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Western Media Use ‘Peace’ Prize to Fuel War Propaganda.

But more damning is the complete erasure of Machado’s outspoken support for Israel, even amidst the recent genocide. Venezuela’s far-right leader has repeatedly praised Israel’s defense of “Western values” and “freedom,” while her party established an alliance with Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud in 2020. In 2018, Machado penned a letter to the Israeli prime minister, asking him to lead a foreign intervention to “dismantle the criminal Venezuelan regime.”

Ricardo Vaz,23 Oct 25

The awarding of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to Venezuelan far-right leader María Corina Machado took nearly everyone by surprise (with the exception of insiders who apparently used advance knowledge to profit on betting markets—New York Times, 10/10/25).

The Nobel Committee justified the award on the basis of Machado’s “tireless work promoting democratic rights” and “her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.” However, Machado’s track record paints a very different picture (Sovereign Media, 10/11/25; Venezuelanalysis, 7/8/24).

Rather than scrutinize the opposition politician’s credentials, the media establishment seized the opportunity to whitewash the most unpeaceful elements in her background in order to advance its cynical pro–regime change agenda targeting Venezuela’s socialist government (FAIR.org, 2/12/25, 1/11/23, 6/13/22, 4/15/20). Not coincidentally, Machado’s award coincided with an escalation of US military threats against Venezuela, meaning that corporate pundits used a “peace” prize as a platform for war propaganda.

Whitewashed profiles

The Nobel Prize meant corporate outlets had to give their readers an idea of Machado’s political trajectory. And though some had profile pieces (Reuters, 10/10/25; New York Times, 10/10/25), there was a concerted effort to conceal the most unsavory elements. The Financial Times (10/10/25) euphemistically stated that Machado “enter[ed] politics in opposition to Hugo Chávez”—president of Venezuela from 1999 through 2013—while the Guardian (10/10/25) summed up that she has been “involved in politics for more than two decades.”

No establishment outlet mentioned Machado’s first relevant political action: supporting the short-lived April 2002 coup against the Chávez government, and signing the infamous “Carmona Decree.” In one fell swoop, this decree did away with all democratically elected institutions, annulled the 1999 Constitution, and established a de facto dictatorship headed by the leader of Venezuela’s corporate business lobby. Machado later denied signing the decree, though her name appeared on a list published by Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional.

Looking past the undemocratic debut, establishment journalists instead started the story with the mid-2002 creation of Súmate, calling it an NGO dedicated to election monitoring or transparency (Bloomberg, 10/10/25; Washington Post, 10/10/25; Reuters, 10/10/25; New York Times, 10/10/25). Yet they did not mention that this alleged quest to safeguard democracy was funded by the US, or that the opposition made unfounded fraud claims after failing to unseat Chávez in a 2004 recall referendum (Venezuelanalysis, 8/21/04, 9/9/04).

Machado’s second act was also the antithesis of peace and democracy, as the opposition politician led the 2014 “La Salida” (“The Exit”) campaign of street violence to overthrow the Nicolás Maduro administration, leaving dozens dead. That same year, in order to denounce the Venezuelan government, she acted as an “alternate ambassador” for Panama at a meeting of the Organization of American States (BBC, 3/25/15). The stunt led to Machado losing her parliamentary seat.

Yet instead of scrutinizing the new laureate’s less-than-peaceful actions, corporate outlets chose to ignore or misrepresent them as “denouncing the regime’s abuses” (Washington Post, 10/10/25), “participating in anti-regime protests” (New York Times, 10/10/25) or “allegations she’d tried to foment a coup” (Bloomberg, 10/10/25). Only the Associated Press (10/10/25) offered a minimal concession that the Machado-led “anti-government protests…at times turned violent.”

Another key aspect of the opposition operator’s political career has been outspoken advocacy for US sanctions, which have caused economic devastation and led to tens of thousands of deaths (CEPR, 4/25/19). But Western media ignored Machado’s lobbying for collective punishment of the Venezuelan people—with the New York Times (10/16/25) a notable exception.

The US-backed figure has also made no secret of her plans to repress her political opponents. Machado is on the record making thinly veiled threats to “eradicate socialism,” and pledging to “neutralize” destabilizing groups should she eventually take power. Factoring in the Venezuelan far right’s history of racist violence (Venezuelanalysis, 3/28/14, 7/30/17), it is not unreasonable to predict a dirty war against Chavistas if Machado ever reached Miraflores.

The company you keep

The reporting on the Nobel Peace Prize plainly described Machado as belonging to the Venezuelan opposition, but few outlets bothered to disclose her political views, apart from euphemistically labeling her a “conservative” (New York Times, 10/10/25; Guardian, 10/10/25) or a supporter of “economic liberalism” (New York Times, 10/16/25; Reuters, 10/10/25).

Machado has heaped praise on far-right former presidents Álvaro Uribe of Colombia, who was responsible for serious human rights violations, and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, who tried to foment a coup.

In February, Machado sent a video message during a “Patriots for Europe” summit, calling for far-right leaders’ support and openly referring to them as “allies.” The high-profile gathering featured neo-fascist parties like Spain’s Vox, Italy’s Lega and France’s Rassemblement National (RN). The same media establishment that paints the likes of Hungary’s Viktor Orban as a threat to democracy (Guardian, 2/7/25; NPR, 4/22/25) chose to ignore Machado’s quite open alignment with his politics.

But more damning is the complete erasure of Machado’s outspoken support for Israel, even amidst the recent genocide. Venezuela’s far-right leader has repeatedly praised Israel’s defense of “Western values” and “freedom,” while her party established an alliance with Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud in 2020. In 2018, Machado penned a letter to the Israeli prime minister, asking him to lead a foreign intervention to “dismantle the criminal Venezuelan regime.”

At a time when the US/Israeli genocide in Palestine has sparked outrage around the world, no corporate outlet found it relevant to mention that this year’s “peace” laureate did not utter a single word of condemnation. On the contrary, according to Netanyahu himself, Machado told the prime minister she “appreciates” his “resolute” actions in a recent congratulatory phone call. Unsurprisingly, only Reuters (10/17/25) briefly reported on the Nobel laureate’s war criminal ally.

Beating the war drums

The media establishment’s careful whitewashing of Machado’s undemocratic past and genocidal allies is particularly damning, given the present context of a US military buildup and overt threats against Venezuela. One of the US-backed politician’s most persistent habits has been calling for a foreign intervention against her country (Sovereign Media, 10/11/25).

In the wake of her peace prize, Machado has wasted no time in lobbying for violent regime change. In a BBC interview (10/11/25), she argued that Venezuela needs to be “liberated” via a “coordination of internal and external forces,” an expression she also used in an interview with El País (10/10/25)

Borrowing a page from US administration’s book of redefining concepts such as “imminent threat” or “civilian,” Machado bombastically claimed that the Maduro government “has declared a war” against the Venezuelan people, and urged Trump to help her side “win” this war (BBC, 10/11/25; Infobae, 10/11/25; CNN, 10/15/25). The opposition leader has latched onto the administration’s “narcoterrorism” fairy tale that has been debunked over the years (FAIR.org, 9/24/19; Venezuelanalysis, 9/2/25), just like she supported the White House’s Tren de Aragua narrative, even if it meant a gruesome crackdown against Venezuelan migrants.

Machado has gone as far as to cheerlead the Trump administration extrajudicially executing her fellow citizens, arguing that the lethal US strikes in the Caribbean, which have killed at least 30 people, are “saving lives, not only Venezuelan lives, but also life of American people” (Daily Beast, 10/10/25).

But it is not just Machado using her new platform to promote US military intervention. The Washington Post editorial board (10/10/25) openly expressed that US interests would be “better served” with a “reliable American partner” like Machado. True to form, the Wall Street Journal (10/10/25, 10/12/25) also used Machado’s award to double down on calls for Trump to bomb Venezuela in the name of “freedom” and “democracy.”

The warmonger lineup was complete with the New York Times’ Bret Stephens (10/10/25), who never needs excuses to endorse the murder of Venezuelans in the name of US interests (FAIR.org, 2/12/25). In this case, Stephens claimed that regime change is the only option to address the “catastrophe of Chavismo,” even if it means “full-scale military confrontation.”

The Nobel Peace Prize has long lost any credibility when it comes to upholding actual peace. With Machado’s award, it followed a recent tradition of aligning itself with Western foreign policy. And even more predictable was the corporate media seizing the opportunity to advance its war and regime-change propaganda against Venezuela.

October 25, 2025 Posted by | media | Leave a comment

The power (and fun) of protest!

New book, No To Nuclear, delivers serious anti-nuclear messages with a little fun as well.

Linda Pentz Gunter, Oct 23, 2025

On October 18, the people of the United States came out in record numbers to protest the presidency of Donald Trump and his unacceptable descent into dictatorship. No Kings day saw seven million people on US streets across the country, many in costume — whether the now ubiquitous inflatable frogs, Tyrannosauruses against Tyranny or your favorite ‘Aunt Tifa’.

In my forthcoming book, No To Nuclear. Why Nuclear Power Destroys Lives, Derails Climate Progress and Provokes War, I remind readers that the anti-nuclear movement, too, has delivered its share of street theatre along with an important message; end the Nuclear Age in all its forms.

My book will be published next March by Pluto Press but you are encouraged to pre-order your copies now using this form.

In it, I describe the defiance of French anti-nuclear activists in a country that has a long history of often colorful rebellion. Sometimes it’s human “owls” residing in trees under threat at a proposed nuclear waste site. Or stubborn goats, “hard-headed activists” proclaiming their “right to graze in peace” rather than see their pastures plowed up for another nuclear fuel pool at the La Hague reprocessing center. At every turn, the French deliver “considerable numbers, abundant creativity — and sometimes a lot of useful tractors as well.” 

It’s a reminder that even though our task to eliminate nuclear power and nuclear weapons can sometimes — even often — feel insurmountable, it’s important to inspire and uplift, just as the millions who protested No Kings last weekend did to their own spirits and that of countless others.

No To Nuclear is intended to provide a chapter-by-chapter indictment of nuclear power (and its connection to nuclear weapons), debunking the mythology around both sectors. There is a lot of serious material in those 220-plus pages and it’s heavily focused on the persistent human right violations by every aspect of the nuclear complex. But I hope some of the stories will bring a smile, too, along with a hefty dose of optimism that we will win this one in the end.

If you’d like to set up a book event in person or online, please contact me at linda@beyondnuclear.org. Thank you! Linda Pentz Gunter

Pre-order your copy here
Beyond Nuclear | 301-270-2209 | 7304 Carroll Ave, #182, Takoma Park, MD 20912 | www.beyondnuclear.org

October 24, 2025 Posted by | media | Leave a comment

Our world is combustible’: Kathryn Bigelow on AI, Andy Warhol and nuclear Armageddon

Danny Leigh Guardian, 18 Oct 25

‘Our world is combustible’: Kathryn Bigelow on AI, Andy Warhol and nuclear Armageddon

The record-breaking Oscar winner explains how her new film, A House of Dynamite – starring Idris Elba as the US president – is rooted in her cold war childhood and the urgent threats we all face todayFri 17 Oct 2025 15.00 AEDTShare

Kathryn Bigelow has been thinking about death: hers, and mine, and yours as well. History will always remember her as the first woman to win a best director Oscar, which she did in 2010 for The Hurt Locker. But in her new film, A House of Dynamite, history may not have long to run. It is the story of a nuclear missile, launched at an American city. The rest is about what happens next. Bigelow would like you to consider Armageddon.

“Someone I know said the bomb for the audience is realising this is possible,” she says. She smiles. “I’m glad if people come away from the movie as concerned as I am.”

Today, though, her bearing is Zen. Almost six feet and wearing tinted sunglasses, she looks like a rock star, and younger than 73. Her own memories of the nuclear era stretch back to the early 1960s, and a cold-war childhood in California. School involved “duck and cover” drills, teaching kids to stay safe in a nuclear attack. “I grew up hiding under my desk. Of course, I was too young to understand what I was doing down there.”

A House of Dynamite is a belated answer. Bigelow’s previous movie, Detroit, was a 60s true story, an account of racist police violence. Now she is back in the period she most likes making films about: right now. It is an age of ironies. On our phones, nothing is beyond the pale, and everything makes us furious. And all, she says, while ignoring a nuclear stockpile able to render our online dramas irrelevant. “It’s the one thing we never mention, much less question. It’s crickets out there. It isn’t on TikTok, so it doesn’t exist.”

The movie, then, reminds us of a terrifying fact of life. “Our world is combustible. And it’s extraordinary to me how that ever became normalised.”

The cast includes Rebecca Ferguson as a White House security analyst and Idris Elba as the US president. Rich with closely researched detail, the film shows us the same nightmare experienced by multiple characters. Who fired the missile is never clear. Retaliatory strikes are still prepared. The film does exactly what its director intends. It makes everything else you might be thinking about feel absolutely trivial……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

She says she sees a clear relationship between her hot potato films of the past 20 years and her new one. K-19 left her haunted by nuclear ghosts. Then, while others had their say about her, The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty sharpened her self-image as a film-maker adjacent to journalism. “The films start with my own curiosity, and then there’s a desire to provide access to information the public doesn’t have that I think might be important.”

The other link, of course, is the military. A retired three-star general acted as a consultant on A House of Dynamite. She points out she has never sought endorsement from the Pentagon. Indeed, the story is more than sceptical about the accepted wisdom of mutually assured destruction – and the billions spent maintaining it. “Our nuclear armoury is a fallible structure,” Bigelow says. “Within it are men and women working thanklessly behind the scenes, whose competence means you and I can sit and have this conversation. But competence doesn’t mean they’re infallible.”……………………………………………………………………… https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oct/17/kathryn-bigelow-ai-andy-warhol-nuclear-armageddon-a-house-of-dynamite

October 19, 2025 Posted by | media | Leave a comment

Media Refuse To Sign Up As Propagandists For Trump’s Pentagon.

The Atlantic, Associated Press, Breaking Defense, CNN, Defense One, The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Hill, The New York Times, NPR, Newsmax, Politico, Reuters, Task & Purpose, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Examiner, The Washington Post, and The Washington Times all announced that they would not agree to the policy. (Media outlets had until 5 p.m. on October 14 or else they would likely lose access to the Pentagon.) 

Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter, Oct 14, 2025

Nearly all media organizations refused to sign a censorship policy at the Pentagon that imposes greater control over credentialed reporters and the information that they publish. 

The policy, championed by Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth, was first proposed in mid-September. It resulted in an immediate backlash because the policy required reporters to pledge not to share any military information, including unclassified information, unless that information is officially approved for release. 

On October 6, the Pentagon revised the policy [PDF]. It changed to “military members” must seek approval from an “appropriate authorizing official” before releasing information to the press. However, the department added, “Any solicitation of [military] personnel to commit criminal acts would not be considered protected activity under the 1st Amendment.”

The Atlantic, Associated Press, Breaking Defense, CNN, Defense One, The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Hill, The New York Times, NPR, Newsmax, Politico, Reuters, Task & Purpose, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Examiner, The Washington Post, and The Washington Times all announced that they would not agree to the policy. (Media outlets had until 5 p.m. on October 14 or else they would likely lose access to the Pentagon.) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… https://thedissenter.org/media-refuse-to-sign-up-as-propagandists-for-trumps-pentagon/

October 17, 2025 Posted by | media, USA | Leave a comment

Palestinians’ Fate: Victims of Genocide While Alive, Vastly Uncounted By the Media When They Are Killed.

By Ralph Nader, October 10, 2025, https://nader.org/2025/10/10/palestinians-fate-victims-of-genocide-while-alive-vastly-uncounted-by-the-media-when-they-are-killed/

Ben Hubbard, the long-time Middle East correspondent for the New York Times, is known for his high standards. So too is Karen DeYoung, the long-time reporter and foreign affairs editor for the Washington Post.

Yet they, and their editors, share a common, recurring failure by misleading their readers about the serious undercount of Palestinian deaths during the Israeli regime’s genocidal destruction of Gaza.

How so? By repeating in article after article the Hamas claim of 67,000 deaths since October 2023. The real death toll estimate is probably around 600,000. Unlike Israeli and American cultures, which do not under-estimate their fatalities in conflicts, Hamas sees the awful death toll as a reflection of their not protecting their people and a measure of Israeli military might against Hamas’ limited small arms and weapons. Both Hubbard and DeYoung, of course, know better. They know the daily bombardment of tiny Gaza, the geographical size of Philadelphia, with 2.3 million humans, is without precedent in Israel’s targeting of civilians andcivilian infrastructure. The blockade of “food, water, medicine, fuel, and electricity,” along with the concentrated destruction of health care facilities have been condemned by human rights groups in Israel and International humanitarian organizations.

 Reporters and editors are quite aware of more accurate casualty estimates appearing in The Lancet, the prestigious British medical journal, and estimates provided by other academic and prominent international relief organizations like Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children, UN World Food Programme and others experienced in assessing the human toll of military devastations.

Journalists know the estimate last April by Professor Emeritus Paul Rogers of the University of Bradford in the UK, an expert in the power of aerial bombs and missiles, who wrote that the TNT equivalent of six Hiroshima atomic bombs has been delivered to these totally defenseless Palestinians, almost all of whom are without housing or air raid shelters.

Netanyahu’s American-made missiles and bombs continue to produce deadly bloodshed.  The waves of death from starvation, untreated, weaponry-caused infectious diseases, the cutoff of medicines treating cancer, respiratory ailments, and diabetes are still mounting.

What readers do not know is how much of the use of Hamas’s undercount is mandated by news editors, and why.  Because intense Netanyahu propaganda has declared the estimates of Hamas, based on real names (excluding many thousands under the rubble and the collateral damage to civilians that in such conflicts exceed direct fatalities from the bombing by 3 to 13-fold), are an exaggeration, the mainstream media is wary of being accused of even worse fabrications than those of Hamas.

Speaking to many reporters and editors about this huge undercount phenomenon, not prevalent in other violent arenas of war, they all agree that the real count is much higher, but they do not have a number to use that is deemed credible. But they do have casualty experts who can be interviewed, such as the chair of the Global Health Department at Edinburgh University or a foremost missile technology specialist, MIT Professor Emeritus Theodore Postol, who said on our radio/podcast recently, “I would say that 200, 300, or 400,000 people [Palestinian] are dead easily.”

The least the journalists could do is say “the real count may be much higher.” The other alternative is to do their own investigation, piecing together the empirical and clinical evidence (See, Gaza Healthcare Letter to President Trump, October 1, 2025) and citing prominent Israelis who have said that the IDF has always targeted Palestinian civilians from 1948 on. (See my column March 28, 2025 – The Vast Gaza Death Undercount – Undermines Civic, Diplomatic and Political Pressures.)

The other alternative is to do a “news analysis,” which allows for evaluations, short of editorializing. For instance, a “news analysis” could point out that conveying the impression that the Hamas figures are the true count means that 97 out of 100 Palestinians in Gaza are still living. This is not remotely credible. Yet that is essentially what Ben Hubbard’s October 7th Times article stated, “with more than 67,000 killed, or one in every 34 Gazans, according to local health officials.”  It is more like one in every four Gazans killed.

Nor is it true that the “local health officials” are confirming this, because on further inquiry, they admit their definition of the fatality toll excludes those under the rubble and those who die from the massive collateral casualty toll. This reality is well known to scores of American physicians back from Gaza who say that a majority of those killed are children and women and that the survivors are almost all injured, sick, or dying.

There are esteemed reporters like Gideon Levy of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, who claim that the Hamas figures are horrible enough that they meet the test of genocide, implying that a higher count would not make any more of a moral or political difference.

I disagree. “Horror” does not have finite limits. It makes a difference in driving the greater intensity of political, diplomatic, and civic pressures to have a count of 600,000 rather than 67,000 or 200,000 children rather than 20,000 children murdered. Do we need to refer to other genocides in the 20th century to show how much a difference it would have made if the official count were one tenth of the real count?

The editors of the Post, especially, and of the Times are not keeping up with the reporting of DeYoung and Hubbard et al., about the scenes of death, dying, and horrendous agony in Gaza. The editorial management of reporters and the editorials fail to hold Netanyahu and his terroristic mass-slaughtering cabinet accountable. They allow the publication of realistic reports, features, and sometimes even give voice to Palestinians, as the Times did with several pages and pictures recently. But the long-time omnipresent shadow of AIPAC et al. darkens the editorial and opinion pages more than do the illuminations of their own reporters.

October 17, 2025 Posted by | media | Leave a comment

Can Pro-Israel Billionaires Succeed, by Buying More US Media Platforms?

October 14, 2025 Posted by | media, USA | Leave a comment

From AI to TikTok to TV, This Pro-Israel Billionaire Is Expanding Power in US

One of Trump’s advisers once called megabillionaire Larry Ellison a “shadow president of the United States.” 

By Derek Seidman , Truthout, October 11, 2025

arry Ellison’s name isn’t always mentioned alongside more public-facing megabillionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, or Mark Zuckerberg. But as he vaults to the top of the U.S. power elite after a string of high-profile corporate deals, that’s about to change.

Ellison, the founder of the tech giant Oracle, is quickly emerging as the new face of oligarchic power in the U.S. Oracle has become an AI powerhouse at the same time Ellison and his son David have acquired Paramount and its vast media empire. With Donald Trump’s recent executive order, Ellison and Oracle will also now oversee TikTok’s algorithms, shaping a platform that reaches 150 million U.S. users.

What’s more alarming than Ellison’s sheer wealth — in September, he briefly surpassed Musk as the world’s richest person — is that he’s building his concentrated power and control in collaboration with the Trumpian project of attacking so-called “wokeness,” all while supercharging the corporate expansion of artificial intelligence and tech surveillance.

Moreover, Ellison is a vocal supporter of the Israeli military and a close confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. As Israel looks to repair its image after two years of overseeing a genocide in Gaza, it’ll have a powerful booster in Ellison and his new media kingdom.

The Making of a Megabillionaire

Larry Ellison founded Oracle in 1977 and was its CEO for nearly four decades. The firm ascended by providing database software for business and government agencies. Oracle’s first customer was the CIA, and the company is named after a CIA project.

Over time, Oracle has swelled into a business empire focused on cloud services and, increasingly, artificial intelligence.

Today, Ellison is worth more than $350 billion. He owns more than 40 percent of Oracle’s stock and still serves as the corporation’s executive chairman and chief technology officer. Ellison was also on Tesla’s board of directors from 2018 to 2022 and holds a 1.4 percent stake in the company that’s worth billions…………………………………..

Trump-Tied AI Deals

But far more than wealth and luxury, Ellison has power. Notably, he’s forged a close relationship with Donald Trump, with one Trump adviser calling him a “shadow president of the United States.”

While Ellison hasn’t directly donated to Trump, he personally hosted a major 2020 Trump fundraiser. Ellison also joined a November 2020 call “where Trump staffers and supporters discussed strategies for challenging their candidate’s loss at the ballot box,” according to The Washington Post………………………………..

A huge swath of Oracle’s AI business comes from a $300 billion deal with OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. Oracle’s partnership with OpenAI was supercharged by Trump’s announcement in January of the Stargate AI joint venture, which The New York Times called an “early trophy” for Trump.

Indeed, Stargate is just one expression of the mutually beneficial alliance that Ellison has forged with Trump. Oracle’s expanding partnership with OpenAI reflects a new primacy for Ellison within the AI boom that is increasingly driving the entire U.S. economy.

Media Mogul

This should raise alarm bells, especially since Ellison has openly celebrated AI’s ability to surveil people, pronouncing in 2024 that “citizens will be on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that’s going on.”

Ellison’s alliance with Trump is also transforming him into an unrivaled media mogul…………………………………………………………………………………..

The Ellisons’ quest for media dominance doesn’t end with Paramount. They’re reportedly eying Warner Brothers, the iconic movie studio and owner of CNN and HBO. Such an acquisition, which would need the Trump administration’s approval, would create a media empire transcending even Rupert Murdoch’s conglomerate.

And then came the TikTok deal…………………………………………………………………………………..

For Ellison, all his new acquisitions present the opportunity to forge a truly novel corporate mega-empire that will dominate the U.S. media and attention economy, injecting his agenda like a thread across an AI-powered chain of news outlets, streaming sites, film studios, and social media outlets.

“We Love the Country of Israel”

“These are very smart people, and none of this is accidental,” noted one business professor.

All of this is very good for Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s vast influence operation.

Ellison is a staunch backer of Israel. He is one of the top donors to the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF), a U.S. nonprofit that effectively subsidizes the Israeli military. Ellison has given the FIDF at least $26.6 million.

“I feel a deep emotional connection to the State of Israel and the Israeli people,” Ellison said at the 2014 FIDF gala. “We love the country of Israel and we’ll do everything we can to support the country of Israel,” he added, with his “we” seeming to refer to Oracle.

Ellison is also extremely close to Netanyahu, who has been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court over Israel’s genocide in Gaza………………………………………………………..

Ellison is also a backer of former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair and has given or pledged at least $348 million to Blair’s Institute for Global Change. Blair could be part of Trump’s “Board of Peace” in Gaza if the current ceasefire deal holds.

…………………………………………………… Netanyahu recently called TikTok “the most important purchase going on right now,” adding that “weapons change over time,” and the most important ones today “are on social media.”

Now Oracle, led by Netanyahu’s friend and staunch ally Larry Ellison, is overseeing TikTok’s U.S. algorithms.

There are already clear signs of Ellison’s intent to take his new media empire in a pro-Israel direction, including his hiring of Weiss as CBS News’s editor-in-chief. The billionaire-courting Weiss is a staunch Zionist whose Free Press has stoked “genocide denial” with an “investigation” into “preexisting health conditions” of starving Palestinian children, notes The Intercept.

Modern-Day Robber Baron

Like the robber barons of the late 19th-century U.S., Ellison is consolidating his control over a vast corporate empire that dominates major sectors, from cloud storage and AI data centers, to iconic movie studios, mass news channels, and social media.

And clearly, Ellison is bringing his politics with him: Trump-aligned, anti-“woke,” and staunchly pro-Israel.

“Everything is consolidating,” media historian Michael Socolow told The New York Times. “What makes these deals different is that they are across multiple platforms.”

“To have the opportunity to establish an editorial line across TikTok, CBS News and CNN — that’s a new world,” Socolow added. https://truthout.org/articles/from-ai-to-tiktok-to-tv-this-pro-israel-billionaire-is-expanding-power-in-us/?utm_source=Truthout&utm_campaign=314e14bc07-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_10_11_06_41&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_bbb541a1db-314e14bc07-650192793

October 13, 2025 Posted by | media, USA | Leave a comment

Chicago Tribune avoids giving Donald Trump “great credit” for enabling Israeli genocide in Gaza for 9 months

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL , 11 Oct 25

 The Chicago Tribune is correct to praise Donald Trump for brokering a ceasefire in Gaza (Editorial: A remarkable day for peace in the Middle East. Donald Trump deserves great credit.)

 However, good editorial journalism requires fair and thorough analysis and assessment. Alas, the Trib’s editorial is virtually devoid of that.

 Calling it “two years of fighting and killing” is a callous way of describing two years of genocide inflicted by Israel that has largely obliterated Gaza, killing likely over 100,000 Palestinians and putting the remaining 2,200,000 into starvation and degraded health. That will increase the Palestinian death toll for weeks, months, years to come. That is not “fighting and killing”. It’s genocide, largely recognized by the entire world outside of the Israel and US political leadership. By the way….the US electorate views it as genocide.  

An equally egregious Trib omission concerns the Editorial Board’s lavish praise of Trump’s conduct. The Trib likens Trump to the Long Ranger, riding out of the sunset to bring peace to the Palestinians.

If the Trib wants to praise Trump’s role in the ceasefire…fine. But why not include that for nearly 9 months Trump has been funding the genocide with billions in weapons, protecting it with vetoes of UN resolutions condemning the genocide, seeking African countries to take in the Palestinians from Gaza not killed by Trump’s bombs, and excited by the prospect of a Trump real estate project to rebuild Gaza for Greater Israel.

These are not inconvenient facts. They will forever be etched into the history of the worst humanitarian catastrophe the US has ever participated in during its 250 years.

The Chicago Tribune should have balanced its editorial solely praising peacemaker Trump, with condemnation of genocide Trump for enabling Israel’s genocide in Gaza for nine long months following his predecessor Biden enabling it during his last 15 months.

October 13, 2025 Posted by | media, USA | Leave a comment

The LAST American President. Got democracy?

Hartmann’s new book, The Last American President: A Broken Man, a Corrupt Party and a World on the Brink, is one giant fact check on the Whopper-in-Chief, and much more — a disturbing dive into the roiling miasma of self-aggrandizing, self-deluding, psychologically shattered, wailing man-child who is Commander-in-Chief.

by Greg Palast, for RawStory, October 9, 2025, https://www.gregpalast.com/the-last-american-president/?mc_cid=1390b5d94c&mc_eid=5e93be363b

Pay attention to this professional liar:

“I’m the only president in modern history who left office with a smaller national debt than when I came into office.”

That’s quite a whopper. Fact check: “During Trump’s presidency, the national debt actually increased by $7.8 trillion, nearly 40 percent and more than any president in history.”

The fact check is courtesy of Thom Hartmann. Indeed, Hartmann’s new book, The Last American President: A Broken Man, a Corrupt Party and a World on the Brink, is one giant fact check on the Whopper-in-Chief, and much more — a disturbing dive into the roiling miasma of self-aggrandizing, self-deluding, psychologically shattered, wailing man-child who is Commander-in-Chief.

Don’t read Hartmann’s book twice, as I have. It’s not just the nightmares it induces; it’s the fact that you’ll wake up to the nightmare that is our new reality.

Hartmann is known as America’s number one progressive radio host. But he is also a certified psychotherapist, ordained theologian and noted historian who has brought his extraordinary bandolero of skills to an excavation of the dark regions of the president’s brain.

And dark it is. Trump grew up in an atmosphere of cruelty under the familial dictatorship of his daddy Fred Trump, whom the future president saw bully his older brother into an early alcoholic death. His mother emotionally checked out, leaving us with a president who needs a mother’s hug — and is taking it out on government employees.

Trump learned cruelty from his dad but learned how to weaponize it from his second daddy: Roy Cohn, Joe McCarthy’s henchman, who taught Trump how to use fear and media manipulation to break your enemies — a group now encompassing most Americans.

Does Trump even believe his own bullshit? That’s not even a question for Trump, notes Hartmann. He quotes the master of prevarication himself:

“The final key to the way I promote is bravado. I play to people’s fantasies. People may not always think big themselves, but they can still get very excited by those who do. People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest. I call it ‘truthful hyperbole.” 

The ghost-writer of Trump’s The Art of The Deal says he made up the term “truthful hyperbole” to cover up the word, “lie.”

But it’s a lie we love. Or, at least a lot of Americans love it. Here is a photo [on original] of one of Trump’s acolytes at a Trump rally my team attended in rural Georgia. There’s her T-shirt of Trump and JD Vance as vigilantes, gunning down the bad guys. She had a Trump hat, Trump socks, and sported a red, white and blue Trump ballet tutu.

The biggest sellers were shirts announcing, with an armed Trump image, “Daddy’s home.” Our national father figure is coming back for a second term to spank us bad kiddies as Trump Sr. did to his son. The parental abuse goes on, but now as a policy of fear, repression, mass firings, race-baiting, Constitution-defying lawsuits ginned up “by cynical attorneys and billionaires’ checkbooks, riding the algorithms of outrage and our insatiable hunger for spectacle,” as Hartmann says.

As Hartmann warns, democracy in America won’t roll in on tanks, it will come “packaged as entertainment.” He notes, chillingly, that, “It wasn’t just Trump, it was the system that fed him.” Trump’s beguiling fibs, his mayhem-making, his troops-in-the-street diktats are all spectacle to satisfy the desire for retribution of America’s working class wounded.

Trump is a symptom, notes Hartmann, not a cause, of what I’d call the New Hate. We don’t want to win arguments anymore. We want to hurt those who don’t share our politics. Trump revels in it.

And Hartmann is not afraid to call out the racism that lubricates Trump’s resentment machine, a GOP line of ugly innuendoes that originated with Richard Nixon. Hartmann quotes Nixon’s political guru Kevin Phillips:

“The more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans.”

Trump didn’t introduce racism into the GOP campaign plan, he merely, as Hartmann says, “revealed it.”

And Trump’s apostles are never coy about using code words for space-laser armed Jewish “globalists,” a line which Trump finds usefully echoed by Democrats on the Left.

What do we do? I think of those old billboards on Highway 80 that flashed, “STAY AWAKE! STAY ALERT!” That’s not too much to ask.

Hartmann, a happy-ending kind of guy, throws out a bunch of good ideas to, “Reform, Resist and Remember,” beginning with our own “empathy deficit,” though he admits our best efforts could be undone by AI “techno-feudalism.”

“Democracy,” Hartmann concludes, “doesn’t announce its departure with trumpets. It slips away in silence, one institution at a time.” But we do have Hartmann’s bugle blast. Hopefully, it’s a wake-up reveille and not Taps for this fragile experiment called America.

Thom Hartmann and Greg Palast will be speaking in San Diego on Friday, October 17 and in Los Angeles on Saturday, October 18 at fundraisers for the Pacifica Radio Network.
Get a copy of Hartmann’s Last American President signed by the author for a tax-deductible donation to the Palast Investigative Fund.  Only 14 signed copies available.

Greg Palast

Greg Palast (Rolling Stone, Guardian, BBC) is the author of The New York Times bestsellers, Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits and the book and documentary, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.

October 11, 2025 Posted by | media | Leave a comment

The Wall Street Journal Has Many Ways to Deny Genocide

Gregory Shupak, FAIR, October 9, 2025

As more and more scholars, and one rights group after another, confirm that Israel is carrying out a genocide in Gaza, it’s becoming ever more obvious that those who deny the genocide are the intellectual and moral equivalents of people who deny other genocides, such as the ones inflicted on the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, or the Holocaust, or the Armenian Genocide.

Yet the Wall Street Journal persists in running genocide denial. Looking at how the paper does so enables us to not only refute their falsehoods, but also to gain insight into the tactics Gaza genocide denialists, and genocide deniers in general, employ. These include:

  • Hand-waving: brushing off the cataclysmic damage Israel and the US have done to Palestinians as merely the unavoidable byproducts of war;
  • Victim-blaming: saying that Palestinian resistance groups such as Hamas are to blame for the suffering in Gaza;
  • Inverting perpetrator and victim: presenting Palestinians, and not Israelis, as genocidal, with Israelis, rather than Palestinians, cast as the targets;
  • Obscurantism: offering dubious pieces of information, usually in a decontextualized manner, as if they showed that Israel has pursued its military objectives humanely;
  • Repudiation: flatly rejecting well-documented facts while offering little or no counter-evidence.

‘Justifiable, even necessary’

Ami Magazine columnist Avi Shafran’s Journal piece (7/22/25) utilized both hand-waving and victim-blaming. He asserted:

When critics distort Israel’s goal of self-preservation into a desire for genocide, the accusers have gone from righteous protesters to ignorant haters…. Civilians suffer and die in the prosecution of justifiable, even necessary, wars. That tragedy is intensified when you are fighting an enemy who hides behind human shields. Eradicating the engines of terror in Gaza requires attacking the places from which they operate: hospitals, schools and mosques.

Israel’s supposedly “justifiable, even necessary” war has entailed such policies (as Human Rights Watch—12/19/24—notes) as

intentionally depriv[ing] Palestinian civilians in Gaza of adequate access to water since October 2023, most likely resulting in thousands of deaths and thus committing the crime against humanity of extermination and acts of genocide.

Rather than offering a reasoned, evidence-based defense of such Israeli conduct, Shafran blithely wrote as if consciously withholding drinking water from a civilian population were as natural and inevitable as water boiling at a hundred degrees Celsius.

The author’s next move was to blame Palestinians for Israel killing Palestinians. Shafran, of course, didn’t offer a scintilla of proof for his claim that Palestinian fighters force their own people to be human shields, probably because it’s Israel—not Hamas—that routinely uses Palestinians as shields (FAIR.org, 5/13/25).

 ‘Systematically and deliberately devastated’ 

Equally weak is Shafran’s suggestion that it’s Palestinians’ fault that Israel attacks Palestinian hospitals, schools and mosques. The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory said that Israel damaged and destroyed more than 90% of the school and university buildings in Gaza, and found just one case where Hamas had also used a school for military purposes. The commission also said that Israeli attacks have damaged more than half of all religious and cultural sites in Gaza, and noted that

all ten religious and cultural sites in Gaza investigated by the Commission constituted civilian objects at the time of attack, and suffered devastating destruction for which the Commission could not identify a legitimate military need.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… https://fair.org/home/the-wall-street-journal-has-many-ways-to-deny-genocide/

October 11, 2025 Posted by | media, USA | Leave a comment

The People versus Murdoch: the rise of independent media

Independent media has profoundly reshaped modern communication, much to the chagrin of traditional print media. The MSM often dismisses us as falling below their standards, but I disagree. Today’s news stories are frequently little more than opinion pieces, unchallenged and unaccountable. Citizen journalists, however, hold the MSM to account – a role that sits uneasily with the media establishment.

The MSM [Main Stream Media] claimed, “The great thing about newspapers is that, love us or hate us, we’re the voice of the people. We represent the community, their views, their aspirations, and their hopes.” Represent the community? Don’t they mean control the community?

8 October 2025 Michael Taylor, https://theaimn.net/the-people-versus-murdoch-the-rise-of-independent-media/

Over a decade ago, I wrote about a subject that remains as relevant today as ever. For nearly twenty years, I’ve been hammering away at the keyboard – a space where I could speak freely, defy control, and fight for democracy and truth. It was a place to be heard. But it wasn’t always this way. Before the rise of bloggers and independent media, we were limited to listening to those who controlled the narrative.

Let’s revisit the days when we found our voice, thanks to the emergence of bloggers, citizen journalists and independent media.

Plato (428–348 BC) opposed the written word, arguing it would erode memory. He believed people would stop memorising facts or stories, and that spreading words indiscriminately was wasteful and untrustworthy. How prophetic. Spoken over two millennia ago, his words feel strikingly contemporary. Consider today’s mainstream media (MSM), which claims its journalists are reliable, truthful, and objective. Who do you believe – them or Plato?

In recent decades, the MSM has leaned toward stories that are trivial, narrow, shallow, and sensationalist – often at the expense of truth. As Plato might have lamented, the MSM spreads words indiscriminately, wastefully, and with questionable trustworthiness. Truth, it seems, doesn’t sell newspapers.

Some bloggers echoed Plato’s concerns, prompting a fierce backlash from the MSM. I recall reading articles from the Murdoch press that unleashed a near-xenophobic hatred toward the blogosphere, attacking it with more zeal than they ever directed at incompetent politicians. One such critique described the blogosphere as:

A small, incestuous clique of self-identified lefties, with readerships composed mostly of themselves… Naivety and self-righteousness define the vast majority of the Australian blogosphere, along with whining conspiracy theories. Those who hide under the veil of anonymity, taking cheap shots to satisfy their trendy social agenda.

The MSM claimed, “The great thing about newspapers is that, love us or hate us, we’re the voice of the people. We represent the community, their views, their aspirations, and their hopes.” Represent the community? Don’t they mean control the community?

Independent media has profoundly reshaped modern communication, much to the chagrin of traditional print media. The MSM often dismisses us as falling below their standards, but I disagree. Today’s news stories are frequently little more than opinion pieces, unchallenged and unaccountable. Citizen journalists, however, hold the MSM to account – a role that sits uneasily with the media establishment.

Many citizen journalists possess a natural gift for taking the day’s main story, transforming it into something worth reading, and fostering a range of opinions that the MSM often ignores. In just a few years, blogging – in particular- became a global phenomenon, reshaping journalism and unlocking publishing opportunities previously unimaginable. To me, blogging is journalism. While individual blogs may have limited readership, sites with aligned agendas often link together to amplify their impact. In contrast, MSM blog platforms typically filter out contributions that don’t fit their narrative, rendering them inaccessible to dissenting voices.

So, what impact have independent sites had? Their influence has been most profound in the political sphere.

In a March 2010 essay titled The Influence of Political Blog Sites on Democratic Participation, ShariVari wrote:

A computer-mediated environment makes it easier for citizens to express their feelings about political candidates and speak more candidly than in face-to-face settings. The internet’s diversity provides access to a wide range of opinions and information, potentially shaping or changing individuals’ political views. By disregarding blog sites with corporate or agenda-driven motives, political bloggers can foster peer-to-peer discussions of personal viewpoints.

This perspective was heartening for a then-blogger like me, who had lost faith in the MSM. It affirmed that independent voices could have an impact, however small at the time. If Australia followed the U.S. trend, a thriving blogging industry might one day emerge.

ShariVari concluded:

All research shows that increased opportunities for participation encourage democracy… Citizens are increasingly turning to and trusting the internet for accurate information, using it as a platform for participatory democracy, and becoming more knowledgeable about politics in the process. A Spiral of Silence – where people self-censor due to perceived minority views – is less likely in an online environment where citizens evaluate each other’s opinions without status cues like gender, race, or socioeconomic status. Blog sites are undeniably expanding the ways citizens participate in democracy.

Fifteen years ago, those in democratic societies seeking to share their ideas faced editorial gatekeepers whose policies often reflected their own ideologies or market-driven priorities. Today, this control is crumbling in the face of participatory media. Audiences no longer want to be passive consumers – they want to comment on and even create the news.

Citizen journalists believe they are better equipped to provide the diversity that modern democracies need, a diversity often ignored by traditional media. Independent platforms allow them to expose doctored or omitted facts, highlight biases, and give voice to alternate perspectives. These sites encourage readers to think critically, ask probing questions, and challenge the MSM’s hidden agendas. Independent media is awash with objective, fact-based analysis that counters the narratives of established outlets.

The explosion of independent sites isn’t merely an echo of dissenting voices – it’s a response to the MSM’s failure to provide objective, impartial reporting. If the MSM were truly committed to quality journalism, there might be no need for the millions of blogs and independent platforms that exist today to fill the gaps they’ve left.

In essence, it’s the People versus Murdoch… then and now.

October 10, 2025 Posted by | media | Leave a comment

No To Nuclear – Why Nuclear Power Destroys Lives, Derails Climate Progress, and Provokes War

By Linda Pentz Gunter, 8 Oct 25, https://www.plutobooks.com/product/no-to-nuclear/

There is no silver bullet for the climate crisis—but that hasn’t stopped people searching. Seizing its chance, the nuclear power industry wants us to believe that theirs is the only technical fix for our deliverance. The public, politicians and the media have been easily swayed.

This should come as no surprise. After all, the pro-nuclear PR campaign is richly funded and has an army of lobbyists sowing myths while the industry reaps the rewards of taxpayer-funded subsidies.

No To Nuclear calls the industry’s bluff. Blasting aside its claims to be safe and green, Linda Pentz Gunter makes the irresistible case that nuclear power is too slow, too expensive, too dangerous and too integrally connected to the nuclear weapons complex, to serve as a rational energy choice.

The book also delves into the lives of Indigenous peoples and communities of colour, who have been harmed the most by the nuclear sector, and questions whether the way we devalue nature and the environment is costing us the chance of a genuinely just energy transition.

October 10, 2025 Posted by | media, resources - print | Leave a comment

UK Parliament blocks Declassified, citing our Gaza ‘standpoint’

MPs condemn ‘sinister move’ to deny access to Declassified reporters.

Martin Williams, Declassified UK, 23 September 2025

Parliament has been accused of an “outrageous abuse” that is “worthy of the Trump White House”, after blocking Declassified from holding a media pass.

Internal emails reveal that officials cited our “in-depth investigations… from a particular standpoint”, when rejecting our application.

They also flagged a recent investigation we published that raised concerns over pro-Israel bias in Westminster.

This is despite parliamentary authorities having a duty to remain politically impartial. Guidelines say that passes should be granted with “fair access across a range of outlets”.

The decision to deny Declassified access has been criticised by politicians across the political spectrum, including Labour, the Green Party, Plaid Cymru, and the Independent Alliance.

Almost 500 journalists currently hold a pass, which provides unfettered access to Westminster and daily government briefings. They include many from right-wing outlets like Guido Fawkes and GB News.

When Declassified’s application for a pass was first rejected, officials blamed space and capacity “due to limitations within the Parliamentary estate”.

But documents released under the Freedom of Information Act now reveal there is no limit to the number of press passes that can be issued – and capacity was not even discussed as a consideration.

In fact, at least three other journalists have been granted parliamentary passes since Declassified’s application was rejected.

In a bizarre attempt to justify the ban, documents also reveal that officials claimed Declassified’s focus on UK foreign policy does not count as “politics”. 

An internal email said: “They are not specifically a politics organisation, as their main focus is around foreign affairs.”

‘Outrageous abuse’

Several politicians condemned the decision by parliament – and warned against “selectively silencing journalists”.

Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader, said: “Declassified have done outstanding, vital work exposing the scale of British complicity in Israeli war crimes. 

“A healthy democracy rests on transparency and accountability. What does Britain have to hide?”

Liz Saville-Roberts, the leader of Plaid Cymru, said that parliament “should be proud to make itself open to investigative journalists”……………………………………………………………………………………………………..


Threats

The decision to reject Declassified‘s media pass application was finalised by the Sergeant At Arms, Ugbana Oyet. But records suggest it was based on advice from the House of Commons press office, who highlighted the “standpoint” of Declassified’s coverage.

When we sent a “right of reply”, with advance notice of this article, the press office flatly denied the evidence contained in the internal emails. This is despite the fact they were disclosed by parliament itself, under the Freedom of Information Act.

Officials even threatened regulatory action against Declassified if we failed to publish a lengthy and misleading statement from a parliamentary spokesperson.

The statement claimed that decisions around press passes “are not based on an outlet’s editorial stance or coverage of any one issue, and any suggestion to the contrary is wholly untrue”.

And when Declassified said we were not prepared to quote from a misleading statement, parliament’s head of media responded: “We’d expect any outlet to use the full response we provide them – and would strongly dispute any suggestion that the statement provided is untrue.”

He added: “We would be happy to follow up with Impress [the media regulator] if our response is not reflected in your coverage.”

He also claimed that our article was based on “incomplete material [which] does not reflect the full picture”. However, if this is true, it suggests that parliament failed to fully comply with Declassified’s Freedom of Information request.

The press office proceeded to ignore further questions and provided no further information.

The spokesperson had said: “The House of Commons supports the work of a free and independent press – providing access and facilities to the Parliamentary Press Gallery. Demand far exceeds capacity here, hence numbers are required to be strictly controlled, whilst ensuring fair access across a range of outlets.  

“For applications from an outlet that does not already have a pass, or for a request to increase the allocation given to an outlet, we require a business case to be submitted, details of which are available on our website. Unsuccessful applicants may reapply for a pass one year after their original application, and as Parliament is a public building, journalists are still able to visit, attend and report on proceedings and meet Members without a media pass. Decisions around accreditation are applied consistently across all applications.” 

They added: “The range of media outlets currently granted access — spanning the full spectrum of political opinion and including a wide variety of independent and critical journalism — clearly demonstrates that the accreditation process is impartial and rooted solely in operational considerations and editorial relevance to parliamentary proceedings.” 

The emails obtained by Declassified strongly suggest this claim is misleading.

We’ve written an open letter calling on parliamentary authorities to urgently review this decision and issue Declassified with a press pass. We also urge parliamentary authorities to review the way that future applications are processed, to avoid any partisan interference with future applications. Please add your name below – [Petition on original] https://www.declassifieduk.org/parliament-blocks-declassified-citing-our-gaza-standpoint/

October 8, 2025 Posted by | media, UK | Leave a comment

The National Press Club of Australia, Caving to the Israel Lobby, Cancels My Talk on Our Betrayal of Palestinian Journalists.

By Chris Hedges /  ScheerPost, October 4, 2025  https://scheerpost.com/2025/10/04/chris-hedges-the-national-press-club-of-australia-caving-to-the-israel-lobby-cancels-my-talk-on-our-betrayal-of-palestinian-journalists/

I was scheduled to give a talk at the National Press Club of Australia on October 20 called “The Betrayal of Palestinian Journalists.” It was to focus on the amplification of Israeli lies in the press, which most reporters know are lies, betraying Palestinian colleagues who are slandered, targeted and killed by Israel. But, perhaps inadvertently proving my point, the chief executive of the press club, Maurice Reilly, cancelled the event. The announcement of my talk disappeared from the web site. Reilly said “that in the interest of balancing out our program we will withdraw our offer.”

The Israeli Ambassador, retired Lt. Colonel Amir Maimon, who spent 14 years in the Israeli military, is reportedly being considered to speak.

It is true that I know only one side of the picture from the seven years I spent covering Gaza. I was on the receiving end of Israeli attacks, including being bombed by its air force and fired upon by its snipers, one of whom killed a young man a few feet away from me at the Netzarim Junction. We lifted him up, each person taking hold of an arm or a leg, and lumbered up the road as his body swayed like a heavy sack. I saw small boys baited and shot by Israeli soldiers in the Gaza refugee camp of Khan Younis. The soldiers swore at the boys in Arabic over the loudspeakers of their armored jeep. The boys, about 10 years old, then threw stones at an Israeli vehicle and the soldiers opened fire, killing some, wounding others.

I was present more than once as Israeli troops shot Palestinian children. Such incidents, in the Israeli lexicon, become children caught in crossfire. I was in Gaza when F-16 attack jets bombed overcrowded hovels in Gaza City. I saw the corpses of the victims, including children. This became a surgical strike on a bomb-making factory. I have watched Israel demolish homes and entire apartment blocks to create wide buffer zones between the Palestinians and the Israeli troops that ring Gaza. I have interviewed the destitute and homeless families, some camped out in crude shelters erected in the rubble. The destruction becomes the demolition of the homes of terrorists. I have stood in the gutted remains of schools as well as medical clinics and mosques and counted the bodies. I have heard Israel claim that errant rockets or mortar fire from the Palestinians caused these and other deaths, or that the buildings were being used as arms depots or launching sites.

I, along with every other reporter I know who has worked in Gaza, including the over 278 Palestinians journalists and media workers who have been killed by Israel since the start of the genocide, many in targeted assassinations, have reported a reality in Gaza that bears no resemblance to how it is portrayed by Israeli politicians, its military and many media outlets that serve as Israel’s echo chamber.

Lt. Colonel Maimon can obviously, if he chooses, enlighten us about the artificial intelligence-based program known as “Lavender” and how it selects people, along with their families, in Gaza for assassination.

He can explain how Israel determines the quotas of civilian dead, how soldiers are permitted to kill as many as 20 civilians in order to target a Palestinian fighter and hundreds for a Hamas commander. He can let us know why Israel continues the mass slaughter when an internal Israeli intelligence database indicates that at least 83 percent of Palestinians killed are civilians. He can tell us how Palestinian civilians are abducted, dressed in Israeli army uniforms, have their hands tied, and are then forced to walk as human shields in front of Israeli troops into buildings and underground tunnels that are potentially booby-trapped. He can explain how the special unit called the “Legitimization Cell” carries out propaganda campaigns to portray Palestinian journalists as Hamas operatives to justify their assassinations. He can detail the targeting, bombing and controlled demolitions that have damaged or destroyed 97 percent of Gaza’s educational system, including every university and nearly all its hospitals. He can explain how, after Israel blocked all humanitarian aid on March 2 to starve the Palestinians in Gaza, Israeli officials set up the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to lure emaciated and malnourished Palestinians to four aid hubs in the south — aid hubs with little food and which Human Rights Watch calls “death traps” and Doctors Without Borders calls “orchestrated killing.” These hubs, open only an hour, usually at 2:00 am, ensure a chaotic scramble for scraps of food. Israeli soldiers, along with U.S. mercenaries, who include members of the Infidels Motorcycle Club, a self-professed anti-“radical jihadist” biker group that counts members with Crusader tattoos among its ranks, fire live rounds into the crowds killing over 1,400 Palestinians and injuring thousands more in and around the hubs since May. He can lay out the plans for the concentration camps in southern Gaza and the efforts to ultimately expel the Palestinians from Gaza and repopulate it with Jewish colonists. He can explain why Israel abandoned its own hostages, why it fired on vehicles headed into the Gaza strip on October 7 carrying Israeli captives and why it used Hellfire missiles to obliterate the Erez Crossing installation when it was seized by Palestinian fighters knowing that dozens of Israeli soldiers were inside.

If Lt. Colonel Maimon spoke with this honesty and candor we could call this balance. It would fill in a side of the equation I glimpse from the outside. It would complete the circle. It would match truth with truth.

But Lt. Colonel Maimon, I see from his past statements, will spew out the mendacious narratives used by Israel to justify genocide — Hamas uses Palestinians as human shields, it operates command centers in hospitals, it sexually assaulted Israeli women on October 7 and beheaded babies. He will make the spurious claim that Israel “has the right to defend itself,” ignoring the fact that Hamas and other Palestinian resistance groups, which lack an air force, mechanized units, artillery, a navy, fleets of militarized drones and missiles, pose no existential threat to Israel. More important, he will not address Israel’s flagrant violation of international law by occupying and settling colonists on Palestinian land and carrying out a livestreamed genocide.

This is not balance, unless we accept a world where truth is balanced by lies. It is an abandonment of the fundamental mission of journalists — to hold power accountable. But most egregiously, it is a terrible betrayal of our colleagues in Gaza who have been killed for chronicling the daily savagery in Gaza, for doing their job.

No doubt, the corporate sponsors and wealthy donors of the press club are pleased. No doubt, the club is able to slither away from its journalistic integrity. No doubt, it is spared the attacks that would come from allowing me to speak.

But please, have the decency to remove the word press from your club.

October 7, 2025 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, media | Leave a comment

Book Review: A Call to Arms About the Threat of Anti-Science

By Dan Falk. 10.03.2025. https://undark.org/2025/10/03/book-review-science-under-siege/?utm_source=Undark%3A+News+%26+Updates&utm_campaign=00d7f4a4e8-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5cee408d66-185e4e09de-176033209

“Science Under Siege,” by Michael E. Mann and Peter J. Hotez, is an impassioned manifesto against attacks on science.

In the 1995 book “The Demon Haunted World,” the astronomer Carl Sagan warned that the United States was turning its back on science, and that the consequences would be dire. Near the start of their new book, “Science Under Siege: How To Fight The Five Most Powerful Forces That Threaten Our World,” Michael E. Mann and Peter J. Hotez cite Sagan’s vision of science as a “candle in the dark,” and argue that what the astronomer feared is now coming to pass. In fact, readers may get the impression that the situation is already much worse than what Sagan envisioned.

While Sagan was primarily concerned with the rise of pseudoscience, Mann and Hotez fear that we’re now in the midst of an anti-science boom, led by people, corporations, and governments who intentionally spread false or misleading information. “Anti-science has already caused serious illness and mass casualties in the near term,” they write. “Unmitigated, it will in the long term take millions more lives, produce misguided national policies, and have long-lasting catastrophic consequences, including potentially, the destabilization of our civilization.”

Mann and Hotez are not merely observers, but scientists who have found themselves on the front lines of the ongoing attacks on science. Mann is a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, and director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media. Hotez is a pediatrician and vaccine scientist at Baylor College of Medicine, where he is also the co-director of the Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development. In 2022, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on a patent-free Covid-19 vaccine.

While attacks on science have taken many forms, the authors highlight the current pushback against vaccines and skepticism over climate science as two of the most urgent issues. Mann and Hotez describe the resistance to climate science and vaccines as a one-two punch, but add that there is a third punch as well, in the form of mis- and disinformation. The authors point to the devastating consequences of resistance to public health measures, especially vaccines, which came to the fore during the Covid-19 pandemic, the death toll from which currently stands at 1.2 million Americans, according to the World Health Organization.

Many of those deaths, they suggest, could have been prevented had people been vaccinated and followed social distancing and mask guidelines. And they’re not shy about saying who’s to blame: “The deaths occurred mostly along a political partisan divide,” they write, “with those living in Republican-majority (‘red’) states disproportionately suffering most of the deaths and disabilities as a consequence of being targeted by propaganda and misinformation from elected leaders, extremist media, and the modern political Right.”

Resistance to vaccines isn’t new, but the authors argue that the anti-vaxx movement reached new heights as the pandemic wore on: “Heading into 2023, the pandemic’s fourth year, we witnessed an expanded alliance of malevolent billionaires, tech bros, and high-net worth individuals — plutocrats, prominent podcasters, and far-right extremists, including Steve Bannon and the ‘Proud Boys’ — marching at anti-vaccine rallies and joining forces with the more established antivaccine activists.”

They rebuke Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican member of Congress, for calling those who administer vaccines “medical brown shirts,” using language associated with Nazis. And (not surprisingly) they chastise those who continue to give oxygen to the long-debunked alleged link between vaccines and autism.

Then there’s the climate crisis. The world is warming, global wind patterns and ocean currents are shifting, ocean levels are rising, and extreme weather events are becoming more frequent. Mann and Hotez call out many sources of climate misinformation, including “petrostates” — nations whose revenues are largely derived from fossil fuels. (The petrostates are one of the five “powerful forces” referenced in the book’s subtitle, the others being plutocrats, propagandists, the press, and pros — referring to scholars who use their credentials to promote unsupported or contrarian views.) Of the petrostates, Russia tops the authors’ list. Citing Russia’s dependence on fossil fuels and its authoritarian leadership, including what they see as a desire to destabilize Western democracy, they write: “These factors combine in a perfect storm of consequences for the global spread of civilization-threatening antiscience.”

October 5, 2025 Posted by | media, resources - print | Leave a comment

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