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As I have detailed in a recently posted study, How American Media Serves as a Transmission Belt for Wars of Choice, atrocity porn doesn’t exist in isolation. Rather it is part of a well-established pattern. Whenever a U.S. president, whether Democrat or Republican, plots a military intervention in another country, media (particularly the MSM) dutifully parrot government-provided content. Among the key features analyzed:

Deficiency of knowledge as the American norm: The less we know, them more likely we are to believe what we’re being told. Those least informed are most persuaded of the need to “do something.”

Reliance on government sources, “ventriloquism,” and information incest: Unknown to the public, much MSM “information” comes from government sources. Ask White House aideBen Rhodes.

Centralized corporate ownership: You can’t serve both God and Mammon, but Caesar and Mammon get along just fine. Propaganda interfaces with ratings dollars for six giant corporate conglomerates.

“Para-journalism,” “infotainment,” and “atrocity porn” as a war trigger: Once government decides on war, they need to sell it. The MSM duly serves up made-to-order atrocities.

Demonization “Hitler” memes and “weaponization” of media: It’s all black and white, no shades of gray. Compromise and negotiation have no role in confronting absolute evil. War is the default option.

America and the “international community,” the “Free World,” and “American exceptionalism” and “leadership”: What normal Americans understand by our country’s “exceptional” character is very different from the malign use to which political and media elites put it.

Disregarding “alternative” media, American samizdat: Accurate information is available in “alternative” media, but the MSM still decide if it exists or not.

“We never make mistakes,” “stay the course,” and “MoveOn-ism”: U.S. policy has no rearview mirror. Authors of past disasters are not discredited. Those who said “tolya so” are ignored.

The media’s acting as a transmission belt for war is best understood by seeing the MSM as themselves an integral part of a multifaceted, hybrid public-private entity encompassing an astonishing range and depth. Centered in Washington with secondary concentrations in New York and Silicon Valley, it is variously known as the Establishment, the Oligarchy (as called by Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions), or the Deep State (as analyzed in depth by my longtime Congressional colleague Mike Lofgren). This entity includes elements within all three branches of the U.S. government (especially in the military, intelligence, and financial sectors), private business (the financial industry, government contractors, information technology), think tanks, NGOs, the “Demintern,” both political parties and campaign operatives, and an army of lobbyists and PR flacks. Students of history will note a startling resemblance to the old Soviet nomenklatura.

The Deep State not just Dwight Eisenhower’s “Military-Industrial Complex.” Compared to these guys, Curtis LeMay was a peacenik. The Oligarchy’s propensity for war is inseparable from its media falsehood-generator. As Solzhenitsyn observed: “Anyone who has proclaimed violence his method inexorably must choose lying as his principle.” Both have become deeply engrained in our public life and especially in our foreign and military policies.