Let me begin with some background not covered in the film. Dirty War derives from La Sale Guerre, the term the French applied to their counter-terror campaign in Algeria, circa 1954–1961. Algeria wanted independence, and France resisted. Continue reading
Laying claim to be the first news channel to hit such a milestone, Russia Today (RT) has revealed that it has notched up one billion views on YouTube. Looking at the world through fresh eyes, as it were, RT.com brings you to history in the making as strikingly as television brought you the Vietnam war on your network news decades ago, and film documentaries captured history during WW II. Continue reading
When Gerald Celente branded the American media “presstitutes,” he got it right. The US print and TV media (and NPR) whore for Washington and the corporations. Reporting the real news is their last concern. The presstitutes are a Ministry of Propaganda and Cover-up. This is true of the entire Western media, a collection of bought-and-paid-for whores. Continue reading
(WMR)—Stung by criticism over his administration’s Nixonian-level surveillance of journalists, President Obama, in a May 23 policy speech at the National Defense University at Fort McNair in Washington, DC, said he ordered Attorney General Eric Holder to review current law enforcement investigations of journalists and to set up a meeting with representatives of the media. Obama also reiterated his support for a media shield law. Continue reading
Have you ever wondered how the government’s misinformation gains traction? Continue reading
(WMR)—Attorney General Eric Holder announced that in June 2012 he recused himself from the Justice Department investigation of the alleged leak of classified information on a CIA counter-terrorism operation in Yemen after he was interviewed by the FBI as part of their investigation of the leak. The Associated Press published report in May 2012 about a classified CIA counter-terrorism operation in Yemen that intercepted an advanced underwear bomb destined for a passenger plane. Continue reading
Dave Kranzler of Golden Returns Capital declares the April payroll jobs report that was released on May 3 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to be “fictitious.” Continue reading
Since April 15, news about the Boston Marathon bombing and the two alleged suspects have dominated corporate-stream media. Despite the heavy coverage, the quality of the information reported was often lacking even by corporate news standards. Continue reading
(WMR)—What does a prediction of a ricin attack on the United States, North Korea, Dennis Rodman, and punk rock fans have in common? The answer is a bizarre but well-funded magazine and documentary production company called “Vice,” which has alternated its headquarters between Montreal and Brooklyn. Continue reading
Just imagine that you’re a terrorist with limited funds and you want to wreak havoc. You only have a few bombs, but you want your message broadcast to the world. How do you get the best bang for your buck? The answer is simple: turn the media into broadcasters for your acts of terrorism. (Rest assured, the politicians will also do their part to make the most of the moment and escalate a legitimate crisis into a full-blown political drama.) Continue reading
Ginger Zee is an ABC News weather person. She’s 32 years old, has a B.S. in meteorology, and says even in high school she wanted to be a TV network weatherperson. Not a scientist in a lab studying and analyzing weather, but a TV weatherperson. For more than a decade, she worked local and regional markets, mostly in Michigan and Chicago. Continue reading
Citizens of Western democratic powerhouses cherish their rights of free speech and freedom of expression. Continue reading
Last Wednesday, I called the newsrooms of Pennsylvania’s two largest newspapers. Continue reading
Judging from the latest Israeli attacks on Gaza with its bombs and missiles, Palestinian journalists have been doing their best to get the news reported. Continue reading
Until now, this hasn’t been the best year for media mogul Rupert Murdoch. For one, none of the Republicans who had been on the payroll of his Fox News Channel—not Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum or Mike Huckabee or Sarah Palin—became this year’s GOP nominee for president. Continue reading
On the Sunday before the final presidential debate, Mitt Romney and some of his senior staffers played a flag football game with members of the Press Corps on Delray Beach, Fla. Continue reading
The recent EU move to take Press TV off the air is to be seen as part of a continued process of media violation against this alternative channel. Continue reading
The late South African political activist Steve Biko correctly said that, “The greatest weapon in the hand of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” The 21st century U.S. corporate-stream media has irrefutably proven this to be accurate. This media is both the bane and the deadly novocaine of the masses of everyday ordinary Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people in this nation and worldwide. Continue reading
Last Friday, after I finished reading McClatchy’s ‘juicy story’ based on some Ex-Polish spy’s recent ‘revelations,’ I kept going back and forth between several theories to explain the ‘real factors and purposes’ behind this entire nonsense. Of course, in coming up with my possible ‘possibilities’ I kept the paper’s own dictated agenda (factor) constant (not among the variables) making my approach semi-scientific. After all, we are talking US mainstream media, the ‘always constant’ when it comes to establishment-dictated narratives. That left me with the source, possible factors influencing or completely shaping the source’s revelations, and most importantly, the benefactors-who may be benefited from this so-called revelation and how. Continue reading
There are more than 1,400 daily newspapers in the United States. Can you name a single paper, or a single TV network, that was unequivocally opposed to the American wars carried out against Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Panama, Grenada, and Vietnam? Or even opposed to any two of these wars? How about one? (I’ve been asking this question for years and so far I’ve gotten only one answer—Someone told me that the Seattle Post-Intelligencer had unequivocally opposed the invasion of Iraq. Can anyone verify that or name another case?) Continue reading
Will someone please buy gags for Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford? Continue reading
(WMR)—A former top anchor for CNN related an interesting story to this editor recently about how far CNN has sunk as an international news network. Continue reading
When you listen to the slickly-attired owner of the Egyptian network Faraeen TV, Tawfik Okasha, expounding his eclectic views each night on social, political and religious issues, you may be entertained, informed, angered, shocked or disgusted—but you will undoubtedly conclude that democracy’s staple freedom of speech is alive and well in post-revolution Egypt. Continue reading
It was a quiet weekend, so I indulged in a practice I seldom have time to address, checking to see how many times a story has been covered, and by how many television stations. When reaching for a glass of orange juice, I noticed that on the container was an expiration date: July 19, 2012. Why is there an expiration date for orange juice, and not for news stories? Can it be called “news,” after all, if a story is dated? Continue reading
It never really happened, the Top News Story of 2011. Seems that would annihilate any residual credibility mainstream corporate media (CorpoMedia) hadn’t washed off . . . but, perhaps too many Americans are determined to swallow, even digest, the News. Continue reading
This essay covers several reasons behind corporate media’s failure to cover the Occupy movement and other protests today. This is the bulk of an essay I wrote around the time of the Clinton impeachment. It was published widely on the Internet then, and most of it can easily apply now. Continue reading
The distinction George Orwell makes between nationalism and patriotism in his essay “Notes on Nationalism” is true of the media as well. A nationalist according to Orwell is basically a power-monger and nationalism an ego-centered discourse whereas patriotism stands for “devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force on other people. Patriotism is of its nature defensive, both militarily and culturally.” Continue reading
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) recently issued their annual report on the status of freedom of the press in the world in which the lead article charges, amongst other things, that there are no independent journalists allowed in the East African country of Eritrea. Continue reading
The president of the United States gets away with murder, literally, in large part because journalists don’t do their job of reporting the news. Long gone are the days of investigative journalism and what should be an adversarial or at the very least distant relationship between reporters and presidential administrations. Continue reading
With the Federal Communications Commission scheduled to vote today on TV stations posting political advertising data on-line, we know pretty much for certain the final tally will be 2–1. What we don’t know is on which side of the issue Democratic FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn will fall. Continue reading
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Limbaugh mocks freedom of speech
Posted on June 19, 2013 by Joel S. Hirschhorn
By now most people know that though it is perfectly fine to shout fire in a packed theater if there really is a fire, even constitutionally protected freedom of speech does not allow such behavior if there is no fire. Continue reading →