{"id":1476474,"date":"2024-07-10T14:45:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-10T18:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1476474"},"modified":"2024-07-10T14:45:00","modified_gmt":"2024-07-10T18:45:00","slug":"its-that-time-again-msm-launches-muh-russia-election-narrative-as-brands-collude-to-silence-dissent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/its-that-time-again-msm-launches-muh-russia-election-narrative-as-brands-collude-to-silence-dissent\/1476474\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s That Time Again: MSM Launches ‘Muh Russia’ Election Narrative As Brands Collude To Silence Dissent"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s That Time Again: MSM Launches ‘Muh Russia’ Election Narrative As Brands Collude To Silence Dissent<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

While the Democratic party melts down over Joe Biden’s cognitive decline – an obvious risk to US national security, the 2024 election wouldn’t be complete without a Trump-Russia narrative<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Trump-Putin Helsinki summit, 2018 (Gorge Silva\/AP)<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

To that end, the Wall Street Journal<\/em><\/a> reports that the Russian government has launched a ‘whole-of-government” effort to influence the US presidential election in favor of Donald Trump – who, for some reason, Russia held off on invading Ukraine while he was president<\/strong> (and ostensibly wouldn’t have sent $175 billion and counting in US aid to combat).<\/p>\n

Citing unnamed ‘senior US intelligence officials,’ the Journal<\/em> writes:<\/p>\n

The officials didn\u2019t mention Trump by name<\/strong>, but said that Russia\u2019s current activity\u2014described as covert social-media use and other online propaganda efforts\u2014mirrored the 2020 and <\/strong>2016 election cycles<\/strong>,<\/a> when Moscow also favored Trump and sought to undermine Democratic candidates, according to U.S. intelligence agencies.<\/em><\/p>\n

Of course, Russia’s 2016 ‘influence campaign’ amounted to roughly $100,000 in Facebook ads<\/a>, which “didn\u2019t reference any specific<\/a> presidential candidate, or even the election itself,” largely targeting BLM members<\/a> and ‘Pokemon Go<\/a>‘ aficionados.<\/p>\n

Insidious.<\/p>\n

That said, the officials say that the activity witnessed so far this election cycle “isn\u2019t on the scale or scope seen in 2016, when Russia\u2019s actions included a hack-and-leak of Democratic Party emails<\/strong>, rudimentary cyber-probing of some state election systems and other actions intended to undermine Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton\u2019s campaign.”<\/p>\n

Hacked emails, you say?<\/p>\n

Seth Rich was murdered in Washington, DC on July 10, 2016 shortly after Rich had provided proof to WikiLeaks showing the DNC and Clinton campaign blocked Bernie Sanders from the 2016 Democratic nomination.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s Julian Assange being asked about it pic.twitter.com\/CEj6IWX6Hb<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 \u2668\ufe0f BASEDLAYER\ud83c\udf21\ufe0f (@basedlayer80) June 26, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n

Edit: <\/em>And as ZeroHedge<\/em> reader ‘The Wolverine’ notes in the comments below: ‘Remember that time Adam Schiff interviewed the President of CrowdStrike and refused to release the transcript for months and months?’<\/p>\n

Bombshell: Crowdstrike admits \u2018no evidence\u2019 Russia stole emails from DNC server<\/a><\/p>\n

According to the new report, Russia is seeking to influence specific voting groups, including those in swing states, and promote divisive narratives<\/strong> while denigrating specific politicians, the anonymous US intelligence officials told reporters, without mentioning the specific voters or politicians who have been allegedly targeted.<\/p>\n

But wait, there’s more!<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Kremlin “is also working to influence members of Congress and is broadly seeking to undermine U.S. support for Ukraine in its war with Russia<\/strong>,” according to the anonymous officials – one of whom said that Russia was the “pre-eminent threat” to the election, while Iran was a ‘lesser threat at the moment,’ and aims to be a ‘chaos agent’ by exacerbating social tensions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“We have observed actors tied to Iran\u2019s government posing as activists online, seeking to encourage protests, and even providing financial support to protesters,” said Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, in a separate Tuesday statement.<\/p>\n

There they go again https:\/\/t.co\/Zw80yAwJaH<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Benjamin Weingarten (@bhweingarten) July 10, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n

Brands Collude to Silence<\/strong><\/h3>\n

While democracy grapples with this new Russia election malarkey, we can’t forget that free speech threatens narrative control efforts<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

To that end, the world’s largest brands, owned by elites, are now colluding to control online speech<\/strong>, according to an interim staff report<\/a> released on Thursday by the House Judiciary Committee.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udea8 NEW REPORT: How the World’s Biggest Brands Seek to Control Online Speech<\/p>\n

New info reveals that woke advertisers and brands are colluding together to attack people like @elonmusk<\/a>, @joerogan<\/a>, political candidates, and news organizations.<\/p>\n

Read it herehttps:\/\/t.co\/3TTNysFrv4<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/mMy5XyoVLg<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 House Judiciary GOP \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@JudiciaryGOP) July 10, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n

The report details a coordinated effort by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and its Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) initiative<\/strong> to demonetize and suppress disfavored content across the internet.<\/p>\n

The Power Players Behind GARM<\/h3>\n

The WFA, a global association representing over 150 of the world\u2019s biggest brands and over 60 national advertiser associations, created GARM in 2019. This alliance quickly amassed significant market power, representing roughly 90% of global advertising spend, which amounts to nearly one trillion dollars annually.<\/p>\n

GARM\u2019s Steer Team reads like a who\u2019s who of corporate America, including heavyweights such as Unilever, Mars, Diageo, Procter & Gamble (P&G), GroupM, AB InBev, L’Or\u00e9al, Nestl\u00e9, IBM, Mastercard, and PepsiCo.<\/strong> These corporations not only wield immense economic influence but are now revealed to be leveraging this power to control online discourse under the guise of “brand safety.”<\/p>\n

Collusion and Censorship<\/h3>\n

The Committee report details multiple instances of GARM\u2019s coordinated efforts to influence and censor online conten<\/strong>t. Perhaps the most notable example is the recommendation for a boycott of Twitter following Elon Musk\u2019s acquisitio<\/strong>n. GARM members, including Danish energy company \u00d8rsted, were advised to pull their advertising from Twitter<\/strong>, a move that significantly impacted Twitter\u2019s revenue. Internal emails show GARM’s satisfaction with the result, with GARM leader Rob Rakowitz boasting about the impact on Twitter’s financials.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“GARM recommended that its members ‘stop all paid advertisement’ on Twitter <\/strong>in response to Mr. Musk\u2019s acquisition of the company. GARM\u2019s internal documents show that GARM was asked by a member to ‘arrange a meeting and hear more about [GARM\u2019s] perspectives about the Twitter situation<\/strong> and a possible boycott from many companies.” -House Judiciary Committee<\/em><\/p>\n

Unilever <\/strong>was particularly miffed that Musk released internal communications which became known as the Twitter Files, specifically over the Hunter Biden laptop story<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

“Unilever, through GARM, also expressed issues with Mr. Musk exposing the truth about how Twitter, prior to Mr. Musk\u2019s acquisition, censored the Hunter Biden laptop story.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Spotify and its star podcaster, Joe Rogan, also came under GARM\u2019s scrutiny<\/strong>. Despite not placing advertisements on Rogan\u2019s podcast, GARM pressured Spotify to take action against Rogan for his comments on COVID-19. This included threatening to review Spotify\u2019s entire Trust & Safety policies and pushing for a public condemnation of the platform.<\/p>\n

“GroupM knew there was no brand safety concern because it did not buy advertisements on Mr. Rogan\u2019s podcast, but it still sought to silence Mr. Rogan\u2019s views anyway.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, “On February 10, 2022, Coca-Cola emailed Mr. Rakowitz regarding ‘evaluating Spotify to better access the Joe Rogan Experience’<\/strong> and noting that the ‘particular issue (misinformation) does not exactly fit cleanly into [Coca-Cola\u2019s] policy.”<\/p>\n

Political Influence and Targeting Conservative Media<\/h3>\n

GARM’s influence extends into the political realm as well. The report notes efforts by GARM and its members to flag a Trump campaign advertisement as misinformation during the 2020 presidential election<\/strong>. This advertisement, which questioned Joe Biden’s debate performance, was scrutinized by Unilever and other GARM members, who pushed Facebook to take action against it.<\/p>\n

Conservative news outlets have been particular targets of GARM\u2019s exclusion lists, curated with input from biased organizations like the Global Disinformation Index (GDI) and NewsGuard<\/strong>. These exclusion lists disproportionately flag right-leaning sites such as Fox News, The Daily Wire, Breitbart News, New York Post, and The Federalist<\/strong> as purveyors of misinformation, thus cutting off their advertising revenue and limiting their reach.<\/p>\n

Actually<\/em> insidious…<\/p>\n

Extremely concerning! https:\/\/t.co\/EF5shOhMf5<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 10, 2024<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nWed, 07\/10\/2024 – 10:45<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/its-time-again-msm-launches-muh-russia-election-narrative-brands-collude-silence-dissent<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s That Time Again: MSM Launches ‘Muh Russia’ Election Narrative As Brands Collude To Silence Dissent While the Democratic party melts down over Joe Biden’s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1476475,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1476474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbimBl-6c66","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/07\/trump20and20putin_0-FRe1Zx.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1476474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1476474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1476474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1476475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1476474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1476474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1476474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}