The MSM are denouncing South Front as a Kremlin instrument

 

"SouthFront has repeatedly been accused of being pro-Russian propaganda, anti-Erdogan propaganda, pro-Trump propaganda, anti-Russian propaganda, pro-Iranian propaganda, pro-Assad propaganda, anti-Assad propaganda and so on. The allegations have been made by various different media outlets, think tanks and media activists.

However, the most widespread narrative is that SouthFront is part of some sophisticated Kremlin propaganda campaign or is even run by the Russian Defense Ministry. Such allegations have been spread by large pro-NATO organizations such as the Atlantic Council, or by representatives of the US Department of State or the US Department of Defense.

Now, it even looks as if both the House and Senate intelligence committees are investigating SouthFront’s interference in the US presidential election.

SouthFront supposes that it should be seen as an honor that elites of the often touted “most free” nation in the world have so highly evaluated the joint efforts of numerous experts and volunteers involved in the project.

An Oxford University study found on October 9th that SouthFront targets “US military personnel and veterans with conspiracy theories, misinformation, and other forms of junk news about military affairs and national security issues.”

In June 2017, Politico Magazine already pushed a very similar idea arguing that SouthFront is one of the projects shaking the very pillars of American society, foremost among which was the military."  South Front

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I use South Front and al Masdar News to find material seldom available on the web or in broadcast news. For example, if one reads only the MSM one would never know that the R+6 have made a major contribution to winning the war against the IS jihadis and will soon deal with the HTS (Al-Qa'ida) jihadis that infest Idlib Province.

The level of media control by various governments is impressive.  The US has become what Solzhenitsyn called a "muffled zone."

I await a knock on the door.  pl

https://southfront.org/msm-shares-new-revelations-that-southfront-targets-u-s-military-community-with-conspiracy-theories-and-misinformation/

 

 

 

Comments

[JohnsonR]

My impression is that South Front does have a pro-Russian bias, but no more so than CNN, say, has a pro-US establishment bias.

It is interesting to read your own endorsement of it as a useful source of information, since you have the specific experience and expertise to allow a good assessment of its overall reliability as an information source, and presumably you have had the opportunity to assess the reliability of information from that source over a sufficient period of time now to do so with some confidence.

"The level of media control by various governments is impressive. The US has become what Solzhenitsyn called a "muffled zone.""

To the extent that even bodies like Wikipedia, which one would think has only its own supposed independence and integrity to rest any claim to credibility upon, bow before the hurricane of Official Truth enforcement:

Open letter concerning Wikipedia suppression of SouthFront information

[Mark Logan]

The question in my mind is if we have become a muffled zone by intent or by single-minded pursuit of ratings for money on the part of our corporate media and their rise to dominance by default. These two things aren't mutually exclusive...I'm thinking primary cause.

[Adrestia]

Huxley's Brave New World and Orwell's 1984 are becoming more of a reality every day.

Ad-click-revenue helps to limit first page results from search engines. An overwhelming majority of users click on the first link of the first page.
Results are manipulated and old news is recycled and presented as new.

The internet memory-hole also enables easy changing or removal of content.

There are also new laws that will act as filters and prevent 'other' content such as this one"

Germany’s Network Enforcement Act: Legal framework for censorship of the Internet
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/10/05/cens-o05.html#pk_campaign=sidebar&pk_kwd=textlink

5 October 2017

On October 1, the Network Enforcement Act took effect in Germany. Under the cover of a fight against “fake news” and “hate speech,” it creates a legal framework for censorship of the Internet.

The law requires operators of Internet platforms with over two million users to “remove or block obviously unlawful content within 24 hours of receipt of a complaint.” In what are called less obvious cases, a seven-day period applies. A platform must regularly report on its handling of complaints. If it does not comply, it faces fines of up to 50 million euros.

IMO these are dangerous trends.

[johnT]

We are becoming what government said we had to fight or else become.

[Harry]

Today i listened to Ash Carter on NPR. He explained that he had talked to Putin in 2012 and Putin had offered to remove Assad and fight ISIS. He went on to explain that Putin had failed to do either and that Russia had never impeded ISIS in any way. I called in to ask a question and eventually got through to an assistant taking questions. She asked what my question was. I said that the most senior Russian officer in Syria and two Colonels had recently been killed in a mortar attack in Deir El Azzor. If they were not killed by ISIS could Mr. Carter tell me who had killed them?

You will be shocked to hear there was no time for my question.

[Walrus]

I'm afraid it's by intent Mark. The next step will be to make an example of some one who is an author or blog owner.The fine point for the authorities will be to judge when they can do that without setting off a scream about Constitutional rights.

President Trump has unfortunately fallen for the trap of suggesting that a broadcasters licence could be removed for purveying "Fake News" which of course is a big slide down the slippery slope.

[r whitman]

Who actually sponsors and runs South Front??

[turcopolier]

r whitman

They seem to run on small money and ask every day for donations. I give then $15/month througt Paypal. pl

[rjh]

As a regular reader of South Front I would agree it's Russian propaganda in much the same sense that NYT is Democratic Party propaganda. The biases in story selection and phrasing are pretty obvious in both.

But the rest of this is nonsense. I also used to read Krasnaya Zvesta regularly. It's biased but informative. You get news from a very different perspective. There's no need to limit news and opinion to the official government line. It's useful to be reminded that in Raqqa, as in Manbij, there are differing priorities and objectives as part of cease fire/ surrender strategies. I never see this kind of issue discussed in the MSM. Southfront doesn't discuss both sides, but they take a very different perspective and that highlights the issues.

[Adrestia]

This might be the best way to stay independent. Advertising/click-revenue kills quality.

OSINT is very powerful in this age of social media and Internet. It is much cheaper than other INTs and can have spectacular results. South Front is a good example. Some others:

Thanks to satellite imagery from Planet Labs, Bellingcat was able to verify the Russian official’s claim that the build was indeed built in fewer than 48 hours. An image from September 23, for example, does not show any signs of a bridge over the river, while an image from two days later, September 25, shows the newly-constructed, full-length bridge, confirming the claim that the military personnel had managed to build it in a mere two days.
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2017/10/03/planet-satellite-imagery-shows-bridge-built-russians-across-euphrates/

In August 2017, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued its first ever arrest warrant solely based on social media evidence
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2017/10/03/how-an-execution-site-was-geolocated/

A Turkish state prosecutor on Monday denied reports that Turkish intelligence agencies were asked to or participated in identifying Israeli soldiers and officers that participated in the 2010 Mavi Marmara raid, Turkish daily Today's Zaman reported.

Istanbul Deputy Public Prosecutor Ates Shasan Sozen told the newspaper that the IHH, the organization that organized the Gaza Flotilla, submitted the list to the Prosecutor's Office the same day when Turkish daily Sabah published the list of 174 names.
http://www.jpost.com/Defense/IHH-gathered-IDF-names-not-Turkish-intelligence

3D reconstruction of Cameroon’s secret torture chambers created by Forensic Architecture of the University of Goldsmith in London.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpoGRQVDT8Q

The Borg/MSM is very active in channeling to their propaganda.

Google’s strategy is to downgrade search results for targeted Web sites based on a supposed desire to limit reader access to “low-quality” information, but the targets reportedly include some of the highest-quality alternative news sites on the Internet, such as – according to the report – Consortiumnews.com.

Google sponsors the First Draft Coalition, which was created to counter alleged “fake news” and consists of mainstream news outlets, including the Times and The Washington Post, as well as establishment-approved Web sites, such as Bellingcat, which has a close association with the anti-Russia and pro-NATO Atlantic Council.

I've looked at Bellingcat and - as any source - should never be trusted at face value. They do post techniques and tips that can be used. So why disregard them? The examples above are useful.

Personally I don't care who provides the information. Left, right, Russia, whoever. A lot should be regarded as propaganda, but that doesn't mean it cannot be used. When combined it can give a proper overview (as wel as show the gaps etc)

IMO the main problem now is how these sources can be found? Especially the general public.

IMO an independent search engine (without ads, ownership by big corporations etc) that returns information from different positions/views (left, right, US, Russia, religions, wikileaks etc).
It is up to the searcher/reader to determine their position (which at least can be based on a more complete overview and can less easily be manipulated)

This is what I'm trying to create now. The main problem is how to remain objective and independent and avoid being eaten by MSM/Borg before it can grow roots.

[Serge]

Colonel, although I do not not even close to approach your stature in reach or general, I can sympathize to these thoughts of waiting for the knock on the door...how far we have fallen as Americans for me to voice this ! I have maintained an informal blog with relatively wide circulation since the late 2000s, relating in particular to ISI and ISIS propaganda. I judge that the reading of Solzhenitsyn in my formative years was one of the main catalysts for my current political views particularly as they relate to the role of centralized overreach and our foreign policy in the ME.especially "The Gulag Archipelago".This "muffled zone" quote perfectly describes the current state of information exchange as it relates to American policy in ME, to the "average" inquirer, how pitiable of a state the information exchange is in! Blogs such as SST and orgs such as SF are bulwarks against this manufactured ignorance imposed on the american people. May God help you in your continued work and endeavors, Colonel.

[Buzz Meeks]

Thank you for the link, looks to be some interesting reading.

Buzz Meeks

[eakens]

It is rather amazing that the greatest threat that the United States faces has become nothing more than the truth.

[Bill Herschel]

I believe it's more difficult and more challenging to pick up a book than pick up a gun (and I know you agree). Nevertheless, when the knock comes, pick up a gun.

I've gotten so I can tell an Andrew Higgins article in the Times by the headline without even looking at the byline. That's the reality of the mainstream media.

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/12/world/europe/mystery-surrounds-death-of-fiery-ukrainian-activist.html

[mariner]

Russia did an excellent job copying the simple tools of Bateson's WW2 propaganda method, which he referred to as schismogenesis. A staple of State intelligence agencies, their imitators and opponents across south and SE Asia since the war, all it took was a photocopied counterfeit account of a religious or political meeting planning an attack on a neighbouring village to start a conflict, and keep a conflict going. All societies have competing sets of values, hopes and fears. Russia must be delighted beyond expectation that Americans could be so easily divided by sets of values and fight one another with just a nudge here and there. The US behaved like an uneducated pre literate society. Russia tried it on France too. It didn't work.

[Lemur]

"Accurate news" is information that has received the imprimatur of an organ of the global ruling class.

[fanto]

Colonel,
I have been impressed with the level of control of the media in the "western" world for a long time, probably longer than many. I have commented about it on SST. My explanations for it go beyond the mere financial/existential control of the 'scribes' in different outlets of MSM. That kind of control would be the simplest reason, as indicated by some comments on the your article "The Newshour is not neutral at all" - where the names of fired reporters have been listed (of course a hugely incomplete list). I wondered and commented on the peculiar "unisono" quality of MSM years ago, because I was able to compare not only the US media but had the relatively frequent insight into the german media.
I and some friends of mine who come from similar circumstances have been joking privately about the 'knock on the door' here in the "free world" for some time.

[ToivoS]

When South Front first appeared I assumed that they were backed by some Russian outfit,maybe official or not. I took their news reports with a skeptical note. As time went on it appeared that the stuff they were talking about turned out to accurate more often than not. Still have no idea who they are but am willing to give them a little support.

[Balint Somkuti, PhD]

Sir. there wont be people knocking on your door. In a modern "liberal" and "tolerant" way you will first warned of your heresy then your credibility will be chipped away bit by bit slowly by various media outlets and speaking heads demonzing you continously. If that's not enough next step is depriving you of your means of income, and should these not work, a SWAT team will come crashing through blastholes, to eliminate the terrorist threat.

Knocking on doors is so polite ans therefore outdated. These people are definitely not polite.

Until 2010 I feared the above as an outspoken conservative. Living in a pronouncedly illiberal country most of these fears are gone. To me it appears that nowadays the western hemisphere conservatives are targeted. Mayber members of this correspondence should start studying guerilla tactics, not to mention those excellent CIA materials from the 60s and 70s about ressisting oppressive govts.

[Philippe T.]

"I await a knock on the door. " !!!

[PVP]

Very interesting to hear this coming from Pat - I also use the 2 sites he mentions to get past the firewall of MSM. My brother had similar views to me on world affairs for many years. He now spends more time in the US as he is engaged to an American; whilst he knows the news out there is garbage he has half bought into the Russia bad meme and Assad bombs his own people, etc. He thinks I have become a wild eyed loon.

[MRW]

@Walrus,

"President Trump has unfortunately fallen for the trap of suggesting that a broadcasters licence could be removed for purveying "Fake News" which of course is a big slide down the slippery slope.”

But it can be. The public owns the airwaves, and have since 1933/34. (1) That’s why broadcasters must buy a licence. (2) I’m not looking up the law right now, but broadcasters must supply accurate news.

Anyone alive during the era of Edward Morrow, Walter Cronkite, Fred Friendly, etc, and the lauded CBS, Nbc, and ABC news depts know that they were in a category by themselves. It wasn’t some altruistic bent, it was the law, and the broadcasters all competed with each other to be the best at it.

[elev8]

Has anyone here gone through the 45 pages of Ash Carter's recent article and can give a succinct characterization of its contents?
Commenter Harry just suggested that I should expect a significant amount of obfuscation from it. If others who have delved into it, concur with that estimate, I'd rather skip over it.

[iowa steve]

"In June 2017, Politico Magazine already pushed a very similar idea arguing that SouthFront is one of the projects shaking the very pillars of American society, foremost among which was the military."

I doubt if .1% of American citizens have ever heard of southfront Its website ranking is 20,400 in worldwide popularity. In contrast, WaPo ranks 175 while the NyTimes is at 113 worldwide.

[iowa steve]

Perhaps these have been discussed previously, but along these lines I should add some very funny RT ads that appear at what I am led to believe are Washington bus stops:

pic.twitter.com/Z5eW8GS6pg