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 to keep from the public eye.

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Common Dreams:

"Thank AT&T, Bud, Pfizer Et Al For Heartland's Non-Global Warming. At least 19 publicly traded companies gave the climate-denial think tank Heartland Institute over $1.3 million for an array of projects, including one to teach kids that global warming is a hoax...

The companies backing the Heartland Institute: Anheuser-Busch, AT&T, Comcast, General Motors, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Reynolds American, Time Warner Cable... "

http://www.commondreams.org/further/2012/02/20-0

-->The NY Times finally published a story about Heartland Institute, but omitted mention of which companies were behind the effort to deny climate change. The one company The NY Times did mention, Microsoft, came with a explanation that the company gives computers to many non-profits. Why omit which major corporations are sponsoring the Heartland Institute and how these corporations benefit from the denial of climate change? As always, The NY Times puts the good name of multinational corporations above their readership's right to know.

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The Activist Newsletter:

"New anti-union legislation was passed by Congress earlier this month despite a Democratic majority in the Senate and Barack Obama in the White House...

It is bad enough when the party known as 'labor's friend' ignores past injustices, or even refuses to act on a labor priority (such as the Employee Free Choice Act). It's another matter when Democratic votes make it possible to perpetrate new anti-labor injuries, as took place Feb. 6 when the Senate passed the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill over union objections.

The worst part of the new legislation weakened bargaining rights for workers in the aviation and rail industries by increasing from 35% to 50% the number of worker signatures required to allow an election for union recognition. It was strongly backed by the airline industry."

http://activistnewsletter.blogspot.com/

-->The NY Times put the union busting part of the legislation at the end of an article on House funding for aviation programs. No mention of Obama's sellout to the airlines industry.  

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Guardian UK:

"Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul warned the U.S. is 'slipping into a fascist system' dominated by government and businesses as he held a fiery rally Saturday night upstaging established Republican Party banquets a short distance away.

The Texas congressman drew a couple thousand standing and chanting people to Kansas City's Union Station as the party's establishment dined on steak across the street at the Missouri GOP's annual conference...

'We've slipped away from a true Republic,' Paul said. 'Now we're slipping into a fascist system where it's a combination of government and big business and authoritarian rule and the suppression of the individual rights of each and every American citizen.' "

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2017544720_apuspaul.html

-->For all the news about the Republican primary race, The NY Times did not cover these quite remarkable quotes from Ron Paul. Too close to the truth about our corporate controlled political system. The NY Times sees its primary role as preserving the illusion of democracy in America.

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:

"Leak exposes how Heartland Institute works to undermine climate science. The inner workings of a libertarian thinktank working to discredit the established science on climate change have been exposed by a leak of confidential documents detailing its strategy and fundraising networks...

The scheme includes spending $100,000 on commissioning an alternative curriculum for schoolchildren that will cast doubt on global warming...

The papers indicate that discrediting established climate science remains a core mission of the organization, which has received support from a network of wealthy individuals – including the Koch oil billionaires as well as corporations such as Microsoft and RJR Tobacco."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/feb/15/leak-exposes-heartland-institute-climate

-->A quick review of The NY Times reveals remarkably positive coverage of the Heartland Institute over the past year. This story, a negative look at how big corporations and the Heartland Institute are accelerating the destruction of our climate, was not printed. 

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The NY Times:

The NY Times Book Review had an article about Tony Judt's last book, "Thinking and the Twentieth Century." The review, however, revealed much more about our newspaper of record than about Judt's writing.

The review starts by straightforwardly presenting Judt's criticism of Israel and the Israeli lobby. Then comes the surprising commentary: "This public persona is unfortunate because it obscures a much more interesting figure." No explanation of why his criticism of Israel makes Judt somehow less "interesting."  

Further on we get another odd judgement. "The prolonged discussion of public intellectuals toward the end of the book shows off Judt's least pleasant side." The reviewer soon makes clear just what he finds so unpleasant. 

"All of these characteristics come out in the above-mentioned critique of Israel...(Judt) seems to think that his own Jewishness and fact that he lived in Israel a one point give him the authority to be as morally obtuse in return." 

So Judt's analysis of Israel, according to the reviewer, makes him less interesting, unpleasant, and morally obtuse. No doubt the reviewer, Francis Fukuyama, felt personally insulted by some of Judt's comments about NY Times intellectuals being among the "ignorant at best, and willing dupes of power at the worst." But the review is about more than Fukuyama's grudge. It is about The NY Times as purveyor of Zionist propaganda. Judt must be discredited because of his views on Israel.

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Guardian UK:

"A French court has declared the US biotech giant Monsanto guilty of chemical poisoning of a French farmer, a judgment that could lend weight to other health claims against pesticides.

In the first such case heard in court in France, the grain grower Paul Francois, 47, said he suffered neurological problems including memory loss, headaches and stammering after inhaling Monsanto's Lasso weedkiller in 2004. He blames Monsanto for not providing adequate warnings on the product label.

The ruling was given by a court in Lyon, south-east France, which ordered an expert opinion of Francois's losses to establish the amount of damages.

'It is a historic decision in so far as it is the first time that a pesticide maker is found guilty of such a poisoning,' Francois Lafforgue, Francois's lawyer, told Reuters."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/feb/13/monsanto-guilty-chemical-poisoning-france

-->Another favorite of The NY Times is Monsanto, probably the worst corporation on the planet. True to form, The NY Times did not print this story, although it is a historic first in making pesticide makers responsible for their deadly poisons. 

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 to keep from the public eye.

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The Independent UK:

"Leading neuroscientists believe that the UK Government may be about to sanction the development of nerve agents for British police that would be banned in warfare under an international treaty on chemical weapons.

A high-level group of experts has asked the Government to clarify its position on whether it intends to develop 'incapacitating chemical agents' for a range of domestic uses that go beyond the limited use of chemical irritants such as CS gas for riot control.

The Royal Society working group says the Government shifted its position to allow the development of more severe chemical agents, such as the type of potentially dangerous nerve gases used by Russian security forces to end hostage sieges.

The experts were commissioned by the Royal Society, the UK's national academy of sciences, to investigate new developments in neuroscience that could be of use to the military. They concluded that the Government may be preparing to exploit a loophole in the Chemical Weapons Convention allowing the use of incapacitating chemical agents for domestic law enforcement."

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/02/07-4

-->The NY Times did not cover this story, although we are left to wonder what coverage this report would have gotten if it involved Syria or Iran. Even more ominously, we must consider what the US security state has in mind once the occupy movement hits the streets this spring. 

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Common Dreams:

"Multinational agricultural biotech corporation Monsanto, known as the creator of chemical weapon Agent Orange, is attempting to infiltrate Vietnam once again - this time as GMO dealer.

Agent Orange, used for chemical warfare in the Vietnam War, is estimated to have killed 400,000, deformed 500,000 and sickened another 2 million. 'Between 2.1 to 4.8 million Vietnamese were directly exposed to Agent Orange and other chemicals that have been linked to cancers, birth defects, and other chronic diseases during the war that ended in 1975, according to the Vietnam Red Cross,' Thanh Nienn News writes.

30 years after the war, three generations have suffered from the effects of Agent Orange. Now, as Monsanto seeks to reap profits in Vietnam once again, this time through agribusiness, many are speaking out against the corporation as well as the potential effects of the GM seeds and herbicides that Monsanto seeks to sell."

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/02/07-5

-->Monsanto is somewhat of a darling when it comes to the NY Times. Who wants to drudge up old war stories when the future is so bright for genetically modified foods? 

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Democracy Now:

"The unusual cold weather in eastern Europe has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of vulnerable people living in areas unprepared for the freezing conditions. Extreme weather events have been increasingly evident in recent years, and now scientests are fearful that the 'feedback loops' of climate change are occurring in ways that uphold predictions made by global warming models showing how seemingly unrelated occurrences, such as the melting of ice in the arctic, are noticeably changing weather patterns in faraway regions."

The Independent UK:

"Studies by scientists at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research have confirmed a link between the loss of Arctic sea ice and the development of high-pressure zones in the polar region, which influence wind patterns at lower latitudes further south. Scientists found that as the cap of sea ice is removed from the ocean, huge amounts of heat are released from the sea into the colder air above, causing the air to rise. Rising air destabilises the atmosphere and alters the difference in air pressure between the Arctic and more southerly regions, changing wind patterns.

Professor Rahmstorf said the Alfred Wegener study confirms earlier predictions from computer models by Vladimir Petoukhov of the Potsdam Institute, who forecast colder winters in western Europe as a result of melting sea ice.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/02/05-0

-->To The NY Times, none of the intense cold in Europe has anything to do with global warming. Our newspaper of record reported low temperatures and weather extremes in at least eight countries, concluding with a reassuring quote from a Londoner marveling at the snow, "It lends this amazing playfulness to the whole city." For a glimpse at our media's irresponsibility when it comes to informing the public about global warming, read the article on Europe's cold spell in The NY Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/world/europe/europe-struggles-to-deal-with-cold-and-snow.html?scp=1&sq=cold%20weather%20eastern%20Europe&st=cse

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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Common Dreams:
"It’s an impressive piece of art: the cover of this week’s New York Times Magazine. 'ISRAEL VS. IRAN,' spelled out in charred black lettering, with flame and smoke still rising from “IRAN,” as if the great war were already over. Below those large lurid letters is the little subtitle:  'When Will It Erupt?' -- not 'if,' but 'when,' as if it were inevitable. Though the article itself is titled 'Will Israel Attack Iran?', author Ronen Bergman, military analyst for Israel’s largest newspaper, leaves no doubt of his answer:  'Israel will indeed strike Iran in 2012.'

...It’s almost a hymn of praise to what one Jewish Israeli scholar has called Iranophobia, an irrational fear promoted by the Jewish state because 'Israel needs an existential threat.' Why? To sustain the myth that shapes its national identity: the myth of Israel’s insecurity.

That myth comes out clearly in Bergman’s conclusion: Israel will attack Iran because of a 'peculiar Israeli mixture of fear -- rooted in the sense that Israel is dependent on the tacit support of other nations to survive -- and tenacity, the fierce conviction, right or wrong, that only the Israelis can ultimately defend themselves.'

Fear of what? Defend against whom? It doesn’t really matter. Israeli political life has always been built on the premise that Israel’s very existence is threatened by some new Hitler bent on destroying the Jewish people. How can Israel prove that Jews can defend themselves if there’s no anti-semitic 'evildoer' to fight against?"
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/01/30-0

-- >Why would our most prestigious newspaper, The NY Times, give so much credibility to an Israeli military analyst who is urging war with Iran? Or is The NY Times a Zionist publication only pretending, at times, to serve the interests of the American public?

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Common Dreams and Times of India:
"Huge Protest in Pakistan Against US Drone Attacks. Over 100,000 Pakistanis rallied in Karachi Friday afternoon to protest US drone strikes on their country. The demonstrators also demanded that the Pakistani government continue the blockade on the NATO supply route to Afghanistan.

The Times of India reports:
DAVOS -- Pakistan's prime minister said today that there was 'a trust deficit' between Islamabad and Washington as he criticized the resumption of US drone strikes on his country's tribal belt.

Speaking the day after over 100,000 people massed in Karachi to protest the strikes, Yousuf Raza Gilani said they only served to bolster militants."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/28-1

-- >The Pentagon's choice of war crime is now its use of Drone assassinations. The US media does not like to call attention to the fury this causes in the rest of the world. The NY Times did not report this massive demonstration against US drone attacks in Pakistan.

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Daily Mail UK:
"U.S falls to 47th in press freedom rankings after Occupy crackdown.

Sweeping protests around the world made it an extremely difficult year for the media, and tested journalists as never before, the annual report into press freedom reveals. The annual report by Reporters Without Borders has been released, showing the United States fell 27 points on the list due to the many arrests of journalists covering Occupy Wall Street protests. The slide in the United States places it just behind Comoros and Taiwan in a group with Argentina and Romania...

'Never has freedom of information been so closely associated with democracy. Never have journalists, through their reporting, vexed the enemies of freedom so much,' the group said in a statement accompanying its report. But the important role journalists played put them in the cross hairs of repressive regimes, the report said, adding: 'Never have acts of censorship and physical attacks on journalists seemed so numerous.' " http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2091948/U-S-falls-47th-press-freedom-rankings-Occupy-crackdown.html

-- >What crackdown on press freedom? No coverage of this story in The NY Times, although it was referred to in a number of blogs.