Mark MacKinnon, the "senior international reporter" for Canada's newspaper of record, has a feature in yesterday's paper that runs an astonishing four full pages. "Vladimir Putin's War of Fog" purports to examine how Putin used "deceit, propaganda and violence to reshape world politics."
In a helpful "backstory," MacKinnon reveals that "this project started out as an attempt to look at how Russia won back its role as one of the world's main powers." So far so good. That would certainly be a worthwhile journalistic exercise, and our senior international reporter "conducted interviews in nearly a dozen countries" to get to the bottom of Putin's perfidy.
I'm sorry to report that MacKinnon's deep dive into the rise of Putin seems to have been a colossal waste of Globe and Mail resources. In four full pages, his story does not include a single fact, half-fact, factoid, non-fact, fiction, rumour, or innuendo that hasn't been freely available on the internet for years.
Yet putting his story together took MacKinnon months, and required him to travel to "almost a dozen countries?"
Methinks someone be bullshittin' us... and maybe their bosses at 351 King Street as well.
Showing posts with label fake news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fake news. Show all posts
Sunday, June 21, 2020
Sunday, February 2, 2020
BE AFRAID, CANADA!!!
Another day, another scary story. Logged on to CBC News this morning only to find out that Canada has enemies, and they're trying to subvert our democracy!
But we should consider ourselves lucky; not only do we have CSIS, the CSE, and the RCMP looking out for our freedoms, Catherine Tunney informs us that "fact-checking and traditional journalism have been helpful so far in debunking and correcting misinformation."
I would expect that when Ms. Tunney was doing fact-checking for her own story she must have seen this nugget. Seems the very CSE standing on guard for our democracy is being sued for libel by one of those "Moscow disinformation outlets" they never tire of smearing.
Consortium News is a bunch of folks who used to work in mainstream media and still would had they not suffered random bouts of integrity. Consortium News was started by folks exiled by Fake News.
Wouldn't you think that's relevant to the story?
Wonder why the traditional journalists at the CBC chose to leave it out?
But we should consider ourselves lucky; not only do we have CSIS, the CSE, and the RCMP looking out for our freedoms, Catherine Tunney informs us that "fact-checking and traditional journalism have been helpful so far in debunking and correcting misinformation."
I would expect that when Ms. Tunney was doing fact-checking for her own story she must have seen this nugget. Seems the very CSE standing on guard for our democracy is being sued for libel by one of those "Moscow disinformation outlets" they never tire of smearing.
Consortium News is a bunch of folks who used to work in mainstream media and still would had they not suffered random bouts of integrity. Consortium News was started by folks exiled by Fake News.
Wouldn't you think that's relevant to the story?
Wonder why the traditional journalists at the CBC chose to leave it out?
Sunday, December 29, 2019
Trump and Putin have made the world safer for journalists - stats
Check out this editorial in the Toronto Star today. That's the Star's editorial board saluting press freedom.
The first four paragraphs make ominous reading. The dictatorial tyrant Putin and the leader of the free world have bonded over many things, we are told, "especially in their scorn for press freedoms."
It gets worse. The two tyrants shared a chuckle at the prospect of "getting rid" of those pesky truth-seekers in the press.
"Their menacing attitude imperils the lives of journalists..."
After that foreboding intro, the editorial board treats the reader to some facts that seem to point in the opposite direction. Deaths of working journalists plummeted 44% in 2019 over the previous year, and are at their lowest ebb in two decades.
Perhaps aware that their first four paragraphs are wishful thinking not supported by facts, they then indulge some sophistry in an attempt to convince the reader that a reduction in journo deaths bodes ill not only for press freedom, but for democracy itself!
"And most menacingly, there has been a two-per-cent increase in the number of journalists being murdered or targeted." Two percent of a sample of 49 dead journos would mean one journalist in the past year was deliberately targeted for their journalism.
One?
The diabolical scheming of the two tyrants notwithstanding, journalism obviously remains one of the safest professions, and editorial board hysteria aside, is getting even safer in the Trump-Putin era.
And they wonder why they are derided for "fake news."
The first four paragraphs make ominous reading. The dictatorial tyrant Putin and the leader of the free world have bonded over many things, we are told, "especially in their scorn for press freedoms."
It gets worse. The two tyrants shared a chuckle at the prospect of "getting rid" of those pesky truth-seekers in the press.
"Their menacing attitude imperils the lives of journalists..."
After that foreboding intro, the editorial board treats the reader to some facts that seem to point in the opposite direction. Deaths of working journalists plummeted 44% in 2019 over the previous year, and are at their lowest ebb in two decades.
Perhaps aware that their first four paragraphs are wishful thinking not supported by facts, they then indulge some sophistry in an attempt to convince the reader that a reduction in journo deaths bodes ill not only for press freedom, but for democracy itself!
"And most menacingly, there has been a two-per-cent increase in the number of journalists being murdered or targeted." Two percent of a sample of 49 dead journos would mean one journalist in the past year was deliberately targeted for their journalism.
One?
The diabolical scheming of the two tyrants notwithstanding, journalism obviously remains one of the safest professions, and editorial board hysteria aside, is getting even safer in the Trump-Putin era.
And they wonder why they are derided for "fake news."
Saturday, September 21, 2019
DNC on brink of spectacular own goal
On page A9 of today's Globe and Mail a headline informs me that "Trump allegedly asked Ukraine to investigate Biden's son." That's the Globe's version of this story, found originally in the Wall Street Journal, and now a staple across mainstream media.
Yup, there goes Trump again, abusing his office to stymie a potential rival...
Unfortunately, it's Biden's own words, and not any dirty dealing on the part of Trump, that are going to cause some embarrassing blow-back here. Check out this story from the NYT back in May. Or, if you think the Times is too Trump friendly, even Michael Bloomberg's personal propaganda platform reports Biden bragging about getting a top Ukrainian judge fired for investigating his son Hunter's adventures in the Ukrainian natural gas business.
Obviously any competent journalist reporting these latest allegations would be aware of both Hunter Biden's involvement in Ukraine and his Daddy's boastful comments about interfering in Ukraine's internal affairs. So why don't they pull the loose threads together and tell the whole story?
Because the Democentric mainstream media have a horse in this race, and it ain't Donny J.
Yup, there goes Trump again, abusing his office to stymie a potential rival...
Unfortunately, it's Biden's own words, and not any dirty dealing on the part of Trump, that are going to cause some embarrassing blow-back here. Check out this story from the NYT back in May. Or, if you think the Times is too Trump friendly, even Michael Bloomberg's personal propaganda platform reports Biden bragging about getting a top Ukrainian judge fired for investigating his son Hunter's adventures in the Ukrainian natural gas business.
Obviously any competent journalist reporting these latest allegations would be aware of both Hunter Biden's involvement in Ukraine and his Daddy's boastful comments about interfering in Ukraine's internal affairs. So why don't they pull the loose threads together and tell the whole story?
Because the Democentric mainstream media have a horse in this race, and it ain't Donny J.
Monday, June 17, 2019
CBC brings you some fake news about fake news
The headline caught my eye; No, Trudeau did not give $465M to Afghanistan, only to have it 'disappear.'
The story doesn't quite live up to the headline. Yes, apparently Trudeau did promise $465 million in aid to Afghanistan back in 2016. Nobody seems to know whether or not any of that amount was actually delivered, and writer Kaleigh Rogers doesn't tell us. That would have required actual research, rather than just recycling a press release from the Canadian Anti-Hate Network.
In any event, if whatever amount was delivered, no one knows where it went. Does that mean it "disappeared?"
No!
Just because you don't know the whereabouts of something doesn't mean it disappeared, according to Kaleigh.
Here's an alternative explanation; maybe it wasn't $465 million that disappeared, quite possibly it was only Justin's promise that disappeared, as so many of them have.
So we have something of a non-story here.
Some obscure political party you've never heard of gets a boatload of free publicity, thanks to the CBC. So do the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, Evan Balgord, and CrowdTangle.
But thanks anyway, Kaleigh, for refreshing our memories of that unmitigated disaster that was Canada's Afghan adventure.
$465M is a drop in the bucket when you look at the big picture. Actual costs, including our war efforts and our "aid," are closer to $25 billion, and it's only the continuing US occupation that's keeping the Taliban from retaking the entire country. That doesn't include the long-term-care costs for the thousands of Canadian veterans who came back with PTSD.
Let's not forget that it was that lovable little guy from Shawinigan who got us into that mess. Stephen "we're not the type to cut and run" Harper enthusiastically picked up the baton. There's plenty of bipartisan shame to go around.
Perhaps the lesson to be taken is that we'd be better off to stay home and take care of Canada. It's not that we couldn't put those $25 billions to good use here.
Look around you.
The story doesn't quite live up to the headline. Yes, apparently Trudeau did promise $465 million in aid to Afghanistan back in 2016. Nobody seems to know whether or not any of that amount was actually delivered, and writer Kaleigh Rogers doesn't tell us. That would have required actual research, rather than just recycling a press release from the Canadian Anti-Hate Network.
In any event, if whatever amount was delivered, no one knows where it went. Does that mean it "disappeared?"
No!
Just because you don't know the whereabouts of something doesn't mean it disappeared, according to Kaleigh.
Here's an alternative explanation; maybe it wasn't $465 million that disappeared, quite possibly it was only Justin's promise that disappeared, as so many of them have.
So we have something of a non-story here.
Some obscure political party you've never heard of gets a boatload of free publicity, thanks to the CBC. So do the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, Evan Balgord, and CrowdTangle.
But thanks anyway, Kaleigh, for refreshing our memories of that unmitigated disaster that was Canada's Afghan adventure.
$465M is a drop in the bucket when you look at the big picture. Actual costs, including our war efforts and our "aid," are closer to $25 billion, and it's only the continuing US occupation that's keeping the Taliban from retaking the entire country. That doesn't include the long-term-care costs for the thousands of Canadian veterans who came back with PTSD.
Let's not forget that it was that lovable little guy from Shawinigan who got us into that mess. Stephen "we're not the type to cut and run" Harper enthusiastically picked up the baton. There's plenty of bipartisan shame to go around.
Perhaps the lesson to be taken is that we'd be better off to stay home and take care of Canada. It's not that we couldn't put those $25 billions to good use here.
Look around you.
Sunday, June 16, 2019
Top cheerleader treats entire football squad to leg-spread
A couple years ago there was a rumour to that effect going round the local high school.
Apparently said rumour was kicked off by a "rival" who had an eye on one of the boys on that team, a boy who was smitten by that top cheerleader.
All of that is just typical teenage drama, but social media magnifies these petty wranglings into shit that becomes really important, certainly for those reading about it on Facebook, which, as much as I find it hard to believe, is where a whole lot of folks get their news.
And that should be truly frightening.
I don't mean to sound elitist here, but if you get your news from Facebook, you're a retard.
Shop around a little. All the news sites are bullshitting you one way or another. With a little time and a little experience, you'll gradually work your way to a place where you can, at least most of the time, tell the difference between the wheat and the chaff.
The difference between the Shit and the Shinola...
**********
For those who get their news from Facebook, I suggest you fork out a few bucks per month to check out WSJ, NYT, and the WaPo.
Canadians should augment that with a daily perusal of the Globe and Mail, even though they're unlikely to find anything interesting there that didn't originate in the already mentioned titles.
Canada is, after all, first among the me-too nations.
While you're busy taking in the Empire's point of view, you should also take a peek at what's up at Sputnik, RT, AJE, Press TV, and the Jerusalem Post.
And there's plenty of once-prime English language journo's, even Pulitzer types, who have been blackballed from the mainstream and are basically glorified bloggers now, because, get this, they thought it was their job to speak truth to power!
So you'll find Chris Hedges at Truthdig.
Robert Parry founded Consortium News.
Seymour Hersh shows up on the fringes sometimes, but he's clearly not welcome in the MSM.
Spend enough time rooting around in the bowels of social media and those foreign news feeds, and you'll soon discover that errant cheerleaders are the least of our problems...
Apparently said rumour was kicked off by a "rival" who had an eye on one of the boys on that team, a boy who was smitten by that top cheerleader.
All of that is just typical teenage drama, but social media magnifies these petty wranglings into shit that becomes really important, certainly for those reading about it on Facebook, which, as much as I find it hard to believe, is where a whole lot of folks get their news.
And that should be truly frightening.
I don't mean to sound elitist here, but if you get your news from Facebook, you're a retard.
Shop around a little. All the news sites are bullshitting you one way or another. With a little time and a little experience, you'll gradually work your way to a place where you can, at least most of the time, tell the difference between the wheat and the chaff.
The difference between the Shit and the Shinola...
**********
For those who get their news from Facebook, I suggest you fork out a few bucks per month to check out WSJ, NYT, and the WaPo.
Canadians should augment that with a daily perusal of the Globe and Mail, even though they're unlikely to find anything interesting there that didn't originate in the already mentioned titles.
Canada is, after all, first among the me-too nations.
While you're busy taking in the Empire's point of view, you should also take a peek at what's up at Sputnik, RT, AJE, Press TV, and the Jerusalem Post.
And there's plenty of once-prime English language journo's, even Pulitzer types, who have been blackballed from the mainstream and are basically glorified bloggers now, because, get this, they thought it was their job to speak truth to power!
So you'll find Chris Hedges at Truthdig.
Robert Parry founded Consortium News.
Seymour Hersh shows up on the fringes sometimes, but he's clearly not welcome in the MSM.
Spend enough time rooting around in the bowels of social media and those foreign news feeds, and you'll soon discover that errant cheerleaders are the least of our problems...
Saturday, February 9, 2019
Elizabeth Renzetti delivers tutorial in shoddy journalism
Fifty years ago, when Nancy Pelosi was already clawing her way into the upper reaches of the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Party was known as the party of civil rights. By 2016, it was instead known as the party of Wall Street, and Nancy Pelosi is now the most powerful woman in America.
That's why it's hard to square her actual history of connivance with money and power with the portrait painted in Renzetti's editorial in today's Globe and Mail, where Pelosi is rendered an icon of progressivism.
Renzetti seems aware of the cognitive dissonance echoing through her article. The "progressive members of her own party (i.e. the DSA contingent) think she's part of the old guard..."
That's because she most assuredly is a member of the old guard! Who could think otherwise?
Yet, "they fall into line behind her when she demands it." She is "terrifying to her opponents, both Republicans and rebellious members of her own party" (i.e. the DSA contingent).
The most interesting question in US politics at the moment is how long will it take for the true progressives to either mute their progressivism, or get terrorized out of the party. My hunch is that the old guard will effectively muzzle them... forget the wealth tax, forget public health care, forget free post-secondary education; focus instead on symbolic gestures like clapping back at Trump!
That's "resistance," Pelosi style!
Renzetti also gets a shot at a book review this week, giving us the low-down on former NYT executive editor Jill Abramson's tell-all, "Merchants of Truth."
Alas, the biggest story around this title for the past week has been a plagiarism scandal! Seems the esteemed NYT alum who penned "Merchants of Truth" especially likes lifting the work of students at Toronto's own Ryerson Journalism School!
That's the kind of dishonesty that empowers those who want to paint the journalism profession with the "fake news" label. The fact that Renzetti can pen a two thousand word book review without so much as a single line acknowledging the plagiarism controversy strikes me as a little... dishonest.
That's why it's hard to square her actual history of connivance with money and power with the portrait painted in Renzetti's editorial in today's Globe and Mail, where Pelosi is rendered an icon of progressivism.
Renzetti seems aware of the cognitive dissonance echoing through her article. The "progressive members of her own party (i.e. the DSA contingent) think she's part of the old guard..."
That's because she most assuredly is a member of the old guard! Who could think otherwise?
Yet, "they fall into line behind her when she demands it." She is "terrifying to her opponents, both Republicans and rebellious members of her own party" (i.e. the DSA contingent).
The most interesting question in US politics at the moment is how long will it take for the true progressives to either mute their progressivism, or get terrorized out of the party. My hunch is that the old guard will effectively muzzle them... forget the wealth tax, forget public health care, forget free post-secondary education; focus instead on symbolic gestures like clapping back at Trump!
That's "resistance," Pelosi style!
Renzetti also gets a shot at a book review this week, giving us the low-down on former NYT executive editor Jill Abramson's tell-all, "Merchants of Truth."
Alas, the biggest story around this title for the past week has been a plagiarism scandal! Seems the esteemed NYT alum who penned "Merchants of Truth" especially likes lifting the work of students at Toronto's own Ryerson Journalism School!
That's the kind of dishonesty that empowers those who want to paint the journalism profession with the "fake news" label. The fact that Renzetti can pen a two thousand word book review without so much as a single line acknowledging the plagiarism controversy strikes me as a little... dishonest.
Sunday, August 19, 2018
Speaking of fake news...
Whatever happened to Guevara, the world-famous-for-a-month "first female sniper of the Syrian Free Army?"
She was another overnight sensation who got saturation coverage in the msm. Maybe when al Nusra took over the SFA they put her in a managerial role?
Maybe not...
She was another overnight sensation who got saturation coverage in the msm. Maybe when al Nusra took over the SFA they put her in a managerial role?
Maybe not...
On the trail of fake news;connecting the dots from Syria to Hollywood
Read a great feel-good news story in my Sunday Star today. Seems that some "opposition activists" (code for the al Qaeda /ISIS crowd fighting for regime change in Syria) have teamed up with some entrepreneurial Americans to develop an app that gives those plucky activists a heads-up that a pro-government fighter-bomber is heading their way.
They've got planespotters lurking around Syrian airbases. When they spot a jet taking off they call in the particulars to a "foreign server," where the information is plugged into magic algorithms. Almost instantly, the algorithms calculate where that plane is heading, and then send a warning to those target areas on social media. A simple cell-phone app has saved tens of thousands of civilian lives!
I was surprised that war-torn Syria would have such robust cell-phone coverage, especially in the rebel-held areas. Doesn't the Syrian government control the cell networks? Wouldn't they just turn off the coverage for any area they planned to bomb?
Something doesn't add up, so I thought I'd dig around a little. The Star filched the story from the Washington Post, and the Post's story appears to be an abbreviated version of this story at Wired from a few days before. This story provides a little more background on the three partners who founded Hala Systems: Dave Levin, the American entrepreneur, John Jaeger of the US State Department, and "Murad," the Syrian coder working in Turkey on "data management" for the White Helmets.
The White Helmets are the civilian defense outfit that works only in areas under the control of the so-called rebels, primarily ISIS and various affiliates of al Qaeda. There is an abundance of evidence that strongly suggests institutional ties between the White Helmets and the terrorists, and the White Helmets have received at least $100 millions in financing (and an Oscar!) from the very Western countries that have sponsored the overthrow of Assad from the beginning.
So far our good-news story has ensnared the White Helmets, their sponsors in the US and other countries, and their links to the terrorists that we've supposedly been fighting since 9/11, but where's the Hollywood connection?
Here you go. Dave Levin, inventor of the miracle app saving lives in Syria, is listed as a collaborator on the website of USC's World Building Institute. Take a gander at their partners page. You'll find the aristocracy of the global infotainment industry very well represented indeed!
Among other things, these connections clarify how little Bana made it so smoothly from Aleppo to Turkey to Hollywood.
As for that story being flogged via Wired, WaPo, and the Toronto Star, I don't know why you'd need spotters lurking around Syrian air bases when the US military can see every airplane in the sky anywhere over Syria.
But it gives the story a human touch, doesn't it?
They've got planespotters lurking around Syrian airbases. When they spot a jet taking off they call in the particulars to a "foreign server," where the information is plugged into magic algorithms. Almost instantly, the algorithms calculate where that plane is heading, and then send a warning to those target areas on social media. A simple cell-phone app has saved tens of thousands of civilian lives!
I was surprised that war-torn Syria would have such robust cell-phone coverage, especially in the rebel-held areas. Doesn't the Syrian government control the cell networks? Wouldn't they just turn off the coverage for any area they planned to bomb?
Something doesn't add up, so I thought I'd dig around a little. The Star filched the story from the Washington Post, and the Post's story appears to be an abbreviated version of this story at Wired from a few days before. This story provides a little more background on the three partners who founded Hala Systems: Dave Levin, the American entrepreneur, John Jaeger of the US State Department, and "Murad," the Syrian coder working in Turkey on "data management" for the White Helmets.
The White Helmets are the civilian defense outfit that works only in areas under the control of the so-called rebels, primarily ISIS and various affiliates of al Qaeda. There is an abundance of evidence that strongly suggests institutional ties between the White Helmets and the terrorists, and the White Helmets have received at least $100 millions in financing (and an Oscar!) from the very Western countries that have sponsored the overthrow of Assad from the beginning.
So far our good-news story has ensnared the White Helmets, their sponsors in the US and other countries, and their links to the terrorists that we've supposedly been fighting since 9/11, but where's the Hollywood connection?
Here you go. Dave Levin, inventor of the miracle app saving lives in Syria, is listed as a collaborator on the website of USC's World Building Institute. Take a gander at their partners page. You'll find the aristocracy of the global infotainment industry very well represented indeed!
Among other things, these connections clarify how little Bana made it so smoothly from Aleppo to Turkey to Hollywood.
As for that story being flogged via Wired, WaPo, and the Toronto Star, I don't know why you'd need spotters lurking around Syrian air bases when the US military can see every airplane in the sky anywhere over Syria.
But it gives the story a human touch, doesn't it?
Sunday, July 1, 2018
Helmet laws
I'm pretty sure we've got helmet laws here in Ontario. True, I prefer not to wear one myself, but I'm just putting around back roads in the neighborhood, where there's little chance of a) needing one, and b) getting caught without one. That wind-in-the-hair thing is worth the risk, and I plan to chase that thrill as long as I've got any hair left.
I raise the question because yesterday, as I was coming back from Wiarton with my Saturday Globe and Mail, a guy on a very loud Harley goes thundering past with his helmet dangling from his elbow! Technically, I guess he was wearing a helmet, but isn't there something in the law to specify that it must be worn on the head?
As for the Globe, (still $6.30 at the Korean extortionist) I have to say there's not much in it this week. Wente seems to think that Justin's "we won't get pushed around" bravado was perhaps ill-advised, and I'm inclined to agree with her. It is true though that, at least in the short term, Trump's antics have done wonders in bringing Canadians together.
Doug's got a sure-fire plan for how the Democrats can derail the Trump Train in the mid-terms and in 2020. They can outflank the GOP on the left AND on the right... at the same time! As evidence for this novel theory he cites the recent victories of Conor Lamb and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I'm not so sure. While there remain some authentically progressive voices in Dem circles, and Ocasio-Cortez is certainly one of them, I don't see a long term home for them in the donkey tent.
Unless of course the Bernie crowd succeeds in overthrowing the Dem party establishment and rebuilding the party from the grassroots up. Until that happens the Democrats will just be the other Wall Street Party.
Guest self-promoter Jared Yates Sexton caught my eye with a headline informing me that "now, more than ever, we need to rally around the media, not denounce them."
Sexton was a literary type toiling in well-deserved obscurity until he branched out into political commentary just as the Trump Tide was beginning to rise, and that uncanny timing has led to him becoming a leading voice of "the resistance." The gist of his opinion piece is that Trump bears responsibility for the mass shooting at the Capital Gazette, and not only that; he has single-handedly "inspired a virulent hatred that's led to harassment and death threats."
Really? I think he's giving Trump rather too much credit. Sure, Trump the politician has always been contemptuous of the media, but for at least forty years that same media slobbered all over the guy, giving him the profile that allowed him to go into politics in the first place, and also sowing the seeds for his well-founded contempt for the journalism profession.
The idea of bold journos speaking truth to power might have rang true in some bygone era, but the journalists of today are generally more interested in sleeping with power than speaking truth to it.
Other than that, there was a lot of aren't-we-great pap in keeping with our Canada Day celebration today.
And you know what?
For all the problems, all the challenges, and in spite of everything that's not quite right or could be better, there's no place on this earth I'd rather live.
Happy Canada Day!
I raise the question because yesterday, as I was coming back from Wiarton with my Saturday Globe and Mail, a guy on a very loud Harley goes thundering past with his helmet dangling from his elbow! Technically, I guess he was wearing a helmet, but isn't there something in the law to specify that it must be worn on the head?
As for the Globe, (still $6.30 at the Korean extortionist) I have to say there's not much in it this week. Wente seems to think that Justin's "we won't get pushed around" bravado was perhaps ill-advised, and I'm inclined to agree with her. It is true though that, at least in the short term, Trump's antics have done wonders in bringing Canadians together.
Doug's got a sure-fire plan for how the Democrats can derail the Trump Train in the mid-terms and in 2020. They can outflank the GOP on the left AND on the right... at the same time! As evidence for this novel theory he cites the recent victories of Conor Lamb and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I'm not so sure. While there remain some authentically progressive voices in Dem circles, and Ocasio-Cortez is certainly one of them, I don't see a long term home for them in the donkey tent.
Unless of course the Bernie crowd succeeds in overthrowing the Dem party establishment and rebuilding the party from the grassroots up. Until that happens the Democrats will just be the other Wall Street Party.
Guest self-promoter Jared Yates Sexton caught my eye with a headline informing me that "now, more than ever, we need to rally around the media, not denounce them."
Sexton was a literary type toiling in well-deserved obscurity until he branched out into political commentary just as the Trump Tide was beginning to rise, and that uncanny timing has led to him becoming a leading voice of "the resistance." The gist of his opinion piece is that Trump bears responsibility for the mass shooting at the Capital Gazette, and not only that; he has single-handedly "inspired a virulent hatred that's led to harassment and death threats."
Really? I think he's giving Trump rather too much credit. Sure, Trump the politician has always been contemptuous of the media, but for at least forty years that same media slobbered all over the guy, giving him the profile that allowed him to go into politics in the first place, and also sowing the seeds for his well-founded contempt for the journalism profession.
The idea of bold journos speaking truth to power might have rang true in some bygone era, but the journalists of today are generally more interested in sleeping with power than speaking truth to it.
Other than that, there was a lot of aren't-we-great pap in keeping with our Canada Day celebration today.
And you know what?
For all the problems, all the challenges, and in spite of everything that's not quite right or could be better, there's no place on this earth I'd rather live.
Happy Canada Day!
Friday, May 11, 2018
Breaking! Mueller team to probe Israeli meddling in US elections!
Just kidding folks!
You already know that neither Mueller nor his team have the slightest interest in such an investigation.
I just thought I'd put that out there, complete with the bogus "breaking" header, to see if I could bust the ceiling of three page views that my posts have been getting since Google declared war on "fake news."
Ya, even pip-squeak sites like this one got buried in that land-slide. I feel for the folks who actually try to make a living off their blogs. Like Sarah Kendzior... oh wait a minute... no, sorry, Google hasn't been messing with her...
But back to Mueller and the question of meddling in America's "democracy."
Mueller's team has been investigating Russia's "meddling" for a year and a half now. What have they found?
Facebook adverts! Yup, some devious Ruskie operatives subverted US democracy by buying tens of thousands of dollars worth of Facebook advertisements!
Meanwhile, guys like Sheldon Adelson quite openly invest tens of millions in subverting America's democracy, but that is not probe-worthy.
Why not?
Because Israel and the USA have "shared values."
That's right! Gunning down an unarmed black man in America has the same value as gunning down an unarmed Palestinian in Gaza.
Shared values indeed!
You already know that neither Mueller nor his team have the slightest interest in such an investigation.
I just thought I'd put that out there, complete with the bogus "breaking" header, to see if I could bust the ceiling of three page views that my posts have been getting since Google declared war on "fake news."
Ya, even pip-squeak sites like this one got buried in that land-slide. I feel for the folks who actually try to make a living off their blogs. Like Sarah Kendzior... oh wait a minute... no, sorry, Google hasn't been messing with her...
But back to Mueller and the question of meddling in America's "democracy."
Mueller's team has been investigating Russia's "meddling" for a year and a half now. What have they found?
Facebook adverts! Yup, some devious Ruskie operatives subverted US democracy by buying tens of thousands of dollars worth of Facebook advertisements!
Meanwhile, guys like Sheldon Adelson quite openly invest tens of millions in subverting America's democracy, but that is not probe-worthy.
Why not?
Because Israel and the USA have "shared values."
That's right! Gunning down an unarmed black man in America has the same value as gunning down an unarmed Palestinian in Gaza.
Shared values indeed!
Thursday, May 3, 2018
Why alternative news websites endanger the American oligarchy
This is "world press freedom day" or some such rot. That's the occasion for the mainstream media bigs to celebrate how essential they are in maintaining our vaunted "democracy."
Needless to say, we're not celebrating alternative news sites like Counterpunch or Glenn Greenwald's Intercept or many more on the alt-news side.
They are dangerous. They are fake news. Read Counterpunch for a few weeks, and hot damn, before you know it you find yourself thinking the exceptional nation isn't all that exceptional anymore...
What could be more dangerous than that?
That's why it's so important to tweak those Google algorithms in such a way that you'll never find any news that doesn't conform to the official narrative of American exceptionalism.
Needless to say, we're not celebrating alternative news sites like Counterpunch or Glenn Greenwald's Intercept or many more on the alt-news side.
They are dangerous. They are fake news. Read Counterpunch for a few weeks, and hot damn, before you know it you find yourself thinking the exceptional nation isn't all that exceptional anymore...
What could be more dangerous than that?
That's why it's so important to tweak those Google algorithms in such a way that you'll never find any news that doesn't conform to the official narrative of American exceptionalism.
Monday, December 25, 2017
Another hysterical anti-Trump headline disappears down the fake news bunny hole
Remember when Trumpenstein had his evil minions dictate to the Centers for Disease Control what words to avoid in their budget proposals? That Washington Post story from 15 December launched a thousand outraged op-eds.
Oh my God!!!... what's next in the barbarian's war on scientific inquiry?
Yes, the nightmare of 1984 is fully and finally upon us!
Or not.
You may have missed this headline from WaPo's sister publication Slate six days later; There is no ban on words at the CDC.
Oh, so what's the fuss then?
You would think that there are enough actual facts around with which to skewer the Trumpists without resorting to spinning scary stories based on hearsay from anonymous sources. This is the kind of misleading reportage that gives succour to those who believe our mainstream media outlets are shot through with "fake news."
Jon Cohen at Science counted the number of times the forbidden words showed up in the last three CDC budget proposals of the Obama admin compared to the 2018 Trump budget proposals. Based on his analysis, one could spin a headline about the exponential rise in the use of the words "fetus" and "entitlement" in the Trump era document.
You wouldn't be wrong, but your story would be just as misleading and irrelevant as that original Washington Post story.
If the MSM establishment want folks to stop squawking about fake news, they should stop publishing fake news stories.
Oh my God!!!... what's next in the barbarian's war on scientific inquiry?
Yes, the nightmare of 1984 is fully and finally upon us!
Or not.
You may have missed this headline from WaPo's sister publication Slate six days later; There is no ban on words at the CDC.
Oh, so what's the fuss then?
You would think that there are enough actual facts around with which to skewer the Trumpists without resorting to spinning scary stories based on hearsay from anonymous sources. This is the kind of misleading reportage that gives succour to those who believe our mainstream media outlets are shot through with "fake news."
Jon Cohen at Science counted the number of times the forbidden words showed up in the last three CDC budget proposals of the Obama admin compared to the 2018 Trump budget proposals. Based on his analysis, one could spin a headline about the exponential rise in the use of the words "fetus" and "entitlement" in the Trump era document.
You wouldn't be wrong, but your story would be just as misleading and irrelevant as that original Washington Post story.
If the MSM establishment want folks to stop squawking about fake news, they should stop publishing fake news stories.
Monday, December 18, 2017
From Orwell to Trump in seven scary words
On 15th December the Washington Post published a story which claimed that the Trump administration had issued to the Centers for Disease Control a list of seven forbidden words that were henceforth not to be used when drawing up budget proposals. The story was sourced from one anonymous CDC employee who was at a meeting where the banned vocab list was discussed. The words are: vulnerable, diversity, entitlement, transgender, fetus, evidence-based, and science-based.
Wow!
It would be hard to find a list of words better crafted to enrage the former Studio 54 dandy and his army of white-supremacist, Bible-thumping acolytes. We already know, having been reminded daily for well over a year now, how that crowd feels about facts and science, diversity and the transgendered and the vulnerable. Entitlement would probably be OK if we stuck with the entitlement of the rich to greater riches, but let's not take any chances - you wouldn't want the vulnerable to get the idea they're entitled to something too.
I must admit "fetus" is a bit of a head-scratcher. What have those folks got against fetuses? Maybe the anonymous source mis-heard? Maybe the meeting was running into the lunch hour and one of the attendees wondered aloud "are they gonna feed us?" Who knows...
A mere three days later, if you google "CDC 7 banned words list" you'll get over 2.6 million results in about half a second. An awful lot of folks have spilled an awful lot of ink over this story in three days. By contrast, google "George Carlin's 7 banned words list" and you get less than half that many results on a story that's been around for 45 years.
And not only has it been around; it's been an iconic pit-stop in this thing known as "popular culture."
Meanwhile, both the CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services have denied that any such list exists, and the fact-checking site Snopes is awaiting some clarifications before rendering a verdict.
But for three days, it's been one helluva story!
Wow!
It would be hard to find a list of words better crafted to enrage the former Studio 54 dandy and his army of white-supremacist, Bible-thumping acolytes. We already know, having been reminded daily for well over a year now, how that crowd feels about facts and science, diversity and the transgendered and the vulnerable. Entitlement would probably be OK if we stuck with the entitlement of the rich to greater riches, but let's not take any chances - you wouldn't want the vulnerable to get the idea they're entitled to something too.
I must admit "fetus" is a bit of a head-scratcher. What have those folks got against fetuses? Maybe the anonymous source mis-heard? Maybe the meeting was running into the lunch hour and one of the attendees wondered aloud "are they gonna feed us?" Who knows...
A mere three days later, if you google "CDC 7 banned words list" you'll get over 2.6 million results in about half a second. An awful lot of folks have spilled an awful lot of ink over this story in three days. By contrast, google "George Carlin's 7 banned words list" and you get less than half that many results on a story that's been around for 45 years.
And not only has it been around; it's been an iconic pit-stop in this thing known as "popular culture."
Meanwhile, both the CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services have denied that any such list exists, and the fact-checking site Snopes is awaiting some clarifications before rendering a verdict.
But for three days, it's been one helluva story!
Saturday, November 18, 2017
Globe and Mail unmasks notorious Putin puppet
Campbell Clark and Mark MacKinnon are vying for yet another one of those "journalism awards" that mainstream media types periodically bestow upon one another for being really good at what mainstream journalists do; propagate official state propaganda.
By coincidence, I happened to catch a Jens Stoltenberg interview on CBC as I was driving into town to fork over the better part of ten bucks to the Korean extortionist for my Saturday Globe and Mail. Here's Jens on propaganda;
When we (NATO) are faced with Russian propaganda, we never reply with propaganda. We reply with facts. We reply with the truth.
The folks who wouldn't raise an eyebrow at that whopper are the kind of folks who are the target audience for the Clark - MacKinnon take-down of Michel Chossudovsky and the website he's run for the past fifteen years or so, Global Research.
I've been a news junkie pretty much since I learned to read, and one thing I know for sure is that there's no single news source that you can count on to tell the whole story. You have to read around.
I like to check out the NYT and Washington Post websites every day to see what's what in the world of news. Sputnik and RT can be relied on to supply another perspective. Deutsche Welle, France 24, AJE, Dawn, Haaretz, the JPost and Press TV round out my well-balanced daily news diet. And of course I like to have a real newspaper in my hands every day, and that's generally the paper Clark and MacKinnon write for.
I don't get around to Global Research very often.
When I do, it looks like an op-ed aggregator more than anything. The people I'd be inclined to read there, Johnstone, Parry, the indefatigable Paul Craig Roberts (who, btw is a little too intense for my taste, but nevertheless well worth reading) I've already read elsewhere.
So why does the Globe see fit to devote two pages to Chossudovsky?
Because he's a Putin stooge.
That's right.
He promotes the conspiracy theory that "the ouster of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych was a Western-backed coup rather than a popular revolution."
That's a conspiracy theory?
Not to anyone familiar with the Nuland - Pyatt tapes.
What the Clark - MacKinnon story alludes to but fails to follow up on, is that Big Tech in it's role as hand-maiden to Empire is already re-jigging their aggregator algorithms to make sure you're far less likely to accidentally happen upon Global Research and other non-conformist sites.
That's something to think about.
By coincidence, I happened to catch a Jens Stoltenberg interview on CBC as I was driving into town to fork over the better part of ten bucks to the Korean extortionist for my Saturday Globe and Mail. Here's Jens on propaganda;
When we (NATO) are faced with Russian propaganda, we never reply with propaganda. We reply with facts. We reply with the truth.
The folks who wouldn't raise an eyebrow at that whopper are the kind of folks who are the target audience for the Clark - MacKinnon take-down of Michel Chossudovsky and the website he's run for the past fifteen years or so, Global Research.
I've been a news junkie pretty much since I learned to read, and one thing I know for sure is that there's no single news source that you can count on to tell the whole story. You have to read around.
I like to check out the NYT and Washington Post websites every day to see what's what in the world of news. Sputnik and RT can be relied on to supply another perspective. Deutsche Welle, France 24, AJE, Dawn, Haaretz, the JPost and Press TV round out my well-balanced daily news diet. And of course I like to have a real newspaper in my hands every day, and that's generally the paper Clark and MacKinnon write for.
I don't get around to Global Research very often.
When I do, it looks like an op-ed aggregator more than anything. The people I'd be inclined to read there, Johnstone, Parry, the indefatigable Paul Craig Roberts (who, btw is a little too intense for my taste, but nevertheless well worth reading) I've already read elsewhere.
So why does the Globe see fit to devote two pages to Chossudovsky?
Because he's a Putin stooge.
That's right.
He promotes the conspiracy theory that "the ouster of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych was a Western-backed coup rather than a popular revolution."
That's a conspiracy theory?
Not to anyone familiar with the Nuland - Pyatt tapes.
What the Clark - MacKinnon story alludes to but fails to follow up on, is that Big Tech in it's role as hand-maiden to Empire is already re-jigging their aggregator algorithms to make sure you're far less likely to accidentally happen upon Global Research and other non-conformist sites.
That's something to think about.
Thursday, October 26, 2017
Did pot-addled hillbilly coin term "fake news?"
I see where Callum Borchers at the Washington Post has sniffed out another Donny J fib. Apparently Trump has been bragging about inventing the term "fake news."
This has got Borchers righteously miffed. While he doesn't exactly claim that he personally coined the term, he does want you to know he used it before Trump ever did. His editors at WaPo seem to think that's newsworthy...
Hey dude, check out the title of this blog-post; Real news, fake news, and conspiracy theories, posted right here in February of 2012! Looks like I beat both you and Trump to the prize!
Not that I coined the term. I'm pretty sure Mark Twain mentioned "fake news" at one time or another...
This has got Borchers righteously miffed. While he doesn't exactly claim that he personally coined the term, he does want you to know he used it before Trump ever did. His editors at WaPo seem to think that's newsworthy...
Hey dude, check out the title of this blog-post; Real news, fake news, and conspiracy theories, posted right here in February of 2012! Looks like I beat both you and Trump to the prize!
Not that I coined the term. I'm pretty sure Mark Twain mentioned "fake news" at one time or another...
Tuesday, September 19, 2017
Google's commitment to a free press; Big Brother tightens the noose
I see where Google Canada has found half a million in spare change to fund a media literacy program at the Canadian Journalism Foundation. This will equip Canadian youngsters age 9 - 19 to better ferret out "fake news" and develop a "deeper understanding of the role journalism plays in democracy."
Of course it will. After all, a free press is the very cornerstone of our democracy. Just ask the CJF if you don't believe me. Here's CJF chair David Walmsley; "fake news accelerates distrust in our institutions, including distrust of the trained media who spend so much time trying to hold the powerful to account."
Oh, so that's what they've been doing! If that's the case, they've been doing a slovenly job of it over my lifetime. As near as I can tell, trust in mainstream media was on a downward spiral for decades before Trump and Putin allegedly invented fake news a couple of years ago, and for good reason; the typical news consumer figured out long ago that if and when media hold the powerful to account, it is by accident rather than by intent.
No, there are many agendas that have priority over that particular mission, and they're generally the agendas of the rich and powerful.
Be that as it may, we're truly going down the bunny hole if we buy into the notion that Google or anybody else in Big Tech has the slightest interest in saving journalism or promoting truth-telling. These outfits are now the richest and most powerful entities on the planet, with the exception of a handful of nation states.
It's safe to say that holding themselves to account is not a plank in their program.
Of course it will. After all, a free press is the very cornerstone of our democracy. Just ask the CJF if you don't believe me. Here's CJF chair David Walmsley; "fake news accelerates distrust in our institutions, including distrust of the trained media who spend so much time trying to hold the powerful to account."
Oh, so that's what they've been doing! If that's the case, they've been doing a slovenly job of it over my lifetime. As near as I can tell, trust in mainstream media was on a downward spiral for decades before Trump and Putin allegedly invented fake news a couple of years ago, and for good reason; the typical news consumer figured out long ago that if and when media hold the powerful to account, it is by accident rather than by intent.
No, there are many agendas that have priority over that particular mission, and they're generally the agendas of the rich and powerful.
Be that as it may, we're truly going down the bunny hole if we buy into the notion that Google or anybody else in Big Tech has the slightest interest in saving journalism or promoting truth-telling. These outfits are now the richest and most powerful entities on the planet, with the exception of a handful of nation states.
It's safe to say that holding themselves to account is not a plank in their program.
Sunday, August 13, 2017
Fuck the algorithm
When I wake up, and that's consistently been in the morning for several decades now, thank you very much, I wobble over to the computer and check out the news stories that an algorithm has selected for me.
Algorithms pretty much decide everything I'm prompted to look at in the course of my day.
The folks who own the algorithms are now fine-tuning algorithms that will decide whether the news I access via the world wide web is real news or fake news.
Hmm... do we really want to be in a place where algorithms define reality for us?
Algorithms pretty much decide everything I'm prompted to look at in the course of my day.
The folks who own the algorithms are now fine-tuning algorithms that will decide whether the news I access via the world wide web is real news or fake news.
Hmm... do we really want to be in a place where algorithms define reality for us?
Tuesday, June 20, 2017
This story stinks
By now I'm sure you've heard the sordid story of the woman in Mississauga who demanded that her child be seen by a "white doctor."
No.
Fucking.
Way.
And this allegedly happened in Mississauga, one of the most ethnically diverse constituencies in all the land?
Get the fuck outta here!
I have no clue how any white person would manage to live a life in Mississauga without regular and intimate contact with brown people.
Especially if they have any contact with... the health care system?
The judicial system?
The education system?
Their neighbourhood Tim Hortons?
This story is bullshit from end to end and top to bottom.
Here's my theory; this "story" was an end-of-semester project by theatre arts students from York or Ryerson. Now that it's gone viral, they're guaranteed an A+.
If I'm wrong, this story is far stinkier than I ever could have imagined.
No.
Fucking.
Way.
And this allegedly happened in Mississauga, one of the most ethnically diverse constituencies in all the land?
Get the fuck outta here!
I have no clue how any white person would manage to live a life in Mississauga without regular and intimate contact with brown people.
Especially if they have any contact with... the health care system?
The judicial system?
The education system?
Their neighbourhood Tim Hortons?
This story is bullshit from end to end and top to bottom.
Here's my theory; this "story" was an end-of-semester project by theatre arts students from York or Ryerson. Now that it's gone viral, they're guaranteed an A+.
If I'm wrong, this story is far stinkier than I ever could have imagined.
Technology and Totalitarianism
I recall reading a quote by Albert Speer somewhere, perhaps in his prison memoirs, that if TV had been around in the Nazi era, Hitler's henchmen would be ruling the world today.
Hell, even without TV they came a little too close.
Wonder what Herr Speer would think of the technology loose on the planet today?
How is it possible that a tiny handful of tech companies, all of them tied in one way or another to America's "deep state," have a stranglehold on the world's internet traffic?
Not only does the Google-Facebook-Amazon-Microsoft-Apple combine control the world's internet traffic, but they are, to much popular acclaim, setting themselves up to be the arbiters of what is real and what is fake in the world of "news."
Ponder that for a moment or two.
Poor old Albert's probably getting a boner in his grave!
Hell, even without TV they came a little too close.
Wonder what Herr Speer would think of the technology loose on the planet today?
How is it possible that a tiny handful of tech companies, all of them tied in one way or another to America's "deep state," have a stranglehold on the world's internet traffic?
Not only does the Google-Facebook-Amazon-Microsoft-Apple combine control the world's internet traffic, but they are, to much popular acclaim, setting themselves up to be the arbiters of what is real and what is fake in the world of "news."
Ponder that for a moment or two.
Poor old Albert's probably getting a boner in his grave!
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