue” barbaric evil doers.
Their underlying theme was fear because it sells, even when cause for it doesn’t exist.
At the same time, Bush’s “war on terrorism” didn’t mention democracy, instead emphasizing his fighting for “freedom” mantra, no matter the human toll or illegitimacy of the Big (9/11) Lie, permitting America’s war on the world to follow.
Inaugurated on January 20, 2001, his nationally televised address to Congress declared war on terrorism, describing a conflict between “those governed by fear (who) want to destroy our wealth and freedoms” and others wanting to defend it.
Thereafter, the major media hyped fear, promoted revenge, and defended falsified notions that Washington wages wars for freedom and democratic values by ridding nations of dangerous tyrants, especially ones threatening Americans.
In other words, wars of aggression are liberating ones. Civil and human rights are suppressed for our own good, and patriotism means going along with lawless governments, committing crimes of war and against humanity against one country after another.
Bin Laden and Al Qaeda replaced “the evil empire.” Terrorism became the new mantra. Manichean good v. evil notions were hyped. Fear and hate overwhelmed sanity and defending right over wrong, as well as holding venal politicians accountable for acting lawlessly with impunity.
An earlier article explained that when America goes to war, managed news follows, spreading rumors, half-truths, misinformation, and willful deception about targeted nations, regimes, leaders, and other enemies, whether despots of democrats.
John Pilger said “Journalism is the first casualty” of war. “Not only that: it has become a weapon of war, a virulent censorship (and willful misreporting) that goes unrecognized in the United States, Britain and other democracies; censorship by omission (makes all) the difference between life and death for people in (targeted) countries….”
It suppresses debate, substitutes fiction for facts, filters out truth, and cheerleads in lockstep with government policy, right or wrong.
As a result, it supports America’s right to be judge, jury and executioner, as well as get victor’s spoils because that’s why all wars are fought, never for falsified reasons, regurgitated on air and in print ad nauseam.
Because America’s business is war, supported by its major media, war profiteering is a growth industry, and as famed comedian Jimmy Durante used to say:
“Everybody wants ta get inta da act,” and they do.
In addition, not telling the truth and holding venal politicians accountable for taking America to war on false pretenses lets them do it again with impunity.
H
