‘Fauxtography': The media scandal continues
(16Aug06) “…It's the story that the journalistic elite would rather just go away. In the aftermath of Reuters' admission that one of its photographers, Adnan Hajj, had manipulated two war images from Lebanon after bloggers smoked out his crude Photoshop alterations, and all 920 of his Reuters photos were pulled, evidence of far more troubling photo staging and media deception in the Middle East continues to pour in…” ‘Fauxtography': The media scandal continues , Michellle Malkin “…last week, a German television station aired damning video footage from the scene showing a lead propaganda director (dubbed the "Green Helmet Guy") positioning a young boy's corpse, yanking it from an ambulance, placing it on two different stretchers for the cameras and pushing bystanders out of the way for clearer shots….Not all photographers overseas have their heads in the sand. Last week, Middle East-based photographer Bryan Denton, whose work has appeared in the New York Times, revealed on the professional photography website Light Stalkers that he had observed routine staging of photos – and even corpse-digging – by Lebanese stringers…”
(12Aug06) This is a must view-Photo Fraud in Lebanon
Mark Twain said “…if you don't read the papers you are uninformed. If you do read the papers you are misinformed…”
(10Aug06)“…They can change the hosts of ABC's Media Watch , but they can't change its taxpayer-funded agenda….The show is now hosted by Monica Attard, who follows five Leftist predecessors, and on Monday it did what it always does in our war on Islamist terror. That's right: it ignored or excused a savage media bias that makes the West seem the real villain in this war. Here are examples of that bias from just the past fortnight -- not one of which Media Watch mentioned: A REUTERS photographer has been sacked… HARROWING pictures from Qana, bombed by Israel , seem now to have been staged for the newspapers… CHANNEL 9 reported from a tour of Beirut bomb sites, which a CNN reporter said was a "heavily orchestrated Hezbollah media event. Your ABC of bias , Andrew Bolt, Herald Sun “…But the rankest example of this bias came from Sunday Age columnist Terry Lane …. Lane is a Marxist with such loathing for America and its allies that during the Iraq war he wrote: "I want the army of my country, which is engaged in an act of gross immorality, to be defeated". How deeply this loathing affects his judgment still. By last Sunday, Lane's apology had morphed into this bizarre defiance: "The Macbeth fraud is plausible because it fits the facts."
Reuters scandal demands an outside investigation
(8Aug06)Chalk another one up to the pyjama clad revolutionaries (The Bloggers)
“…Reuters now admits supplying the world's media with crude propaganda pictures, faked by an Arab photographer. The agency's journalistic standards are now a global laughingstock. If the agency hopes to regain credibility it must appoint an outside panel of experts to review other work of the same photographer, including the controversial photos supplied from Qana…” Reuters scandal demands an outside investigation The American Thinker “…However, as Michelle Malkin pointed out, the Reuters website claims the following “Our policy is to send news to our customers only after scrutiny by a group of production editors who ensure quality standards are maintained across all our news services. When we get something wrong, our policy is to be honest about errors and to correct them promptly and clearly.”….Which begs the question of what kind of quality standards would allow a crudely Photoshopped picture to run? How is the review of the Qana pictures by Hajj any different from the scrutiny applied to the Beirut pictures by Hajj?..”
Mel Gibson and the politics of bigotry
A bit more of perspective
(8Aug06) “…Gibson's remarks were disgraceful. But is Gibson now to be disgraced? And who is qualified to make that judgment?... The paparazzi news media can't get enough of this story, and some, like ABC's Diane Sawyer, can barely conceal their glee… Others like Christopher Hitchens, Joy Behar, Barbara Walters and Sony Pictures chairwoman Amy Pascal have piled on with their denouncements of this religious bigotry… . The first thing Mel Gibson and everyone else should do is ignore people like these. They are hypocrites….They were nowhere to be found when "Da Vinci Code" actor Ian McKellen publicly accused the Catholic Church of "perhaps misleading us all this time," and stated, "the Bible should have a disclaimer in the front saying this is fiction." And what of the movie itself, a bigoted anti-Catholic screed if ever there was one? Any denouncements from them?...” Mel Gibson and the politics of bigotry by Brent Bozell, Townhall.com. “…Where were they when Comedy Central's Dennis Leary aired his "Merry F*ing Christmas" special, publicly called the Christmas story "bull[bleep]" and said of the baby Jesus and the Virgin Mary, "I also believe that about nine months before he was born, somebody sure as [bleep] banged the hell out of his mom"? Any religious bigotry there, folks?.... Have any of these people ever said a word about the " South Park " DVD featuring an episode called "Red Hot Catholic Love,"… The examples of anti-Christian, anti-Catholic bigotry in Hollywood are seemingly endless. Each and every one is uglier, more mean-spirited than anything Mel Gibson said. While Gibson's comments were those of a slobbering drunk, these anti-Catholic rants were not just deliberate, in most cases they were scripted . And while Gibson has apologized profusely, none of the people cited above has any intention of showing contrition because they have none…. Gibson's statements were awful, and deserved condemnation. But the anti-Catholic bigotry raging in Hollywood is far worse. Those who suddenly proclaim themselves to be shocked over Gibson's religious bigotry, but have remained silent all these years as the Catholic Church is mercilessly pummeled, ridiculed and insulted, are frauds….”
When Anti Semitism is a big story – And when it isn't
(7Aug06) “…Two incidents occurred on July 28. Both took place on the West Coast; both involved an American venting his hostility to Jews. But only one of them became, in the days that followed, the big national story about anti-Semitism. The other was treated as a serious but local matter, and drew only modest coverage around the country…. Incident A involved a guy spewing crude anti-Semitic slurs when he was arrested for drunk driving; after sobering up, he publicly and profusely apologized…. Incident B involved a Muslim gunman's premeditated assault on a prominent Jewish institution; his attack left one woman dead and sent five to the hospital, three of them in critical condition. Which would you say was the bigger story?... Unless you've spent the past week submersed in the Mariana Trench, you know that the intoxicated driver in Incident A was Hollywood 's Mel Gibson… By any rational calculus, Incident B was far more significant…” When Anti Semitism is a big story – And when it isn't by Jeff Jacoby, The Boston Globe “…According to police and eyewitness reports, the killer forced his way into the offices of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle by holding a gun to the head of a 13-year-old girl. Once inside, Naveed Haq announced, ``I am a Muslim American, angry at Israel ," and opened fire with two semiautomatic pistols. Pam Waechter died on the spot; five other women were shot in the abdomen, knee, or arm. When one of the women managed to call 911, Haq took the phone and told the dispatcher: ``These are Jews and I'm tired of getting pushed around and our people getting pushed around by the situation in the Middle East ."… If the Catholic Gibson's non violent bigotry is a legitimate subject of media scrutiny, all the more so is the animus that spurs Muslims like Haq and the others to jihadist murder. As The New York Sun asked the other day, how many more Haqs must erupt in a homicidal rage before we open our eyes ``to the possibility that they are part of a war in which understanding the enemy is a prerequisite for victory?"
Welcome to theater of jihad absurd
(5Aug06)“…Welcome to the marquee performance of "Qana: The Fraud and the Furious," brought to you by the Acting Guild of the Religion of Perpetual Outrage….The drama unfolded over last weekend with mob scenes across the Muslim world, ostensibly -- ostensibly -- in response to civilian deaths in Qana, Lebanon. Angry Muslims from Beirut to Gaza to Lahore set fire to American and Israeli flags. They burned effigies of Western leaders. They raised their voices in chants of "Death to America " and "Death to Israel ."… if the uproar over the accident in Qana -- an Israeli exception to the Hezbollah rule -- sounds like a tired old re-run to you, well, it is…. The truth about Muslim outrage over Qana is that it's not really about the tragic deaths at Qana -- just like the Mohammed cartoon jihad was not really about the cartoons. It's a pretext for much grander goals to defeat the infidels -- be they Israeli, Danish, Dutch or American…”. Welcome to theater of jihad absurd by Michelle Malkin “…As we watch Hezbollah's horrible parade of dead children in Qana replay endlessly on television, here is a suggestion for all the intrepid American journalists gallivanting with Hezbollah's handlers in the region: Perhaps you could put down the figurative hookah pipes, take off your sympathy hajibs and find out the identity of the green-helmeted guy holding up baby corpses in Qana as props for your sensational, page-one pictures???…. Is he just an ordinary bystander? A rescuer who just happened to be in the same place 10 years ago , traipsing around with dead children's bodies to exploit an accidental Israeli bombing prompted by terrorists hiding behind civilians? A civilian volunteer or a propaganda producer?...To his credit, MSNBC reporter Richard Engel picked up on a question the blogosphere has been asking since the toddler corpse-paraders in Qana took center stage: Where were all the men?... "All the world's a stage," Shakespeare wrote. The journalists of our age have chosen their costumes: court jesters in the Theater of Jihad…”
Moral bankruptcy of 'world opinion'
(4Aug06) “…If you are ever morally confused about a major world issue, here is a rule that is almost never violated: Whenever you hear that "world opinion" holds a view, assume it is morally wrong….World opinion" has little or nothing to say about the world's greatest evils and regularly condemns those who fight evil. The history of "world opinion" regarding the greatest mass murders and cruelties on the planet is one of relentless apathy…. It is difficult to overstate the damage done to the world by television news…” Moral bankruptcy of 'world opinion' by Dennis Prager “…Even when not driven by political bias – an exceedingly rare occurrence globally – television news presents a thoroughly distorted picture of the world… The moment one recognizes "world opinion" for what it is – a statement of moral cowardice, one is no longer enthralled by the term. That "world opinion" at this moment allegedly loathes America and Israel is a badge of honor to be worn proudly by those countries. It is when "world opinion" and its news media start liking you that you should wonder if you've lost your way….”
Still not sorry: The Best of Andrew Bolt
(5Mar06)Prime Minister John Howard says he “writes a lot of sense” Mark Latham called him a “ nancy boy”. You decide for yourself in this compendium Still not sorry: The Best of Andrew Bolt Andrew Bolt is a columnist for the Herald Sun and regular guest on the ABC's Insiders program as well as Channel 9's Today program. In this book Bolt has brought together his best columns, his “greatest hits” if you like, on a wide range of social and cultural issues.
(5Mar06) “…Over a decade ago, Steven Emerson identified the enemy as jihadists – fundamentalist Muslims – and set out to understand them. He has concluded that no compromise is possible and that the western world risks submerging its own identity as it bends to intimidation from radical Islam… Today Emerson's occupation – indeed, passionate preoccupation – is born of a world staring such irreconcilable differences in the face… Emerson happened upon the story that would consume him. The degree to which radical Muslims had infiltrated the United States and exploited its liberties in order to undermine it, was for Emerson more than just a story..” Steven Emerson an interview by Jana Wendt, The Bulletin. “…Emerson's reputation in Washington was forged on the basis of testimony before the US Senate's Judiciary Committee in 1998, where he systematically laid out the jihadist threat to the US . He foreshadowed a terrorist strike on US soil. Three years later, when planes like poison arrows, pierced the Twin Towers of Emerson's hometown, he was accorded the status of prophet by many…. you have a critical mass of jihadists on Australian soil ... [who have] sufficient conditions to create jihadist cells that are not connected to external hierarchies like al Qaeda.” He likens Australia 's circumstances to that of the US . Both countries are operating “in this enigmatic environment of not knowing who's really a moderate..”
The Market Place of Ideas: fusing history, law and current events
(20Mar06) “'The best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market.' [1] So propounded Justice Holmes in 1919…. Over the years, this marketplace of freedom has given no quarter; nothing has escaped examination. Whether Christian, Jew, agnostic, militarist, communist, capitalist, bigamist, entrepreneur or pacifist; all and much more have been the target of opposing speech and passionate intellectual scrutiny…” The Market Place of Ideas: fusing history, law and current events by David Kennedy Houck “…The western media as a whole has largely retreated from protecting free speech, and has instead decided to cave-in into Islamist totalitarianism. Equally unfortunate, most Americans have not seen the Danish cartoons, despite the fact that they represent a major international story. Rather than display the mostly innocuous drawings, most American media outlets fell all over each other seeking that elusive moral high ground where disparaging Christianity is safe and easy, and protecting Muslims from insult is the only sensible tack….”
(12Mar06) "Denial is an often useful innate human trait. Few of us would be able to function in the present if we did not put out of mind many unpleasant realities — such as our inevitable death…But when a person, or a society, denies emerging or imminent dangers, the peace of mind it gains will be extremely short-term, while the harm may be sustained or fatal…I have been in contact with British politicians who tell me that there is increasing radical Muslim street violence in Britain that is explicitly motivated by radical Islam but is not reported or characterized as such. Even in its cleansed versions, I am told, these incidents are being extremely under-reported." Denial by Tony Blankley The Washington Times ... "In Antwerp last month, according to the reporter Paul Belien, rioting Moroccan "youths" went on a rampage destroying cars and beating up reporters, but the police were instructed not even to stop them or arrest them. According to an anonymous policeman, "An ambulance was told to switch off its siren because that might provoke the Moroccans." This event, too, was underreported or not reported at all in American media."
(29Jan06) “…The power structure of the American media is undergoing a convulsion that surpasses even the revolution wrought by the advent of television broadcasting sixty years ago. At first, television was politically neutral, and neither party took comparative advantage of it. When John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon held their famous televised debates, television came of age as a power-granter in the electoral sphere ..” The Antique Media from The American Thinker “…Television news in turn destroyed the afternoon newspaper industry. Nobody needed or wanted an after-work news update that had been edited and printed around noon at the latest, when television could provide a much fresher update free of charge….Young idealists pursued careers in journalism to “ make a difference ” instead of report the news …. The emergence of talk radio, cable television and especially the internet changed everything…”
(18Nov05)“…It wasn't so long ago (25 years, to be exact) that CNN was the new media outlet on the block. And the neighborhood kids turned their noses up at Ted Turner's brainchild. Broadcast newshound Sam Donaldson derided CNN as the "Chicken Noodle Network…The underdogs of our time, journalistically speaking, are bloggers. And the online unraveling of Rathergate was their first unmitigated triumph." Pyjama-Clad Revolutionaries by Andrew Leigh, National Review Online “…Bloggers don't work nine-to-five; they post around-the-clock. They don't file one story a day; they might update dozens of times throughout a 24-hour period….An internal instant-messaging system will link their correspondents all over the world. If there are any doubts about a report's veracity, they can call on the expertise of their editors instantly…Bloggers, in other words, lean on the collective knowledge of the entire Internet rather than a handful of elites…”
(2Nov05)“…This website is devoted to exploring some of the problems and issues that plague modern journalism. In this age of globalization, the media has unprecedented influence on the way we see the world. And yet, whether out of misplaced good intentions, unconscious agendas and predispositions, or unwarranted faith in false information, they can get the story dramatically wrong…” The Second Draft "..Therefore, we want to revisit and critique journalism's "first draft of history", and hopefully produce a more accurate second one. In our current investigations we present the story the way the mainstream media initially told it, introduce further evidence, and let you decide what you think really happened….” I think you'll find this 18 min clip Pallywood particularly instructive.
(2Oct05) Anatomy of a photgraph
Peter Jennings' Unfortunate Legacy
(16Aug05) “…While the rest of the world is blindly singing Peter Jennings' praises, here's a reality check: Peter Jennings did more for the cause of Islamic terrorism than any media figure today…..From the beginning of Jennings' career until his death, his biased coverage went beyond the pale, bending over backward in "understanding" the terrorists who hate us” Peter Jennings' Unfortunate Legacy by Debbie Schlussel www.frontpagemag.com “ I always say, pillow talk is the most effective form of political speech. And it apparently had its effect on Jennings early on. When developing and heading up ABC's Beirut headquarters, Jennings "dated" Palestinian Hanan Ashrawi . And it colored his insidious, anti-American, anti-Israel coverage ever since.”
(16Aug05) "[ Jennings ] hosted what looked like a little intercontinental tea party for alleged experts on the Middle East, one of whom was professional Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi, whom Jennings hailed as 'widely known in the United States .' Also widely disliked. The ABC's of Media Bias "It's no surprise that ABC News anchor Peter Jennings allowed Palestinian proselytizer Hanan Ashrawi to peddle propaganda on his program -- she used to be his girlfriend. U.S. News & World Report noted in 1991: 'In the early 1970s, when he was single and head of the ABC bureau in Beirut, Jennings dated Ashrawi, who at the time was also single and a graduate student in literature at the American University in the Lebanese capital. Jennings was introduced to Ashrawi's parents and sisters and became part of her circle of friends.
Suddenly Terror BBC's Double Standards
(12July05) BBC officials insisted that the word terrorism should never be used in order to preserve what they called “neutral language Suddenly Terror BBC's Double Standards
“…Like (Robert) Fisk, (John) Pilger's immediate response to September 11 was to blame the United States itself. In his column in the London magazine New Statesman, Pilger said the real terrorists were not Muslim radicals but the Americans: His political perspective still retains much of the sentiment and rhetoric of the old, socialist left…” writes Keith Windschuttle in The Journalism of Warfare “...Between them, Pilger and Fisk represent the nadir of Western journalism in our time. They take us back to those apologists of the Soviet era in the 1930s, such as Walter Duranty, the Moscow correspondent of the New York Times , who lavished praise on Stalin and the USSR at a time when hundreds of thousands of Russians and Ukrainians were dying of starvation or perishing before the regime's firing squads… Fisk is an Arab romanticist whose ideology so distorts his view of Islamic terrorism and of Arab despotism that he cannot be trusted to give an honest account of what he sees in the street….”
(23May05) Fairness, impartiality and objectivity are the essence of public service broadcast journalism writes Melanie Phillips in Bias at the Beeb …..however, an explosive insider's account threatens to blow this cosy assumption clean out of the water as a fraud upon the public. Robin Aitken, who spent his entire career as a BBC journalist, has written a book “Taking Sides: Bias at the Beeb” accusing the BBC of institutionalised leftism. In Aitken's words, there is a centre-left consensus at the BBC that colours its entire output and undermines its impartiality….. On issue after issue, the BBC throws impartiality to the winds…..Even more alarmingly, they think their position represents the centre ground. They therefore think that those who oppose it are extreme. So their idea of balance is utterly unbalanced, and they subscribe to a thought system that is closed .
'Newsweek dissembled, Muslims dismembered!
(20May05) “…When ace reporter Michael Isikoff had the scoop of the decade, a thoroughly sourced story about the president of the United States having an affair with an intern and then pressuring her to lie about it under oath, Newsweek decided not to run the story…” 'Newsweek dissembled, Muslims dismembered! ' “… Why no pause for reflection when Isikoff had a story about American interrogators at Guantanamo flushing the Quran down the toilet?..” If this comparative piece by Anne Coulter isn't proof positive of an agenda at Newsweek and in other parts of the media then we certainly live in a topsy turvey, hall of mirrors.
(27Mar05) “….The trouble is that the trendies who normally champion human rights seem to think persecution is fine, so long as it's only against Christians. While Muslims openly help other Muslims, Christians helping Christians has become as taboo as jingoistic nationalism…Across the Islamic world, Christians are systematically discriminated against and persecuted. Saudi Arabia — the global fountain of religious bigotry — bans churches, public Christian worship, the Bible and the sale of Christmas cards, and stops non-Muslims from entering Mecca” writes Anthony Browne in this Spectator piece Church of Martyrs . “…Christians are regularly imprisoned and tortured on trumped-up charges of drinking, blaspheming or Bible-bashing, as some British citizens have found….. But the BBC, despite being mainly funded by Christians, is an organisation that promotes ridicule of the Bible, while banning criticism of the Koran….”
Fitzgerald: The Post's Arab media dhimmitude
(27Mar05)“…Al-Jazeera is a spreader of lies and nonsense…. Allowing it to broadcast in this country is madness… Fitzgerald: The Post's Arab media dhimmitude Al-Jazeera is a cross between TASS and Der Stuermer. During World War II the Americans would not have stood for one minute to have Nazi propaganda broadcast into this country....”
Professor David Flint was on the program on Thursday morning, 24th March, to talk about his new book. Details here: Malice in Media Land ( Freedom Publishing Co.) .
Greenery has overgrown fair debate
(20Mar05) “..Green propaganda is now so pervasive in the media and public debate it has become part of the cultural background…” Writes Michael Duffy in Greenery has overgrown fair debate. In his first Sydney Morning Herald column, Duffy again highlights the total and absolute bias, betrayal and lack of balance of the ABC. “… Anyone concerned by the left's domination of cultural institutions in this country will be further depressed by the sad example of this program, the cover-up afterwards, and the lack of interest in the whole sordid affair from the media..”
(30July04 ) The World According to Bush , was a two part doco recently screened on the SBS program The Cutting Edge. Andrew Bolt forensically pulls it apart in this recent piece published in the Herald Sun, SBS: TV for liars
Surprise Surprise, Media Bias - ABC admits the Media Leans to the Left!
Hanson sinks Abbott: Is Howard in danger?
A must read: Hanson sinks Abbott: Is Howard in danger? Margot Kingston's take on Pauline Hanson in the SMH 26 Aug 03
The ABC… Bias or Balance…Reporting or Barracking!!
Make up your own mind. You will find this link to The Institute of Public Affairs and the following articles by Michael Warby
Who Watches the Media? from News Weekly Saturday, October 31, 1998
Aunty's poor record on bias from The Australian May 17, 1999
The Trouble with Auntie The Age September 30, 1999
No cure until ABC admits there's a problem from the Canberra Times February 24, 2001
Is the Media Biased?? Check out the Media Research Centre. Although this is a