Comments on: Now playing on the Net: War propaganda

Video-sharing sites allow combatants on both sides to tell their story, much to the chagrin of the Pentagon.
Images: War caught on video

[Nigel Johnstone]

Israels GIYUS.ORG Megaphone, June Smoking Gun

You forgot to mention Giyus.org, the 'give Israel your support' desktop tool that tells people which Internet forums to go turf^d^d^d^d express their avid support for Israel.

Obviously a pufferfish approach to make a little support seem a lot bigger than it really is.

"Today's conflicts are won by public opinion.
Now is the time to be active and voice Israel's side to the world. 1. Download and install Megaphone desktop tool, 2. Receive desktop alerts on key articles and surveys, 3.Click alerts to easily voice your opinion"

http://giyus.org

It even translates polls into English French Hebrew and Spanish, so that visitors in foreign languages can handily vote for Israel without understanding the foreign language article. Nice.

But it also gives the game away, because the kidnapping of the two soldiers was on 12th July, but the blog has an empty folder from June 2006.

Look at the right side here.
http://blog.giyus.org/

"Today's conflicts are won by public opinion."
Nah, surely they mean that next months planned conflict is won by public opinion.

[danny_f]

So what is your point?

Propoganda and a biased opinion will always be apart of any community driven news medium. What he is talking about is the ability to see a biased opinion on both sides of the debate and making your own choice. Anybody who is going to post a video clip or a blog entry cares enough to take the time out to voice his/her opinion to the world. Obviously they feel strongly about the topic in one way or another, thus bias is unavoidable.

Now the fact that you have thrown in a completely irrelevant website makes me wonder about your bias in the matter. However I would like to thank you for wasting precious seconds of my life (the time it took to realise that you are an idiot).

"Obviously a pufferfish approach to make a little support seem a lot bigger than it really is."

- And the fact that a service that allows people to keep up with current events about a topic they are interested in must be those damn jews spreading their lies to the world again?

I wasn't going to post this because I could think of better things to do with my time, scratching myself for instance, but i decided against it. Turns out scratching mosquito bites just makes things worse.

Let's see if scratching this mosquite bite helps...

[v1m]

Excellent post, Nigel

>"Today's conflicts are won by public opinion."
>Nah, surely they mean that next months planned conflict is won
>by public opinion.

Exactly.

[Nigel Johnstone]

June blog entries + Poll Turf

I call it a smoking gun because there is a folder from June in the Blog, the entries that create the folder have been deleted, but the folder is listed, see the right side of the blog archive.

If you are suprised by a July 12th 'kidnapping' of your side's soldiers and wish to show support for your side, the work would have started *after* July 12th and there would be no June folder -> strong indication of preplanned attack.

Likewise the polls attached to foreign language articles, they have no way of reading the article and hence are not voting in response to the article.

I feel strongly that Israel should be paying the $230m war reparations, not USA. Yet Bush has committed USA to paying both Lebanons and Israels rebuilding costs. At the very least he could deduct it from the billions you send Israel each year.

[Penguinisto]

Just proves that you yourself bought the propaganda...

There are far too many sides to the whole Israel v. Hezbollah story, too many facets (hint: There's far more players involved than just those two). This requires research and time investment which most who post in here (or Hell, most in the media for that matter) simply cannot, will not, or for some reason do not spend.

It also requires seeing both sides of the story, and using critical reasoning skills to discover the truth in the middle (something else that seems to be utterly lacking in the media - whether it be institutional bias or the lust for drama --facts be damned-- I'll never be able to accurately guess).


/P

[jackrabbitslam]

war propaganda

I find it an unfortunatly thing of freedom one sided
views "Propaganda" and Well the German Goverment found a way to combat it.
Ogrish for example...."YOU ARE VERBOTEN" to get to that site,PERIOD! Now I am for the American cause of bringing down terrorist,and bringing freedom to a
war ravished region.But dont cut down on my freedom
to choose what I want to read or watch without causing anybody harm.

[freq]

i have watched many of these videos on youtube...

and I am skeptical... the ones that try to pass as authentic dont seem so.. if someone was going to smuggle war footage, you would think that they would have something to show.. like maybe, graphic details.. not weapon porn

this is a war on us.. liberal minded netizens.. support the troops!! the ones that fight for you!!

[ddesy]

Huh?

The soldiers in Iraq are fighting for me? Somehow I think you're missing reality.

[technewsjunkie]

I used to teach Media Literacy...

To help students sort and make sense of the explosion of
information they are exposed to everyday.

The program's budget was cut, the course is no longer available.

I think oneof the most important thiings to realize about these
videos is CONTEXT.

[Penguinisto]

Agreed, though IMHO it's Context, and...

...the propensity for fraud, and the nasty phenomenon that occurs whenever a facts-deprived story is pased around from place to place :)

/P

[gerhard_schroeder]

Terrorists + The Far Left = One Voice

I love how the terrorists and the far left speak with the same voice.

The "chimperor" sounds like something that you would hear Russ Feingold or Howard Dean say, or perhaps Al Zarqawi or Bin Laden...

Well, I say bring forth the voices of terrorists and extreme liberals. If we KNOW the hatred of our enemies, we will be more successful in crushing our enemies.

[ddesy]

Actually, Terrorists + Far Right = One Voice

Terrorists spread what? Anyone? Anyone? That's right! Fear!

The far right spreads what? Anyone? Anyone! That's right, the same thing!

[emeraldgate]

far left

Chuckle, chuckle. Your world view reflects someone who has bought hook, line and sinker, the propaganda, proliferated in the U.S. about how we are the 'free world'. And how the U.S. defends their constitution. You really should pay closer attention to what the government is actually doing. They just passed a bill that allows the use of pregnant women and children for pesticide and fertilizer experiments. The use of human beings in notorious experiments were used as a defence by the war criminals from Nazi Germany. This practise has never stopped. They have also used our own sons, and daughters in the military for their experiments.

It is just all so sick. Wake up.

Dianne

[Nigel Johnstone]

Here's some examples of war turf

Here's a couple from Giyus.org, the "Give Israel Your Support" web site and tool that sprung up a few days after Israel had 2 soldiers captured and started its war.

As they say:
"Today's conflicts are won by public opinion.
Now is the time to be active and voice Israel's side to the world."

Except here's the page showing that the blog had had entries from June. It looked like a slipup to me, as though they had been working on it a month earlier and remembered to delete the test messages but not the folders they were in.

http://nigeljohnstone.com/images/june-screenshot.gif

Here's a typical example of what that site does:
http://nigeljohnstone.com/images/turf_digg.gif

"I ask you to sign in and digg the following stories...of course , going around the site's politics and news sections and digging other pro-Israel stories is encouraged"


Odd don't you think, that a war that was supposed to be caused by the capture of 2 Israeli soldiers had it's PR campaign in progress at least a month earlier.

[untethered]

Older than time

Pearl Harbor


Germany invades Poland

With MemoryTV, you exercise your memory

[untethered]

Older than time

Pearl Harbor:
http://cognitivelabs.com/pearlharbor.htm

Poland 1939:

http://cognitivelabs.com/ww21939.htm

[alegr]

It succeeded...

9/11 was not a direct attack on our freedoms. But it succeeded in exactly that direction: as an attack to our freedoms, causing us to make the "Patriot Act" and domestic survelliance. It succeeded because it made us fear the "terrorists". It succeeded because it provoked us for more hostilities toward Middle East, thus feeding hatred to America and feeding extremist mindset.
I wonder how well our "born again" president sleeps knowing that tens of thousands innocent civilians are victims of the war he started. But his conscience cannot be bothered - he doesn't have one.

[yikes31]

propaganda and/or opinion

Im sure that some of the people that post these videos do so for
the sake of propaganda. Its not new, its not a surprise and they
are certainly not the only ones doing it. It seems that the news is
filled with propaganda. This is not an insult, it is how wars have
been won for centuries. Everyone spread propaganda. During
the world wars it was widespread, it continued during vietnam
and it goes on every time you watch the TV.
So no big surprises there.
The thing that I am surprised by is the fact that the author of the
article failed to consider the possibility that SOME of these
videos may be anti war videos by people that are actually doing
nothing more than voicing their opinions about a war that they
believe is wrong.

Note that I am suggesting that this is SOME of these videos.

In a country where freedom is valued, people still have the right
to express their opinion and this is clearly a new way that people
are doing that. People are entitled to express their support or
opposition and should be allowed to do so.

[aqvarivs]

prop up u ganja

Anybody that is honestly educated to what is happening in the world and not simply responding with knee-jerk emotionalism will never be swayed one way or the other. Everyone the world over has a sense of what is right and what is wrong(sociopaths not included in this assesment). It's not the spin coming from foreign sources that is the threat. It is the spin our leaders put on things before they get us to deal with them (after the fact) that is dangerous. It doesn't matter the subject.

[K.P.C.]

You've just mentioned "sociopaths"?

Would you not consider Sadam in that catagory?

[emeraldgate]

sociopaths

I would think that everyone making money off of killing people are sociopaths. Including the war machine of the U.S. governments.

The American people will foot the bill for reconstruction. It should be the people who made the money off of the armaments that foot the bill.

Dianne

[gerhard_schroeder]

Yes, Bin Laden agrees with everything

You've said it just like Bin Laden says...

America are the terrorists!

Yes, you both agree. Now get back in your Burqua before you are caned.

[emeraldgate]

fraud

Like the fraud committed by the U.S. government when they said Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and that it was a war on terrorism.
The weapons of mass destruction are the U.S. bioweaponery that has been already unleashed on the world. A little slight of hand by the circus hucksters.

Dianne

[gerhard_schroeder]

See...! Liberals do sound like bin Laden

I love you, Miss Jihadi...

You make my argument for me. Tell me that Bush is the terrorist. Tell me that America is the killers of babies.

You are a perfect liberal... I hope you train your children to be effective suicide bombers. Our shock-troop marines have enough armor that your baby should be carrying no less than 20lbs of C4 to make an impact.

[David Arbogast]

In Denial

<<The weapons of mass destruction are the U.S. bioweaponery that has been already unleashed on the world. A little slight of hand by the circus hucksters.>>

How is it that Liberals CONTINUE to blatently IGNORE the fact that we actually DID find chemical weapons in Iraq? Its just baffling... as if they are living in outer space and the world is whatever they imagine it to be.

[johnnydl]

Poor misinformed

what tree did you fall out of?

[johnnydl]

Poor misinformed

what tree did you fall out of? This country has no free press thanks to our dictator George Bush, The Republican party changed the laws so that R. Murdock could buy up the radio, TV stations and print media to completely control the news information in this country. The so called free press is but a propagana machine which attacks anyone who diagrees with the lies by the print and tv or any other news media, handed out by the present coup which has continually has over thrown and stolen elections in state and federal elections, whitch means we are no longer a democrocary just another banana republic. Dose any one out there remember the Nazis, Hitler or Joseph Stalin and now we have become the enemy, just ask the rest of the world . IT IS TIME TO RETAKE OUR COUNTRY.THROW THE SCUMBAGS OUT OF OFFICE.

[Michael Grogan]

Too late

The sheeple of this country will never admit the truth of your statement until it's too late. Watch as GW fabricates the national emergency towards the end of next year that will allow him to declare martial law and suspend the elections. No one will have the guts to call him on it. Nothing will stop him short of armed insurrection.

[emeraldgate]

right on

Right on.

[David Arbogast]

Crazy Loons

You got MSNBC, CNN, FOX, BBC America, and lets not forget FREEDOM to access news sources from overseas... BBC, CBC... and ANY other source you could possibly want.

And still... they want us to believe that George W. Bush has revoked our freedom of press. Wake up and get a fargin clue. Just because you get angry watching TV doesn't mean your rights have been infringed upon. What a hark. The only scumbags I see are the ones trying to scare me into thinking that I've somehow lost freedoms when I'm as free as I was 10 years ago. Get a clue.

[lwvirden]

In a world of digital video, anyone can claim anything

It is going to be harder and harder for anyone to determine "the truth" about any issue as more and more people gain access to inexpensive powerful digital editing software. Just as newspapers, magazines, and televison are subverted from the truth in the past years, so now video has diverged from "a picture's worth a 1000 words" to "you can't believe your eyes".

The sooner people realize that there is no way to determine truth in material available from ANY SOURCE - internet, print, broadcast - the sooner they will have a more realistic view from which to judge surrounding events.

I've read for years statements to the effect that "history books are rewritten by the winners of war"... the internet changes that to "history books are rewritten by anyone with an internet link".

[btljooz]

I finally found the video...AFTER having to sign up w YT

Here is the link for those of you who have a You Tube or don't mind going through their dog and pony show to sign up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MCXTiyGW1Y

[btljooz]

Also, there is the exact same message here:

http://www.worldcantwait.org/

[mh39839]

WHO CARES???

The Internet is such an Information overload that trying to fight a propaganda war on it is a waste of time. It's barely noticeable over the background of JibJab, urban myths, the daily barrage of cartoons and humorous video clips, bogus security alerts and the ever-present stream of Viagara spam. You'd get more attention with a dog whistle at a Slayer concert.

[mensa517]

Oh Really?!

SO, you tell me: What's the difference between being told lies to our face by our own government and those of the so called truth spreaders in Iraq: He does have a point though: All hail Caesar: All hail George Bush! Emperor for life. Long live the republic (LOL)