July 19...in peace for all mankind?
( I couldn't repost this for some reason. 'little indian' is an old contact...and a bit of a recluse. He comes up with interesting perspectives regardless...but is antiMuslim... too convenient a supporter of media hatemongering for my tastes. )
P U L S E
Left Progressive Media Inside The Propaganda Model
"Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one."
n a recent study by Peter Philips and the Project Censored team, the progressive US press is appraised for coverage of “sensitive” issues. The authors ask: “Are independent media strong enough to operate outside the dominate filters of corporate media in the US? … Does the propaganda model extend to the liberal press in areas where news stories are seriously denigrated or ignored by the corporate media?”
Here’s a table summary of one of their empirical findings with an accompanying excerpt. The authors conclude that self-censorship pressures and the propaganda model also accounts for the news story selection process inside the left liberal media. By their reckoning and on the measure of these key issues, the very worthwhile CommonDreams comes out as the most progressive of the selection of US progressive media outlets.
TABLE 1: Liberal Media Coverage of Sensitive News Stories
| Source | I-P* Death rates distortion | 9/11 Building 7 | Cuban 5 | US torture | 2004 Voter fraud | Impeachment movement | 9/11 pre-warning | Norad failure |
| In These Times | NO | YES-N | NO | NO | YES | YES | NO | NO |
| Buzz Flash | NO | NO | YES-P | NO | YES | YES | YES | NO |
| The Progressive | YES-P | YES-N | NO | NO | YES-P | YES | YES-N | YES-N |
| Mother Jones | YES | YES-P | NO | YES | YES | YES | YES-P | NO |
| AlterNet | NO | YES-N | YES | NO | YES | YES | YES-P | YES-N |
| The Nation | NO | YES-P | YES-N | YES | NO | YES-P | YES | YES-P |
| TruthOut | NO | YES-P | YES | YES | YES | YES-P | YES-P | YES-P |
| CommonDreams | YES-P | YES-P | YES-N | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Democracy Now | NO | NO | YES | NO | YES | YES | YES-D | YES-D |
| Z-Net | NO | NO | YES | YES | YES-P | YES | NO | YES-N |
Key
* I-P = Israel-Palestine
Yes: Coverage of the core issues
No: Did not cover the story
Yes-P: Partial coverage of the story but left out key points
Yes-N: Opinion statement against the story or negative coverage
Yes-D: Coverage of the story as a debate between antagonists
Given corporate media’s culture of compliance with governmental and corporate PR efforts and the post-9/11 atmosphere of media cooperation with the War on Terror the question for this study is to what extent this transformation impacts liberal independent media. Does the propaganda model extend to the liberal press in areas where news stories are seriously denigrated or ignored by the corporate media? Do these news stories become too sensitive or difficult for liberal independent media to cover? Do labels like “conspiracy theory” deter liberal media from covering the factual aspects of key news stories? Are some news stories so sensitive that coverage is deemed too costly to independent media’s credibility?
Researchers at Project Censored have examined these questions by conducting a content analysis of ten well-known liberal media sources on eight key news stories denigrated or ignored by the corporate media. In addition we interviewed thirteen media reform experts at the National Media Reform Conference in Memphis in January 2007, asking them why certain news stories just don‟t seem to make it into the media.
We have great respect for each of these independent media organizations in this study. We consider them some of the strongest advocates for democratic media reform, governmental transparency and grassroots empowerment in the US today. This is the reason we hope that by doing this research the best can improve for the betterment of all.
On the first issue, the distortion of the grim ratio of deaths in Palestine, the role of the israel Lobby in the US is intimated, something we at PULSE have always maintained Noam Chomsky (whose propaganda model is marshaled by the authors) as well as Norman Finkelstein have been weak on in their denials of its influence:
Eight of ten of the liberal media groups did not cover the massive imbalance of deaths occurring in the recent Intifada. Two liberal media groups did partially cover the story, but corporate media and most of the liberal media provided coverage that relayed messages of equal death rates between Israel and Palestine.“The Israel Lobby” (Mearsheimer and Walt 2006) examines the historical unwavering US support for Israel. According to Noam Chomsky the “Israel lobby gets it inputs in large part because it happens to line up with powerful sectors of domestic US power.” (1991) Given this overlap it seems that the propaganda model explains editorial decisions inside the corporate media when covering the Israel-Palestine conflict, but it leaves a question regarding why most liberal media ignore this story as well. The Israel lobby includes the ability to influence campaign contributions and donations among the broad Jewish communities in the US. Perhaps a concern of losing Jewish community donations is influencing liberal publication editorial decisions?
Read the piece in full at Media Freedom International or download from PULSE (13 pp .pdf, opens in a new window). Also check out Deconstructing Deceit: 9/11, the Media, and Myth Information (.pdf).
What Good Intentions Wrought
There is that old cliche that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Few of the worst deeds in history have been carried out with intentions that were purely evil. The perceived goodness of intentions being subjective, nothing is usually more dangerous than destructive force armed with moral certitude. In The Irony of American History, theologian Reinhold Neibhur wrote:
“Our moral perils are not those of conscious malice or the explicit lust for power. They are the perils which can be understood only if we realize the ironic tendency of virtues to turn into vices when too complacently relied on; and of power to become vexatious if the wisdom which directs it is trusted too confidently.”
As Tom Hayden had recently pointed out one of Pentagon’s leading backers in its war on Afghanistan has been the Feminist Majority. Having signed an earlier FM petition against the Taliban, Hayden belatedly came to see the ironies of their position:
But I had no idea then that I was joining The Feminist Majority in a coalition with the Pentagon to invade and occupy Afghanistan. Given the respect I have for Ellie Smeal and Kathy Spillar, among others, it’s still hard to believe that they think Afghan women can be liberated by an invading, bombing, imprisoning American army. It’s hard to believe that Predators, drones, Special Forces, detention camps and foreign occupiers are solutions to Taliban fundamentalism….In northern areas under Western occupation, the UN report found that in 39 percent of rapes “that perpetrators were directly linked to power brokers who are, effectively, above the law and enjoy immunity from arrest as well as immunity from social condemnation.”
...in his otherwise excellent piece, Chalmers Johnson also references Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould whose book is full of similar warm feeling for the noble savages who would be so grateful to their Western benefactors if it weren’t for those scheming Pakistanis...Which is like saying all Iraqis are happy with the occupation except in the Arab areas).
( It's informative to make a Search - Google is fine - with the parameters
"Islam and government corruption" ...Talk Islam 'connects the dots'.)
Racist Expropriation in Jerusalem
Our Dead Culture
Chris Hedges says America is gone. It’s lost to consumer culture and the cult of the self. We’re barreling towards collapse.
Talk Islam
plimfix 7:58 am on August 3, 2009
I converted/reverted when my two daughters were already growing up, and with mum remaining a lapsed Catholic, they are trenchantly not religious, but with friends who are Muslim, Hindu, Christian (including one evangelical) and indifferent (as are most Brits in respect of religion). Hence, like most young adults, they commit the henious crime of going to nightclubs and talking to men. The youngest is a self-declared fag hag, but is often chatted up by straight guys, including soldiers. Today, she told me that “four or five times” over the last few years, she’d been chatted up by squadies, and everytime she asked, “Why did you join the army?” The answer was always the same. “I wanted to kill Pakis.” Just a small, random poll. But worth mentioning, I thought.
thabet 7:38 am on August 3, 2009
Tags: foreign policy (171), geopolitics (64), george w bush (11), international relations (123), Israel (238), lying liars (40), middle east (23), united states (469), warmongering bastards (44)
Absurd:
President Obama needs a new envoy to the [Middle East] region who can get results—and George W. Bush is his man.
So what will Bush be? Stupid cop to Tony Blair’s lying cop?
thabet 6:10 am on August 3, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
Tags: books (82), cs lewis, jrr tolkien, literature (16)
I think this may interest some readers on this blog:
What if two of the most famous and widely read 20th Century authors who have each individually sold millions of copies of their books had written a book together?
C. S. Lewis, author of the Narnia Chronicles and Screwtape Letters, and J. R. R. Tolkien, author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, had planned in the 1940s to write a book together about Language. According to a letter written by Tolkien in 1944 to his son Christopher, the collaborative book was to be called Language and Human Nature. A news release from their publisher announced that the book was scheduled for publication in 1950. It was, however, never published. Scholars have thought, until now, that it was never started.
( Wow. I've read all except 'The Narnia Chronicles' : that would be a wild collaboration; satire, detail, colour in the cause of 'headbanging revealed'. )
thabet 6:07 am on August 3, 2009
Far-right thugs issue threats to anti-racist activists:
Far-right activists have launched a campaign of intimidation and violence against political opponents including a series of death threats and physical attacks.
Hardline fascists are targeting students and leading anti-racism activists who campaigned against the British National party in June’s European elections.
A group calling itself the Aryan Martyrs’ Brigade has issued threats including a “death warrant” sent to Weyman Bennett, the joint secretary of Unite Against Fascism, stating he will be killed before the end of the year “for crimes against all loyal white patriots and British nationalists”.
johnpi 6:03 am on August 3, 2009
Neo Nazi who talked of ‘dead Pakis’ jailed for terror plot.
A neo-Nazi who planned a terrorism campaign against ‘non-British’ was found guilty of terrorism and seven offences under the Explosives Act on July 15. Neil Lewington, 43, who once told a woman “the only good Paki was a dead Paki” had been on the verge of carrying out his murderous mission in the name of white supremacy when he was caught by chance carrying two bombs on a train.
The racist, who stored bomb-making items in his bedroom wanted to emulate his idols including London nail bomber David Copeland and Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh.
Calling himself the Waffen SS UK, he designed shrapnel bombs which he planned to hurl into the homes of Asian families.
johnpi 5:58 am on August 3, 2009
300 weapons and 80 bombs: UK media and authorities collude to stifle story about right-wing extremist threat to mosques and Muslims.
In a story that is shrouded in secrecy Counter Terrorism Units (CTU) across the UK have questioned 32 people and carried out property searches at 36 addresses leading to one of the largest seizures of arsenal since the IRA in the 1990’s.
The investigation revealed 300 weapons and 80 bombs, increasing the threat of extreme right attacks on Mosques and Muslim communities. With the exception of two arrests made in May, Leed’s CTU has categorically refused to reveal to The Muslim News further information on the raids and charges brought against the individuals which resulted in 14 arrests.
….
Head of Scotland Yard’s Violent Crime Directorate, Commander Shaun Sawyer, speaking at a meeting arranged by the Muslim Safety Forum, spoke of the threats emerging from the far right: “I fear that they will have a spectacular… they will carry out an attack that will lead to a loss of life or injury to a community somewhere. They’re not choosy about which community.”
Muslim Safety Forum Trustee, Shamiul Joarder, told The Muslim News that the reluctance to report on the threat posed by far-right extremism was part of “a concentrated effort by the mainstream media to ensure terms such as terrorist and the fear that results from this are reserved only for Muslims. We welcome Commander Sawyer’s attention towards the rise of the far right but we must ensure that the police now deal with all far right activity robustly otherwise the community will rightly observe double standards are being applied again.”
This is not the first time that actions related to terrorism, defined as violent acts against civilians to achieve a ideological aim, carried out by individuals outside of the Muslim community have been dealt with far less severity from our police forces, courts and mainstream media.
thabet
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Is Nuclear Power Renewable?
The head of the International Renewable Energy Agency – an intergovernmental group known as Irena that advises about 140 member countries on making the transition to clean energy – dismissed the notion of including nuclear power among its favored technologies.
“Irena will not support nuclear energy programs because it’s a long, complicated process, it produces waste and is relatively risky,” Hélène Pelosse, the interim director-general of Irena, told Reuters last week.
How to Make Compost made the cut for first blogger/commenter on this site.
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