Tag: News

The New York Times explains how gangsters now Govern Israel – Pearls and Irritations

Once you get into the text, however, the review is withering, arguing that the lawbreakers have become the law makers:

“Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister and the official in Netanyahu’s government with oversight over the West Bank, was arrested in 2005 by the Shin Bet domestic security service for plotting road blockages to halt the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. He was released with no charges. Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s national security minister, had been convicted multiple times for supporting terrorist organisations and, in front of television cameras in 1995, vaguely threatened the life of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was murdered weeks later by an Israeli student.”

Subsequently, the writers note that:

“Prime Minister Rabin was murdered after rabbis passed what amounted to a death sentence on him for his support of the Oslo peace process.”

Source: The New York Times explains how gangsters now Govern Israel – Pearls and Irritations

Biden and Congress Are Destroying International Law for Israel – ScheerPost

Colonialism failed indigenous Australians who have had a continuous genetic and lived connection to the land for 75 years. Their land rights were usurped and unrecognized from 1778- 1992. Australians recently had the opportunity to recognize and reverse the injustice done in the referendum on the Voice but voted “No”.

Zionists have been Colonizing and voting “No” at the point of a gun continuously for less than 100 years and have been doing it in the 21st Century with the support of America in denial of the majority of nations and peoples of the world

Whether it is through more subtle means, as Biden prefers, or the all-out and blatant assault on the rule of law preferred by Republicans, the end result will be the same. This is a moment of truth for the ICC and for international law in general. The world has already failed Gaza, as it has failed Palestine for a century. If there can at least be some justice after the fact, there might at least be something to build a better world on.

Source: Biden and Congress Are Destroying International Law for Israel – ScheerPost

No access to north for 322 aid trucks entering southern Gaza

reporting from Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip

About 322 humanitarian trucks have been allowed to get into the Gaza Strip from both the Karem Abu Salem (known as Kerem Shalom to Israelis) crossing and the Rafah crossing here in Rafah.

These humanitarian convoys are loaded with water, sugar, flour and all kinds of basic necessities that Palestinians very desperately need.

But none of these humanitarian convoys has been given access to reach the northern part of the Gaza Strip, despite the Israeli military decision to reopen again the Erez crossing (Beit Hanoon) and to guarantee further flow of humanitarian supplies to people in the north.

Generally in times before the war, between 400 and up to 500 humanitarian trucks were reaching the Gaza Strip on a daily basis. This means these new deliveries are still incomparable to the massive needs of populations here, specifically those who are trapped in the northern parts of Gaza and facing high rates of malnutrition.

As Gaza Faces Famine, Israel Cuts Ties with UNRWA and U.S. Halts Funding for Critical Aid Agency

Despite a U.N.-backed report sounding the alarm on imminent famine in northern Gaza, Israeli authorities announced Sunday they will no longer approve the passage of any UNRWA food convoys into northern Gaza. “Our ability to adequately continue saving lives is really being obstructed,” says UNRWA spokesperson Tamara Alrifai. “What’s going to happen to UNRWA if we can no longer truly operate?” The decision came as President Biden signed a $1.2 trillion appropriations bill that strips funding to UNRWA for the next year. The U.S. first suspended aid to UNRWA in late January, when the Israeli government claimed 12 of the agency’s 30,000 employees were involved in Hamas’s attacks on October 7. The unsubstantiated allegation prompted top donors to cut funding to UNRWA, though many of them have resumed funding as the agency welcomes new donor countries and an unprecedented number of civil society donations. Seeing the U.S., the agency’s largest donor, “withhold funding … is a huge blow to us,” says Alrifai. “Stripping UNRWA of funding not only shrinks its ability to respond to the looming famine in Gaza, but also puts at risk the schools, the access of kids to proper education, the vaccines, the mother and child care — everything across the region.”

https://democracynow.cachefly.net/democracynow/360/dn2024-0328.mp4?start=2891.0

The Israeli public is dispirited. So why is the right euphoric?

Ministers and MKs dance during the 'Victory Conference' for the resettlement of Gaza at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, January 28, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Zionists the “revisionist muscle-minded Jews” have always fomented chaos, division and threat while waiting for a distracted world. Until the formation of Israel in 1948 they were terrorists. They guerillas conducting a war against both  Britain and indigenous Palestinians. They knew the British Empire was decolonising and that the Palestinians would resist their invasion. But India, China and Korea were a bigger distraction. 1967 saw America busy with Vietnam so using their own “Bethlehem Directive” as an excuse they yelled “invasion” and attacked Egypt, Syria and Jordan conducting the 6-day war netting and illegally occupying and settling even more land.

Today it’s Ukraine and Russia that have enabled another perfect storm and an effort to complete more of what was always their intended plan Eretz Israel= The Greater Israel and Final Nakba. All they needed was 7/10 which Israeli intel knew was coming and did nothing about.

The collective despondency derives from various factors, including the lingering trauma of October 7, the soldiers who continue to be killed in Gaza, the hundreds of thousands of Israelis evacuated from the southern and northern regions, the precarious economic situation, and the hostages still held in captivity.

However, it also reflects a deep understanding among significant portions of the Jewish public of several things: that the war in Gaza is not going anywhere; that the total defeat of Hamas is not a realistic goal; that the belief that military force will release the hostages is hollow; and that mass population transfer of Palestinians is not possible, both because Palestinians will refuse to leave and because no one wants to take them in.

Source: The Israeli public is dispirited. So why is the right euphoric?

Heartbroken by Israel – CounterPunch.org

Long ago, I came to believe that being a Jew, even a secular one like me, entailed certain responsibilities. A people who had suffered so much yet survived were obligated, if not honored, to serve as witnesses and supporters of other oppressed people and to live in the public interest, to model ethical lives. Albert Einstein, Jonas Salk, and Sandy Koufax all made me proud, while I felt ashamed of Roy Cohn, Alan Dershowitz, and Henry Kissinger.

I accepted his offer to meet and talk. We became friends. Over more than 40 years he’s joined Rabbi Landman as my spiritual advisor, officiating at my wedding, while offering rational possibilities in chaotic times. Of course, given the world we’re in, we’ve been talking far more urgently of late. Yes, Hamas are thugs and vandals, but how is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu any different in his behavior?

The truth is we shouldn’t have to choose between them. It’s important to get rid of them both, while, at least in our thinking, separating two power-mad and murderous ruling bodies from their people, most of whom just want peace. How can we use the “ethical monotheism” of Judaism to find common ground and a country for each? We don’t have that answer and don’t even know if it’s possible, but at least we should know what the only true goal is: to end the present horror. And that would be good for the Jews, with or without God.

Source: Heartbroken by Israel – CounterPunch.org

Israel’s Ministers attend this conference in favor of the Ethnic Cleansing of Gaza. That “joke” about beach front properties was always MORE THAN REAL

https://aje.io/86vyrq

https://aje.io/av8a82?update=2660615

Families of the captives also slammed this conference [calling for building illegal settlements in Gaza], saying the ministers who were dancing there, were “dancing on the blood” of 136 Israelis who are still being held inside of Gaza.

Protests [for the release of captives] are taking place on a near-nightly basis with the families trying to block roads, and holding signs that say, “Give up anything”, to get the captives back.

They have been reiterating this for around 115 days, saying that Israel’s government is simply not hearing their plight. They do not feel heard or seen.

They feel that the government is not keeping in line with what they have previously told them and they say that any deal that is on the table, any concession that needs to be given up [to get the captives back] – the time to do so is now.

The four horsemen of Gaza’s apocalypse – Pearls and Irritations

The policies embraced by the Biden administration not only blithely ignore the realities in the Arab world, but the realities of an extremist Israeli state that, with Congress bought and paid for by the Israel lobby, couldn’t care less what the Biden White House dreams up.

Israel has no intention of creating a viable Palestinian state.

Its goal is the ethnic cleansing of the 2.3 million Palestinians from Gaza and the annexation of Gaza by Israel. And when Israel is done with Gaza, it will turn on the West Bank, where Israeli raids now occur on an almost nightly basis and where thousands have been arrested and detained without charge since Oct. 7. 

Netanyahu says Israel must Control from the River to the Sea, but it won’t cost him his Job as it does Palestinians

When the usurpers claim victimhood you know truth is being denied. If  October 7th never occurred Israel would still continue to “Mow the Lawn”. Continue to break the peace and kill innocent Palestinians as they have in the past. Assassinations wouldn’t stop neither would the colonization of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. It’s what Israel does and has been doing since 1948 and intends to complete. They don’t intend to be a minority in Palestine.

They assassinated Yitzhak Rabin the only Prime Minister who was prepared to negotiate Peace and did the same to hundreds of other targets in third countries like the FSB pretending it wasn’t them. One might say they were role model for what Putin denies today. In Dubai, they even disguised themselves as Australians their allies without informing them. They arrested a Mossad agent, an Australian, and allowed him to commit suicide in a prison they claimed was suicide proof. However worse still they never told his parents he was arrested or dead. Yes, that’s the true nature of the beast and it cries victimhood.

When supporters of Palestinian rights use this phrase, “from the river to the sea” Zionists allege that it is murderous toward Israelis. They are wrong — it is a demand for political rights for Palestinians.

Source: Netanyahu says Israel must Control from the River to the Sea, but it won’t cost him his Job as it does Palestinians

‘False balance’: Media has a responsibility to call out lies in U.S. and UK elections

The media’s reporting on the upcoming U.S. and UK elections will have significant political implications, and they must do so without bias, writes Dr Victoria Fielding.

Manipulative media are media organisations with an agenda. The best example of agenda-driven media is the Murdoch media. Murdoch outlets may claim to be producing “news”, but, like News Corp Australia did for the “No” campaign during the Voice referendum, during the U.S. and UK elections, they will be campaigning for the U.S. Republicans and the UK Conservative Party.

Source: ‘False balance’: Media has a responsibility to call out lies in U.S. and UK elections

Inside Israel’s torture camp for Gaza detainees

Palestinian men are detained in the streets of Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, December 7, 2023. (Social media; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

They are such nice boys they’re not filming it because it would destroy the myth that the IDF are really a bunch of Paskudnyaks (A cruel person, one who enjoys making others suffer.)

The IDF Spokesperson said that Palestinians in Gaza were being detained “for involvement in terrorist activity,” and that “detainees who were found not to have been involved in terrorist activity and whose continued detention is not justified are returned to the Gaza Strip at the first opportunity.”

Regarding allegations of ill-treatment and torture, the IDF Spokesperson said that “any allegations of improper conduct in the detention facility are thoroughly investigated. The detainees are handcuffed according to their risk level and health condition, according to a daily assessment. Once a day, the military detention facility holds a doctor’s lineup to check the medical condition of the detainees requiring it.”

The detainees who spoke to +972 and Local Call, however, said that they were examined by a doctor only upon their arrival at the facility, and they did not receive any subsequent medical treatment despite their repeated requests.

 

Source: Inside Israel’s torture camp for Gaza detainees

No Israeli soldiers have stood up and refused to participate in this evil war – Pearls and Irritations

Jerusalem, Israel - May 25, 2017: Israeli soldier military man saluting to the Western wall in Jerusalem. Western wall or Wailing wall or Kotel is the most sacred place for all jewish people.

IDF-above

Jewish-Led Protest Demanding Gaza Cease-Fire Shuts Down California Capitol

Jews against Israel in California

Hitler Youth’s blinkered education from the cradle to the grave also hoped to achieve the same result. Israel may have done it in the short term but to last they will need to keep them locked in like they do in North Korea. Note the diaspora hasn’t come rushing to save Israel and they remain the majority and are furious.

It points to automatic obedience rather than to good citizenship. The army is trashing an entire region along with its residents, and that doesn’t bother our forces’ consciences.

We will never hear of any PTSD problem just as we never hear unvetted news from Israel. However, we have heard only 15% of Israelis support Netanyahu. How strange is that? Or that the IDF knew the Oct 7th was coming for a year beforehand and did nothing. They even shot their own and tried to cover it up. Pride comes before the fall

Source: No Israeli soldiers have stood up and refused to participate in this evil war – Pearls and Irritations

Old Dog Thought- Guernica was a civil war. Gaza is an invasion to drive Palestinians out of the concentration camp

Fighting Fake News with REAL, 27/12/23, Jesus was a Palestinian Jew, Guernica to Gaza, News, 250 dead in 24hours, Is there any Palestinian Jews?, Israel locks the UN and any other observers out,

Americans are Bankrolling Israel’s Unfolding Genocide in Gaza | The Smirking Chimp

It is the job of journalists to warn against abuse, exploitation, and corruption, and to shine a light on power so that an informed citizenry can decide on the course of its government. Many journalists are indeed speaking out against sidestepping the responsibility to report on genocide. More than a thousand have signed on to a letter saying they “hold Western newsrooms accountable for dehumanizing rhetoric that has served to justify ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.”

That ethnic cleansing is in full force. CCR’s lawsuit is seeking an injunction to immediately block U.S. tax dollars from supporting Israel’s war in a concrete effort to block the genocide, or at least wash the stain of Palestinian blood off American hands. Meanwhile, public support for U.S. aid to Israel has dropped, with more Americans now opposed to the military assistance than supporting it according to a Reuters-Ipsos poll. Nearly 70 percent support a ceasefire.

Source: Americans are Bankrolling Israel’s Unfolding Genocide in Gaza | The Smirking Chimp

TV interviews fuel Lehrmann’s loss of suppression fight | The New Daily

Bruce Lehrmann can be publicly named as the high-profile man accused of rape in Toowoomba.

Former federal Liberal Party staffer Bruce Lehrmann can now be revealed as the man facing rape charges in Queensland after a failed legal battle to keep his name suppressed.

Source: TV interviews fuel Lehrmann’s loss of suppression fight | The New Daily

Abbott appointment formalises relationship with the Murdoch family

Quid pro Quo backroom deals, Fake photo shoots, and Dismantling of the ABC to Maintain this nation’s colonial course. News Corp & Abbott are determined to show we are White, Christian, and Monarchist. Murdoch has appointed a psychopath with a trail of broken promises and hate to a governor of Rupert’s interests down under. The American media invasion will continue with a wannabe Knight on the board who still dreams of being PM.

Tony Abbott’s appointment to the Fox Corporation board next month will formalise a long and fruitful relationship between the former prime minister and the Murdoch family.

Source: Abbott appointment formalises relationship with the Murdoch family

The news has nothing to do with newsworthiness – Pearls and Irritations

Newsroom Studio, Big Green Screen.

I don’t mention it often but I actually have a degree in journalism. I graduated with distinction from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 2003, and while it would be another 13 years before I’d ever put my degree to any use, the experience played a massive role in forming my opinions about the mainstream press.

Source: The news has nothing to do with newsworthiness – Pearls and Irritations

“Soundbite Economics” Obscures Who’s Causing and Profiting From the Crisis

Capitalism’s apologists are throwing around economic concepts like inflation, recession, labor shortages, and supply chain shortages to justify ripping off consumers, raising rents, and depressing wages. Don’t ask them to define their terms.

Source: “Soundbite Economics” Obscures Who’s Causing and Profiting From the Crisis

Are we witnessing an election campaign without proper debate?

Daniel Andrews and Matthew Guy at ABC Radio Melbourne after their 2018 campaign debate.

However, what we are witnessing is Matthew Guy in opposition being given more time than any other opposition leader on Peter Costello’s Ch9 presented as News. When will this free time be declared a political donation because his fake promises are certainly not news or information?

At the time of writing, with only a few weeks to go, there is still no agreement between the parties for even one leaders’ debate on radio, TV or at a community forum. Senior ministers and their shadows ought similarly to be committing to open public contests where voters have an opportunity to speak directly to those who seek to govern our lives.

Source: Are we witnessing an election campaign without proper debate?

Old Dog Thought- Is this News or something else

Fighting Fake News with REAL 6/10/22; Essendon the Club for the moment; News and Conspiracies; Tanya;

Old Dog Thought- I was 6 the bread and milk were still delivered by horse and cart. Now I’m 76 the Queen is dead, and 4 story buildings are flying us around but….

Murdoch presents an Australia’s Shame Andrew Bolt even brought his notes

The IPA is a hidden voice to parliament. However, they were and have never been recognised as owners of this nation or it’s first peoples. Andrew Bolt personally endows the IPA with respect and with special rights accrued. The fundamental argument Andrew Bolt puts forward is “forget the past”. Indigenous Australians like the IPA already have the opportunity of forming a united voice to parliament but because they aren’t as special or exceptional they haven’t become another IPA. In other words, 1778 was year zero in Terra Nullus Australia when history began,

Fundamentally, Bolt’s attitude boils down to the message ” if they can’t organize themselves like the white colonizers, migrants and the IPA have it’s their own bloody culture’s fault and that needs changing.” Indigenous Australians don’t need special consideration they need a good and strong dose of whitewashing, re-education, policing and their cultural poverty erased. In many ways it’s what Bolt accuses China of doing to the Uyghurs is actually his solution here.

Unfortunately, while Bolt isn’t shy of pointing out that Indigenous Australians are “different” on every social metric. He blames them for it. He has difficulty explaining the systemic aspect racism built in over 220 years that helped create and then generationally maintain that state of difference. Lack of opportunity, Quick to criticise Andrew Bolt has never offered any explanation as to how to begin to bring about systemic change to his accepted and continued racism because refuses to admit it exists. Simply put he expects Indigenous Australians to change and be more like him White. Adam Goodes was always Bolt’s worst Blackman while Eddy Betts his best. Does that hold any longer since Eddy has stood up and pointed to the racism that Bolt denies exists?

Fighting Fake News with REAL 9/9/22; Press Freedom; with News; The Fake Dutchman who wants to Colonize Australia; Trump is alive because of Democracy;

The Murdoch media is in a class of its own with news replaced by propaganda – » The Australian Independent Media Network

In declining order of trust: The Age, SMH, Guardian online, News com.au, Sky News, Herald Sun and Daily Telegraph come below the 50% mark with Sky News boasting the highest don’t trust rating. Would someone please remind us who owns the four at the bottom of the trust scale?

Source: The Murdoch media is in a class of its own with news replaced by propaganda – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Putin Propagandist Claims Ukraine Is Bombing Itself | Crooks and Liars

Putin Propagandist Claims Ukraine Is Bombing Itself

You might remember Maria Butina as the Russian spy who was convicted in the United States and later deported back to Russia, her boyfriend pardoned by Trump. In 2021, she was elected to the State Duma as a member of United Russia. The BBC host here was gobsmacked by her replies, calling her answers “preposterous.”

Source: Putin Propagandist Claims Ukraine Is Bombing Itself | Crooks and Liars

Good Climate News: US will increase Solar Power by nearly 50% in 2022, and add 29 Gigawatts of Wind

The US will have 300 gigawatts of wind and solar by the end of 2022. We also have about 100 gigawatts of hydroelectric power. That is 400 gigawatts. If we can get enough battery storage to make full use of the sun and of strong winds, that would amount to a third of the 1200 gigawatts of electricity generation capacity in the US.

Source: Good Climate News: US will increase Solar Power by nearly 50% in 2022, and add 29 Gigawatts of Wind

Gladys Behaves With Integrity And Other Stories For Journalists – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Gladys, whose involvement with a corrupt boyfriend where she either deliberately ignored his behaviour or was dangerously incompetent at noticing, resigns before an investigation and there’s a general bashing of teeth at the unfairness of it all. This is the middle of a pandemic and changing leaders is not something anyone should want. Dan, who may or may not be appearing in an IBAC investigation which may or may not be about his behaviour, is « refusing » to stand aside and « stubbornly » continuing to lead his state and refusing to answer questions that may be a breach of the law were he to talk about the inquiry which may or may not exist. We’ll probably know more in the coming days. And if it’s discovered that Andrews has appeared then it’s only right that he should be placed in the stocks and publicly flogged, even if he was only appearing as a witness where he is cooperating to help bring to light branch stacking in the Labor Party. (Branch stacking doesn’t occur in the Liberal Party; they only have aggressive recruitment).

Source: Gladys Behaves With Integrity And Other Stories For Journalists – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Sanitising Censorship: The Twitter-AP-Reuters News Partnership – » The Australian Independent Media Network

The battle against misinformation can very often become a battle against information you do not particularly like or want people to access. The line on this is not always clear, though hope springs eternal that the marketplace of ideas, to use that increasingly empty expression, can sort the wheat from the chaff. Twitter’s calculating pivot towards this new information landscape shows a new strategy to anchor itself in an ecosystem already marginalising independent journalism. In doing so, it is courting the high priests who determine what counts as news and what doesn’t. Soon, a sanitised platform will simply be code for a censored one.

Source: Sanitising Censorship: The Twitter-AP-Reuters News Partnership – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Fox News Liars Call Biden ‘Senile’ After Speech | Crooks and Liars

Fox News Liars Call Biden 'Senile' After Speech

Fox had to cover Biden’s first prime time address after b**tching for days about no presser. So they lined up “pundits” to pan the speech afterwards. Fox News has given up having anything to do with news.

Fox News Liars Call Biden ‘Senile’ After Speech | Crooks and Liars

Never let Trump’s accomplices live down their attacks on democracy | Media Matters for America

A body with a TV for a head and an American flag overlay. The TV says "News."

Defending democracy is part of a journalist’s job

Never let Trump’s accomplices live down their attacks on democracy | Media Matters for America

Does the inner city left-wing elite exist?

ABC news boss Gaven Morris.

When ABC director of news Gaven Morris warned his staff against focusing on “inner city left-wing elites” last week he could easily have been citing from the Coalition playbook. The phrase reflects the perception of a city/country divide and a gulf between inner city and outer suburban values, and marginalises “progressive” issues as the sole preserve of a small coterie of ivory-tower inhabitants out of touch with the concerns of “real” Australians. But was Morris right to urge his staff to look beyond this audience? And do these “inner city left-wing elites” even exist?

Does the inner city left-wing elite exist?

Melbourne’s Spotless Laundry Workers Went on Strike to Stop COVID-19

What Sky News pundits don’t report the Workers Strike strike at Spotless (ODT)

At the Spotless Laundry in Melbourne’s southeast, employers demanded that work continue despite escalating numbers of COVID-19 cases. The workers refused to allow the company’s profit to be placed above their safety — and won.

Melbourne’s Spotless Laundry Workers Went on Strike to Stop COVID-19

 

The Numbers For Diversity In Australian TV News Are ‘Sobering’, But No Surprise | HuffPost Australia

The lineup from Channel 7's breakfast show,

via The Numbers For Diversity In Australian TV News Are ‘Sobering’, But No Surprise | HuffPost Australia

‘News’ becoming ‘views’: Veteran journalist Neil Clark explains plummeting trust in UK media — RT UK News

‘News’ becoming ‘views’: Veteran journalist Neil Clark explains plummeting trust in UK media

Murdoch’s business model has created a product sold as news for years and to call it blurred is to be complicit in its support. It ought not to be allowed to be sold as news. Peter Foster Australia’s great con man was jailed time and again for selling tea as something that could be regarded as blurred. Murdoch sells something that’s clearly organized and fake (ODT)

via ‘News’ becoming ‘views’: Veteran journalist Neil Clark explains plummeting trust in UK media — RT UK News

‘No Blame?’ ABC News finds 54 cases invoking ‘Trump’ in connection with violence, threats, alleged assaults. – ABC News

No Blame it’s “THEM” says Trump again (ODT)

via ‘No Blame?’ ABC News finds 54 cases invoking ‘Trump’ in connection with violence, threats, alleged assaults. – ABC News

Old Dog Thoughts- We need to save the News. We need the ABC. Restore the Cuts & revive Aunty so she can breathe

www.gstatic.com/tv/thumb/persons/86836/86836_v9...

Fighting Fake News with REAL 21/4/20; What over half Australia thinks; People vs the “Economy”; You can have both an Economy for people; COVID & The News; Miriam’s Trump;

US failed to warn Britain of strike on Qassem Soleimani

Protesters in Tehran, Iran, condemn the US air strike in Iraq that killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani. Iran has vowed "harsh retaliation".

USA and the Coalition UK and Australia read it in the Murdoch news (ODT)

US failed to warn Britain of strike on Qassem Soleimani

‘Targeted by My Own Government’: Journalists Sue Trump DHS Over ‘Coordinated Attack’ on Press Freedom | Common Dreams News

database

“When I saw my photo crossed out in a secret government database, I realized the secondary screening and interrogation wasn’t random. I was being targeted by my own government for reporting on conditions at the border.”
—Bing Guan, photojournalist

Five journalists who were tracked, detained, and interrogated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for reporting on conditions at the southern border in 2018 and 2019 brought a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration Wednesday for what the ACLU called an “unprecedented, coordinated attack on the freedom of the press.”

via ‘Targeted by My Own Government’: Journalists Sue Trump DHS Over ‘Coordinated Attack’ on Press Freedom | Common Dreams News

Old Dog Thoughts- Kurds and Iraqi’s brushed aside. The man blew himself up & it was Trump

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi when last pictured in an latest Islamic State video.

Fighting Fake News with REAL,28/10/19; Bigger than Bin Laden; Even ISIS fighters didn’t know who he was; TV Reality Show; Aussie Economy;

Too Many People Think Satirical News Is Real | Crooks and Liars

It’s a fact Fox News is the most highly rated Cable News Ch in America and some people believe it’s REAL …Trump does.(ODT)

via Too Many People Think Satirical News Is Real | Crooks and Liars

Morrison: Oppressive nihilistic negativity

This is the man the Christian man who saw political opportunity in the Cronulla riots in 2005. He’s been denying it ever since. Is he believable or is it an “on the water moment”? (ODT)

Morrison: Oppressive nihilistic negativity

The Highest-Ranking Vatican Official Ever Convicted Of Child Sexual Abuse – Collective Evolution

Collective EvolutionPublished

on

 

The Highest-Ranking Vatican Official Ever Convicted Of Child Sexual Abuse – Collective Evolution

Liberals descend into tribalism under the cover of ‘loyalty’

Anonymity of Liberal Party voices and the Press that’s the news andit smacks of little more than PR. (ODT)

And then there is the traitor-in-chief, Malcolm Turnbull. This week Turnbull reacted strongly on Twitter against a story published in The Australian. In it, an anonymous source asserted “his hands were all over” Banks’ defection. Turnbull mocked the idea as paranoid.

The same story also reported Turnbull was in contact, via text message, with his successor in Wentworth, independent Kerryn Phelps.

This was a cause for “concern” among Liberals who are angry at Turnbull being “unwilling to provide public backing to Liberal candidate Dave Sharma” during the Wentworth byelection. Never mind that Turnbull’s contact with Phelps was as part of a job handover, which shows he is doing the right thing by his former constituents. Who cares about those constituents now that they have voted the wrong way?

An anonymous Liberal was quoted as saying the contact between Phelps and Turnbull “speaks for itself and confirms everybody’s suspicions”, which is as conspiratorial as it gets.

via Liberals descend into tribalism under the cover of ‘loyalty’

Saudi Media Casts Khashoggi Disappearance as a Conspiracy, Claims Qatar Owns Washington Post

TOPSHOT - Protestors hold pictures of missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi during a demonstration in front of the Saudi Arabian consulate on October 8, 2018 in Istanbul. - Jamal Khashoggi, a veteran Saudi journalist who has been critical towards the Saudi government has gone missing after visiting the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, the Washington Post reported. Turkey has sought permission to search Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul after a prominent journalist from the kingdom went missing last week following a visit to the building, Turkish television reported on October 8. (Photo by OZAN KOSE / AFP) (Photo credit should read OZAN KOSE/AFP/Getty Images)

Saudis have learnt from Trump and Fox News just yell “fake news” hard and for long enough and a good bit of policing and you will get the support of your people and some from outside as well. After all Trump is onside. (ODT)

In Saudi Arabia, major media outlets have cast the disappearance and apparent murder of Saudi dissident and Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi as a foreign conspiracy to denigrate the image of the kingdom. The media accounts, which come from outlets run with the backing of Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf monarchies, are spinning the coverage of Khashoggi’s disappearance as a plot by rival governments and political groups to hurt the kingdom — going so far as to make false claims about the Washington Post’s owners.

via Saudi Media Casts Khashoggi Disappearance as a Conspiracy, Claims Qatar Owns Washington Post

In A World Of Fake News, You Need Fake News You Can Trust – The Shovel

via In A World Of Fake News, You Need Fake News You Can Trust – The Shovel

Fox’s Laura Ingraham sued by former personal assistant for pregnancy discrimination

Image result for images of laura ingraham

Wilson’s is the latest of multiple lawsuits alleging either discrimination or harassment at the hands of Fox News or Fox Business personalities. In 2016, the network infamously lost its founder, Roger Ailes, after former Fox host Gretchen Carlson sued him for sexual harassment, prompting many more women to come forward with their stories. The following year, Fox fired its biggest star, Bill O’Reilly, after reporting revealed he paid $32 million in hush money for a previously unreported harassment report, which was “at least the sixth agreement” that O’Reilly or Fox entered into to silence his accusers. Other Fox employees have been reported as having committed sexual harassment, assault, and rape. And Fox itself is also facing a lawsuit from a former employee who says she was terminated in retaliation for getting pregnant.

via Fox’s Laura Ingraham sued by former personal assistant for pregnancy discrimination

Wil Anderson on Tonightly: ‘People more offended by C at end of AB than about C-bomb sketch’ | Media | The Guardian

Tonightly with Tom Ballard (front) pushes the envelope with its edgy comedy on ABC.

In this case which came first the media or the politicians? In this case the politicians came from behind and were just media puppets pulled by the strings of Murdoch Media. It’s a case when neither the politicians or the media represent us. They merely try to service us in a prick of a way (ODT)

The communications minister Mitch Fifield and Australian Conservatives senator Cory Bernardi both complained about a segment in which a candidate for Bernardi’s party Kevin Bailey was called a “cunt”.

“I would say the majority of people are not offended by the word, they are more offended by the C at the end of the AB than they are about the C-bomb that was used in the sketch,” Anderson, a Triple M Hot Breakfast co-host, told Guardian Australia.

“The majority of people who are offended by these jokes are not really offended by these jokes. They are, by their very nature, offended by the very idea of the ABC and they want to prosecute an agenda against the ABC. This is just an example of something they can use to prosecute an agenda.”

via Wil Anderson on Tonightly: ‘People more offended by C at end of AB than about C-bomb sketch’ | Media | The Guardian

Getting it right: the best reporting on white supremacists and neo-Nazis | World news | The Guardian

The statue of the Confederate general Robert E Lee stands behind a crowd of hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the ‘alt-right’ during the ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville, Virginia

Getting it right: the best reporting on white supremacists and neo-Nazis

Media coverage of white supremacist groups has faced severe criticism but the past year has seen some exemplary reporting

via Getting it right: the best reporting on white supremacists and neo-Nazis | World news | The Guardian

News Corp expands its pro-Trump fakenews despite failing U.S. economy

Most TV news reports over the weekend cherry-picked Friday’s data on January’s jobs. The statistics were a mix of good news and bad. Total jobs increased. But so did people looking for work. The jobless rate for women decreased. But for men, it increased. The overall jobless rate did not go up. It did not go down either. Wages increased over the year. So did inflation.

Naturally, the pro-Trump media highlighted only the positive — in stark contrast to their approach through the Obama years.

via News Corp expands its pro-Trump #fakenews despite failing U.S. economy

In era of opinion, ABC News doubles down on facts

 

ABC News managing editor Tim Ayliffe with Patricia Karvelas and Karina Carvalho.

It’s a familiar sight in the current news landscape – panels of suited men rambling loudly on some polemical hot topic, all throbbing veins and manufactured conflict.

For ABC News boss Tim Ayliffe, it’s the right time to go back to basics.

via In era of opinion, ABC News doubles down on facts

The worst thing about Year One of Trump: Fascistization of Cable News | Informed Comment

 The worst thing about Year One of Trump: Fascistization of Cable News

This news model also allowed climate denialists and before them cigarette cancer denialists to manipulate the system. If every story has two points of view and they are equal, then you have to present both. But where one side in this debate is factually incorrect, it means you are doing the opposite of journalism. You are diluting the truth with false, paid-for propaganda.

Cable news is now pumping out Trump talking points hourly to millions of people around the globe, because of their broken business model. It is degrading our society and our human values. The editors and the CEOs need to look at themselves in the mirror and decide if they really want brown shirts beating up their children in the streets, because that is where this thing is going.

via The worst thing about Year One of Trump: Fascistization of Cable News | Informed Comment

The Post is a timely reminder of the struggle between press freedom and government lies | Peter Greste | Film | The Guardian

“We have to be their check on power,” declares Post editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks), as he argues the case for printing the story with publisher Katharine Graham (Meryl Streep) while she wrestles with the possibility of losing her business and winding up in prison in the process. “We have to hold them accountable. If we don’t, who will?”

“In the absence of the governmental checks and balances present in other areas of our national life, the only effective restraint upon executive policy and power in the areas of national defence and international affairs may lie in an enlightened citizenry – in an informed and critical public opinion which alone can here protect the values of democratic government,” he wrote. “For this reason, it is perhaps here that a press that is alert, aware, and free most vitally serves the basic purpose of the first amendment. For, without an informed and free press, there cannot be an enlightened people.”

However then came Murdoch and Fox News and now Sinclair

via The Post is a timely reminder of the struggle between press freedom and government lies | Peter Greste | Film | The Guardian