A good example of US M$M propaganda:

[formercia]

AP - More than a quarter-million people flooded Cairo's main square Tuesday in a stunning and jubilant array of young and old, urban poor and middle class professionals, mounting by far the largest protest yet in a week of unrelenting demands for President Hosni Mubarak to leave after nearly 30 years in power.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110201/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_egypt


A quarter Million? Nothing like a half-truth. This is what Propaganda is all about. Diminish the credibility of the protesters.

[nc4bo]

1. They keep slinging it

and hoping something sticks then they'll make lots of spin and move in for the kill.

(just my sometimes very inaccurate gut feelings)

I also think they are well aware that Al Jazeera English is all over this and has a big audience watching it all unfold with more tuning in every day. At least there is live news coverage that is powerful and objective. It'll keep them honest for a little while.

M$M has been shocked and awed by the people of Egypt this week and caught with their pants down on their lack of coverage. We all know they're working hard to figure out how to soil this movement but have been unsuccessful thus far.

Yours is another example.

[formercia]

2. The M$M wasn't in on it from the beginning

They're used to the canned and scripted scenario put out by the Pentagon, like what Happened in Iraq and is still happening in Afghanistan.

Pitiful.

[EFerrari]

4. Do you remember when CNN Headline News was headline news?

I turned them on for a second on Friday night when Egypt was ramping up and it was wall to wall Hollywood cr@p.

We really don't have a 24hr news cycle. It's a 24hr cr@p cycle. lol

[formercia]

5. Runny News, running commentary.

They better drink a lot of Water.

[EFerrari]

3. Yup. Plus, AP's Television Network cancelled AJ's sat booking

in Cairo, giving in to the regime's demand they be cut off even though the regime is in no position to enforce sh!t.

[formercia]

8. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

The Big Picture becomes clearer by the Day.

[malaise]

6. There were 900,000 in Alexandria alone

and two million in Cairo

[formercia]

7. That's a bit more that a quarter Million

:rofl: :hi:

[gratuitous]

9. Well, that's more than a quarter million, isn't it?

Another triumph for fair and balanced reporting! Kind of a black eye for "accurate" reporting, though.

[warren pease]

10. No offense intended, but...

...by characterizing Egyptian revolutionaries as "protesters," you repeat the MSM meme. According to US mass media, the "protesters" would be happy to simply see Mubarak go so they can quickly return to their normal lives of subservience to the rich and powerful.

Protesters want to fix things by tinkering around the edges; revolutionaries seek to end the conditions that created those flaws around the edges.

For example, massive Vietnam era anti-war protests targeted a specific US foreign policy, the military/industrial complex and, by extension, US international militarism. But very few were sharpening the guillotine and advocating that the rich and powerful literally lose their heads as punishment for their war profiteering.

Revolutionaries want to destroy the status quo and replace it with an alternative system. The US founding fathers -- each of whom signed his own death warrant by ratifying the Declaration of Independence -- qualified as revolutionaries, IMO. And from what little I know about the internal Egyptian security apparatus, the leaders of this revolution have taken the same risk.

Just my opinion, and I could be completely off base. But words are important, especially when broadcast to American info-consumers whose opinions are formed by telegenic blow-dried idiots posing as experts who tell them what to think.

wp

[EFerrari]

11. That's a fair point.

Our ace media has also called them "the mob", "rioters" and "vigilantes".

[formercia]

13. A related topic

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x322673

[warren pease]

14. Great post by H2O Man. Thanks for the link. n/t

[formercia]

15. You are very welcome. n/t

[Odin2005]

12. They do that to all of our protests, too.

Always assume that it is 10 times bigger than what they claim.