The CW network, Pentagon shill, debuts latest propaganda show—VALOR

Saluting the flag

VALOR, a new show making its debut on the CW network, stinks, one more idiotic, formulaic show glorifying "our heroes"—the people who serve, usually out of economic duress or complete ignorance about the goals of US foreign policy, in the military. These shows —a staple of US television by now—are transparent malicious propaganda, except to their targets, the clueless American population who still believe in the goodness of their country. As such, this latest entry also aims to create support for our endless imperialist wars that benefit no one except the 0.00001% who own everything worth owning. That, of course, won't keep it from accomplishing its propaganda mission (besides making oodles of money for the tv network).  By the way, it bears repeating: None of this is accidental. Let us recall that as they sit atop a nation fractured by grotesque social inequality and a lawless, out of control global empire constantly struggling to maintain its global supremacy, the US ruling class needs to militarise and normalise the militarisation of the American mind. This kind of proliferating noxious programming is the result.

What the hell is the CW?

Probably you never heard of the CW. Neither did I, until recently. It turns out it is a fusion of two media giants, CBS and Time Warner. This is what the Wiki says about it:

The CW Television Network (commonly referred to as just The CW) is an American English-language broadcast television network that is operated by The CW Network, LLC, a limited liability joint venture^[1] between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network (UPN), and Warner Bros. Entertainment, a division of Time Warner, former majority owner of The WB Television Network. The "CW" name is an abbreviation derived from the first letters of the names of its two parent corporations (CBS and Warner Bros.).

The network made its debut on September 18, 2006, after its two predecessors, UPN and The WB, respectively ceased independent operations on September 15 and 17 of that year. The CW's first two nights of programming – on September 18 and 19, 2006 – consisted of reruns and launch-related specials. The CW marked its formal launch date on September 20, 2006, with the two-hour premiere of the seventh cycle of America's Next Top Model. Originally, the network's programming lineup was intended to appeal mainly to women between the ages of 18 and 34,^[3] although starting in 2011 the network increased in programming that appeal to men.^[4] As of August 2017, the CW's audience is 50% male and 50% female.^[5] The network currently runs programming six days a week: airing Monday through Fridays in the afternoon and in prime time, along with a Saturday morning live-action educational programming block produced by Litton Entertainment called One Magnificent Morning.

Who's responsible for this underhanded indoctrination? The same media vermin behind CBS and Time Warner, the key people in this case being: 

• The CW Network, LLC^[1]
• (CBS Corporation 50%/Warner Bros. 50%)

• Mark Pedowitz (President)
• Kevin Tsujihara (Chairman/CEO, Warner Bros.)
• Leslie Moonves (Chairman/President/CEO, CBS Corporation)

Personally I think most of their regular programming, besides reruns and retreads is worse than substandard, but that means little in a landscape of mainstream television long strewn with toxic garbage, warmongering and idiotic escapism. That said, Litton's educational segment, focusing on animals and science is often uplifting and well worth watching.

In the New York City market, one of the largest for the CW, the network airs chiefly through WPIX, connected to an old reactionary media company, onetime publisher of the pseudo populist Daily News (Tribune Media). This in turn provokes the question about who is Tribune Media? Well, another conglomerate.

Tribune Media, also known as Tribune Media Company and formerly known as the Tribune Company, is an American conglomerate  headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, United States. A significant amount of the stock of publicly traded Tribune is held by three firms that were the company's senior debt holders: Oaktree Capital Management (which owns a 23% interest), Angelo, Gordon & Co. and JPMorgan Chase (which both own 9%).^[1][2] Tribune announced its sale to Hunt Valley, Maryland-based conglomerate Sinclair Broadcast Group on May 8, 2017 (the deal is expected to receive FCC approval sometime in the 4th quarter of 2017).

Through Tribune Broadcasting, Tribune Media is one of the largest television broadcasting companies, owning 39 television stations across the United States and operating three additional stations through local marketing agreements; it also owns national basic cable channel/superstation WGN America, regional cable news channel Chicagoland Television (CLTV) and Chicago radio station WGN. Investment interests include the Food Network (which the company maintains a 31% ownership interest).

Prior to the August 2014 spin-off of the company's publishing division into Tribune Publishing (now called Tronc, Inc.), Tribune Media was the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher (behind the Gannett Company), with ten daily newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Orlando Sentinel, Sun-Sentinel and The Baltimore Sun, and several commuter tabloids.

It is probably of some historical significance that the Tribune TV empire sprang (as is the case with other media conglomerates) from an older, more traditional medium, in this case the Chicago Tribune, long a bastion of Midwest reactionary nativism. Founded in 1847,

By late 1853, it was frequently running xenophobic editorials that criticized foreigners and Roman Catholics.^[6] About this time it also became a strong proponent of temperance.^[7] However nativist its editorials may have been, it was not until February 10, 1855 that the Tribune formally affiliated itself with the nativist American or Know Nothing party, whose candidate Levi Boone was elected Mayor of Chicago the following month.^[8]

Eventually, the paper came under the influence of another notorious reactionary.

Under the 20th-century editorship of Colonel Robert R. McCormick, who took control in the 1920s, the paper was strongly isolationist and aligned with the Old Right in its coverage of political news and social trends. It used the motto "The American Paper for Americans". Through the 1930s to the 1950s, it excoriated the Democrats and the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt, was resolutely disdainful of the British and French, and greatly enthusiastic for Chiang Kai-shek and Sen. Joseph McCarthy. (Wikipedia)

It is worth noting that McCormick was far from the exception in the US media landscape of the time. Henry Luce, who birthed the Time/Life empire entertained almost identical views, especially toward China, a country he arrogantly viewed almost proprietarily.

OK, so you get the drift. We're talking major, deeply integrated media interests, with a long history of ultra-conservative and imperialist mentality, all representing huge fortunes and common class oligarchic interests—which at this point (as usual) guarantee endless wars and the exploitation of everything and everyone possible. Short of a revolutionary reset or unexpected cataclysmic event, this nifty lopsided arrangement is liable to go on unchallenged for an indefinite time.

That's the beauty of the American propaganda system, its privatisation has bought it invisibility. No telltale, obvious state-directed radio and media a la Goebbels. The US model controls people's minds so effectively that even after a disaster of gobsmacking magnitude, we can aver the survivors will likely put the pieces together following the social and economic DNA of the very system that triggered the catastrophe. In other words, while capitalism very likely will destroy the world and America, any surviving Americans will instinctively reconstruct their lives using the capitalist templates they were indoctrinated with.  That's all they have known, all their lives. The overwhelming messages, coming at them from every angle, 24/7, have stunted if not entirely destroyed their political imagination. Libertarianism looks natural to them; in fact an old argument in defence of capitalism claims that human nature is inherently capitalistic. Thus, in their logic, after capitalism, only more and better capitalism. The end of ideology as once peddled by the empire's apologists. Depressing thought indeed.

But I digress. Recently, a page on the WPIX/CW website ran some puffery for VALOR.

The cast of the CW`s new military are ready for take off, and tonight we get to check out the first episode when it premieres at 9 p.m. right here on PIX11.

But before their big night, Matt Barr and Christina Ochoa got to give WPIX11’s Ojinika Obiekwe a preview of their show — and it was clear to see that Matt, Christina and Oji were all on the same wave length.

Watch and see why…

Hitler would have been delighted. You can bank on that.
—PG