You know, this is a time when the propaganda of the media tells us "Something must be done about Syria"..."Something must be done about Iran." All the west's demons must be dealt with. We have the absurd situation of an invasion or a war approaching against Iran over nuclear weapons it does not possess. Which the combined agencies of, intelligence agencies of the United States, confirm it does not possess. And yet the one nuclear power in the middle east which has something like 500 thermo nuclear warheads, which is Israel, is simply off the agenda. Are we in a sort of intellectual and moral madhouse? It would appear so.
DB: And the impression, of course, conveyed by the mainstream press, both with Palestine and with Iran, is that the Israelis are bending over backwards to show restraint.
JP: Well, you know, recognizing the sources of propaganda is the first thing. I mean it's the converse of information being power. Real information is power for people. The other side of that is recognizing the source of lies. And I think large numbers of people in western countries recognize that the so-called mainstream media is a source of, is the sort of ventriloquist of power. A power that is causing great grief in the world. I do believe, I've always felt as a journalist the public has been way ahead of the media.
Sometimes that's difficult because television is still a very powerful medium. And as you've described, the sheer bias of television in the United States means that not even the names of people, of whole families annihilated or most of the families annihilated can be mentioned. You know, what is being stolen here is not just simply Palestine, yet again, but our own consciousness. If we allow this, then there is something of us that goes. That's really at stake here.
DB: That's a poignant point to leave it on.
***
John Pilger is a film-maker and investigative journalist. He is the author of Freedom Next Time.
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