By Ethan Indigo Smith

Contributing writer for Wake Up World

The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox… There will be no highlights on the eleven o’clock news… The revolution will not be right back after a message… The revolution will not go better with Coke… Because the revolution will not be televised. ~ Gil Scott Heron

Let’s face it, the mainstream media, like CNN, Fox News etc. are great at reporting on the surface understandings of surface issues; car accidents and plane crashes, shootings and robberies; as well as reinforcing why our latest foreign war is good/necessary/the only way to peace and security. But if you really want to investigate and comprehend what is actually going on in the world, and why, you have to go past the mainstream.

Just look at the countless global events being reported by the underground news and compare it to the selective, politically-biased fear-fare of the mainstream; there is little journalistic integrity on display in the mainstream media, just the regurgitation of B.S. And lots of it. Even the surface events reported in the mainstream are often filtered, distorted and even blatantly constructed by media corporations that conceal their corporate and political alliances behind the guise of “news”.

So, if you desire to go past the simplified “what, where and when” of a situation, to explore the deeper aspects of the “who, why, how”, it’s crucial to look beyond the mainstream for your information. And, including a list of 50 of the world’s best “alternative” news and information outlets, this article is going to help you do it…

The Paperclip Theory

No matter if it’s a situation of politic or esoteric significance, there are a lot of historical facts that go undiscussed in the mainstream. The ongoing nuclear disaster at Fukushima is a perfect example. If you believed the mainstream news, Fukushima stopped being an environmental disaster several years ago. But it didn’t. It is now approaching 6 years since the disaster began and it’s worsening by the day.

To the discerning mind, of course, this kind of omission opens a vacuum of new comprehension of old situations — that is to say, their omission raises a whole new ‘why’ of the ‘what’.

There are so many instances of this kind of white-washing in the mainstream media that the act itself, a cultural sleight of hand, deserves its own name and phraseology. I believe that the term Paperclip Theory is applicable. It’s as if there is an attachment to each story, paper-clipped to each “news” report, which outlines the real, whole story — the context that is not discussed and the agenda not disclosed on air.

Take for example the US space program. After World War 2, the U.S.A. imported as many as 1,500 Nazi scientists, technicians and engineers, as part of Operation Paperclip — and many of these would-be war criminals most famously became part of NASA (the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration). Nazi aerospace engineer Wernher von Braun, for example, was one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Nazi Germany, where he was also a member of theNazi Party and the paramilitary organization Schutzstaffel. Following WWII, he was brought to the US to develop the rockets that launched the first US space satellite (Explorer 1) and first series of manned lunar missions (Project Apollo). Since then NASA has been caught red-handed, distorting and doctoring its images before public release, and even faking ISS (International Space Station) footage.

That’s a bit of history you won’t see on television! And that’s how the Paperclip approach works. While the mainstream is quick to show footage of the latest rocket launch, garnering public support for the ongoing funding of NASA, the question of which other Nazi scientists ended up doing who-knows-what in the US space program, and to what end, is left to guesswork and research on websites through sources that are not part of the mainstream.

In the meantime, those of us who bother to follow the information trail are simply written off by the mainstream as “conspiracy theorists”… despite the blatant manipulation of the visual images we see on our TV screens, as outlined in the eye-opening article: Digital Deception – Can You Trust What You See?

Of course, the more one comprehends the more the seemingly nonsensical ways of the world, the more Paperclip Theories one encounters and the more things actually begin to make sense. But, if there is no understanding of the Paperclip Theory, of the story behind “the story”, then our understanding of the bigger picture is automatically limited in its focus and range. We become merely the observers of propaganda. The question then becomes, what is its purpose?

“We are in an information war and we are losing that war… and unfortunately we are paying a big price for it… We can’t allow ourselves to be out-communicated by our enemies… There is other information out there. There are other points of view and those points of view are profoundly damaging to a country that believes that its point of view is the only point of view.” ~ Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addresses a 2011 congressional committee, asking for additional funding to spread US propaganda through the “alternative” media.

As Hillary spelled out so clearly, the US and the powers that control it believe their point of view is “the only point of view”. With funding from the US congress, this kind of thinking can only facilitate government-biased propaganda not a considered analysis of world events, the players behind the scenes, or their motives.

Unfolding the Paperclip

The Paperclip Theory suggests there is an attached underlying file that accompanies the surface file attached by paperclip to their carefully crafted “public perception” files, just like the Nazi war-engineers of World War 2 had secondary files outlining what was really going when they were brought to the US to continue their work.

So why doesn’t the mainstream media conduct more investigative journalism, and look beyond the paperclip, rather than just reporting on what they’re told? Well, there is a Paperclip Theory there too! And you can begin your own investigative journalism in regards to the reporting practices of the mainstream news by looking into who owns the major media institutions. Today, 90% of American media is owned by just 6 companies, each with divested interests in a range of money-making activities, not just “news.”

Let’s take General Electric for example. The failed reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power facility catastrophe were designed by General Electric. Their design had been criticized as far back as 1972. The byproducts of their nuclear facilities have been fueling the nuclear arms industry for decades. GE also has a history of large-scale air and water pollution, with researchers at the Political Economy Research Institute listing the corporation as the fourth-largest corporate producer of air pollution in the United States. It is no wonder, then, that the Fukushima nuclear disaster and other environmental calamities in which GE has an active and profitable hand, are not reported by NBC or Comcast, the largest broadcasting and cable company in the world. Nor is it a surprise that GE’s colleagues at CBS, Time Warner and News Corp aren’t reporting on them either — the companies behind the mainstream media protect themselves by applying the philosophy “you don’t report on my dodgy dealings, and I won’t report on yours.”

Explains Andreas Toupadakis Ph.D, a former nuclear scientist for classified government nuclear programs, the story that is paperclipped to “the nuclear story” goes a little like this:

So why is the US government still advocating for nuclear energy? While the nuclear power plant is producing nuclear energy, it is also producing… plutonium at the same time, which can be used to make nuclear bombs. That is very important for people to realize. In the United States, the Department of Energy finances and manages the nuclear weapons programs. In reality the Department of Energy is basically the Department of Weapons… The building of nuclear power plants in the U.S. began in 1943 to produce atomic bombs — it was not until 1957 that plants began to produce electricity, providing a continuous supply of plutonium to the nuclear weapons programs.

With the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s, official production of nuclear materials solely for weapons use ceased in the United States, however US government policy and funding decisions since that time have actively encouraged the development of greater nuclear energy capacity which, of course, produces more plutonium waste for nuclear weapons development… If someone looks honestly at all of the facts, it is obvious that nuclear power fuels the nuclear bomb, which in turn fuels world domination.” ~ Andreas Toupadakis, Ph.D

So, while the mainstream media supports the false promotion of nuclear energy as “the future of green energy”, while it refuses to discuss the failures of the nuclear industry, and while it conceals the industry’s ties to government-led nuclear weapons development programs, it is clear — we need to look elsewhere for the real story…

Give Mainstream Propaganda the Flick

Even from these few examples, it becomes obvious that the mainstream corporate media has allegiances and agendas far beyond the presentation of fact. As a result, viewership of mainstream media has steadily declined over recent years. In its place, “alternative news” as it’s labeled by the mainstream (how can facts be considered “alternative”?) has risen in popularity, providing real news and views that go unheard of and unexamined in mainstream circles.

To help you on your search for the truth, I have assembled a list of 50 of the most compelling “alternative” media sources available online. Let’s start close to home