Media
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Media: Missile Defense Will Protect You From North Korea, Say USA Today’s Missile Defense-Funded Sources
The piece contains no sources at all substantiating the “N. Korean nuke threat”: “North Korea’s rapid march to develop a nuclear-armed ballistic missile capable of striking the United States” is simply asserted in the lead, and later on the claim that “North Korea may be only a year or so away” from having missiles that… Continue reading
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Media: While Attacks in Israel Make Headlines, Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza Ignored
The recent acute humanitarian crisis in Gaza—on top of the routine humanitarian crisis that defines everyday existence there—has gotten sparse coverage in US media over the past three weeks. Israeli officials have cut off electricity to almost 2 million Gazans for all but three or four hours a day—in conjunction with nominal Palestinian leader Mahmoud… Continue reading
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Mass Arrests of Protesters: Outrageous in Russia, Barely Worth Mentioning in US
Major media’s relative lack of interest in the mass arrests by Metro DC police on Inauguration Day is a fact noted by activists and journalists since the incident almost six months ago. One way to measure the dearth of coverage is to compare the attention paid to comparable protester arrests in Russia last month. Continue reading
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The Public Network By Dan Hind
If you’ve tried to access the BBC’s online TV and radio content from the UK recently you will have been asked to create a login profile. By tracking the behaviour of each profile the corporation will now be able to develop a far more detailed and sophisticated understanding of its audience. This is a structure… Continue reading
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An even worse version of the Link Tax now on the cards!
Crucial votes on the Link Tax are happening TOMORROW, and a major EU political party just u-turned to officially back this costly and reckless proposal. The European People’s Party (EPP) has decided to go all-in for the broadest, worst version of the Link Tax — which gives copyright ownership and the right to collect fees… Continue reading
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Audio: Vijay Prashad on Displaced People
Displaced people aren’t one story; they’re 65.9 million, according to the UN Refugee Agency. But it’s not just a story about individuals. What’s the connection between displacement and the so-called war on terror? Climate disruption? Poverty? On displacement, If you aren’t telling the big, interconnected story, you aren’t telling the story. Continue reading
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After 1,379 Days, NYT Corrects Bogus Claim Iran 'Sponsored' 9/11
In its reporting on a dubious lawsuit alleging Iranian meta-involvement in 9/11, the New York Times badly misunderstood the case and maintained for more than three years, in the paper of record, that the government of Iran “sponsored” the September 11, 2001, attacks. The belated correction, issued late Wednesday night on two widely spaced articles… Continue reading
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After 1,379 Days, NYT Corrects Bogus Claim Iran ‘Sponsored’ 9/11
In its reporting on a dubious lawsuit alleging Iranian meta-involvement in 9/11, the New York Times badly misunderstood the case and maintained for more than three years, in the paper of record, that the government of Iran “sponsored” the September 11, 2001, attacks. The belated correction, issued late Wednesday night on two widely spaced articles… Continue reading
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Should Media Expose Sources Who Lied to Them?
If an anonymous source knowingly and maliciously feeds a media outlet false information, should they continue to be granted anonymity? If media continue to protect the deceptive source’s identity, doesn’t that ensure the continuance of a disinformation conveyor belt? Continue reading
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Rachel Meeropol on Illegal Detentions, Dan Zukowski on Climate Disruption
30 June 2017 — FAIR MP3 Link This week on CounterSpin: After 9/11, hundreds of non-citizen Muslim, Arab and South Asian men should be locked up and treated as suspected terrorists, despite no evidence of terrorist connections. That policy came from the highest levels of government; that’s why a suit brought on behalf of some… Continue reading
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‘Let’s Get Back to Russia’: Media’s Interest in Narrowing the Trump Story
29 June 2017 — FAIR James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas released a heavily edited video on Tuesday that quoted CNN health producer John Bonifield expressing skepticism about his network’s priorities. Despite O’Keefe’s well-deserved reputation for sleaze, lies and deceptive editing, the video does show a continuous shot of Bonifield complaining about his network’s insistence on continually… Continue reading
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Corbyn Defied Media Rules by Linking UK Wars to Terrorism
29 June 2017 — FAIR When a terrorist killed 22 at a May 22 concert filled with young people in England’s Manchester, most journalists—especially US ones—assumed it would help the struggling Conservative Party and its standard-bearer, Prime Minister Theresa May, win the snap election she had called for June 8, just 17 days ahead. The… Continue reading
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‘Amazon Now Has Monopoly Power in Online Commerce’
27 June 2017 — FAIR Janine Jackson interviewed Stacy Mitchell about Amazon‘s bid to buy Whole Foods for the June 23, 2017, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript. Continue reading
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After US-Backed Bombing Sparks Famine in Yemen, WaPo Editor Insists ‘US Not the Problem’
Washington Post deputy editorial page editor Jackson Diehl took a massive, human rights-violating catastrophe—the US-assisted Saudi bombing of Yemen for the past two-and-a-half years, and the massive famine it’s caused—and somehow turned it into a write-up on how good and noble the United States is. Diehl cynically whitewashed the US’s role in the crisis and… Continue reading
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Media: When You Reject Class-Based Politics, ‘Thoughtful’ Appeals to Racism Are All You’ve Got Left
The axe Edsall is grinding is that politics no longer has to do with rich or poor, but is now a question of “globalism versus nationalism.” It’s a variation on his class-no-longer-matters argument, or class-matters-backwards-from-the-way-you’d-think-it-does, as in “How Did the Democrats Become Favorites of the Rich?” (New York Times, 10/7/15)—a piece I examined at the… Continue reading
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Media: Syria the Latest Case of US ‘Stumbling’ Into War?
One of the most common tropes in US media is that the US military always goes to war reluctantly—and, if there are negative consequences, like civilian deaths, it’s simply a matter of bumbling around without much plan or purpose. Continue reading
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Invisible Empire Beneath the Radar, Above Suspicion By Jason Hirthler
22 June 2017 — Counterpunch When the United States went to war with Spain in 1898, it did so in a media environment of “yellow journalism,” that played no small part in the advent of the Spanish-American War. Yellow journalism was basically the use of sensationalism and poorly researched reportage to stir up excitement and… Continue reading
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Media: To Defeat Transparency, NYPD Turns to Journalist-Turned-Cop-Turned-Journalist-Turned-Cop
Last week, the New York City Council held hearings on proposed legislation calling on the New York Police Department to be more transparent with how they surveil and spy on the public. Police officials, as they often do, proceeded to tell local lawmakers to get lost. Requests for more information and possibly a public comment… Continue reading
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Media Use Attack on Mosque to Smear Mosque
A 48-year-old white man rammed his van into a crowd of people outside an Islamic welfare center associated with the Finsbury Park Mosque, killing one and injuring up to ten. Immediately, the “context” trolls at major corporate media decided to jump in and began digging up dirt on the victims’ place of worship. Continue reading
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The West’s War on Free Speech: Selected Articles
7 June 2017 — Global Research Analysis of Top Secret NSA Report “Detailing Russian Hacking” By Eric Zuesse, June 06, 2017 The Intercept headlined on June 5th, “TOP-SECRET NSA REPORT DETAILS RUSSIAN HACKING EFFORT DAYS BEFORE 2016 ELECTION” and devoted 3,811 words to saying that America’s National Security Agency alleges that “a months-long Russian intelligence cyber effort against elements… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 