Image via WikipediaCorruption for All: Afghan Minerals and Anbar Oil
http://www.ianwelsh.net/corruption-for-all-afghan-minerals-and-anbar-oil/comment-page-1/#comment-7885
As Steve Hynd noted earlier today, the big story about new-found Afghan mineral wealth is really not a new story. It is an information operation, or a propaganda piece aimed at the US public and portions of the Washington D.C. think-tank universe.
Defending Helen Thomas
http://www.openleft.com/diary/19074/defending-helen-thomas
In the land of fake journalism, she was one of the last authentic voices to be heard, and they just couldn't wait for an excuse to get rid of her--particularly one that would make her look bad.
And here's the irony. Helen Thomas had nothing to apologize for.
Enough with the Sanctimony over Israel, Jews, Palestine and the Holocaust
http://www.ianwelsh.net/enough-with-the-sanctimony-over-israel-jews-palestine-and-the-holocaust/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IanWelsh+%28Ian+Welsh%29
The Palestinians did not deserve to be colonized, displaced and turned into 2nd class citizens in their own land because Europeans tried to kill off the Jewish people. The morality here is the same as the morality of Iraq and 9/11. “Well, some folks attacked us, so we’re going to use it as an excuse to beat the shit out of someone who was completely uninvolved.”
If objectivity is dead, then replace it with subjectivity done well
http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2010/06/11/if-objectivity-is-dead-then-replace-it-with-subjectivity-done-well/comment-page-1/#comment-80929
Be objective.
That’s the credo my newsroom presented to me, the young cub, four decades ago. But it did not require much time for me to realize that objectivity was merely an ideal, a sales pitch that proclaimed “we are professional and unbiased; thus believe us.” As the Grey Lady claims, it does its job “without fear or favor”: no bias affects the content of stories – or the selection of the stories themselves.
Well, as we see now, that’s bullshit. Journalism is entirely a subjective enterprise. Editors assign stories. Reporters select sources. Reporters select the questions for the sources. Reporters decide on the structure of the story: Does one point of view make the lede, or does the other? Editors edit the stories. Changes in structure are made, altering the reporter’s judgment. Journalism is judgment, and that involves heavy doses of subjectivity.
Yet I and hundreds of journalism professors continue to stride about our classrooms explaining and demanding objectivity from our students (who are living online quite subjectively and for the most part not doing it very well).
Well, that total obeisance to objectivity ought to end. We must ask: Do journalism faculty have a limited view of what journalism is — or how it has mutated in the age of the Internet?
Yes, I’ll explain to my students what objective journalism is and how it’s done. They need to understand basic fact-finding and neutral presentation. Employers in any arena of the communication industry demand that capability.
I can’t speak for my colleagues, but I’ll be emphasizing anew to my undergrads other words as well – judgment, balance, fairness, subjectivity and clearly labeled ethical advocacy. It is now necessary to do so in contexts beyond traditional journalism education.
Report on Monday's NYC Rally for Homeless LGBT Youth
http://godlessliberalhomo.blogspot.com
The hate crime that triggered this particular rally was described by Kicked Out Anthology:
I am shocked and angered by the vandalism that occurred at the Ali Forney Center’s NYC shelter in Queens. Yesterday morning youth living at the shelter woke up to find the words “”We don’t want gay people here” scrawled on the walls, and “gay shelter” on the door of a place that is intended to provide them safety and security. Take a moment and think about what that must have felt like “we don’t want gay people here” the majority of homeless LGBTQ youth have left home because of their parents and guardian’s reaction to their sexual orientation and/or gender identity, how bitingly cruel to wake to find those same words on the door of a place offering them sanctuary.July Protest Against Klan Brewer in Boston
From the A.N.S.W.E.R. website:On Saturday, July 10, thousands will protest against anti-immigrant racism at the National Governors Association annual meeting in Boston.
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer’s racist law, SB 1070, has ignited a firestorm of protests around the country at the very time when immigrants and their supporters are standing up for reform. In addition to SB 1070, which legalizes racial profiling and is aimed at all people of color in Arizona, the state has passed a bill, HB 2281, which bans ethnic studies from public classrooms. Other states are reportedly considering similar moves.
Action Against Oil Spills Tuesdays
http://godlessliberalhomo.blogspot.com
This will be running at least for the next few weeks in order to turn anger into action against more catastrophes like the British Petroleum oil volcano in the Gulf. If we continue offshore drilling, more incidents like this are inevitable.
British Petroleum Already Working to Weasel Out of Fairly Compensating Spill Victims
http://godlessliberalhomo.blogspot.com
"British Petroleum Restricting Access to Press"
Comments
Francis L. Holland Blog said...What are they covering up? That's easy! If the BP workers talked to the press, they would say:
"This job will never end and the beaches will never get any cleaner. We keep shoveling away oily sand, but we know that we're shoveling shit against the tide. As soon as the tide comes in the beaches will be covered with oil again.
"The public needs to know that this 'cleanup' is really only BP trying to clean up its public relations, because these beaches have been ruined for us, our children, and our children's children."
"Every time they try to build a sandcastle, they'll dig down five inches and find three inches of oily sand."
The above are not quotes from any actual BP workers and you'll never hear these quotes on the news, or read them in newspapers, because 'cleanup' workers are forbidden to tell the press the bad news.
It's like they spilled battery acid in a child's eye's and now they're forbidding the doctors they've hired from talking with the child's parents!
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