Daily Archives: August 28, 2019

2019-08-28: News Headlines

RT (2019-08-28). Mainstream media cries foul over conservatives turning their smear-tactic culture war against them. rt.com Conservatives are digging through reporters' social media histories to find "potentially embarrassing" posts that could be used to discredit their employers, MSM has discovered to its horror — only they are allowed to do that! | "A loose network of conservative operatives" is sifting through journalists' social media histories, looking for inflammatory nuggets that can be used to discredit the organizations they work for, the New York Times warned earlier this week, noting that this band of marauding internet sleuths has already exposed sensitive information about reporters from CNN, the Washington Post,…

Brandon Turbeville (2019-08-28). What Is Happening in Hong Kong? globalresearch.ca Over the past few months, both mainstream and alternative news outlets have been covering massive protests in Hong Kong where tens of thousands of people have taken part in demonstrations that have since devolved into violence both with police, counter-protesters, …

Santa Cruz News Network (2019-08-28). 'Santa Cruz Keepin' it Real' Blogger Apologizes for Creating Fake News Posts. indybay.org Joe Netro, who authors the Santa Cruz, CA: Keepin' It Real hate blog anonymously as 'Big Joe 77', has admitted to creating a fake news story over the course of multiple blog posts about California State Assembly Bill 516 (AB 516). Netro apologized to his followers on August 22 for the "confusion", calling the multiple false posts he made a "mistake". "If you have lost the trust and would like to track this Bill for yourself, here's the link," Netro wrote. (Photo: Joe Netro aka 'Big Joe 77' speaks at the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors meeting on May 14, 2019.)…

Scott Ritter (2019-08-28). The Media's Russian Radiation Story Implodes Upon Scrutiny. globalresearch.ca How the mainstream media reported an August 8 accident at a top-secret missile test facility in northern Russia should serve as a cautionary tale regarding the dangers of rushed judgments via institutional bias. | In the days following the initial report

Dean Baker (2019-08-28). Corporate Media Take the Trump Line on Trade. commondreams.org The media take a somewhat different tack on this country versus country story, but they nonetheless embrace the nonsense Trumpian logic. (Photo: Screenshot) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…

Dean Baker (2019-08-27). Corporate Media Take the Trump Line on Trade. fair.org The New York Times ( 8/10/19) takes a Trumpian approach to trade. | The New York Times ( 8/10/19) ran an article this month with a headline saying that the 2020 Democratic presidential contenders faced a major problem: "How to Be Tougher on Trade Than Trump." Serious readers might have struggled with the idea of getting "tough on trade." After all, trade is a tool, like a shovel. How is it possible to get tough on a shovel? | While this hea…

Staff (2019-08-27). Corporate Media Bias Against Sanders Is Structural, Not a Conspiracy. therealnews.com What the United States needs is a real discussion about the systematic structural bias against politicians and political movements that question corporate control over the news, say RootsAction.org founders Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon…

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…

Global Research News (2019-08-27). Selected Articles: Nestlé and the Privatization of Water. globalresearch.ca A future without independent media leaves us with an upside down reality where according to the corporate media "NATO deserves a Nobel Peace Prize", and where "nuclear weapons and wars make us safer". | . | . | | | If, like us, this is …

RT (2019-08-26). 'They've got it all wrong!' Trump says entire G7 laughing at US 'fake news'. rt.com With their 'inaccurate' coverage of his meetings with world leaders, the US 'fake news' media have become the laughing stock of the G7 summit in France, US President Donald Trump has claimed. | "In France we are all laughing at how knowingly inaccurate the US reporting of events and conversations at the G-7 is," Trump tweeted on Sunday evening. "These Leaders, and many others, are getting a major case study of Fake News at it's (sic) finest!" | They've got it all wrong, from Iran, to China Tariffs, to Boris! | In France we are all laughing at how knowingly inaccurate the U.S. reporting of events and conversati…

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.

Staff (2019-08-26). "The Situation Was Very Bad": Feminist Activist Kavita Krishnan on What She Saw in Kashmir. democracynow.org In Kashmir, residents have entered their fourth week of a severe lockdown after India revoked the special status of the Indian-controlled part of the Muslim-majority territory. On August 5, India imposed a curfew and cut off all communications to the region. More than 4,000 people, including many political leaders, have been detained, while local residents report facing increasing shortages of food and medicine. Over the weekend, India blocked a delegation of Indian opposition politicians from visiting Kashmir, including Rahul Gandhi, the former president of the Indian National Congress. India's actions have led…

Eds. (2019-08-26). Syria: A new low in nasty propaganda. mronline.org It may be a new low in propaganda. National Public Radio (NPR) used the news that Syrian First Lady Asma Assad had overcome breast cancer to mock her and continue the information war against Syria. They interviewed a Human Rights Watch staffer named Lama Fakih who is an American from Michigan now based in Beirut. | Source

Fight Back (2019-08-25). Wall Street shaken by Trump tweets. fightbacknews.org San José, CA — On Friday, August 23, the U.S. stock market opened lower, on the news that China was retaliating to Trump's latest round of tariffs. It then recovered after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's speech at the Jackson Hole economic conference. Then Trump tweeted that he was "ordering" U.S. companies to leave China, and stocks dived, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending with a loss of more than 600 points or almost 2.5% lower. The broader S&P 500 average fell a bit more than 2.5% percent and the NASDAQ composite, which is heavily weighted towards technology companies, fell…

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!"

Andre Vltchek (2019-08-23). Suddenly West is Failing to Overthrow "Regimes" dissidentvoice.org It used to be done regularly and it worked: The West identified a country as its enemy, unleashed its professional propaganda against it, then administered a series of sanctions, starving and murdering children, the elderly and other vulnerable groups. If the country did not collapse within months or just couple of years, the bombing would …

Rick Sterling (2019-08-23). NPR Mocks Cancer Survivor in Drumbeat of Syria Propaganda. mintpressnews.com While NPR snorts about Asma Assad "sporting a chic blonde pixie cut", Lilly Martin points out that she was recently bald while fighting for her life.

Staff (2019-08-22). Trump Tweets About Disloyal Jews, Then Tweets He's "King of Israel" therealnews.com Haggai Matar, editor of #972 Magazine discusses Netanyahu's Trump-inspired Omar and Tlaib ban, Trump's bizarre retweets, and its effect on Jews and the U.S. election…

Alan MacLeod (2019-08-21). 'Pragmatic': How Corporate Media Praise Dems Who Abandon Progressive Values. fair.org Pragmatic (adjective): solving problems in a sensible way that suits the conditions that really exist now, rather than obeying fixed theories, ideas or rules. | — The battle for the Democratic presidential nomination is dominating the news cycle, and two of the three clear frontrunners in polls, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, d…

Ryan Gallagher (2019-08-19). Twitter Helped Chinese Government Promote Disinformation on Repression of Uighurs. theintercept.com Twitter helped to promote Chinese government propaganda and disinformation about the country's controversial internment camps in the Xinjiang region, a review of the company's advertising records reveals. | The social media company today announced a policy change that would bar such promotion following an inquiry from The Intercept and an earlier controversy over similar propaganda related to demonstrations in Hong Kong. | In Xinjiang, a western province in China, the United Nations has estimated that 1 milli…

Michael Edison Hayden (2019-08-06). U.S. State Department Official Involved in White Nationalist Movement, Hatewatch Determines. splcenter.org A U.S. State Department official oversaw the Washington, D.C.-area chapter of a white nationalist organization, hosted white nationalists at his home and published white nationalist propaganda online, Hatewatch has determined.

Ricardo Vaz (2019-07-18). Venezuela: Trump Diverts Central America Aid to Guaido as EU Threatens More Sanctions. venezuelanalysis.com Guaido's team is receiving over $40 million to fund salaries, travel, training, propaganda and technical assistance.

2019-08-28: Social Media Postees

What Is Happening in Hong Kong?
Brandon Turbeville | globalresearch.ca | 2019-08-28
Over the past few months, both mainstream and alternative news outlets have been covering massive protests in Hong Kong where tens of thousands of people have taken part in demonstrations that have since devolved into violence both with police, counter-protesters, …
globalresearch.ca/what-happening-hong-ko…

'Santa Cruz Keepin' it Real' Blogger Apologizes for Creating Fake News Posts
Santa Cruz News Network | indybay.org | 2019-08-28
Joe Netro, who authors the Santa Cruz, CA: Keepin' It Real hate blog anonymously as 'Big Joe 77', has admitted to creating a fake news story over the course of multiple blog posts about California State Assembly Bill 516 (AB 516). Netro apologized to his followers on August 22 for the "confusion", calling the multiple false posts he made a "mistake". "If you have lost the trust and would like to track this Bill for yourself, here's the link," Netro wrote. (Photo: Joe Netro aka 'Big Joe 77' speaks at the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors meeting on May 14, 2019.)…
indybay.org/newsitems/2019/08/26/1882572…

Corporate Media Take the Trump Line on Trade
Dean Baker | commondreams.org | 2019-08-28
The media take a somewhat different tack on this country versus country story, but they nonetheless embrace the nonsense Trumpian logic. (Photo: Screenshot) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…
commondreams.org/views/2019/08/28/corpor…

The Media's Russian Radiation Story Implodes Upon Scrutiny
Scott Ritter | globalresearch.ca | 2019-08-28
How the mainstream media reported an August 8 accident at a top-secret missile test facility in northern Russia should serve as a cautionary tale regarding the dangers of rushed judgments via institutional bias. | In the days following the initial report …
globalresearch.ca/media-russian-radiatio…

Mainstream media cries foul over conservatives turning their smear-tactic culture war against them
rt.com | 2019-08-28
Conservatives are digging through reporters' social media histories to find "potentially embarrassing" posts that could be used to discredit their employers, MSM has discovered to its horror — only they are allowed to do that! | "A loose network of conservative operatives" is sifting through journalists' social media histories, looking for inflammatory nuggets that can be used to discredit the organizations they work for, the New York Times warned earlier this week, noting that this band of marauding internet sleuths has already exposed sensitive information about reporters from CNN, the Washington Post,…
rt.com/usa/467488-nyt-media-smear-tactic…

Corporate Media Bias Against Sanders Is Structural, Not a Conspiracy
Staff | therealnews.com | 2019-08-27
What the United States needs is a real discussion about the systematic structural bias against politicians and political movements that question corporate control over the news, say RootsAction.org founders Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon…
therealnews.com/stories/corporate-media-…

Corporate Media Take the Trump Line on Trade
Dean Baker | fair.org | 2019-08-27
The New York Times ( 8/10/19) takes a Trumpian approach to trade. | The New York Times ( 8/10/19) ran an article this month with a headline saying that the 2020 Democratic presidential contenders faced a major problem: "How to Be Tougher on Trade Than Trump." Serious readers might have struggled with the idea of getting "tough on trade." After all, trade is a tool, like a shovel. How is it possible to get tough on a shovel? | While this hea…
fair.org/home/corporate-media-take-the-t…

New Resource Tool Sheds Light on Government's Prepublication Review System
aclu.org | 2019-08-27
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…
aclu.org/blog/free-speech/employee-speec…

Selected Articles: Nestlé and the Privatization of Water
Global Research News | globalresearch.ca | 2019-08-27
A future without independent media leaves us with an upside down reality where according to the corporate media "NATO deserves a Nobel Peace Prize", and where "nuclear weapons and wars make us safer". | . | . | | | If, like us, this is …
globalresearch.ca/selected-articles-nest…

Breaking The Media Blackout on the Imprisonment of Julian Assange
Mnar Muhawesh | mintpressnews.com | 2019-08-26
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.
mintpressnews.com/media-blackout-impriso…

'They've got it all wrong!' Trump says entire G7 laughing at US 'fake news'
rt.com | 2019-08-26
With their 'inaccurate' coverage of his meetings with world leaders, the US 'fake news' media have become the laughing stock of the G7 summit in France, US President Donald Trump has claimed. | "In France we are all laughing at how knowingly inaccurate the US reporting of events and conversations at the G-7 is," Trump tweeted on Sunday evening. "These Leaders, and many others, are getting a major case study of Fake News at it's (sic) finest!" | They've got it all wrong, from Iran, to China Tariffs, to Boris! | In France we are all laughing at how knowingly inaccurate the U.S. reporting of events and conversati…
rt.com/usa/467281-trump-fake-news-g7/

'RIDICULOUS': Trump slams report alleging he ever suggested to nuke hurricanes as 'fake news'
rt.com | 2019-08-26
A report alleging that Donald Trump suggested using nuclear weapons to decimate hurricanes before they reached the US is untrue, the US president has claimed, describing the story as "ridiculous" fake news. | "The story by Axios that President Trump wanted to blow up large hurricanes with nuclear weapons prior to reaching shore is ridiculous. I never said this. Just more FAKE NEWS!" Trump tweeted on Monday. | The story by Axios that President Trump wanted to blow up large hurricanes with nuclear weapons prior to reaching shore is ridiculous. I never said this. Just more FAKE NEWS!– Donald J. Trump (@real…
rt.com/usa/467293-trump-fake-news-hurric…

Syria: A new low in nasty propaganda
Eds. | mronline.org | 2019-08-26
It may be a new low in propaganda. National Public Radio (NPR) used the news that Syrian First Lady Asma Assad had overcome breast cancer to mock her and continue the information war against Syria. They interviewed a Human Rights Watch staffer named Lama Fakih who is an American from Michigan now based in Beirut. | Source…
mronline.org/2019/08/26/syria-a-new-low-…

"The Situation Was Very Bad": Feminist Activist Kavita Krishnan on What She Saw in Kashmir
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-08-26
In Kashmir, residents have entered their fourth week of a severe lockdown after India revoked the special status of the Indian-controlled part of the Muslim-majority territory. On August 5, India imposed a curfew and cut off all communications to the region. More than 4,000 people, including many political leaders, have been detained, while local residents report facing increasing shortages of food and medicine. Over the weekend, India blocked a delegation of Indian opposition politicians from visiting Kashmir, including Rahul Gandhi, the former president of the Indian National Congress. India's actions have led…
www.democracynow.org/2019/8/26/kavita_kr…

Wall Street shaken by Trump tweets
Fight Back | fightbacknews.org | 2019-08-25
San José, CA — On Friday, August 23, the U.S. stock market opened lower, on the news that China was retaliating to Trump's latest round of tariffs. It then recovered after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's speech at the Jackson Hole economic conference. Then Trump tweeted that he was "ordering" U.S. companies to leave China, and stocks dived, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending with a loss of more than 600 points or almost 2.5% lower. The broader S&P 500 average fell a bit more than 2.5% percent and the NASDAQ composite, which is heavily weighted towards technology companies, fell…
www.fightbacknews.org/2019/8/25/wall-str…

The Chosen One's Economy
Mark Fiore | progressive.org | 2019-08-23
"Elitist numbers. Fake news. Upside-down arrows. Don't believe the signs of weakness!"
progressive.org/dispatches/the-chosen-on…

NPR Mocks Cancer Survivor in Drumbeat of Syria Propaganda
Rick Sterling | mintpressnews.com | 2019-08-23
While NPR snorts about Asma Assad "sporting a chic blonde pixie cut", Lilly Martin points out that she was recently bald while fighting for her life.
mintpressnews.com/npr-mocks-cancer-survi…

Suddenly West is Failing to Overthrow "Regimes"
Andre Vltchek | dissidentvoice.org | 2019-08-23
It used to be done regularly and it worked: The West identified a country as its enemy, unleashed its professional propaganda against it, then administered a series of sanctions, starving and murdering children, the elderly and other vulnerable groups. If the country did not collapse within months or just couple of years, the bombing would …
dissidentvoice.org/2019/08/suddenly-west…

Trump Tweets About Disloyal Jews, Then Tweets He's "King of Israel"
Staff | therealnews.com | 2019-08-22
Haggai Matar, editor of #972 Magazine discusses Netanyahu's Trump-inspired Omar and Tlaib ban, Trump's bizarre retweets, and its effect on Jews and the U.S. election…
therealnews.com/stories/trump-tweets-abo…

'Pragmatic': How Corporate Media Praise Dems Who Abandon Progressive Values
Alan MacLeod | fair.org | 2019-08-21
Pragmatic (adjective): solving problems in a sensible way that suits the conditions that really exist now, rather than obeying fixed theories, ideas or rules. | — The battle for the Democratic presidential nomination is dominating the news cycle, and two of the three clear frontrunners in polls, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, d…
fair.org/home/pragmatic-how-corporate-me…

Twitter Helped Chinese Government Promote Disinformation on Repression of Uighurs
Ryan Gallagher | theintercept.com | 2019-08-19
Twitter helped to promote Chinese government propaganda and disinformation about the country's controversial internment camps in the Xinjiang region, a review of the company's advertising records reveals. | The social media company today announced a policy change that would bar such promotion following an inquiry from The Intercept and an earlier controversy over similar propaganda related to demonstrations in Hong Kong. | In Xinjiang, a western province in China, the United Nations has estimated that 1 milli…
theintercept.com/2019/08/19/twitter-ads-…

U.S. State Department Official Involved in White Nationalist Movement, Hatewatch Determines
Michael Edison Hayden | splcenter.org | 2019-08-06
A U.S. State Department official oversaw the Washington, D.C.-area chapter of a white nationalist organization, hosted white nationalists at his home and published white nationalist propaganda online, Hatewatch has determined.
splcenter.org/gebert