CNN's Propaganda Machine Rolls on! Anyone watching Christiane Amanpours "Notes from Korea" just now

[KoKo]

I grew up during the "Cold War." As a little kid I didn't understand the "Propaganda" we were forced to watch in my school ...as part of Break..where the US did "post war films showing the evil folks all over the world who were COMUNISTS!" As I grew older I started to read more and realized how us little kids were caught up in some Pentagon Propaganda forced to watch stuff that Soviet Kids might only be able to understand. BUT...we were told "America is Good and this is what we are faced with...so you must always beware the Evil Soviet and Yellow Commie Peril."

I've thought better of Christiane Amanpour in past years in her reporting for CNN but she's "jumped the shark" and now portraying North Korea as the "Yellow/Commie Menace" going so far as to say that it took her "7 Years" to get a passport to Pyong Yang...and when she got there she describes it as a "Potemkin Village" set up (the WHOLE CITY) to be staged with "railroads clean and on time...and nice streets of a major city," but she warns us "its all not what it appears to be as she goes on in sinister tones with "backup music" repeating the sinister theme of those Commies who pretend while thousands go starving."

She married Jamie Rubin some Big Wig in US State Dept....and she's gone "downhill in her reporting" ever since. This last piece actually described how the people suffer under North Korean Rule but it sounded close to what we "Progressives" feel about Bush/Cheney and the "DICTATES of the Department of Homeland Security and Pentagon" policies toward average American's Freedoms!

Is anyone watching it...did you have a different opinion...I finally had to turn it off because I felt so "manipulated. :-(

[Catch22Dem]

1. North Korea isn't a nice place

I didn't see the report, so I can't comment.

[KoKo]

4. Do we Americans need to go in there and do some "Nation Building?"

Have you seen the "underbelly of the US" where once thriving communities now look like bombed out shells of what they were when there were jobs here in the US?

Isn't it up to the "People Everywhere" all over the earth to RISE UP and reclaim their place? Should Americans be looking at Amanpour and CNN as the "Leaders of Bush Policy of Interference in every country around the Earth who subscribes to Bush/Cheney Coporate Policies where the "small and defenseless" are crushed under the Capitalists (Bush/Cheney Capitist's) BOOT...all in the name of "Spreading Democracy?"

Much Hypocratical Opinion from a Country who INVADES AND OCCUPIES...those their "leaders" don't agree with...isn't it.

Have you been in a US Train Station or Subway Station recently? I wish Bush/Cheney had TRIED to do some Potemkin Villages here in the US as an "Example" because our whole America is going to ROT under this Junta!

The "People Everywhere" have to be waking up and noticing. I sure have in my long time on this earth here in my beloved country.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. Right, but North Korea has a VERY bad reputation even in the rest of Asia

They send unsolicited magazines to academic libraries around the world, and I looked at them in both America and Japan.

It's true that all countries try to propagandize the rest of the world. The U.S. has a whole government agency devoted to it (The US Information Agency). However, while the Soviets' PR materials were professional-looking and presented the message, "See what accomplished and reasonable people we are," the PR materials from North Korea came off as absolutely looney, as if they themselves were trying to create the impression that their citizens were pod people.

It's hard to look favorably on a country that won't let its people leave and that won't let them talk to foreigners without permission, that sells radios and TVs that are capable of tuning in ONLY their stations (not the ones from South Korea), that has refugees risking their lives to escape to CHINA, of all places, that doesn't let its citizens connect to the Internet, that has kidnapped Japanese citizens from coastal areas of Japan and held them incommunicado for decades (allowing a few to return in recent years). Remember the fake brouhaha about Obama not wearing a flag pin? In North Korea, EVERYONE is REQUIRED to wear a patriotic pin.

Now you may question the motives of CNN for running such a documentary at this time. I don't think the U.S. or anyone else should invade them. However, by all accounts, North Korea has been extremely repressive for years, repressive enough that a North Korean coming to even the present-day U.S. would feel extremely liberated.

Don't get me wrong. I think we're in danger of losing our freedoms and becoming a fascist dictatorship. But North Korea is on the extreme end of the repressiveness scale.

[izquierdista]

2. A better travelogue

http://www.vbs.tv/shows.php?show=1442318652

And far more entertaining.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

25. Oh, that looks good

I watched the first two segments (no time for any more), but I like their gonzo approach.

[Crunchy Frog]

37. Fascinating. Thanks for the link.

[libnnc]

3. North Korea ain't exactly Mayberry n/t.

[KoKo]

5. Is there a "Mayberry" here in Bush America? If you've been there...tell me where it is?

:shrug:

[qazplm]

18. N Koreans

have been known to pick out undigested corn from cattle for food.

Yeah we aint perfect but comparing NKorea to all but a handful of places is just silly.

It's hell on Earth.

We are at our worst purgatory.

[Aloha Spirit]

6. I haven't seen the CNN piece, but N. Korea does have staged cities along the DMZ.

[TahitiNut]

7. The only substantive difference I see between Kim Jong Il and Dubya ...

... is that Dubya's poppy is still on the green side of the sod. :shrug:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

11. Uhhh, there's more to it than that

You know those occasional attempts to deify Bush in the eyes of the fundamentalists?

North Korea is a place where there are constant attempts to deify the Kim family, and the people have had no outside information for 55 years.

When North Korea allowed limited family reunions, the Southern families were dismayed at how their relatives talked about Kim Jong-il as if they were fundamentalists saying "Praise the Lord" all the time.

[KoKo]

13. That's my opinion............and why I posted how hypocritical Amanpour's report was.....

it was so OTT...that it smelled....very badly... The ability to see ourselves as others see us seems to be lost to Amanpour now that she's "part of the establishment." :-(

[El Pinko]

34. Amanpour is still one of the best - she was highly critical of CNN's Iraq war coverage.

I think you're unfairly judging her, and it would be impossible to exaggerate the all-encompassing oppression that is North Korea.

[Juche]

8. It bothers me when they do it with Venezuela

When CNN tries to make me hate (oil rich) Venezuela that pisses me off. But North Korea really is a shitty horrid dictatorship and mentioning that fact isn't propaganda. It is so oppressive and miserable that people who escape into rural China are suprised by how much better life is there.

[KoKo]

14. CNN has become the WAR/Propaganda Channel.....I can almost suffer Tweety's

Campaign Crap better than I can CNN hyping WAR...WAR...WAR...it's like those propaganda films I had to watch in the 50's...but much more sophisticated...and I can see that some here on this thread have bought into it ...not questioning "America's Might to Change the World" as we give up our OWN Freedoms.

It's depressing to think folks stil believe a CNN "Special Report" is real...:-(

[Shipwack]

10. Even a blind pig finds an acorn now and again...

While I take a sack of salt with everyone this administration denounces as "evil", the fact of the matter is that some places and regimes really are not all that "nice". I believe that North Korea" is one of those places.

But by all means, don't take my word for it. Look up stories about North Korea on the BBC website, The Guardian, Reuters, or any other foreign press website.

This is a country that kidnapped a filmmaker from Japan and held him captive to make their own propaganda films... That's pretty much a good starting point for "evil" in my book...

[KoKo]

16. So...is it more "evil" than Iraq? Why didn't we invade and occupy the whole country instead of

keeping toops in South Korea for Decades. You do realize the US had a war with Korea (undeclared like Vietnam) and many folks lost father, brothers in Korea. What did we gain by that war?

Why do we think our society is so much better? Is it because we can all eat at "Mickey D's," shop at "WalMart" and go to "Disney World" along with charging ourselves to the Max so that we are Owned by the very Evil ones who sent us the cards that hooked us?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

19. Don't let your disillusionment with the U.S.

make you think that it's as bad as North Korea. For one thing, you wouldn't even be on the Internet there, and you might get the secret police knocking on your door because you criticized something that was on TV.

There are many degrees of bad governments. Even the Chinese think the North Korean government is crazy.

[qazplm]

20. well there were these two entities stopping us at the time

you might have heard of them...the USSR and China?

We gained freedom and a thriving country for S Korea.

You know we have plenty of black marks in our history. Iraq, Vietnam, but no Korea is not one of them.

[El Pinko]

35. Countries aren't evil. Iraq was NOT a totalitarian state.

Saddam may have been a strongman, but he was unremarkable compared to other dictators around the world. Iraq had democratic institutions and was well-run, with a well-educated populace and a large middle class.

Saddam's downfall was that he was defiant about keeping control of Iraq's resources in the hands of the Iraqi people. All of her industries were state-run.

Almost all of the "his own people" that Saddam killed in the 80s with US tacit permission were Kurds who had mounted violent uprisings against the government, and later, shia dissidents that Bush Sr. encouraged to revolt, but then didn't raise a finger to help them.

Not that I'm condoning what he did, but don't you think that Bush would have us all killed if we were mounting and armed revolt against the US government?


Hussein's Iraq was the pinnacle of freedom compared to NK. Hell, I would imagine thatmost Iraqis wish they could go back to the way it was before the US "liberated" them.

Anywya, you shouldn't assume that CNN running a piece on NK is about trying to warmonger. We have been in a stalemate with NK for 50 years, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. They are just showing people inside of a hidden country that we get to see very little of.

[DadOf2LittleAngels]

38. Several reasons

First and foremost there would be a Million Chinese troops crossing in and getting involved
Collateral damage to South Korea, and Japan would be massive.
For many years it would have been enough to pull the soviet union into a conflict

The People I know from south Korea while they might not worship the ground American troops walk on they sure are happy that crazy uncle kim is not their dear leader. And, for a time, keeping troops there was necessary to keep him in his place. What we gained was a stable democracy on that peninsula and the people of that nation are by and large thankful for that.

--

Our society is better because you can express the fact you dont think it is, you dont have to worship your leadership... YOU have protections from them and many *many* can vocally speak out against it without the fear of being mowed down. YOU are not locked into the US, you're free to leave the US if you dont like it, north Koreans dont have that option.

[hfojvt]

12. are you saying that North Korea is not so bad?

Of course, I have been on the same side of that in America. Before a State Senator or Congressman visited our factory, we basically spent two days cleaning it up.

I do the same thing at home though. Spend a day cleaning up before my parents or siblings visit. Because I know they will complain if I don't, but they complain anyway. I can't bring it up to acceptable level in just one day.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

15. Anything in the cause of peace is a positive thing, I think

Even though a concert by U.S. musicians in Korea is a small thing, it was apparently seen on national television over there. I liked the reaction of the audience when the New York Philharmonic played a traditional Korean folk song. It looked like it was genuinely moving to the people in the audience. I don't think the slant of CNN was anti-communist but it was critical of the dictator over there who punishes musicians who play jazz by sending them to the mines (at least according to a Korean musician who fled to the South). Is it not true that North Koreans are being starved by their own government and not allowed to enjoy basic civil liberties that we value in the West? When I used to travel to China, I heard stories about the Chinese government's efforts to stem the flow of North Koreans escaping into China because they found it to be a paradise compared to conditions in North Korea.

[KoKo]

17. Was the Invasion of Iraq in the name of "peace" a good thing in your opinion?

Should America be "building Democracy across the World" while our own country goes into the tank and folks suffer under Bush/Cheney Policies? :shrug:

I'd really love to hear your opinion on this...

[Lydia Leftcoast]

22. Saying that North Korea is repressive is not the same as saying that

the U.S. should go in and forcibly change it.

I would never advocate such a thing. In fact, I think that U.S. policies are counterproductive, especially when the two Koreas are making tentative moves toward less hostile relations, such as allowing limited family reunions and opening parts of North Korea to South Korean tourists.

I can see how you're worried that this is part of a U.S. propaganda offensive to soften up the public for invading NK.

I get the same feelings of foreboding when the latest atrocity of the Iranian mullahs is trumpeted in the U.S. press.

It's possible to hold the following two views at the same time:

1. The government of Country X is very, very repressive indeed.

2. Invading it is not a good idea.

[KoKo]

27. And, when is CNN not attending to the abuses of Bush/Cheney and never reporting

on the Reverend Moon... a good thing while it goes off and reports on North Korea. It's Propaganda. Propaganda is bad. In my OP, I made clear it was the Propaganda. This wasn't a PBS (now gone to Propaganda Report) it was CNN...

When does American Media address the abuses of our OWN Government before going off on every other country in the world as being more EVIL than the EVIL that resides WITHIN? :shrug: That was my point.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

23. I completely agree

I opposed the Iraq war from the beginning and I would oppose any war against North Korea. But does that mean we have to be silent on the facts? The facts are that North Korea is in the hands of a dictator who calls himself a god and who mistreats his people. Concerts and reporting on those concerts are the opposite of wars of conquest. Do you honestly think that the tone of that CNN report was one intended to raise the war ardor of Americans? I saw it more as a piece intended to generate understanding between Americans and North Koreans, showing the latter as ordinary people and that North Koreans are not at fault for the situation they are in because they are so heavily controlled and regulated by an authoritarian regime. Before the Iraq War, there were broadcasts on Link TV and FSTV called "Bridge To Baghdad" in which young Americans and young Iraqis spoke to each other and tried to better understand each other. Unfortunately, those broadcasts were not allowed on American commercial television.

[KoKo]

28. Cleaning our Own House might come first for a CNN Special Report...wouldn't 'ya think? n/t

[Selatius]

29. Nope. The people who run CNN and FOX et al. think otherwise. Think about it.

If we really did "clean house," I guarantee you companies like Time Warner and FOX would be broken apart as monopolistic entities on top of other reforms. That would be something they don't want.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

30. There's plenty to criticize about our own media, it's true

and their failure to report on the many nefarious activities of our own government, that are too many to list.

[qazplm]

24. ok we get

you think we are evil for invading Iraq.

Letting that opinion stand without argument, it has zero bearing on whether or not N Korea is evil for the way it utterly destroys its people.

Here you can criticize the government, you can run for office to take down the government, you can leave if you dont like the government, you can go after a job you want, most have enough food...while in NK only the elite have more than scraps, no one has access to knowledge or the internet or the outside world, you cant leave, you cant travel, you cant criticize, you cant have your own religion, your own views...

I guess I dont get your point. CNN addresses the evil of NK. EVery nation has evil in its actions. The US, Russia, England, China, Iran, Canada, every nation. Should that fact prevent us from identifying it in others? Or do we all sit around saying I wish I could say something, but I'm evil too so nevermind?

[KoKo]

31. The Evil within American Foreign Policy might be a good place to start...

CNN has reported very little about FISA Invasion of Privacy, Scandals in Bush Admin., What Happened to New Orleans since the Levee's Broke, 9/11, and DRE Machines and Voter Disenfranchisement, Billions wasted of tax payers money on Boondoggle for Neo-Con's Vision of "Liberation of Iraq" (when it was for oil), KBR's Sexual Harrassment of Employees, Torture of Innocents caught up in Terror Sweeps, Cheney's Halliburton Boondoggles and Blackwater, USA Contracts, and the breaking news about the US Pentagon supplying Generals to the Mainstream Media to do Propaganda for Bush/Cheney Pentagon?....etc...etc..etc.

Christiane and CNN only do what the next step in Bush/Cheney Policy Focus is. To expose "Evil" everywhere to whip American Opinion up into frenzy for the "next step" for "strong US Military" when we can't even keep up the Military we have.

You find nothing wrong in that? You don't see what they do? The "Mainstream/Media Industrial Complex?"

[devilgrrl]

21. North Korea strikes me as 1984 meets The Twilight Zone vs. The Village of the Damned

You couldn't pay me enough money go there.

[KoKo]

32. No one's asking you to go there...but do you want to "INVADE THERE? " They help prop up our

failing economy...but we are supposed to "hate them." :rofl:

[devilgrrl]

40. I'd rather invade a leper colony.

A lot less frightening and the people aren't as weird.

[Crunchy Frog]

26. Lol!

:rofl:

[El Pinko]

33. Sorry, but I have a few friends who have been there and it is FUCKED UP.

One lady I work with, a Cuban exile, was on Castro's staff as a stenographer in the 1980s. She traveled to NK with him, and was shown around and introduced to the late Kim Il Sung. She even showed us a couple photos she snapped on the sly - one of them showing a sizeable tumor on Kim's neck - which of course had been kept secret.

She described a city that was neat and orderly, with wide boulevards, but that was practically deserted, with almost no vehicle traffic. She said that almost every move people made was strictly controlled. Even to go and see a government approved/censored movie at a theater, you had to go to a block captain, tell them the exact time you wanted to go and get a permission slip.

She is quite critical of the Castro regime, but said that Castro's Cuba is like Amsterdam compared to North Korea. She had never seen such hardship and iron-grip control over people's everyday lives.

[DadOf2LittleAngels]

36. I know many koreans, many of whom risk life and limb to get out of

North Korea, its an awful place, perhaps about the worst on earth..

[KoKo]

39. North Korea is perhaps the "worst on earth?" You gotta' be kidding....given all

the repressive places on this earth...you pick No. Korea as the worst? How did you choose it? Based on what?

[INDIA]

41. Ignorance. Pure ignorance. Jesus, read a book. n/t

[DadOf2LittleAngels]

42. Sadly given all the repressive places on this eath NK is still

pretty clearly out ahead of the rest..

To be sure there are other places that are pretty bad but not to many seal their own people in nowadays. Hell the only reason for the fall in capital punishment was because so many were starving in the 1990's that they could not take the population hit. And with 20% of mane aged 20-54 pressed into military service they are going to need all the people they can get.



Gues where dear leader lives...

[ShaneGR]

43. North Korea is basically a Cultlike state..... here's a great video to watch about it....

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3742145385913859804&q=north%20korea&hl=en

It's just a bizarre country.

[hokies4ever]

44. MSM dulls our senses to future conflicts

with these types of stories. Just like Fox News laying the groundwork that Iran is an evil, evil place, so we should be lucky enough to have an excuse to go in there and bring some civilization to them.