Common Dreams:

"In the name of the 'humanitarian sense of all,' Israel and Egypt must lift border restrictions on the Gaza Strip, said outgoing head of the United Nations Relief and Works Organization (UNRWA) Filippo Grandi on Tuesday. ..

As both import and export out of the occupied territory are tightly restricted, goods coming in through the single commercial border crossing with Israel meet only 35 to 50 percent of Gazans' needs, as Reuters reports.

The import blockade is 'illegal and must be lifted,' said Grandi, adding, 'I also want to make a strong appeal for export to resume because the lack of export is the main reason for the poverty of Gaza.'

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/03/25-6

-->The NYT is the great filter for these types of stories, making sure the American people never here the consequences of Israel's apartheid treatment of Palestinians. It didn't print this story.

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Guardian UK:

"The Maine Medical Association recently updated a 2008 poll of their members that asked the question, 'When considering the topic of health care reform, would you prefer to make improvements in the current public/private system (or) a single-payer system, such as a Medicare-for-all approach?' In 2008, 52.3 percent favored the Medicare-for-all approach. In the updated poll, released last week, that number had risen to 64.3 percent. ...

A number of factors account for this impressive change, but the huge administrative burden on practicing physicians created by our plethora of private insurance schemes is certainly near the top of the list. ...

American physicians spend at least three times as much time, money and effort on administrative work related to payment and insurance coverage as our Canadian brethren, with their single-payer system. Administrative hassle is a major factor driving more and more American doctors to sell our practices to large corporations that take care of the back-office work. The Affordable Care Act has only added to that burden. Sixty percent of doctors now work for corporations, and that number is growing." 

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/03/22-5

-->The NYT didn't print this story. The enormous waste associated with our medical system's privatization is often not covered. 

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Common Dreams:

"The biggest mystery may be why the Obama White House has been so solicitous of the CIA’s desire to keep secret the history of a torture program authorized by President George W. Bush and overseen by Vice President Dick Cheney. As Commander in Chief, President Obama has the ultimate say over what stays classified and what gets declassified.

Yet, as the CIA has dragged its feet about declassifying what are now historical records – by claiming factual inaccuracies – the Obama White House has adopted a posture of powerless supplicant. 'We’ve made clear that we want to see the report’s findings declassified,' said White House spokesman Jay Carney, as if the President has no power over this process. ...

If every government report required that the party being criticized agree to every detail of the allegations, no report would ever be issued. This idea that secretive CIA officials, who have already obstructed the investigation by destroying videotape of the torture sessions, should now have the right to block the report’s release indefinitely grants the spy agency what amounts to blanket immunity for whatever it does."

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/03/13

-->The NYT is not in the business of pointing out the secret links between the CIA, President Obama, and the previous administration. Of course, the release of the report will show horrible tortures done by the CIA, and covered up by both political parties. A bit too close to the truth for our newspaper of record, which didn't print this story.

Z Magazine:

"The NYT and Washington Post on selling war to the US public: (Iraq) was the ultimate 'war of choice' built on a set of lies that shouldn't have fooled a feeble-minded editor or journalist. And it probably didn't fool most of them. They were prepared to seem gullible in order to advance a policy and war aggression that they approved. Thus, both the NYT and Washington Post followed the war party line in the face of blatant lies, and serious illegalities, as did the TV networks. 

But with the war and occupation proving no cakewalk and soberingly costly, the editor of those two leading papers quasi-apologized in the aftermath for their gullibility and misreporting. But they both jumped without hesitation and with equal gullibility into preparing their audience for a war with Iran, enjoying the war on Libya, while encouraging war with Syria. -Edward S. Herman in Z Magazine, March 2014"

-->This brutal examination of the media and the war machine in the 21st Century is something that the NYT would never cover. It is much too complicit in the empire's wars of aggression.

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Truth Out:

"The misinformation in most of the media about the protests in Venezuela is astounding. Often the opposite of reality is repeated as if it were true. Americans who rely on the corporate mass media, politicians and corrupted nonprofits might fall for these tales, but Venezuelans know what is really happening. ...

'Regarding the supposed 'democratic deficit of the Venezuelan regime,' the facts speak for themselves. Since 1998 there have been four national plebiscites, four presidential elections, and eleven parliamentary, regional, and municipal elections. Venezuela is the Latin American country with the highest number of elections and it also has an automatic electoral system (much more modern than Chile's), described by Jimmy Carter, who has observed 92 elections in all continents, as 'the best system in the world. ...' 

'80% of the media is private. The three national newspapers (El Universal, El Nacional and Ultimos Noticias) are opposed to the government, especially the first two, and they bring together 90% of the readership. Of the four television channels with national coverage, three of them (Venevision, Globovision, and Televen) are opposition, and likewise bring together 90% of the audience, according to information provided by the company AGB.' " 

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/22121-venezuelas-deep-political-education-means-venezuelans-will-withstand-right-wing-protests

-->Coverage of Venezuela in the US media reveals the extent that our news is fashioned by the corporate interests and the military industrial complex. Truth be damned, big oil wants Venezuela back, and the US war machine is itching for another beachhead.  

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Common Dreams:

"A massive trade deal under negotiation between the U.S. and EU could bolster oil giants' efforts to expand fracking on both sides of the Atlantic through NAFTA-style secret corporate tribunals.

This is according to a report released Thursday by Friends of the Earth Europe ahead of the fourth round of negotiations on the Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement. Entitled No Fracking Way, the study looks at the implications of a proposed clause that calls for a repeat of NAFTA's corporate-friendly courts, in which corporations extra-judicially 'settle disputes' with governments behind closed doors.

Known as the 'investor-state dispute settlement' mechanism (ISDS), the clause would establish these corporate-friendly tribunals for companies to claim damages. According to Pia Eberhardt of Corporate Europe Observatory, this would amount to a 'power grab from corporations – to rein in democracy and policies to protect people and the planet. This system cannot be tamed – it must be abandoned.' "

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/03/06-1

-->Would our newspaper of record ever expose this dangerous erosion of democracy when it comes to controlling multinational corporations? The NYT is a wholly owned subsidiary of the corporate state. Don't look there for news you can trust. 

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 Guardian, UK:

"A few weeks back, the Guardian ran an article profiling the team that John Kerry has assembled to carry out his plan for bringing peace to Israel-Palestine. According to the story it includes some 10-12 people under the direction of the British-born and Australian-raised Martin Indyk, who for several decades has earned a living switching back and forth between in the influence-peddling sector as a major lobbyist-advocate for Israel, and in the US government, as a so-called 'expert' on Middle

Indyk’s devotion to the overall geo-strategic prerogatives of the Zionist state are so evident that he is often referred to in Washington policy circles as 'Israel’s lawyer.' ...

And yet, if the US media silence on the issue is any indication, we are supposed to pretend that the make-up of the team that Kerry has put together ... is of no real importance. ...

Two days ago, Mahmoud Abbas, the man who is paid handsomely to serve a as Israel’s ever-pliable Palestinian 'negotiating partner' described Kerry’s peace plan as 'madness'. Should we be surprised given the composition of Kerry’s negotiating team?"

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/03/02-1

-->The US peace negotiating team filled with Zionists? The NY Times isn't interested in this example of how dishonest the US negotiating effort is. It didn't print this story

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Common Dreams:

"Los Angeles is primed to become the first oil-producing city in California and the largest city in the United States to place a moratorium on fracking.

The Los Angeles city council unanimously voted Friday on a draft ordinance that prohibits "well stimulation" by hydraulic fracturing, acidizing and other controversial oil and gas drilling methods.

'Until these radical methods of oil and gas extraction are at the very least covered by the Safe Drinking Water Act, until chemicals are disclosed and problems are honestly reported, until we're safe from earthquakes, until our atmosphere is safe from methane leaks, we need a fracking moratorium,' Councilman Paul Koretz, who introduced the motion along with Council member Mike Bonin, told a cheering crowd before the meeting.

As is the case all over the United States, drilling in Los Angeles largely affects minority populations since most extraction occurs in Latino- and African American-dominated neighborhoods." 

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/03/01-0

-->The NY Times has always supported fracking, and this includes not printing a story of a major city standing up to the oil industry.

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Committee to Stop FBI Repression:

"On Feb. 26, the application and affidavit used to obtain the search warrants for the 2010 raids on homes and offices of anti-war and international solidarity activists were unsealed, revealing lies and attacks on the constitutionally-protected rights to speak out and organize. The unsealing of these documents came as a result of legal action taken by the anti-war activists.

The timeline in the documents show what we have always stated. Shortly before the huge protest at the Republican National Convention, undercover police agent and professional liar, going by the name of Karen Sullivan (identified in the affidavit as UC1) joined the Anti-War Committee and became active in the efforts to build the demonstration. She later joined Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

The documents demonstrate a callous disregard for free speech and the right to associate. They in effect criminalize those of us who oppose U.S. wars, and stand in solidarity with the oppressed. From Palestine to Colombia, people want to be free from the domination of Washington. We have said this publicly on thousands of occasions and will continue to do so."

http://www.stopfbi.net/2014/2/26/documents-raids-anti-war-activists-unsealed

-->Our newspaper of record has never expressed an interest in the FBI dirty tricks being used against political activists in the US. Like earlier stories about FBI wrongdoing, The NY Times did not print this story either. 

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Quote of the day!

"You just don't in the 21st century behave in 19th-century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pretext. It is really a stunning, willful choice by President Putin to invade another country. Russia is in violation of the sovereignty of Ukraine. Russia is in violation of its international obligations." -Secretary of State Kerry

Iraq? Afghanistan? Pakistan? Libya? Syria and Iran still on the hit list. Trumped up pretexts? Violation of sovereignty and international obligations?  What a fool that man has turned out to be! It will be an idiot like that who starts WW III.