Operation Mockingbird On Steroids—CGI Allows Mainstream Media to Make ‘Fake News’ in Real Time

Advancements in artificial intelligence and computer-generated imagery are creating new concerns about what the definition of “fake news” could become once mainstream media outlets get ahold of the latest technology—and it is all completely “legal,” thanks to programs such as Operation Mockingbird.

Although trust in the mainstream media has reached an all-time low, there is typically the general belief that—no matter how political pundits try to spin the soundbites—a video of President Trump talking, is in fact a video of Trump talking.

However, as Business Insider noted, recently released demos showing the power of CGI technology are serving as “a sign of what is to come.” This month, researchers from the University of Washington released a video titled “Synthesizing Obama: Learning Lip Sync from Audio,” in which they used AI to create a fake video of former President Obama speaking.

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A similar study, titled “Face2Face: Real-time Face Capture and Reenactment of RGB Videos,” was published in March 2016 following a collaboration between researchers from Germany’s University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, the Max-Planck Institute for Informatics and Stanford University in California.

The researchers developed technology that “animates the facial expressions of the target video by a source actor and re-renders the manipulated output video in a photo-realistic fashion.” As a result, it gave them the ability to transfer the facial expressions on one individual onto the faces of figures such as Obama, Trump, and even Russian President Putin.

As the development of this technology continues, and its use becomes more mainstream, concerns grow over how it will make an impact, if and when it is used by the media. The lack of trust in the mainstream media is not unwarranted—especially when the media’s transgressions include things such as selling the American public the lies that weapons of mass destruction existed in Iraq before the Iraq War, and that the Syrian government attacked its own people using chemical weapons.

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As you may have noticed, many of the lies the mainstream media relays to the public are based on narratives that seem to go hand-in-hand with the desired policy initiatives sought by the United States government—and that link is not by coincidence.

As The Free Thought Project reported in October 2015, Operation Mockingbird—a CIA program that recruited journalists to gather information and to influence public opinion on behalf of the agency during the Cold War—is still alive and well in the U.S.

While the program officially lasted for about 30 years, its influence was evident in 2011 when a State Department official “planted” several “questions and concerns” with CBS News for a 60 Minutes interview with WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange. When the exchange was revealed to the public, CBS insisted that it asked the State Department for its input as a way to add “balance” to the program.

While Operation Mockingbird may have started out as one of the CIA’s many questionable programs, it received official approval from the U.S. government when it was legalized in September 2016. The Department of Justice Office of Inspector General published a document titled, “A Review of the FBI’s Impersonation of a Journalist in a Criminal Investigation,” which showed the government’s approval for FBI agents impersonating journalists when conducting undercover investigations.

The fact is that no matter what the official title may be, the principles behind Operation Mockingbird are alive and well, and the continuing advancement of artificial intelligence technology raises new questions about how the manipulation of political figures will be used by the media to spread the government’s agenda.

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Chomsky Exposes Russiagate as Propaganda: ‘It is a Joke’ & ‘The World is Laughing at Us’

World-renowned academic and leftist intellectual giant, MIT professor Noam Chomsky, has historically been hostile to establishment power and privilege – literally writing the book about how consent is manufactured using media to support an elite-driven policy agenda.

Thus, Chomsky’s words should be taken extremely seriously when he recently referred to news stories being pushed in the mass corporate media, about Trump-Russia “collusion,” as little more than “a joke.” In fact, he says that this neo-McCarthyist/anti-Russia propaganda degrades one of the positive aspects of the Trump administration – a drive to reduce hostility with rival nuclear power Russia.

Over the years, Chomsky has refined what he calls, the ‘propaganda model’ of the corporate mass media. He posits that not only does the media systematically suppress and distort, but when they do present facts, the context obscures the actual meaning. In essence, the mass media uses brainwashing to keep people subservient to large corporate interests.

“The media serve, and propagandize on behalf of, the powerful societal interests that control and finance them. The representatives of these interests have important agendas and principles that they want to advance, and they are well positioned to shape and constrain media policy.” –Chomsky

During a panel discussion with Chomsky on Democracy Now, one of the panelists referenced Chomsky’s commentary on the Trump/Russia collusion being “a joke,” and asked him,

“Could you give us your view on what’s happening and why there’s so much emphasis on this particular issue?”

Chomsky, the author of more than 100 books, including “Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media,” in which he breaks down how U.S. corporate media has been weaponized as a means of controlling public opinion by propagandizing the American people, didn’t mince his words, noting:

“It’s a pretty remarkable fact that — first of all, it is a joke. Half the world is cracking up in laughter. The United States doesn’t just interfere in elections. It overthrows governments it doesn’t like, institutes military dictatorships.”

“Simply in the case of Russia alone—it’s the least of it—the U.S. government, under Clinton, intervened quite blatantly and openly, then tried to conceal it, to get their man Yeltsin in, in all sorts of ways,” said Chomsky. “So, this, as I say, it’s considered—it’s turning the United States, again, into a laughingstock in the world.”

“So why are the Democrats focusing on this?” he said. “In fact, why are they focusing so much attention on the one element of Trump’s programs which is fairly reasonable, the one ray of light in this gloom: trying to reduce tensions with Russia? That’s—the tensions on the Russian border are extremely serious. They could escalate to a major terminal war. Efforts to try to reduce them should be welcomed.”

“Just a couple of days ago,” said Chomsky, “the former U.S. ambassador to Russia, Jack Matlock, came out and said he just can’t believe that so much attention is being paid to apparent efforts by the incoming administration to establish connections with Russia.” He said, ‘Sure, that’s just what they ought to be doing."”

Continuing, Chomsky said, “So, you know, yeah, maybe the Russians tried to interfere in the election. That’s not a major issue. Maybe the people in the Trump campaign were talking to the Russians. Well, okay, not a major point, certainly less than is being done constantly.”

“And it is a kind of a paradox,” he said, “that the one issue that seems to inflame the Democratic opposition is the one thing that has some justification and reasonable aspects to it.”

One need to look no further than the Washington Post to understand how U.S. media frequently serve as an errand boy for U.S. corporate, military and imperial interests. Unsurprisingly, Jeff Bezos, owner of WaPo, is deeply connected to U.S. intelligence/security services, as the holder of a $600 million dollar CIA contract.

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As the Nation reported at the time:

“[Jeff Bezos] recently secured a $600 million contract from the CIA. That’s at least twice what Bezos paid for the Post this year. Bezos recently disclosed that the company’s Web-services business is building a ‘private cloud’ for the CIA to use for its data needs.”

Although these connections aren’t enough to prove nefarious collaboration outright, these anomalous relationships seriously call into question the validity of a newspaper that claims to be a paper of national repute.

Moreover, history reveals actual collusion between the CIA and numerous news outlets, including the Washington Post, under a covert program, called Operation Mockingbird, to influence public perceptions by infiltrating newsrooms across America.

In 1977, a former Post journalist, Carl Bernstein, exposed the CIA’s clandestine efforts to infiltrate and subvert the news media, often with the knowledge and assistance of top management at these journalistic outlets. In total, Bernstein reported, over 400 journalists were reportedly involved:

“Journalists provided a full range of clandestine services—from simple intelligence gathering to serving as go-betweens with spies in Communist countries. Reporters shared their notebooks with the CIA. Editors shared their staffs. Some of the journalists were Pulitzer Prize winners, distinguished reporters who considered themselves ambassadors without portfolio for their country…In many instances, CIA documents show, journalists were engaged to perform tasks for the CIA with the consent of the managements of America’s leading news organizations.”

Make no mistake that the U.S. mainstream corporate media has been weaponized as a means of controlling public opinion, by propagandizing the American people into believing a false reality, or propaganda model, which serves the plutocratic oligarchy. According to Chomsky, Russiagate is the fake news you have been warned about!

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Chomsky Exposes Russiagate as Propaganda: ‘It is a Joke’ & ‘The World is Laughing at Us’

World-renowned academic and leftist intellectual giant, MIT professor Noam Chomsky, has historically been hostile to establishment power and privilege – literally writing the book about how consent is manufactured using media to support an elite-driven policy agenda.

Thus, Chomsky’s words should be taken extremely seriously when he recently referred to news stories being pushed in the mass corporate media, about Trump-Russia “collusion,” as little more than “a joke.” In fact, he says that this neo-McCarthyist/anti-Russia propaganda degrades one of the positive aspects of the Trump administration – a drive to reduce hostility with rival nuclear power Russia.

Over the years, Chomsky has refined what he calls, the ‘propaganda model’ of the corporate mass media. He posits that not only does the media systematically suppress and distort, but when they do present facts, the context obscures the actual meaning. In essence, the mass media uses brainwashing to keep people subservient to large corporate interests.

“The media serve, and propagandize on behalf of, the powerful societal interests that control and finance them. The representatives of these interests have important agendas and principles that they want to advance, and they are well positioned to shape and constrain media policy.” –Chomsky

During a panel discussion with Chomsky on Democracy Now, one of the panelists referenced Chomsky’s commentary on the Trump/Russia collusion being “a joke,” and asked him,

“Could you give us your view on what’s happening and why there’s so much emphasis on this particular issue?”

Chomsky, the author of more than 100 books, including “Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media,” in which he breaks down how U.S. corporate media has been weaponized as a means of controlling public opinion by propagandizing the American people, didn’t mince his words, noting:

“It’s a pretty remarkable fact that — first of all, it is a joke. Half the world is cracking up in laughter. The United States doesn’t just interfere in elections. It overthrows governments it doesn’t like, institutes military dictatorships.”

“Simply in the case of Russia alone—it’s the least of it—the U.S. government, under Clinton, intervened quite blatantly and openly, then tried to conceal it, to get their man Yeltsin in, in all sorts of ways,” said Chomsky. “So, this, as I say, it’s considered—it’s turning the United States, again, into a laughingstock in the world.”

“So why are the Democrats focusing on this?” he said. “In fact, why are they focusing so much attention on the one element of Trump’s programs which is fairly reasonable, the one ray of light in this gloom: trying to reduce tensions with Russia? That’s—the tensions on the Russian border are extremely serious. They could escalate to a major terminal war. Efforts to try to reduce them should be welcomed.”

“Just a couple of days ago,” said Chomsky, “the former U.S. ambassador to Russia, Jack Matlock, came out and said he just can’t believe that so much attention is being paid to apparent efforts by the incoming administration to establish connections with Russia.” He said, ‘Sure, that’s just what they ought to be doing."”

Continuing, Chomsky said, “So, you know, yeah, maybe the Russians tried to interfere in the election. That’s not a major issue. Maybe the people in the Trump campaign were talking to the Russians. Well, okay, not a major point, certainly less than is being done constantly.”

“And it is a kind of a paradox,” he said, “that the one issue that seems to inflame the Democratic opposition is the one thing that has some justification and reasonable aspects to it.”

One need to look no further than the Washington Post to understand how U.S. media frequently serve as an errand boy for U.S. corporate, military and imperial interests. Unsurprisingly, Jeff Bezos, owner of WaPo, is deeply connected to U.S. intelligence/security services, as the holder of a $600 million dollar CIA contract.

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As the Nation reported at the time:

“[Jeff Bezos] recently secured a $600 million contract from the CIA. That’s at least twice what Bezos paid for the Post this year. Bezos recently disclosed that the company’s Web-services business is building a ‘private cloud’ for the CIA to use for its data needs.”

Although these connections aren’t enough to prove nefarious collaboration outright, these anomalous relationships seriously call into question the validity of a newspaper that claims to be a paper of national repute.

Moreover, history reveals actual collusion between the CIA and numerous news outlets, including the Washington Post, under a covert program, called Operation Mockingbird, to influence public perceptions by infiltrating newsrooms across America.

In 1977, a former Post journalist, Carl Bernstein, exposed the CIA’s clandestine efforts to infiltrate and subvert the news media, often with the knowledge and assistance of top management at these journalistic outlets. In total, Bernstein reported, over 400 journalists were reportedly involved:

“Journalists provided a full range of clandestine services—from simple intelligence gathering to serving as go-betweens with spies in Communist countries. Reporters shared their notebooks with the CIA. Editors shared their staffs. Some of the journalists were Pulitzer Prize winners, distinguished reporters who considered themselves ambassadors without portfolio for their country…In many instances, CIA documents show, journalists were engaged to perform tasks for the CIA with the consent of the managements of America’s leading news organizations.”

Make no mistake that the U.S. mainstream corporate media has been weaponized as a means of controlling public opinion, by propagandizing the American people into believing a false reality, or propaganda model, which serves the plutocratic oligarchy. According to Chomsky, Russiagate is the fake news you have been warned about!

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Global uprising — the time is now

The global elite are meeting this week in DAVOS for the annual World Economic Forum. Apparently, we, the citizens of the world, aren’t smart enough to determine our own economic future and the global elite have taken it upon themselves to meet annually in order to determine what is in our best interest.

This year there seems to be a different agenda. The global thieves, I mean elite, seem to be concerned that the “little people” are none too happy with the fate that was determined for them by these globalists. There is concern we may be onto their schemes, lies, and theft. As Ray Dalio was meeting with one the main global thieves, Christine Lagarde, Director of the IMF, Mr. Dalio voiced his concern about the people having ideas that don’t necessarily fit with the global agenda.

“Populism is not just the belief that there is a wealth gap … But it’s also a sense that they don’t represent me. It’s a matter of nationalism, it’s a matter of getting greater control. It’s a matter of increased polarity – the left becomes more left, the right becomes more right – and that particular dynamic, I would say that this is the first year where populism is the most important issue globally,” he said at a Bloomberg hosted panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

****

“I would say before it used to be central banks, central banks don’t matter as much, now the number one issue economically – and as a market participant – is how populism manifests itself over the next year or two,” Dalio later added.Source

Mr. Dalio is both right and wrong. He is correct in that the people are done with non-representatives. He is incorrect in that central banks are no longer a concern — central banks are very much a concern.

As a responsible citizen of the United States, I feel compelled to do what I do — deliver news and information about what is happening in our communities and nation. If people would actually read the Constitution and Bill of Rights and attempt to understand what they are reading our nation would have a much better chance at uniting instead of continually being divided by these criminals in Washington DC and banking scum on Wall Street. The number one source of most all the problems we are facing today, from the smallest to the greatest, has roots on Wall Street that run through Washington DC and into our living rooms and bedrooms. If citizens of this once proud nation would better understand their roles, along with their responsibilities, we would be in a much different place today.

Having a better understanding of the media’s role would be helpful as well. If you listen to the dying corporate media one could determine that only big corporations and a select few are responsible, and the actual guardians, of current affairs and news of the day. Nothing could be further from the truth. The dying corporate media was comprised in the mid-1950’s, or earlier, by the CIA through Operation Mockingbird. This program allowed the infiltration of the CIA into newsrooms and Editors desk of both large and small broadcast and print news companies, not only in the U.S. but around the world. Remember, Brian Williams?

What has happened over the past sixty plus years is the American people have become less informed with each passing day. The news has morphed into entertainment, celebrity and sports highlights with current affairs, national and global affairs given the smallest window of time possible. Most of the more important news items going unreported and still others having a “media blackout” placed on them to intentionally keep the American people ignorant of vital information.

With the American people feeling left out, uninformed and attempting to gathering together information that is relevant to their lives, communities, and nation, internet news sources, such as The Daily Coin, have been recently gained a major foothold in news reporting space. The dying corporate media/CIA have retaliated and labeled us as propagandists, fake and various other adjectives to discredit our efforts. All of this has been a complete disaster for the dying the corporate media/CIA and the federal government that has supported and pushed this idea. Independent media presents the information that is no longer available through legacy formats; e.g. television, magazines, and other printed sources.

Now we see a wave of citizens around the world standing up and demanding changes in their country. These changes begin with the non-representatives that were “elected” to represent the people. The citizens understand they have been sold-down-the-river by the people in parliament, congress and other so-called representative bodies within government. The citizens have come to learn these people could care less about them, their needs and the needs of their communities.

As the citizens have become better educated, through independent media, a lot seem to be going through the “5 Stages of Grief“. It appears, based on reports from around the world, that most of the citizens are either coming out of the “depression” or “acceptance” stage. Once a person comes to accept what is happening there is usually a period of action. This seems to be confirmed with what has happened with Brexit and the U.S. Presidential election that sees Donald Trump being elected. This is to say nothing of what is happening across Europe, France being the most prominent, with citizens looking for their respective nation state to leave the European Union.

There is currently an attempt to pigeon hole the citizens with the term “populist” or “nationalist”. This is another attempt at divide and conquer. The fact of the matter is this — the citizens that are speaking out and standing up are simply demanding their rights as human beings be honored. The right to speak their mind without having someone tell them what to think. The right to protect their nation from an onslaught of illegal immigrants that have the potential to eradicate their national heritage. The right to protect themselves from a tyrannical government or gang of hooligans. The basic human right to not be treated as a slave to the state. The right to the truth about their community and nation. The right to not be disappeared because the state has deemed you an enemy of the state for pointing out the lies, deceit, and propaganda they produce and foist upon the citizens.

These are but a few of the issues that seem to be at the top of the list for most people. It’s not that difficult and it’s not some “grand conspiracy” that people simply want their lives back. What it boils down to is this — don’t steal my wealth, don’t steal my resources, don’t abuse my family or myself, do what you say you are going to do and don’t lie to cover up your shortcomings. From my perspective, it really is that simple. Are we asking too much for the people that we “elect” to listen to our needs and act accordingly?

Via Daily Coin

Featured Image: U.S. Embassy Bern, Switzerland/Flickr

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