CNN: Not Left-wing but Establishment Safe

https://thegrayzone.com/2019/09/06/embassy-insider-exposes-cnn-lies-about-julian-assange/#more-14399

The fact that CNN is once again exposed as a propaganda outlet for the US Establishment should come as a surprise to no one. I suppose when the outlet first appeared in the 1980's, around-the-clock news and the level of international reporting was novel and thus we were all fascinated. That said, even the mainstream outlets had extensive international bureaus at that time and while the coverage was certainly slanted, nothing compares to what's happening today.

I happened to catch a few minutes of the Democratic debate on 15 October and even in just that brief time I had to chuckle listening to Anderson Cooper manipulate current events in the phrasing of his questions as well as the effective shutting down of Tulsi Gabbard... who was begrudgingly allowed back on to the debate platform.

It sickens for me to admit it, but Trump, the buffoon and serial liar was like the blind squirrel getting an acorn when he denounced CNN as 'Fake News'. It is in the end a rather apt description of that outlet and what it has become.

Gabbard's denunciations of both CNN and the New York Times were pretty much spot on:

https://twitter.com/axios/status/1184277654922547200

And this is in keeping with CNN's phony accusations with regard to Wikileaks and the aggressive campaign to destroy Julian Assange. Of course since then the anti-Gabbard campaign has intensified with Hillary Clinton openly declaring that Gabbard is an agent of Moscow.

And it is amazing (if somewhat comical) how CNN and other similar outlets like MSNBC attempt to spin virtually every story in the direction of Russia. The campaign is obvious and yet many of the people I talk to believe it. Having never quite understood what happened in the USSR, let alone the course of US policy in the 1990's, they are lost in the post-9/11 labyrinth which continues to grow more complex.

Assange is a convenient Emmanuel Goldstein figure, superseded only by Putin himself. The one is being used to stoke anger in the direction of the other.

Assange is no angel, and Putin is undoubtedly an evil figure. Countering the Western narrative is not an endorsement of these figures. The dominant binary-political zero-sum way of thinking has made these discussions nigh on impossible.

The arguments used by CNN to condemn Assange are dubious at best. Those who would use similar speculative, probabilist and coherentist arguments on other issues are often accused of being conspiracy theorists... which is (ironically) what Russiagate is, a giant conspiracy theory or more properly an active and aggressive propaganda conspiracy on the part of the US Deep State in order to bring in a regime of censorship, steer US foreign policy into confrontation with Russia and to remove Donald Trump and break the Blue Team and Christian Sacralist elements he's affiliated with. By the latter I refer to those elements within the US Establishment that seek confrontation with China and Iran and see Russia as a potential ally in the Clash of Civilisations. The mainstream considers them to be heretics and a danger to Atlanticism, the chief doctrinal mechanism by which they would rule and expand the US Empire.

Other elements of the mainstream are also opposed to China and actually support many of Trump's policies vis-à-vis Beijing. And yet they view Russia as an existential threat to Atlanticism and view Moscow's alliance with Iran and Syria as an impetus to continue the prosecution of Washington's Middle Eastern wars. Additionally domination of the Middle East is viewed as essential to this multilateralist approach as opposed to the rank unilateralism of Trump and the factions that support him... that would use raw US power to effect policy as opposed to the traditional post-war institutions.

Also, there are those of the Christian Sacralist stripe who see Anti-Liberal states like Russia and Hungary as allies and would in the defense of 'Christian' civilisation pursue anti-immigration policies and wage war on Islam.

The Trump campaign foolishly and disingenuously embraced Assange at one point during the campaign, especially in reference to the leaked Hilary Clinton emails. The media has spun this and ignored the incriminating content of the emails and instead has generated a story of Russian hacker-Wikileaks-Trump campaign collaboration... a narrative which all but collapsed in light of the Mueller investigation.

However, Assange is incarcerated and largely incapacitated and thus proves a convenient target/whipping boy for those who would rekindle this campaign. They are engaged in a virulent defamation offensive and have resorted to open lies, the latest being Hillary Clinton's McCarthyite diatribe against Tulsi Gabbard. From Luke Harding's bogus reports in The Guardian to CNN's reporting on Assange, the Establishment seeks to destroy the Australian Wikileaks founder and anyone who opposes US foreign policy. At times this campaign is coupled with efforts to defame both Snowden and Manning and this in keeping with the larger project to suppress and criminalise whistleblowers and to argue for censorship and the infiltration and destruction of dissident groups.

I find it humorous that CNN even tried to take some swipes at RT, another hated news outlet.

Maté successfully raises enough questions regarding the report to effectively dismantle it and expose it for what it is... disinformation and propaganda.