From Editor Maxim Nikolenko: I have dedicated a sizable portion of my life to following world events and reading political literature. While closely following on the conflicts in Syria, Ukraine, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, and the DR of Congo, I began to see a pattern of hypocritical coverage being applied to overwhelmingly amplify the interests of the American security apparatus and corporate-driven globalization initiatives.
Thus, certain initiatives and struggles that are praised by Western economic institutions and the State Department overwhelmingly received positive coverage in what is known as the mainstream corporate press. A striking example of our time is the conflict in Syria, where Anglo-American press outlets are playing a crucial role in legitimizing the views and intentions expressed by Western politicians and intelligence agencies. Overthrowing the current regime in Damascus, Balkanizing the Syrian people, remains an openly expressed policy in Washington. The embedded journalists succumbed to a group-thinking mode, compliantly echoing the line expressed by big officials and intelligence sources. It is no wonde
r that civilians killed by the Syrian government are the worthy victims to report. In contrast, thousands of civilians in Yemen are killed and starved to death by Washington’s ally, Saudi Arabia, the undeserving victims of a virtually unreported war. This is not a new media phenomenon nor a new tactic applied in the regime change policy, which often aims to combat sovereign and economically nationalistic governments while silencing under ‘diplomatic cover’ the actions implemented by authoritarian client governments.
Democratic rights and the well-being of ordinary citizens, similarly to the coverage of many conflicts, are often exploited for the cynical initiatives of the Empire. The most recent example of this is Venezuela, a country labeled as a ‘failed state’ by embedded corporate media outlets, thus providing grounds for the openly expressed interests of Washington to see the downfall of the country’s socialist government. Here, the worst aspects of the economic crisis experienced by Venezuelans are made into news. They are not news, however, when millions of neighboring Brazilians are sliding into poverty under the policies of the radically neoliberal and right-wing government of President Michel Temer. His grotesque austerity package, described by the U.N as “completely inappropriate”, has gone virtually unchallenged in the West. Perhaps Temer’s fundamentalist privatization drive and his allocation of wealth to the powerful local and foreign investors are the reasons for silence.
Yet, this is not an isolated case, nor a unique policy of injustice, nor the only population affected by a global economic order largely promoted by the world’s most powerful financial and military Empire, the United States.
The reality for the Empire is a detachment from reality. The actions it pursues are constructed upon the grounds of preexisting lies. Intentional or unintentional agents of these imperial lies, the spinners of propaganda, now find themselves detached even from the citizens they claim to represent.
If America is detached from the world, then never had its media machine been so detached from the American public than in 2016. It was the year when the system failed to predict the unsurprising victory of Brexit in Britain, and later utterly failed to predict the unsurprising victory of Donald Trump. The election of Donald Trump to the White House was not so much a vote for the future, but a vote of rebellion against the system, the conscience it dictates and the leaders it prescribes.
Trump’s presidency indicates no change to the system. In fact, the military budget is going to be increased and the neoliberal doctrine is aiming to break new barriers of extreme.
Meanwhile, instead of improving relations with the citizens it serves, the corporate media machine slid even deeper into a pit of lies. These are indeed unique times. A new Cold War with the world’s second biggest nuclear power, Russia, has been framed out of nothing. The state of paranoia against Russia and the Evil Vlad, orchestrated by the Deep State and amplified by mass media, is perhaps the Empire’s greatest departure from reality yet.
This new lie – made into reality – is hegemonic in nature while extremely harmful and dangerous in practice.
I developed an uneasy feeling while watching this hegemonic power being virtually unquestioned, unchallenged, even receiving empathy from thousands of journalists who contribute their voice to the War Chorus.
Thus, I decided to create a news website which provides a space for the voice of independent journalism and high-quality research publications. To challenge the conventional truths and policies that allocate power to the few and misery to the many is the goal of Alternative Beacon. I also consider it important to allocate space for analyzing a longstanding agent of power— propaganda, the chief force at shaping public opinion in the age of diverse media and widespread access to information.
A renowned filmmaker and investigative journalist, John Pilger, calls it “Real Journalism.”
Feel free to contact me on any question: maxim@alterbeacon.com