Thursday, June 24, 2010

Fantasyland Media:

http://www.fantasylandmedia.org

Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine. News that the people in charge, the corporations and your government want keep from the public eye.

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Huffington Post (Sean Miller):
"ACORN Vindicated of Wrongdoing by the Congressional Watchdog Office.
A preliminary probe by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) of ACORN has found no evidence the association or related organizations mishandled the $40 million in federal money they received in recent years. A review of grants by nine federal agencies found no problems with ACORN's grants. In my book Seeds of Change I document how ACORN, the largest most successful national anti poverty organization in America, was forced to close its door.
The GAO interviewed and obtained documentation from grant program managers and staff from nine agencies...
The GAO, an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congress, is often called the 'congressional watchdog.' It investigates how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars." 
-->How many stories did The NY Times do about right wing charges against Acorn? Enough stories to think that our newspaper of record would have printed at least one article about how all the charges were proven to be false by the GAO.
-----------------
On June 22, Fresh Air did a segment on Gaza featuring Lawrence Wright (author of "The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11). The interview with Wright, while it showed a new direction in Pentagon thinking about Gaza, also showed the extent of manipulation and misrepresentation that remains in US foreign policy.
Wright acknowledges the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, and that's the breakthrough. What's left is the basic assumption that the entire problem comes from the hatred and distrust between two ethnic identities. Time and time again, the role of the US is completely left out. According to Wright, Hamas overthrew Fatah in Gaza; there was no mention of the Fatah coup that was backed by the US and Israel. Egypt keeps the blockade of Gaza in force because it fears Islamic fundamentalism. US aid to Egypt is simply not brought up.  
Wright frames the suffering as equal on both sides. And the responsibility for all this suffering? Here is the most intractable part. The occupation, the ethnic cleansing, the racist dehumanizing that is at the core of apartheid Israel simply doesn't exist. Peace will be hard to achieve because the two sides hate each other. Not because one side, backed by the world's only superpower, has all the weaponry, and little if any respect for human rights or international law.
The fact that Hamas asked for a thousand prisoners in exchange for one IDF soldier held captive in Gaza was turned into a questioning of why Palestinians value their lives so much less than Israelis value theirs. Why bring up the over 10,000 Palestinians languishing in Israeli jails? This is just Fresh Air/NPR reporting with the same old pro-Israeli blinders on.
-----------------
UN News Center:
A three-member United Nations body has called for an end to human rights violations by Israel in the occupied territories of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and the Syrian Golan Heights, after hearing from dozens of witnesses during a recent visit to the region.
'The testimonies that we have heard attest to a failure to address the long-standing pattern of serious violations of human rights,' said Ambassador Palitha Kohona of Sri Lanka, who serves as Chairman of the UN Special Committee on Israeli Practices in the Occupied Territories.
'Victims of the systematic and often arbitrary restrictions on human rights and basic freedoms have the right to see justice prevail,' he added. 'Violations must cease.' "
-->Imagine if a UN commission made the same statements about Iran? The NY Times would have put them on the front page to build support for the pending US attack. But since the commission is about Israeli war crimes, the story didn't get printed.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Fantasyland Media:

http://www.fantasylandmedia.org

Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine. News that the people in charge, the corporations and your government want keep from the public eye.

---------

WAMC/NPR:
The BBC report (June 14) by Tim Franks on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla was a new low for Public Radio. Mr. Franks gives airtime to a viscous parody of the flotilla victims, nine unarmed civilians gunned down in international waters by Israeli commandos. Not only that, but Mr. Franks interviews the director on why he made the parody. 
Should parodies be made of civilian victims of violence? How about a parody of 9/11 victims? Would NPR be interviewing the director of such a parody? Or how about a parody of the victims of the Holocaust? 
I urge listeners to actually view this Israeli parody of their recent massacre. It says nothing about the true victims of the violence, but worlds about a country that has lost its moral bearings in its racist and murderous treatment of millions of Palestinians. (NOTE: YouTube has now removed the video, and the only place you can listen to it is on NPR's program archives)
---------------
IFCO/Pastors for Peace:
"The U.S. Government Doesn't Want You to Go to Cuba. We say come with us to see for yourself. Pastors for Peace 21st Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba   
July 3 – August 3, 2010
Many of us hoped that President Obama's election would bring about some changes in many aspects of  US policy - including the ending of the illegal, immoral, and internationally condemned US economic blockade against Cuba. By now, a year has passed: but the fundamental mechanisms of the blockade remain in full force, with just a few small exceptions...
But Cuba is still deemed an 'enemy' under the Trading with the Enemies Act. Sales of US products to Cuba are still severely restricted, and sales of Cuban products to the US are absolutely forbidden. Banks and businesses in other countries are still harassed for doing business with Cuba. The travel ban on US citizens visiting Cuba remains. This cruel and immoral blockade has been in place almost 50 years, and has outlasted 10 US presidents.

...In July 2010 our caravan will travel in school buses, trucks and cars along 13 different routes, visiting 130 US and Canadian cities. At every stop we will educate people about the blockade while collecting construction supplies and tools, medical supplies and equipment, educational and cultural supplies, to be donated to our sisters and brothers in Cuba."
-->Pastors for Peace has been organizing these caravans to break the illegal blockade of Cuba for many years. The New York Times hasn't covered this story since 1992. It is obviously not what the Pentagon wants Americans to read about each year.
---------------
Guardian UK:
"Since the flotilla assault, world attention has shifted to Israel's blockade of Gaza. Pressure to ease it will intensify today when EU foreign ministers are expected to adopt a robust position. Spain, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, will pres s for a vigorous approach, with support from France, Italy and the UK. The Spanish prime minister, José Luis Zapatero, called at the weekend for a strong joint EU position on the siege.
Zapatero said his foreign minister, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, would argue at the meeting that the EU should stand up for the end of the blockade on Gaza and extend all its political and diplomatic capacity to reach that goal."
-->International pressure to break the blockade of Gaza? Readers of The NY Times will never get the full story of international condemnation. In this case, both the Pentagon and the Israeli lobby triumph over the American people's right to know.
---------------
Huffington Post:
"ACORN Vindicated of Wrongdoing by the Congressional Watchdog Office.
A preliminary probe by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) of ACORN has found no evidence the association or related organizations mishandled the $40 million in federal money they received in recent years. A review of grants by nine federal agencies found no problems with ACORN's grants. In my book Seeds of Change I document how ACORN, the largest most successful national anti poverty organization in America, was forced to close its door.
The GAO interviewed and obtained documentation from grant program managers and staff from nine agencies...
The GAO, an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congress, is often called the 'congressional watchdog.' It investigates how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars."
-->How many stories did The NY Times do about right wing charges against Acorn? Enough stories to think that our newspaper of record would have printed at least one article about how all the charges were proven to be false by the GAO.

Fantasyland Media:

http://www.fantasylandmedia.org

Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine. News that the people in charge, the corporations and your government want keep from the public eye.

---------

WAMC/NPR:
The BBC report (June 14) by Tim Franks on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla was a new low for Public Radio. Mr. Franks gives airtime to a viscous parody of the flotilla victims, nine unarmed civilians gunned down in international waters by Israeli commandos. Not only that, but Mr. Franks interviews the director on why he made the parody. 
Should parodies be made of civilian victims of violence? How about a parody of 9/11 victims? Would NPR be interviewing the director of such a parody? Or how about a parody of the victims of the Holocaust? 
I urge listeners to actually view this Israeli parody of their recent massacre. It says nothing about the true victims of the violence, but worlds about a country that has lost its moral bearings in its racist and murderous treatment of millions of Palestinians.
---------------
IFCO/Pastors for Peace:
"The U.S. Government Doesn't Want You to Go to Cuba. We say come with us to see for yourself. Pastors for Peace 21st Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba   
July 3 – August 3, 2010
Many of us hoped that President Obama's election would bring about some changes in many aspects of  US policy - including the ending of the illegal, immoral, and internationally condemned US economic blockade against Cuba. By now, a year has passed: but the fundamental mechanisms of the blockade remain in full force, with just a few small exceptions...
But Cuba is still deemed an 'enemy' under the Trading with the Enemies Act. Sales of US products to Cuba are still severely restricted, and sales of Cuban products to the US are absolutely forbidden. Banks and businesses in other countries are still harassed for doing business with Cuba. The travel ban on US citizens visiting Cuba remains. This cruel and immoral blockade has been in place almost 50 years, and has outlasted 10 US presidents.

...In July 2010 our caravan will travel in school buses, trucks and cars along 13 different routes, visiting 130 US and Canadian cities. At every stop we will educate people about the blockade while collecting construction supplies and tools, medical supplies and equipment, educational and cultural supplies, to be donated to our sisters and brothers in Cuba."
-->Pastors for Peace has been organizing these caravans to break the illegal blockade of Cuba for many years. The New York Times hasn't covered this story since 1992. It is obviously not what the Pentagon wants Americans to read about each year.
---------------
Guardian UK:
"Since the flotilla assault, world attention has shifted to Israel's blockade of Gaza. Pressure to ease it will intensify today when EU foreign ministers are expected to adopt a robust position. Spain, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, will pres s for a vigorous approach, with support from France, Italy and the UK. The Spanish prime minister, José Luis Zapatero, called at the weekend for a strong joint EU position on the siege.
Zapatero said his foreign minister, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, would argue at the meeting that the EU should stand up for the end of the blockade on Gaza and extend all its political and diplomatic capacity to reach that goal."
-->International pressure to break the blockade of Gaza? Readers of The NY Times will never get the full story of international condemnation. In this case, both the Pentagon and the Israeli lobby triumph over the American people's right to know.
---------------
Huffington Post:
"ACORN Vindicated of Wrongdoing by the Congressional Watchdog Office.
A preliminary probe by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) of ACORN has found no evidence the association or related organizations mishandled the $40 million in federal money they received in recent years. A review of grants by nine federal agencies found no problems with ACORN's grants. In my book Seeds of Change I document how ACORN, the largest most successful national anti poverty organization in America, was forced to close its door.
The GAO interviewed and obtained documentation from grant program managers and staff from nine agencies...
The GAO, an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congress, is often called the 'congressional watchdog.' It investigates how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars."
-->How many stories did The NY Times do about right wing charges against Acorn? Enough stories to think that our newspaper of record would have printed at least one article about how all the charges were proven to be false by the GAO.

Fantasyland Media:

http://www.fantasylandmedia.org

Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine. News that the people in charge, the corporations and your government want keep from the public eye.

---------


WAMC/NPR:
The BBC report (June 14) by Tim Franks on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla was a new low for Public Radio. Mr. Franks gives airtime to a viscous parody of the flotilla victims, nine unarmed civilians gunned down in international waters by Israeli commandos. Not only that, but Mr. Franks interviews the director on why he made the parody. 
Should parodies be made of civilian victims of violence? How about a parody of 9/11 victims? Would NPR be interviewing the director of such a parody? Or how about a parody of the victims of the Holocaust? 
I urge listeners to actually view this Israeli parody of their recent massacre. It says nothing about the true victims of the violence, but worlds about a country that has lost its moral bearings in its racist and murderous treatment of millions of Palestinians.
---------------
IFCO/Pastors for Peace:
"The U.S. Government Doesn't Want You to Go to Cuba. We say come with us to see for yourself. Pastors for Peace 21st Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba   
July 3 – August 3, 2010
Many of us hoped that President Obama's election would bring about some changes in many aspects of  US policy - including the ending of the illegal, immoral, and internationally condemned US economic blockade against Cuba. By now, a year has passed: but the fundamental mechanisms of the blockade remain in full force, with just a few small exceptions...
But Cuba is still deemed an 'enemy' under the Trading with the Enemies Act. Sales of US products to Cuba are still severely restricted, and sales of Cuban products to the US are absolutely forbidden. Banks and businesses in other countries are still harassed for doing business with Cuba. The travel ban on US citizens visiting Cuba remains. This cruel and immoral blockade has been in place almost 50 years, and has outlasted 10 US presidents.

...In July 2010 our caravan will travel in school buses, trucks and cars along 13 different routes, visiting 130 US and Canadian cities. At every stop we will educate people about the blockade while collecting construction supplies and tools, medical supplies and equipment, educational and cultural supplies, to be donated to our sisters and brothers in Cuba."
-->Pastors for Peace has been organizing these caravans to break the illegal blockade of Cuba for many years. The New York Times hasn't covered this story since 1992. It is obviously not what the Pentagon wants Americans to read about each year.
---------------
Guardian UK:
"Since the flotilla assault, world attention has shifted to Israel's blockade of Gaza. Pressure to ease it will intensify today when EU foreign ministers are expected to adopt a robust position. Spain, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, will pres s for a vigorous approach, with support from France, Italy and the UK. The Spanish prime minister, José Luis Zapatero, called at the weekend for a strong joint EU position on the siege.
Zapatero said his foreign minister, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, would argue at the meeting that the EU should stand up for the end of the blockade on Gaza and extend all its political and diplomatic capacity to reach that goal."
-->International pressure to break the blockade of Gaza? Readers of The NY Times will never get the full story of international condemnation. In this case, both the Pentagon and the Israeli lobby triumph over the American people's right to know.
---------------
Huffington Post:
"ACORN Vindicated of Wrongdoing by the Congressional Watchdog Office.
A preliminary probe by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) of ACORN has found no evidence the association or related organizations mishandled the $40 million in federal money they received in recent years. A review of grants by nine federal agencies found no problems with ACORN's grants. In my book Seeds of Change I document how ACORN, the largest most successful national anti poverty organization in America, was forced to close its door.
The GAO interviewed and obtained documentation from grant program managers and staff from nine agencies...
The GAO, an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congress, is often called the 'congressional watchdog.' It investigates how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars."
-->How many stories did The NY Times do about right wing charges against Acorn? Enough stories to think that our newspaper of record would have printed at least one article about how all the charges were proven to be false by the GAO.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Fantasyland Media:

http://www.fantasylandmedia.org

Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine. News that the people in charge, the corporations and your government want keep from the public eye.

---------

The Independent:
"A US cruise missile armed with cluster ammunition was used in an attack in Yemen in December which resulted in the deaths of 52 people, more than half of them women and children, according to a human rights watchdog.
The Yemeni government insisted their forces alone carried out the strike on an al-Qa'ida training camp in the Abyan region. US authorities backed the claim that insurgents had been attacked but officially denied direct involvement in the attack.
However, Amnesty International has now released photographs of missile parts from the attack which appear to show that it was a BGM-109D Tomahawk cruise missile designed to be launched from a warship or submarine." 
-->The fact that our country would send missiles into another nation not at war with America is inconceivable to most US citizens. The fact that so many women and children were killed in the attack makes it even harder to believe. The NY Times, always the defender of US unilateral aggression, didn't print the Amnesty story.
---------------
Guardian.co.uk:
"The Israeli government has been forced to apologise for circulating a spoof video mocking activists aboard the Gaza flotilla, nine of who were shot dead by Israeli forces last week.
The YouTube clip, set to the tune of the 1985 charity single We Are the World, features Israelis dressed as Arabs and activists, waving weapons while singing: 'We con the world, we con the people. We'll make them all believe the IDF (Israel Defence Force) is Jack the Ripper.'
It continues: 'There's no people dying, so the best that we can do is create the biggest bluff of all.' 
The Israeli government press office distributed the video link to foreign journalists at the weekend, but within hours emailed them an apology, saying it had been an error. Press office director Danny Seaman said the video did not reflect official state opinion, but in his personal capacity he thought it was 'fantastic.' "
-->Such stories of Israeli insensitivity after murdering aid workers on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla are routinely kept out of our newspaper of record, The NY Times. Maybe it reflects the insensitivity of our leaders, like VP Biden, who said "What's the big deal?" when a 19 year old US citizen was shot in the head four times at close range. 
---------------
Common Dreams:
"PORTLAND, Maine -- A Maine video producer recalled hearing shots amid the chaos that broke out as Israeli troops raided the aid flotilla he was on that was attempting to break Israel's blockade of Gaza.
Scott Hamann of South Portland arrived in Maine late Friday night, five days after the flotilla was intercepted by Israeli troops, resulting in the deaths of nine pro-Palestinian activists...
He and hundreds of others on the flotilla were then brought to an Israeli prison and detained before they were deported. There, Israeli troops and intelligence officers intimidated and threatened the prisoners, he said. After being brought to an airport to be put on a plane, two deportees were attacked by soldiers when they refused to sign deportation orders, he said.
One of them, he said, was an American citizen who was beaten and bloodied. When soldiers gave him water to wash his face, he refused to do so, saying he wanted people to see what they did to him, Hamann said.
'Then they beat him up really bad and we haven't seen him since. The status, the last I heard, isn't good,' he said."
-->This first hand account of the Israeli attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla was not reported in The NY Times, which has instead relied on a stream of official statements on the massacre from the Israeli government.

Friday, June 04, 2010

Fantasyland Media:

http://www.fantasylandmedia.org

Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine. News that the people in charge, the corporations and your government want keep from the public eye.

---------

NY Times:
"Hundreds of protesters gathered in Istanbul on Monday to condemn Israel's naval raid."

-->The NY Times even had a picture of these protests. The only trouble is the Huffington Post reported: "10,000 people here in Istanbul marched from the Israeli consulate to the city's main square, while thousands more took to the streets in Ankara, expressing outrage..."

Was it hundreds, or 10,000 in Istanbul? And The NY Times made no mention of a assault on the Israeli Embassy. The Guardian reported that "Thousands of Turkish protesters tried to storm the Israeli consulate in Istanbul."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/phyllis-bennis/from-istanbul-outrage-ove_b_596158.html?ref=email_share

NY police had estimated a crowd of up to 2,000 on Monday in Times Square, protesting Israel's massacre. Although the march was in shouting distance of the NY Times, no picture or report of that action made it into our newspaper of record.

---------------

NY Times:
"...it is difficult to establish the sequence of events or, more simply, to determine who attacked first."

-->Wednesday's NY Times has a front page article about how hard it is to see which side is to blame for the massacre. Let's see. Armed commandos drop on a cargo ship in international waters and kill 10 unarmed civilians, wounding up to 50. But who started it? Whose fault is it? The NY Times just can't seem to figure it out.

---------------

NY Times:
"Despite sporadic rocket fire from the Palestinian territory against southern Israel, Israel says it allows enough basic supplies through border crossings to avoid any acute humanitarian crisis."

-->Isabel Kershner writing for the NY Times always goes to her favorite source when explaining things to readers - the Israeli government. She could have asked the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: "As a consequence of Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip, 98 percent of industrial operations have been shut down since 2007 and there are acute shortages of fuel, cash, cooking gas and other basic supplies....Water-related health problems are widespread in the Strip because of the blockade and Israel's military operation in Gaza, which destroyed water and sanitation infrastructure, including reservoirs, wells, and thousands of kilometres of piping....Chronic malnutrition has risen in Gaza over the past few years to reach 10.2 percent..."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/06/01-8
(Thanks to FAIR for this article on pro-Israel bias in the press)

Nor does Ms. Kershner ever question her favorite source, reporting Israel's claim that the commando operation was legal without the least bit of skepticism. Legal scholars have characterized Israel's claims as completely without merit.

---------------

Washington Post:
"We have no sympathy for the motives of the participants in the flotilla--a motley collection that included European sympathizers with the Palestinian cause, Israeli Arab leaders and Turkish Islamic activists."

-->The Washington Post is both judge and jury when it comes to killing "motley" collections of people by military commandos. The Third Reich would have been proud.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/06/01-8

---------------

PressTV:
"UN Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs Oscar Fernandez-Taranco has called on Israel to end its "unacceptable" blockade of the Gaza Strip. Fernandez-Taranco, who was speaking at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, said that Israel's Monday attack on peace activists on a flotilla of ships off the coast of Gaza would not have happened without the blockade. He was speaking in proxy for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, DPA reported."
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=128565&sectionid=351020202

-->The NY Times did not report this statement or even the UN debate, for that matter.
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