By far the most telling aspect of the Snowden case is the anomalous treatment he received from the media – firstly, the utterly enormous deluge of coverage and free advertising Snowden received from the mainstream media is in complete contradiction with how the press treated previous legitimate whistleblowers such as Tom Drake, William Binney, etc. Not only that, but a chorus of support rang out for Snowden – he was exalted by much of the press and propelled into celebrity status, and this positive coverage easily drowned out the shrill cries of right-wing national security boosters to hang Snowden in the middle of Times Square. This exceptional media treatment of Snowden is probably the most suspicious part of the Snowden narrative and very strongly suggests that there is more than meets the eye with this far-fetched character.

Source: Hidden Agendas, Part One: Snowden, The Intercept & the Pentagon-spawned internet privacy movement

Links collection below the introduction

On Alternative Media

“Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn’t fit in with the core belief” – Frantz Fanon

The preceding paragraph illuminates a social phenomena played by corporate owned mainstream media, taking advantage of people everyday. ‘Alternative media’ is meant to circumvent this but in fact often is a wolf dressed in the proverbial sheep’s clothing. Here is why:

All of the ‘alternative’ news outlets (all of those with any degree of independence and significant readership in any case) will be targets of the several competing intelligence agencies wishing to shape discourse. The ability of the agencies to do this will depend on the environment, awareness, personality, sympathies and approach of the producers. Zerohedge is (my perhaps imperfect assessment) far less manipulative than, example given, TomDispatch (a blatant case) but no matter the outlet there is always some degree of risk the consumer will absorb deliberate disinformation. Additionally, ideological alignment will play in the alternative outlets, no matter how clean. Information is shaped both by conscious effort and unconscious influences.

I would place zerohedge in that category where anti-corporate, libertarian ideology (yes, there is such a thing, as opposed to corporate controlled or manipulated ‘libertarian’ tea party, e.g. Koch brothers) shapes its discourse on the right, over on the left there are also examples, for instance Global Research, Voltaire Net and more recently The Intercept are all to some extent shaped by ideology or personal prejudices. Of course intelligence agencies will look at every opportunity to exploit these outlets. The Intercept, particularly, appears to have been co-opted rather quickly by western intelligence via its bank-roller Pierre Omidyar; particularly on the Ukraine discourse (Glenn Greenwald’s disclaimers notwithstanding.)

In cases of more insidious perversion of information, a common modus operandi is to associate events that cannot be concealed with the wrong party (false flag is pervasive method of disinformation) and embed facts together with inventions in the discourse. Consortium News is a past master at this, for instance Robert Parry consistently shaping the discourse to point to incompetent or maverick Ukrainian military downing MH 17 with a Buk surface to air missile, as opposed to the Ukrainian SU 25 combat jet which he steadfastly refuses to so much as mention much less consider. The point of method like this can be to create a face saving or less damaging escape for the western aligned parties in the event the initial propaganda efforts blaming Russia fall apart. Better some drunk or incompetent Ukrainian military performed the shoot down in the public eye (in the western intelligence view) than a Ukrainian air force jet on orders from Kiev. A secondary possible effect (the CIA would hope) is when, more likely than if, considering the incompetence involved, the west’s MH 17 story falls apart, the Russians will allow for the alternative line put forward by someone like Parry in return for concessions in the ‘spirit’ of so-called ‘Realpolitik’ where cynical geopolitical deals will necessarily determine truth must be the first casualty.

Another method is to play on peoples’ sense of helplessness while steering them away from the essential reality and attending motivations by keeping them preoccupied with outrage. That’s Tom Engelhardt’s method. A short research pulls up CIA associated funding underlying TomDispatch, originating with Ford Foundation grants, laundered via The Nation Institute (The Nation is another long time intelligence penetrated organization, host of disinformation puppet Bob Dreyfuss.)

Just a few short but critical examples. The best one can do with all of this is to keep track of the metadata threads (facts within events than cannot be denied) while being careful not to be sucked into the attending spin. Assembling a focus this way, you seldom will get a perfect picture but done competently, one should certainly get a far clearer understanding of what’s actually going on.

A footnote would be, the Russians recognize the western press is so corrupt, they don’t need to much engage in overt deceits but more or less stick to the facts surrounding events (as much as possible) to gain credibility, and when this is not an option, their preferred fallback technique is ‘lies by omission.’ The western consumer taking in RT or Sputnik gets a much better deal than the eastern consumer lapping up the Helsinki based, western mainstream media clone misnamed ‘The Moscow Times.’

Intelligence Sites and/or alternatives to the fake news pumped out by ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX News, MSNBC, NBC, New York Times, Washington Post, et al:

Updated 27 May 2018

Russia Observer Canadian intelligence veteran Patrick Armstrong’s blog, very good.

The Blog Mire British anti-secularist conservative Christian unafraid (aware enough) to attack the false narratives stemming from the British State … unusual but not unknown, e.g. the USA’s conservative Christian Virginia State Senator Dick Black is excellent when it comes to calling out American propaganda lies.

Disobedient Media hard hitting stories you often won’t see elsewhere but with a caveat (my personal bias) anyone who gives unconditional support to Julian Assange has, at the least, questionable judgement (my reasons HERE)

The Automatic Earth daily compendium of news stories with economic-social-environmental focus

Sputnik Russian international news in English

RT online Russian TV international news in English

Pravda Russian international news in English

Siberian Times Russia’s far east in English

The Kremlin Stooge Recommended reading on Russia

The Corbett Report  Recommended general geopolitics/exposes

21st Century Wire Hard-hitting alternative to BBC (recommended)

The You-Are-Screwed Daily news collage not found in search engines

Zero Hedge Anti-corporate libertarian news

GlobalResearch Anti-corporate left

Black Agenda Report Excellent reporting from the Black Left

World Socialist Web Site Marxist/communist but covers the facts

Mint Press News independent journalism (but don’t trust the Derrick Broze articles)

Mad Cow News Hard hitting exposés

The Last American Vagabonds Stuff you won’t see in MSM

Black Listed News More stuff you won’t see in mainstream

Free Thought Project More stuff avoided by mainstream

Off-Guardian refuting Guardian disinformation (and more)

SignsOfTheTimes General spectrum

Sic Semper Tyrannis Col Patrick Lang’s blog (very good)

Freedom In Our Time Will Grigg’s fearless reporting (Will is deceased but his archived work is outstanding)

American Pravda Ron Unz essays challenging establishment narrative

Insurge Intelligence Nafeez Ahmed’s geopolitical exposés

William Engdahl Geopolitical assessments

Craig Murray Dissident former UK ambassador

Ft Russ site translates many Russian articles

Loretta Napoleoni How governments finance terror

Planet Ponzi Exposé of the world financial crisis

Zero Anthropology Deconstructing empire

Dark Politricks False Flag & more

We Meant Well Former State Dept Officer Peter Van Buren

IntelNews.org British site (sold out to establishment)

Narco News Hard  hitting on CIA connected drug lords

The Intercept Glenn Greenwald’s site (compromised)

The Most Revolutionary Act Stuart Bramhall

What Really Happened updated daily

Activist Post Another alternative to ‘ap wire’ (but don’t trust the Derrick Broze articles)

Your News Wire comedy; from shape shifting rappers to NBA players attacked by aliens (mixed with the occasional authentic scary story)

Patrick Eddington (former CIA)

Ian56 Compiled articles bursting reality bubbles

Gentle Seas Military/geo-political stuff (Australia)

Unredacted USA centered intelligence information

Public Intelligence Website

Secrecy News Steven Aftergood (FAS)

Madsen Report Some free content

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Other stuff

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Defense Intelligence Agency ‘Western powers & Al Qaida’

Stupid is as Stupid Does Pentagon ‘training’ & decapitations

“We Tortured Some Folks” It’s called ‘softening the narrative’

Hillary Clinton in Two Short Paragraphs ‘Gott Mit Uns’

Military Sock Puppets, NSA Trolls & CIA Shills Your facebook friends

Intelligence Agencies & Wikipedia CIA edits & censorship

CIA & The Vatican Study of a partnership, WW II to 1982

Pope Francis in Bed With the Doug Coe Cult Ubermensch

God’s Chosen is a Dumb Idea (and why we all will likely die)

other links:

Borderland Beat reporting on drug cartels

Bild Interviews Vladimir Putin English translation

Public Intelligence Website

Bilderberg Attendees 2015

SOMO News anti-corruption site

Electric Universe Western science in denial

A short history of our modern dystopia Woodrow Wilson to Obama

The authentic cause of Islamic extremism Simple as pie

EU Failure in Ukraine History sans Nazis (see next story)

Czech President on Nazis: “Something is wrong with the EU”

STRATFOR on Ukraine “The most blatant coup in history”

Spy Craft for Hacks FBI veteran’s tips on clandestine meetings