Thursday, January 26, 2012

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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Just Foreign Policy:
"Public-financed media PBS and NPR have recently promoted as if they were known fact claims that Iran has a nuclear weapons program, even though no proof has been advanced that Iran has a nuclear weapons program. Even Defense Secretary Panetta says, 'Are they trying to develop a nuclear weapon? No.'

As Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting has noted, on Monday, PBS NewsHour deceptively edited Panetta's comments on Sunday's Face the Nation to exclude his statement that Iran is not trying to develop a nuclear weapon. NewsHour then used his comments to try to suggest the opposite: that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon.

On NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday, reporter Tom Gjelten said, 'The goal for the U.S. and its allies‚ (is) to convince Iran to give up a nuclear weapons program,' thereby implying that Iran already has a nuclear weapons program, which is not a known fact."
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/misleadingoniran

-- >PBS and NPR selling the war against Iran to the American people. Bad news for Iran, and for our publicly supported media.

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Common Dreams:
"After the Japanese government was presented with a worst-case scenario by Japan Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Shunsuke Kondo in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster, they kept the report secret because 'it was so shocking' and would frighten the public, according to a report from Kyodo news.

After the document was shown to a small, select group of senior government officials at the prime minister's office in late March, the administration of then Prime Minister Naoto Kan decided to quietly bury it, the sources said. 'When the document was presented (in March), a discussion ensued about keeping its existence secret,' a government source said.

In order to deny its existence, the government treated it as a personal document of Japan Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Shunsuke Kondo, who authored it, until the end of December, the sources said."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/22-4

-- >High government officials kept deadly nuclear secrets from the Japanese people because they were "so shocking." We must wonder why The NY Times and most of the US media did not cover this story. It might remind readers of the collusion that exists between the US nuclear industry and our own government officials.

UPDATE: The NY Times finally did report this story, but left out some key details about how the Japanese government, with the help of the Japan Atomic Energy Commission, hid a critical document.

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Guardian UK:
"The Palestinian children – alone and bewildered – in Israel's Al Jalame jail Special report: Israel's military justice system is accused of mistreating Palestinian children arrested for throwing stones.

The room is barely wider than the thin, dirty mattress that covers the floor. Behind a low concrete wall is a squat toilet, the stench from which has no escape in the windowless room. The rough concrete walls deter idle leaning; the constant overhead light inhibits sleep. The delivery of food through a low slit in the door is the only way of marking time, dividing day from night.

This is Cell 36, deep within Al Jalame prison in northern Israel. It is one of a handful of cells where Palestinian children are locked in solitary confinement for days or even weeks. One 16-year-old claimed that he had been kept in Cell 36 for 65 days. The only escape is to the interrogation room where children are shackled, by hands and feet, to a chair while being questioned, sometimes for hours"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/22/palestinian-children-detained-jail-israel?INTCMP=SRCH

-- >Why no investigative reporting on the abuse of Palestinian children from our newspaper of record, The NY Times? The Guardian's story led to the UK's Foreign Office minister stating that he had "raised concerns about treatment of Palestinian children in Israeli detention." In America, the mistreatment of Palestine children is ignored both by our media and by our elected officials.

Friday, January 20, 2012

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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Guardian, UK:
"The European Union should consider legislation to prevent or discourage companies and organisations in member states doing business which supports Israeli settlements, according to a confidential report drawn up by EU diplomats in Jerusalem.

The recommendation is contained in the EU Heads of Mission Report on East Jerusalem, which assesses the impact of settlement growth and other factors on the prospects for Jerusalem as the future capital of two states, Israel and Palestine. It describes the situation as 'deteriorating' and warns that 'the systematic increase in settlement activity... increasingly undermines the two-state solution'.

The 2011 report, leaked to the Guardian, was sent to Brussels on Monday following approval by EU diplomats last Friday. It builds on earlier annual reports, which were also highly critical of Israeli policies in East Jerusalem. It calls on the European commission to consider legislation 'to prevent/discourage financial transactions in support of settlement activity.' " http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/18/eu-report-israeli-settlement-growth

-- >The NY Times often does not print stories critical of Israel and its illegal settlements in the West Bank. This recommendation that the EU boycott settlement businesses was not covered by our newspaper of record.

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Daily Mail UK:
"One of the main entities in the Israeli Intelligence Community has been placing its agents within the CIA to recruit operatives against Iran’s nuclear program, according to a new report.

Mossad officers posed as American CIA agents were recruiting for the Pakistani militant group Jundallah, the report says. The operation - often called a ‘false flag’ operation - occurred during the presidency of George W. Bush. In an explosive article by Foreign Policy, the magazine examines a series of CIA memos that detail the operation, citing six U.S. intelligence officers as sources of information. It details how Mossad officers were equipped with U.S. passports and money, recruiting extremists 'under the nose of U.S. intelligence officers.' " http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2086570/Israeli-intelligence-agents-posed-CIA-recruit-operatives-Irans-nuclear-program.html

-- >An English newspaper reports proof that Israeli agents posed as CIA, but The NY Times doesn't cover the story. Again, the story is just too critical of Israel for publication. The NY Times obviously values Israel's image in the US more than it values its readership's right to know.

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Common Dreams:
"Growing Support for Global Robin Hood Tax; Obama, UK Obstacles.

Growing support across Europe this week for a new “Robin Hood tax” -- a Financial Transaction Tax-- has given hope to those who have been pushing for US President Obama to support the new tax. But the UK government and President Obama will need to get on board for a new global financial transaction tax to succeed.

Boosted by the Occupy Wall Street movement, two Democrats in the House and Senate -- Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) -- introduced a Financial Transaction Tax bill in Congress in November that would easily raise $350 billion over 10 years. DeFazio has said the big threat that the Wall Street apologists have always used to oppose a Financial Transaction Tax is, 'My God, all of our firms will move to Europe.' 'Occupy Wall Street has just reminded a large majority of the American people that our economy was destroyed by gambling on Wall Street. And that the people who destroyed our economy have been amply rewarded and not prosecuted,' said DeFazio." http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/15-1

-- >The NY Times sees no growing support in Europe for the Robin Hood Tax, describing it as "the most diplomatically fragile proposal..." No mention of the tax support here in the US either. Jeff Cohen writes, "What does it tell us about U.S. politics that the conservative president of France – on this issue and others – is way to the left of President Obama?" What does it say about The NY Times that refuses to even bring the issue up?

Friday, January 13, 2012

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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The New York Times:
"Thanks to a $5 million donation from a wealthy casino owner, a group supporting Newt Gingrich plans to place advertisements in South Carolina this week attacking Mitt Romney as a predatory capitalist..."
-->But just who would that casino owner be, and why did he give millions to Gingrich? The NY Times furnishes his name, Sheldon Adelson, nine paragraphs later, and in paragraph 26, gives a hint about his motivation. Adelson, according to The NY Times, is a "supporter of conservative causes, including the Republican Jewish Coalition." 
The NY Times corrected this omission the following day with a long article about Adelson's right wing Zionist connections and Gingrich's statements about   Palestinians being an “invented" people. We are left wondering about the political pressures behind these two very different "news" stories. 
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Guardian, UK:
"Palestinian Sesame Street falls victim to US Congress. With its colourful band of Muppets preaching tolerance and neighbourly love, the Palestinian version of the children's television programme Sesame Street had become a beacon of hope for children in a region ravaged by decades of unrest.
But the cast of peace-loving characters have now found themselves in the crossfire of a political dispute between Palestinian leaders and the US Congress, and episodes have been axed for 2012.
Sesame Street – known as Shara'a Simsim in Arabic – is one of many US-funded Palestinian shows suffering after Congress froze the transfer of nearly £130m to the US Agency for International Development in October. The suspension aimed to punish the Palestinians for appealing to the United Nations for membership."
-->Not a word of this story in The NY Times, although a few newspapers in the US did report it. Our newspaper of record does not like to highlight Congress' slavish support of apartheid Israel. 
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The New York Times:
"Iraq Turns Justice Into a Show, and Terror Confessions a Script...But to many Westerners, the rituals are inflammatory and even illegal, symptoms of a politically tainted justice system that still relies on confessions, many coerced, as much as physical evidence despite millions in American aid and legal training programs."
-->Despite all that American aid and legal training, Iraq is still relying on coerced confessions as opposed to physical evidence? Outrageous and barbaric! Of course, the US has kept prisoners for ten years without trial, and tortured them into making confessions. Those confessions are to be used if these prisoners ever come to trial, along with secret evidence and restricted access to legal counsel. None of this stops The NY Times from making pompous statements about the superiority of the US justice system.

Thursday, January 05, 2012

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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Technorati:
"Protect Your Cell Phone from Prying Eyes in 2012. Cell phone monitoring is a big issue, and scandals like News of the World and CarrierIQ reveal how pervasive the issue is, and how easily it is for people and companies to monitor cell phones.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange warned cell phone users of this problem earlier this month when he released details of companies that are selling information they obtain through cell phone monitoring. According to Assange, more than 150 companies around the world have the ability to use cell phones as tracking devices to intercept messages and to listen to calls.

Don’t think it’s true and that Assange is just a nutcase? Then consider that Verizon Wireless, the largest cellular carrier in the U.S., is already monitoring cell phones and selling the information. In October, Verizon enrolled its entire customer base into its program to track customer usage and location, as well as browsing data, demographic info, and app usage. Customers can get out of all this by opting out through their account online. Although Verizon says that it’s only collecting and selling the information for marketing purposes, many people just don’t want their information to be tracked on their cell phones at all."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/12/31-0

-->The NY Times recently published an article about digital privacy, but strangely didn't mention any of the big telecom companies. Apparently, the huge corporations mining personal data aren't of much concern to our newspaper of record.

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LA Times:
"FBI Tracking Videotapers as Terrorists? The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force has recommended for many years that animal activists who carry out undercover investigations on farms could be prosecuted as domestic terrorists.

New documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by activist Ryan Shapiro show the FBI advising that activists – including Shapiro – who walked onto a farm, videotaped animals there and 'rescued' an animal had violated terrorism statutes.

The documents, which were first published on Will Potter’s website, Green Is the New Red, were issued by the Joint Terrorism Task Force in 2003 in response to an article in an animal rights publication in which Shapiro and two other activists...openly claimed responsibility for shooting video and taking animals from a farm.

The FBI notes discuss the videotaping, illegal entry and the removal of animals, then concludes with 'there is a reasonable indication that [Subject 1] and other members of the [redacted] have violated the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, 18 USC Section 43 (a).' "
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/12/31-1

-->This story didn't make it into The NY Times. The widespread description of political activists as "terrorist" by the FBI reveals too much about the fascist state the American Empire is becoming.

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Inter Press Service:
"Civil liberties groups and many citizen activists are outraged over language in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2011 (NDAA) that appears to lay the legal groundwork for indefinite detention of U.S. citizens without trial.

David Gespass, president of the National Lawyers Guild, called it an 'enormous attack on the U.S. and our heritage' and a 'significant step' towards fascism, in an interview with IPS.

'For a very long time the U.S. has been moving towards what I personally think of as fascist - the integration of monopoly capital with state power, that's combined with an increased repression at home and greater aggression around the world. I don't think we're there yet, but I do see that we're going in that direction,' Gespass said. 'I think the... act is a significant step in that direction.'

'It's quite severe. If this continues, people will not be able to count on constitutional protections at all,' Debra Sweet, national director of the group World Can't Wait, told IPS."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/12/30-8

-->The NY Times coverage of this story falls into the usual pro and con statements of those in power. There is a White House assurance that the bill will "protect the American people," and very little is made of the government's vast assault on citizens' rights. Where is the alarm? It is as if nothing significant had really happened despite the revocation of citizen's rights - established as far back as 1215 with the Magna Carta.