2019-09-08: News Headlines

RT (2019-09-08). Ultimate troll? Trump tweets meme-y CNN video amid Hurricane Dorian 'Sharpie' scandal. rt.com The internet is in meltdown mode after Donald Trump tweeted a CNN-mocking meme inspired by his recent briefing on Hurricane Dorian. Media outlets accused Trump of making erroneous changes to a map showing the hurricane's path. | Reports allege that during a White House briefing, Trump incorrectly altered a map with a Sharpie felt pen to highlight areas of Alabama that could be targeted by the cyclone. The hurricane never hit the state, sparking allegations that Trump had made the whole thing up. | Trump posted a series of tweets defending his statement, insisting that initial forecasts predicted that the south…

Ryan Grim (2019-09-07). The Washington Post Nominated Glenn Kessler for a Pulitzer Prize. theintercept.com Earlier this year, the Washington Post nominated Glenn Kessler and his "Fact Checker" team for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in the National Reporting category. Kessler was not named as a finalist by the Pulitzer committee, which meant that the nomination was never made public. Marty Baron,…

WSWS (2019-09-07). Peter Greste's panel discussion in Sydney: Support for censorship and throwing Assange to the wolves. wsws.org Greste advocates the anti-democratic conception that a "responsible journalist" censors information that is deemed too controversial for the population to know.

WSWS (2019-09-07). Report shows advanced decay of New York City subway stations. wsws.org A recent report from the New York City Comptroller's office, "NYC Subway Station Conditions," details debris falling from station ceilings and elevated trains.

Esha Krishnaswamy (2019-09-06). Climate Minimizers Don't Deny Climate Change—but Find Endless Reasons to Reject Sanders' Plan to Stop It. fair.org Climate change is an existential threat to human civilization. If only corporate media acted like it. | While the majority of corporate media do not outright deny the reality of the human-caused climate crisis, they are filled with another brand of insidious ideologues that I call climate minimizers. These downplay the threat that climate change poses to all of us by ignoring scientific data, avoiding discussion on the actual impact of climate change, and hyper-focusing on trivial details. | These tendencies were on display…

Edward Curtin (2019-09-06). Will NPR Now Officially Change Its Name to National Propaganda Radio? dissidentvoice.org Back in the 1960s, the CIA official Cord Meyer said the agency needed to "court the compatible left." He knew that drawing liberals and leftists into the CIA's orbit was the key to efficient propaganda. Right-wing and left-wing collaborators were needed to create a powerful propaganda apparatus that would be capable of hypnotizing audiences into …

WSWS (2019-09-06). US Defense Department prepares for mass internet censorship. wsws.org The Pentagon is seeking proposals from corporate technology partners for the development of an automated system that will censor "false media assets" and "disinformation."

United Nations (2019-09-05). Thursday's Daily Brief: Facebook rallies against vaccination 'fake news', DPR Korea UN staff cuts call, Syria crop report, crisis funding and Dorian latest. un.org A recap of Thursday's stories: Facebook and WHO work together to stem misinformation on vaccines; North Korea tells UN to cut staff; $75 million allocated for eight crises; mixed news on Syria crop production; 'digital divide' sidelines most vulnerable.

pip.hinman (2019-09-05). China scare campaign ignores greater threat. greenleft.org.au Our Common Cause Chris SleeIssue 1236 Australia China anti-Chinese racism free speechSeptember 5, 2019The corporate media have been fu…

Sara Flounders (2019-09-04). Hong Kong: Google censors China. workers.org Google stripped away the illusion that the continuing protests in Hong Kong are about democracy when on Aug. 20 the internet monopoly suspended 936 Twitter accounts and disabled 210 YouTube channels, charging them with seeking to "discredit Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement and sow political discord in the city." (theguardian.com, Aug. 23) Twitter . . . | Continue reading Hong Kong: Google censors China at Workers.org

ACLU (2019-08-27). New Resource Tool Sheds Light on Government's Prepublication Review System. aclu.org Millions of current and former government employees are subjected to this far-reaching censorship system. | This piece was originally published in Just Security. | For more than three years, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University have been litigating a series of Freedom of Information Act requests relating to "prepublication review." Under this far-reaching censorship system, millions of current and former government employees, con…

Mnar Muhawesh (2019-08-26). Breaking The Media Blackout on the Imprisonment of Julian Assange. mintpressnews.com The same media that has spent years dragging Assange's name through the mud is now engaging in a blackout on his treatment. If you are waiting for corporate media pundits to defend freedom of the press, you're going to be disappointed.

Mark Fiore (2019-08-23). The Chosen One's Economy. progressive.org "Elitist numbers. Fake news. Upside-down arrows. Don't believe the signs of weakness!"