Do “news reports” Have Any Value?
Paul Craig Roberts
I have come to the conclusion that journalism in the West has been replaced by hired narratives and that reporters report the narrative that they are hired to tell. It is a new form of vanity press in which interest groups hire a propaganda service to market their agenda.
I will present a current example. On September 28 US Central Command denied that Iran had control of the Strait of Hormuz. Central Command said the US sank the Iranian Navy and that “thousands of ships have passed through freely along with more than 1 billion barrels of oil just over the past few months.”
The previous day Trump’s Secretary of the Treasury said on Fox News that the Strait of Hormuz was open–except to Iranian oil “which we are not letting out”–and that 15-22 millions of barrels of oil are passing through the strait daily. In other words, the energy crisis is over and has been according to US Central Command during “the past few months” while we have had an energy crisis..
The London Daily Telegraph, once a respectable Tory newspaper, has become a “hire to have your story told” organization. David Blair, Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator, wrote in the Telegraph 2 days ago that
“It has taken a monumental effort by the US navy but the tankers are steaming through the Strait of Hormuz once again, carrying about as much oil as they did before Donald Trump launched his onslaught against Iran.
“New and independent data confirms that the US has, at least for now, succeeded in breaking Iran’s stranglehold on this crucial junction of the world. An average of 13.5 million barrels of oil transited the Strait every day in the week until Monday, according to Kpler, a company that tracks global shipping, more or less matching the pre-war average.
“Elsewhere, Saudi Arabia has repaired the pipeline that links its biggest oilfields to the Red Sea, after Iranian-backed militias launched a drone attack from Iraq on the night of September 10.
“The outcome is that total oil exports from the Middle East through all routes are running at 20.5 million barrels per day – or 89 per cent of the 2025 level – according to analysts at JP Morgan, who noted a ‘remarkable recovery for a region still at war’”.
“Iran, by contrast, cannot load a single tanker or export any oil by sea because the US navy is enforcing a total blockade of its ports. Suddenly the regime’s vital oil revenues are plummeting towards zero.
“So far, Iran’s furious attempts to retaliate by choking oil shipments from the rest of the Middle East are demonstrably failing.
“That leaves the hard men who govern Iran under greater pressure than at any time since Trump began the war on Feb 28 by joining Israel to kill Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the late supreme leader.” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/80bf2cc04f5154a8
The Telegraph concludes its hired narrative with this:
“So the truth is that Trump is being rescued from his own folly by the sheer power and professionalism of the US armed forces,” which implies US Central Command is allying itself away from Trump.
Remember that the Telegraph is the propaganda instrument that told us for years that Ukraine was defeating Russia.
Now, let us ask ourselves if the Strait of Hormuz is open and the US Central Command is in control of the situation why is Trump sending a third US aircraft carrier task force and 50,000 more US Marines? Why is Trump pressuring the French government to release its oil reserves to reduce the pressure on energy prices before the US midterm election? Why is Trump reportedly preparing or considering a large scale invasion of Iran?
If the Strait is open, what is the beef? Why does Trump want to expand the war by invading Iran or by using nuclear weapons? It makes no sense. If the strait is open, what is the conflict about?
Is it about those”Iranian nukes” that both the International Atomic Agency and US intelligence say are not being produced by Iran? How does Trump know more than these authorities? Is Netanyahu his source of information? Do Americans want their war policy and foreign policy determined by another country that uses America to grind its own axes?
Consider the situation from this standpoint. The Republicans who rallied to Trump are facing midterm elections in a situation where hard-pressed Americans have energy price concerns, where the electorate is opposed to Trump’s wars for Israel, and in which MAGA hats are missing. Futures markets have the ability to see hopeful developments that indicate lower energy prices in the future from the higher prices of today. A competent political machine will create a narrative in which the energy crunch is over when it is not.
This is achieved by announcements that the US is in control of the Strait of Hormuz.
I do not know, but from the information I have I suspect that the story that the Strait of Hormuz is completely open except to Iranian oil is a false narrative to keep energy prices from exploding prior to the US midterm elections.
Americans being the insouciant people they are do not well serve their independence and their country’s sovereignty. Their insouciance makes them easily led by the many rings in their noses to act in the interest of others instead of in their own interest, just as they submit to immigrant-invaders instead of defending their nationhood.
Without leaders Americans are a lost people.