Never before has it been so important to have
independent, honest voices and sources of information.
We are - as a society - inundated and overwhelmed with a flood of information from a wide array of
sources, but these sources of information, by and large, serve the powerful
interests and individuals that own them. The main sources of information,
for both public and official consumption, include the mainstream media,
alternative media, academia and think tanks.
The
mainstream media is the most obvious in its inherent bias and
manipulation.
The mainstream media is owned directly by large multinational
corporations, and through their boards of directors are connected with a
plethora of other major global corporations and elite interests. An example
of these connections can be seen through the board of Time Warner.
Time Warner owns,
-
Time Magazine
-
HBO
-
Warner Bros.
-
CNN,
...among many
others.
The board of directors includes individuals past or presently
affiliated with:
...among
many others.
Two of the most “esteemed” sources of news in the U.S. are.
The
New York Times
has on its board people who are past or presently affiliated
with:
-
Schering-Plough International (pharmaceuticals)
-
the John D. and
Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
-
Chevron Corporation
-
Wesco Financial
Corporation
-
Kohlberg & Company
-
The Charles Schwab Corporation
-
eBay Inc.
-
Xerox
-
IBM
-
Ford Motor Company
-
Eli Lilly & Company,
...among others.
Hardly a
bastion of impartiality.
And the same could be said for the Washington Post, which
has on its board:
-
Lee Bollinger, the President of Columbia University and Chairman of the
Federal Reserve Bank of New York
-
Warren Buffett, billionaire financial
investor, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway
-
individuals associated
with (past or presently):
...among others
It is also important to address how the mainstream media is intertwined,
often covertly and secretly, with the government.
Carl Bernstein, one of the
two Washington Post reporters who covered the Watergate scandal, revealed
that there were over 400 American journalists who had,
“secretly carried out
assignments for the Central Intelligence Agency.”
Interestingly,
“the use of
journalists has been among the most productive means of
intelligence-gathering employed by the CIA.”
Among organizations which
cooperated with the CIA were the,
"American Broadcasting Company, the
National Broadcasting Company, the Associated Press, United Press
International, Reuters, Hearst Newspapers, Scripps-Howard, Newsweek
magazine, the Mutual Broadcasting System, the Miami Herald and the old
Saturday Evening Post and New York Herald-Tribune."
By far the
most valuable of these associations, according to CIA officials,
have been with the New York Times, CBS and Time Inc.
The CIA even ran a
training program,
“to teach its agents to be journalists,” who were “then
placed in major news organizations with help from management.”
These types of relationships have continued in the decades since, although
perhaps more covertly and quietly than before.
For example, it was revealed
in 2000 that
during the NATO bombing of Kosovo,
“several officers from the
US Army's 4th Psychological Operations (PSYOPS) Group at Ft. Bragg worked in
the news division at CNN's Atlanta headquarters.”
This same Army Psyop
outfit had,
“planted stories in the U.S. media supporting the Reagan
Administration's Central America policies,” which was described by the Miami
Herald as a “vast psychological warfare operation of the kind the military
conducts to influence a population in enemy territory.”
These Army PSYOP
officers also
worked at National Public Radio (NPR) at the same time. The US
military has, in fact, had a
strong relationship with CNN.
In 2008, it was reported that the
Pentagon ran a major propaganda campaign
by using retired Generals and former Pentagon officials to present a good
picture of the administration’s war-time policies.
The program started in
the lead-up to the Iraq War in 2003 and continued into 2009.
These
officials, presented as “military analysts”, regurgitate government talking
points and often sit on the boards of military contractors, thus having a
vested interest in the subjects they are brought on to “analyze.”
The major philanthropic foundations in the United States have often used
their enormous wealth to co-opt voices of dissent and movements of
resistance into channels that are safe for the powers that be.
As
McGeorge
Bundy, former President of the Ford Foundation once said,
“Everything the
Foundation does is to make the world safe for Capitalism.”
Examples of this include philanthropies like the,
...providing immense financial and organizational support to Non-Governmental
Organizations.
Furthermore, the alternative media are often funded by these
same foundations, which has the effect of influencing the direction of
coverage as well as the stifling of critical analysis.
This now brings us to the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) and
Global Research.
As an institution which acts as a research centre as well as a source of
alternative news through the website
www.globalresearch.ca, the CRG has
become a much needed voice of independence seeking to break through all the
propaganda and misinformation.
To maintain our independence, Global Research does not accept assistance
from public and private foundations. Nor do we seek support from
universities and/or government.
While the objective is to expand and help spread important and much-needed
information to more people than ever before, Global Research needs to rely
upon its readers to support the organization.
Thank you, dear readers, for your tireless support.
Supporting Global Research is supporting the cause of truth and the
fight
against media disinformation.
Thank you.
The Global Research Team
