As reported by The Cut:
On February 1, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Vice Media would be laying off 10 percent of its staff, or approximately 250 workers, as part of a reorganization effort; just hours later, the Miami New Times reported that McClatchy, which operates newspapers across the country, had offered voluntary buyouts to 450 workers. These reports come just one week after Verizon (which owns HuffPost, Yahoo, and AOL) laid off seven percent of its staff, including Pulitzer Prize-finalist Jason Cherkis; BuzzFeed cut 15 percent of its workforce, decimating entire verticals; and the Gannett Company, which owns more than 1,000 daily and weekly newspapers across the country, eliminated approximately 400 jobs.
In sum, that comes to at least 2,100 jobs that are either eliminated or will be soon.
The Leftist media commentariat, as well as the targeted media ‘victims’, blamed the layoffs on a usual suspect: Greedy capitalists. Rather than learn a basic free-market economics lesson that outlays without matching revenue equals a failed business model — even media businesses who employ ‘noble’ scribes skilled in such in-demand discussions of “anarchy” and “gender” issues — they would rather blame shareholders and the “whims of investors” (who put their money up expecting a return — what heathens!).
But according to Infowars, there is likely another culprit responsible for the news media hemorrhaging: The U.S. government, and, specifically, President Obama.
In a video segment of his popular talk radio program on Monday, host Alex Jones cited a July 2013 Foreign Policy report noting that the Obama administration repealed a “propaganda ban” ahead of spreading “government-made news to Americans.” (Related: America’s major media outlets are now making up EVERYTHING they report… four huge media hoaxes blow up in their faces.)
The end of funding for legalized propaganda caused layoffs?
Specifically, FP reported:
For decades, a so-called anti-propaganda law prevented the U.S. government’s mammoth broadcasting arm from delivering programming to American audiences. But on July 2, that came silently to an end with the implementation of a new reform passed in January. The result: an unleashing of thousands of hours per week of government-funded radio and TV programs.
In other words, propaganda.
Prior to lifting the ban, programming created by the Broadcasting Board of Governors and distributed via outlets like Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty could only be listened to or watched in foreign countries. Those restrictions were implemented under provisions of the Smith-Mundt Act, also known formally as the U.S. Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948, a piece of legislation that authorized government propaganda activities (often referred to colloquially as “public diplomacy”).
The act was “modernized” in 2012 and passed as part of the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act.
According to Jones, provisions of the act expired last week, ironically at the same time that mass layoffs across what can only be described accurately as Left-wing media companies. He theorized that the U.S. government, under Obama, authorized funding that went to many of the media outlets now laying off thousands of reporters.
The funding effort was apparently reintroduced in November 2016 — just days after POTUS Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton — by Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who introduced a provision included in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2017 for $160 million “over two years,” according to VOANews.
The funding just ran out, Jones says.
At this point, it’s not clear whether new funding for similar propaganda efforts is in the pipeline. However, it is clear that there are no more barriers to spreading government-funded propaganda to the American people via Left-wing media organizations.
Watch:
Read more about how the Left continues to spread disinformation to Americans at Disinfo.news.
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