Thursday, March 28, 2013

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:
"Following the tenth anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, The Washington Post thought it might be a good idea to have someone write about how the media's role during that time impacted the Bush administration's ability to galvanize a nation towards war. They thought it was a good idea, that is, until they were seemingly reminded how integral a part of that effort they themselves were in the debacle.

Journalist and media critic Greg Mitchell, who ran the highly regarded Editor & Publisher during the years directly before and after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, was asked to write the piece, but as he announced on his personal blog Saturday night, the Post killed the story after reviewing its contents.

According to Mitchell, 'The Washington Post killed my assigned piece for its Outlook section this weekend which mainly covered media failures re: Iraq and the current refusal to come to grips with that (the subject of my latest book)--yet they ran this misleading, cherry-picking, piece by Paul Farhi claiming the media didn't fail.' "

->The NY Times as well as the Washington Post have never really come to terms on how they sold the Iraq invasion to the American people. These two premier newspapers just can't admit ten years latter that they distorted the news for the Pentagon war machine.

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Common Dreams:
"In a 62-37 vote late Friday, the US Senate passed a non-binding amendment calling for the approval of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. Environmental groups and climate activists were quick to condemn the vote, but said the 'symbolic vote' was valuable because it revealed which members of the Senate have received the message on the seriousness posed by climate change and which continue to bend to the demands of industry lobbyists.

A post-vote analysis by Oil Change International, in fact, revealed that supporters of the amendment 'received 3.5 times more in campaign contributions from fossil fuel interests' than those who voted against it. In total, the researchers found that supporters took an average of $499,648 from the industry before voting for the pipeline, for a total of $30,978,153.

'Today’s vote presents yet another reason why Congress is less popular than root canals,' said the group's campaign director David Turnbull. 'Every single effort from Congress to influence the Keystone XL pipeline decision has been backed by millions in dirty energy money, and today’s was no different.' "

-->The NY Times wasn't interested in this report about big oil money buying Congressional votes. Maybe it's because big oil money has already bought the nation's media. 

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Common Dreams:
"The gross slashing of funds for public universities has caused a 'surge' in tuition prices, disproportionately impacting low-income students says a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP).

States are spending an average of 28 percent less this year on public university funding than they did in 2008—a decrease of $2,353 per student. According to CBPP, thirty-six states cut funding by over 20 percent and eleven slashed their budgets by more than one-third. Arizona and New Hampshire have cut their higher education spending in half.

To compensate for this massive gap in funding, the burden of cost has shifted to students in the form of surging tuition which, at four-year public colleges, has grown 27 percent since the 2007-08 year.

'These numbers are a vivid demonstration of why Washington's post-recession path has been so disastrous,' said the Atlantic's Jordan Weissman in response to the report."

-->Is Washington's deficit cutting destroying the hopes of working families to send their kids to college? The NY Times wasn't interested in printing this recent report, although it affects 99% of the American public.  

Thursday, March 14, 2013

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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Smithsonian Mag:
"Banksy became an international star in 2005. In August, he arrived in Israel, where he painted a series of images on the West Bank’s concrete wall, part of the barrier built to try to stop suicide bombers. 

Images of a girl clutching balloons as she is transported to the top of a wall; two stenciled children with bucket and spade dreaming of a beach; and a boy with a ladder propped against the wall were poignant meditations on the theme of escape."

->Nice story on Banksy in the Smithsonian Magazine. The Banksy piece on art and revolutionary thought is a perfect way for this somewhat stodgy non-profit to update its image. And the article is just great, including Banksy's documentary, "Exit Through the Gift Shop." But when it comes to mentioning Banksy's protest in the West Bank, the wall is all about "stopping suicide bombers," and the Smithsonian can't even mention the Palestinians.  

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Common Dreams:
"A Sunday edition New York Times article which traces the origins of drone strikes on three U.S. citizens, Anwar al-Awlaki, Samir Khan, and al-Awlaki's sixteen year old son Abdulrahman, presents itself as a fair and balanced narrative, but actually serves as an overall 'one-sided, selective' account, giving aid to the U.S. government's shadowy justifications for its extra-judicial killings across the world, the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights said Sunday. ...

'By the time the missile found him,' the New York Times writes, al-Awlaki, 40, 'had been under the scrutiny of American officials for more than a decade.' However, as the article goes to lengths to highlight evidence that al-Awlaki's beliefs, language and speeches were 'anti-American' and potentially incendiary– al-Awlaki never partook in acts of violence against the U.S. and was never officially indicted for a crime before he was killed by the U.S. drone missile.
This did not dissuade the U.S. government from claiming the extra-judicial authority of taking out al-Awlaki as an 'imminent' threat, nor the articles's apparent complacency with its reasoning. ...

With phrases like, "Mr. Awlaki was probably involved" the article does not present strong evidence. It does, however, succeed as an apologists version of the U.S.'s controversial drone policies—including the strike which killed al-Alwaki's sixteen year old son, Abdulrahman, who had merely 'gone to find his father.' "

-->The NY Times can always find the most positive side of the empire's war crimes. Our newspaper of record did it for the slaughter of millions in Vietnam and Iraq, and is doing it now for the US drone wars.

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Common Dreams:
"As the dismantling of public education couched as 'reform' sweeps across the country, new reporting shows the potential closing of over 100 public schools in Chicago will overwhelmingly affect black students. An analysis from the Sun-Times shows that 9 out of 10 of the students affected by the closings are black, a 'racial breakdown,' they report, 'not in line with the overall demographics of the district.' ...

Black Agenda Report managing editor Bruce Dixon decried 'the war of our elite waged to privatize public education' and lamented that the potential closing of 129 public schools in Chicago and 40 in Philadelphia last year had received scant media attention.

'It's not news because school closings and school privatization, the end game of the bipartisan policies the Obama administration, Wall Street, the US Chamber of Commerce, a host of right wing foundations and deep pockets and hordes of politicians in both parties from the president down are pushing down the throats of communities across the country, are deeply unpopular. The American people, and especially the parents, teachers, grandparents, and other residents of poorer neighborhoods where closings and privatization are happening emphatically don't want these things.' "

-->The NY Times is part of that elite consensus that wants to eliminate public schools, especially for the poor and people of color. Why waste money on them since there are no jobs? Privatize, and train the underclass for the military. like the Chicago public schools under Obama.

Thursday, March 07, 2013

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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Guardian UK:
"The facts speak for themselves: the percentage of households in poverty fell from 55% in 1995 to 26.4% in 2009. When Chávez was sworn into office unemployment was 15%, in June 2009 it was 7.8%. Compare that to current unemployment figures in Europe. In that period Chávez won 56% of the vote in 1998, 60% in 2000, survived a coup d'état in 2002, got over 7m votes in 2006 and secured 54.4% of the vote last October. 

He was a rare thing, almost incomprehensible to those in the US and Europe who continue to see the world through the Manichean prism of the cold war: an avowed Marxist who was also an avowed democrat. To those who think the expression of the masses should have limited or no place in the serious business of politics all the talking and goings on in Chávez's meetings were anathema, proof that he was both fake and a populist. But to the people who tuned in and participated en masse, it was politics and true democracy not only for the sophisticated, the propertied or the lettered."

->Nothing you will read in the US media will come close to stating these basic facts about Chavez and his 'Bolivarian Revolution." As you read the hateful and dismissive descriptions of Chavez, think about whose opinions they really are, the elite leaders of the US Empire. By giving the Venezuelan people a true democracy, Chavez challenged the neoliberal, corporate controlled leadership of much of the industrialized world. In the end, his ideas will prove most dangerous to our billionaire rulers. 

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Common Dreams:
"The Israeli government will on Monday begin operating a 'Palestinians-only' bus service to ferry Palestinian workers from the West Bank to Israel, encouraging them to use it instead of travelling with Israeli settlers on a similar route.

Officially anyone can use them, but the ministry of transport said that the new lines are meant to improve services for Palestinians. ...

In a statement to the Israeli newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, the ministry said: 'The new lines are not separate lines for Palestinians but rather two designated lines meant to improve the services offered to Palestinian workers who enter Israel through Eyal Crossing.' ...

The Israeli civil rights group, Checkpoint Watch, which monitors the army's treatment of Palestinians at West Bank checkpoints has reported recent incidents of Palestinians being ejected from buses and told they were not allowed to board them. In 2011 Palestinian activists were arrested after they boarded Israeli buses in the West Bank to protest against segregation."

-->The NY Times did an interesting thing on this story. Rather than discuss this creation of an apartheid bus line, our newspaper of record included a picture without an article. 

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Common Dreams:
"The Daily Beast reports in 'Senators Press Resolution To Green-Light Israeli Attack On Iran,' that a resolution 'by Sens. Lindsey Graham (SC) and Robert Menendez (NJ), a Republican and Democrat, respectively, declares U.S. support for an Israeli military strike against Iran’s nuclear program. 

The resolution, which expresses the sense of the Congress, will be supported by the thousands of delegates to the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee annual conference that will stream through the Capitol this weekend. 

With prominent liberal Democrats already signing on, AIPAC’s lobbying heft will likely propel a bill that, in Congressional sentiment at least, commits the U.S. to active support of a potential Israeli attack that experts think could have consequences as grave as further destabilization in the region, adverse global economic consequences, and even a hardening of Iranian resolve to get a weapon. …"

-->Nothing printed in the NY Times on this resolution to pull the US into war with Iran. Our newspaper of record is very protective of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, especially during their annual, grand conference in DC.