Sunday musings

I can recall being told a joke when I was a teenager about how Pravda reported a race between a Russian and and an American in which the American won.

Pravda reported that the Russian came in second while the American was second-to-last.

That seems to me to epitomise  the sort of distortion that we are seeing in today’s Pravda - the corporate and state-owned corporate media of today.

Yesterday saw the release of a new book by Nicky Hager on our New Zealand troops in Afghanistan, in which he alleges that members of the armed forces opposed the policies of the then Labour government of Helen Clark which were to dispatch troops for purely peacekeeping activities and then basically pulled the wool over the eyes of the govenment as to the real role being played by the military - which was to basically co-operate with the US and teh CIA in any way they could.

It is the reporting of this and the distortion of the message that so exercises me.

I listened to the Radio New Zealand coverage which give Hager a short period to talk without giving him the opportunity to present his case.  The whole coverage was given over to everyone from the PM to the new soldier governor general refuting Hager.

The governor general, if you were attentive enough didn’t ACTUALLY say that what Hager alleges was untrue; simply that the idea was abhorrent to him.

If I could present what I heard it would be as follows:

Governor General:  There is no proof for anything Nicky Hager alleges

Hager:  Well, if you read the book I present the evidence which is referenced

Governor General:  Well, I’m not going to read the book

Hager: My book contains the evidence you require

Governor General: There is no proof for anything Nicky Hager alleges

So, I would say that we have long crossed the line where Radio New Zealand (I don’t even consider our print media or TV - both totally beyond the pale) even attempts to speak the truth.

I am not privy to what goes on in boardrooms and editorial offices but it seems that Radio New Zealand (and the media in general) has become an organ (that is the Soviet term) for state and corporate propaganda.

Which brings me to Mussolini; he defined fascism as the combination of state and corporate power.

That is exactly what we are seeing today - the two are practically indistinguishable.  Today’s prime minister is less prime-ministerial than anyone before him - and behaves more like the CEO of New Zealand Inc.  

Truth is unimportant and presentation is everything.  

We have a PM who can be presented as ‘empathetic’ and ‘middle-of-the-road’ while no doubt the ultra-right (or corporate) policies he will introduce after he wins the election can be blamed on the ‘right-wing radical’ Don Brash.

No amount of reasoning can ever win out against the extreme, suicidal policies of this government (which is basically to eviscerate any form of power of communities to determine their futures and to provide corporates (like mining companies) everything they want on a plate.

Because we basically have a perversion and corruption of academia and the media, the public can be softened up for the future actions of a government that is there purely to pay lip-service to ‘democracy’ and to make the world safe for the tiny elite (the 1 %)that essentially rules the world.

The part of me that was cogitating on these questions was also thinking it was time to beat a retreat.

Beam me up Scotty!