Thursday, February 02, 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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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.