Pentagon Just Pledged Millions to Pay Media Companies to Wage a Massive Information War
The Pentagon will now be pumping millions of dollars to wage a preemptive information war against “propaganda” that may expose the crimes of the military-industrial complex.
By Matt Agorist
TheFreeThoughtProject.com
February 27, 2018
In 2016, using the cover of the holidays and distracted attention, President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act into law — just two days before many Americans celebrated Christmas — likely due to the ominously Orwellian language it used that was meant to “counter propaganda and disinformation directed at the United States.”
Now, it appears that this counter-propaganda move will be taken a step further as the Department of the State announced a partnership with the Department of Defense this week to spend millions on “initiatives to counter propaganda and disinformation.”
To counter what they perceive as “propaganda and disinformation from foreign nations,” the Pentagon plans on paying private companies to create content that will serve as weaponized media.
According to the State Department, “Under the Information Access Fund, civil society groups, media content providers, nongovernmental organizations, federally funded research and development centers, private companies, and academic institutions will be eligible to compete for grants from the GEC to advance their important work to counter propaganda and disinformation.”
The United States is not only actively engaging in an information war but they announced that they will be leading the preemptive strike.
“This funding is critical to ensuring that we continue an aggressive response to malign influence and disinformation and that we can leverage deeper partnerships with our allies, Silicon Valley, and other partners in this fight,” Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Steve Goldstein said. “It is not merely a defensive posture that we should take, we also need to be on the offensive.”
This $40 million in funds is now added to the $60 million already authorized by the NDAA in 2016 which paved the way for funding private companies and mainstream media companies to get paid to push the narrative of the US war machine.
One of the most insidious NDAA provisions to date is called the Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act of 2016, it essentially creates a de facto U.S. Ministry of Truth. The corporate mainstream media has generally failed to report on the implications resulting from the included provisions as to keep Americans in the dark about the Information War being waged on them by their own government.
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