SMEAR CAMPAIGN AGAINST INDIE MEDIA - THE GRAYZONE EXPLAINS

Independent news outlets African Stream and The Grayzone have recently been in the crosshairs of Western corporate media houses.

For instance, US-based NBC ran a smear piece on African Stream, accusing us of disinformation without evidence. The Grayzone (@thegrayzonenews on IG, TikTok and X) has been on the circuit much longer. This year, a Washington Post journalist attempted to smear the Grayzone for its reporting on the October 7th attacks, even though it included information that Israeli media sources have corroborated. Another Washington Post article reported on what has been in the public domain for years: A Grayzone editor had been a paid contributor for an Iranian state-run news outlet, Press TV.

In the latest ‘Pan-African Attitude’ episode, our guest, Grayzone founder and editor @maxblumenthal (X), theorised Western imperialists’ goal is to control the narrative. Much of the US public views mainstream outlets like NBC and the Washington Post as trusted sources, so online encyclopaedias like Wikipedia use these news outlets’ material to flesh out pages. However, in 2007, the US-based research foundation Santa Fe Institute announced their application, WikiScanner, tracked the source for Wikipedia edits to CIA and FBI computers. When online tools that use artificial intelligence, like ChatGPT, churn out answers based on internet scans of websites like Wikipedia, propaganda against independent media becomes consolidated.

Have a watch, and please let us know what you think.