The US media industry has been the arm of the government for decades, but now the Cold War tool is being resurrected in a “big way” to tackle any Russian influence on the information flow, foreign affairs expert Richard Becker told RT.
READ MORE:
House panel urges US to fight Russia’s ‘weaponized
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RT: The revelations show that US authorities
are trying to counter what they call propaganda by using
propaganda techniques themselves…. what’s your take on
that?
Richard Becker: Well it is very interesting.
This is really a revival, if it ever was allowed to die, of the
Cold War. And the Cold War particularly in the field of culture –
there is a famous book about it, called the Cultural Cold War –
but it appears that the United States which for decades used
reporters, film companies, radio broadcasting, all different
forms of communication and culture to promote the Cold War
against the Soviet Union. And now they are doing the same. And it
is very clear and it has never stopped. You mentioned the
Broadcasting Board of Governors which has funded anti-Cuba
propaganda by paying journalists, and creating radio and TV
stations, hundreds of millions of dollars over the years. So that
the notion presented by the State Department spokesperson that
this isn’t something that the US government engages in, or it is
up for the entertainment companies to decide is completely false.
This is a collaborative effort and it has been going on for
decades. And now it is being revived in a big way against Russia
as well as against others.
READ MORE: State Dept. wrote to Sony for help in
countering Islamic State, Russian narratives
RT: In one of the leaked emails, the State
Department asks the CEO of Sony to work with them to tackle the
narratives from Islamic State and Russia…how is Sony supposed
to do that?
RB: Well of course we can think about different
forms that it could take. Again this shows the utter
ridiculousness of the State Department claim that it is just to
the companies. They can produce TV shows. They can produce
movies. They can produce all forms of music videos. It just goes
on on and on and on. Sony is an extremely large corporation and
they certainly not the only who being approached to do this. But
they have many means by which to propagate a narrative, their
narrative which shows them the bastion of democracy while
whomever they are targeting is portrayed in the worse possible
light. And clearly this is continuing to go on.
RT: This revelation shows us a case of a
private company becoming an arm of US interests… does this
surprise you? Do you think that this is a sign of the
transformation of the American private sector into a policy
tool?
RB: Well these corporations, the entertainment
corporations are huge capitalist corporations. And they have a
government that is very much on their side along with other big
corporations. And there is nothing really new about this. But
after the end of WWII , which as we know just ended 70 years ago,
this collaboration was intensified exponentially to turn the
media, the big business media, newspapers, movies, TV, radio,
etc, the big corporations into arms of the government. And in
fact they serve that purpose as arms of the government.
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RT: The WikiLeaks
revelations also mentions that Sony reached out to an
organization specializing in research for the US military and
intelligence sector and for advice regarding its North Korea film
“The Interview”. Do you think we will see more of this kind of
cooperation in the future?
RB: Yes. I think this has been going on for a
really long time. I think that most people are hearing about it
for the first time, but in reality the Pentagon and the military,
again really going back to the time of WWII, have collaborated
with the movie studios and TV production and other forms of
media, when they were doing the programming that the military,
that the Pentagon felt was helpful to the US wars around the
world. That has been going on for a really long time. It is good
that at least some of the population is finding out about this.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.