Media

Sri Lanka Threatens to Expel Media as Army Closes in on Rebels

Sri Lanka has publicly warned foreign media, western media and aid agencies that they will be expelled from the country if their reporting is deemed sympathetic to the Tamil Tiger guerrillas, who are making a last stand deep in the island's jungle.

In an interview to local media, the defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, highlighted the role of ambassadors of Switzerland and Germany, and television networks CNN, BBC and al-Jazeera in his criticism of foreigners, accusing them of being biased towards the rebels, known formerly as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Posted in Media, sri lanka

With Gaza, Journalists Fail Again

The assault on Gaza exposed not only Israel's callous disregard for international law but the gutlessness of the American press. There were no major newspapers, television networks or radio stations that challenged Israel's fabricated version of events that led to the Gaza attack or the daily lies Israel used to justify the unjustifiable. Nearly all reporters were, as during the buildup to the Iraq war, pliant stenographers and echo chambers. If we as journalists have a product to sell, it is credibility.

Posted in journalism, Media, War/Empire, Israel/Palestine

To Favor Due Process Is to Favor Terrorists' Rights

The Associated Press has an article today discussing the closing of Guantanamo and what type of proceedings should be established for the remaining detainees to determine their guilt or innocence. This was the headline AP chose, one that, as is typically the case, was then repeated in newspapers and Posted in Equality/Justice, guantanamo, Media

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 23, 2009
3:39 PM

CONTACT: Media Matters

Media Fudge Numbers on Guantánamo Detainees

WASHINGTON - January 23 - In recent days many media figures and outlets -- including CNN's Campbell Brown and Kyra Phillips, MSNBC's Chris Matthews, Fox News' Sean Hannity, The Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Associated Press, and ABCNews.com -- have repeated or failed to challenge the claim that 61 former detainees held at Guantánamo Bay have returned to the battlefield.

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Posted in guantanamo, Media

The Newest Fear-Mongering Campaign From the Right and the Media

The latest fear-mongering campaign in the U.S. -- this one devoted to scaring Americans that they will be slaughtered if Guantanamo is closed and Terrorism suspects are brought into the U.S.

Posted in guantanamo, Media, war on terror

Social Movements 2.0

On September 27, 2007, the world experienced its first virtual strike. In response to a wage dispute, IBM workers in Italy organized a picket outside their company's "corporate campus" based in the 3-D virtual world of Second Life. According to a report in the Guardian, workers "marched and waved banners, gate-crashed a [virtual] staff meeting and forced the company to close its [virtual] business center to visitors....

Posted in Activism, Media

US Rabbis Urge Obama to Push for Immediate Gaza Truce

A group of rabbis and other religious leaders bought advertising space in the New York Times this week to call for U.S. president-elect Barack Obama to push for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.

The ad, placed by the Network of Spiritual Progressives and claiming to represent more than 2,800 other religious, cultural and community leaders, urges Obama to convene an international Middle East peace conference to "facilitate a lasting and just settlement for all parties."

Posted in Media, obama, War/Empire, Israel/Palestine

Chronology: Which Side Violated the Israel-Gaza Ceasefire?

Introduction

June 18, 2008

Posted in Media, Israel/Palestine

Scapegoating Minorities for Failures of Banking

It seems, on the face of it, a theory too absurd to even be taken seriously: A ragtag band of anti-poverty activists pushes the White House into forcing lenders to make bad loans to poor and minority borrowers, setting off a subprime loan crisis that puts the entire global economy at risk.

Yet in the frenzy of coverage as a financial markets collapse loomed in mid-September, the idea that the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) was somehow responsible took off in the media-in the mainstream press as well as on the conservative fringe.

Posted in bailout, Media, racism, us poverty

Bill Moyers on Israel/Gaza

On his PBS Journal Show last night, Bill Moyers delivered a poignant essay on Israel/Gaza (video below). The whole segment is worth watching -- it begins with coverage of a mostly ignored anti-war march this week in Washington (while media hordes, down the street, fixated on the Roland Burris circus) -- but Moyers' essay begins at roughly the 2:20 mark.

Posted in Media, free gaza, Israel/Palestine