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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KGW News Channel 8 in Portland:
"A Seattle nuclear watchdog group is accusing the federal government of failing to keep the public informed of radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
In the days following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the U.S. began monitoring radiation from Japan's leaking nuclear power plants.
Most of the public attention went to the air monitoring which showed little or no radiation coming our way. But things were different on the rain water side.
'The level that was detected on March 24 was 41 times the drinking water standard,' said Gerry Pollet from Heart of America Northwest. He reviewed Iodine 131 numbers released by the Environmental Protection Agency last spring.
'Our government said no health levels, no health levels were exceeded.When in fact the rain water in the Northwest is reaching levels 130 times the drinking water standards,' said Pollet."
http://www.kgw.com/home/Group-says-feds-downplayed-radiation-in-NW-rainwater-125419388.html
-->The NY Times didn't bother reporting this story, probably because it involved our government understating the effects of Fukushima on the American public. However, The NY Times has its own bias in favor of Nuclear energy which can be seen in its reporting over the last twenty years. "The New York Times continues to be, as it was a half-century ago when nuclear technology was first advanced, a media leader in pushing the technology, which collapsed in the U.S. with the 1979 Three Mile Island and 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant accidents. The Times has showered readers with a variety of pieces advocating a nuclear revival, all marbled with omissions and untruths."
-Karl Grossman, professor of journalism at the SUNY, and media critic on nuclear energy coverage.
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Inter Press Service:
"When weeklong negotiations on the control and regulation of the global arms trade were concluded last week, there was one missing link in the proposed treaty: riot control equipment used recently against peaceful demonstrators in the streets of Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Syria, Yemen and Jordan.
The Arms Trade Treaty, which is expected to be finalized and signed next year, is either ambiguous or excludes weapons of repression, including rubber bullets, water cannons, tear gas canisters, and high voltage electric-shock stun guns...
The London-based Amnesty International (AI) warned that if certain types of security and police equipment such as non-military firearms, including riot guns, crowd control vehicles, shotgun ammunition and tear gas, are not clearly covered by the ATT, 'many governments will not prevent such arms being supplied and used for serious violations of human rights.'
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/07/18-7
-->The NY Times did not cover this failure of the Arms Trade Treaty to cover weapons used to suppress peaceful demonstration. Of course, The NY Times covers very few peaceful demonstrations in the world, unless they are endorsed by the Pentagon.
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The Hill - Washington, DC:
"One out of more than 800 Palestinian children charged with throwing stones in the West Bank over a six-year period was acquitted, according to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem.
Ninety-three percent of the 834 under-18s who were convicted were given prison sentences by the Israeli military courts, including 19 children aged 12 and 13. The sentences ranged from a few days to 20 months. The imprisonment of Israeli children under the age of 14 is not allowed...Most of the minors were aged 16 and 17, but 255 were 14 or 15, with 34 under 14.
Only five cases were brought to a full trial compared to 624 which ended with a plea bargain. 'Judges order the vast majority of minors to be held in custody until the end of the criminal proceedings, forcing plea bargains. This is because even if the minor is eventually acquitted, he will spend a longer period of time in custody during the course of a full trial than the length of punishment if he pleads guilty in a plea bargain,' said B'Tselem.
B'Tselem interviewed 50 Palestinian minors for the report. Many described being arrested in the middle of the night, denied access to their families or lawyers and mistreatment. Only two of the children interviewed for the report, No Minor Matter, had an adult present during questioning."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/18/israel-detained-835-palestinian-minors
-->The NY Times didn't report this study by B'Tselem, the Israeli peace group. The abuse of Palestinian children by Israel is not something The NY Times wants its readers to know. All the news that fits the pro Israel slant of our newspaper of record.
