Friday, May 31, 2019
Headlines for May 31, 2019
Headlines with an * are the ones we managed to fit in in our allotted time slot.
Worst, Most Misleading & Funniest Headlines for May 31, 2019
*US energy department rebrands fossil fuels as ‘molecules of freedom’
#NotTheOnion Liquid natural gas is now “freedom gas”, composed of “molecules of freedom”, per a press release from the DoE: https://www.energy.gov/articles/department-energy-authorizes-additional-lng-exports-freeport-lng
*Lawyers for Noah’s Ark theme park are suing its insurance company for rain damage
Irony alert.
*Sanders refuses to apologize for opposing war with Iran
Only in America. If anything, Sanders should be criticized for not opposing a war strongly enough! He’s also been asked to apologize for opposing America’s contra war against Nicaragua, for opposing the war in Vietnam, and for opposing the invasion of Iraq! In a recent tweet, Sanders calls a war against Iran “unnecessary”. Isn’t “illegal” enough? A “war crime”, actually the “supreme war crime, a war of aggression”? This is reminiscent of Obama’s “opposition” to Iraq invasion as a “dumb war”. And Sanders has supported sanctions, the ongoing war against Iran, although he did oppose the latest round in 2017.
North Korea Executed and Purged Top Nuclear Negotiators, South Korean Report Says
They cover their rear end by saying “South Korean Report Says”, making the headline technically true even if the story turns out to be false, as is virtually certain will be the case. But the headline should say, “anonymous source allegedly tells South Korean paper”. Or said “unconfirmed report” rather than just “report”. From the article: “without providing any hint of who its source might be or how it obtained the information.” Reliability of this source is indicated by this sentence (among others): “Even Kim Jong-il’s sister and adviser, Kim Yo-jong, did not accompany Mr. Kim to the meeting with Mr. Putin, although she has been a fixture in high-profile summit meetings with American, Chinese and South Korean leaders. Chosun Ilbo said the sister may have been reprimanded by Mr. Kim or may be sick with pneumonia.” The Times could have pointed out that Chosun Ilbo, the source of this story, is the same paper that claimed Kim had executed his girlfriend, only to have her miraculously turn up alive.
AP and Reuters have run this story, as have most papers. To its credit, the Washington Post is one of the few that hasn’t.
(Reuters) North Korea executes envoy in a purge after failed U.S. summit: media
Paragraph 5: “Reuters was unable to independently confirm the report. Previously, North Korean officials have been executed or purged only to reappear with a new title, according to media reports…A diplomatic source told Reuters there were signs Kim Hyok Chol and other officials were punished, but there was no evidence they were executed and they may have been sent to a labor camp for re-education.”
Has Kim Jong Un executed top envoys over his failed summit with Trump? Maybe, maybe not.
Lists all the previous false reports.
North Korea execution reports - why we should be cautious
*U.S. Yet to Find Evidence of New Chemical Weapons Attack in Syria
This came two days after this headline:
*U.S. Says Assad May Be Using Chemical Weapons in Syria Again
But yet the article repeats the claims of previous chemical weapons attacks, the ones that brought military responses from the U.S. government, without mentioning the new evidence casting doubt on those attacks.
Similar problems in the media:
*Top U.S. military intelligence official says Russia ‘probably’ not adhering to nuclear test ban
*Iran 'almost certainly' sabotaged ships off UAE, Bolton says
Day after day, media repeat evidence-free claims by the U.S. government.
And a rare exception showing how it is possible to report correctly:
*Bolton, without offering evidence, says Iran 'almost certainly' responsible for oil tanker attack in UAE
*White House Wanted USS John McCain ‘Out of Sight’ During Trump Japan Visit
A tarp was hung over the ship’s name ahead of the trip, and sailors—who wear caps bearing the ship’s name—were given the day off for Trump’s visit.
Despite a booming economy, many U.S. households are still just holding on
Well, perhaps it's time to redefine the concept of a "booming economy".
*And in our #FakeNewsByOmission watch, still absent from the U.S. corporate media:
The Center for Economic and Policy Research paper suggesting that 40,000 Venezuelans have died as a result of U.S. sanctions, has now been mentioned in one British paper (the Independent), and still not a single U.S. corporate outlet.
The leaked OPCW internal report which showed that not only was the alleged chemical attack in Douma most likely faked, but suggested a strong possibility that people had been deliberately killed by the jihadis and then their bodies used as part of the faked evidence. Again, the Independent in the U.K. (Robert Fisk) has now reported on this, but no corporate media outlet in the U.S., despite the incredibly significance of this report.
Has Kim Jong Un executed top envoys over his failed summit with Trump? Maybe, maybe not.
That's the headline from a CBS News story on the latest reports of executions in North Korea. And that article, like this BBC story entitled "North Korea execution reports - why we should be cautious", lists multiple previous examples of similar stories which have been proven embarrassingly wrong, as allegedly dead people turned up alive and well.
But not the "paper of record", The New York Times. Their article on the subject attempts to avoid responsibility if the story is proven wrong by attributing it to someone else: "North Korea Executed and Purged Top Nuclear Negotiators, South Korean Report Says". But even that attempt to weasel out of responsibility is still grossly misleading. It could say "…Anonymous Report Says" or "…Unconfirmed Report Says", but it doesn't. And, to be clear, this report is based on a single anonymous source to the South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo, the very same paper that previously claimed Kim Jung-un had executed his ex-girlfriend, only to have her turn up alive. The Times even acknowledges how sketchy this source is, by noting that it comes “without providing any hint of who its source might be or how it obtained the information.” But despite that, the Times, alone among media sources, includes not a single word in its article about the previous erroneous reports that are covered in, e.g., the CBS and BBC articles.
Could this report be true? Well, as CBS says, "maybe, maybe not". My money is clearly on not. Here's an indication from the article of how "reliable" this anonymous source is: "Even Kim Jong-il’s sister and adviser, Kim Yo-jong [one of those reputedly purged], did not accompany Mr. Kim to the meeting with Mr. Putin, although she has been a fixture in high-profile summit meetings with American, Chinese and South Korean leaders. Chosun Ilbo said the sister may have been reprimanded by Mr. Kim or may be sick with pneumonia." So this source is so familiar with what's going on that he doesn't even know whether Kim Yo-jong has been "reprimanded" (other articles claim "purged") or is just sick.
One of the classic propaganda methods employed by the Times, used in the headline, is also seen in practically every single paragraph in the article. Here's the first paragraph, for example:
"North Korea has executed its special envoy to the United States on spying charges, as its leader, Kim Jong-un, has engineered a sweeping purge of the country’s top nuclear negotiators after the breakdown of his second summit meeting with President Trump, a major South Korean daily reported on Friday."So after 42 words stated as straighforward, absolute fact (no "allegedly" or "may have been" etc.), with the reader's mind already made up, eight weasel words are added at the end, to pretend that the Times isn't necessarily standing by this story; if it's proven wrong, blame Chosun Ilbo. But the damage, the intended effect, in the reader's mind, has already been accomplished. And the same is repeated paragraph after paragraph throughout the article. "Blame the other guy," says the Times, even though we're the ones printing this story without the slightest attempt at verification, a story based on a single anonymous source which doesn't even meet our own supposed standards for publication.
Remarkably, the Washington Post has chosen (thus far) not to touch the story with a ten-foot pole.
Friday, May 24, 2019
Headlines for May 24, 2019
Headlines with an * are the ones we managed to fit in in our allotted time slot.
Worst, Most Misleading & Funniest Headlines for May 24, 2019
*North Korea calls Joe Biden "an imbecile" and "fool of low IQ"
Also “bereft of elementary quality as a human being.” A bit harsh, but who are we to argue?
*U.S.-funded broadcaster failing to spread fair and balanced news, independent review says
“The news organization (Radio/TV Marti) routinely allows “almost any criticism of the Cuban government and its leaders” on the air.” Can we now get this same review board to do the same review of the WaPo (and every other corporate media outlet)? Their coverage of Venezuela (and many, many other issues) is no less unfair & unbalanced than Radio/TV Martí.
*Assad just raised the stakes for catastrophe in Syria. Trump is silent.
WaPo editorial, urging Trump to come to the aid of al Qaeda in Idlib. Just imagine if al Qaeda were in control of Idaho and Russia was demanding the U.S. not attack because of innocent civilians.
*Syrian Government Starts Campaign to Retake Last Opposition Stronghold of Idlib
Populated by "rebels, extremists and civilians alike."
18th (!) paragraph: "The province is now largely under the control of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a group linked to Al Qaeda that overran other armed groups there over the winter."
Tulsi Gabbard’s Campaign Is Being Boosted by Putin Apologists
The Hawaii congresswoman is quickly becoming the top candidate for Democrats who think the Russian leader is misunderstood.
"Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination is being underwritten by some of the nation’s leading Russophiles." - Stephen Cohen (“a prominent Kremlin sympathizer”), Sharon Tennison, who runs an organization dedicated to improving US-Russia relations and objects to the demonization of Putin, and "Goofy Grapes", an RT employee. Even if these 3 really were supporters of Putin, 3 contributors out of 75,000 hardly represents Gabbard’s campaign being “underwritten” by them.
Gabbard calls unflattering report 'fake news'
It wasn’t an “unflattering report”. It was a *false report”, a.k.a. “Fake news”.
*Venezuela’s Opposition Leader Juan Guaidó May Negotiate With Maduro
"It was a daring gambit: Juan Guaidó, Venezuela’s opposition leader, stood by a military base alongside dozens of uniformed officers and political allies, calling for a military uprising against President Nicolás Maduro." Note: Guaidó no longer President, or interim President, just Guaidó, and Maduro back to being President Nicolás Maduro. Really a remarkable development.
Iran's reach puts U.S. forces, allies in striking range
Of course U.S. forces wouldn’t be in striking range if they hadn’t put themselves there! As far as “allies”, Turkey borders Iran, and Saudi Arabia and the UAE are right across the Persian Gulf, so that’s hardly remarkable.
*Trump’s Iran sanctions are working. But it’ll take more to topple the regime.
In 1953, they only talked about toppling the Iranian regime inside the halls of the CIA. Now, they do it openly in the pages of the Washington Post, and no one bats an eye.
*Russian documents reveal desire to sow racial discord — and violence — in the U.S.
This is about an alleged "new plot to manipulate and radicalize African Americans."
"The documents were obtained through the Dossier Center, a London-based investigative project funded by Russian opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky. NBC News has not independently verified the materials, but forensic analysis by the Dossier Center appeared to substantiate the communications."
"One document said that President Donald Trump’s election had “deepened conflicts in American society” and suggested that, if successful, the influence project would “undermine the country’s territorial integrity and military and economic potential.” Really? Exacerbating racial tensions in the U.S. threatens to undermine the U.S.’ “territorial integrity”? There is actually something that threatens our territorial integrity, and its global warming which threatens to put south Florida under water, it’s not racial tensions.
And in our #FakeNewsByOmission watch, still absent from the U.S. corporate media:
The Center for Economic and Policy Research paper suggesting that 40,000 Venezuelans have died as a result of U.S. sanctions, has now been mentioned in one British paper (the Independent), and still not a single U.S. corporate outlet.
The leaked OPCW internal report which showed that not only was the alleged chemical attack in Douma most likely faked, but suggested a strong possibility that people had been deliberately killed by the jihadis and then their bodies used as part of the faked evidence. Again, the Independent in the U.K. (Robert Fisk) has now reported on this, but no corporate media outlet in the U.S., despite the incredibly significance of this report.
Friday, May 17, 2019
Headlines for May 10, 2019
Headlines with an * are the ones we managed to fit in in our allotted time slot.
Worst, Most Misleading & Funniest Headlines for May 10, 2019
*Not a headline but the most jaw-dropping media outrage of the week (and probably the year), in an article about a military helicopter crash in Venezuela:
Originally read: “Pressure has been mounting on Maduro to step down following elections in January in which voters chose opposition leader Juan Guaidó over him for president.”!!! The article has two authors, and presumably also editors and proofreaders.
Now reads: “Pressure has been mounting on Maduro to step down since January, when opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself interim president and was backed by the US and dozens of other nations.”
And this was not the only CNN “error”. As Dave Lindorff has noted (https://fair.org/home/failed-coup-a-fake-corporate-news-story-designed-to-trick-venezuelan-soldiers-and-us-public/), on April 30, the day of the last coup attempt, CNN ran a report that claimed Guaidó was on the La Carlota military airfield in eastern Caracas, which Guaidó said had been “liberated.” According to CNN, he was addressing “thousands of supporters” on the scene. Neither of those things was true, and neither was backed up by the video they ran, leading to the inescapable conclusion that these were deliberate lies, not just errors.
*American sanctions killed thousands in Venezuela
A new paper from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), by economists Mark Weisbrot and Jeffrey Sachs, finds that economic sanctions implemented by the Trump administration since August 2017 have caused tens of thousands of deaths and are rapidly worsening the humanitarian crisis.
Why am I highlighting this? Because, outside of left/progressive media, this weekly paper in Union and Middlesex Counties, NJ is the ONLY U.S. media outlet who covered this important story. #FakeNewsByOmission
*Trump’s Latin American allies want change in Venezuela, but not U.S. intervention
Headlines like this reinforce the impression that the U.S. is not already intervening in Venezuela, and perpetuate the lie that sanctions are diplomacy, not war.
*ABC, NBC, and MSNBC prime-time shows ignored landmark UN report on biodiversity
Only three of 26 prime-time news programs on major networks covered the report
Only three of 26 prime-time news programs on major networks covered the report
1 million plant and animal species are at risk of extinction due to expansive human development. Important? Not to corporate media. More #FakeNewsByOmission
*Want to build a far-right movement?
Spain’s Vox party shows how.
Front page of the website several days running. “The story of Vox also belongs to a larger global story about the online and offline campaign tactics developed by the American alt-right and the European far right, which are now used throughout the world. The use of social media marketing to exacerbate polarization; of websites created especially to feed polarized narratives; of private fan groups that pass around conspiracy theories; of language that deliberately undermines trust in “mainstream” politicians and journalists: Fans of the party that wants to “Make Spain Great Again” used all of these tactics to move its message from the fringes to the mainstream.”
*What Makes a Coup Succeed? Confidence, Consensus and a Sense of Inevitability
Helpful advice from the Times. An example: “Some of Mr. Guaidó’s failures have been tactical, such as issuing his call to action on Twitter, Mr. Singh said. Coup leaders traditionally favor national TV and radio stations because seizing them is a way to convince the country that they have already taken control.”
FBI director tells Congress he has no evidence of ‘spying’ on Trump campaign
Implication of the headline is that nothing happened. No, it did, and Wray isn’t denying it, he just calls it “surveillance” instead. “Surveillance” which included sending people pretending to be something other than they were, offering money, etc. Wray says “that’s not the term I would use” (about “spying”) but I’m pretty sure that “surveillance” isn’t the term most people would use about what happened to George Papadopoulos.
Russian Collusion in Venezuela
Why does Donald Trump believe Putin instead of his advisers?
Trump said Putin "is not looking at all to get involved in Venezuela, other than he’d like to see something positive happen for Venezuela. And I feel the same way." As if the U.S. is not involved in Venezuela, and definitely not in a positive way! (40,000 dead from sanctions). But that's not the WSJ's problem with what Trump said, not at all. No, it's the claim that Russia "is not looking to get involved". So Russia sells arms to Venezuela, which is no secret, and Trump is hardly denying that, but apparently selling arms now constitutes "collusion". The article itself refers to Russian "incursions" into Venezuela. Of course it repeats the fiction (based solely on Mike Pompeo's claim) that Maduro was about to board a plane to Cuba but was talked out of it by Russia, and calls the coup attempt an "attempt by democrats to restore the constitution." Amazingly the editorial does NOT repeat the claim that there are 20,000 Cuban troops in Venezuela, nor Russian troops.
Headlines for May 17, 2019
Headlines with an * are the ones we managed to fit in in our allotted time slot.
Worst, Most Misleading & Funniest Headlines for May 17, 2019
*Venezuela's Guaido seeks U.S. Pentagon cooperation to solve political crisis
Setting new standards for euphemisms: “Cooperation”!
Sampling of headlines from Google News searching for Guaidó:
CNN: Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido calls for US help in letter
CNBC: Venezuela's Guaidó asks for relations with U.S. military
TIME: Venezuela's Opposition Leader Guaidó asks U.S. military to put more pressure on Maduro
*Russia and Cuba Could End the Venezuelan Catastrophe. Seriously.
Jorge Castañeda (Foreign Minister of Mexico from 2000 to 2003, now a professor).
Referring to Russia: “Their friends in Cuba have been lurking around Venezuela for years.”
Castañeda talks about “applying pressure” on Cuba and then “loosening the screws” to get them to convince Maduro to leave. “Tightening the screws” is a metaphor which is 100% appropriate. It harkens back to medieval torture chambers, where people’s fingers or heads were put into vices and tightened. The goal of the “pressure” he writes about is exactly the same—make Cubans suffer.
Funniest line: ”Mr. Putin is picking his nose at the US by being a nuisance in its backyard, in a tit-for-tat response to what Moscow considers NATO’s interference in Eastern European affairs.”
*Will Iran Revive Its Nuclear Program?
Suffering under U.S. sanctions, Iran announced last week it might resume production of highly enriched uranium that could be used in nuclear weapons.
Suffering under U.S. sanctions, Iran announced last week it might resume production of highly enriched uranium that could be used in nuclear weapons.
Count the lies. Iran does not have partially built nuclear weapons waiting to be finished, if its people are going hungry it’s because of US sanctions, but most egregious of all, Iran has NEVER produced highly enriched uranium. And the NYT knows it.
*We’re drifting toward war with Iran. Trump needs to take a diplomatic way out.
“Drifting” implies the U.S. warships headed for the region are just being carried along by a current out of our control. No, Bolton is gunning the engine toward war with Iran, and we don’t need “diplomacy” to stop it, we just need to stop it, period. It’s totally in our (U.S.) hands. The editorial itself repeats two big lies — that Iran might “renuclearize” (impossible, it was never nuclearized) and it might resume high-level enrichment of uranium (same lie as the NYT cartoon—you can’t “resume” something you never did in the first place).
*U.S. Ambassador Says Israel Is ‘on the Side of God’, in a sign of partiality in the Israel-Palestinian conflict
U.S. is partial to Israel? I sure hope this wasn’t their first clue!
Trump Said He Would Tame Rogue Nations. Now They Are Challenging Him.
Note: not an op-ed but a “news analysis” article. Who’s the “rogue nation”? And who is challenging whom? This headline stands the world on its head. “Three nations that have long defined themselves as bitter adversaries of the United States — North Korea, Iran and Venezuela — decided this week they could take on President Trump. Each one is betting that Mr. Trump is neither as savvy a negotiator nor as ready to use military force as he claims.” NYT doing its part to goad trump into war, as well as skandering three countries by the absurd idea that they “define themselves” by their relationship to the U.S.
CNN Anchors reveal how they disrupt the status quo
As if. A reminder that FAIR last month found that out of 76 opinion pieces on Venezuela from major U.S. media outlets, including CNN, NOT ONE opposed regime change. That’s how much challenging of the status quo the media in this country are doing. And we saw that above, with both the NYT and WaPo printing identical lies about Iran and its non-existent nuclear weapons program.
Trump, frustrated by advisers, is not convinced the time is right to attack Iran
On the one hand, classic spin from the usual anonymous "senior Administration officials". Trump trying to look like he is antiwar, just as he posed during the campaign, but not actually meaning it. But on the other hand, reflective of the complete normalization of imperialism. The headline accepts the idea that there is a "right time to attack Iran", which has nothing whatsoever to do with international law providing an actual justification for such an attack.
Your 5G Phone Won’t Hurt You. But Russia Wants You to Think Otherwise.
RT America, a network known for sowing disinformation, has a new alarm: the coming ‘5G Apocalypse.’
RT America, a network known for sowing disinformation, has a new alarm: the coming ‘5G Apocalypse.’
“Known for”? I think they mean “smeared”.
I went to Google News and searched for “5G Dangers”. After the NYT article, the next three articles, which were about studies showing potential 5G dangers, were from CounterPunch, MedicalDaily, and VentureBeat. Not a Russian among them.
Pompeo crashes Brussels meeting of E.U. diplomats but changes few minds on Iran
A charitable description from the WaPo; there isn’t a single word in the article indicating he changed a single mind.
