"A truth that's told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent" - William Blake

Many years ago William Blake warned against the false security of relying upon the facts presented by those of bad intent. Though governments, authorities and the media may insist upon the accuracy of their facts, they fail to mention that the facts they have chosen to highlight are not the whole picture.

Merely assembling a collection of facts does not automatically make it the "truth". Often what has been left out is more important than what can be seen. Facts can be used to mislead. One of the warning signs is a relentless onslaught of the same "facts" over and over. This is where fact can crossover into propaganda. For it is not the fact itself which is incorrect but the proportion of the coverage.

Today US intelligence is accusing Russia of unduly influencing the outcome of US elections. They have cited "Russia Today" as one of the vehicles for the dissemination of propaganda. But what they have failed to mention is that the Media Industrial Complex has been disseminating propaganda and unduly influencing the outcome of US elections for years.

We might accept this if those running the media war machine were patriotic Americans. But the entire mainstream media today is in the hands of just a few multi-national corporations. Those behind them are so rich and powerful that they have no allegiance to borders or nationality. These people own property all across the globe. They hold multiple passports. Their children are educated abroad. The entire world is their oyster and they aim to shape it as they see fit.

Far from decrying the propaganda from other nations we should embrace the wider perspective it provides us. For it is only when we can see the bigger picture that we can ever hope to get closer to the truth.