Putin & Trump and Journalists

[rich]

I found this article relevant to the present discussion. Patrick Cockburn
is very keyed in to what's been happening in Iraq and Syria and I find his
articles very informative

rich

'All wars always produce phony atrocity stories – along with real
atrocities. But in the Syrian case fabricated news and one-sided reporting
have taken over the news agenda to a degree probably not seen since the
First World War. The ease with which propaganda can now be disseminated is
frequently attributed to modern information technology: YouTube,
smartphones, Facebook, Twitter. But this is to let mainstream media off the
hook: it’s hardly surprising that in a civil war each side will use
whatever means are available to publicise and exaggerate the crimes of the
other, while denying or concealing similar actions by their own forces. The
real reason that reporting of the Syrian conflict has been so inadequate is
that Western news organisations have almost entirely outsourced their
coverage to the rebel side.'

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v39/n03/patrick-cockburn/who-supplies-the-news



On Thu, Jan 26, 2017 at 4:14 PM, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thank you.  All very good points and an excellent examples supporting each.
>
> On Thu, Jan 26, 2017 at 11:40 AM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
> >
> >
> > I think one of the big differences is that journalists within US borders
> rarely die in mysterious circumstances, but  non-US journalists abroad are
> fair game, like the Al Jazeera journalists targeted by a US missile in
> Baghdad which also killed Spanish journalists in the same building. They
> had made their occpancy known to the US military. If Russia had done the
> same thing the criticism woulld be still with us, but if the US takes out a
> hospital or targets the floor of a hotel where Al jazeera is located all
> the criticism will be against anyone who suggests they did it on purpose.
> Bit of a devil’s bargain gong on if you ask me.  One of the main roles of
> the CIA since WW2 has been to protect US business and geo-political
> interests abroad from unions and journalistic criticism. Those ‘interests’
> as Kissinger called them have frequently spun into wars with cumulatively
> millions of dead. These wars frequently start with CIA actions to control
> or use media. The footage released by Bradley now Chelsea Manning shows a
> US helicoptor gunman killing journalists and civilians, apparently as a
> kind of game to add to his tally of kills.  The governments we establish or
> support have often been as bad or worse than Putin’s Russia: Trujillo,
> Pinochet, the Shah, the current government of Egypt, the Saudis( who have a
> larger military budget than Russia).
> >
> >
> > What we call world powers are established and maintained by violence and
> by controlling populations with financial opportunities, propaganda, jails
> and police. The US loves to flatter itself and present its empire as
> non-racist,  always for political freedom and freedom of the press, free
> markets, truth and democracy. The journalists who tell it differently are
> not always killed and not never killed but they are effectively
> marginalized. In many ways the deepest levels of journalism is done in
> academia, but the actual voice and influence of al our good schools and
> research on the political conversations inthe US has diminished to almost
> nonexistent.   The major news sources are always on board for a war, no
> matter how dishonest the propaganda . If american journalism and democracy
> can’t  stop an insane war like Iraq, can’t bring down the Koch brothers and
> in fact  facilitated the rise to power of Trump,  how would we fare in
> reshaping Russia? Yes Putin should be accurately covered and criticized,
> but this anti Russia binge is a self righteous distraction from our own
> corruption and violence and the effective coup of our own right wing.
> >
> >
> >
> >> On Jan 26, 2017, at 7:07 AM, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> Did Putin order the murder of journalists?
> >> I don't know.
> >> However, those who are most concerned for journalists, journalists
> >> worldwide, argue that Putin has created an environment in Russia that,
> >> while not the direct link or smoking gun to the appalling number of
> >> murdered journalists, has made Russia  unsafe for journalists,
> >> especially those who criticize Putin.
> >>
> >> Trump too must be held accountable for the environment and the
> >> attitude that makes the world unsafe for journalists, especially those
> >> who criticize Trump.
> >>
> >> The number of murdered journalists, appalling in the world, and
> >> staggering in Russia, relatively low in the US, should not confuse the
> >> issue. Leaders who are openly hostile to dissent, and to what they
> >> perceive as negative press, create an environment that stifles
> >> journalism and puts journalists at risk.
> >>
> >> Trump, as president of the US, is in many respects, far more dangerous
> >> to journalists worldwide.
> >> -
> >> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
> >
> > -
> > Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>
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