Media
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Google is intensifying its censorship of left-wing web sites
The world’s biggest corporations like Google, Facebook, and Amazon are intensifying efforts to block internet users from accessing left-wing web sites like the World Socialist Web Site. Continue reading
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NYT Lets Think Tank Funded by Gov't and Arms Industry Claim Huge US Military Budget Isn't Huge Enough
The New York Times (9/18/17) gave an enormous platform to a hawkish think tank that is funded by the US government and by top weapons corporations, letting it absurdly claim, without any pushback, that the gargantuan US military—by far the largest in the world—has been “underfunded.” Continue reading
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'The World May Conclude the US Is No Longer Capable of Diplomacy'
Janine Jackson interviewed Murtaza Hussain about attempts to undermine the Iran nuclear deal for the September 15, 2017, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript. Continue reading
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Media’s Instinct to Rehabilitate the Powerful Has Not Changed Under Trump
When Stephen Colbert introduced a surprise guest at the end of his Emmys opening monologue on Sunday night, the audience didn’t seem to expect to see former Trump administration press secretary Sean Spicer. The Late Night host shocked most of the crowd—Veep actress Anna Chlumsky was particularly amazed—with the selection of one of comedy’s favorite… Continue reading
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Media: 'Climate Change Is Making These Facilities Even More Dangerous'
Janine Jackson interviewed Shaye Wolf about Hurricane Harvey’s toxic aftermath for the September 8, 2017, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript. Continue reading
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Media: ‘Climate Change Is Making These Facilities Even More Dangerous’
Janine Jackson interviewed Shaye Wolf about Hurricane Harvey’s toxic aftermath for the September 8, 2017, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript. Continue reading
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Murdoch-Owned Media's Radical Climate Denial in the Face of Disaster
Outlets owned by Murdoch’s umbrella corporations, News Corp and 21st Century Fox, clearly led the denialist camp. These firms constitute the core propaganda machine of the right in the English-speaking world, with the highest-rated cable news network (Fox News) and the first and sixth biggest-circulation newspapers (Wall Street Journal, New York Post) in the United… Continue reading
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Murdoch-Owned Media’s Radical Climate Denial in the Face of Disaster
Outlets owned by Murdoch’s umbrella corporations, News Corp and 21st Century Fox, clearly led the denialist camp. These firms constitute the core propaganda machine of the right in the English-speaking world, with the highest-rated cable news network (Fox News) and the first and sixth biggest-circulation newspapers (Wall Street Journal, New York Post) in the United… Continue reading
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In Month After Charlottesville, Papers Spent as Much Time Condemning Anti-Nazis as Nazis
Members of the antifa movement “are no different from neo-Nazis,” wrote Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen (8/30/17). “Both practice violence and preach hate. They are morally indistinguishable.” The “both sides” frame—which was employed by Donald Trump in the wake of the attack, and endorsed by white supremacist David Duke—was almost always used a vehicle to… Continue reading
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CNN Celebrates ‘Joy’ of McCain a Day After His Genocidal Threat
Professional truth-teller and self-appointed Russian counter-propagandist Jake Tapper had Arizona Sen. John McCain on his State of Union show (CNN, 9/10/17) for a chummy interview Sunday night. The interview began with Tapper lobbing softballs at McCain about his mortality and reminiscing about buddying up on the 2000 campaign trail (Tapper was, according to his then-editor… Continue reading
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How Media Obscure US/Saudi Responsibility for Killing Yemeni Civilians
A coalition of Saudi Arabia, the United States, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates, with minor support from several other Middle Eastern nations, has relentlessly bombed Yemen since March 2015. This August, the coalition ramped up the ferocity of its airstrikes, killing dozens of civilians. Major Western media outlets have, however, obscured the… Continue reading
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NYT Only the Latest Corporate Media Outlet to Give Free Publicity to Mercenary Profiteer
The New York Times (8/30/17) decided to turn over a large chunk of the most precious opinion space in the English-speaking world to mercenary entrepreneur Erik Prince, so he could promote his plan to privatize and profit from the US occupation of Afghanistan. Continue reading
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‘Media’s First Instinct Is to Strip Ideology From the Conversation’
Janine Jackson: The spectre of white supremacists marching with guns and torches, throwing KKK salutes, and screaming about Jews and Commies is a test for Americans, individually and institutionally, and we’re still seeing how various folks are responding. One of the primary institutions that should be asking themselves some questions right now are corporate media. Continue reading
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Trump ‘Presidential’ Again–for Ramping Up War in Afghanistan
Foreign Policy‘s Paul Miller (8/22/17) liked the speech in part because “Trump said ‘win’ and ‘victory’ more times in 15 minutes than President Barack Obama did in eight years.” Donald Trump is finally “presidential” again, pundits insist, now that he is ratcheting up another US war. Continue reading
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Video: How the World May End – John Pilger on Venezuela, Trump & Russia
12 August 2017 — Youtube Must Watch! In this season’s finale, we speak to John Pilger about the mainstream media pushing for a coup in Venezuela, the Labour Party’s division on #CorbynMustCondemn, UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia and US-Russia relations. Continue reading
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Media: Centrist Pundits Paved Way for Trump’s ‘Alt-Left’ False Equivalence
President Donald Trump sparked outrage Tuesday afternoon after he equated Nazis and counter-protesters in Charlottesville. To do so, he referred to the anti-racist activists as the “alt-left,” with the implication that they were the equivalent of the “alt-right,” two sides to the same coin, showing there was, in his words, evil “on both sides.” Continue reading
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For Media, Driving Into a Crowd of Protesters Is a ‘Clash’
The BBC’s breaking news tweet, “One dead amid clashes between US white nationalists and counter-protesters in Charlottesville,” is an extremely odd way to describe a person driving a car into a crowd of anti-fascist protesters—as was AOL’s “1 Dead, 34 Injured in Clashes at Virginia Rally.” Continue reading
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Conspiracies Pushed by Atlantic’s Editor Excluded From Atlantic’s Denunciation of Conspiracy Theories
Which “conspiracy theories” the media decide to care about and which they don’t is largely a function of who is advancing those conspiracy theories, and whose interests they serve. The Atlantic (9/17) published a 12,000-word cover story by Kurt Andersen on the history of conspiracies and “crazy” ideas. In exploring how “America lost its mind,”… Continue reading
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Remembering the Gulf of Tonkin, and the Consequences of Wanting to Believe
The front page of that day’s New York Times reported: “President Johnson has ordered retaliatory action against gunboats and ‘certain supporting facilities in North Vietnam’ after renewed attacks against American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.” Of course, as historians now acknowledge, there was no “second attack” by North Vietnam—no “renewed attacks against American destroyers.” Continue reading
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Media’s Grim Addiction to Perseverance Porn
3 July 2017 — FAIR You’ve seen or heard or read the personal interest story a thousand times: An enterprising seven-year-old collects cans to save for college (ABC7, 2/8/17), a man with unmatched moxie walks 15 miles to his job (Today’s Show, 2/20/17), a low-wage worker buys shoes for a kid whose mother can’t afford Continue reading
The New Dark Age 