The U.S. mainstream, corporate-owned, capitalist-owned media is a major factor in building

consensus in the United States or attempting to build consensus and preparing the public

for major power conflict with Russia and China. Today we're going to talk about the role of the media.

We need a new system.

We need a new society.

We need to demand that which may have sounded impossible even a few weeks ago,

but is not only realizable, but an imperative necessity. Welcome to this week's episode of the Socialist Program.

I'm your host, Brian Becker.

Today I'm joined by my colleague Walter Smolerick.

Walter has been doing research on the capitalist-owned mainstream media

and its role in war preparations. We're going to talk about this. Here we are 20 years after the

U.S. invasion of Iraq coming up on March 19th, and there will be a major protest in Washington,

D.C. on March 18th, Saturday, March 18th, and in other cities,

marking that anniversary. But the U.S. war effort against Iraq, based on lies, based on deceiving the

public, a war that took the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, it could not have happened

the way it did happen without the role of the corporate-owned media.

And some of the main players in the media, the same ones who brought us the Iraq War, are helping to bring World War III if they can.

Walter Smilerick is our guest. Walter, welcome.

Very glad to be here.

Walter, let's get started. I mean, you've seen some of the media. You and I have been talking in the last couple of days. There's a sense of alarm in the media right now, and this

is what the American people in particular are reading, a sense of alarm about Ukraine.

Not that the war in Ukraine is about to end, but the sense is,

...