Thursday, May 02, 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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Democracy Now:
"Ríos Montt was the dictator of Guatemala during 1982, '83. He seized power in a military coup. He was trained in the U.S. He had served in Washington as head of the Inter-American Defense College. And while he was president, he was embraced by Ronald Reagan as a man of great integrity, someone totally devoted to democracy. And he killed many tens of thousands of civilians, particularly in the Mayan northwest highlands. In this particular trial, he is being charged with 1,771 specific murders in the area of the Ixil Mayans. These charges are being brought because the prosecutors have the names of each of these victims. They've been able to dig up the bones of most of them. ..

A forensic witness testified in the trial that 80 percent of the remains they’ve recovered had gunshot wounds to the head. Witnesses have—witnesses and survivors have described Ríos Montt’s troops beheading people. One talked about an old woman who was beheaded, and then they kicked her head around the floor. They ripped the hearts out of children as their bodies were still warm, and they piled them on a table for their parents to see. ...

And most importantly, the U.S., beginning under the Carter administration but continuing under Reagan and after, asked the Israelis to come in and fill the gap that was caused by congressional restrictions. So Israel was doing massive shipments of Galil automatic rifles and other weapons. And Pérez Molina, as you saw in the video, actually had one of his subordinates come over and show me an Israeli-made mortar."

-->The NY Times' version of the genocide trial in Guatemala, leaves out all of the above information, from the US and Israeli support of the massacres, to the involvement of the current, US supported Guatemalan president. Sanitized news so American readers can't really understand who was guilty of this heinous genocide.

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Guardian UK:
"Shaker Aamer is the forgotten detainee in the 'war on terror'. After nearly 70 days on hunger strike, he fears he might never return to his family in London. But why is he still being held, despite having been cleared for release six years ago? ...

Aamer's continuing incarceration is all the more mysterious, given that the Americans ruled almost six years ago that he could be freed from Guantánamo. In June 2007, he was officially cleared for release. A security assessment by the US government acknowledged it had no concrete evidence against him. Two years later, the Obama administration reiterated the lack of a case against him, underlining the fact that he could be released. ...

Why might powerful interests desire the silencing of Shaker Aamer? Stafford Smith points out that his case has an incendiary element: he is allegedly able to describe in detail how a UK intelligence agent was present while he was beaten. A British operative, he claims, was present as a US interrogator repeatedly smashed his head against a wall shortly before he was sent to Guantánamo. Described as articulate and highly intelligent, Aamer's allegations of British complicity in his torture and detention would undoubtedly reopen the vexed and fraught debate over British complicity in the darker side of America's 'war on terror'."

-->Hold an innocent man prisoner for years just so he can't make the US and British governments look bad? The NY Times was disinterested in this story of our government's flagrant violation of human rights. 

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Common Dreams:
"Evading any fanfare, President Obama followed Congress's lead and quietly signed legislation Monday that gutted provisions of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (STOCK) which provided important oversight of government employees, including the President and members of Congress, by requiring disclosure of their finances to the public.

'Without the provisions, the STOCK act is made toothless,' writes Dan Auble with the Center for Responsive Politics. 'Insider trading by members of Congress and federal employees is still prohibited, but the ability of watchdog groups to verify that Congress is following its own rules is severely limited because these records could still be filed on paper—an unacceptably outdated practice that limits the public's access. This is not true disclosure.'

Signed in to law last April, Obama originally hailed the measure as a step towards eliminating the 'deficit of trust' between US citizens and their government."

-->Obama's lies about Wall Street are almost always covered up by our newspaper of record. The NY Times didn't print this story. How about a "deficit of trust" in reporting?

Thursday, April 18, 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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ProPublica:
"The long-troubled military trials at Guantanamo Bay were hit by revelations earlier this year that a secret censor had the ability to cut off courtroom proceedings, and that there were listening devices disguised as smoke detectors in attorney-client meeting rooms.

Now, another potential instance of compromised confidentiality at the military commissions has emerged: Defense attorneys say somebody has accessed their email and servers.

'Defense emails have ended up being provided to the prosecution, material has disappeared off the defense server, and sometimes reappeared, in different formats, or with different names,' said Rick Kammen, a lawyer for Abd Al Rahim Al Nashiri, who is accused of plotting the 2000 attack on the U.S.S. Cole."

-->The NY Times doesn't worry too much about these sham trials at Guantanamo Bay. Listening in on attorney/client conversations, stealing defense information. What does it matter? Our newspaper of record didn't print this story.

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Guardian UK:
"In order for the US to permit citizens of a foreign country to enter the US without a visa, that country must agree to certain conditions. Chief among them is reciprocity: that country must allow Americans to enter without a visa as well. There are 37 countries which have been permitted entrance into America's "visa waiver" program, and all of them - all 37 - reciprocate by allowing American citizens to enter their country without a visa.

The American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) is now pushing legislation that would allow Israel to enter this program, so that Israelis can enter the US without a visa. But as JTA's Ron Kampeas reports, there is one serious impediment: Israel has a practice of routinely refusing to allow Americans of Arab ethnicity or Muslim backgrounds to enter their country or the occupied territories it controls; it also bars those who are critical of Israeli actions or supportive of Palestinian rights. Israel refuses to relinquish this discriminatory practice of exclusion toward Americans, even as it seeks to enter the US's visa-free program for the benefit of Israeli citizens.

As a result, at the behest of Aipac, Democrat Barbara Boxer, joined by Republican Roy Blunt, has introduced a bill that would provide for Israel's membership in the program while vesting it with a right that no other country in this program has: namely, the right to exclude selected Americans from this visa-free right of entrance."

-->The NY Times doesn't cover stories like this about Israel violating American rights. All the news that Israel considers fit to print.

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Common Dreams:
"While President Obama's new budget proposal has drawn widespread criticism for its cuts to Medicare and Social Security, another lesser known provision within the austerity heavy plan has caused great alarm from food safety advocates—a cutback on food inspection, most notably in the meat and poultry industries.

In Obama's budget, far less money would be allocated for federal food safety regulators, leaving room for a scheme promoted by Obama earlier this year in which industry employees are assigned to regulate themselves.
'The Obama Administration’s proposed cuts to the FY 2014 budget for USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) pave the way for an ill-conceived proposal to remove government inspectors from slaughter facilities and turn over their responsibilities to company-paid employees,' Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch stated Thursday."

-->Obama talks food safety, but does the exact opposite. Our newspaper of record doesn't care about Obama's pro-corporate lies and didn't cover this story.



Thursday, April 11, 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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DeSmog Blog:
"The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has had a 'no fly zone' in place in Mayflower, Arkansas since April 1 at 2:12 PM and will be in place "until further notice," according to the FAA website and it's being overseen by ExxonMobil itself. In other words, any media or independent observers who want to witness the tar sands spill disaster have to ask Exxon's permission.

Mayflower is the site of the recent major March 29 ExxonMobil Pegagus tar sands pipeline spill, which belched out an estimated 5,000 barrels of tar sands diluted bitumen into the small town's neighborhoods, causing the evacuation of 22 homes.

The rules of engagement for the no fly zone dictate that no aircraft can fly within 1,000 feet of the ground in the five-mile radius surrounding the ExxonMobil Pegasus tar sands pipeline spill. The area located within this radius includes the nearby Pine Village Airport.

-->The NY Times didn't cover the story of this government/corporate news blackout. No pictures from the sky of the massive oil spill. Sort of like not printing pictures of the war dead coming home. Why get the public outraged over US wars overseas or US corporate destruction of the environment? 

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JusticeOnLine:
"Government documents obtained by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) through its FOIA records requests reveal that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), an agency created after the September 11 attacks under the rubric of combating terrorism, conducts daily monitoring of peaceful, lawful protests as a matter of policy.

Functioning as a secret political police force against people participating in lawful, peaceful free speech activity, the heavily redacted documents show that the DHS 'Threat Management Division' directed Regional Intelligence Analysts to provide a 'Daily Intelligence Briefing' that includes a category of reporting on 'Peaceful Activist Demonstrations' along with 'Domestic Terrorist Activity.' (p. 68) ...

In preparation for planned protests in New York City on October 15, 2011, the DHS documents show coordination between federal and local authorities to use New York City’s permitting scheme to frustrate, obstruct or stop free speech activities. ...

The documents show a Department of Homeland Security that appears obsessed with the question of whether any and all protests that are being surveilled receive media attention and coverage. ... 'Taken together, the two sets of documents paint a disturbing picture of federal law enforcement agencies using their vast power in a systematic effort to surveil and disrupt peaceful demonstrations. The federal agencies’ actions were not because Occupy represented a 'terrorist threat' or a 'criminal threat' but rather because it posed a significant grassroots political challenge to the status quo,' stated Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Executive Director of the PCJF."

-->The NY Times, itself guilty of suppressing coverage of most peaceful demonstrations, didn't print this story.

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NYT Book Review:
"... In their conclusion, the authors rightly note the squeamishness of America's modern presidents in dealing with genocide. Woodrow Wilson, a true idealist, virtually ignored Turkey's slaughter of a million or more Armenians. ...

More recently, Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama employed little more than words to condemn the atrocities in Darfur. Historically speaking, Roosevelt comes off rather well. ..."

-->Dr. David Oshinsky, writing for the The NY Times, doesn't come off nearly as well. Woodrow Wilson the idealist? That's what was always taught in tenth grade history. But Wilson was a virulent racist, a defender of child labor abuses, and an avowed enemy of women's right to vote. He won the presidency by promising to keep America out of World War I, only to enter it when US banking interests were put at risk. He signed the worst laws the country has ever seen suppressing freedom of speech, and was instrumental in sending Eugene Debs, Socialist candidate for president, to prison. 

Bush and Obama should be ashamed of what went on in Darfur? Can't the good professor come up with anything better? The Guantanamo prison, the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, the targeted killing of American citizens by drones? What kind of history is Dr. Oshinsky teaching at NYU? The same type of lobotomized history that readers of the NY Times are often subjected to. 

Friday, April 05, 2013

Fantasyland Media:


Common Dreams:
"A majority of Americans believe that banks have gotten far too big, according to a new Huffington Post/YouGov poll.

According to the poll, sixty-one percent said that financial institutions 'have become too large and powerful,' while 17 percent disagreed. 43% said that current federal regulations on banks and other financial institutions don't go far enough to regulate the big banks, while 15% thought they did enough. 38% were in favor of a law 'that would cap the size of banks in the US and force the largest banks to break into smaller units,' while 22% were opposed.

Last week Senator Bernie Sanders (I. Vt.) introduced a bill to do just that, stating, 'If an institution is too big to fail, it is too big to exist.' "

->The NY Times, predictably, didn't cover this poll showing an overwhelming majority of Americans want to cut the big banks down to size. Why spread anti-business ideas?

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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:
"Tensions remain elevated on the Korean peninsula Monday as worries grow among some that continued US provocations are making chances of a violent outbreak more likely as its military continues a series of training exercises with their South Korean allies.

As leaders in Seoul and Pyongyang exchange barbs and issue threats, foreign policy expert Eric Margolis argues the situation demands the deployment of more 'diplomats' and less 'air force generals' so that tensions can be eased before what he called a 'largely manufactured crisis' spirals out of control.

As Agence France-Presse reports: 'By publicly highlighting its recent deployment of nuclear-capable B-52 and stealth bombers over South Korea, Washington has, at times, almost appeared to be purposefully goading an already apoplectic Pyongyang.' "

-->The NY Times wasn't interested in this analysis of the US empire goading North Korea into war. Our newspaper of record almost always prints Pentagon friendly stories.

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Guardian UK:
"Camp Nama: British personnel reveal horrors of secret US base in Baghdad. ...

The abuses they say they saw include: Iraqi prisoners being held for prolonged periods in cells the size of large dog kennels, prisoners being subjected to electric shocks, inmates being taken into a sound-proofed shipping container for interrogation, and emerging in a state of physical distress. ...

One person who has been widely reported to have been seen there frequently was General Stanley McChrystal, then commander of US Joint Special Operations forces in Iraq. ...

Some of the scenes at Nama were so disturbing that personnel serving there would literally look the other way, rather than witness the abuse. 'I remember being on sentry duty at a post overlooking the dog kennels, and the guy I was with wouldn't even look at them,' one British eyewitness recalls. 'I was saying: 'Hey turn around and look at them.' And he wouldn't. He just wouldn't turn around, because he knew they were there.' "

-->The NY Times has yet to report this story involving McChrystal, commander of US Joint Special Operations, and the routine use of brutal torture on a secret base in Iraq. All our premier newspaper has on its website is an advertisement by Amazon for the book: "My Share of the Task: A Memoir by General Stanley McChrystal." How perfect.

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.

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