Hasbara Buster
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US restricts access to alternative media outlets: Analyst
An American university professor and political analyst tells Press TV that the US government is actively curbing the flow of information and restricting access to alternative media outlets.
The US Senate has approved a new round of sanctions against Iran, targeting the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) and its chief, and preventing others from doing business with it.
Press TV has conducted an interview with James Fetzer, Professor Emeritus at the University of Minnesota, from Madison to further discuss the issue. Fetzer is joined by Omar Nashabe with Al-Akhbar newspaper from Beirut, and Chris Bambery, a political analyst from London. The following is a rough transcription of the interview with Fetzer.
Press TV: Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights clearly states that "everyone has a right to freedom of opinion and expression. This right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek receive and import information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."
Now the majority of western countries have signed on to this; however, obviously what they are doing is something other than this. Why is that the case?
On the one hand, waving the flag of freedom and even for example signing with this Human Rights declaration but the reality on the ground seems to be different.
Fetzer: You are absolutely right. I mean the hypocrisy is absolutely massive.
Most of the American public wants to be informed, wants to know the truth, but the politicians and especially the intelligence agencies want to control the flow of information.
They want to cut off Press TV and Iranian news services because they are providing an alternative point of view frankly, one that is far more accurate and based on the evidence than what we are being told by our major news networks such as ABC, NBC, CCN, and CBS.
What William Colby, a former director of the CIA observed is something we have to take seriously namely that the agency owns everyone of significance in the major media.
They don't want the American people to have the opportunity to compare and contrast what they are being told by the American government through these controlled news services and what you are reporting which is more often than not far more accurate and closer to the truth.
Press TV: Why do we not hear an outcry about what is happening to Iranian media by other media outlets because it is not only a threat to, let's say, the freedom of speech in dealing with Iranian media.
But would you say that this threatens all media in general, that there are definitely red lines set up and if they cross these red lines, they would definitely face major repercussions?
Fetzer: Absolutely, no doubt about it. I mean Federal Communication Commission controls the airwaves and can threaten stations with a lot of their licenses if they don't comply [with] the certain implicit guidelines which include, for example, not questioning the official account of 9/11 that only occurs on alternative news sites on Internet radio programs, for example, very very rarely.
Does any serious discussion of 9/11 ever occurred on any major media? Plus, if the United States really believed in human rights, it could not possibly have opposed a Palestinian statehood or its acceptance as an observer nation which is going to have many important ramifications legally and otherwise for the Palestinian people.
We went into Iraq and Afghanistan allegedly on the grounds to bring freedom and democracy with the results has been anything but.
We were actually there for political purposes, to control the natural resources of those countries, not just the oil in Iraq, but the mineral wealth of Afghanistan which includes gold and copper and iron and especially one of the world's largest deposit of lithium, which is used in components for computers, triggers for nuclear weapons, and as batteries in electric cars.
Most of American foreign policy is for the sake of political and economic interest and benefit big corporations are in this case especially the interest of Israel in its domination of the Middle East. It is shameful, absolutely shameful, but some of us believe it would be more honest if we were to designate our own country as the United States of Israel.
Press TV: Well, professor Fetzer, you have mentioned a few different examples about the control, as far as the western media and their perspective in general.
My next question basic deals with the American people. Do you think that more and more Americans are realizing the reality of their government or because of the [blatant] control in the media there, they still don't have a clue?
Fetzer: I am sorry to say I think it is more of the latter than the former. I think most Americans like their six-packs and their football games and are not very critical in the exercise of their intelligence about political matters but just an offer in the illustration of an absurd policy, in Germany, you can't deny or question the holocaust whatsoever. That is completely ridiculous.
If the holocaust was real, then serious research will confirm it. And if it wasn't real, we all deserve to know.
Unfettered inquiry, freedom of speech, freedom of expression is essential to the human community, our welfare and our future.
PressTV - US restricts access to alternative media outlets: Analyst
An American university professor and political analyst tells Press TV that the US government is actively curbing the flow of information and restricting access to alternative media outlets.
The US Senate has approved a new round of sanctions against Iran, targeting the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) and its chief, and preventing others from doing business with it.
Press TV has conducted an interview with James Fetzer, Professor Emeritus at the University of Minnesota, from Madison to further discuss the issue. Fetzer is joined by Omar Nashabe with Al-Akhbar newspaper from Beirut, and Chris Bambery, a political analyst from London. The following is a rough transcription of the interview with Fetzer.
Press TV: Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights clearly states that "everyone has a right to freedom of opinion and expression. This right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek receive and import information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."
Now the majority of western countries have signed on to this; however, obviously what they are doing is something other than this. Why is that the case?
On the one hand, waving the flag of freedom and even for example signing with this Human Rights declaration but the reality on the ground seems to be different.
Fetzer: You are absolutely right. I mean the hypocrisy is absolutely massive.
Most of the American public wants to be informed, wants to know the truth, but the politicians and especially the intelligence agencies want to control the flow of information.
They want to cut off Press TV and Iranian news services because they are providing an alternative point of view frankly, one that is far more accurate and based on the evidence than what we are being told by our major news networks such as ABC, NBC, CCN, and CBS.
What William Colby, a former director of the CIA observed is something we have to take seriously namely that the agency owns everyone of significance in the major media.
They don't want the American people to have the opportunity to compare and contrast what they are being told by the American government through these controlled news services and what you are reporting which is more often than not far more accurate and closer to the truth.
Press TV: Why do we not hear an outcry about what is happening to Iranian media by other media outlets because it is not only a threat to, let's say, the freedom of speech in dealing with Iranian media.
But would you say that this threatens all media in general, that there are definitely red lines set up and if they cross these red lines, they would definitely face major repercussions?
Fetzer: Absolutely, no doubt about it. I mean Federal Communication Commission controls the airwaves and can threaten stations with a lot of their licenses if they don't comply [with] the certain implicit guidelines which include, for example, not questioning the official account of 9/11 that only occurs on alternative news sites on Internet radio programs, for example, very very rarely.
Does any serious discussion of 9/11 ever occurred on any major media? Plus, if the United States really believed in human rights, it could not possibly have opposed a Palestinian statehood or its acceptance as an observer nation which is going to have many important ramifications legally and otherwise for the Palestinian people.
We went into Iraq and Afghanistan allegedly on the grounds to bring freedom and democracy with the results has been anything but.
We were actually there for political purposes, to control the natural resources of those countries, not just the oil in Iraq, but the mineral wealth of Afghanistan which includes gold and copper and iron and especially one of the world's largest deposit of lithium, which is used in components for computers, triggers for nuclear weapons, and as batteries in electric cars.
Most of American foreign policy is for the sake of political and economic interest and benefit big corporations are in this case especially the interest of Israel in its domination of the Middle East. It is shameful, absolutely shameful, but some of us believe it would be more honest if we were to designate our own country as the United States of Israel.
Press TV: Well, professor Fetzer, you have mentioned a few different examples about the control, as far as the western media and their perspective in general.
My next question basic deals with the American people. Do you think that more and more Americans are realizing the reality of their government or because of the [blatant] control in the media there, they still don't have a clue?
Fetzer: I am sorry to say I think it is more of the latter than the former. I think most Americans like their six-packs and their football games and are not very critical in the exercise of their intelligence about political matters but just an offer in the illustration of an absurd policy, in Germany, you can't deny or question the holocaust whatsoever. That is completely ridiculous.
If the holocaust was real, then serious research will confirm it. And if it wasn't real, we all deserve to know.
Unfettered inquiry, freedom of speech, freedom of expression is essential to the human community, our welfare and our future.
PressTV - US restricts access to alternative media outlets: Analyst
Yes we can view 'alternative sources', presstv works just fine, this is bull.
