Selling journalism. Corrupt journalists

Udo Ulfkotte

Corrupt journalists. Any truth for your money

If all journalists, such as they are, were sent to prison, then so many innocent people would probably not end up in prison as they currently do.

Christian Friedrich Goebbel (1813–1863), German playwright and poet

Gekaufte Journalisten

Tune into Kopp Verlag broadcasting at: www.kopp-verlag.de

* * *

On August 16, 2014, my elder friend Peter Scholl-Latour, who in many ways replaced my father, died. A long time ago, in 2010, he advised me to write this book. I am grateful to him for his friendship and advice. And I bow my head to his life’s work. Without him this book would never have been written. With deepest gratitude, I also dedicate it to my wife Doris and Dr. Thomas Urbach, who saved my life in an almost hopeless situation. Without their prompt, sacrificial and selfless help, I would not have been able to complete my work on this book.

All individuals named in this book deny their suspicious proximity to the organizations of the ruling elite, which smacks of corruption. In addition, they deny that they are lobbyists. They also deny that they are “corrupt” due to their described proximity to the ruling elite. And they deny that, being journalists close to the above-mentioned groups, they have lost the professional acumen required of a journalist. They deny that their described proximity to the elite affects their reporting. All organizations named in this book deny that they are lobbying organizations and/or seek to influence journalists and/or public opinion. In addition, they deny any connection with the secret services.

Reviews of the book “Corrupt Journalists” by Udo Ulfkotte

“The famous German journalist and publicist Udo Ulfkotte wrote the book “Corrupt Journalists,” which instantly became a bestseller not only in his home country, but also in Europe. Now the Russian reader can find out what forces and money are behind the articles in the German media. At least in this large-scale work, Ulfkotte, who worked for 17 years at the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper, considered one of the most prestigious in the world, writes boldly and without embellishment about what dishes are actually “cooked in the German journalistic kitchen.” . The reader will learn about what kind of gifts (such as diving suits or gold watches) Western journalists work for, and why they are both anti-Russian and pro-American. Every sentence in this book, which reads like a gripping detective story, is supported by sources. Although Ulfkotte named 321 names in it, no one ever dared to sue him.”

– Maxim Makarychev, international journalist, columnist for Rossiyskaya Gazeta

“Udo Ulfkotte’s book about the secret and often corrupt connections of media conglomerates with big politics and big business is not the first and not the last in a series of its kind. Moreover, the revealing pathos of the authors in most cases is doomed to success precisely due to one single factor, which they themselves tend to underestimate - the actually existing public opinion in Western society. But this book also has a peculiarity. She is largely self-exposing. “Before I rip the mask off other journalists, I’ll rip the mask off myself. I will describe how corrupt I myself was in my articles and reports and what behind-the-scenes networks influenced my articles and reports,” Ulfkotte immediately makes a reservation. And this gives what he wrote additional weight, authenticity and non-partisanship.”

– Boris Yunanov, first deputy editor-in-chief of The New Times magazine (“New Time”)

“In his book, Udo Ulfkotte uses exactly those journalistic techniques in which he exposes his corrupt and corrupt colleagues - the law of the distorting mirror works on both sides of the barricades. But the model of propaganda and manipulation of mass consciousness, which he recreates in sufficient detail, is just as applicable to our country. Therefore, if this book had been written on domestic material, it would hardly have reached the mass reader.”

– Sergey Kumysh, columnist for Profile magazine

Preface

LSD? Crack? Datura decoction? Cocaine? Methamphetamine? When reading the reports of our “quality media”, you increasingly wonder what drugs their employees use in their editorial offices. There is clearly something wrong with their heads. I wonder what they mix into their granola in the morning? Many journalists have clearly lost touch with reality. While millions of people behind the walls of their editorial offices, languishing under the burden of worries, do not know how they can survive in the face of rising rents and food prices, some journalists are trying to be closer to those representatives of the elite who are responsible for the hardships of the increasingly number of people. And while the inevitable bankruptcy of the member states of the European Union has so far been prevented only by continuously printing more and more money, our leading media, in full accordance with the interests of the financial elite, are demanding the admission of more and more bankrupt states into the EU. What is this - a crack overdose? Or maybe an LSD overdose? Or is it just that editorial staff use too much cocaine? While citizens are tired of receiving more and more news about their fellow citizens killed in military operations abroad, some members of the media, wearing steel soldiers' helmets, cheerfully sing along with the Americans as they plan new military operations. Are these the consequences of taking methamphetamine?

At the same time, our “alpha journalists” suffer from complete memory atrophy. For some reason, they cannot, or at least do not want to remember today in what pompous terms they sang to us about the war in Iraq or the military mission in Afghanistan. How they noticed the financial crisis and the collapse of the euro only when every citizen had long suffered from their consequences. And when a passenger plane crashed over Ukraine in 2014, they were eager to immediately send our soldiers to carry out a military mission against Russia, although it was not yet clear who was responsible for the crash of the plane. Preventing bloodshed by demanding even more bloodshed is the principle of murderers. In Iraq alone, this is evidenced by the more than 100,000 killed civilians who lost their lives there because our media - with very few exceptions - as if in a state of drug overdose hallucination, with such unbridled glee described the need for war in Iraq and thereby brought closer its beginning. So who or what is running our crazy mainstream media? Are our leading journalists really taking drugs? Or does this systematic madness have completely different reasons? Maybe there are propaganda specialists behind him? In earlier times, such an assumption would probably have been dismissed as just another “conspiracy theory.” But today we know that journalists from respected media are the main target of manipulators who, through the messages of our media, seek to impose on the audience their interpretation of events taking place in the world. This is primarily how the US government and the Israelis work. There are even guides describing how to influence quality media1. One thing is clear: anyone who works in respected media must be extremely wary of groups that lobby for someone else's interests, including American and Israeli ones. As we will soon see, some journalists do the exact opposite. Obviously, they thrive in the web - especially in the web of American and Israeli pressure groups. Moreover, they boast that they allowed themselves to be entangled in this web, proudly mentioning their “membership” in extremely suspicious circles.

As we learn more and more about such behind-the-scenes connections, the presence of which is documented, we suddenly begin to look at the “news” reported to us by our media with completely different eyes. However, it is better not to talk about this. And if not, media representatives don’t understand jokes and won’t joke, even if we are talking about satirical programs. Even such a respected author as Joseph Joffe, the “Great Journalist”2 and, like the convicted tax evader Theo Sommer3, editor-in-chief of the weekly "Zeit" As it turned out, he doesn’t understand and doesn’t like jokes. He even, using all sorts of legal clues, sued the Second German Television (ZDF) for a brief mention in one of the satirical programs of his dubious contacts with some suspicious network organizations4. All that was needed was for mere mortals to have the opportunity to look behind the scenes of power! Media studies specialist Thomas Stadler writes on this subject: “For a flagship like "Zeit" The legal measures taken by Joffe (...) against the CDF are fully consistent with the journalist’s oath to inform the public about everything that affects its interests.”5 Obviously, you need to be extremely careful when dealing with journalists, and not just journalists like Josef Joffe6.

Corrupt journalists. Any truth for your money Udo Ulfkotte

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Title: Corrupt journalists. Any truth for your money

About the book “Corrupt Journalists. Any truth for your money" Udo Ulfkotte

The book by the famous German journalist Udo Ulfkotte vividly, specifically and in detail describes the situation in the German media, mired in corruption, bribery and political bias. Hidden advertising and open PR, paid articles and TV shows, hushing up some facts and inflating others in the interests of the ruling elite or commercial companies - these are far from the complete toolkit of the German “sharks of the pen”. An important advantage of the book is the author's frank admission of his own past participation in the duping and brainwashing of readers. Working in high positions in the largest newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, he was more aware than anyone else of the ways of bribing representatives of the “fourth estate.” You will find out what excuse the United States came up with to start the war in Iraq; how NATO uranium munitions in the Balkans became harmless; how Bulgaria and Romania were lured into the EU; how American and British intelligence agencies rigged polls; how the euro was forcibly introduced in Germany; why an attempt was made to whitewash Hitler; why the German media blamed Russia for the crash of a Malaysian Boeing in Ukraine.

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On January 13, 2017, a former journalist, author of almost two dozen popular anti-system books, died in Germany at the age of 56. Udo Ulfkotte. His sudden death immediately gave rise to a version of his murder in the peripheral Russian patriotic media. And since Ulfkotte’s last book, “Corrupt Journalists,” dealt with the interaction of authors of leading Western media, in particular German ones, with the local intelligence services, the conversation turned to the involvement of these same intelligence services in Ulfkotte’s sudden death. One of the main motives for the “murder” of Ulfkotte is said to be revenge for the public exposure of their activities to manipulate public opinion in Germany. There was even a version that, on the eve of the murder, Ulfkotte had planned a trip to the United States for the inauguration of the new president. Donald Trump. And supposedly there was an agreement on a personal meeting between Ulfkotte and the American president. Therefore, the media accuse the American CIA of “eliminating” Ulfkotte, for which it was allegedly important to prevent this meeting, at which a competent expert was supposedly going to report something deadly for American intelligence.

As a result, a conspiracy theory was created: Ulfkotte is the bearer of dangerous secrets for the American and German intelligence services. A similar circumstance is due to the entire work of Ulfkotte. Be that as it may, in fact, the version of the murder of a former journalist who specialized in exposing the system of globalism is now doomed to further independent existence within the framework of conspiracy theories of the modern era. Her exposure will not be helped by the fact that Ulfkotte’s death from a heart attack was reported by his close relatives, nor by the testimony of a medical examination, nor by the fact that the deceased had not been healthy for a long time and had problems with heart disease and other diseases. For the version of the murder of the publicist, something else is important: Ulfkotte was hiding from threats to his life and the lives of close relatives. The threats finally got to him. Ulfkotte himself was primarily afraid of the Islamists. In modern Germany, he was almost the first to openly declare Islam the enemy of European civilization and Germany specifically. Ulfkotte's vehemence against Germany's creeping Islamization earned him a reputation as an expert on security and migration issues.

Ulfkotte was in hiding and feared attacks due to the nature of his many years of whistleblowing activities. Even now they cannot name the place in Germany where he died. His name cannot be found in the phone book. He agreed to meet with outsiders only in publicly accessible places. Ulfkotte lived alone in Germany in a house on some island in the middle of a lake. The house has its own source of electricity and water. You cannot approach him without being noticed. The area around the house is surrounded by a high fence. Only two outsiders knew about his place of permanent residence - the local burgomaster and the priest. Ulfkotte also belonged to the category of modern “survivalists”. One of his books, written after retiring from journalism, is about how to survive the next world war.

Ulfkotte had serious health problems - for which there were reasons: an injury while skiing, a traumatic brain injury resulting from a fall from the stairs, poorly treated malaria, received either in Asia or in Africa. He has suffered several heart attacks recently. There is a story that while working at FAZ, during a journalistic trip to Iraq in 1988, Ulfkotte at the front came under attack from either the Iraqis or the Iranians using a terrible toxic substance - mustard gas. The defeat caused the journalist to develop a malignant tumor a few months later. The doctors allegedly did not give him even three weeks to live, but he still managed to pull through. In December 2013, Ulfkotte sought a pension from the management of FAZ due to numerous injuries and illnesses received during journalistic work for the publication. Regarding diseases, Ulfkotte himself contributed to the development of conspiracy theories. So he explained one of his injuries either by tripping over a cat and falling, or by falling down the stairs in his house during his escape from Pakistani intelligence agents pursuing him around the house. Imagine this picture.

Ulfkotte's work can be judged by the publications of his articles and book reviews posted on the Kopp Online information resource. His book "Corrupt Journalists," subtitled "How politicians, intelligence and high finance direct the German media," was ranked sixth in Spiegel's annual nonfiction bestseller list in 2015. Critics then noted Ulfkotte's outstanding achievement. He was able to write a best-selling book about the local media landscape. The book remained on the prestigious Spiegel list for 18 weeks and sold more than 120 thousand copies. In this book, Ulfkotte reflected what he learned during his work in the famous German, then still printed, publication Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). At FAZ, Ulfkotte worked as one of the editors of the politics section from 1986 to 2003. In his book, he informed the German public about the interaction at the editorial level of the German media with members of the German intelligence service - the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND). According to Ulfkotte, the topics and content of individual publications in leading German media are determined by order or in direct interaction with the intelligence services. Behind what was happening with the German media, Ulfkotte saw the behind-the-scenes activities of the globalist American financial elite, which secretly controls and directs public opinion. Ulfkotte's book was partly a warning to journalists about the dangers of getting close to “elite networks” that would dictate their work. Ulfkotte warned that “Corrupt Journalists” is just the beginning, and he plans to have two more publications on the topic of dirt in the media business.

Ulfkotte graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Freiburg in Baden with an interesting specialty practiced at this university in the field of research into a specific area of law or law enforcement in a particular country that is interesting for Germany. For example, a doctoral student in the field of jurisprudence is working on a dissertation on the history of the death penalty in Russia. That is, in practice, we are talking about an interdisciplinary approach in the field of law and history in targeted foreign research. The end result is both a qualified lawyer and a historian. At the University of Freiburg, Ulfkotte studied the topic “Criminology, Islamic Studies and Politics”. Accordingly, at the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung he worked on the topic of the Middle East. There is a version that while working at FAZ, Ulfkotte spent several years abroad. It is believed that between 1986 and 1998, while working for FAZ, he lived mainly in Muslim countries - Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, UAE, Egypt and Jordan. However, his former FAZ colleagues do not remember anything about his foreign business trips. It is obvious that Ulfkotte's journalistic activities were in the direction of the interests of German intelligence.

The main theme of Ulfkotte’s journalistic work after he left journalism and FAZ was uncontrolled foreign cultural migration, which, in his opinion, poses a mortal threat to Germany and Europe. In total, since 2003, that is, after leaving journalism and being fired from FAZ, Ulfkotte has published 16 books, four of them co-authored. The direction of Ulfkotte's work can be clearly judged by the titles of his books:

War in our cities. How radical Islamists are undermining Germany. (2003);
Crime without borders. Risks associated with EU enlargement. What politicians hide. (2004);
War in the dark. The true power of intelligence agencies. (2006);
Holy War in Europe. About the risks for our society from Muslim brothers. (2007);
SOS. East. The creeping Islamization of Europe. (2008);
Beware, civil war! How enzymes mature in anticipation of anger. (2009);
No black. No red. No gold. Poverty for everyone is the pleasure of migrants. (2010);
Immigration nightmare. Lies, broken promises, brainwashing. (2011);
Corrupt journalists. How politicians, intelligence and high finance direct the German media. (2014);
Mecca of Germany: Silent Islamization. (2015);
Industry for beggars. How politicians, journalists and NGOs are benefiting from the refugee wave. (2015);
People's educators. How the media wants to teach us to be politically correct. (2016).

In 2010, Ulfkotte actively supported Thilo Sarrazina with his politically incorrect, anti-immigrant book, “Germany: Self-Liquidation,” which caused a stir in Germany. Ulfkotte, following Sarrazin, called the funding of multicultural programs “insane amounts allocated for the education of backward migrants who are uneducable.” He openly called Islam an “aggressive ideology” that has no place in “democratic Europe.”

Ulfkotte became popular as an "expert" with his video talks on Youtube. At the beginning of 2015, for example, he spoke in Dresden at mass events of the anti-immigrant people's alliance "Pegida". He later spoke at events organized by the new Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. Through his journalistic and propaganda activities, Ulfkotte actively shaped the anti-system trend, which has now emerged in Germany in the activities of the “new right”. From this point of view, his journalistic activities should be considered in the obituary. Ulfkotte was one of the most prominent publicists working to awaken nationalism in Germany. The current political reorientation of the AfD party is due to his great merit.

In Germany, Ulfkotte is placed in the category of xenophobic “right-wing populists” concerned with the problem of Islam. In obituaries, his ideas were retold with the obligatory addition of the adjective “controversial.” For example, one message about his death was entitled: “Controversial author Ulfkotte is dead.” The last fact is indisputable, but here we can only add a completely lapidary: “But the work lives on.”

If all journalists, such as they are, were sent to prison, then so many innocent people would probably not end up in prison as they currently do.

Christian Friedrich Goebbel (1813–1863), German playwright and poet

Gekaufte Journalisten

Copyright © 2014 by Kopp Verlag e.K., Germany.

Tune into Kopp Verlag broadcasting at: www.kopp-verlag.de

© EGO Translating, translation into Russian, 2015

© Design. Eksmo Publishing House LLC, 2015

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All individuals named in this book deny their suspicious proximity to the organizations of the ruling elite, which smacks of corruption. In addition, they deny that they are lobbyists. They also deny that they are “corrupt” due to their described proximity to the ruling elite. And they deny that, being journalists close to the above-mentioned groups, they have lost the professional acumen required of a journalist. They deny that their described proximity to the elite affects their reporting. All organizations named in this book deny that they are lobbying organizations and/or seek to influence journalists and/or public opinion. In addition, they deny any connection with the secret services.

Reviews of the book “Corrupt Journalists” by Udo Ulfkotte

– Maxim Makarychev, international journalist, columnist for Rossiyskaya Gazeta

– Boris Yunanov, first deputy editor-in-chief of The New Times magazine (“New Time”)

– Sergey Kumysh, columnist for Profile magazine

Preface

At the same time, our “alpha journalists” suffer from complete memory atrophy. For some reason, they cannot, or at least do not want to remember today in what pompous terms they sang to us about the war in Iraq or the military mission in Afghanistan. How they noticed the financial crisis and the collapse of the euro only when every citizen had long suffered from their consequences. And when a passenger plane crashed over Ukraine in 2014, they were eager to immediately send our soldiers to carry out a military mission against Russia, although it was not yet clear who was responsible for the crash of the plane. Preventing bloodshed by demanding even more bloodshed is the principle of murderers. In Iraq alone, this is evidenced by the more than 100,000 killed civilians who lost their lives there because our media - with very few exceptions - as if in a state of drug overdose hallucination, with such unbridled glee described the need for war in Iraq and thereby brought closer its beginning. So who or what is running our crazy mainstream media? Are our leading journalists really taking drugs? Or does this systematic madness have completely different reasons? Maybe there are propaganda specialists behind him? In earlier times, such an assumption would probably have been dismissed as just another “conspiracy theory.” But today we know that journalists from respected media are the main target of manipulators who, through the messages of our media, seek to impose on the audience their interpretation of events taking place in the world. This is primarily how the US government and the Israelis work. There are even guides describing how to influence quality media 1 . One thing is clear: anyone who works in respected media must be extremely wary of groups that lobby for someone else's interests, including American and Israeli ones. As we will soon see, some journalists do the exact opposite. Obviously, they thrive in the web - especially in the web of American and Israeli pressure groups. Moreover, they boast that they allowed themselves to be entangled in this web, proudly mentioning their “membership” in extremely suspicious circles.

As we learn more and more about such behind-the-scenes connections, the presence of which is documented, we suddenly begin to look at the “news” reported to us by our media with completely different eyes. However, it is better not to talk about this. And if not, media representatives don’t understand jokes and won’t joke, even if we are talking about satirical programs. Even such a respected author as Joseph Joffe, the “Great Journalist” 2 and, like the convicted tax evader Theo Sommer 3, the editor-in-chief of the weekly "Zeit" As it turned out, he doesn’t understand and doesn’t like jokes. He even, using all sorts of legal clues, sued the Second German Television (ZDF) for a brief mention in one of the satirical programs of his dubious contacts with some suspicious network organizations 4 . All that was needed was for mere mortals to have the opportunity to look behind the scenes of power! Media studies specialist Thomas Stadler writes on this subject: “For a flagship like "Zeit" the legal measures taken by Joffe (...) against the CDF are quite consistent with the journalist's oath to report to the public everything that affects its interests." 5. Obviously, you need to be extremely careful when dealing with journalists, and not only journalists like Josef Joffe 6 .

Do you ever get the feeling that you are being manipulated, that the media is lying to you? If it occurs, then know that most people have this feeling. Including Karl Albrecht. When this richest German, estimated to be worth more than 18 billion euros, died in July 2014 at the age of 94, our media had nothing to report about him. Only one single photo of Albrecht was published. And no details of his life were reported. Albrecht, the founder of the discount chain Aldi, considered politics a dirty business. Throughout his life, he refused to meet with the federal chancellors of Germany, instead of elite networks, he relied only on his family, and despised banks and the credit business. He refused to accept any honors or awards, including the Federal Cross of Merit. And I never gave any interviews to anyone. Do you know why? Everything is absolutely clear: this man, who had persistently built and expanded his family business all his life, simply did not want others to take advantage of him. And they manipulated him. He was convinced that it was better to stay away from many temptations. And why do more and more ordinary people think today the same way as Karl Albrecht thought during his lifetime?

The Tübingen scientist, media studies specialist, Professor Hans-Jürgen Bucher wrote back in 1991 in his study “The Language of the Media” (“Mediensprache”) that the following should not be overlooked: “Today, the interaction of the press and politics is carried out according to the rules complex game: through staged occasions for media reports, for example, press conferences, so-called behind-the-scenes negotiations or delicate forms of press management.” Delicate forms of press management? Sorry, did I hear right? It turns out that we have a “controlled press”? This sounds simply monstrous to the average citizen. However, the reality is exactly this, as we will soon see 7.

Until recently, those who wondered why our media often gave the impression of being uniform were indiscriminately classified as conspiracy theorists. After all, it is believed that we have democracy and pluralism of opinions. However, the assumptions of some “conspiracy theorists” today turn into sad reality. For this book exposes a really existing network of organizations lobbying the interests of the elite. Moreover, this network also exists in our media. Maybe billionaire Karl Albrecht knew this and therefore stayed away from the media?

Without a doubt, journalists should not work for lobbying organizations or belong to elite networks hidden from the public. But many of them do just that. And they don’t like it when their mask is torn off 8. You can expose them at every step. After all, there are many publicly available studies showing that these journalists have the power to interpret events and impose their version of events on the reading, viewing, or listening audience. This power is based on the presence of such journalists in the most important newspapers and magazines. To verify this, you just need to check their names and surnames through electronic databases for the frequency of mention 9 . At the next stage of the investigation, it is necessary to compare the names and surnames thus established with the official list of lobbyists maintained by the German Bundestag 10 . And with lists from Lobbypedia 11, one of the organization’s projects "LobbyControl".

If we then analyze which lobbying organizations are members of the media representatives exposed in this way, who have the power to interpret (for us and for us) the events taking place in the world, then we will ultimately identify a small circle of elite organizations whose existence and activities are almost completely hushed up by the media. And then some journalists will suddenly appear to us not as journalists, but rather as performers of the roles of journalists. Apparently, they only create for readers and viewers the appearance of their impartiality and independence. In other words: if a journalist receives exclusive access to the circles of power elites, does this not mean that he has become too close to those who made this access possible for him? Isn’t such a journalist in this case already “corrupt” for a long time? Has he already lost his journalistic acumen, although perhaps he hasn’t even noticed it yet? All the journalists named in this book deny that because they were too close to elite network organizations, they lost their journalistic acumen and/or became “corrupt.” But how will readers look at this? Especially if they find the names of the organizations listed here or the names of the journalists listed here also in published WikiLeaks documents from secret reports of US embassies 12, which is very possible? I wonder why the names of some German quality media appear there again and again?

From this book, the following will become clear to you: a whole army of agents who seem, at first glance, to be serious journalists, earn money by influencing the German media on the instructions of foreign clients - for example, supposedly non-profit “transatlantic organizations of German-American friendship.” Their task is also to keep representatives of the German political and media elite from trying to create a spiritual and ideological bloc with Russia and to ensure that they continue to follow a pro-American course. After all, Washington is pursuing very specific goals in Europe, which include starting a new “Cold War” 13. And for this, it needs our leading media as allies. Here is just the first of many examples that we will give in this book: the US Department of Defense alone has been spending billions for many years to purposefully influence the nature and content of media messages around the world through propaganda. The consequences of this manipulation of public opinion are also easy to see in the German-speaking region 15 . In recent months, the US Embassy in Berlin has even been able to solicit financial sponsorship to secretly manipulate public opinion in Washington's interests - and I will provide evidence of this.

Historian and media scholar Andreas Elter made a convincing case back in 2005 in his book entitled Merchants of War: A History of American Propaganda 1917–2005 ( Die Kriegsverkäufer: Geschichte der US-Propaganda 1917–2005) How Americans influence our journalists. Strangely, his research is (unfortunately) almost impossible to find today. But then documents were published WikiLeaks. And since then, anyone can easily check on the Internet on their own using a search engine. WikiLeaks 16, how often the names of some leading media are mentioned in secret embassy dispatches, and in connection with their pro-American nature of presenting information. It is striking that those of them who are obviously especially close to the former occupying power of the United States do not allow information to be presented in a tone critical of the United States. In Washington's interests? What's going on there?

Internet platform providers WikiLeaks set themselves the task of making all kinds of secret documents available to the public. From there, in particular, it was possible to download a document classified in 2010 as CONFIDENTIAL/NOFORN (US), that is, a confidential memorandum accessible only to US citizens. The document's author was identified as the CIA Red Cell, a group of Secret Service operatives tasked, they said, by the CIA director to “look beyond the plate,” “provoke thought,” and “suggest alternative points.” vision." There I also found a document written by manipulators in the employ of the US secret service, entitled "Afghanistan: Sustaining West European Support for the NATO-led Mission - Why Indifference May Not Be Sufficient" Mission – Why Counting on Apathy Might Not Be Enough) 17 . This secret document discussed the need to ensure sentiment in the ranks of the United States' Western European allies in support of the war that NATO is waging in Afghanistan, at the foot of the Hindu Kush. By deliberately influencing public opinion, it was necessary to induce the Western European public to be tolerant of the expected increase in the number of casualties in the spring and summer of 2010, both among its own military personnel and among the civilian population of Afghanistan. According to the document, for this it was necessary to develop a “strategic communication program” based on an individual approach to the population of each of the NATO member countries that sent troops to Afghanistan. But these countries also include Germany. The secret document in question is nothing more than a recipe for influencing public opinion in the German-speaking region, compiled by the CIA. Oddly enough, the CIA, in pointing out the need to influence the German public in this document, referred to the research of a transatlantic organization called the German Marshall Fund of the United States. This foundation found in surveys that no more than one percent of Germans perceive stabilization in Afghanistan as Germany's most important national goal 18 . It was this attitude that needed to change. And therefore, a wave of American propaganda fell on the German public through the leading media. Military propaganda.

Are similar documents published WikiLeaks, is not a sufficient reason for the leading German media to avoid, from the moment of their publication, all suspicions that they are engaged in propaganda in the interests of US organizations influencing them? Since the CIA is developing “strategic communication programs” for the German-language media, then our “quality media” should all the more avoid all the organizations swarming around these US services. In fact, everything turns out the other way around. Our mainstream media is positively eager for the transatlantic elite organizations to not only tolerate them, but to accept them into their ranks. Which leads to a result, in my opinion, horrifying - to one-sided propaganda, which is carried out equally by all newspapers, magazines and television companies, regardless of the name. This is precisely what modern German media are increasingly doing.

Previously, intelligent people, considering it necessary for themselves to familiarize themselves with all the shades of the motley palette of public opinion, read several newspapers every day in order to get an objective picture of the events taking place. Today, doing this has become completely pointless, because, judging by the content of different articles approved by different editors, they are almost identical and could appear in any newspaper and under any signature. Here's an example: one day in July 2014, all the leading media published photographs of Angela Merkel at the kitchen stove on the front page 19 . What does it mean? The fact that Angela Merkel can cook is no more important to the average citizen than the fact that a bag of rice fell on the ground somewhere in China. If you put all these newspapers side by side, it will be impossible not to notice the similarity of their content. What was previously the preserve of purely entertainment magazines "Riot" And "Gala" newspapers "Goldene Blatt" And "Bild der Frau" - Madam Federal Chancellor in the kitchen – today flaunts before the reader on the title pages of supposedly “quality” media. At the same time, something else is striking - all the central newspapers of the country publish news and comments in a spirit that contradicts the perceptions and opinions of a significant majority of the population.

Cologne scholar Professor Andreas Vogel, who studies newspapers, says: “Today, consumers can usually choose between different designs when purchasing products and services, and only daily newspaper publishers believe that they can serve all readers with a single product that is the same for everyone.” 20 . In his opinion, publishing houses have only themselves to blame for the sharp decline in the circulation of German-language daily newspapers, and not, for example, the Internet 21 . Example: contents of various newspapers belonging to the Madzak publishing group – e.g. Leipziger Volkszeitung And "Ostsee Zeitung"– often identical, the same article can be published simultaneously in 18 newspapers 22 .

The reasons for this disappearance of pluralism of opinions, a single common media product for all and the increasingly extreme one-sidedness of the media in covering events are understandable only to those who know by whom and how “information flows” are formed and directed behind the scenes. The shunning network of media, lobbyists and politicians has so far been well hidden. In subsequent chapters we will shed light on it and ask the question: “Who influences where and who?” But first of all: “Who is “greasing” whom, for what and for what purpose? And how are we, ordinary citizens, manipulated through the media?” Let's follow the trail, so to speak, like detectives. Believe me, it will be very interesting.

First of all, what will strike us is this: today, university students become convinced very early on that our “mainstream media” are not informing them accurately about what is happening in the world. University online magazine uni.de Without going into details, he writes about how the media manipulates readers every day:

By their very language, the media manipulates our perceptions. This happens even in public opinion polls, the purpose of which should, strictly speaking, be to find out what the majority of people actually think. A sad example of the truth of the above is the TV show “Central Democratic Party Political Barometer. But where public opinion is increasingly “created” by the media and simply imposed on users of these media, democracy is threatened. (...) Manipulation with the aim of creating a certain opinion among the audience begins with tendentious language, used even in articles of the so-called “quality media” that claim to be objective - for example, the newspapers Süddeutsche Zeitung or FAZ (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) 23 .

How would you like to understand this? Today, students of higher education institutions are openly warned that public law television channels, like the Central Democratic Fund, or supposedly respected newspapers are manipulating people? This makes you dive into the topic a little deeper. In 2014, political magazine "Pica" blamed, with reference to a study conducted by the University of Mainz, the responsibility for the fact that the FDP (Free Democratic Party) did not enter the Bundestag on the ZDF with its publication of the results of a public opinion poll 24 . Only four (!) percent of TV viewers believe that the CDF helps them better see and understand what is happening in the world. And only five percent of all citizens under 30 years old watch programs from the ARD television company. But, despite this, both public law television channels receive annually more than 7.7 billion euros in subsidies from funds collected without fail from us, taxpayers 25 . As we will see in the chapter “Practical Examples of Propaganda,” they use this money to purposefully manipulate public opinion in the interests of the ruling parties.

I myself have previously worked for respected, reputable “quality media” - for example, for a newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FZ). To be honest, today I am ashamed of it. For my articles and reports were not, in fact, independent, as we will see. They were not impartial, they were not non-partisan. They were not neutral, and they are not neutral today. From my point of view, the truth is that the authors of the reports were even “greased up”, bribed. And in other cases, the tone of the reports corresponded to the interests of certain networks 26. From this book you will learn that during my work at the FAC, the governor of one of the US states even officially appointed me an honorary citizen of the American state of Oklahoma, which he ruled. And all for the sake of me writing pro-American articles for the FAC. I'll describe this in even more detail below. FAC was very pleased that I was awarded an honorary citizen of Oklahoma diploma. Much of what I consider questionable today was taken for granted there. Retrospectively and subjectively, I view what I did as deceiving citizens who paid money to the FAC in fact for the newspaper to deceive them. Of course, I cannot “make an ex not an ex.” But now, no longer being an “insider,” I can tell readers about what is really going on in the media: the more crap “quality media” produces, the louder the advertising slogans that are supposed to cover it all up. Today, people with unique thinking sit on the upper, leading floors of the media. People possessed by delusions of grandeur. People who do not ask unnecessary questions, because for them - I am convinced of this, because I knew many of them closely! – only money and profit matter.

Many years ago I published a bestseller “This is how journalists lie” (So lügen Journalisten), dedicated to media business. But whoever reads the following chapters will gain a whole new understanding of our “mainstream media.” After all, the “mainstream media” have brought us, citizens, countless troubles in recent years. For example, financial troubles. For many of these media, as we will see, for our own money, imposed the euro on us as a supposedly stable currency, predicting a glorious future for it. Moreover, they imposed the euro on us against the will of the population, who wanted to preserve the German mark and the Austrian shilling. They started this mess, which now has to be sorted out by an ordinary citizen, whose savings are evaporating before his eyes. Today we all have to pay for the devastating financial consequences of this manipulation of our opinion, as well as for the financial collapse that our mainstream media, overwhelmed by unbridled optimism, could not and did not want to predict in their pages devoted to economic life. And only the then editor-in-chief of the economic newspaper Financial Times Deutschland Lionel Barber publicly apologized to his readers for the fact that his newspaper for a long time did not realize the danger of the financial crisis, did not see it approaching in time and misinformed citizens - until every ordinary citizen felt the crisis for himself 27. By the way, newspapers Financial Times Deutschland, which publicly apologized to readers for its incorrect behavior, no longer exists.

However, today we, ordinary citizens, pay not only a high financial price to the mainstream media for manipulating us. Now we also pay them with human blood. Because our leading media now have a clear image of the enemy - Russia. Evil Russian, good American - this is the dominant point of view. In fact, it is an element of psychological warfare. In the past, wars were fought with the help of soldiers, but today they are fought mainly with the help of the media. Quite a few people have realized that the media implants in our minds the image of the Russian as the image of the enemy. The editors of such formerly respected newspapers as the FAZ, according to their own data, now regularly receive comments like “pogromists from the press” and “vile warmongers” 28 . And the Austrian conflict researcher Dr. Kurt Gritch, based on his extensive research, accuses our today's bourgeois “quality newspapers” of “warmongering.” He's writing:

Do you like reading newspapers? And if so, are you one of the regular readers of bourgeois quality newspapers like FAZ, NZZ (Neue Zürcher Zeitung), Süddeutsche Zeitung or Zeit? I admit that I am not one of them. I don't relate anymore. After being convinced for many years that they were methodically preparing a war through journalism. (...) This is warmongering, and that is what it should be called 29.

This frantic persecution, this incitement of military sentiment, unfolded with perhaps unique clarity in history after the crash of a civilian passenger plane of Malaysia Airlines (flight MH-17) in mid-July 2014 in eastern Ukraine. As soon as the wreckage of the plane's body fell to the ground, the cartel for processing public opinion immediately spread the “news” that Russia was to blame for the incident. The newspaper was in first place in the matter of psychological manipulation of people. "Bild": “Does the acronym “EU” (European Community) just mean “Empörend Untätig” (Outrageously Inactive)?” the newspaper asked a few days after the plane crash and claimed that a “missile from Moscow” had killed 298 people, although at that time it was undoubtedly unclear who owned the rocket used or who fired it. Even the American secret services announced on the same day that "Bild"(like other German media) complained about the “inaction” of the EU regarding Russia, that they did not have evidence of “Russian complicity” in the plane crash 31 . It soon became clear that the Americans, unlike our media, had reason to be so restrained 32 .