propaganda news stories on Newser

Hollywood Got Inside Scoop on bin Laden Raid

Kevin Spak — Wed, 23 May 2012 11:24:31 CDT

The White House, CIA, and Pentagon all gave special access to Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow to help with her movie about Osama bin Laden's death, according to documents obtained by the conservative Judicial Watch . In one interview , Undersecretary of Defense Mike Vickers tells Bigelow that top admirals can't talk...

Why Teachers Raged at Kenneth Cole

Neal Colgrass — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:30:03 CDT

Facing outcry from teachers, Kenneth Cole has offered to pull a new ad and web campaign that blithely pits "Teachers' Rights vs. Students' Rights"—and David Sirota's article at Salon explains the hubbub. For starters, a Cole foundation website is asking readers to weigh in on the question, “Should underperforming...

Reporters Probing Pentagon Hit With Smear Campaign

Kevin Spak — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 13:36:05 CDT

A USA Today reporter and editor were targeted with an online smear campaign not long after publishing stories investigating the Pentagon's propaganda contractors, the paper alleged today . Just days after Tom Vanden Brook published his first story on the Pentagon's "information operations," a website registered in his name cropped up...

Bus' Wrong Turn Reveals Real North Korea

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 19:00:05 CDT

The press bus took a wrong turn. And suddenly, everything changed in the official showcase of North Korean achievement. Dust swirled down deeply potholed streets, past crumbling concrete apartment buildings. Old people trudged along the sidewalk, while two men in wheelchairs waited at a bus stop. There were stores with...

US Media Leading Propaganda War on Iran

John Johnson — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 12:41:05 CST

The American media took its lumps after the Iraqi war for not challenging the government's allegations against Saddam Hussein. It promised to learn its lesson. Guess what? The same thing is now happening in regard to Iran, with a twist: The media is actually "out in front of the US...

Bill Maher: 'Who the F*** Is Saul Alinsky?'

Mark Russell — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:03:00 CST

With conservatives increasingly comparing the strategy of President Obama to the playbook of Saul Alinsky, Bill Maher has two angry responses: "One, why would you invite my outrage by suggesting such a specious link? ... And two, who the fuck is Saul Alinsky?" In a clip picked up by Mediaite , Maher...

North Korea Punishes 'Insincere' Mourners

Rob Quinn — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 03:20:00 CST

North Koreans whose mourning of their Dear Leader lacked enthusiasm have been sent to join the 200,000 of their countrymen already in labor camps, according to Daily NK . The South Korea-based website, citing sources in the North, says people who either skipped mourning sessions for Kim Jong Il or...

Hollywood Has Turned 'Cryptofascist'

Matt Cantor — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 07:13:03 CST

They say Hollywood is liberal, but in fact it's more of a right-wing propaganda machine, writes Rick Moody in the Guardian . From Schwarzenegger to Spider-Man , “the message is there: Might is right, the global economy will be restored, America is exceptional, homely people deserve political disenfranchisement, and so on.” As...

Surprise! Putin Diving 'Discoveries' Were Fake

Kevin Spak — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 13:58:05 CDT

You were right, Internet. Vladimir Putin isn’t really a deep sea archaeologist . The once-and-future Russian president’s press secretary has admitted that the video of Putin finding a collection of ancient Greek jugs at the bottom of a Black Sea bay was a setup, the New York Times reports. The artifacts...