The Western Justification: Controlling the Narrative

Journalism is considered as the 4th pillar of a healthy Democracy. But what happens when the journalism itself become a controlling force dictating what to write and how to write? A recent documentary by Global Hindu Federation (GHF) titled “BBC On Trial” shed light on the hypocrisy of western media outlets in shaping the global narratives, revealing hangover of their colonial mindset from previous century.

How do they control the Narrative?

The era that followed the “decolonization process” post World War 2 is coined as Neo-Colonialism by many experts. Mr. Kwame Nkrumah, former president of Ghana defined Neo colonialism, in his paper “Neo-Colonialism, the last stage of Imperialism 1965” as “based upon the principle of breaking up former large united colonial territories into a number of small un-viable states which are incapable of independent development and must rely upon the former imperial power for defense and even internal security.” {An idea that share similarities with the concept of Subsidiary Alliance by Richard Wellesley during British Raj in India.}

In an intertwined globalized world, role of media gains utmost importance in controlling the spread of information.

It’s an undeniable fact that majority of famous & global media and social media outlets like, Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, The BBC, The Washington Post, The CNN, Reuters Group among many others are owned and controlled by the West. Evidently, Amazon founder and owner, Jeff Bezos owns majority stakes at the Washington Post and BBC receives billions from The Gates Foundations.  

Journalistic experts have analyzed numerous instances where there have been tendencies to publish content that serves personal and/or external interests as opposed to pursuing unbiased, non-partisanship and ethical journalism.

Some instances:

·       Most recent example is the narrative war between the West and Russia in Russia-Ukraine War. The western narrative has been slightly different as they portray it as an act of war, using headlines lines like “Russian aggressive occupation of Ukrainian territories” and “Russian invasion of Ukraine”. While the Russian narrative claims the region to be its “sphere of influence”. They added that invasion, not as an isolated action, but as a reaction against the decade long NATO led infringement towards Russian border, thus entering Moscow’s “sphere of influence” after the dissolution of Warsaw Pact.

·       Interestingly, since the beginning of Russia-Ukraine war, Google censored certain pro-Russian videos for which Russia had imposed multiple fines which have now accrued to $20 decillion (2 followed by 34 zeros). For the comparison, the world’s GDP is $110 trillion dollars. Moscow further claims that more than 1000 YouTube channels were banned illegally. This is indicative of the monopoly of US tech giants in controlling the spread of information and censoring as per their whims and fancies.

·       Since the fall of Berlin wall, BBC has been overly supportive of Euro- Atlantic Agenda, i.e., expansion of NATO or military intervention of Western Powers into the affairs of other countries. Evidently, in Yugoslavia civil war and Kosovo war, BBC was supportive of extremist separatist groups which eventually broke the erstwhile Yugoslavia into 6 Republics. But, similar separatist events in Basque country and Catalonia in Spain (a NATO and EU member), such movements were branded as terrorism and extremism by the BBC.

·       Mr. Balaji Srinivasan, an American entrepreneur and investor presented graphical representation of the words used by publications like the NewYork Times as per their political inclination like prejudice signifying words like ‘racist’, ‘sexist’, ‘homophobic’, ‘islamophobic’, ‘anti-semitic’ etc. were poured into the news feed soon after Trump assumed power in 2017. As compared to 2021 when the Democrats regained control with Biden administration, such words disappeared entirely from print media publication. He further added the tactic of using such terms to create sensational content to drive up their profit, which is referred to as Yellow Journalism.

·       In 2003, the narrative set for US invasion of Iraq against Saddam Husain is controversial as the evidence of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) in Iraq was proved illusionary. Many experts argue that Saddam posed a threat to the Petrocurrency, vis-à-vis, the US Dollar (the oil is to be traded globally in American Dollars, if the oil is traded in any other currency; it weakens the demand of USD and undermines its status as the global reserve currency). Later in 2006, Mr. Nouri al Maliki, who took over the administrative authority as the new Iraqi PM with the help of US, continued the spreading of the already set narrative, which carries on till today.

·       Adding to this, The Bush administration in the United States also won the popular vote in 2004 after spreading the unsubstantiated claims that Saddam was personally involved in 9/11 attack.

·       However, the narrative shifted following their “Global Fight against terrorism” when the American SEAL team’s operation in Afghanistan to neutralize the Al-Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden, in response to the unfortunate incident of 9/11. Bin Laden was found hiding in his compound at Abbottabad in Pakistan, a nation that is considered an ally of America.

·      India, a former British colony has long been a favoured target for criticism. The narrative surrounding the Gujarat riots of 2002, which occurred while PM Modi was the Chief Minister, has been perpetuated despite the Supreme Court of India dismissing these allegations as unfounded. The release of the BBC Documentary “India: The Modi Question” in 2023, just ahead of 2024 General Elections, raised suspicion. Reports indicate that the BBC sought “Spicy material” to craft “sensational and explosive allegations”, suggesting a premeditated effort to undermine the Republic of India.

Implications

These handful examples taken from a ocean of examples indicate towards the hold of the West (the state and the media) in controlling the content and manner of spread of information to the world that works in their advantage.

Documentaries and reportage in such “spicy” way have an impact globally which leads to inciting racism among people, including against Indian who are living abroad. Such actions worsens when media houses like The BBC charges a mandatory license fee as a public broadcaster and chooses to present their colonial narrative to the world. Many experts have compared this act as ‘slaves paying the masters to keep them enslaved’.

In today’s era when the world has moved into the digital space and information is just a click away, controlling the mind and consequently polarizing the world has become a business to control the narrative. As evident in Israel-Hamas conflict- where Hamas attacked Israel and took more than 200 hostages on October 7 2023, the tale was turned in favour of Hamas using the power of social media and media outlets like Al Jazeera which resulted in mass global support in the form of protests in American Universities like University of Colombia and the viral social media post of “All Eyes on Gaza”. They changed the narrative from Hamas terrorists attacking Israel to Israel attacking the people of Palestine.

Amid such instances, the statement on Neocolonialism by former President of Ghana explains why certain western nations fail to control the extremist activities and sometimes let them breed. 

Result

The 2021 Movie- Don’t Look Up, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence presents a fictional yet an apt idea about how social media platforms are used to either polarize the masses on a digital space and/or deviate their priorities from actual problems.

Consequently, now we witness the gaining popularity of the non-west media outlets like Rtv (Russian TV), ILTV (based in Tev Aviv), FirstPost (based in New Delhi), Al Jazeera (based in Qatar). These platforms have gained traction in an effort to challenge the Western monopoly on narrative control and to present perspectives that have often been ignored and undisclosed. 

The current battle for narrative dominance is crucial in justifying actions such as dropping of atomic bombs like Little Boy and Fat Man, which resulted in deaths of millions and the genetic impact on countless future generations. The narrative struggle often overshadows the need to accurately inform the public about global and national events as they truly are.

Sources

·       Balaji Srinivasan’s podcast with The BeerBiceps (Ranveer Allahbadia)

·       @DavidRozado  (from X) (for graphs)

·       The GHF’s Documentary – Who Controls the world? - BBC on Trial on YouTube

·       “Neo-Colonialism, the last stage of Imperialism 1965” by Kwame Nkrumah, former president of Ghana.

·       https://www.chathamhouse.org/2023/03/iraq-20-years-insider-reflections-war-and-its-aftermath/how-misinformation-defeated