The role of mainstream media in the West to shield the public from the realities of Israeli occupation is legendary. Occasionally there is a breakthrough, such as this 2010 piece on American 60 Minutes on East Jerusalem. Yesterday the same program and the same reporter, Bob Simon, returned to the subject and covered Christians leaving…
Showing all posts tagged mainstream media
This is what military contractors think of journalism in the US
A disturbing story that reveals the danger real journalism poses to the vulture capitalists in our “democracies”: A USA TODAY reporter and editor investigating Pentagon propaganda contractors have themselves been subjected to a propaganda campaign of sorts, waged on the Internet through a series of bogus websites. Fake Twitter and Facebook accounts have been created…
First Julian Assange TV interview is with Hizbollah leader
A brave first call. Julian Assange speaks to Hassan Nasrallah and doesn’t take the position, as so much of the corporate media, that he’s one of the world’s greatest terrorists (which he clearly is not). They discuss Syria, Assad, Israel, Palestine, religion, God, technology, Wikileaks and the US. Assange could be more forceful with his…
Why Assange wants to host his own talk-show
I like the fact that somebody, without the typical media background, can host a program and not subscribe to the usual mainstream media obsessions:
Another mining company that isn’t helping people prosper
Early this year I visited Papua New Guinea to investigate the exploitation of resources by Western multinationals under the guise of development. Tragically, similar things are happening across the world, often away from the mainstream media’s gaza. Bianca Jagger travelled to India and found this: When I arrived at Biju Patnaik Airport, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, I…
Pakistan: private security is a state within a state
My following investigation appears in Australian publication Crikey today: The Pakistani city of Peshawar is situated an hour from Afghanistan. Driving there from Islamabad, the landscape was mostly lush green fields, poor villages and mud houses. After being stopped at five checkpoints along the way, an attempt to intercept foreigners and militants entering the sensitive…
MSM desperate for cash and looking in all places
This is how a “liberal” newspaper works in the 21st century (well, one that still takes advertising). From a New York magazine feature on Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger: His paper is running out of money: It lost roughly $50 million last year, and though it’s subsidized by a nonprofit trust, at that rate it can…
Truly free media means ensuring reporter safety
A serious democracy would try its hardest to protect journalists. Many nations don’t share this goal: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply disappointed that a U.N. plan to promote journalist safety and curb impunity in journalist killings was not endorsed during UNESCO’s 28th biennial session held in Paris. The… U.N. Draft Plan of Action on…
Guess which Western nation has right to detain journalists and equipment without warrant?
The US of A. Salon’s Glenn Greenwald with a terrifying story that should concern any person who believes in the concept of free speech: One of the more extreme government abuses of the post-9/11 era targets U.S. citizens re-entering their own country, and it has received far too little attention. With no oversight or legal…
Australians deserve truth about Afghanistan (and media and political complicity in the mess)
Australia is ruled by craven fools, desperate to shield the public from the reality of the war in Afghanistan. We lost years ago. The Sunday Age: Australian officials have rejected an expert report critical of conditions in Afghanistan, demanding that it be rewritten to match upbeat government claims of dramatic progress and improved security. The…