I have watched incredulous as the CIA’s blatant lie has grown and grown as a media story—blatant because the CIA has made no attempt whatsoever to substantiate it. There is no Russian involvement in the leaks of emails showing Clinton’s corruption. Yes this rubbish was the lead Sunday in the Washington Post in the US and the Guardian here, and was the lead item on the BBC main news. I suspect it is leading the American broadcasts also. Continue reading
First Amendment rights are America’s most precious. Without them, all others are endangered. Continue reading
On Saturday CNN put forth on program after program that the recent US presidential election was interfered with by the Russians, offering no proof. Continue reading
If you have any doubts that the phenomenon of Donald Trump was a long time a’coming, you have only to read a piece that Gore Vidal wrote for Esquire magazine in July 1961, when the conservative movement was just beginning and even Barry Goldwater was hardly a glint in Republicans’ eyes. Continue reading
The presstitute media delivered the false news, not from Russian propaganda websites such as the Washington Post accuses this one of being, but from Obama’s US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The false news is that the collapsing economy continues to boom with 178,000 new jobs in November and a further fall in the rate of unemployment to 4.6%. Continue reading
Powerful interests in America threaten alternative sources of news, information and opinion. Continue reading
Edgar Welch, a 28-year old resident of North Carolina, entered the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in northwest Washington, DC’s Cleveland Park on a quiet Sunday afternoon claiming to be some sort of citizen journalist who was “self-investigating” a bogus story floating around the Internet. The story, which has no merit, was amplified by social media during the recent presidential campaign. The story claimed that the pizza restaurant was some sort of nexus for a shadowy pedophile ring reaching into the inner circle of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Continue reading
On November 25, the Washington Post ran an article entitled: “Research ties ‘fake news’ to Russia.” It’s all about how sources in Russia are flooding American media and the Internet with phoney stories designed as “part of a broadly effective strategy of sowing distrust in U.S. democracy and its leaders.” Continue reading
On November 16, at a State Department press briefing, department spokesperson John Kirby was having one of his frequent adversarial dialogues with Gayane Chichakyan, a reporter for RT (Russia Today); this time concerning US charges of Russia bombing hospitals in Syria and blocking the UN from delivering aid to the trapped population. When Chichakyan asked for some detail about these charges, Kirby replied: “Why don’t you ask your defense ministry?” Continue reading
I had a sobering thought as I watched a video I’d rented recently, to wit, we may now be sliding toward rule by totalitarian fascists. Continue reading
The Washington Post’s promotion of a new, “McCarthyistic” so-called black list has journalists aghast over what appears to be a red scare redux, as independent news outlets critical of U.S. foreign policy are being smeared as “Russian propaganda.” Continue reading
Let’s talk about fake news stories, shall we? Continue reading
The corporate news media, allied with “media watchdog” groups, many financed with global billionaire troublemaker George Soros, have trotted out a new dog whistle to attack their opponents: “fake news stories.” The issue of “fake news stories” was even raised by outgoing President Barack Obama in a news conference in Berlin with German chancellor Angela Merkel. Both leaders cited “fake news stories” as something that threatens international stability. Continue reading
The “war on terror” has simultaneously been a war on truth. For fifteen years—from 9/11 to Saddam Hussein’s “weapons of mass destruction” and “al Qaeda connections,” “Iranian nukes,” “Assad’s use of chemical weapons,” endless lies about Gadaffi, “Russian invasion of Ukraine”—the governments of the so-called Western democracies have found it essential to align themselves firmly with lies in order to pursue their agendas. Now these Western governments are attempting to discredit the truth-tellers who challenge their lies. Continue reading
In his article, “Russian propaganda effort helped spread ‘fake news’ during election, experts say,” the Washington Post’s so-called reporter Craig Timberg shows how far the corporate media have sunk. Continue reading
It is impossible to count the myriad ways in which the media botched FBI Director James Comey’s Friday announcement that the agency had found a cache of emails that seemingly (a key word) pertain to Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server. I heard the news via CNN at an airport while waiting to board a plane. No one needs to be told that CNN is a journalistic disgrace—a textbook case of the decline of American media, all the more depressing because, unlike Fox News and MSNBC, it purports to be a real news organization. Instead, it is a ratings machine, and it is beyond contemptible. Continue reading
It is a cliché by now that Donald Trump has run a reality show campaign—a series of gaffes, surprises, outrages, weirdnesses, explosions, revelations, and just every other ingredient that comprise the popular TV genre of faux authenticity. On reality TV, the subjects are seldom artists or entertainers or high achievers in any field. They are personalities. Their roles are their lives, which creates a Möbius strip. What do the Kardashians actually do besides being on their show, which has, of course, generated all sorts of commercial opportunities that almost make it seem as if they are doing something? What is their talent, other than the talent for self-promotion? Continue reading
The filmmaker facing a lengthy prison sentence for documenting a nonviolent civil disobedience action last week has spoken out on behalf of journalism, the First Amendment, and the global climate movement. Continue reading
The New York Times long ago lost credibility, deplorably serving as a press agent for wealth, power and privilege—publishing virtual state-sponsored propaganda on major world and national issues, especially when America goes to war. Continue reading
America, Britain and their rogue partners want total control over information dissemination, alternative voices silenced—things headed incrementally in this direction. Continue reading
In his second debate with Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, rather than apologizing profusely for his lewd comments on “Access Hollywood,” decided to double down on Clinton by inviting into the audience four women from the newspaper headlines of the 1990s who accused Bill Clinton of sexual assault. Trump also used the debate to vow to put Mrs. Clinton in jail if he is elected president. Continue reading
A brief Google search showed deplorable one-sided scoundrel media reports on Saturday’s Security Council session, focused on Aleppo. Continue reading
There are all sorts of lessons to be drawn from Donald Trump’s “Access Hollywood” video. This is the one I draw because I think it speaks most forcefully to the Trump media barrage: a candidacy launched by television has now most likely come undone thanks to television, particularly one aspect of television—its macho culture. Continue reading
Below is a letter written by Eva Bartlett, Canadian journalist, who has journeyed to Syria on numerous occasions, including this past July and August. Eva is responding to a Democracy Now (DN) program several days ago in which Amy Goodman focused on Syria. Amy’s star guest was Yasser Munif, an assistant professor at Emerson College in Massachusetts. Continue reading
In March 2011, America launched proxy war on Syria, raping a nonbelligerent country, using ISIS and other terrorist fighters as imperial foot soldiers—Pentagon warplanes supporting them. Continue reading
There is a worrying trend among America’s so-called “liberals” sweeping the country. Any computer security breach and voting irregularity is being blamed by a number of liberals who count themselves as supporters of Hillary Clinton, one-time supporters of Bernie Sanders, or neo-conservatives who abandoned the Republican Party for Clinton as being the fault of Vladimir Putin and Russia. Such fear-mongering is reminiscent of the right-wing’s “Red Scare” tactics of the late 1940s and 50s and the supporters of Wisconsin’s junior senator, the Red-baiting Joseph McCarthy. Continue reading
Washington journalist sources report that there is something of a revolt taking place at The Washington Post among many of its reporters over the paper’s recent editorial that not only rejected calls for a presidential pardon for National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden but called for his return to the United States from Russia and face arrest, prosecution, and a likely long prison term. The editorial appeared in the September 17 edition of the paper. Continue reading
The New York Post, a Rupert Murdoch tabloid publication that isn’t likely to win a Pulitzer Prize anytime soon, splashed a full page picture of a smiling Jennifer Anniston on its Sept. 21 front cover. In the upper left-hand space it placed all-capitals text: “BRANGELINA 2004–2016.” Inside the Post were four full consecutive pages, and a half page and part of a column deeper in the newspaper, all devoted to one of the most critical social issues facing the country—Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are getting a divorce. Continue reading
The New York Times’ editorial policy appears driven to reach new abysmal reporting and opinion lows, a deplorable laughing stock, especially on geopolitical issues, notably when America goes to war. Continue reading
It’s a good time to repeat what I’ve said before. All the news The New York Times claims fit to print isn’t fit to read. Continue reading
The latest from the Gallup Poll is that only 32% of Americans trust the print and TV media to tell the truth. Continue reading
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‘Fake news’: Who is really making the war on truth?
Posted on December 15, 2016 by Michael Jabara Carley
The other day David Ignatius, a columnist at the Washington Post, declared sententiously that “truth is losing.” He meant of course “the truth” according to the US government. Ignatius recently interviewed Richard Stengel, a State Department official responsible for “public diplomacy,” someone who had previously worked for Time magazine, a stellar source of “truth” and the “American way.” Things are getting tough, Stengel said. We’ve entered “a ‘post-truth’ world, where the facts are sometimes overwhelmed by propaganda from Russia and the Islamic State.” You can see right away where this conversation is headed. And how outrageous to compare Russia and the IS, when the original purveyors of Salafi-Jihadism are located in Washington, DC. Continue reading →