Analyst:

Media serve as propaganda tool for US foreign policy establishment

Every media outlet in the United States serves as a propaganda tool for the foreign policy establishment, according to Myles Hoenig, an American political analyst and activist.

News ID: 444265

Date: 12 April 2019 - 00:54

RNA - Hoenig, a former Green Party candidate for Congress, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Tuesday while commenting on a statement about Fox News made by Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

Senator Sanders said on Monday that he believes Australian-born American media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News is mainly a propaganda arm of the administration of Trump.

Asked if Fox News broadcasts were propaganda for Trump, Sanders said, “In most respects, I think it is.”

"I think they have some people who you can describe as real journalists," Sanders told HuffPost. But he added, "Obviously, most of the station is right-wing propaganda."

“Sanders calling Fox News propaganda for the Trump administration, or the Republican Party in general, is stating the obvious. As Fox went after Obama the Democrat, they have been completely on the side of any Republican in office,” Hoenig said.

“Trump in office has often done and said things no news station would tolerate if it were independent and had any kind of journalistic ethics. Although his behavior has been an embarrassment since the beginning of his term, mostly for his narcissism and his sexual predatory nature, Fox News has found ways to either excuse it or ignore it. His present policy of family separation is condemned everywhere, as a moral outrage, but defended by the network,” he stated.

“But Sanders is being disingenuous. He makes it sound like Fox is the only network that acts as a party functionary. He hides the fact that he along with nearly all Democrats bought into the anti-Russia hysteria promoted by MSNBC and CNN, almost on a 24/7 basis,” he added.

“The US pretends it doesn’t have a state media outlet as we would see in so many other countries, countries that are democrat or authoritarian. But every media outlet in this country serves as a propaganda outlet for the foreign policy establishment, which is consistent regardless of the administration,” he said.

"War sells newspapers and advertisement and all the outlets try to outdo the other in being the most bellicose. It has always been the case but since the hostage situation in Iran during its revolution ABC Nightline made its name in day to day coverage of a crisis and promoted hostility towards a perceived enemy, without exploring root causes of any particular crisis. All the other networks then followed suit. It didn’t matter who was the president at the time as the propaganda for war is bipartisan,” he noted.

“It really doesn’t matter if a network is a de facto organ of a political party. No mainstream media outlet is independent and all are dependent on promoting tensions between the US and others. Just look how they all use the State Department language related to Maduro of Venezuela. It wouldn’t make a difference if the president was a Republican or a Democrat,” the analyst concluded.

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