Created by: Angela Rong
Many Americans believe that mainstream Western news sources β Reuters, The New York Times, the Associated Press β are mostly free from bias. The Western journalist and newspaper is characterized as an unadulterated beacon of democracy, while media from non-European foreign countries is dismissed as propaganda.
But the truth is that journalistic reporting, like any written medium, is a storytelling form. Writing economy dictates a condensed narrative. How do you present statistics? What perspective are you ignoring? How were you socialized, and who stands to benefit from it?
Headlines inundate us with accusations of Russian interference and characterizations of the DPRK as a despotic nuclear superpower. Meanwhile, US news outlets refuse to report on AFRICOM or CIA interference in the Global South. They feed into Obama's "Pivot to Asia" military agenda, demonizing China and exacerbating Sinophobia at home. We have seen this exact same media treatment with Iraq and the WMDS, Afghanistan and the War on Terror, Vietnam, Korea β the list goes on. The Amerikan empire requires perpetual war. Predicated on the violence of imperialism, it is fundamentally unable to function without an imagined enemy.
This website hopes to prompt that first step toward reeducation and liberation. Broaden your news diet, engage in community, and always remain critical. Itβs important to realize that Americans, as people living in the imperial core, are susceptible to believing in and even benefitting from US aggression abroad.