Fox News’ Tucker Carlson defended accused Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira, a member of the Air National Guard arrested Thursday “in connection with the leak of dozens of highly classified documents containing an array of national security secrets” largely related to the Russian war in Ukraine, by inventing honorable motives for his alleged actions without any supporting evidence.
This is a talk Chris Hedges gave on April 6 at a protest at Princeton Theological Seminary demanding the removal of hedge fund billionaire Michael Fisch as chair of the seminary’s trustee board.
Peter Costello’s Ch9 and The Age are currently celebrating the demise of Murdoch’s Fox News. They nevertheless apply the very same business model themselves and have adopted and accelerated it since Peter Costello became CEO. They are celebrating like Rumpelstiltskin once did only they too will crash. We can be assured Ch9 won’t, any day soon, return to a fair, balanced and ethical standard of news reporting. We only need to look at their reporting on the minor adjustment to Super the ALP proposes to evaluate their true colours. It has begun with calling it “a raid” on all super accounts despite the fact that no legislation has been passed. It’s as if the first domino has already fallen which it hasn’t. According to the media, ALP are now coming after everything and everyone’s savings not just the over-rewarded wealthy’s welfare benefits that protects them from feeling the pain of inflation.
As revealed in the hearings and motions filed to date, Fox personalities such as Tucker Carlson can be seen fretting about the stock price going down. He and other stars targeted fellow staffers who did present the truth. When a Fox reporter posted a Tweet fact-checking – and dismissing – the claims against Dominion, Carlson texted another Fox host, Sean Hannity, “Please get her fired.” The offending tweet disappeared.
Human Rights Abuse, Australia denies it’s own and Israel’s but accuses China.
Palestinian prisoners can be left in grim conditions in Israel’s prisons for years, without charge or trial — just one part of the repression they endure daily.
Why is this such a regular consequence for those joining America’s and the Wests fight for “freedom and democracy”? AlQaeda, ISIS, and now Afghani Allies were all once America’s allies and are now prepared to join forces to fight against America who simply shrugged turned their backs and walked away
Many ex-Afghan security personnel accuse the United States of abandoning them after the Taliban regained power last year. They also say poverty and security concerns are factoring into their decisions to take a private Russian mercenary group up on its recruitment offers.
In separate defamation suits in the U.S. and Australia, the owners of Fox News contradict themselves by trying to avoid the punishment they seek to inflict on others.Peter MaassPeter MaassAugust 30 2022, 12:14 a.m.
Is it hypocritical to write an op-ed about my hatred of op-eds and how they are an outdated medium? Probably, but fuck it, hear me out, and I’ll explain why “I hate free speech in the marketplace of ideas.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is getting election advice from 2 of his best mates David Gazard and Scott Briggs who also make $millions from lobbying Morrison and his government which has a huge stench of corruption over it. The Liberal National Party (LNP) in Queensland have called for a Royal Commission into the Queensland government because of an identical situation where lobbyists have also advised the state government on re-elections. So, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander and the LNP should also call for a Royal Commission into why Scott Morrison’s mates are advising on his re-election “unofficially” when they are also lobbyists at DPG Advisory Solutions.
When Diplomacy and Hypocrisy stand shoulder to shoulder it’s generally over more than one issue. Australia India and Russia aren’t signatories to the Glasgow Emissions Target agreement on Climate either. We and they are all pro-coal, fossil fuels and stand alone against the rest of the world including the Australian electorate. How is it this Australian Government can declare that the friend of my enemy is our friend and still pretend to support Ukraine? They just do it without qualification expecting we will vote for them? The Morrison Government’s legacy is tarnishing us in the eyes of the world. It’s no wonder why Biden couldn’t remember ScaMo’s name but Trump could.
Barry O’Farrell, Australia’s High Commissioner to India, says the Modi government’s refusal to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is not an issue for Australia. Mr O’Farrell, the former premier of NSW, made the remarks at an event in New Delhi for the Australia India Institute, which is led by former Labor senator Lisa Singh. Lisa Singh, CEO of the Australia India Institute, and Barry O’Farrell, Australia’s High Commissioner to India, at the Australia India Institute. Lisa Singh, CEO of the Australia India Institute, and Barry O’Farrell, Australia’s High Commissioner to India, at the Australia India Institute. Australia has expressed concern about suggestions India could bypass Western sanctions via a bespoke banking system and India has been forced to defend its decision to buy up cheap Russian oil. Asked whether India’s “perceived neutrality” on Russia posed concerns for the newly revived Quad alliance – comprising Australia, the United States, India and Japan – O’Farrell said Australia opposed Putin’s war but respected India’s different stance. “In relation to what’s happening in Ukraine, Australia’s made our position very clear – Australia understands India’s position,”
Fox News’ vocal support for the far-right trucker convoys in Canada, which began in opposition to vaccine mandates for operators crossing the U.S.-Canada border but has since expanded to oppose all public health measures, has revealed Fox’s hypocritical stances on vaccine and testing policies, as well as protesters who block roads.
But now another key angle has been exposed: While, in the past, Fox opposed advances by organized labor, demeaned unions, insulted striking workers, supported companies over unions, opposed higher wages for workers, and falsely blamed unions for supply chain troubles during the COVID-19 pandemic, the company is now egging on this labor shutdown — which not only sabotages other workers, but was not authorized by any union or democratic process in the first place.
In the public domain, individuals who had known a thing or two about the spiritual and physical torment of rape expressed their puzzlement over Dutton’s response. Higgins, who is seeking redress for her own suffering in this matter, found the minister’s legal response to Bazzi “baffling”. “I’ve been offended plenty.” Despite that, it still afforded “people … the right to engage in public debate and assert their opinion.” The whole case was a “shocking indictment on free speech.”
In finding for Dutton in November, Justice White ruled that the tweet had been defamatory, and that Bazzi could not resort to the defence of honest opinion. With classic, skewering casuistry, the judge found that “Bazzi may have used the word ‘apologist’ without an understanding of the meaning he was, in fact conveying.” If this had been the case, “it would follow that he did not hold the opinion actually conveyed by the words.” Let it be known: if you do no not understand the meaning of certain words, you can have no opinions about them.
Despite his eagerness to seek damages for all grounds, Dutton was only successful on one of the four pleaded imputations. Claims for aggravated damages and an injunction targeting Bazzi’s comments, were rejected. The Defence Minister’s appetite for pursuing Bazzi for his full legal bill also troubled Justice White, who had repeatedly urged the parties to reach a settlement. Why had Dutton not sued in a lower court, he asked? The reason, claimed Dutton’s barrister Hamish Clift this month, was because his client was a prominent figure requiring a prominent stage to protect his prominent reputation. “It would not be appropriate for the court,” retorted White, “to exercise their discretion more favourably to Dutton simply because of the important public and national office of which he holds.”
19-year-old crosses State lines with a loaded weapon to attend a demonstration “without intent” and shoots 3 people in his way. No, 3 people jump in the way of his bullets. Fox News demand that he be regarded as the innocent victim.
America seems to have lost its 4th estate and with it its freedoms. When it allowed the capitalist consolidation of its media into so few corporate hands with no real Independent Public Broadcaster it became a cash for comment society.
Murdoch fled Australia for the UK because we were too small for his ambitions and he was already the dominant player of the 70s. He fled the UK in the 80s, having done the Alan Bond ” I’m too sick to old” routine and escaped jail. The UK rules were too stringent and he’d crossed the line.
So he settled for the capitalist dream and “anything-goes” freedom of America” without giving up either the UK or Aus. America offered him the ability to apply his business growth model to become the dominant influencer in the Anglo cash-for comment global market while pretending to offer news. Murdoch single handedly polluted the grand experiment in Democracy that had started 400 years before called the USA. Capitalism was his tool he didn’t invent it but he sure as hell accellerated it with his buy into cable technology, entertainment, sport, news and cash for comment. Murdoch went even a step further and globalised it through Anglosphere turning comment in the guise of news into the biggest PR bemoth.
Now, because a white 19-year-old is waiting to see if he’s convicted of murder, Carlson is calling for media accountability to tell the truth. Watching this segment one has to wonder if he killed irony. He’s certainly killed fact-based journalism.
Fox News has joined the right-wing attack against Sesame Street over a TV special that ran Saturday morning on CNN to help answer kids and parents’ questions about getting vaccinated against COVID-19, which the CDC now recommends for children aged 5-11. Fox’s attacks have just served to highlight the network’s own ongoing hypocrisy — practicing safe pandemic policies internally while urging its audience to resist those measures as part of a destructive culture war.
According to CNN, Fox’s email to employees said, “providing this information to FOX will assist the company with space planning and contact tracing.” Not only that, the process has been given the name “Fox Clear Pass,” and provides the following incentive for complying: “You no longer are required to complete your daily health screening through WorkCare/WorkMatters.” Waitaminute, that’s not a…not…a VACCINE PASSPORT, IS IT???
The corporate interests that objected to Georgia’s assault on voting rights had, of course, read the bill. They had also read the political tea leaves. They knew that it made sense to join with civil rights campaigners, democracy defenders, and everyone else who has recognized the Republican legislation as a “new Jim Crow” assault on the franchise that seeks to make it harder for people of color to cast ballots.
As is so often the case with McConnell, it was necessary this week to read around the doublespeak in order to get to his actual point: The minority leader has a problem with CEOs who openly and publicly object to the enactment of noxious legislation in Georgia.
But McConnell has no problem with CEOs that give millions of dollars to his campaigns and then use the access they have purchased to further the enactment of noxious legislation in Washington.
On December 18th, before nearly anyone else was eligible, billionaire Murdoch got his COVID shots. Now he rakes in the Billionaire Bucks from Fox News suckers who watch their top stars discourage vaccination.
Economic boycotts have been a common and effective means of protest in the US in the past century, and Americans rightly saw it as a civil and democratic way to exert non-violent pressure to effect political change.
Meanwhile Rupert Murdoch was of America’s first to be jabbed
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Fox News has been a major source of COVID-19 misinformation and conspiracy theories — but none of the network’s personalities have attained the same level of consistency and recklessness in their coverage as prime-time host Tucker Carlson.
Trump and many Republicans insist that the decisions whether to wear a mask, go to a bar or gym, or work or attend school during a pandemic should be personal. Government should play no role. Yet they also insist that what a woman does with her own body or whether same-sex couples can marry should be decided by government.
Australia is a nation of double standards. It should come as no surprise to see our politicians and our media brazenly wearing them like badges of honour. As a country, we criticise China at every available opportunity for any whiff of foreign interference, though we turn a blind eye to blatant interference coming from Israel. As many on the right say: “China has a woeful record on human rights”, as if Palestine didn’t exist. The media talked up “historic” peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. People hear the words “Middle East peace deal” and think of Israel and Palestine, yet the media have neglected to sufficiently inform the public that this dud deal that is already in jeopardy. It has not brought about peace, in fact, Gaza has seen Israel bomb their men, women and children every night for two weeks.
Few people are as responsible for the state America is in as Lachlan Murdoch and his family. Don’t let this new statement persuade you otherwise. Fox News viewers for sure will not.
Israel’s solidarity with the Kurds is duplicitous, not only because it also arms one of the Kurdish people’s biggest oppressors, but also because it supports their independence while denying millions of Palestinians that same right.
Anyway, I couldn’t help but feel that there was a little bit of inconsistency being shown here. I don’t just mean because Dutton is suggesting that we should be arresting our own protestors, while Wilson is disrupting traffic in another country. I’m talking about our position on China.
It’s better not to be a “more normal country” if that means being as prone to invasions and coups as the United States, top Russian ministers have said, firing back at bizarre remarks by a new Pentagon chief.
It would be “great” if the West “could get Russia to behave like a more normal country,” Mark Esper, the newly appointed defense secretary, was reported to have claimed while visiting Paris this week.
“Otherwise, we should have been acting like the US, bombing Iraq and Libya in blatant violation of international law… We should have supported coups, violent and anti-constitutional, like the US and its closest allies did in February 2014 [in Ukraine].”
Abbott flipped, Coleman’s flipped, Morrison flipped the panic is unbelievable (ODT)
Unbelieveable just how gutless this government is. Yiannopoulos Came fled the country witha pocket ful of cash abd an unpaid invoice for $56,000 and and they are invinting him in to do it again. Why Australia because we have a government of suckers logged into and working for Murdoch media. This isn’t about free speech its’about fraud. (ODT)
The initial push to reject the visa was met with a furious response from pro-free speech Coalition MPs, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, and some media commentators including Sky News host Andrew Bolt.
“Of course this is a backdown,” Bolt said Saturday.
“Israeli snipers shoot and kill scores of unarmed Palestinian protesters in Gaza, including kids, then calls it self-defense. When a Palestinian sniper fires at one Israeli soldier, Israel bombs Gaza with F-16s and preps for all out war.”
The depths of hypocrisy of the Republican Party in supporting Trump’s meeting with the North Korean dictator in Singapore are hard to plumb. This is a party whose leading members adopted the Ostrich Foreign Policy Principle for decades. If you don’t like a country’s government or political and economic system, pretend it does not exist.
There was that time when Sen. Ted Cruz and other Republicans lambasted Obama for visiting Cuba while there were still political prisoners in that country. So the principle is, no talks with leaders who have prisoners of conscience in their jails? Trump has broken that principle every which way from Sunday. Sen. John McCain even compared Obama’s handshake with Castro to the Hitler-Chamberlain meeting. Seriously. That’s what he said.
United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in a speech delivered on April 13 at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, insisted that disclosures about what the CIA and intelligence community are doing is a threat to the safety of Americans. He then went on to address WikiLeaks stating “We can no longer allow Assange and his colleagues the latitude to use free speech values against us.” What exactly was Pompeo referring to when he said”against us”.
North Korean Vice Chairman Kim Yong Chol met with President Donald Trump at the White House this week. As part of its efforts to denuclearize the Korean peninsula, the Trump administration is conducting negotiations with one of the world’s most brutal regimes. Human Rights Watch has described North Korea’s political prison camps as “the modern day equivalent of the Russian Gulag where prisoners are starved, beaten, tortured and worked to death.” North Korean guards club starving children to death for stealing rice, a UN report explained. Mothers have reportedly been required to observe the infanticide of their newborn babies as a form of punishment.
Despite these ongoing, egregious human rights violations, the White House is pursuing talks with Pyongyang to further U.S. interests. Washington’s engagement with Kim Jong Un makes its policy of refusing to speak with the Palestinian leadership in Gaza even more confounding. While Hamas has carried out horrific attacks, it would be hard to argue that the Islamist group’s actions, especially those in the past year, are more abhorrent than those of North Korea. If advancing U.S. interests is enough of a reason to negotiate with North Korea despite the government’s egregious human rights record, then the same logic must be considered with Hamas.
From the man who can’t keep his mouth shut, Abbott’s advice
The Abbott government’s 2014 budget set in motion $120 million of cuts to ASIC’s funding over four years, leading to the loss of more than 200 staff. At the time, the government emphasised a greater role for self-regulation instead of government intervention.
Former ASIC chair Greg Medcraft was vocal in his criticism of the budget cuts and pushing for tougher penalties for misconduct.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott.
In 2016, the Turnbull government restored the funding and boosted the regulator’s investigative powers.
Just when you thought the hypocrisy and mendacity of the British political establishment could not sink any lower, up pops the proposal to strip Asma Assad, wife to Syria’s President Bashar Assad, of her British citizenship.
The Coalition’s current explosion of self-righteous outrage is something to behold. Compared to the excesses of, say, Bronwyn Bishop, or the personal gifts bestowed on Foreign Minister Julie Bishop by Chinese companies, not to mention the hundreds of thousands donated to her branch of the WA Liberal party by Chinese who have business interests in that state,…
A tough-talking libertarian, born into the most advantaged cohort in western society, being a highly educated white middle-class male, and a member of the governing class no less, has scurried to the apron strings of the state because he has had his feelings hurt.
Sean Hannity hosted Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway to praise Donald Trump’s use of a teleprompter during a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, despite Hannity’s past obsession with criticizing President Barack Obama’s use of a teleprompter.Hannity has spent years obsessively attacking President Obama’s use of a teleprompter to
Russia’s direct military intervention into Syria has dramatically changed the dynamics of a war that has raged since 2011. #antiwar #imperialism #syria
Just when you thought the hypocrisy and mendacity of the British political establishment could not sink any lower, up pops the proposal to strip Asma Assad, wife to Syria’s President Bashar Assad, of her British citizenship.
In 2013, Trump tweeted—repeatedly—that Obama should do nothing in Syria.
His case showed us that the erroneous invocation of ‘free speech’ is effectively providing cover for hate spewers.
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