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3 Aug, 2016 16:09

‘US media are distracters, veer attention from anything that can embarrass Clinton’

‘US media are distracters, veer attention from anything that can embarrass Clinton’

Even in election season the US public is in a media blackout on anything that might embarrass Hillary Clinton, including allegations she could have exacerbated wars where Americans lost their lives, says media analyst Lionel.

The US military has launched air strikes against an ISIS stronghold in Libya. The terrorist group gained a foothold in the country during the chaos that was unleashed after the NATO-led intervention in 2011 which ousted Muammar Gaddafi.

In the meantime, WikiLeaks has published a new batch of Hillary Clinton e-mails. One, from a State Department official, praises her work on Libya while she was US Secretary of State.

RT:Clinton was praised for her leadership and getting the coalition to work together on Libya. The State Department was happy with the work. So it's not that surprising she was praised, is it?

Lionel: Absolutely, not. What is also not subject to surprise is the complete and total non-reaction on the part of the American mainstream media. You can cue the crickets but no one cares about this. No one even understands the slightest implication of what this means right now. The ‘Ted Baxters’ or ‘sock puppet echo chamber’ media are talking around the clock about the Khans, these gold star parents and a boorish comment on the part of Donald Trump. Everything in our media 24/7 is being consumed by this story. Because our media are distracters. What this means: the media are now paying tribute to this gold star family meaning that their son lost his life in Iraq. And we are honoring that. Yet at the same time, as I read the WikiLeaks information, what we have here is somebody who theoretically, based upon the accusations, is actually exacerbating and perpetuating if not fueling the very activities, the very wars which take brave American soldiers that we later laud and mourn over. Even that doesn’t get the attention of the American media whatsoever, because that would cause a distraction and might embarrass Madam Hillary.   

RT:How likely is this latest email leak going to affect her presidential campaign? There are a lot of people who are concerned with her actions in Libya. The embarrassments keep coming but she still leads the polls.

Lionel: I don’t know where those people are who are concerned about that. Because we have a rule here, once a story deals with a territory outside of either the borders or the contiguous geography that is the US, all understanding, concern and attention vanishes. [The US] mainstream media never uses a map…So, what we have here is an individual who is alleged, we have a State Department official who is in a capacity of Secretary of State might actually be - according to these emails - exacerbating the problem if not encouraging the very terrorism which we ostensibly are against and this person, based upon the allegations, happens to be running for president.

I don’t know what formula our media need to wake them up. Right now, it is the full intention of everybody, paying attention to do everything in his power to veer any attention away from Hillary Clinton and to embarrass, if at all, possibly Donald Trump. It is ‘full court’ press 24/7 “Let’s embarrass Donald Trump”…We are in a radio and media silence here, we are in a blackout period by design and …many American citizens have not a clue or a concern as to what they are not being told. And it is an election season. Yet, we mourn and we pray for those brave American men and women who gave their lives in fighting terrorism but we are not interested in what causes, exacerbates, fuels, funds and promotes terrorism. Go figure!

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

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