Control the Narrative and Win the Struggle!

Published in Issue 381 of The Black Commentator on June 24, 2010
Republished in Fubar and Grill on June 24, 2010

By Larry Pinkney

Like most politicians in this nation, the articulate Barack Obama is a pathological liar – and has thus far been, with the complicity of the corporate media, much more effective at it than any other politician.

The story [i.e. the narrative] of ‘America’ is replete with myth, lies, and more lies. In fact, the bigger the lie, the more it is propagated as truth. Corporate thieves and murderers are depicted as financial geniuses and self-made men. This however, did not begin in the 21st century, but rather with the very inception of the United States itself.

The wealthy elite of this nation have always controlled the narrative of what is true and what is not true. The stories of everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow peoples have consistently been twisted and distorted to serve the interests of the wealthy elite, just as it is today.

Just as Barack Obama is presently depicted by most of the corporate media as the hapless victim of British Petroleum and other multi-national blood-sucking corporations, when in fact he is their facilitator and front man; so it is that the bigger the lie, the more it is propagated as truth. We everyday people are not controlling our own story, our own narrative; the corporate media is.

Precisely the same scenario is accurate with respect to the government and corporate media’s complicity in duping the U.S. populace on the international level. Remember when then U.S. President Lyndon Johnson told his big lie regarding the so-called ‘Gulf of Tonkin incident,’ when the U.S. populace was informed that a U.S. navy ship had been attacked in international waters by North Vietnam, thus facilitating an even deeper involvement by the U.S. corporate / military complex in the Vietnam war? Remember the then U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell’s big lie to the United Nations about there being ‘weapons of mass destruction’ in Iraq? Now we have Barack Obama lying his posterior off about, among other things, the government / corporate spawned atrocity in the Gulf of Mexico. The horrible ecological and economic affects of this Gulf of Mexico atrocity are both national and global, and will ultimately range into the trillions of dollars over a period of decades. But the government and corporate media narrative is, as always, about omission, disinformation, and endless lies.

Barack Obama and his ilk are the proverbial foxes eating the chickens while claiming to guard them. The corporate government stories [i.e. narrative] must be rejected and replaced by the narrative of everyday people.

Hey folks! The moon is not made of cheese, there is no tooth fairy, and real “change we can believe in” begins with everyday people controlling and telling our own stories, our own narrative.

The corporate media comes in many guises. For example, it is both disgusting and pathetically comical how the so-called Public Broadcasting System [PBS], after the Gulf of Mexico atrocity, dropped its open sponsorship by British Petroleum, but now unabashedly touts the corporate sponsorship of yet another multi-national oil giant – Chevron Corporation. Thus, to expect uncensored and informative “news” and analysis from PBS, CBS, NBC, ABC, or any of the other corporate-backed media outlets (be they television or print media), is akin to believing in the tooth fairy. It is both delusion and illusion, and it is a recipe for disaster.

The struggle of everyday people must be for real and total systemic change. Corporate domination, unemployment, homelessness, wars, mass incarceration, privatization of public education, and environmental degradation, etc. will never be changed by those, who in reality, profit from them, no matter what narrative they propagate for us to consume and believe.

Though it will not be easy, we can win this struggle! Build and support truly alternative media. Create your own everyday people’s media and spread it far and wide. Take back your minds from the corporate media! Critically analyze what you see, read, or hear. Stop being diverted by the non-issues and lies of the government and its corporate media.

We can do this. We must do this. Onward my sisters and brothers! Onward!

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