There has been much "buzz" about the Council on Foreign Relations and its importance in American politics. As it stands our Current President George Bush, and all top three contenders Hillary, Barrack and McCain are also CFR members. Virtually every President in the last 50 years was a member, or has had involvement with the CFR.
With this given, it therefore becomes important to know what exactly is the CFR and what do they stand for? According to wikipedia: "The Council's mission is promoting understanding of foreign policy and America’s role in the world. Meetings are convened at which government officials, global leaders and prominent members debate major foreign-policy issues. It has a think tank that employs prominent scholars in international affairs and it commissions subsequent books and reports. A central aim of the Council, it states, is to "find and nurture the next generation of foreign policy leaders." It established "Independent Task Forces" in 1995, which encourage policy debate. Comprising experts with diverse backgrounds and expertise, these task forces seek consensus in making policy recommendations on critical issues; to date, the Council has convened more than fifty times.
The internal think tank is the The David Rockefeller Studies Program, which grants fellowships and whose programs are described as being integral to the goal of contributing to the ongoing debate on foreign policy; fellows in this program research and write on the most important challenges facing the United States and the world.
At the outset of the organization, founding member Elihu Root said the group's mission, epitomized in its journal Foreign Affairs, should be to "guide" American public opinion. In the early 1970s, the CFR changed the mission, saying that it wished instead to "inform" public opinion."
Many people who have knowledge of the CFR have said that they "guide" and "inform" us through manipulation and control of the media. One of the biggest critics of this media control has been Phil Donahue who has argued the Pentagon has hijacked our media and delivered us military news. It is also important to know that Donahue was cancelled from MSNBC because his post 9/11 view did not cater to the "Climate of Fear" that Peter Arnette (Also Fired) spoke about.
The underlying criticism of the CFR is that it shapes and promotes the opinion of these "study programs" and breeds American leaders whose foreign policy objectives become mere media trite and opinion by pre-selected pro-war groups of corporate controlled media outlets. This has been occurring at the expense of true and accurate reporting of which is based on the climate of the country and not the ambitions and needs of the military and its global objectives.
Fortunately many Americans are increasingly realizing that there is more opinion out there than actual news, and this is eroding the credibility of the mainstream media. We are increasingly seeing this through the financial hardship and growing competition from alternate news sources that are reporting facts instead of opinion. This problem is currently being dealt with through a legislative quest to regulate the prime source of contradictory views on media war reporting and opinion... the internet. Should the current plans become fully implemented it may become entirely possible that you will need a permit to launch a website and its content will have to comply with stricter laws and regulations or sites will be remotely cancelled.
The video below is from Phil Donahue, he brings up some very interesting points about media control and his view on the future of America and its war agenda.
Trailer Body Of War. www.bodyofwar.com
CFR In The News:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment