Gekaufte Journalisten (‘Bought Journalists’) is the title of a 336-page book published this month by Germany’s Kopp Verlag. Its best-selling author, Dr Udo Ulfkotte, himself an experienced journalist, cites 650 instances and cross-references to uncover the manipulation, lies and biased anti-Russian propaganda of the mainstream Western media(1) by their hidden paymasters in the US.
In Ulfkotte’s own introductory words: (2) “Never before has a journalist stood up in Germany and documented in detail how he was ‘manipulated’. Today I am ashamed. I cannot undo it. […] As a journalist I was acting as the long arm of NATO’s Press Agency and supporting warmongers.” He also exposes the CIA as a one of the major sponsors (‘Medienförderer’) of the Western corporate media and names the journalists involved.
Ulfkotte identifies hundreds of journalists, reveals who their real paymasters are, and exposes their links to “pro-American warmongers”. He looks behind the scenes at some of the other major organisations which influence the media for propaganda purposes, such as the Atlantic Bridge, the Trilateral Commission, the German Marshall Fund, the American Council on Germany, the American Academy, the Aspen Institute, and the Institute for European Politics.
He expresses his fears about what will now happen to him: “Such a situation has never before existed on the German media scene. Only one ZDF member [...] was allowed to read my manuscript before its publication – and all he could speak of was its massive ‘explosive force’.”
As one blatant example of media corruption Ulfkotte targets the US Ministry of Defence, accusing it of spending “billions to influence media reports worldwide”, and alleging that in the last few months calls [for funding] could be made to the American Embassy in Berlin if the aim was “to subvert public opinion in Germany in the interests of Washington”.
Attacking the very concept of today’s ‘corporate mass media’, he mourns the ‘assassination’ of the type of former press freedom that used to allow “intelligent people to read several papers” and form their own opinion about events. “Previously the fact that the main media could manipulate citizens with propaganda techniques was considered as a conspiracy theory. Today only an insider can reveal what is really happening behind the scenes.”
Ulfkotte likens the media situation in the West today to that of the former East Germany, where propaganda was deemed to be a mark of excellence. “When it is the CIA that determines what must be written, [...] things are happening in the background that remind us of the former GDR. [...] The step from journalist to propagandist is not a big one.”(3)
Said one German reviewer: “Whoever has read Bought Journalists understands why our media are today warmongering and cannot wait to lead German soldiers to the next battlefield of America’s proxy wars.” Another: “What ultimately becomes clear is that difference of opinion is now merely simulated, for our so called 'news' is frequently just pure brainwashing. [...] Not only that, but what is especially horrifying is that renowned journalists known to all of us from television, radio or newspapers have signed declarations of commitment.” Another: “The principle of manipulation [of facts] is accepted as admissible, but as soon as the final result fails to tally with the desired result, this is pointed out.”
Das Gelbe Forum writes: “It is to be hoped that this book will explode like a bomb in the media – something which is indeed to be expected. Nevertheless, we will probably read or hear nothing of the bomb’s explosion.
My impression is that something has recently been realised in the consciousness of the population, even if the heart of the problem continues to exist – namely the non-sovereignty of Germany as a vassal state of the USA. For how much longer?”
Proof positive of my call for a “Goebbels Propaganda Prize for the corporate Western media?” (4)
An explosive book indeed!
Udo Ulfkotte: Gekaufte Journalisten. Kopp Verlag 2014, 336pp, 22.95 €. German only. Available online from Amazon at £14.35
1 German uses the term ‘Leitmedien’
2 My translation
3 My free translation to enhance the clarity
4 BCN 286. For a revised and much expanded version of this see: http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/23-09-
2014/128593-goebbels_propaganda-0/
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