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:

"Alternative to Wikileaks Arises in Iceland. With the imprisonment of Bradley Manning and detainment of Julian Assange, WikiLeaks is effectively on hold. But that does not mean that leaks and whistleblowing activities have stopped.

GlobaLeaks lists a large number of leak sites, which are active to different degrees. Soon The Associated Whistleblowing Press (AWP) will be added to the list.

'One of the main motivations for the AWP is to unite journalists around the world and bring stories to light,' says Brazilian journalist Pedro Noel, one of the main people behind the initiative. 'WikiLeaks used to analyse and report on the files they released, but they don’t do that any more.' "

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/09/24-2

-->The NY Times prefers "People Magazine" stories about Julian Assange's personal life to reporting about international freedom of the press. Our newspaper of record didn't print this story.

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Common Dreams:

"Gallup poll finds that US news consumers are tuning out and losing faith with each passing cycle. Fewer are watching. And those that do tune in are less and less impressed by what they see. That's the discovery of a new Gallup poll conducted earlier this month and released today in a report that shows Americans' distrust of the corporate press, and specifically political news coverage, hit an all-time high this year, with 60% saying they have little or no trust in the mass media.

The negativity toward the media is at an all-time high for a presidential election year. This reflects the continuation of a pattern in which negativity increases every election year compared with the year prior. The current gap between negative and positive views -- 20 percentage points -- is by far the highest Gallup has recorded since it began regularly asking the question in the 1990s. Trust in the media was much higher, and more positive than negative, in the years prior to 2004 -- as high as 72% when Gallup asked this question three times in the 1970s. Distrust was also measured by political affiliation, where Gallup found that Republicans are the least trustful of the news, followed by those who consider themselves independents. Democrats exhibit the most confidence in the media, but even their level of trust topped out at less than 60%."

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/09/21-6

-->The NY Times gave a passing reference to this recent Gallop poll, but it was buried in a story about the presidential race, and omitted any mention of the "corporate press" as being what Americans distrust. The NY Times, of course, is the epitome of the corporate controlled press.

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Common Dreams:

"Study Finds Tumors in Rats Fed Monsanto GM Corn.  A new study released Wednesday by a team of scientists in France claims to have discovered a noticeable increase in tumors and kidney disease in lab rats that have been fed GMO foods produced by big ag corporation Monsanto.

The controversial study, which quickly came under fire from several GMO experts around the world, prompted France's Jose Bove, vice-chairman of the European Parliament's commission for agriculture and GMO opponent, to claim 'the study finally shows we are right and that it is urgent to quickly review all GMO evaluation processes.'

The study, published by the peer-reviewed journal Food and Chemical Toxicology and conducted by scientists at the University of Caen, said rats fed on a diet containing NK603, a seed variety made tolerant to Monsanto's Roundup weedkiller, or given water with Roundup at levels permitted in the United States, died earlier than those on a standard diet. According to the data, rats on the GM diet developed mammary tumors, as well as severe liver and kidney damage."

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/09/19-4

-->The NY Times sees no evil when it comes to GMO foods. It didn't print this story, and in its Dot Earth blog, referred to the study as an example of a “single-study syndrome,” that supports an "agenda, no matter how tenuous — or dubious — the research might be." Dubious reporting by The NY Times.

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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Think Progress:

"On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared on US Sunday talk shows, scaremongering about Iran's nuclear program. Meet the Press allowed Netanyahu to give a completely false picture of the Iran nuclear issue, without challenging his scaremongering through reference to known facts...

Here's what journalists on Meet the Press should have pointed out:

The most highly enriched uranium that Iran is currently known to be producing, and the sort which Netanyahu was referring to in his statement, is 'medium-enriched' uranium, not weapons-grade uranium. That enrichment is currently under UN inspection, so to convert it to weapons-grade uranium, Iran would have to first expel UN inspectors. A recent bipartisan experts' report, signed by former senior military and political officials from both Republican and Democratic Administrations, noted that UN inspections 'would almost certainly reveal any Iranian efforts to begin enriching uranium beyond 20% at declared sites.' Furthermore, the IAEA's most recent report stated that Iran's stockpile of 20% enriched uranium actually decreased in the three months period proceeding the report, since Iran converted a portion of the stockpile into fuel plates for use in their medical research reactor."

http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/09/17/858531/sunday-shows-misinformation-iran/

-->So why is the US mainstream media not questioning the Netanyahu line? That question goes back to the undue influence the Israeli Lobby has on all American foreign policy, from mainstream media to the US Congress.

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Common Dreams:

"Does President Obama Want to Cut Social Security by 3 Percent? That is a pretty simple and important question. Unfortunately most voters are likely to go to the polls this fall without knowing the answer.

If the backdrop to this question is not immediately clear, then you should be very angry at the reporters who cover the campaign. One of the items that continuously comes up in reference to the budget deficit is President Obama's support for the plan put forward by the co-chairs of his deficit commission, Morgan Stanley director Erskine Bowles and former Senator Alan Simpson. On numerous occasions President Obama has indicated his support for this plan.

One of the items in the Bowles-Simpson plan is a reduction in the annual cost-of-living adjustment of roughly 0.3 percentage points. This would be accomplished by using a different index that, by design, would show a lower measured rate of inflation. It is important to recognize that this is an annual cut that would accumulate over time. After a retiree has been receiving benefits for 10 years the cut would be 3.0 percent, after 20 years it would be 6 percent. If a typical retiree lives long enough to get benefits for 20 years the average benefit cut over their years of retirement would be 3 percent."

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/09/18-2

-->And that is not the only cut in Social Security the Bowles-Simpson plan outlined. Why can't our mainstream media tell Americans then truth: that both presidential candidates plan cuts to Social Security?

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The Guardian UK:

"Efforts to force reluctant Icelandic taxpayers to pick up the bill for unhonoured deposit guarantees extended to hundreds of thousands of British and Dutch savers are to be heard in a court in Luxembourg.

Despite repeated attempts to reach a negotiated settlement for Icesave customers, Icelandic voters have twice rejected proposals to repay the British and Dutch governments in a national referendum...

Lawyers for Iceland will argue on Tuesday that there is no requirement on the state to stand behind the guarantee fund, and, even if there were, the global financial crisis in the autumn of 2008 was so exceptional as to release Iceland from such a requirement."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/sep/17/icesave-case-iceland-luxembourg-court

-->Iceland didn't pay its debts to foreign banks? This story is a secret in the US media. In fact, Iceland has recovered from the dark days of its 2008 banking collapse precisely because it didn't slash social spending to pay international banks. For all The NY Times coverage of the Greek debt crisis, the experience of Iceland is always omitted. Our newspaper of record always sides with international banking.

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:

"What an official of the rightwing government of Honduras is calling the 'most important project in half a century,' critics of the neoliberal plan to build private cities in the Central American nation are calling a 'catastrophe' and argue that so-called 'chartered cities' would violate the rights of all Hondurans, with particularly negative impacts for the nation's indigenous population.

President Porfirio Lobo—who came to power in a military coup in 2009—has fully endorsed the proposals to create privately-funded 'charter cities' as a way to attract foreign investment to his nation. Details remain elusive, but the experimental cities would be modeled on independently-governed and profit-driven business center cities, so-called 'free trade zones' like Dubai or Hong Kong, but would be built virtually from scratch on lands to be determined by the government.

Inspired by US economist advisers—namely US economist Paul Romer, a graduate of the University of Chicago school of economics and currently a professor at the Stern School of Business at NYU—the cities would operate outside the control of the regular Honduran government and have 'their own police, laws, government and tax systems.' " http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/09/06-6

-- >In US supported Latin American dictators, we see the Neoliberal future of America. The NY Times rarely prints criticism of Honduras, and certainly would not want to call attention to the plans multilateral corporations have of overthrowing the last traces of democracy.

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Common Dreams:

"Trade negotiators from the US and eight other Pacific Rim countries met outside of Washington, DC Wednesday, commencing a new round of the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement negotiations, also known as 'Nafta on steroids.'

The TPP negotiations began in 2007 and have been carried through by the Obama administration and several Pacific nations under conditions of 'extreme secrecy' without press, public or policymaker oversight. Although most of the content involved in the discussions have been kept in secret, document leaks have revealed that negotiators are working out deals which could hamper free speech on the Internet, reduce access to affordable medicines, deregulate environmental laws, and harm labor rights around the world. Earlier this year Public Citizen posted a leaked document from a past TPP meeting on their website revealing that the pact will give multinational corporations radical new political powers in global trade, including the allotment of vast legal powers to multinational corporations over governments." http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/09/06-11

-- >This story appeared in The NY Times "Green Blog," although not in print. The on-line article extolls the wonders of sharing "green growth" between nations. Only the last sentence states that one group considers the talks "overly secretive."

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Common Dreams:

"The rate of Arctic Sea ice melt has caught scientists by surprise, leaving them to describe the current record low levels as 'amazing,' 'a Goliath' and 'unprecedented.'  While a record low was recorded on Aug. 26, the ice level continues to fall, and the National Snow and Ice Data Center reports that there is still a week left in the melting season.

The speed of the Arctic ice melt is astounding, scientists say. 'It is a greater change than we could even imagine 20 years ago, even 10 years ago,' Dr. Kim Holmen, international director of the Norwegian Polar Institute told the BBC. 'And it has taken us by surprise and we must adjust our understanding of the system and we must adjust our science and we must adjust our feelings for the nature around us.'

'This year's melting season is a Goliath,' also notes geophysicist Marco Tedesco, director of the Cryospheric Processes Laboratory at City University of New York, the Wall Street Journal reports. 'The ice is being lost at a very strong pace.' " http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/09/07-3

-- >This news about the Goliath ice melt wasn't important enough for The NY Times to print. More important stories took the front page that day, like what a Muslim woman was told in a premarital counseling class in Egypt.