Guardian UK:

“The New York Times did not report that a young Palestinian journalist had been arrested in Israel because it obeyed a gagging order issued by an Israeli court. The paper's delayed publication of the story about the detention of Majd Kayyal (see below) was revealed by its public editor, Margaret Sullivan.

She quoted the NY Times's Jerusalem bureau chief, Jodi Rudoren, as explaining that the acceptance of gag orders is analogous to abiding by traffic rules or any other laws of the land. 

… It is also the case that some Israeli publications have not obeyed gag orders, such as Haaretz, as did an Australian outlet. And it was Haaretz that petitioned against the gag order on Kayyal's arrest.“

http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/apr/22/new-york-times-israel

—>The NYT obeying Israeli gag orders on news stories. Quite amazing for what we like to think is freedom of the press in this country. Our newspaper of record didn’t even think the story about the Israeli gag order was worth publishing, and only commented on it in the Public Editor’s Journal blog. 

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Common Dreams:

"Industrial waste from fracking sites is leaving a ‘legacy of radioactivity’ across the country as the drilling boom churns out more and more toxic byproducts with little to no oversight of the disposal process, critics warn.

According to a new report in Bloomberg Wednesday, the controversial oil and gas drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing is ‘spinning off thousands of tons of low-level radioactive trash,’ which has spawned a ‘surge’ in illegal dumping at hundreds of sites in the U.S.

‘We have many more wells, producing at an accelerating rate, and for each of them there’s a higher volume of waste,’ Avner Vengosh, a professor of geochemistry at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, told Bloomberg. Without proper handling, ‘we are actually building up a legacy of radioactivity in hundreds of points where people have had leaks or spills around the country.’ “

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/04/16-9

-->The NYT avoids bad press when it comes to fracking. It is almost as if the Gray Lady obeys a gag order from the petroleum industry. It didn't print this story.

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Common Dreams:

"A military judge has ordered the disclosure of never-revealed information detailing the experience at secret CIA ‘black sites.’

The defense team for Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri argued during pretrial motions at the Cuban prison that the Guantanamo detainee's time spent in secret CIA prisons—during which he was waterboarded and threatened with a gun and a power drill—has ‘tainted’ his testimony, and thus the case against him.

The Saudi Arabian has been held at the U.S. military prison since 2006 after being held in a series of secret CIA prisons. He is being accused of orchestrating the Oct. 12, 2000, bombing of the USS Cole in the port of Aden in Yemen. …

The rules for military commissions bars prosecutors from using any evidence or testimony obtained by coercion or torture.”

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/04/22-5

—>A search on CIA “black sites” confirms the fact that the NYT didn’t publish this story. Maybe our premier newspaper obeys gag orders from the Pentagon as well. Torture by the US government is never deemed “fit to print.”

Common Dreams:

“Following news of the (Pulitzer for Public Service), Snowden released a statement thanking the Pulitzer committee for recognizing those involved in the NSA reporting. He wrote:

‘Today's decision is a vindication for everyone who believes that the public has a role in government. We owe it to the efforts of the brave reporters and their colleagues who kept working in the face of extraordinary intimidation, including the forced destruction of journalistic materials, the inappropriate use of terrorism laws, and so many other means of pressure to get them to stop what the world now recognizes was work of vital public importance.

This decision reminds us that what no individual conscience can change, a free press can. My efforts would have been meaningless without the dedication, passion, and skill of these newspapers, and they have my gratitude and respect for their extraordinary service to our society. Their work has given us a better future and a more accountable democracy.’ “

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/04/14-6

—>The US media avoids statements from Edward Snowden, no matter how newsworthy. Practically no newspaper in the country printed his commentary on the Pulitzer that his leaks made possible. 

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Common Dreams:

"The American intelligence community is forcefully denying reports that the National Security Agency has long known about the Heartbleed bug, a catastrophic vulnerability inside one of the most widely-used encryption protocols upon which we rely every day to secure our web communications. But the denial itself serves as a reminder that NSA's two fundamental missions – one defensive, one offensive – are fundamentally incompatible, and that they can't both be handled credibly by the same government agency.

In case you've spent the past week under a rock, Heartbleed is the name security researchers have given to a subtle but serious bug … that would allow a hacker to trick sites into leaking information – including not only user passwords, but the master encryption keys used to secure all the site's traffic and verify that you're actually connected to MyBank.com rather than an impostor.

It's exactly the kind of bug you'd expect NSA to be on the lookout for, since documents leaked by Edward Snowden confirm that the agency has long been engaged in an ‘aggressive, multi-pronged effort to break widely used Internet encryption technologies’. In fact, that effort appears to have yielded a major breakthrough against SSL/TLS way back in 2010, two years before the Heartbleed bug was introduced – a revelation that sparked a flurry of speculation among encryption experts, who wondered what hidden flaw the agency had found in the protocol so essential to the Internet's security.“

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/04/13-3

-->The NYT avoids connecting the dots for its readers when it comes to NSA spying using computer viruses and bugs. All NYT readers got was a statement from Obama.

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Common Dreams:

"Responding to geologists who claim they have made direct links between fracking operations and seismic activity in the state, Ohio regulators on Friday pulled permits for at least one drilling operation.

According to the Associated Press: ‘State Oil & Gas Chief Rick Simmers told The Associated Press on Friday that the state has halted drilling indefinitely at the site near Youngstown where five minor tremors occurred in March following investigative findings of a probable link to fracking.

A deep-injection well for fracking wastewater was tied to earthquakes in the region in 2012.

Simmers says Ohio will require sensitive seismic monitoring as a condition of all new drilling permits within three miles of a known fault or existing seismic activity of 2.0 or greater. Drilling will pause for evaluation with any tremor of 1.0 magnitude and will be halted if a link is found.’ ”

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/04/11-7

—>The NYT avoids negative articles like this about fracking, although it did cover the earthquakes in 2012 that were tied to deep-injection wells.

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.

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:

"Western Spy Agencies Infiltrating, Warping World of Online Activism. Latest Snowden documents show extent to which GCHQ has gone to 'manipulate, deceive, and destroy reputations' of online targets...

According to newly published documents, Western spy agencies like the GCHQ and NSA have developed sophisticated online operations in which covert agents infiltrate online communities, networks and forums in order to 'manipulate, deceive'—even destroy the reputations of—targeted individuals and groups even if those people have not be charged, or necessarily accused, of a crime...

Harvard Law Professor Cass Sunstein, a close Obama adviser and the White House’s former head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, wrote a controversial paper in 2008 proposing that the US government employ teams of covert agents and pseudo-'independent' advocates to 'cognitively infiltrate' online groups and websites, as well as other activist groups.

Sunstein also proposed sending covert agents into 'chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups' which spread what he views as false and damaging 'conspiracy theories' about the government. Ironically, the very same Sunstein was recently named by Obama to serve as a member of the NSA review panel created by the White House.

'The 'broader point' about the program's implications,' writes Greenwald, 'is that far beyond hacktivists, these surveillance agencies have vested themselves with the power to deliberately ruin people’s reputations and disrupt their online political activity even though they’ve been charged with no crimes, and even though their actions have no conceivable connection to terrorism or even national security threats.' "

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/02/25-0

-->All quiet at The NY Times. This covert infiltration and manipulation of the Internet by our government to squash dissent was never reported on.

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Common Dreams:

"As US Media Mangles Venezuela Coverage, Maduro Calls for 'Peace Conference.' As violence continues to threaten Latin American country, US media continues to replace nuance with familiar anti-Chavista narrative. ...

According to Rebecca Hanson, who lives in Venezuela while studying the nation's politics as a graduate student, one of most notable things about the protest movement is where it is not occurring.

'These protests have not engulfed the entire country or even the entire capital, despite coverage and photographs that might suggest otherwise. Recent articles in Ultimas Noticias have declared the western side of the city, which normally grabs headlines for its high homicide rates, as tranquil and quiet in comparison to the east.' "

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/02/25-4

-->Sad to see our newspaper of record consistently report the Pentagon's version of what is going on in Venezuela. It's as if freedom of information stops for The NY Times when it comes to reporting on America's "enemies." 

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The Guardian, UK

"US ambassadorial nominees face more backlash over appointments. Association of diplomats considers criticising the giving of posts to donors who had little or no knowledge about assigned countries. ...

A Guardian investigation in July revealed that the controversial practice of rewarding donors with plum foreign postings has accelerated under Obama, leaving the average 'price' paid by his donors for ambassadorships in the last election cycle at nearly $2m.

Now the American Foreign Service Association, an independent professional body representing US diplomats, is considering making its first formal complaint about a US ambassadorial nominee’s suitability since 1992, in a sign that recent appointments may have proven the final straw for the diplomatic community."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/25/us-ambassadors-confidence-vote-amid-firestorm

-->Democratic donors paying to become American ambassadors? Why wouldn't The NY Times report on this? Must we go to a foreign newspaper to learn about the corruption in our own system of government?

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 NY Times:

"Arguing that boycotting Israel is intrinsically anti-Semitic is not only false, but it also presumes that Israel and 'the Jews' are one and the same. This is as absurd and bigoted as claiming that a boycott of a self-defined Islamic state like Saudi Arabia, say, because of its horrific human rights record, would of necessity be Islamophobic.

The B.D.S. movement’s call for full equality in law and policies for the Palestinian citizens of Israel is particularly troubling for Israel because it raises questions about its self-definition as an exclusionary Jewish state. Israel considers any challenge to what even the Department of State has criticized as its system of 'institutional, legal and societal discrimination' against its Palestinian citizens as an 'existential threat,' partially because of the apartheid image that this challenge evokes. ...

Israel remains the only country on earth that does not recognize its own nationality, as that would theoretically avail equal rights to all its citizens, undermining its 'ethnocratic' identity. The claim that B.D.S., a nonviolent movement anchored in universal principles of human rights, aims to 'destroy' Israel must be understood in this context.

Would justice and equal rights for all really destroy Israel? Did equality destroy the American South? Or South Africa? Certainly, it destroyed the discriminatory racial order that had prevailed in both places, but it did not destroy the people or the country. Likewise, only Israel’s unjust order is threatened by boycotts, divestment and sanctions." -Omar Barghouti

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/01/opinion/sunday/why-the-boycott-movement-scares-israel.html?hpw&rref=opinion&_r=1

-->The NY Times printed this amazing article in its op-ed section. We give credit to our newspaper of record for doing the right thing.

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Huffington Post::

"We think the American media is too weak in relation to the government, large corporations and other powerful groups. They are afraid. They do not meet the basic requirement of journalism, which is to investigate the behavior of these groups. Our organization was created in order to practice journalism without fear and to support its independence. Journalism is done with passion. ...

The more people know about information that was previously hidden, the more journalists and people will be inspired to carry out this type of work. It is also essential that a journalist's relationship with sources and issues occur without interference. Otherwise, the journalist may be afraid of being prosecuted or going to jail. Spying exacerbates it. Without trust between the source and the journalist, journalism will die and the information we consume will be compromised." -Glenn Greenwald

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/31/snowden-asylum-brazil-glenn-greenwald_n_4704899.html

-->Maybe The NY Times will get around to printing some of the views of Glenn Greenwald too. Like Omar Barghouti, his ideas have been deemed just to "dangerous" for American readers.

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Common Dreams:

"Though Obama has promised cleaner energy at home, his policies are rapidly expanding the export of the world's dirtiest fuels. While the Obama administration continues to boast reductions in U.S. carbon emissions through the incorporation of renewable energy resources such as wind and solar, the darker side of America's changing role as a 'dirty energy dealer' and one of the world's top carbon pollution exporters is seldom told.

As journalist Tim Dickinson explores in a new feature-length piece for Rolling Stone, Obama's rhetoric of a reduced U.S. carbon footprint is betrayed by the increasing amount of carbon-intensive fossil fuels that are now being exported all over the world. And as critics of his energy policies continue to point out, the president is in danger of having the destructive realities of his climate related policies overwhelm the promises that he's made about addressing the dangers of a rapidly warming planet. ...

'The Obama administration wants to be seen as a climate leader, but there is no source of fossil fuel that it is prepared to leave in the ground,' said (Lorne) Stockman (research director for Oil Change International). 'Coal, gas, refinery products – crude oil is the last frontier on this. You want it? We're going to export it.' "

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/02/04-4

-->The NY Times supports Obama's energy policies, mostly because Wall Street does. The very rich run both parties, and control most of the nation's media as well. America's role of "dirty energy dealer" just isn't going to make it into mainstream news.  

UPDATE: We reported last week on the Israel Lobby's "war with Iran" bill that had both Democratic and Republican sponsors in the Senate. Yesterday, The NY Times did a complete article on the bill and the Israel Lobby. Better late than never, although support for the bill has now collapsed, and our two NY Senators who both co-sponsored the bill were never mentioned in the story.