Lying By Omission

One of the tricks the U.S. media uses to dupe people into believing the false picture of the world, of reality, that the propaganda system promotes is the omission of key facts. Instead of giving false information (which they also do quite a lot), important information is suppressed which results in the creation of  false impressions and a false image of the world that blots out the real world, like a permanent solar eclipse of the mind. The advantage of this mendacious method of misrepresentation and misleading is that technically the propagandists aren't “lying” in the sense the word is usually understood. But that's a con artist's rationalization. The technique is intended to fool the target by misrepresentation and deception. There may be an argument about whether it is “lying.” There can be no argument that it is dishonest and designed to dupe and mislead people, and therefore is reprehensible. This is an awful and destructive state of affairs that has the consequence of causing tremendous, avoidable human suffering and death.

Adding an extra twist to the sleazy and unethical nature of the scam is the fact that the establishment media presents itself as a reliable (indeed the only reliable) source of information, and is allegedly objective and unbiased to boot. (Yeah, I know, that's pretty brazenly cynical of them.) As hundreds of millions of people rely on these propagandists for grasping reality and understanding the world, this is an awful state of affairs. These propagandists literally promote mass false consciousness, trapping the minds of millions in a web of illusion.

Here are some examples of the phenomenon of lying by omission.

“Iranian hostage crisis.” They're still milking this one, and they won't stop until they overthrow the mullahs ruling Iran. Then when they've installed a client regime as they did in 1953, or a satrapy, Iran will be “our friend” again and the U.S. can let bygones be bygones. Hollywood creepoid Ben Stiller just mined that particular propaganda pit for a movie that is being hailed, predictably, by the corporate media. ("Argo." It concerns the CIA “rescue” of some U.S. “hostages.” I'm waiting for Hollywood to make a movie about the 1953 CIA-MI6 coup, the horrible reign of the Shah, during which he killed a quarter of a million Iranians, the CIA-spawned and nurtured Iranian secret police, the SAVAK, and so on. Unfortunately for the Iranian people, the overthrow of the Shah created an opening for the only remaining organized political force in Iran to seize power, the mullahs. Unless Oliver Stone, say, makes it, I think I'm in for a very long wait.)

A telling omission- besides the entire history I just mentioned: Western propagandists never mention WHY the U.S. embassy was seized. It was in reaction to the U.S. letting the Shah into the United States. You'd think that would be an important fact. It was the CAUSE (justified or not) for the seizure.

Another fact assiduously omitted from the periodic harping on the “Iranian hostage crisis” is that the U.S. immediately stole all Iran's money (in the billions of dollars) from the banks under U.S. financial control, and used the money to pay off businesses that had (unfulfilled) contracts with the dictator Shah.

Here's another example of how the U.S. and other media distort people's impression of the Middle East:

“Rockets raining down on Israel from Gaza.” You hear that a lot. Well, there's plenty they omit here. The most important thing they always omit here is that Israel consistently provokes the rocket fire by murdering Palestinians. Whenever there's a unilateral truce by Hamas, Israel raids Gaza to murder some Palestinian “militants.” This pattern began under Ariel Sharon, and has continued under his successors. U.S. media always glosses over this and pretends that the resulting rocket fire is unprovoked, vicious terrorism aimed at civilians. (By the way, all the Palestinians Israel kills, and there have been thousands and thousands over the years, are by definition civilians, since the Palestinians have no army. And “militant” can mean anything- someone who throws a rock, someone who hates Israeli occupation and repression, whatever. But the specific assassinations are probably aimed at members of “militant” organizations. Since the U.S. and Israel brands these organizations “terrorists,” anyone connected to them is automatically a “terrorist.” “Terrorist” is a political curse word, like “communist,” which has the same meaning as “Jew” in Nazi lexicon- an evil subhuman scumbag worthy of nothing but death, in fact killing them is an imperative.)

I'm not making an argument about whether Palestinian retaliation for the murders and kidnappings of activists and others is justified or not. The point is the media reverses cause and effect, and removes the source of provocation from Israel and transfers it to the evil Palestinians. This allows the media (and Israel) to put Israel on a high moral plane and paint the Palestinians as immoral. (Even though Israel has killed over the decades about 100 Palestinians for every Israeli killed by Palestinians- and most of those Palestinians were "civilians," i.e. not operatives of armed factions- aka "terrorists.")

Here's a third example of chronic distortion by the corporate propaganda system (aka “the media”):

“CIA agents.” Most “CIA agents” are in fact foreign traitors. They aren't employed by the CIA, although they may be paid by the CIA for providing info or doing dirty deeds on the CIA's behalf, like overthrowing the democratic government of Iran in 1953, the one in Guatemala in 1954, murdering General Rene Schneider in Chile in 1970, organizing strikes and sabotage and mayhem there and elsewhere, and etc. (I know the CIA and its media protectors like to pretend all the CIA does is “gather information,” that it's a “spy” agency, not an international terror and subversion agency that trains torturers, organizes death squads, and provides lists of people to be tortured and murdered, but that is heinously dishonest. Yes, it does spy too, mostly not to “protect America,” and certainly not to advance “freedom and democracy,” but to harm others using the information it gets. As has been thoroughly documented over the decades, this is ultimately to advance U.S. corporate interests, abbreviated as “U.S. interests,” a term that is never defined or explained, despite being used daily by the U.S. media and politicians, an interesting omission in itself.)

The actual CIA employees, who are always Americans, are called “officers” or “case officers,” not “agents,” except in the popular media, which seems to want to deliberately confuse people. Further adding to the confusion (obfuscation), FBI agents are indeed card-carrying members of the FBI, with badges and guns and arrest powers. (The CIA has no legal arrest powers, so it just kidnaps people- or simply murders them. Despicably, 54 foreign nations have recently been identified as helping them do this since 2001, when "the world changed," because- boo-hoo! the U.S. was attacked. The Guardian has the list of “rendition program” aiders and abettors. [guardian.co.uk] So much for “rule of law,” much beloved rhetorically by U.S. blowhards and propagandists.) 

The outsiders the FBI relies on for spying and subversion are called “informants” (i.e. informers), a word coined by J. Edgar Hoover to try and avoid the taint of “informer.” It's a distinction without a difference. Hoover articulated a specious distinction between the two words, to ennoble his police state spies. But there isn't any difference. Except some of these so-called “informants” are actually agents provocateur. The media always obfuscates this fact too.

In the case of CIA officer (employee) Aldrich Ames, who was caught selling information to Russia on CIA operations there, including the identities of Russian traitors working for the CIA, “the media” said over and over that Ames“sold the names of American agents to Russia, which executed them.” So the propaganda system converted Russian traitors into American agents, leaving the false and inflammatory impression that Ames caused the deaths of fellow Americans. This is not a defense of Ames, or a judgment on Russians spying for the CIA and thus betraying their own country and committing treason. It is just a statement of FACT. There is no moral judgment required of us concerning Ames or of Russian CIA spies (traitors by any definition, and you can apply your own attitude to treason here, that is not the point of this essay) to see that the U.S. media's completely dishonest and misleading mislabeling of Russian traitors as “American agents” is designed to dupe the American public about the facts of the matter. Yes, these Russian turncoats were “American agents,” but refusing to explain the details prominently, and consistently blaring with emphasis the “American agents” mislabeling, obviously obfuscates reality for the targets of this propaganda.

In this example, the U.S. media isn't just lying by omission, but is also using tendentious and tricky nomenclature designed to deceive (another common trick they employ). Thus we were told over and over (and are still occasionally reminded) that Aldrich Ames' “treachery” “led to the death of numerous American agents.” Most people reading or hearing the words “American agents” would naturally think that Americans were killed as a result of Ames' “treason.” But in fact only Russians were killed, Russian traitors that is. As Russian citizens, their duty of loyalty (if you believe in such things) was to Russia, and they committed the capital crime of treason, for which they were duly tried and executed. By the way, treason is a capital crime in the U.S. too.

The CIA's “American agents” weren't Americans, but Russians who spied for the CIA, giving away Russia's secrets. By persistently calling them “American agents,” the U.S. media knowingly tricked people into believing that Americans were killed because of Ames, and that these victims were noble heroes, not traitors to their own country.

Not that I care. Russia, America, indeed nation states mean nothing to me. I believe that nations are antithetical to having a human race. And like Ames, the Russian “traitors” were likely doing it for the money, at least in some cases. Given the glorification of materialism in America, indeed the very word “success” is usually a euphemism for “making a lot of money,” I think Ames deserved to be cut some slack. But anyone who joins the CIA, an evil, criminal organization, deserves whatever he gets, except in the case of reformed whistle-blowers like the heroic Philip Agee, and others. Some of those Russian traitors aka "American agents" were perhaps ideologically deluded by resentment of their own oppressive system into falling for American propaganda about the "land of the free and the home of the brave" "we love democracy so much" and blah blah blah. If so, they were fools who paid a heavy price for their foolishness. The enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend. Might be a temporary ally of convenience in some cases. (Like, say, oh, I don't know, the U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. in World War II? Might that be a good example, hmmm?)

But then, the U.S. media's definition of “patriotism” is loyalty to the U.S. Everyone in the world is supposed to pay fealty to the U.S. Other nations don't have patriots, or patriotism. They have “nationalists” and “nationalism.”

Isn't language fun? You can do so many things with it!

There are undoubtedly thousands upon thousands of additional examples of American corporate media mendacity employing the technique of lying by omission. I know I come across such examples constantly, and have for decades. Find your own! Collect them! Trade them with your friends!

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