A circus without reality (En cirkus utan verklighetskontakt )

[struggle4progress]

Assange's speech at the Ecuadorian Embassy topped off a week of diplomatic chaos. But it also showed how completelly Assange has lost his grip on reality
MARTIN JÖNSSON
August 19, 2012 at 18:16
Updated: August 21, 2012 at 14:35

Not so long ago, Julian Assange got attention for what he might reveal ...

... But when he stepped out on the embassy balcony yesterday afternoon, in light blue shirt and red tie, he had very little in common with what he once represented. He still has the ability to attract media attention, but it's a completely different kind now. Now it's more about a reluctant fascination with who Assange has become ...

The question is whether it is US, UK, the Swedish legal system or anyone else, who poses the greatest threat to his organization. Or if it is his own paranoia and dogmatic character that ensured that the finances, organisation and credibility of WikiLeaks all now lie in ruins

Many who saw the self-indulgent circus performance yesterday afternoon got an answer to that question

http://www.svd.se/nyheter/utrikes/en-cirkus-utan-verklighetskontakt_7433256.svd

[Fumesucker]

1. You Better Believe It n/t

[just1voice]

2. The propaganda model, advanced by Noam Chomsky

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_model

---The propaganda model is a conceptual model in political economy advanced by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky that states how propaganda, including systemic biases, function in mass media. The model seeks to explain how populations are manipulated and how consent for economic, social and political policies is "manufactured" in the public mind due to this propaganda.

The theory posits that the way in which news is structured (through advertising, media ownership, government sourcing and others) creates an inherent conflict of interest which acts as propaganda for undemocratic forces.---

[struggle4progress]

3. Chomsky-Herman "Manufacturing Consent" is an excellent text

One should read it as a contribution to the discussion of "production of consciousness" -- it sidesteps, in particular, the "you believe in a vast conspiracy theory!" objection to the claim that major material interests control popular perceptions through the mass media

Whether Assange himself does, or does not, materially promte "democratic forces" is an entirely different question, of course