Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Followers of False Prophets
Registered 350 “local groups” are essentially local chapters of a global non-profit enterprise, with doctrine, agenda and resources supplied by headquarters. As a secular cult, the profit motive is supplanted by ecstasy, similar to rapture in religious cults.
The bliss of belonging to a holy cause blinds 350 adherents to the cognitive dissonance of being tools of Wall Street and followers of false prophets. 350 dominance over the minds of its euphoric followers is thus akin to charismatic Pentecostalism, albeit without any explicit religious context.
The bliss of belonging to a holy cause blinds 350 adherents to the cognitive dissonance of being tools of Wall Street and followers of false prophets. 350 dominance over the minds of its euphoric followers is thus akin to charismatic Pentecostalism, albeit without any explicit religious context.
To find a religious parallel to 350, the "apostolic socialism" of Peoples Temple comes closest with its "Rainbow Family," indoctrinated to view capitalism as the Antichrist. In this sense, Jim Jones served as forerunner to con artists like Bill McKibben and Naomi Klein.
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Media Journalism News
As of 2011, nearly 80% of American adults were
online. For young American adults, 33% get news from social networks, 34%
watched TV news, and 13% read print or digital content. While TV remains the most popular source of
news, more Americans get their news via the Internet than from newspapers or
radio.
The percent of online news users who blog about
news ranges from 1–5%. Greater percentages use social media to comment on news,
but online news users are most likely to use social media to share stories
without creating content.
While consumer preference of media venue shifts with technology, the overwhelmingly large percentage of passive consumers of news remains. While they discuss and share news online, news content is still the product of journalists, researchers, PR people and bloggers.
With news content today containing nearly as much public relations propaganda as journalism, social media discussions about news content and production bring both serious scrutiny and outright nonsense. What the Internet offers is a venue where citizen journalism can find an audience, but the skills and practices involved in journalism still demand study, discipline and resources few have access to.
Crowd-funded journalism is fine, but it is no substitute for professional media. As many citizen journalism producers have discovered, it's hard to cover the news when you can't afford to cover travel expenses, equipment and salaries for the people doing it.
Crowd-funded journalism is fine, but it is no substitute for professional media. As many citizen journalism producers have discovered, it's hard to cover the news when you can't afford to cover travel expenses, equipment and salaries for the people doing it.
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Message Force Multipliers
In May 2011, Pro Publica ran an article by John Sullivan titled 'PR Industry Fills Vacuum Left by Shrinking News Rooms'. The impetus for the article was the 2010 story of the year, the Gulf oil spill at BPs Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling platform.
Reporting from the U.S. Coast Guard hearing, New York Times investigative reporter David Barstow observed, "You would go into these hearings, and there would be more PR people representing these big players than there were reporters."
Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show that as of 2008 there were three times as many PR people in the US as there were journalists--a shift from 1980, when the numbers were roughly equal. According to the American Society of News Editors, the number of newspaper reporters and editors peaked at 56,900 in 1990, and by 2011, dropped to 41,600. As media critic Robert McChesney observed, "We are entering a zone that has never been seen before in this country."
Public Relations is now used by government and industry to influence public opinion on everything from consumerism to militarism. As a result, the number of original news stories is down, and many stories are now generated by government agencies and PR people working hand-in-hand. As a retired editor of the Washington Post remarked, the Internet makes it easy for public relations people to reach out directly to the audience.
As PR Watch reported in 2006, television news now airs video news releases created by corporate and government PR people, within broadcast stories posing as original news. Appearances on TV by PR-coached "experts" are coordinated as "message force multipliers." PR front groups, funded by the oligarchy, make it difficult for reporters to sort out.
As an example of the influence of PR, the health insurance industry paid the U.S. Chamber of Commerce $86.2 million to fight public health care. The Chamber, in turn, paid for ads that ran in 21 states. As the senior VP of communications at the Chamber noted, they also set up coalition groups to push the message online and in the press.
One of the areas the Chamber targets is college campuses. It even hosts video competitions on Facebook.
Reporting from the U.S. Coast Guard hearing, New York Times investigative reporter David Barstow observed, "You would go into these hearings, and there would be more PR people representing these big players than there were reporters."
Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show that as of 2008 there were three times as many PR people in the US as there were journalists--a shift from 1980, when the numbers were roughly equal. According to the American Society of News Editors, the number of newspaper reporters and editors peaked at 56,900 in 1990, and by 2011, dropped to 41,600. As media critic Robert McChesney observed, "We are entering a zone that has never been seen before in this country."
Public Relations is now used by government and industry to influence public opinion on everything from consumerism to militarism. As a result, the number of original news stories is down, and many stories are now generated by government agencies and PR people working hand-in-hand. As a retired editor of the Washington Post remarked, the Internet makes it easy for public relations people to reach out directly to the audience.
As PR Watch reported in 2006, television news now airs video news releases created by corporate and government PR people, within broadcast stories posing as original news. Appearances on TV by PR-coached "experts" are coordinated as "message force multipliers." PR front groups, funded by the oligarchy, make it difficult for reporters to sort out.
As an example of the influence of PR, the health insurance industry paid the U.S. Chamber of Commerce $86.2 million to fight public health care. The Chamber, in turn, paid for ads that ran in 21 states. As the senior VP of communications at the Chamber noted, they also set up coalition groups to push the message online and in the press.
One of the areas the Chamber targets is college campuses. It even hosts video competitions on Facebook.
Sunday, February 08, 2015
Greenwashing Wall Street: CERES, Tides and 350
Excerpts from the McKibben’s Divestment Tour: Brought to You by Wall Street series by Cory Morningstar:
- Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES) is a partner of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). CERES funders are associated with Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America.
- WBCSD is part of a Wall Street strategy to dislodge the United Nations Center on Transnational Corporations, and prevent enforceable rules governing the operations of multinational corporations.
- One third of the CERES network companies are in the Fortune 500. Since 2001, CERES has received millions from Wall Street corporations and foundations.
- CERES president Mindy Lubber promotes “sustainable capitalism” at Forbes. Bill McKibben (founder of 350) was an esteemed guest of CERES conferences in 2007 and 2013.
- 1Sky, which merged with 350 in 2011, was created by the Clinton Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Betsy Taylor of 1Sky/350 is on the CERES board of directors.
- In 2012, Bill McKibben and Peter Buffett (oil train tycoon Warren Buffet’s son) headlined the Strategies for a New Economy conference. Between 2003 and 2011, NoVo (Buffet’s foundation) donated $26 million to Tides Foundation, which in turn funds CERES and 350.
- Suzanne Nossel, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State under Hillary Clinton, is on the Tides board of directors.
Sunday, February 01, 2015
Peace Power Revolution
The revolutionary 1960s were challenging for us as American teenagers, and bewildering for our parents. Feminism, racial equality, and rejection of religion set us apart from their generation. Social phenomena that unfolded during my high school years alone (1967-70) were astounding:
