Just Because it Comes From Alternative Media Doesn’t Make it Trustworthy
The following is my personal opinion, backed with links to various sources to back it up. Please use your own judgement and do you own research in all such matters. – Jack
My favorite yellow journalist Mike Adams of Natural News is at it again. He has now apparently gone from misleading headlines with semi accurate reporting to full on bullshit. What I am about to explain is exactly why I refuse to use Natural News as a source site, even when I find them to be accurate on a specific subject from time to time.
Mike has published a lot of misleading crap in the past like his article claiming that “Oregon Criminalized Permaculture“, which was actually over water rights. In that case the land owner didn’t have rights to impound the water and KNEW SO when he bought the land because it was in a federal water shed. Again he knew this when he bought it. You guys know me, I feel it is your land so it is your water but when you buy land without water rights, well, you can’t just do as you please and not expect the man to come down on you.
If you follow the link to the story above you will see Mike’s subtitle for the story delved into even bigger bullshit. At least though the article that followed while misleading was technically accurate.
Now though the so called “Health Ranger” has gone from simple sensational headlines and misleading images with basically accurate reporting about the actual issue to full on steaming bullshit.
Making the rounds right now is a new article titled
When this was sent to me today by a listener who knew it was bullshit I decided to at least see if there were any facts behind it. Again often when Adams reports on something the underlying components can be researched and vetted via other sources. So I decided to give this a fair shake. I went to the above linked article and on and on Mike goes about two things,
1. A Video that is Supposed to be a Leaked Pentagon Video
2. A Secrete Leaked Document
I hit play on the video and then opened this super secrete leaked document that you can see here while the video played in the background. The document is titled simply “Quarterly Funvax Review”. Seems to be quite official as a few names and places are redacted with a sharpie marker (we all know that is how government redacts a document right).
Anyway as I am listening to the guy in the video drone on about how this FunVax is a “fundamentalist vaccine” designed I shit you not to cure you overly religious types from your attachment to your faith and correct your wacky god gene (called V-Mat2). Yep see they are going to spray this crap on you and cure you of your Jesus, Allah, God addiction. The thing is I can’t help but notice this leaked document, ain’t quite so official looking.
Like many of you I have seen my share of leaked documents. Also as a solider and later as a contractor working for a company that built things for the government I saw my share of official documents that were not leaked. There are always symbols of authority, threats as to what happens if you do leak them, (better not or else type stuff), department names, etc. Not this super secrete pentagon document, hell no, not a department, not a single confidential notice, nadda, nothing. Looks like something I just typed up myself and printed on my home computer.
At this point I already know this is a scam so back to the video. You can see the video here. I rewound it to be sure in my distracted scanning of the document that I was hearing it right. Yep according to this video you God people have a wacky gene and they have a virus to cure you of your nuttiness and they are going to spray it all over the place, likely in contrails from 747s flying your grandma to Seattle. Though the main focus at this time is spraying the crazy Arab terrorists in the middle east. You know peace though chem-trails type of thing.
Despite how stupid this sounds what really gets me is FunVax, really this super secrete pentagon thing isn’t called something cool like DUFUS359, no they call it FunVax. But hey it has to be official it has a capital letter in the middle right? So I muster the maximum capability of my googlefu (I guess Mike just isn’t as skilled a researcher as I am) and type dun dun dunnnn…., FunVax into goggle, making sure to use a capital F and V of course. And I find this article debunking the entire thing a few years ago. Like as in from 2011!
Turns out those scary brain scans in the video that is supposed to be from 2005 are actually from an article in Neurology.com from 2010, (little problem with the time line there don’t ya think) and get this they are of a 43 year old METH ADDICT. Yep, ya just can’t make shit like this up, or I guess in the case of Natural News, ya can.
Now look I have made mistakes myself in reporting some stuff in the past but I also fix them, admit them and don’t claim to be a journalist, just a podcaster. I am sorry but I don’t think if you are doing an article on FunVax you don’t at least drop it into Google and check it out! The article debunking it by the way is the FIRST result.
Now do I believe that our government would poison us, hell yes, in fact I believe they do. Do I think they are doing any actual aerial spraying anywhere in the world, sure. Hell we have admissions by government that they have done so. But let me tell you, it isn’t being done with passenger planes taking your aunt Sue to Philadelphia and most of the pictures posted as so called proof, are nothing but contrails. In any event when it comes to the real problems in the world sensationalist crap like this, doesn’t help those of us truly trying to inform others.
Additionally I want to close with two things. The above gives me no pleasure. I wish Adams would do the hard hitting, accurate and non sensationalized journalism I know he is capable of. But I guess selling to the bottom level is too tempting. I don’t regularly make a habit of writing articles like this and pointing out the outright bullshit by other members of alternative media, but here, it did need to be done. Mike has been informed of the debunking in his comments and has not responded. I expect those comments to be deleted soon, that does seem to be their M.O. after all.
The last thing is please vet stuff when it just sounds a bit too nutty. 95% of the memes about everyone from George Bush to Barack Obama I see on facebook never pass 30 seconds of googling to be found as fake.
While I have no love for our current president, the last one I saw on him was supposedly him along with Michelle at a black panther rally. I did a reverse image search and it turned out to be a photo from the presidents own inauguration. When I pointed this out to the commenters on the photo who were just going ape about how terrible it was, I was attacked and told it didn’t matter, Obama must still be a black panther, the picture says so.
The truth is we now live in a world where anyone can publish anything and make it look real. That is great in a way, I believe we now know more of the truth than anytime in history. Yet please understand with all freedoms, powers and rights come corresponding responsibilities. And the responsibility is not just with those of us who publish the information, it also lies with those of us who consume and distribute it.
This would make a good Jack rant YouTube vid. Man I love those.
+1 … I want to see a Jack rant video
Bravo! I can’t agree more!
I find it amusing how quickly people believe whats represented in an image … even though photoshop can do some fantastically amazing things in the right hands.
Yea I mean that video has the text,
Loc: Pent Rm BC232
That is VERY official and no one short of Steven Spielberg could muster the super special effects to make it look that way right?
Pent man when you see Pent you just know it has to be from the Pentagon, not just anyone can type those four letters in that order can they.
Sigh
Mike Adams was not this bad years ago when I got useful info from is site in about 2006. He’s gone downhill probably swayed by the almighty monetary interests of reporting like Alex Jones.
Indeed when I started TSP I found his work worthy of inclusion. It was when I looked into advertising there I began to see his true nature. Do you know Mr. Health Ranger who takes tactical training and is supposed to be a big 2nd amendment advocate won’t take any advertiser that sells or even MENTIONS guns.
Hate to crawl around in the mud when it comes to stuff like this, but I can back up these criticisms of Mike Adams.
Back when I used to work occasionally as a freelance journalist I saw Mike Adams basically steal work from several other writers, particularly from alternative health websites. One writer told me her article had been reformatted and copy/pasted almost word for word at Mike Adams’ website. He or his site editor had taken her article, changed a few words and the article title, and then posted it as their own material. They never mentioned her for credit on the piece, claiming it as their own. We all know what doing that is called. Starts with a P. After doing some digging, she found several other ‘original news pieces’ on his site that had originated from other, smaller alternative news sites. He was pretty much just stealing work from other people and slapping his name on the front page. Low blow stuff in the journalism world.
The guy’s a charlatan and a media attention seeker. His close ties with Alex Jones and the infowars hype machine are apparent. Their whole network is based on poor sourcing and headline grabbing. They sell fear and ignorance and they don’t care about fact checking, investigation, or objectivity. They’ll say just about anything to end up on Drudge or Huffington Post. Not to say that everything they post are lies, but one must do a BS check before diving into those news stories. Much of it is at tabloid magazine level.
Thanks, I don’t think it is getting in the mud by the way to simply speak the truth, do so well and accurately and letting that stand.
Mike Adams actually did exactly what you’ve indicated to one my articles. To this day it is my most popular article on my health related website. Mike or one of his stealing trolls must have found it, and then went ahead and reprinted large parts of it without my permission. Of course assclown Adams made it sound like it was all his info. Problem was because of my background in criminal investigations, I was the only one who could have provided the details for this article, not that idiot. I confronted him via e-mail and commented on the article and they just blew me off. His articles are getting more outrageous everyday, he is just a loser trying to make money off the people who don’t know better. Everything he does is based on pimping crappy affiliate products and his own.
I guess I should publicly tell people what the coward told me in an email. My concern is the prick would sue me because he specifically said it was to be in confidence, yet I never agreed to that. I ask that and then spoke in a single email.
Oh please share 🙂
Well, sadly, Mike Adams is just another bi-product of his age. This is all a hi-tech version of a media carnival, with industry factions trying to out-headline each other for ad revenue and viewership. You throw in planet sized egos and a healthy dose of paranoia, and you have a recipe for disaster. There is so much infighting and sabotage going on behind the scenes in alternative media… it’s just disgusting. I’ve seen several articles and youtube videos posted by people that claimed the radio network I was part of was funded by Israel, that worked for the CIA, that we were all Federal agents working to undermine the liberty movement, etc. It only gets weirder from there. I wouldn’t be surprised to know that someone out there accused me of being a shape shifting lizard.
That’s why I respect your work, Jack. I don’t always agree with you, but you don’t say or post anything without at least looking into it first, or at least making the statement that it’s just your opinion, or that the issue is still undecided. That’s the difference in media objectivity. People like Mike Adams and Alex Jones blow hard and loudly and claim that everything out of their mouth is scientific fact, and that is patently untrue. It’s also sad to me to see so many people on the internet regurgitating those attention-grabbing news pieces without doing their own research first. We’re living in times of ‘feeling’ intelligence rather than ‘thinking’ intelligence.
FWIW here are a few things I have been accused of being over the years.
A CIA Agent
A CIA Plant
A CIA Shill
A Tool of Homeland Security (to make preppers expose themselves)
A Big Oil Shill
On Payroll with Shell Oil
A Communist/Socialist
A Doomsday Merchant
A Government Plant Specifically to Counter Alex Jones (who tells the truth by the way)
A Terrorist
A Republican Shill
A Rush Limbaugh Want a Be
A Right Wing Shill
A Left Wing Apologist
An Asset of the CIA (forgot that one almost)
A Religious Zealot (this is particularly amusing)
A Fear Merchant
I am sure I am leaving a few out. This all makes me feel great by the way.
“To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.” ~Aristotle
Thank you, Jack, for the usual spot-on insight. I have first-hand experience seeing this on a local level. I have a friend that offers a series of preparedness classes at a local store. Some are good, where others are, well, let’s say quite questionable.
Just last fall, he conducted a class on how the Ebola outbreak was going to result in the government taking everything we have. His source was one of these web sites that are the result of a lot of conspiracy theory mental masturbation exercises. The epidemic was supposed to result in a massive apocalypse and collapse of the U.S. by the end of 2014.
It was all I could do to keep from standing up and screaming, “BULLSHIT!” I did repeat it several times quietly to my wife sitting next to me. I was annoying several attendees who were gleefully drinking the kool-aid around me.
After the class, several of us wandered over to a nearby restaurant for coffee. This friend happened to join us where I did let him know of my dissapointment in the subject matter. I asked if he had done any fact checking. I knew the answer, and he responded with the expected, “No.”
What I have discovered when these outlandish stories are published, the authors generally have something to sell. The night of this class, the store had set up a group buy for some medical supplies. They were creating a problem and selling a solution. This is a tactic of mega-corporations and evidently it is used by the small-fish, as well. Caveat emptor.
Oh wow you just made me remember another of Adams’ bullshit claims. That the rate of ebola was going to double every month or some such shit. Can’t find that article, I wonder if it was so f-d up and now proven so wrong that he took it down.
Crap like this does need to be brought out and shown for what it really is: crap. Good for you Jack!
Love the show!
Jack, I found your site through Glen Tate’s books. All I can say is thank God!
I visit your site daily to read and listen to your podcasts because I’ve read so much fear mongering on other sites that I was getting seriously stressed out. I love that you call bullshit when you see it and that you approach prepping in a balanced way.
Your site and podcasts give me hope! Thank you.
Jack,
You just fell into his trap! The google result you read is a false flag planted by the Pentagon to make you *think* the FunVax is a hoax… in the meantime, millions, no, billions could have been warned before they turn into secular zombies… way to go…
Yes! This article really needed to be called out. I used to follow natural news every day years ago. He got me interested in natural health and trying to heal the root causes of disease. Back then, he was more about natural health and natural living and less about fear mongering. Now, I cannot stand to even look at his headlines. Like others have said, he is trying to be too much like Alex Jones and he’s really bad at math and numbers. I remember when an autism study came out of Atlanta last year or a couple years ago saying that African American children were more likely to get autism from vaccines and his article totally misled people on the numbers from the study. It was basic math and he still couldn’t get it right! He hypes up the Fukushima radiation and then conveniently comes out with his own super special supplement that supposedly detoxes radiation better than anything on the market. I don’t know…some of the products he sells are nice like the organic freeze dried products, but I’ve also found those products elsewhere. He just seems like a greedy misleading writer trying to gain advertisers and viewers like another commenter said above.
That’s why TSP is so refreshing, Jack. You talk about what we can do as individuals to change our world. You don’t scare us with things we can’t control and you constantly tell us to only focus our energy on things we can control. That message gives me more hope than any politician or celebrity or whatever. I have control over my life as well as what I choose to listen to and believe.
So Jack, you said, “Obama must still be a black panther.” I couldn’t agree more…
Calm down, I’m just kidding.
Great post. Thank you for it.
You mentioned that the government has, by their own admission, sprayed chemicals and such on people. Just curious now, when and where and what did they spray? Other than agent orange and DDT. Or was that it?
I remember the government coming out and admitting that they had sprayed a chemical that caused sterility on the Guatemalan people. I would estimate that the story broke in 2006.
That is one example. Another is they openly admit to doing various “experiments” right now about “fighting climate change”. This is reportedly done over unpopulated ares and on a limited basis. The story is that it is only experimental and done very “small scale” to determine viability of using this technology in the future should the need arise.
Frankly I feel saying you are spraying such things high in our atmosphere over unpopulated areas is like creating a small area of a public pool for people to pee in and calling the non peeing section pee free.
Not a “spraying” incident and it wasn’t on American citizens, but this story came to mind: French bread spiked with LSD in CIA experiment
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/7415082/French-bread-spiked-with-LSD-in-CIA-experiment.html