John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN THE GUARDIAN (AND PROMPTLY REMOVED BY EDITORS)
“The Facebook hearings remind us: information warfare is here to stay”
Information warfare?
That's putting a nice face on something far more insidious and dangerous.
Almost nothing in print or broadcast can be trusted anymore by people who admire logic and like to consider facts.
On all sides, it is chaotic.
Someone who cares can only be informed, to any extent, by checking and cross-checking the various claims and judging by the known motivations of the writers or speakers. The Internet makes this possible now to a limited extent, which is perhaps why many have suggested a role for Internet censorship, including, if I’m not mistaken, The Guardian.
It's almost like being on a jury for every major international development we have. Listen to the cross examination, look for any hard evidence, and evaluate the trustworthiness of the various testimonies.
There is little honesty or directness anywhere to be found.
This paper, for example, has run day after day stories on either the Skripal Affair or what many regard as a staged gas attack in Syria. Almost invariably, these top-of-the-page stories offer no opportunity to comment. Nor are there stories giving alternative views. Nor, still, are there stories, as about Syria, with any real reportage. No one on site asking questions, ever.
A former British Ambassador only the other day on Scottish television reiterated the view held by many that the so-called White Helmets are not to be trusted, yet they are the main source for all the unsupported headlines. That group is subsidized by the American and British governments and by George Soros, a man whose NGOs have a history of relationships with CIA.
Also, Russians on the site in East Ghouta have said there are no corpses. None. The local Red Crescent Society and local hospitals say the same. Are all such people persona non-grata to the press?
They cannot be interviewed? Apparently so.
But the notorious (for many) White Helmets are quoted daily. As is a man in a London bed-sit who styles himself as an organization with expert information on Syrian affairs, none of it, first-hand or supported by other sources.
In the Skripal Affair, we have the strangest official statements that go completely unquestioned. The daughter doesn’t want to talk to her relative in Russia? Virtually all the relatives of the Skripals live together in Russia, but they aren’t going to talk after all this dramatic public noise?
It is preposterous on its face, but where is the press investigating? They are not. They just dutifully publicize the official statements.
I think what we are experiencing goes far beyond “information warfare.” It is dangerous beyond telling in the times in which we live.
Putin has said recently that the world seems to be descending into chaos. I think he is very right and makes one of the only honest statements we have from any leader in “the west.”
There are reasons why this is so, but they have nothing to do with what we read and hear from the press. The press only echoes the chaos. It is a dangerous world indeed.
