Trump at Duterte
Ano ba ang pagkakaiba ng pagkahalal bilang presidente ni Donald Trump at ni Rody Duterte? Hindi ba't pareho lamang silang pinagtulung-tulungang wasakin ng mainstream media - sa radyo, telebisyon at peryodiko? Hindi ba't sa parehong pagkakataon ay Facebook, Twitter at online news sites ang sinundan ng mga followers para sila ay suportahan? Sa social media ay gamay ng mga followers kung sino ang nasa likod ng mga ito at kung nasaang panig sila ng pulitika.
Sa US, 'Americanism vs Globalism (Establishment)'; sa Pilipinas, Pagbabagong Gusto ng Masa vs Yellow Oligarchy (Political Opposition)
Sa Amerika, noong malapit na ang nakaraang eleksiyon at hindi na maitago na tila walang nagawa ang kanilang walang humpay na propaganda para pabagsakin si Trump, ang mainstream media pa, kahit walang pruweba, ay hayagang nag-akusa na nakikialam daw ang Russia sa pulitika ng US. Finger pointing.
Sa Pilipinas naman, may pagkakataon na naging laman ng mainstream media ang pag-hack diumano ng mga Chinese-speaking technicians ng mga computers ng gobyerno, gayundin sa ibat-ibang bansa sa Asia. Finger pointing din. Pero kadalasan ay maingat din ang mga nag-aakusa na pangalanan ang China bilang nasa likod nito diumano.
Sa ngayon ay talagang hindi na kontrolado ng US media ang pagtangkilik sa kanila ng masa. Minuto lang kasi basta naglabas sila ng balitang pulitikal ay agarang naanalisa at napapabulaanan ang kanilang mga balita ng mga social media users.
Tuloy, social media na lamang ang tinatangkilik ng 62% ng mga users. Konklusyon na mas maimpluwesya ngayon ang social media kaysa sa The New York Times, The Washington Post at iba pang peryodiko at isama na maging online news sites na pag-aari ng mainstream.
Kapareho lang dito
Sa Pilipinas ay ganito rin ngayon ang ingay. Pumaimbabaw pa nga ang Mocha Uson Blog, masigasig na DU30 supporter sa social media dahil nilampaso niya sa Facebook engagement ang pinakamalalaking pangalan sa mainstream na gumagamit din ng social media. Kanya-kanyang malisyosong atake ang ginawa kay Mocha na siyang makatarungang dinipensahan naman ng social media users.
Tuloy pa rin ang pagiging arogante ng mainstream media
Sa US, dahil arogante ang mainstream ay nagkaisa ang mga ito para baligtarin ang kanilang pagkatalo sa pamamagitan ng planong pagwasak sa mga online news sites, Facebook at Twitter na kalaban nga nila. Ang gawain nila noon na mag-manufacture ng fake news ay ibinibintang nila ngayon sa online news sites ng alt-media. Subalit ang totoo, sa kanila lamang natuto ang ilang magagaling. Ginaya lamang ang istilo ng mainstream, kayat nagkalat ang mga satirical web sites katabi ng may mga seryosong plataporma. Dose of their own medicine, 'ika nga.
Sa Pilipinas ngayon, ganun din ang walang humpay na labanan.
Fake News Ruse: Establishment Declares War On Alternative Media
By Kurt Nimmo, Blacklisted NewsThe effort to shut down the alternative media following the election victory of Donald Trump is kicking into high gear.
On November 16 PolitiFact declared it would “fight back against fake news” and produced a hit list of alternative media sites.
Blacklisted News is included on a list compiled by a site created specifically to target alternative media the establishment wants eliminated.
Targeted news sites include Activist Post, Consortium News, the Corbett Report, Global Research, the websites of Lew Rockwell and Paul Craig Roberts, WikiLeaks, and many others. A few sites on the list are in fact fake news websites and others satirical.
The targets are diverse politically, from the alt right website Drudge Report to the more progressive Consortium News and Counterpunch.
It should be noted PolitiFact is a creation of the corporate newspaper the Tampa Bay Times and is regularly accused of political bias. The site boasts it won the Pulitzer Prize, a clear indication of its establishment status.
Prior to the PolitiFact effort, a website called Is It Propaganda Or Not surfaced. It posted a list of “fake” news websites and claims the Russians are involved.
"We assess that this overall Russian effort is at least semi-centralized, with multiple Russian projects and influence operations working in parallel to manage the direct and outsourced production of propaganda across a wide range of outlets… There are varying degrees of involvement in it, and awareness of involvement. Some people involved seem genuinely unaware that they are being used by Russia to produce propaganda, but many others seem to know full well."Democrats claimed the Russians were meddling in US politics when it became obvious Donald Trump actually had a chance to win the White House. There is virtually no evidence the Russians had anything to do with the outcome of the election, the hacking of the DNC, and even less evidence it is nefariously exploiting American and European alternative news websites to push propaganda.
This is part of a concerted effort to eventually deny “fake news” websites access to the web or at best relegate them to a far corner not reached by corporate search engines and more importantly eschewed by advertisers.
The corporate media no longer controls the news cycle. The propaganda it receives and reports from the government is now critically analyzed and debunked on social media within minutes. Millions of Americans no longer watch the corporate alphabet news networks or read corporate newspapers. In May, Pew Research reported 62% of US adults get their news from social media. Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr are more influential than the New York Times, The Washington Post, and other corporate establishment newspapers and websites.
It remains to be seen if Google, Twitter, and Facebook will take more draconian measures to shut down alternative media posts and links to websites targeted by the establishment. A transfer of the Internet’s Domain Naming System now underway also may threaten sites the government says are fake or foreign propaganda.
How do we fight back against this? First and foremost, Facebook and Twitter must be reminded they have a responsibility to the First Amendment and the free exchange of ideas.
Facebook et al. are, of course, privately owned corporations and as such can deny service to anybody they want. The vast majority of the names of the fake news hit list, however, are legitimate news websites. Blocking access to them is not only a terrible public relations move, but also reveals they are tools for government coercion and censorship.
Finally, corporations are sensitive to public opinion and how that reflects on their bottom line. A large number of people emailing Google, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms and expressing their opposition to the targeting of alternative news may have an impact on what ultimately happens.
