(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
In 1967, in the midst of the Vietnam War, the linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky published an essay: The Responsibility of Intellectuals. Chomsky (born 1928) based himself on an article Dwight McDonald wrote after the Second World War, about responsibility and especially the responsibility of intellectuals to be a counter-voice to questionable activity in the present.
Also the sequel, American Power and the New Mandarins (1969), was written as a powerful critique of the rhetoric of the Vietnam War. In collaboration with economics professor Edward Herman, Chomsky made an investigation of the journalist Walter Lippman's claim that there was a subtle censorship in the USA, depending on market forces (Public Opinion. See also https://www.nytid.no/everything-is-the-others-fault/).
And in 1928 the book was published Falsehood in War-time, Containing an Assortment of Lies Circulated Throughout the Nations During the Great War by the British socialist and pacifist Arthur Ponsonby (1871-1946).
Ponsonby was a parliamentary politician in England during the First World War, and as the son of Queen Victoria's private secretary, he had good insight into the rhetoric of the Allies (Russia, France, Great Britain and the United States) against the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria).
He compiled the Allied war propaganda in the following ten theses:
"We are not the ones who want war.
The enemy alone is to blame for the war.
The enemy has the devil's face.
We defend a noble cause, not our own interests.
The enemy commits systematic atrocities, our mishaps are accidental.
The enemy uses forbidden weapons.
Our losses are small, the enemy's losses are enormous.
Artists and intellectuals support our cause.
Our cause is sacred.
Anyone who casts doubt on our cause is a traitor.”
American government propaganda
Chomsky and Herman wrote several books: Counter-Revolutionary Violence: Bloodbath in Fact & Propaganda (1973) and The Political Economy of Human Rights (1979), before Herman's own investigation Corporate control, Corporate Power published in 1981.
These became the background for perhaps the most important book – the critique of the American propaganda model: Manufacturing Consent (1988).
Chomsky and Herman exposed American mass media as powerful ideological institutions, as efficient and systematic agent agencies of American state propaganda. The editor-controlled media in the United States did not challenge the governing powers, wrote Chomsky and Herman, not even when it came to war. The main conclusion was that the free press in 'The Land of the Free' was not so free.
Chomsky and Herman exposed American mass media as powerful ideological institutions, as efficient and systematic agent agencies of American state propaganda.
Consideration of advertisers, sponsors, authorities and connections formed editorial filters, while fear-mongering news about anti-communism had a positive effect on advertising and sales income. After 1991, news redefined Chomsky's "war on terror" as the most important social control mechanism. Today, perhaps other definitions would be appropriate.
Neoconservatism: Kagan and Kristol
The leading figure of American neoconservatism, Robert Kagan, founded in 1997, together with the media and PR man William Kristol, Project for the New American Century. The purpose was to save the United States and American foreign policy. The project was financed by, among others, the arms group Lockheed Martin. Kagan described neoconservatism as the belief in American moralism as a problem solver in the world, the promotion of American freedom and American democracy in other countries, the belief in American hegemony, the trust in US military power and a distrust of international institutions and support for US actions alone (World Affairs, 2008 ). Kagan singled out "Russia and China" as the biggest "challenge to liberalism today" (jf. Truman Doctrine, 1947, George Kennans rapport, 1946 og Lippmann's criticism of it).
From being a panelist on Fox News Sunday, colleague Kristol became a commentator in serious magazines such as Time and The New York Times. When the Bush administration declared the war on terror after September 11, 2001, Kristol excitedly described the «a very unusual moment, the creation of a new American foreign policy». Kagan and Kristol were strong agitators for the Iraq invasion, stating in the New York Times (1998): «bombing Iraq isn’t enough», since Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction posed a threat to the United States and its allies (NYT, 1998) and that "American troops" in Baghdad were essential (2006) In 2003, you got the most extensive demonstrations in history worldwide against American neoconservatism, which claimed that more guns was the way to peace.
The Institute for the Study of War is a regular reference in Aftenposten, NRK, VG, Dagbladet, Nettavisen, ABC Nyheter and NTB.
Kristol called for US military intervention in Libya in 2011 and claimed that US military intervention in Muslim countries (the Gulf War, the Kosovo War, the war in Afghanistan and the Iraq war) was "liberation", not "invasion" (2011).
When WikiLeaks revealed US surveillance of civilians in Europe (2010), Kristol raged and suggested that the US should "harass, abduct or neutralize Julian Assange and his collaborators".
A Norwegian paradigm shift
Professor of journalism Sigurd Allern wrote in Klassekampen on 3 April how the think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) is "an actor who wants to influence the media's agenda, angle and interpretation framework" through the offer of free (information subsidized), easily accessible material such as maps of war developments, war reports and analyses. The substance has been frequently used in the Norwegian media's coverage of Ukraine: "ISW is (...) a regular reference in (...) Aftenposten, NRK, VG, Dagbladet, Nettavisen, ABC Nyheter and NTB."
ISW was founded in 2007 by military historian Kimberley Kagan. She belongs to the family complex of Republican Robert Kagan.
From 2011, he was in the top management of the US State Department.
The person who initiated the talks in 2013 with NATO's new Secretary General was Kagan's wife, Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs (2013-17).
The Norwegian exchange of words about the Ukraine war has been characterized by a narrative that is strongly inspired by extreme American neoconservatism with strong attacks on the critics.
Large parts of the Norwegian exchange of words about the Ukraine war have been characterized by a narrative that is strongly inspired by extreme American neoconservatism with strong attacks on the critics. It is not difficult to nod in recognition to Ponsonby's war propaganda theses. Designation of dissidents as Putinists corresponds to Ponsonby's thesis 10.
