Because Western media corporations blacklist journalists that report news and views that conflict with the Empire's propaganda, many dedicated independent journalists and news analysts are using RT's vast media facilities as the only way to reach large audiences. True, their reporting and observations appear on other small websites including their own; but to reach worldwide audiences, these two outstanding journalists chose to use RT's facilities.
“The times we live in are so dangerous and so distorted in public perception that propaganda is no longer, as Edward Bernays called it, an “invisible government”. It is the government. It rules directly without fear of contradiction and its principal aim is the conquest of us: our sense of the world, our ability to separate truth from lies. The information age is actually a media age. We have war by media; censorship by media; demonology by media; retribution by media; diversion by media – a surreal assembly line of obedient clichés and false assumptions.” ~ John Pilger
20th June 2017
RT/SPUTNIK
He has been defying the Establishment gatekeepers and telling us the truth about what’s really going on in the world for over 50 years. He has covered wars around the world from Vietnam to Iraq, and is also an award-winning documentary filmmaker. For many, John Pilger is the journalists’ journalist, and he came into the Sputnik studio to give us his thoughts on the state of the press today.
And, US-led airstrikes on Raqqa have, as the UN observed, led to a ‘staggering loss of civilian life.‘ The US-led coalition has also admitted to using white phosphorus, but the media reaction in the West has been muted, to say the least. It’s all a far cry from the headlines when Syrian forces – with Russian support – were trying to liberate Aleppo in December. Vanessa Beeley has reported from Syria during the current conflict many times, so we invited her into the studio to discuss these glaring double standards in the m