Brian Williams, American television network news anchor, caught telling his audience a fantasy version of his experience on a foreign assignment, has unintentionally provided us with a near perfect allegory and tale of caution about American journalism and the role it plays in politics and foreign affairs. Continue reading
Virtually all MSM sources march to the same drummer. Viciously, irresponsibly and disgracefully bashing Putin. Continue reading
Yesterday, we witnessed a major step forward in the campaign for Net neutrality. In an op-ed piece for Wired magazine, Federal Communications Commission Chair Tom Wheeler officially announced, “After more than a decade of debate and a record-setting proceeding that attracted nearly 4 million public comments, the time to settle the Net Neutrality question has arrived. This week, I will circulate to the members of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposed new rules to preserve the internet as an open platform for innovation and free expression. This proposal is rooted in long-standing regulatory principles, marketplace experience, and public input received over the last several months.” Continue reading
Washington’s attack on Russia has moved beyond the boundary of the absurd into the realm of insanity. Continue reading
Mass killer Chris Kyle should have been forgotten when he was killed by another Iraq war veteran in 2013. Kyle became rich and famous after he spoke and wrote publicly about the record 160 kills he committed in America’s war of terror in Iraq. He was the subject of the book, American Sniper: the Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History, and enjoyed celebrity status until his death. Continue reading
Over the last few months, things have been looking good for keeping the Internet open to everyone. A little too good, as far as Congress is concerned, which is why members and the corporate lobbyists who write them hefty checks have launched a last-ditch legislative effort to scuttle Net neutrality. Continue reading
After Paris, condemnation of religious fanaticism is at its height. I’d guess that even many progressives fantasize about wringing the necks of jihadists, bashing into their heads some thoughts about the intellect, about satire, humor, freedom of speech. We’re talking here, after all, about young men raised in France, not Saudi Arabia. Continue reading
Only the most ignorant consider Fox News to be a legitimate news network. And when it comes to issues dealing with terrorism and Islam, Fox News is not only a font of disinformation and blatant propaganda but also flat out lies. Continue reading
Press freedom has been under attack with the deaths in Paris of nine Charlie Hebdo employees, including editor Stephane Charbonnier, and the continued incarceration in Cairo of three Al Jazeera journalists. The circumstances of the victimization of the journalists are starkly different. Continue reading
HarperCollins says it’s sorry. It says it regrets not including Israel on a map of the Middle East in an atlas it published and distributed in the Middle East. It says all remaining copies of the atlas will be pulped. Continue reading
History will mark 2014 as the year of shifting global alliances and the beginning of the end of America’s self-styled unipolar dominance under the rubric of the “New American Century.” The corporate media is largely using the same “bucket list” of 2014’s most memorable events but the relative overall importance of these news stories are in the eyes of the beholder. Continue reading
Wow! After listening to the Stephen Harper’s interview with Peter Mansbridge and now having listened to Canada’s Foreign Minister John Baird’s interview with Evan Solomon (CBC), it is apparent that they both have their talking points down pat. They could have exchanged places and the comments would have come out pretty much the same. Continue reading
It is the time of year for the mainstream media to make its lists, check them twice with the pundits, and find out who is naughty and who is nice. While not officially a year end review, I have recently commented on Evan Solomon’s interview with General Breedlove in which mostly softball questions without curves or spins were gently lobbed at the General—who did a reasonably intelligent job of responding considering the knuckleball attempts on some of the questions.(1) The next year end interview I viewed was between Peter Mansbridge, CBC’s senior correspondent, and Stephen Harper, Canada’s neo-Conservative head of state. As with the former interview, the Mansbridge interview was rather innocuous, with responses essentially reflecting Conservative canards about the economy, climate change, and foreign affairs. Continue reading
According to Stars & Stripes, United States Air Force Captain William Dubois—30 years old—was killed when the F-16 he was piloting on a mission against the Islamic State crashed. Marine Lance Cpl. Sean Neal, 19, of Riverside, California died in Iraq from a noncombat related injury. Marine Cpl. Jordan Spears, 21, of Memphis, Ind., was lost at sea while conducting flight operations in the North Arabian Gulf. Continue reading
A week has passed since President Obama surprised everyone with a strong statement in support of Net neutrality, declaring that the Internet should be available to everyone—reclassified under Title II of the Telecommunications Act as a common carrier—a public utility like telephone service or electricity without special privileges to companies willing to pay a premium for faster, more exclusive access. Continue reading
As I was finalizing my research for this article, I found myself browsing through a heap of hilarious videos by mostly Egyptian TV show hosts Tawfiq Okasha and Amr Adeeb. Continue reading
On Monday, the White House released a statement from President Obama in support of Net neutrality, his strongest and most direct since the 2008 election campaign. “An open Internet is essential to the American economy, and increasingly to our very way of life,” he began. “By lowering the cost of launching a new idea, igniting new political movements, and bringing communities closer together, it has been one of the most significant democratizing influences the world has ever known. Continue reading
New York Times editors do it numerous ways. At times in their “Room for Debate” series. Featuring mostly one-sided views. Continue reading
I have come to the conclusion that the West is a vast lie machine for the secret agendas of vested interests. Consider, for example, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and the Transpacific Trade and Investment Partnership. Continue reading
A few months ago, not many Americans, in fact Europeans as well, knew that a Yazidi sect in fact existed in northwest Iraq. Even in the Middle East itself, the Yazidis and their way of life have been an enigma, shrouded by mystery and mostly grasped through stereotypes and fictitious evidence. Yet in no time, the fate of the Yazidis became a rally cry for another US-led Iraq military campaign. Continue reading
The increasing tendency of the Central Intelligence Agency and other U.S. intelligence agencies to disregard previous prohibitions against the use of journalists as agents puts every legitimate reporter around the world in jeopardy. Continue reading
(WMR)—National news media operations based in Boston are almost like musicals that run “off Broadway.” Continue reading
At the end of the classic “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” Jimmy Stewart, as Senator Jefferson Smith, is in the midst of his filibuster against the corruption of the political machine that sent him to Capitol Hill as their lackey. Now he knows the truth and he’s taken over the floor of the Senate to tell it. Continue reading
During Cold War One those of us in the American radical left were often placed in the position where we had to defend the Soviet Union because the US government was using that country as a battering ram against us. Now we sometimes have to defend Russia because it may be the last best hope of stopping TETATW (The Empire That Ate The World). Yes, during Cold War One we knew enough about Stalin, the show trials, and the gulags. But we also knew about US foreign policy. Continue reading
Let us get one thing crystal clear: We in the the United States of America, do not live in an informed genuine people’s ‘democracy’ nor do we have a government or mass media that is honest and transparent that serves the needs, interests, and aspirations of everyday ordinary Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people. Continue reading
As more and more people are speaking out about Israel’s genocidal attacks against the Palestinian population in Gaza, mainstream media executives are trying to put a lid on it. How else can you explain NBC’s action to remove, from Gaza, Ayman Mohyeldin, an experienced, well respected reporter after he described the arbitrary killing of four young Palestinian boys playing soccer on a beach by members of the Israeli Defense Force. Continue reading
According to the latest reports, the separatists in Donetsk have handed over to Malaysian authorities the black boxes from the downed Malaysian airliner, which indicates that those who have been blamed by Washington and the Western presstitute media have nothing to fear from the facts. Continue reading
I got the news from my last Time-Warner bill, which is for a 42-inch flat screen and a second set, 23- x 36-inch flat screen. It seems they are changing all the numbers of the stations, introducing content previously shown over a period of years and still changing. I took notes when I talked to the representative about a monthly bill from TW for $142.25. RT-Today, my favorite news station at Channel 135 hadn’t been there for weeks. Continue reading
Irrespective of how one feels about the direction taken by various Arab revolutions in the last three years, a few facts remain incontestable. Arab revolts began in the streets of poor, despairing Arab cities, and Arabs had every right to rebel considering the dismal state of affairs in which they live. Continue reading
Anyone who has seen the 1976 film Network can only imagine how CLAIRVOYANT the film’s writer, Paddy Chayefsky, turned out to be. The film, a dark satire, showed a future society where the media became the message and celebrity was greater than reality. Ratings were the only thing that mattered- as they apparently still are on today’s Nutworks! Continue reading
“In Yemen today, the US embassy is closed to the public. Officials telling CNN there is credible information of a threat against Western interests there,” a CNN news anchor read from the news bulletin on May 8. Continue reading
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How reality TV is teaching us to accept the American police state
Posted on February 6, 2015 by John W. Whitehead
Americans love their reality TV shows—the drama, the insults, the bullying, the callousness, the damaged relationships delivered through the lens of a surveillance camera—and there’s no shortage of such dehumanizing spectacles to be found on or off screen, whether it’s Cops, Real Housewives or the heavy-handed tactics of police officers who break down doors first and ask questions later. Continue reading →