Information is like a trickle of pure water

In the context of the cognitive warfare that we Westerners have been living in for about ten years, information has become a weapon of mass destruction. Or rather, a weapon of massive deception.
  In a world where journalists are increasingly disappearing in favour of “information designers.” it is not surprising that information today is produced, formatted, packaged, and distributed like a package of ultra-processed ham in the supermarket. Even if the ham originally came from a real pig made of flesh and bone, the end-product no longer has much to do with the raw material. From its colour to its consistency, not to mention its taste, there is nothing natural about it anymore. It has become completely artificial. The wonders of packaging and marketing do the rest: At the end of the chain, the consumer is left paying for an adulterated product.
  The same applies to the information produced and sold by mainstream media. Its connection to reality has become very tenuous. The original ingredients, i.e., the facts, have been so thoroughly peeled, squeezed, cooked, re-cooked, and stuffed with preservatives, fragrances, colourings, flavourings, and flavour enhancers that the information delivered at the end of the journalistic production chain has only a very distant connection to the authenticity and truth of the original material – to events, to “what happened.” As in the food industry, this processing and repackaging takes place in the utmost secrecy and is hidden from the eyes of the consuming public.
  In this parallel world, honest journalists and media outlets that try to restore the facts and analyse them as objectively and impartially as possible have no chance of prevailing, as all official private and public media outlets spread the same bland mush. And if they did manage to do so, they would be mercilessly pursued by the bounty hunters that fact-checkers and other “verification bodies” have become.
  In France, the Macron government has not given up on reintroducing the conformity label – the French president’s proposed system to certify media deemed trustworthy – that it was unable to enforce during the Covid crisis. Private media are not standing idly by either, joining forces under banners that are as deceptive as they are hypocritical to ensure the unanimous dissemination of the Good Word. These undertakings include the Trusted News Initiative, launched by the BBC in 2019, the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), launched in 2015 by the Poynter Institute, and the Trust Project, funded since 2014 by various American foundations to combat “disinformation,” “racial hatred,” or “anti-Semitism” and which, in practice, aim to ensure that partner media outlets align with NATO’s position on Ukraine, Israel’s on Palestine, or Taiwan’s on China.
  Journalists who want to escape the steamroller of mainstream media are therefore condemned to conform to survive, or to vegetate on the margins of the system, using the few resources available or contenting themselves with expressing their views for free on social networks. From Telegram to WeChat, from Substack to X, or via the countless blogs and portals that populate the internet, to radio and television stations in non-Western countries – all these media can be used, but readers and viewers do not pay for them, and, it follows directly, those contributing to them are very frequently not compensated for their work.
  However, these marginal voices, these thankless efforts, save the honour of the information system. They are like drops that gradually form a trickle, then a stream, then a river, which eventually prevails in the public landscape and shapes the consciousness of those who live in it.
  We should not underestimate the power of trickles: Water penetrates everywhere, eventually eroding even the hardest rocks and inevitably finding its way to the ocean of truth. This, at least, is what independent journalists who may at times doubt that they have chosen the right path should tell themselves. Faith is stronger than the law of large numbers.
  Numerous examples show that this strategy works. Take the example of Gaza and Israel. For months, it was impossible in our countries to talk about Palestine, the suffering of the people in Gaza, the destruction, the famine, the massacres, etc. Then, little by little, a wave arose that finally broke down the dams erected by Israeli propaganda.
  Sooner or later, the same will happen with other conflicts – in Ukraine, in Sudan, in Iran, in Taiwan, in Congo. Information is like water; it requires patience and flows slowly, underground. It is tedious, unspectacular work, and the rewards are slow in coming. But they come, and the effort is worth it. •

(Translation Current Concerns)

* Guy Mettan is a political scientist, freelance journalist, and author. He began his journalistic career in 1980 at the “Tribune de Genève”, where he was director and editor-in-chief from 1992 to 1998. From 1997 to 2020, he was director of the Swiss Press Club in Geneva. He has been a member of the Grand Council of Geneva for 25 years.