The UK
government and other Western governments and the US in recent years
have had increasing difficulties persuading enough of their
populations as to the legitimacy of the foreign policies that they
have been pursuing.
And at
the same time, Western countries have been going through a period of
political crisis and economic crisis.
Piers
Robinson, Chair in Politics, Society and Political Journalism at the
University of Sheffield, further explains:
I think
a lot of this drive is as much about trying to shore up shaky
official narratives and trying to shore up political systems in a
situation of political crisis, as it is actually about countering
Russian propaganda.
I would
suspect that that's a little bit of an excuse here to really what's
going on of problems much closer to home.
This is
not just to do to UK, this is Europe-wide. And there are also
indications from the documents that they are intending to start to
have some kind of impact within the United States. So, it's a very
wide-ranging network that seems to be established.
The
reason why it needs to be covert, of course, is that if a media
organization, or if a journalist is to let on that he, or she, is
involved in a program, which quite clearly is pushing a particular
agenda, then the credibility of that journalist will be damaged.
And this
is really what is very deceptive about the Integrity Initiative.
It's about co-opting journalists and academics into, essentially, a
campaign, which appears to be a propaganda campaign, in order to
manipulate opinions.
And the
only way that can really work effectively, is if readers and viewers
don't know that what they're reading is something which has emerged
from a particular political agenda.
Recall
that, leaked documents passed to the Sunday Mail reveal Integrity
Initiative is funded with £2million of Foreign Office cash and
run by military intelligence specialists. Politicians and academics
have reacted with fury to news a covert Government-funded unit had
been attacking the official opposition in Parliament.
So, it's
not accidental that the organized and systematic propaganda campaign
against labour party has actually started under Corbyn's leadership.
And that the campaign contains a lot of personal attacks against the
leader of the Labour party. That's because, of course, Jeremy Corbyn
is driving the party out of the neoliberal machine that has been
dominating the UK politics for decades.
But it
seems that the agents of the neoliberal establishment are really
desperate as they see that the new narratives are not particularly
successful.
It would
not be exaggerating to suggest that the attacks against Leftist
leaders like Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders essentially bring the
opposite effect. That's because especially the younger generations
have turned their back to the mainstream media.
And they understand that the more the media attack Corbyn and Sanders, the stronger the indication that these leaders are not part of the neoliberal establishment that ruined their lives becomes.
And they understand that the more the media attack Corbyn and Sanders, the stronger the indication that these leaders are not part of the neoliberal establishment that ruined their lives becomes.
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