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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The New York Times:
"Public Unions Take On Boss to Win Big Pensions: Government unions are using their influence and campaign contributions to stave off cutbacks."
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/22/business/22union.html?_r=1&hp
-->NY Times exposés about big salaries and pensions usually involve supposed union abuses. What if The NY Times had front page pictures of our nation's CEOs who make an average of $11,000,000 per year, a 23% increase since 2010 (S&P 500 Companies). How about Viacom's Philippe Dauman who made $84,500,000, Oracles's Lawrence Ellison who made $70,000,000, or IBM's S.J. Palmisano who made $31,700,000? Our newspaper of record would prefer its readers concentrate on the union lifeguard in Laguna Beach, CA who earns $84,000 per year. For those interested in doing the math, the lifeguard gets .0009% of what Viacom's CEO brings home each year.
"According to the Federal Reserve, U.S. corporations held a record $1.93 trillion in cash on their balance sheets in 2010. But they are not investing to expand their companies, grow the real economy or create good middle-class jobs. Corporate CEOs are literally hoarding their company’s cash—except when it comes to their own paychecks." -from Executive Paywatch
The trouble is that many Board of Directors of The New York Times are themselves high paid executives of venture capital, investment, pharmaceutical, and other large corporate enterprises. When is the last time The NY Times ran a story supporting unions, or explaining their importance in winning higher wages for all working people?
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Common Dreams:
"Osama al-Nujaifi, the Iraqi parliament speaker, has told Al Jazeera that the amount of Iraqi money unaccounted for by the US is $18.7bn - three times more than the reported $6.6bn.
Just before departing for a visit to the US, al-Nujaifi said that he has received a report this week based on information from US and Iraqi auditors that the amount of money withdrawn from a fund from Iraqi oil proceeds, but unaccounted for, is much more than the $6.6bn reported missing last week.
"There is a lot of money missing during the first American administration of Iraqi money in the first year of occupation. 'Iraq's development fund has lost around $18bn of Iraqi money in these operations - their location is unknown. Also missing are the documents of expenditure.'
The Bush administration flew in a total of $20bn in cash into the country in 2004. This was money that had come from Iraqi oil sales, surplus funds from the UN oil-for-food programme and seized Iraqi assets."
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/06/201161962910765678.html
-->$18bn stolen from Iraqi oil sales, UN oil for food programs, and seized Iraqi assets didn't bother The NY Times enough to print this story. It had spent the early part of the last decade selling this war to the Americans as a way to improve the lives of the Iraqi people.
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The Guardian UK:
"Tim DeChristopher is scheduled to be sentenced in a Salt Lake City courtroom by U.S. District Judge Dee Benson on July 26. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $750,000 fine for fraudulently bidding in December 2008 on parcels of land, including areas around eastern Utah’s national parks, which were being sold off by the Bush administration to the oil and natural gas industry. As Bidder No. 70, he drove up the prices of some of the bids and won more than a dozen other parcels for $1.8 million. The government is asking Judge Benson to send DeChristopher to prison for four and a half years.
His prosecution is evidence that our moral order has been turned upside down. The bankers and swindlers who trashed the global economy and wiped out some $40 trillion in wealth amass obscene amounts of money, much of it provided by taxpayers. They do not go to jail. Regulatory agencies, compliant to the demands of corporations, refuse to impede the destruction unleashed by the coal, oil and natural gas companies as they turn the planet into a hothouse of pollutants, poisoned water, fouled air and contaminated soil in the frenzied quest for greater and greater profits. Those who manage and make fortunes from pre-emptive wars, embrace torture, carry out extrajudicial assassinations, deny habeas corpus and run up the largest deficits in human history are feted as patriots. But when a courageous citizen such as DeChristopher peacefully derails the corporate and governmental destruction of the ecosystem, he is sent to jail."
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/06/20-11
-->The NY Times doesn't care about moral orders turned upside down, as long as corporations continue to profit. It didn't cover this story.
