White House Caught Red-Handed: Altered Image Reveals Desperate Smear Tactics
📰 THE STORY: The Independent's 'FACT FOCUS' piece details how the White House shared an altered image to mischaracterize the arrest of civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong during an anti-immigration enforcement protest in Minnesota, labeling it misinformation. 🔍 WHAT THEY'RE NOT TELLING YOU: Historical Context: Government-produced disinformation and propaganda using altered images or
narratives is not new. In the 1960s, COINTELPRO (short for Counter Intelligence Program) by the FBI extensively used disinformation, forged letters, and manipulated media to discredit and neutralize civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., often painting legitimate dissent as subversive or dangerous. This tactic resurfaced during the Black Lives Matter protests where peaceful
demonstrations were routinely framed as violent riots by state actors and sympathetic media, often with selectively edited or out-of-context footage. Double Standard: When governments officially sanctioned by the US, like Israel's, are caught using digitally altered photos or fabricating justifications for military actions – such as falsely claiming Palestinian militants operated from specific
civilian sites – mainstream Western media often frames it as an 'intelligence mistake' or 'propaganda war.' However, when such a tactic is used by an adversarial or domestic administration the media wants to discredit, it becomes a 'fact focus' exposé, exposing a clear bias in how digital manipulation is reported based on political alignment. Follow the Money: The underlying agenda of discrediting