(2019-10-04). Character assassination 101: Clint Eastwood's Richard Jewell biopic rips 'fake news' for 1996 Atlanta Olympic bombing smear. rt.com Hollywood director Clint Eastwood takes a critical look at the FBI and an overzealous news media in a new fact-based biopic telling the saga of Richard Jewell, a security guard fingered for a bomb plot he tried to stop. | While working as a guard at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, Jewell discovered a backpack containing three pipe bombs. Immediately alerting police and helping to evacuate the area before the devices could detonate, Jewell saved scores of people from death or injury and was cheered for his heroism — but that would soon change. | Three days after the tragedy, Jewell found h…
(2019-10-04). Robot Trolls on Amazon: How Fake Reviews Could Undermine Progressive Politics. counterpunch.org Every big personality or corporation uses algorithmic robots ("bots") to boost themselves and their products. Until recently, US President Donald Trump had a Twitter following of around 59 million. But nearly half of those "followers" were fake, spam, and/or dormant accounts. Twitter's purge of "Trump supporters" was actually a purge of fake accounts. (The real More
(2019-10-04). The Politics of Trolling. counterpunch.org Back in the mid-90s, when the Internet was first taking off, spurred by AOL's making the web available to the masses, it was easy to become a cyber-utopian. Manuel Castells, a Spanish sociologist, became one of its prophets. In books like the 2001 "The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society", Castells recognized More
(2019-10-04). 'Save the planet, eat the babies': AOC trolled over climate change panic by pro-Trump prankster. rt.com Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a fan of radical climate change solutions, but one "modest proposal" caught her off guard. A woman she thought had a "mental condition" suggested eating babies for the good of the earth. | Speaking about her proposed 'Green New Deal' at a town hall event on Thursday, AOC was interrupted by an apparently distressed woman who felt the Green New Deal's zero-carbon goal just wouldn't cut it. Claiming that "we only have a few months left" to fight climate change, the woman went on to suggest that humanity begin eating its own children to save the world from ecological apoca…
(2019-10-04). Russia's Largest Oil Company Ditches Dollar in New Oil Deals. globalresearch.ca Russia's largest oil company Rosneft has set the euro as the default currency for all new exports of crude oil and refined products, as the state-controlled giant looks to switch as many sales as possible from U.S. dollars to euros …
(2019-10-04). 5G Cell Phone Radiation: How the Telecom Companies Are Losing the Battle to Impose 5G Against the Will of the People. globalresearch.ca The telecommunications companies and the mainstream media would have you believe that the race to roll out 5G is unstoppable. That you are nothing and no one in the face of a lethal multi-trillion-dollar agenda imposed by some of the …
(2019-10-03). HELP FAIR: Want a Better World? Fight for Better Media. fair.org Dear FAIRites, FAIR holds firm to its belief that documenting and challenging corporate media is critically important to maintaining democratic values. The news industry's use of government officials, unnamed sources and right-wing think tank "experts" to distort the news needs to always be called out—now is not the time to let up on media activism. …
(2019-10-03). Atlantic Calls on Hollywood to Produce More Government Propaganda. fair.org This Atlantic ( 9/15/19) essay's main complaint about Chinese propaganda seems to be that Beijing is better at it than Washington. | The Atlantic ( 9/15/19) published a curious plea for more propaganda in Hollywood movies. The essay, by Boston College's Martha Bayles, is ostensibly a warning about the growing power of China over the US film industry: Simultaneously the world's mo…
(2019-10-03). Most Americans think social media has too much control over news, according to poll mainstream media quietly ignored. rt.com Some 62 percent of Americans believe social media exerts too much control over what news people see, and most think online platforms treat some news outlets differently than others for the wrong reasons, a new poll shows. | Not only do social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter distort the mix of news that reaches their users, but their actions result in a worse mix, according to 55 percent of Americans responding to a Pew Research poll published this week. Just 15 percent believe the platforms' meddling results in a better mix. | üö®NEW REPORTüö®: Americans Ar…
(2019-10-03). Selected Articles: MBS Must Shelve His Vicious War in Yemen. 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 …
(2019-10-02). Fake is too mild, new word for media is corrupt, says Trump, lashing out at reports he wants moats with alligators on border. rt.com US President Donald Trump hit back at the "dishonest" and "corrupt media" over reports claiming he wanted an alligator-filled moat, electric fence, and other death traps for migrants built into the Mexican border wall. | "I don't even use fake [news] anymore — I call the fake news, now, corrupt news because fake isn't tough enough," Trump lectured reporters during an Oval Office press conference on Wednesday with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, slamming the "crazy" story that he had demanded all manner of medieval booby-traps for the wall being constructed along the southern US border. | Now the press i…
(2019-09-30). Reports on China 'organ harvesting' derive from front groups of far-right cult Falun Gong. thegrayzone.com A wave of corporate media reports on Chinese organ harvesting rely without acknowledgement on front groups connected to the far-right…
(2019-09-26). "Financial Censorship Is Still Censorship": Edward Snowden Slams Justice Dept. Lawsuit Against Him. democracynow.org As a whistleblower complaint filed against President Trump rocks Washington and threatens Trump's presidency, one of the world's most famous whistleblowers, Edward Snowden, joins us from Moscow, Russia. Earlier this month, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Snowden alleging that his newly released memoir, "Permanent Record," violates the nondisclosure agreements he signed with the federal government when he was a National Security Agency employee. The Justice Department also argued that they are entitled to all of Snowden's book profits. Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman and Juan González speak with Sno…
(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.
(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.