I just watched a video on Al-Jazeera. The interviewer was asking some questions of a representative of the Canadian government, I think the Foreign Minister, Anita Anand. He asked her point-blank; “Was Iran threatening the US when the US attacked?”, and “What about Israel’s nuclear weapons?”. He got waffle and lies. The Minister even had the face to talk about “international law”, forgetting, apparently, that Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty under which they are fully entitled to have a civilian nuclear programme, which, according to he IAEA, is all they have. On the question of whether Iran was threatening the US, just waffle, “regional security… waffle, waffle… lie, lie…”. It makes you sick to watch. The interviewer asked her twice – was Iran threatening the US? The second time the arrogant and apparently morally empty Minister didn’t even design to reply. She just answered a different question, “…waffle, waffle.. lie, lie…. “, and so on.
Why does the mainstream media permit this? Why didn’t the interviewer say, “look, you didn’t answer the question, let’s try again”, and simply not move on until she did, even if that meant repeating the same question 100 times until the end of the interview? The answer is simple. If he did that no one from the Canadian government would show up on Al-Jazeera ever again. They wouldn’t get the big interviews. Their ratings would fall. They would be left interviewing people prepared to honestly answer questions, which rules out a good many politicians. Either because they are running a business or because the Qatari government wants their media channel to operate at a world level, they are not going to upset their subjects. Two questions and then move on is the form. The political elites essentially hold the mainstream as hostages. Limited questioning is allowed, but nothing which exposes their corruption and moral bankruptcy. The show must go on.
Meanwhile, over in the world of ‘new media’, we are left with dissidents interviewing each other. On that note, I watched a really good interview with Jeffrey Sachs and Glenn Diesen today, about the background to the Ukraine war. Sachs is very strong on what is driving the Europeans. He explains how the EU is desparate to maintain unity and therefore panders to the extreme anti-Russia elements in the Baltics and Poland.
So; we end up with two worlds. The world of the mainstream media organisations which can’t go beyond minor criticisms of the ruling class, because they depend on them appearing on their shows to maintain their position in the rankings. And, an alternative world of dissidents interviewing each other; Judge Napolitano, Daniel Davis, Professor John Mearsheimer, Scott Ritter, etc!