2019-09-19: News Headlines

FAIR (2019-09-19). FUNDRAISER: Corporate Media Sidetracking Real Election Issues—Again. fair.org Dear FAIR Friends, While corporate media focus on who's up/who's down in the horserace for the Democratic nomination, more substantive concerns—What are the candidates' policy proposals? Are they adequate to the scale of the problems we face? Will our votes be suppressed, or even miscounted?—go unaddressed. With so much at stake, we've got to …

Staff (2019-09-19). American Exceptionalism and American Innocence: The Propaganda That Upholds the Status Quo. therealnews.com In the book American Exceptionalism and American Innocence: A People's History of Fake News From the Revolutionary War to The War On Terror, authors Roberto Sirvent and Danny Haiphong assert that "The mainstream corporate media is one of the chief propagators of American exceptionalism and innocence…the narratives of American exceptionalism and American innocence work together…

George Ochenski (2019-09-19). Memo to Trump: Water Runs Downhill. counterpunch.org It seems a sure bet that if someone told Donald Trump water runs downhill he would immediately claim it was "fake news" since, after all, when he turns on the gold taps in his Fifth Avenue penthouse atop Trump Tower, water comes gushing out. And you know, it's a long ways up — 58 stories, although he claims More

Fabian Van Onzen (2019-09-19). 'Value and Crisis' by Alfredo Saad-Filho reviewed. mronline.org It is very common for leftist commentators to use the term 'neoliberalism' in their analysis of a political situation or social struggle. The term is frequently used in socialist political economy, cultural studies, and even mainstream liberal newspapers. | Source

Thomas Knapp (2019-09-19). Trump and Netanyahu: "Mutual Defense" or Just Mutual Political Back-Scratching? counterpunch.org On September 14, US president Donald Trump tweeted (of course) the suggestion of a US-Israel "Mutual Defense Treaty," citing a call with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Hopefully there's less going on here than meets the eye: The tweet may just be another mutual publicity back-scratch of the type Trump and Netanyahu frequently exchange when More

Alan MacLeod (2019-09-19). The media's war with Bernie Sanders highlights the need to factcheck the factcheckers. thecanary.co One of the only growing industries in news media right now is factchecking, which promises to differentiate reality from fiction for us in today's post-truth world of spin and fake news. But factcheckers themselves are not neutral arbiters of truth; like everyone else, they're individuals and organizations with their own interests and biases. And a case in point is how the media appears intent on trying to factcheck into oblivion everything Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders says, sometimes with comical results. |

Jeff Cohen (2019-09-19). What George Carlin Taught Us about Media Propaganda by Omission. counterpunch.org In the old George Carlin joke, the TV sportscaster announces: "Here's a partial score from the West Coast — Los Angeles 6." For a brilliant comedian like Carlin — who skewered corporate power, class structure and political/media propaganda — that's one of his more innocuous jokes. But it's sharply relevant today as corporate TV news outlets serve up a series of partial More

Ron Jacobs (2019-09-18). Support the Climate Strike, Not a Military Strike. counterpunch.org The propaganda campaign has begun. The New York Times dutifully published photos of an attack on ARAMCO oil processing facilities in Saudi Arabia. Accompanying the photos are descriptions provided by the warmongers in Washington, DC. Naturally, the photos don't look like much of anything. This gives those describing them the leeway to provide a narrative More

Hatewatch Staff (2019-09-18). Daily Stormer Website Goes Dark Amid Chaos. splcenter.org The website for the Daily Stormer, the white supremacist, neo-Nazi and antisemitic racist group, has lost access to a critical piece of web infrastructure that allows the general public to access its hate propaganda easily.

RT (2019-09-17). Spice of life: Former Trump Press Sec lights up Twitter with NEON green shirt on Dancing with the Stars. rt.com Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer made his debut appearance on ABC's 'Dancing With the Stars' to mixed reactions, most of which centered around his appallingly garish choice of outfit, in radioactive green no less. | Clearly battle-hardened to Twitter teasing and trolling from his tenure in the White House, Spicer pre-empted the impending wave of derision with a heads up about the outfit. | Trust me, I certainly haven't forgotten and once you see the outfit I have to wear tonight you won't forget for quite some time — even after lots of therapy Treat this like looking at an eclipse with a do…

RT (2019-09-17). 'Not a House party': Ex-Trump aide Lewandowski hearing turns into impeachment circus. rt.com Seeking to impeach President Donald Trump, the House Judiciary Committee summoned his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski for a hearing that devolved into a trolling and shouting match. Here are some of the craziest moments. | Appearing before the committee on Tuesday, Lewandowski accused the Democrats of "petty and personal politics," described the hearing as "going down a rabbit hole" and vowed to be "as sincere in my answers as this committee is in its questions." The video of his opening statement was approvingly tweeted by Trump. | pic.twitter.com/wrEmfGFRHm

RT (2019-09-17). 'The Times is DEAD!' Trump demands resignation of all NYT writers involved in latest Kavanaugh smear. rt.com US President Donald Trump slammed the New York Times for 'destroying lives' after the paper belatedly issued a correction admitting its claim of assault by Justice Brett Kavanaugh was totally unsubstantiated by the "victim." | "I call for the Resignation of everybody at The New York Times involved in the Kavanaugh SMEAR story, and while you're at it, the Russian Witch Hunt Hoax, which is just as phony!" Trump tweeted on Monday in response to the Times's correction to an article describing Kavanaugh's alleged drunken misbehavior during his college years at Yale University, posted two days after the article itse…

Robert Mackey (2019-09-16). Threatening New War for Oil, Donald Trump Calls His Own Offer of Iran Talks "Fake News" theintercept.com As he threatened to bomb Iran at Saudi Arabia's behest, Trump also intensified his battle with objective reality, by denying his own prior comments.

Edward Hunt (2019-09-13). In the Pacific Islands, the Trump Administration Sees Empire, Ignores Climate Change. progressive.org The U.S. government views the islands as keys to controlling the Pacific and constraining the rise of China.

pip.hinman (2019-09-13). As the Amazon forest burns, corporate media deflects blame. greenleft.org.au climate emergency Brian MierIssue 1237 Australia Amazon fires ranchers monocultureSeptember 13, 2019I spent last week in the Brazilian Am…

Eoin Higgins, Common Dreams (2019-09-08). New Season of Amazon's Jack Ryan Focused on Venezuela Denounced as 'Over-the-Top and Ridiculous' US Propaganda. venezuelanalysis.com The upcoming season of Amazon's Jack Ryan could have been scripted by John Bolton.

splcenter (2019-09-03). Identity Unmasked: Meet the Proprietors of the Internet's Largest Neo-Confederate Propaganda Machine. splcenter.org A small Facebook campaign predicated on keeping Confederate monuments in place has morphed into a group of more than 200 ardent, secretive separatists planning to make the South a separate nation.

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…