Tag: Journalists

The Pro-War Media

This post may find a bunch of haters for me…..but what the Hell…..I have always spoke my mind and I refuse to change now just to keep the peace.

The MSM has turned an off the cuff comment by Biden into a days story when he said “Putin cannot stay in charge” (paraphrase)….personally I do not think he was calling for a coup just speaking a thought….but the media took it an ran….and ran……

From the start of the Ukraine/Russia conflict I have ranted about the media coverage…..as a Conflict analyst I find it lacking in depth…..

The Reporting On Ukraine

Let me explain.

War is Hell….as someone once observed….it is the ultimate obscenity…..filled with death and destruction and yet the MSM is laser focused on the refugees.

Do not get me wrong this conflict is bringing chaos, death and people fleeing for their lives….it is horrible that people have to uproot their lives and flee for safety….but that is the same with every conflict….there is nothing unique about this one.

For me it appears that the MSM is showing the horror of the refugees to promote more intervention by the West in the Ukraine conflict….for if they show the results of the attacks it could promote a more vocal antiwar movement and a more non-intervention position.

Watch your favorite MSM news….endless refugee stories, usually the same story different people, and the actual footage of the war is lacking….only the successes not the failures.

But is the MSM seriously pro-war?

The dominant media narrative is that the US government (and all Americans) must “stand with Ukraine” in the latter’s resistance to Russian aggression. The identification with Ukraine’s cause is now nearly total, and it is infused with arrogant righteousness. Noticeably missing is any sense, once so powerful in US foreign policy and general discourse, that America’s interests often are — and should be — distinct from the interests and objectives of any foreign country.

The emotionalism and shallowness is most evident with the television coverage of the conflict. American viewers are inundated with images of exploding shells from the invading Russian forces, sights of desperate, tearful refugees (mostly women and children) fleeing the invaders, and shots of other determined Ukrainian civilians arming themselves to defend their country. Television is a visual medium that always tries to evoke emotions among viewers, but that element has become truly over‐​the‐​top regarding treatment of the Ukraine war. Providing a deluge of images showing traumatized civilian refugees adds little to anyone’s understanding of the roots of the conflict, its underlying issues, or its likely outcome.

Indeed, prominent media outlets have been guilty of circulating transparently crude Ukrainian propaganda. Some of the material they’ve telecast turned out to be fake. A widely circulated image of a Ukrainian girl verbally confronting Russian troops actually was that of a Palestinian girl confronting Israeli troops. 2015’s Miss Ukraine was not taking up arms against the Russian invaders, despite a well‐​covered photo op. A closer examination of the image showed that she was brandishing an Airsoft gun. Some images of aerial combat footage of Ukrainian pilots battling Russian aggressors were from video games.

https://www.cato.org/commentary/us-press-again-becomes-conduit-pro-war-propaganda#

“If it bleeds, It leads”  Is the mantra of the MSM….journalists love war…..

The overwhelming majority of U.S. journalists have taken a more subdued position on the war, identifying with Ukraine against the aggressor Russians, but stopping just short of cheerleading. Even so, journalists can’t hide the seductive draw of the bloodworks. They can’t help themselves. They love war.

That’s a strong charge, so let’s quickly qualify. Accusing journalists of loving war is a little like accusing windshield wipers of loving rain. War, like rain, is inevitable. Journalists exist to report on bloody conflict just as wiper blades were invented to protect our vision from inclement precipitation. This isn’t to imply that the profession’s love of combat causes war. There were wars, you’ll note, long before there were reporters. All those claims that a war-mongering William Randolph Hearst and his New York Journal promised to “furnish” the Spanish-American War if his photographer would only provide the pictures are pure myth.

War Sells. The news business has learned from experience that when war arrives, news interest spikes. Because it deals with life and death, war finds a pre-sold audience, and as long as combat lasts, the audience sticks around. The weekly audience for the BBC’s English-language website in Russia soared 252 percent during the first week of the war. Combined prime-time ratings for Fox News Channel, MSNBC and CNN increased by almost 50 percent during the first week of the war. NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt gained 8 percent. Even when there’s no new news to view, as I can attest, the war audience leaves the TV on in the background in case something new does happen. During the early days of the Gulf War, the fear of missing out on some new bulletin inspired me to get up every night at 2 a.m. to watch the latest.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/03/17/why-journalists-love-war-00018137

Then there is this from Consortium News…..

“President Biden’s been clear that U.S. troops won’t fight Russia in Ukraine, and if you establish a no-fly zone, certainly in order to enforce that no-fly zone, you’ll have to engage Russian aircraft. And again, that would put us at war with Russia,” said U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin earlier this month. (The administration plan is to bring down the Russian government through a ground insurgency and economic war, not a direct military one.)

But pressure on the White House from Congress and the press corps is unrelenting to recklessly bring NATO directly into the war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, hailed as a virtual superhero in Western media, has vacillated between openness to negotiating a peace settlement with Russia and calling for NATO to “close the skies” above Ukraine. To save his country he appears willing to risk endangering the entire world.  

Meanwhile, Western corporate media, depending almost exclusively on Ukrainian sources, report that Russia is losing the war, with its military offensive “stalled,” and in frustration has deliberately targeted civilians and flattened cities.

Pentagon Drops Truth Bombs to Stave Off War With Russia

Do not get me wrong….let me clear…..what is happening in Ukraine is deplorable….but any war is deplorable in my book….I think the media should report the war not be a conduit for the defense industry to secure massive profits.

Any thoughts?

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Advertisement

Harrowing Time For Real Journalists

Journalists that cover war have one of the most dangerous job on the planet…..while others are running from war they run into the fray to get to the news…..news that is not regurgitated but as it happens.

Since Vlad the Invader has entered into Ukraine with the sole purpose of annexation on Brit news team had a harrowing experience…..

Read their harrowing story of near death escape from an ambush….

Warning:  This video shows the intensity of an ambush on one’s mind and emotions…..may be too intense for some readers.

https://news.sky.com/story/sky-news-teams-harrowing-account-of-their-violent-ambush-in-ukraine-this-week-12557585

The video shows just the gut wrenching emotions that goes through one’s mind in times of a feeling of imminent death.

And the war goes on…..

This will probably not be an isolated incident…..and sadly may not have a happier outcome.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Ukraine And The Media

Here in the West the reporting of the Ukraine/Russia conflict is extensive….but so far it is tired images of smoke plumes, jets fly by, an explosion that has been played ad nauseum, a few Russian tanks in transit ….plus the regurgitation of the officials from all countries…but the actual fighting has been lacking.

I mean the media could get into a war zone in Syria with heavy fighting but yet they have nothing to report on the actual fighting other than some hearsay…..I will admit that CNN had a report that recorded some gunfire that was labeled as ‘intense’….as an ex combat troop it did not seem so ‘intense’ to me….but then I am not selling a war either.

I am glad that the people have found relatively safe places like the endless subway story and the comparison to London during the Blitz and that scene has run every 15 minutes for over 12 hours.

Since 2014 the US has given Ukraine over a billion dollars in aid and I would like to see if it was money well spent……I would like to see those troops in action….but so far all we have seen is a few Russian paratroopers at an airfield outside the capital of Kyiv.

I guess may question is why is the media not doing a better job of covering the conflict and reporting on the readiness or not of the Ukrainian military.

Some may feel that I am an unfeeling bastard…well that is your right….but I am concerned that our cash went into some bank account or to a the building of a new villa on the Ukrainian coast on the Black Sea.

Where was our cash spent?

Our $650 million just this year was apparently not spent where it was intended…..for the Ukrainian leader Zelensky is stating that “We are in this fight alone” and “The West should be doing more to protect Ukraine”….

To me that sounds like he wants others to do his fighting for him….after all his boasting that Ukrainians will fight to the finish…..and after 48 hours he is screaming for help…

Maybe this situation should give the US Congress something to consider before they help authorizing the wasting of the American taxpayers money.

I by no means support the invasion of Russia into the Ukrainian country side….this was a despicable act of aggression that should be punished.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–28Dec21

Journalists have been under attack worldwide by governments trying to hide their misdeeds….plus some of those assault has caused the deaths of hundreds of journalists worldwide.

Under the cloak of anti-terrorism even the US has joined the attacks (so much for the well beloved free press)…….

A special Customs and Border Protection unit used sensitive government databases intended to track terrorists to investigate as many as 20 US-based journalists, including a Pulitzer Prize-winning AP reporter, according to a federal watchdog. Yahoo News, which published an extensive report on the investigation, also found that the unit, the Counter Network Division, queried records of congressional staffers and perhaps members of Congress. Jeffrey Rambo, an agent who acknowledged running checks on journalists in 2017, told federal investigators the practice is routine, per the AP. “When a name comes across your desk you run it through every system you have access too, that’s just status quo, that’s what everyone does,” Rambo was quoted by Yahoo News as saying.

The AP obtained a redacted copy of a more than 500-page report by the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general that included the same statement, but with the speaker’s name blacked out. The border protection agency is part of Homeland Security. The revelations raised alarm in news organizations and prompted a demand for a full explanation. “We are deeply concerned about this apparent abuse of power,” Lauren Easton, AP’s director of media relations, said in a statement. “This appears to be an example of journalists being targeted for simply doing their jobs, which is a violation of the First Amendment.”

Customs and Border Protection did not specifically address the investigation, but said the agency “does not investigate individuals without a legitimate and legal basis to do so.” The new disclosures are just the latest examples of federal agencies using their power to examine the contacts of journalists and others. Rambo’s and the unit’s use of the databases was more extensive than previously known. The inspector general referred possible criminal charges for misusing government databases and lying to investigators, but the Justice Department declined to prosecute Rambo and two other Homeland Security employees.

Just another example of how the US Constitution is being shredded…..until nothing of our ‘rights’ will remain.

This is what the ‘free press’ has come to in these days of an oligarchy.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is There ‘Media Bias’?

“If it bleeds it leads”

The 24 hour news cycle has given us the new mantra.

Look at today’s news….where is all that concern for Afghanistan?  MSM has a new story they can beat to death…..

So yes there is a ‘media bias’.

The mainstream media has historically tried to balance left and right in its political coverage, and present what it views as a reasonable center.

That may sound good in theory. But the old politics no longer exists and the former labels, “left” versus “right,” are outdated. Today it’s democracy versus authoritarianism, voting rights versus white supremacy.

There’s no reasonable center between these positions, no justifiable compromise. Equating them is misleading and dangerous.

You hear the mainstream media say, for example, that certain “Republican and Democratic lawmakers are emerging as troublemakers within their parties.”

These reports equate Republican lawmakers who are actively promoting Trump’s big lie that the 2020 election was stolen with Democratic lawmakers who are fighting to extend health care and other programs to help people. 

https://www.salon.com/2021/08/13/the-media-bias-no-one-talks-about-democracy-vs-authoritarianism_partner/

We as consumer of news need to stop focusing on the manure spread daily by MSM and start focusing on the nation and the direction both parties are leading it.

I have been writing about the pathetic attempt at the news by the MSM….

The Decline and Fall of the ‘Mainstream’ Media

The Media Is Pathetic!

There is so much more I have written….

The more one watches or reads the news the more one sees that it is nothing more than a ratings race…..true news can only be found by searching for it….and that is something in these days of instant gratification the people are unwilling to do…search.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Media Purge

The last few days of the Trump presidency and he, Trump, seems to be trying to make life miserable for the incoming president ……..

We hear all about the government purges….how politicians rid themselves of troublesome opponents…..(Stalin comes to mind)….well the US government news media is NO different since Trump boy toy has taken over command….

In June, a Steve Bannon ally and conservative filmmaker appointed by President Donald Trump took over running the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), a vast international network of news agencies funded and operated by the US government.

Within hours of introducing himself to employees, the new CEO, Michael Pack, purged four top officials. He then went on to ban visas for certain foreign reporters and began investigating journalists at the agency for suspected anti-Trump bias. In October, he announced he was eliminating the agency’s regulatory “firewall” — longstanding internal policies aimed at protecting the editorial independence of journalists at the agency from political interference from the government.

Critics accused Pack of abusing his power to turn America’s state-run news organizations, whose mission is to disseminate factual, unbiased news to people who live in countries where freedom of the press is either strongly curtailed or nonexistent, into Trump-friendly propaganda outlets.

While Pack and his team haven’t achieved a pro-Trump project, a federal watchdog has found accusations of gross mismanagement to be credible.

In letters to 11 whistleblowers on Wednesday night, the US Office of Special Counsel (OSC) — an investigative and prosecutorial government body — revealed that it had found “a substantial likelihood of wrongdoing” at the USAGM, which oversees four media organizations: Voice of America, Middle East Broadcasting, Radio Free Asia, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

https://www.vox.com/2020/12/3/22150002/special-counsel-whistleblower-global-media

This seems to be a common thread running through the Trump administration…..MISMANAGEMENT.

Plus the use of overt propaganda is a common thread as well…..NO fact based information.

And the mental midgets dance to their doom.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Getting The News Out

A Saturday and I would like to talk about local newspapers….they seem to be dying…..

That got to thinking about when I saw the local newspaper office that is close to my home…..

Image

Now it is for sale…the building that is……

Image

The Sun-Herald was our local paper it had won a Pulitzer (I believe) for its investigative journalism and now it is gone (not completely but mostly) it is small and printed in a city 90 miles away and shipped down to be delivered.

This is why I started thinking about local news…..and how the internet has helped them die a slow death……

Blame revenue siphoned by online competition, cost-cutting ownership, a death spiral in quality, sheer disinterest among readers or reasons peculiar to given locales for that development. While national outlets worry about a president who calls the press an enemy of the people, many Americans no longer have someone watching the city council for them, chronicling the soccer exploits of their children or reporting on the kindly neighbor who died of cancer.

Local journalism is dying in plain sight.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/10/town-by-town-local-journalism-is-dying-in-plain-sight.html

Can local newspapers ever make a comeback?

They were all broken not by national chains but by local newspapers — the Flint Journal, the Storm Lake Times, and the Charleston Gazette-Mail, respectively. Indeed, researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Notre Dame have found evidence that wasteful spending by local governments increases when there is no local newspaper to hold them accountable.

And that is not the only way in which local newspapers have had an impact.

A recent study by Duke University researchers found that local newspapers significantly outperformed local TV, radio, and online-only outlets in producing news stories that are original, local, or address a critical information need.

Can Local Newspapers Make a Comeback?

I think if they do make some sort of comeback it will be in the form of partisan crap….all balance will be gone….it would follow the way that broadcast news has been taken over by tribal corporations.

It is sad but my local newspaper will be gone and never to return in my lifetime.

What about your town or area….how are the newspapers doing?

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Death Of Local Journalism

I use to read my local paper it was an excellent source of news and opinions from around the area……it is now about 5 pages and is printed in a city 180 miles away…….the paper is in essence……dead……dead….dead…….

Now it is more about the ad dollar than the news……I would wager that this is a similar occurrence around the country.

The rise of social media and the internet has done what rival papers tried to do for decades…….killed local journalism…..and in-turn has fed the rise of the divisiveness of the nation……

In May 2017, former Republican Rep. Leonard Lance crossed party lines and voted against the GOP health care repeal, a proposal deeply unpopular with voters in New Jersey’s 7th District, which he had represented in Washington for nearly a decade.

A year later, Lance again joined Democrats to oppose the Republican tax cut bill. Although he supported portions of the bill and its overall intent, he decided to vote against it because it would hurt the ability of his wealthiest constituents to deduct the value of their state and local taxes.

Put simply, Lance was doing what a member of Congress is supposed to do: look out for the individual needs of the people who live in his district. Then he lost his reelection bid.

http://www.rollcall.com/news/campaigns/decline-local-journalism-likely-increasing-voter-polarization

Once Bill Clinton allowed corporations to own the news the purveyors of propaganda took hold and now the MSM sets the dialog with the nation….it is not the voter that picks the candidate but rather the MSM chooses who is presented to them as the candidates.

The death of local journalism has signaled the end of any bi-partisanship ever……

In the long run we voters pay the price for the death of local journalism and that price is partisanship and the election of mental midgets that disguise their mental deficiencies with mindless slogans.

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Breaking FOX News

I usual write about stuff that is not politics of geopolitics unless that is there is important breaking news….and yes Irene we have Breaking News….

A great journalist is leaving FOX News, Shep Smith…….

One of the few Fox News anchors to criticize President Trump is leaving the network. Shepard Smith, who has worked for Fox News since it launched in 1996, made the announcement during his show Friday afternoon, USA Today reports. Smith said the decision was his. “It’s been an honor and a privilege to report the news each day to our loyal audience in context and with perspective, without fear or favor,” he told viewers. Jay Wallace, president of Fox News, praised Smith as “one of the premier newscasters of his generation” and said the network respects his decision to leave. The Friday show was the final one for Smith, who gave no reason for resigning, per the AP. The network said anchors will alternate filling the time slot for now.

Fox viewers weren’t always happy with Smith’s comments about Trump, per the Washington Post. He’s called things the president has said “absolutely crazy” and defended CNN when Trump called it “fake news.” Trump has attacked Smith and his ratings, as well. The host also has taken on colleagues: After Tucker Carlson said white supremacy isn’t a real problem in this country, Smith told viewers it’s “without question a very serious problem.” The two hosts clashed again last month when Smith defended the network’s chief legal analyst after he was criticized by a guest, per the Hill. Smith called the attack “repugnant.” Carlson played the video of the exchange later, saying “Not clear if that was you or me but someone was repugnant.” In his account, Carlson said Smith “ironically” referred to the guest as “partisan.”

I liked him because he called crap when he smelled it.

Maybe I will start a conspiracy…..

Trump thinks FOX is his personal news channel and at times it looks like it and Smith was not always flattering to Trump so the AG Barr meets with Rupert and the next day Smith resigns.

Did Trump’s AG make some sort of deal with FOX?

Like I said I want to start a conspiracy…..

Legere, Scripsi, Scis (I Read, I Wrote, You Know)

Lego Ergo Scribo”

I return my reader to my normal non-political Saturday….

Peace Journalism

It is no secret that I am a “peace-nik” or if you prefer an antiwar activist….I have spent the last 50 years trying to point out the obscenity of war to an unfeeling population.

The media is not what one could call antiwar….if anything they seem to promote war and conflict….

From time to time I am sent papers by grad students looking to further their education in international relations…this paper is on the need for peace journalism…..

Peace Journalism: An Evolving Concept

Peace journalism, as the name suggests, is a form of journalism committed to exploring root causes of conflict in order to “create opportunities for society at large to consider and value non-violent responses to conflict” (Lynch and McGoldrick, 2005: 6). Its history can be tracked back to 1965, when Johan Galtung and Mari Ruge analysed what makes foreign news newsworthy (Galtung and Ruge, 1965). Jake Lynch and Johan Galtung (Lynch and Galtung, 2010) further developed the notion of peace journalism and argued that the media (war reporting, in particular) predominantly exhibit biases towards violence and rest on the conceptual belief that ‘conflict’ equals ‘war’. Within the field of peace journalism (Lynch and Galtung, 2010; Lynch and McGoldrick, 2005), this view was considered problematic because it prevents conflict to be considered as an opportunity for the search of a new harmony between the parties involved, via a process that does not have to necessarily develop into a war. In fact, as Johan Galtung’s theory of nonviolence and conflict resolution (Galtung, 1969) suggests, a conflict is a clash of incompatible interests amongst the parties that can be transcended in order to reach a further and deeper agreement.

https://www.e-ir.info/2018/12/23/peace-journalism-in-theory-and-practice/

This is something I would like to see one of the major news outlets attempt…..side with the innocent….side with peace…..but as long as the M-IC owns the media we will always have only one view….the Hawkish one.