Julian Assange Discusses a Significant Cause of War

In this 2011 statement, Julian Assange discussed a significant cause of war:

One of the hopeful things that I've discovered is that nearly every war that has started in the past 50 years has been a result of media lies.

The media could have stopped it, if they had searched deep enough, if they hadn't reprinted government propaganda, they could have stopped it. But what does that mean?

Well, that means, basically, populations don't like wars, and populations have to be fooled into wars. Populations don't willingly and with open eyes, go into a war. So if we have a good media environment, then we'll also have a peaceful environment. But our number one enemy is ignorance, and I believe that is the number one enemy that everyone is not understanding of what is actually going on in the world. It's only when you start to understand that you can make effective decisions and effective plans.

Now question is, who is promoting ignorance? Well, those organizations to try to keep them secret, and those organizations which distort true information to make it false, or misrepresentative. In this latter category, it is bad media. It really is my opinion that the media in general are so bad, we have to question whether the world wouldn't be better off without them all together. There's some very, very fine journalists and we work with many of them. And some fine media organizations. The vast majority are awful and are so distortive to how the world actually is, the result is we see wars, and we see corrupt governments continue on.

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More on the Nord Stream Pipeline

Mike Benz: "Now even Blob Media is admitting Ukraine commandos blew up the Nord Stream pipeline, the CIA knew it and even coordinated with them in advance, then the Biden State Department lied to your fuckin face and told you Russia did it."

Here's the background.  Here and here:

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Emily Kopp Named Editor of Racket News

Emily Kopp, yet another reject from legacy news, has been named the new Editor of Racket News. This is excellent news. Below she spells out the principles of good journalism. You can make a strong case that the OPPOSITE of each of these principles are the modern foundation for corporate news. Emily opening statement as Editor:

It was once fashionable for corporate media to prescribe what to think and for Big Tech to clamp down on free speech and debate. These days it’s in vogue to embrace a relativist attitude toward truth. No journalist can promise truth, a slippery metaphysical thing that’s especially elusive in the first moments of a crisis. The only thing we can promise is to try for it.

That’s why we’re bringing old school journalistic standards to the new school, wide-open Overton Window. If we do our jobs well, we’ll provide occasional relief from the cacophony.

Racket already had a few internal rules barring advertisers, hidden investors, and silent edits, and general guidelines about a few other things.

We’re hanging on to those, adding a few more, and preserving all of them on our website for accountability. Here they are:

No advertisers, sponsors, or hidden investors. Our content is our own.

No partisan restraints. While we support certain overarching principles, we won’t mold reporting to serve a political party or ideological project.

No predetermined narratives. Complexity should be embraced rather than soothingly papered over. We worry about being wrong, not about being unpopular.

No reflexive dismissal of even outlandish sounding theories prior to examination. However we reserve the right to dismiss (even ridicule) the outlandish theories that do not bear scrutiny.

No recycled content. We will always strive to do original reporting. Every story on Racket will have at least one phone call behind it.

Not politesse about taboos if it gets in the way of facts. But the transgression of taboos is also not something to be gratuitously courted for easy shock value.

No trepidation in the face of personal attacks and intimidation. Neither Matt nor I are stranger to these tactics.

No sacrifices on the altar of access journalism. Access to powerful people in government can facilitate reporting. But ultimately, they are bureaucrats who work for us. We’re not afraid to lose friends for an important story.

No coy sourcing. Anonymous sources may be used, but not as a matter of course. We’ll strive to connect readers to primary sources, archived as much as possible. Procuring original documents is to be a central focus.

No axes to grind. We’ll try to be right and admit when we’re wrong. Corrections are announced and left published.

Finally, the audience should always be the imagined boss. Yes, it’s our job to give you bad news sometimes. But writing with readers in mind is good practice.

Welcome to the new Racket News.

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Limited Hangout Week re Epstein “Disclosures”

If the phrase "limited hangout" is not yet part of your vocabulary, it's time to add it to your repertoire. Grok offers this definition:

A limited hangout is a strategy, often used in espionage, politics, or public relations, where a partial truth or selected information is disclosed to the public or investigators to prevent the discovery of more damaging or sensitive facts, effectively acting as a form of damage control when a full cover-up is no longer viable. The term originates from CIA jargon, as described by former official Victor Marchetti, who explained it as admitting "some of the truth when tight lips have slipped" but withholding the key details to mislead further inquiry.

Here is the only thing you can do to make sure you are not a victim of limited hangouts: Repeatedly ask: "What else have you not yet told me?" Ask this repeatedly, especially when dealing with people, government officials and corporate news outlets you have previously trusted. Consider these recent examples:

DOJ under Pam Bondi redacted a photo of Benjamin Netanyahu with Jeffrey Epstein from the files.

Redactions are admittedly an imperfect way of engaging in limited hangouts, but they work well enough often enough, given the limitations of human attention and memory.

DNC mega-donor Reid Hoffman was mentioned 2,600 times in the Epstein files. David Sachs: "The NYT story on Epstein & Silicon Valley has paragraphs on Elon, Peter Thiel … Reid Hoffman barely gets mentioned despite having the deepest Epstein relationship and having lied about it."

New York Times forgot to mention that one of its own reporters worked closely with Epstein well after Epstein was a known child sex trafficker. And see here.

The DOJ briefly uploaded — then removed — an 86-page document titled “Investigation into Potential Jeffrey Epstein Co-Conspirators.”

Amidst all the chaos, Rep Thomas Massie emerges: with some common sense:

Rep. Thomas Massie says he’s ready to use the nuclear option if the DOJ refuses to un-redact the names of Epstein’s clients. He warns he will simply start reading Epstein’s client names publicly if Pam Bondi’s Department of Justice does not release them. “If the victims want to give them to me, I’ve expressed that I’m willing to do that.” See also here.

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Amy Robach Tried to Tell Us the News About Jeffrey Epstein

Keep this in mind next time you read "The News". Amy Robach, ABC News Anchor:

Robach:

I've had the story for three years. I've had this interview with Virginia Roberts (Giuffre). We would now put it on the air. First of all, I was told who's Jeffrey Epstein? No one knows who that is. This is a stupid story. Then the palace found out that we had her whole allegations about Prince Andrew and threatened us a million different ways. We were so afraid we wouldn't be able to interview Kate will that we that also quashed the story. And then, Alan Dershowitz was also implicated because of the planes. She told me everything she had pictures. She had everything. She was in hiding for 12 years. We convinced her to come out. We convinced her to talk to us. It was unbelievable. What we had, Clinton, we had everything.

I tried for three years to get it on, to no avail. And now it's all coming out, and it's like these new, relevant revelations. And I freaking had all of it. I was so pissed right now. Like every day, I get more and more pissed because I'm just like, oh my god, we it was what we had. Was unreal. Other women backing it up. Hey, yep. Brad Edwards (Giuffre's Lawyer), the attorney three years ago saying, like on, like we there will come a day where we will realize Jeffrey Epstein was the most prolific pedophile this country has ever known. I had it all three years ago.

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