Media Issues : Journalistic Independence & Integrity |
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Material on the performance of print and electronic media in their supposed role of ideologically impartial and factual reporting of facts no matter how politically inconvenient; manipulation of the media by the politically powerful.
2/25/10
INTERNATIONAL
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Analysis & views: 2/24/10 2/22/10 2/16/10 2/12/10 1/24/10 1/7/10 10/9/09 9/17/09 2/6/09 John Pilger: If telling the truth is a revolutionary act, then it's time for the world media to get revolutionary: , The current case of severe media Obama-love disables the world press to call as "bollocks" such mis-representations of the truth as that Obama is "de-constructing" the war on terrorism. The press in Britain, where Pilger lives, is particularly susceptible to the love disease, having previously been infatuated in the same way with Tony Blair. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21912.htm 1/27/09 BBC faces world-wide protests over its refusal to carry a broadcast calling for help to victims of conflict in Gaza http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/world/europe/27britain.html?_r=1&hp 10/5/08 UN reports blasts Israel for harassing and beating up the Palestinian winner of a prize for war zone coverage. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44116 8/29/08 Want to see unfair and unbalanced journalism in action? Meet the editorial staff of the West Jerusalem Associated Press: Dan Alba describes the bureau, staffed by Israeli settlers living illegally in the West Bank, as the "global central hub for Israeli apologetics." Such apologetics are demonstrated for example, in the AP's uncritical repeat of U.S. Secretary Rice's reference to Israeli settlement in the West Bank as "disputed," when in fact such settlement is clearly illegal, and Israel would by no means accept the verdict of any court that might try to adjudicate this "dispute." http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/08/aps-self-contradicting-settler-editors/ 4/25/08 British media watchdog group charges pro-Israelit bias in BBC's coverage of Middle East conflict: Media Lens confronts BBC's Middle East bureau head with this charge, noting that the coverage fails to "humanize" the plight of the Palestinians, while it lavishes attention on the suffering of victims of militant violence. BBC responds that "security" problems in the region, highlighted by recent killing of a Reuters cameraman, make it difficult for reporters to get to the scene of such stories. Sources refer to the irony that the reporters can more easily access places in Israel, even though there are four times the number of Palestinian as opposed to Israeli victims of the area's violence. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/covering-israel-palestine-the-bbcs-double-standards/ 4/6/08 Compliant world media supports a farcical version of a "new" FARC announcement in Colombia: The media accepts and propagates without checking a claim that the guerilla group released on Apr 4 a statement that plan for a French humanitarian mission to free Ingrid Betancourt from FARC hostage was "unacceptable" to the group. Inter Press Service (IPS) was able to retrieve the same announcement posted on a Swedish website on March 19, with a different context of what was "unacceptable" to FARC. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41870 11/28/07 Hugo Chavez accuses CNN of "instigating" his murder when it "inadvertently" showed a picture of him with the caption "who killed him?" a caption intended for picture of an NFL football player killed in Florida. 11/23/07 Mainstream media condemns Ahmadinejad for denial of Nazi Holocaust and ignores the current holocaust in Iraq: One would scarcely know from MSM sources that over a million Iraqis have died as a consequence of the invasion and occupation of that country. The media typically reports estimates of deaths that are about 1/5 of those reported by scientifically responsible reporting agencies, and the media even tends to decry the "random sampling" to derive these numbers, ignoring the demonstrated scientific validity of random sampling. http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/68568/ 11/6/07 Israeli police impersonate a television news reporter in enticing a Palestinian man to talk about his claims of maltreatment of Palestinians by the police, after which they arrest him. Israeli newspaper Haaretz and other media condemn the practice as endangering the "integrity and objectivity" of the news media. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071106/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_police_impersonators 8/17/07 George Monbiot, a columnist for UK Guardian, publishes (in the Guardian) a critique of this and other newspapers that editorially support global warming protests like the current one at Heathrow for accepting advertisements for gas-guzzling autos and discount air travel. Papers respond that the revenue from the adverts helps them "carry on their work." (An interesting string of "comments" attached to Common Dreams reprint.) http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/14/3168/ 7/19/07 After years of resistance, British government reveals numerous phone calls between PM Blair and media magnate Murdoch, Blair's media cheerleader-in-chief for UK's involvement in the Iraqi war. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2782514.ece 6/3/07 BBC News likely to have to scale back or close many of its international news bureaus as new budget cuts and lay-offs are announced by corporation president. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2094286,00.html#article_continue 5/28/07 Paul Wolfowitz blames an "overheated" media as a crucial factor leading to his deposition as head of the World Bank. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6697311.stm 4/13/07 Media watch-dog group in UK says it had offered to help control the rush of media attention to the British sailors freed from Iranian captivity, but that the government had rebuffed their offer. http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,2056538,00.html 11/22/06 From the streets and around the world: Daytona Beach reporter examines al-Jazeerha news broadcasts on internet and finds a startling contrast with the mindlessness and parochialism of U.S. network and cable news. http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1121-25.htm 9/29/06 Iraqi journalists are now being prosecuted based on a law which prohibits "public insults" to government officials (a reprise of Saddam Hussein's laws). http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/29/world/middleeast/29media.html?_r=1&ei=5094&en=38c9900bc0642a=print 2/26/06 China lays down hammer (and sickle) on Google 2/16/06 Members of Congress accuse U.S. internet firms of cooperating with oppressive media censorship in China: http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060216/NEWS06/602160407/1012 1/11/06 Bush's alleged plan to bomb Al Jazeera: http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/060110/w011026.html http://www.slate.com/id/2134029/?nav=fo
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NATIONAL
Websites: Accuracy in Media: http://www.aim.org/ Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting: http://www.fair.org/index.php Media Matters for America, progressive media site: http://mediamatters.org/ The truth about FOX "News": http://www.newshounds.us/ Institute for Public Accuracy: http://www.accuracy.org/
Analysis & views: 2/25/10 2/19/10 2/13/10 1/19/10 1/18/10 1/15/10 10/9/09 10/7/09 9/21/09 8/26/09 8/10/09 8/1/09 7/14/09 6/18/09 Where's my news about the war funding bill, dude? Editor of Sun State Activist explores, in slightly more elegant language, the strange missing in action of much of the world's mainstream press, both print and electronic, as the U.S. House barely passes legislation to fund continued U.S. military operations. The New York Times, Associated Press and non-cable news networks, the "gatekeepers" to much of the news that is retailed to the public, are singled out for special attention http://sunstateactivist.org/ssablog/?p=254 6/7/09 A journalism degree isn't a certificate of entitlement but a license to fight.:. Barbara Ehrenreich "welcomes" UC Berkley Journalism graduates to the "dying industry" of journalism, as she tells them that they should accustom themselves to the tradition of news writing as the occupation of the "working stiff," warning them that they had best develop empathy with the cleaning lady as they may find themselves being the cleaning lady. http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/06-6 3/26/09 Perils of Pauline at the New York Times.:. This newspaper and other fabled supporters of the political establishment teeter on the very brink of falling into an abyss called Radicalization with op-ed articles critical of such as the surge in Afghanistan and the bailout handouts to financial institutions...only to be rescued at the very last minute when Thomas Friedmann rides along and rescues Pauline with still another op-ed arguing that the bailouts will "work" if only allowed to continue. A British journalist surveying the scene of this melodrama reflects that this threatened radicalization of the media may only have been a mirage, and that the current administration will continue along its oblivious path to domestic and foreign disaster with nothing to fear from the Fourth Estate. http://www.counterpunch.org/blackburn03252009.html 3/24/09 SHOULD THERE BE OCCASIONAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR "CEASE FIRE" IN THE RELATION BETWEEN JOURNALISTS AND OFFICE HOLDERS? Howard Kurtz, "media critic," thinks so, as he cites the inherently "adversarial" relationship between the press and the government as justifying a time out for more friendly interactions. Glenn Greenwald begs to differ, noting and documenting an anything but adversarial such relationship, citing for example the practice of Kurtz' own Washington Post of putting pre-Iraq invasion justifications of the Administration on its front pages and skeptical analyses on its back pages because "we are going to war anyway. http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/23-12 3/20/09 "Congresswoman, tied to bank, helped seek funds." An article with this headline in the New York Times suggests a "scandal" when Congresswoman Maxine Waters tries to help a black bank gain a "miniscule" slice of bailout funding. Glen Ford asserts the rampant "double standard" being applied when the Times and other media sources let pass almost without comment that members of Congress and the Obama administration are joined at the hip with banksters like Goldman Sachs who are recipients of anything but "miniscule" bailouts. 3/13/09 "As long as the presses can be protected, we may trust them for light." This 1799 statement by Thomas Jefferson is subverted today, says Glenn Greenwald, by the tendency of too many "journalists" to help governments to protect their secrets rather than being the instruments of "light" by means of which citizens are enabled to see the inner workings of their government. http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/03/11/marcus/index.html 1/12/09 Scapegoating minority borrowers for the mortgage industry crisis:. Mary Kane, for media watchdog agency FAIR., notes how main stream media comments on the housing crisis tended to blame the public housing efforts of the Community Reinvestment Act for unsustainable "subprime mortgages" when, actually, it was the greed of the mortgage industry to push for profits at any level of foreclosure risk and the failure of banking regulation that are the true villains of that piece. Fortunately there was ultimately a "push back" in some of the MSM to correct that early scapegoating analysis. http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3669 12/18/08 Obama picks a "reformer" as secretary of education:. Or, a media watchdog group notes, most of U.S. media would lead you to believe. His choice of Arne Duncan, chief of Chicago public system, is hailed as a progressive move, though the agenda of his Chicago "reform" is exactly that of the Bush adminstration's No Child Life Behind emphasis on tough accountability and diversion of education from public to private schools. Linda Darling-Hammond, another prospect who is a critic of the NCLB model, is castigated as an agent of the "status quo," especially of the unions of the teachers who gave Obama so much electoral support. By going against his "base" and choosing to preserve and enhance the Bush agenda, Obama is credited with a courageous, progressive choice. (Roll over, George Orwell.) http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/12/17-12 SEE ALSO, BY GREG PALAST: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/12/16-10 11/15/08 Hugo Chavez as target of agit-prop by U.S. media:. Stephen Lendman describes several examples of U.S. news columnists operating within what he calls a "truth free zone" that allows them to make up the facts they are "reporting" in order to support a foregone conclusion that the Venezuelan regime is inherently corrupt and inimical to regional harmony. http://www.countercurrents.org/lendman141108.htm 10/16/08 U.S. media (a fringe of it) finally agrees to a presidential debate involving third-party and independent candidates: Amy Goodman is to moderate on Sunday night at Columbia University a debate involving at least Ralph Nader, Cynthia McKinney and Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin and (perhaps) Bob Barr, with Obama and McCain also invited but not expected to show. If we're lucky, C-Span will cover it; otherwise, we''ll have to see it on internet. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/310/story/53922.html 9/26/08 The Washington Post "reads like a bygone Pravda on the Potomac." British writer John Pilger so quotes Richard Cohen, commenting on the tendency of the Post to support virtually every military misadventure of the United States and its British and other westen allies. Nor is the Post alone as a propaganda vehicle, says Pilger, the same "lethal silence" of the mainstream media pervades the Rupert Murdoch-dominated British press. With a possible future President Sarah Palin who speaks of invading Russia and a "candidate of change" ready to expand U.S. military operations in Asia, Pilger speaks yearningly of the need for an American leader with the courage of a Mikhail Gorbachev of the 1980s who offered an "heretical" approach to dismantling the wars and preparations for wars that occur under the cover of that lethal silence. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20864.htm 821/08 American newspapers: Giving Americans what they (don't) want:. Faced with declining readership, U.S. papers lay off employees, decrease news coverage (especially local news) and "dumb down" their content with more sensationalism and "feel good" stories, despite surveys showing that the public wants more and not less serious news coverage. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/08/downsizing-the-news/ 8/18/08 Gareth Porter: An Associated Press reporter is a mouthpiece for Pentagon propaganda in a false story about Iranian-trained assassination squads operating in Iraq: General Petraus' command tries to revive faltering story of Iran as supporting Iraqi insurgency, and finds AP reporter Pamela Hess a willing tool of their attempted inversion of the role of Iran in the Iraqi conflict, a role which has actually been more a restraining than a supporting one. http://www.antiwar.com/porter/?articleid=13318 8/17/08 60 Minutes feature on Israeli Air Force looks to some critics like several minutes of Israeli propaganda: Ira Glunts for Z-net describes the segment on "The Israel Air Force" as unexamined representation of the Israeli "side" of the issue of that country's military operations, in which the IAF was given an unusual privilege of censorship of a CBS news story.
8/14/08 "This is not news. This is propaganda, pure and simple.":. Dave Lindorff so characterizes the coverage, in mainstream media, of the developing conflict in Ossetia between Russia and Georgia. He contrasts the prurient media interest in the Edwards "affair" with its lack of interest in describing the continuing U.S.-sponsored brutality in Iraq and Afganistan while taking every opportunity to depict Russian brutality in Ossetia. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/08/13/10961/ 8/14/08 Right on "cue" for MSM propaganda support of U.S. operations in Georgia: ,Bush sends troops to Georgia and the New York Times gives mostly the Pentagon/Georgian "side" of the story: The Times story accepts uncritically the cover story for U.S. military intervention, that it is in support of a "humanitarian" mission to Ossetia, and essentially blames the Russians for violating a cease-fire that was to contain the conflict there. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/14/world/europe/14georgia.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th 8/14/08 Would an Obama presidency spell and end to black politics in America? This is the implication of a feature article in last Sunday's New York Times. Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report calls this a "hopeful" but not an accurate depiction of the likely consequence of the election of Obama. The Times' error, Ford believes, is in postulating a non-existent "generation gap" among blacks and in equating "politics" with the electoral side thereof. Obama may, as the Times "hopes," neutralize the influence of blacks on electoral politics, but black power has always and will continue to be carried in the street movements of blacks that will force officeholders, be they black or white, to pay attention to black demands http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=744&Itemid=1 8/13/08 Three strikes and you''re out, unless you're the President of the United States and then any number of "strikes" (war deaths) of malfeasance will be forgiven: Vincent Bugliosi, in an interview, complains of the "media blackout" of his latest book which is a prosecutor's brief in favor of impeaching George Bush for war crimes, in stark contrast with the heavy publicity given to his earlier books, like that on serial killer Charles Manson. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/08/bush-manson-and-the-media-blackout/ 6/4/08 The Democratic presidential nomination contest is "over." Who says? Every major MSM news outlet says so, for example, the Washington Post link below. After picking up a sufficient number of delegates committed to him in Tuesday's primaries, Obama declares his "victory" even as Clinton delays any "concession," perhaps remembering that it is three months from the nominating convention and that, as human affairs go, "anything can happen" in three months, especially if the Republican attack sharks begin to smell some blood around Obama's candidacy. (A jury verdict expected possibly today in Chicago could spill a drop or two of that blood.) http://blog.washingtonpost.com/livecoverage/?referrer=email 5/9/08 The New York Times and other corporate media support the Rockefeller fabel: At a meeting to tout the "greening" of Exxon, the family trots out the "fable" of John D. Rockefeller and his heirs as great philanthropists and benefactors of mankind. This fable omits a few little "details" of family history such as its role in the destruction of the trolley car to make way for automobiles to run on Rockefeller gasoline, their dismal union-busting and low wages labor practices, their refusal to "pay up" for the Valdez disaster, and the promotion of a "eugenics" movement to lower birth rates among poor and black people. Times headlines and news items conveniently don't find such details "fit to print. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/05/1975/ 4/29/08 "The cacophony of inanity that dominats our coverage of the political events of our time": Phil Rockstroh lets loose on the media's coverage of the U.S. elections and of the general situation of the world today. It serves as "white noise that drowns out unpleasant truths." using an "insidious technique of propaganda by omission" that allows people to maintain their "life styles" as they survive (sort of) within their personal bubbles. A commenter describes it as articulating a world and a media which is "no country for old men." (File under existential anguish.) 4/20/08 "We need to stick our hands up your back and move your mouth for you " says a retired Green Beret officer and former Fox News "military analyst," citing his participation in a Pentagon propaganda campaign which entailed grooming retired military leaders to give roseate views of Bush administration war policies. Many of the "puppets" of the Pentagon had deep financial involvements with the very defense contracting industries that were benefitting from such policies http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/washington/20generals.html?th&emc=th 4/6/08 Obama goes bowling, and mainstream news media goes out to lunch:. Glenn Greenwald goes to Nexus database to discover that Obama's trip to a Pennyslvania bowling alley and what it indicates about his "regular guy" status got far more attention in the media than such a "trivial" piece of information as that Bush got an authorization from his Justice Department in 2003 to practice torture on terrorism detainees. Even the Iraq war can't compete for media attention with stories like "The Clintons are rich!!," as pundits justify their news choices by claims that these fluff pieces are what "Regular People" want. http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/ 3/28/08 Norman Solomon calls NPR National Pentagon Radio for its consistent alignment with the military projects of the United States, a recent report for example, having intoned the judgment of the "success" of the military operation in Basra http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/27/7912/ 3/18/08 TIME Magazine article and its managing editor says Americans "don;t care about" alleged abuses of administration power under the Patriot Act: Glenn Greenwald calls out the lie in this claim, citing opinion polls that indicate the public is very much concerned about this issue, and recent cases of public controversy (like the Justice Department's firing of attorneys who wouldn't play ball with the Administration's political agenda) about the use of spy data to support actions that have nothing to do with "national security." http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/03/17/time/index.html 3/13/08 Iraq war; what Iraq war? Greatly diminished news coverage of the war and a decline in public interest in the subject is noted in recent Pew polls. But hey, with every detail of Eliot Spitzer's sexual misadventures and every Obama/Clinton cross word to one another demanding attention, how much "fit to print" space can be devoted to trivialities like the continuing disasters in the Middle East? http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080312/ts_alt_afp/usiraqmedia 3/4/08 It's decision day in Ohio... and the most important contest may not be Tweedledum vs. Tweedledee (Clinton v. Obama) but The Cleveland Plain Dealer vs. Dennis Kucinich. John Nichols, a former Ohio reporter, reports for The Nation on the paper's longstanding vendetta against the 10th district congressman, now facing a challenge in today's Democratic primary; their campaign against him going back to his time as Mayor when he "stood up" to a bid to privatize the city's public utility, which action was used by local banks to downgrade the city's credit rating. http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=293622 2/24/08 Australian scientists publish a report, Climate Code Red, with a dire analysis of the rate of climate change, and the New York Times and every other major news agency in the world totally ignores it, while they concentrate on "important" matters like whether Hillary Clinton used the word "boon" to refer to NAFTA. http://www.countercurrents.org/henderson210208.htm 2/20/08 Wikileaks shut down by court order but you can still get in its back door. Expose of a Swiss bank scam leads to the order, but the New York Times publishes a "back door" website address http://88.80.13.160/wiki/Wikileaks which (for the moment) is still open for public perusal http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/us/19cnd-wiki.html 2/19/08 BBC reports that a California judge has ordered the closing down of a website, Wikileaks, that has specialized in publishing the texts of suppressed documents http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/us_court_shuts_down_whistleblo.php 2/11/08 Fit to print: But did he inhale?: The New York Times, barely able to find space on its pages to discuss real issues in the presidential campaign such as the country's criminalization of drug use and its racially discriminatory enforcement policy, allows one of its investigative reporters to interview numerous of Barak Obama's college-years associates on the question of just how involved with the drug scene was the presidential candidate. The reporter "creatively" suggests that Obama, in his auto-biography, may actually have exaggerated such usage in order to enhance his campaign narrative of one who had overcome huge personal problems. This may sound like material for Oprah Winfrey airing, but perhaps not "fit" for a front page printing in Saturday's Times. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/10/6969/ 2/3/08 Friends, Romnas, countrymen... Dennis Kucinich had a dream. Shakespeare fan writes a composite of Marc Antony's funeral oration and MLK's "I have a dream" speech for a passionate speech on how main stream media stuck a "dagger" into the heart of the Kucinich presidential campaign. http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewarticle.asp?id=36328 1/28/08 Americans who participate in next Sunday's Super Bowl TV extravaganze will get a large helping of exposure to Fox News network's "slant" on the news. http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA6525898 1/25/08 Transit or transition? Associated Presss can't quite get it right. Having joined the crowd of media agencies that consistently ignored Dennis Kucinich's campaign for President, the AP misquotes him about his impending withdrawal from the race. He told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that he was leaving the race to "transition out of the presidential race" to focus on a "new direction" for his political career, while AP "quoted" his statement to the Plain Dealer (with quotation marks) as saying he was "transiting" the race. No doubt the AP copy-writer hoped that the pesky Kucinich had "transited" politics while his followers still wait for the details of his "transition" plans. Video of Plain Dealer interview: http://blog.cleveland.com/openers/2008/01/kucinich_drops_presidential_bi.html AP: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/01/25/kucinich_drops_out_of_race_for_president/ 1/23/08 Three "top tier" Democratic candidates for president shows their true colors (not pretty) on TV exclusions of Kucinich from their debate: Writer for Women's International Perspective notes that Obama, Clinton and Edwards all stood by while media giants imposed a thoroughly "un-democratic" exclusion of a voice that could have made the proceedings real debates rather than entertainment. While they all make bravado pronouncements about their intentions to stand up to powerful "corporate interests," they don't even lift a finger when confronted by the power of one of the most powerful of those interests, the mass media. http://www.thewip.net/contributors/2008/01/democracy_takes_a_hit_on_the_c_1.html 1/22/08 Fired editor of Los Angeles Times accuses the Times and the newspaper industry in general as having an "aversion to serious news." http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/business/media/22paper.html?th&emc=th 1/17/08 Style over substance the rule in media coverage of the presidential campaign:. Media obsess over big "issues" like whether tears came to Hillary Clinton's eyes after Iowa, leaving the public largely uninformed about such trivia as Ms. Clinton's position on nuclear weapons. http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3243 1/17/08 Democracy Now! gives Dennis Kucinich a chance to respond to the same questions as those posed to candidates in Nevada debate from which he was barred. http://www.democracynow.org/2008/1/16/breaking_the_sound_barrier_democracy_now 1/16/08 Nevada Supreme Court upholds a fundemental right of NBC. As the Court overturns a lower court injunction requiring that Dennis Kucinich be put on the podium for last night's "debate" in Las Vegas, John Nichols explains that the court was merely upholding "the cherished right of television networks to decide who is and who is not a legitimate candidate for president." http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/15/6376/ THE COURT DECISION: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20080115-1723-nv-kucinich-nevada.html 1/15/08 Wheels of justice move quickly in Nevada. On Monday morning January 14, attorneys for Dennis Kucinich file in state court for injunction against NBC for its intention to exclude Kucinich from tonight's primary debate, after already having invited him to participate. Judge says he is "offended" by NBC action, and orders on the same day that Kucinich be included in tonight's debate. NBC indicates it may appeal to federal court, saying the national broadcast of the debate makes it a national legal issue. (link includes videos of hearings, transcript of Kucinich motion and local news coverage). http://www.lasvegasnow.com/global/story.asp?s=7622444 1/5/08 Death penalty issue is effectively "off the table" in this year's presidential election season:. Of the 14 remaining candidates, Republican and Democrat, 11 are advocates with varying degrees of enthusiasm for the retention or expansion of the use of the death penalty. Only Ron Paul, Mike Gravel, and Dennis Kucinich are opponents but these, of course, are not "viable" candidates and the media is ignoring their views. http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/column/264926 ON THE EXCLUSION OF BOTH PAUL AND KUCINICH FROM THE "TABLE" OF PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES, SEE BILL MOYERS JOURNAL: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/index-flash.html 1/4/08 Chicago journalists blasts his news colleagues for their "pseudo-reporting" of the Bhutto assassination: As they customarily do, main stream media took up an officially endorsed view of the incident, attributing it without much effort at verification to "Islamic extremists" and ignoring, as usual, counter-evidence that the Musharaf government, which the U.S. supports, may have carried out the murder as a means of self-protection from a threatening opposition. 12/21/07 "Ashamed to be an Americn" Gore Vidal's reaction to the decision of CNN and the Des Moines Register to exclude Dennis Kucinich from its Iowa presidential debate, even though he is pulling more support in the polls than two other candidates who were included. http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20071218_whither_dennis_kucinich/ 12/19/07 Impeachment is the elephant in the room for U.S. media:. Just as the media will not "see" (report) on the two most crowd-pleasing candidates in the presidential primaries, Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich, so they do not "see" (report) on what should be newsworthy events like a petition sponsored by leading Democrats and signed by 82,000 Americans to require the House Judiciary Committee to take action on Kucinich's bill to impeach Dick Cheney. http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff12182007.html 11/18/07 New York Times admits it kept a secret on Iran's nuclear aresenal security. In a Times article, it is revealed that newspaper staff have known for three years of grave concern of Bush administration about the security of that arsenal and mutual suspicion between the U.S. and Pakistan about Pakistan being offered or accepting a U.S. program to enhance that security. At the administration's request, the Times withheld publication of that information and reveals it now with administration approval in the present crisis of the Musharaff regime in Pakistan. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/washington/18nuke.html?th&emc=th 10/24/07 DANNY SCHECHTER: THE CURRENT STAPH INFECTION EPIDEMIC IS BUT THE LATEST OF AN ENDLESS STRING OF "SUPERBUGS" THAT HAVE INFECTED THE BODY POLITIC WITHOUT THE NEWS MEDIA GIVING THE PUBLIC THE SLIGHTEST CLUE TO WHAT WAS HAPPENING. From long foreseen global warming to forest fire hazard to conflagration in the Middle East to the mortgage industry melt-down: the Super-Bug of a trivializing and inconsequential media has not prepared the public for the disasters that have occurred or provided any avenues for them to be headed off. Only a vigilant journalism can provide the needed antidote to all these "bugs." http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/23/4747/ 9/24/07 Jena and D.C.: Disproportion in media coverage reflects media bias. So says Linda Milazzo, who approved heartily the demonstration of racial "democracy" in Jena; but who decries media ignoring of the much larger and perhaps more consequential anti-war demonstrations in Washington. She suggests that Jena was a Bush administration approved "photo op" to promote its democracy-spreading agenda and therefore was more palatable to the corporate media whose agents determine what news is fit to print (or air). http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/23/4042/ 8/27/07 Film distributirs haven't made it easy for Norman Soloman's War Made Easy, , but the searing documentary indictment of U.S. war policy which is promoted by the media gets a Canadian showing in Montreal and limited release in the United States. http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=48d9d1f1-e359-493d-ac38-b200cb6f916c 8/21/07 Iraq war did you say? U.S. news media too busy covering spats between Hillary and Obama and disasters du jour: Journalistic study shows significant decline in coverage of the Iraqi policy issue as well as coverage of war effects in Iraq and on the home front in the second quarter of 2007 http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070820/us_nm/usa_iraq_media_dc_5 8/3/07 Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Cynthia Tucker, a black woman, has been a one-woman wrecking crew for destroying the political career of another black woman, Cynthia McKinney, former member of Congress from Georgia. She has been abetted by others at the AJC, as well as broadcasters like Neal Boortz from the paper's parent company, Cox Enterprises. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/08/cynthia-mckinney-confronts-corporate-media-malice-in-court/ 7/12/07 FOX News engages in some health care terrorism. Paul Krugman notes how Fox commentators rushed to use the prominence in the British "terror plot" of employees of the National Health Service to argue that an American version of NHS would similarly encourage terrorist in the USA. http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=108&ItemID=13269 6/1/07 As if to prove the point of critics that U.S. media coverage of presidential campaigns tends to trivialize campaigns by focussing on the "doings" of candidates as if they were Hollywood celebrities, America's "newspaper of record," the New York Times, describes candidate Barack Obama's "doings" in Hawaii last Christmas in a pick-up game of basketball which demonstrates Obama's skill as a "wily" political operator. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/01/us/politics/01hoops.html?th&emc=th 5/31/07 What's more important news: What John Edwards paid for a haircut...or how much of Iraq's oil wealth is likely to go into the pockets of multi-national oil companies? If you said Iraq oil, you haven't been watching the non-stop orgy of news "coverage" of the U.S. presidential election which treats the "rivalry" of Clinton and Obama in exactly the way it treats that between Paris and Nicole; it's all a matter of "celebrity gossip." http://www.alternet.org/story/52625/?page=1 4/24/07 "All noise all the time". A journalism professor's description of America's 24-7 news system in which the news focuses on inconsequential matters at the expense of serious analysis and commentaries reach a level of incivility unknown in European news media. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/23/692/ 4/17/07 The Atlanta Journal Constitution was quick to condemn Don Imus for his racist remarks about black female Rutgers athletes, ignoring the fact that hate radio luminaries sponsored by AJC's parent company, Cox Communications, have been equally as abusive for years. One of their darlings, Neal Boortz, for example, referred to Cynthia McKinley as a "ghetto slut" whose hair looked like the explosion in a Brillo pad factory http://www.counterpunch.org/sugg04162007.html 2/18/07 They punted when they might have made a difference: Opinion column in Editor and Publisher asserts that mainline U.S. newspapers, almost without exception, were editorially silent about the President's plan for a troop surge in Iraq until it was "too late" for their late-appearing editorials to have any effect on policy decisions. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/pressingissues_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003547275 1/12/07 Condoleezza Rice lets a comment slip on an open microphone. Referring to Fox News anchors, she says: "My Fox guys, I love everyone single one of them." http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21047599-1702,00.html 12/20/06 Dying for Fox News: highest ranking female soldier killed in Iraq was victim of a bomb attack as she was escorting Oliver North and other Fox News reporters. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003523039 12/6/06 CNN's Glenn Beck, after having asked Muslim congressman Keith Ellison to "prove" his American loyalty, threatens concentration camps for Muslims and suggests that "good" Muslims should be prepare to shoot "bad" Muslims in the head. http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3014 11/29/06 Washington Post reporter doesn't understand why his paper doesn't call the situation in Iraq a "civil war." It's apparently because the Administration itself doesn't use the term and the Post doesn't like to "label." http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/11/28/washington-post-equals-white-house-propaganda-on-iraq/ 11/18/06 Company owned by Mitt Romney, Republican candidate for President, buys right wing communications giant Clear Channel, raising serious questions about any remaining "independence" of the press. http://rochesterturning.com/2006/11/16/your-liberal-media/ 11/17/06 Freedom of the press: CNN interviewer demands of first Muslim-American member of Congress: "Sir, prove to me you are not working with our enemies." http://mediamatters.org/items/200611150004 11/17/06 Norman Solomon: media campaign against withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq is not being led by Fox News but by "establishment" newspapers like the New York Times. http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1116-34.htm 11/15/06 At "fair and balanced" Fox News, an internal memo the day after Nov 7 elections directs reporters to be on the lookout for statements from Iraqi insurgents who must be thrilled with the prospect of a Democratic Congress. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/11/14/fox-news-internal-memo-_n_34128.html 11/14/06 CBS News correspondent plays into GOP rhetoric by referring to the estate tax as the "death tax." http://mediamatters.org/items/200611130003 11/6/06 Amy Goodman starts a regular newspaper column and promises to go "where the silence is" in bringing forth stories that escape the attention of the establishment news media. http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1105-26.htm 10/25/06 U.S. continues to fall in ranking by Reporters Without Borders of degree of freedom of press among different countries; now ranks 53rd. http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=19388 10/25/06 Fox News commentator Sean Hannity hosts fund-raiser among DC lobbyists for Michael Steele, GOP candidate for Senate in Maryland. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/24/AR2006102401221.html 10/4/06 While Dennis Hastert has been condemned and even urged to resign by some conservative media (like The Washington Times), he still turns to Limbaugh and Hannity for assistance in his effort at damage control. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/03/AR2006100301299_pf.html 9/27/06 Bill Clinton on Fox News with Chris Wallace, accuses the network of propaganda effort to defend the Bush administration and criticize his own in Wallace's questioning whether Clinton had "done enough" to stop bin Laden. http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0926-26.htm 9/18/06 Washington Post is repeating a pattern of reporting for which it has apologized: putting intelligence claims supporting Iraqi war on front page and burying counter-information on the back pages; now it's doing the same for intelligence regarding Iran's nuclear power intentions and capabilities. http://mediamatters.org/items/200609180007 9/18/06 Media Matters produces a sampling of the political views of the half dozen conservative talk show hosts recently invited for a 30 minute private meeting with President Bush. http://mediamatters.org/items/200609180005 9/2/06 Using the "good war" (WW II) to frame the current international conflicts, the right wing press in the U.S. and Canada has led the way to Bush's new "Islamic fascists" frame by continually using the the language of condemning "appeasement" and likening our current rivals o "Hitler." http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0901-01.htm 8/31/06 U.S. puts out bids for $20 million public relations contract to monitor news coverage in the Middle East and promote more U.S.-friendly coverage. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/30/AR2006083003011.html 8/18/06 Using a half-million dollar fund-raising total as an arbitrary criterion for inclusion, an NYC television station refuses to include in a televised debate an anti-war candidate for Senate, even though he is running 13% support in polls. http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0817-25.htm 8/17/06 News or propaganda? FCC sends letter to 77 TV stations asking them to explain their use of "fake news" videos prepared by government and corporate bodies. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/16/national/main1900602.shtml 8/17/06 Arab staff of Fox News in Amman, Jordan submit their resignations in protest of the network's unfair and unbalanced treatment of Middle East conflict. http://www.campusprogress.org/page/community/post_group/main/C3pz 7/26/06 In their zeal for journalistic "balance," media are still allowing scientists' opinions about the effects of global warming to be balanced by statements from industry flaks. http://blogs.laweekly.com/judith_lewis/theyre-still-doing-it/ 7/24/06 Most editorials in U.S. newspapers assert Israel's right to defend itself and condemn Hezbollah terrorist, but fail to criticize indiscriminate Iraeli killing of civilians in Lebanon. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/pressingissues_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002841514 7/10/06 Newsweek and Reuters reporters, formerly "embedded" with military in Iraq, describes the controls put on reporters to insure they are American "mouthpieces." http://www.harpers.org/sb-i-was-a-mouthpiece-1152219764.html 7/6/06 American media have spilled untold quanity of ink on the infidelity of Bill Clinton and the marital woes of the Clintons. Will they be equally as critical with three leading Republican candidates for President who are all highly vulnerable on this score: McCain, Gingrich, Guliano? http://www.alternet.org/story/38015/ 6/16/06 Bush uses timeless techniques to "catapult the propaganda" with mindless and repetitive branding of a weird persona and, as his political success and the commercial success of Ann Coulter illustrates, "mindless" propaganda sells in the media culture of the time. http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0616-21.htm 6/9/06 Move to have full disclosure when media outlets use "fake news" or Video News Releases prepared by corporate or government agencies has media owners crying "censorship!" http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0608-21.htm 6/3/06 American media swoon over Bush "confession" of his "bring it on" and other verbal mistakes, forgetting that he has made such faux-confessions in the past. http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0602-25.htm 6/3/06 Danny Schechter: media's acceptance of the Haditha "mistake" makes it accessory after the crime. http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/36972/ 5/29/06 Memorial day reflections by Danny Schechter: media promotes civic awareness amnesia and it is totally functional to a social order built on ignoring our social problems. http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/36743/ 5/17/06 Tony Snow's debut as White House press secretary is described as "boffo box office" as he told of his being a cancer survivor, cried and joked with reporters: http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/14594036.htm 5/15/06 News media impact on public perception of political reality: When people are asked whether the 2000 and 2004 elections were "stolen" because of faulty electoral procedures 0.5% of Fox News watchers say no while a majority of those getting their news from other sources say yes, including 70% whose major news source is CNN. http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2006/1964 5/15/06 ABC News reporters are warned by confidential source that their news-gathering phone calls are under electronic surveillance: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0515-12.htm 5/3/06 Washington Post report suggests that biased coverage on FOX News may have caused Bush to "win" 2000 election: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/03/AR2006050302299_pf.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/03/AR2006050300865.html 5/3/06 News media emphasize touts Bush's performance at White House correspondents' dinner, ignored the skewering administered by the evening's main speaker, Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central: http://mediamatters.org/items/200605010005 4/28/06 In wake of appointment of Fox News anchor as presidential press secretary, White House reporter complains that all WH televisions seem to stay tuned to Fox: http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2006/04/not_a_good_sign.html 4/25/06 Air Force blocks reception of DailyKos and other liberal websites for access to overseas troops: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1886095&page=2 4/19/06 After Scott McClellan steps down, the White House considers hiring FNC's Tony Snow as press secretary: http://thinkprogress.org/2006/04/19/mcclellan-snow/ 4/14/06 Mainstream media reaction to essay by two Harvard professors on Israel Lobby influence on U.S. foreign policy helps to make one of their points: that criticism of this influence is likely to get you an "anti-semtic" label: http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0413-20.htm 4/11/06 Fox Hounds reports on O'Reilly Factor show on Fox on April 10: as usual he expresses right wing views on immigration issues and intimidates his guests who disagree: http://www.newshounds.us/2006/04/11/confronted_by_facts_and_.php#more 4/10/06 U.S. military conducted propaganda campaign, aimed partly at "U.S. home audience," to inflate the influence of Zarqawi on conflict in Iraq: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/09/AR2006040900890.html?referrer=email 4/7/06 At Scott McClellan's briefing after Libby trial documents assert Bush authorized intelligence, White House press corps asks no questions about the subject: http://thinkprogress.org/2006/04/06/press-corps-fails 4/4/06 New York Times wraps its coverage of Chavez in Venezuela in cold war rhetoric as it describes his "provocative humanitarianism": http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff04042006.html 3/27/06 Eyewitness to events in Belarus says Western governments and media overplayed the alleged election irregularities and the police suppressions of protest in the re-election of Lukashenko: http://www.antiwar.com/orig/mcadams.php?articleid=8763 3/23/06 Media Matters criticizes Washington Post for adding to its editorial columnists a self-avowed Republican operative to supposedly "balance" the paper to offset a "liberal" columnist who is actually a professional journalist: http://mediamatters.org/items/200603210015 http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/03/washington-post-blogger-called-coretta.html 3/23/06 With selective coverage of Bush news conference, Fox News continues to tout the "good news" from Iraq: http://www.newshounds.us/2006/03/22/fox_news_touts_good_news_war_coverage_again.php#more 3/22/06 FOX News asks: "Is Unscripted Questioning a Good Strategy for President Bush?" 3/20/06 Robert Fisk: press should be challenging the lies behind the Iraqi war: http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0319-22.htm 2/23/06 Guests on Sunday Morning talk shows lean sharply toward the right: http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0222-29.htm 2/21/06 Pentagon spokesman says Secretary Rumsfeld was "incorrect" in saying that U.S. had stopped practice of planting and paying for news stories in Iraq: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12010.htm 2/21/06 Is John Stossel a "corporate shill?" http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0221-21.htm 2/18/06 Rumsfeld criticizes media for criticizing Pentagon's media practices, calls for "strategic communication network" to combat terrorism: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/17/AR2006021701980.html 2/18/06 ABC's Primetime hypes and misrepresents "teen sex slaves": http://counterpunch.org/nathan02172006.html 2/17/06 US lags in propaganda war: Rumsfeld 2/16/06 White House is closed to news photographers, who have to get their photographs as hand-outs: http://www.agrnews.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2273&Itemid=49 2/15/06 Lincoln group thriving on contracts for propaganda production in Iraq: http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/fuj/nytimes4.htm 2/15/06 Defending Cheney, Fox's Henneberg falsely claimed that vice presidents "rarely, if ever" hold press conferences http://mediamatters.org/items/200602150011 2/14/06 "Fleecing and flogging" of public through government-sponsored propaganda is alleged: http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0214-20.htm 2/5/05 Amy Goodman: rise of Arab language media related to fact that U.S. media reached "all-time low" in coverage of Iraq war: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0203-06.htm 1/20/06 Press "plays dumb" on lobbyist scandals: http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0119-27.htm
1/20/06 Is press ignoring the "biggest story of our history (climate change)?: http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0118-33.htm
1/18/06 U.S. media coverage of CIA attack on a "terrorist" site in Pakistan: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/capitalgames?pid=50064
1/13/06 Articles on media coverage of war on terrorism: http://www.questia.com/search/media-and-terrorism
1/11/06 NY Times suppression of NSA spy story: http://www.counterpunch.org/velvel01072006.html
1/11/06 Abduction of American reporter in Iraq blacked out by U.S. news outlets: http://editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001808253 Books:
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Analysis & views: 2/6/06 Miami Herald investigation of failure of program for treatment of sexual predators leads to action in state legislature: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/
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Analysis and views: 2/13/09 Last July 15, Caylee Marie Anthony disappeared from her home. From that day to this one (and who knows for how much longer) the Orlando Sentinel has made stories about "Casey" the lead news story of every online edition: the extended search for her and the finding of her body, the charging of her mother in her death, her emotional funeral. Thousands may die in Gaza in a U.S.-powered military slaughter of a defenseless population, but the Sentinel apparently feels Orlandans are much more interested in all the details of Casey's life and death. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/topic/crime-law-justice/trials/casey-anthony-PECLB004341.topic
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