[2018] War, censorship, and the invention of “fake news”

War, censorship, and the invention of “fake news”

When most people think of the term “fake news,” they think of the headlines in supermarket tabloids about alien invasions and two-headed grandmothers giving birth to quintuplets. But when the New York Times and the leading US intelligence agencies use the term, they mean something entirely different: reporting that cuts across the efforts of the state to promote war and political viewpoints that challenge the establishment.

Western Media Rehabilitate Brazil’s Criminal Ex-Justice Minister for Presidential Run

Western Media Rehabilitate Brazil’s Criminal Ex-Justice Minister for Presidential Run | Brasil Wire

Western corporate media apparently saw no irony in the allegations made by the former judge, who played an instrumental role in an “anti-corruption” witch hunt aimed at illegally jailing former President Luis Ignacio “Lula” da Silva and destroying his left-wing Workers’ Party.

Rather, they fawningly described Moro as an “anti-corruption crusader” (BBC, 4/25/20), “celebrity justice minister” (Guardian, 4/24/20) and “a figure who for many represented a new, better Brazil” (Washington Post, 4/24/20), cheering the “tantalizing” prospect of a 2022 presidential bid (Bloomberg, 5/6/20).