Journalism
13 Feb 2024
In a powerful address, Tucker Carlson delivers a scathing indictment of the failures plaguing American governance and media integrity. With unflinching candour, Carlson sheds light on the erosion of democratic principles and the unchecked abuse of power within the nation’s corridors of influence.
As a devoted American, Carlson voices his deep concern over the subversion of individual rights and government accountability. He unveils the disturbing reality of government agencies targeting citizens unlawfully, highlighting the urgent need for transparency and accountability. With piercing insight, Carlson critiques the complicity of media outlets in perpetuating a narrative divorced from reality, lamenting the loss of independent journalism and the rise of censorship.
He calls on viewers to demand truth and accountability from those in positions of authority. Through poignant analogies and stark observations, Carlson challenges viewers to confront the moral decay and systemic corruption undermining America’s foundational principles.
Join Tucker Carlson as he boldly confronts the crises facing the nation and advocates for a return to ethical leadership and civic responsibility.
https://tass.com/world/1745259
According to Malaysian journalist Ian Miles Cheong, the White House allegedly demanded that Meta “significantly restrict the distribution of the interview” on the Facebook platform
NEW YORK, February 12. /TASS/.
US entrepreneur Elon Musk believes Facebook (prohibited in Russia due to its ownership by Meta, which has been designed as extremist) is supporting censorship if it restricts the video of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson from being shown on its platform.
“This is an insane level of censorship!” he said in reaction to a recording by Malaysian journalist Ian Miles Cheong, according to which the White House allegedly demanded that Meta “significantly restrict the distribution of the interview” on the Facebook platform.
Putin’s interview with Carlson was published on the night of February 9. A significant part of the two-hour conversation was devoted to the Ukrainian conflict and Russia’s relations with the United States, NATO and the West in general. Within the first 24 hours of its publication, the recording gained more than 100 million views on the social network X (formerly Twitter) alone.
Look at fake journalists accusing Carlson of being a fake journalist. Listen to these failures of humanity, do they even realize what they are saying? Bunch of eejits.
Warning: Might induce vomiting.
I could only stomach one minute before nausea started its process. These vile propagandists have to be stopped.
It’s kind of funny watching non-journalists (CNN) accuse Carlson of not being a journalist. Dumbasses, he is the only journalist the US has at the moment. Scum.
We cannot wait to see what a real journalist does with Putin.
– Washington’s hypocrisy was put on full blast by Russian FM Lavrov, pointing to the U.S. creating fuss when Moscow arrests spies and weed smugglers, yet not lifting a finger when journalist Gonzalo Lira got killed in Kiev’s regime torture chambers.
“The Biden administration could have gotten Gonzalo Lira back with a phone call but didn’t lift a finger. Therefore, the Ukrainian government knew it could act with impunity,” Sacks wrote. He also described Lira’s case as evidence that Ukraine is controlled by a “thuggish and unmoored regime.”
In a world of cowardice and lies, telling the truth where – and when – it really matters takes courage. And it can cost you your life
https://www.rt.com/russia/590587-gonzalo-lira-death-ukraine-zelensky/
@tarikcyrilamartarikcyrilamar.substack.comtarikcyrilamar.com
© Gonzalo Lira / YouTube
So, Gonzalo Lira is dead. As he warned in his last video message before being disappeared (this time, as it turned out, forever) by the Ukrainian regime, his political journalism has cost him his life.
A successful social media commentator and American citizen, Lira died while incarcerated by Ukraine’s repression apparatus for his criticism of the Western and Ukrainian position on the war against Russia. His terms were often direct, even harsh and polemical. But he was not a spy or some sort of subversive influence agent. He was transparent and open to a fault, standing with his own name – and life – for everything he said. He was a political prisoner (yes, I agree with Tucker Carlson on this one); the official Ukrainian charges against him are a ludicrous disgrace.
The immediate cause of his death is virtually certain to have been severe, prolonged, and systematic neglect, which led to his indirect killing – fully deliberate or not – by a condition (pneumonia and complications) that is perfectly treatable. In legal terms, this qualifies as, at least, manslaughter or even murder, committed by Ukrainian officers of the “law” and those issuing their orders.
According to what Lira stated when he could still communicate, he was also tortured in a more hands-on fashion, so as to plunder his personal wealth. If you know how Ukrainian politics and authorities operate, there is no reason at all to disbelieve him.
In spite of laudable efforts by fellow American citizens as prominent as Tucker Carlson and Elon Musk to help Lira, the US government made itself a de facto accessory in his killing by refusing to assist one of its own citizens who was, obviously, in extreme danger. Lira, by the way, told us he had heard from people in the know that Victoria “Neocon Cookie Monster and Queen of Coup and War” Nuland herself knew about his case and “hated his guts.”
READ MORE: Trump Jr. condemns Zelensky for US journalist’s ‘murder’
At a time when the West is accelerating its habitual spreading of war and even genocide, it may seem almost odd to dedicate a text to a single life taken. All human lives have exactly the same absolute worth, a truth every decent person accepts and, more importantly, practices, whether religious or not. And yet, due to the way power works in our thoroughly fallen world, it does make sense to speak about Lira.
First of all, to pay our respects. It is true that Gonzalo Lira was no saint (just like the rest of us, by the way). He had things on his CV (operating as a “dating coach,” for instance) that he, like everyone else, should have had a full life to come to regret. He also had political views that I, for one, heartily disagree with, such as his own brand of libertarianism and an apologetic attitude toward Chile’s abysmal Pinochet dictatorship.
And so what? He was unusually courageous, which, in the end, cost him his life. And he had the extraordinary honesty to not only understand just how wrong the US-NATO proxy war in and via Ukraine was, but to say so loudly and very publicly. While based in Ukraine. (And full disclosure again, I had the genuine honor and pleasure to be invited onto his program on YouTube, where he was a smart and gracious host with an irreverent sense of humor.)
In a world of cowardly careerist underhandedness (looking at you, Olaf Scholz, Robert Habeck, Annalena Baerbock, for instance…) and habitual, crass lying (your turn, Benjamin Netanyahu, Joe Biden, Antony Blinken, and, yes, Vladimir Zelensky), Gonzalo hollered the truth where it mattered and it took guts.
That’s why Stella Assange, the wife of the single most important political prisoner in the world, Julian Assange, has tweeted about Lira’s death, correctly pointing out the responsibility of the US authorities.
READ MORE: Who was the ‘tortured’ US journalist who died in Ukrainian captivity?
Gonzalo Lira’s father should have the last word. This is what he told the Grayzone:
“I cannot accept the way my son has died. He was tortured, extorted, incommunicado for 8 months and 11 days and the US Embassy did nothing to help my son… The responsibility of this tragedy is [with] the dictator Zelensky with the concurrence of a senile American President, Joe Biden… My pain is unbearable. The world must know what is going on in Ukraine with that inhuman dictator Zelensky.”
We can genuinely commiserate, although we can’t literally feel the depth of his pain. But for all of us, Gonzalo Lira’s protracted, through-and-through unjust and entirely avoidable killing is yet another brutal sign that those who rule the West have no limits left.
“In my lifetime, the United States has overthrown or attempted to overthrow more than 50 governments, mostly democracies. It has interfered in democratic elections in 30 countries. It has dropped bombs on the people of 30 countries, most of them poor and defenceless. It has attempted to murder the leaders of 50 countries. It has fought to suppress liberation movements in 20 countries.
The extent and scale of this carnage is largely unreported, unrecognised; and those responsible continue to dominate Anglo-American political life.
In the years before he died in 2008, the playwright made two extraordinary speeches, which broke a silence:
‘US foreign policy,’ he said, is ‘best defined as follows: kiss my arse or I’ll kick your head in’.
It is as simple and as crude as that. What is interesting about it is that it’s so incredibly successful.
It possesses the structures of disinformation, use of rhetoric, distortion of language, which are very persuasive, but are actually a pack of lies. It is very successful propaganda. They have the money, they have the technology, they have all the means to get away with it, and they do.’
In accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature, Pinter said this:
‘The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America.”
https://en.ypagency.net/310067
SANAA, Nov. 11 (YPA) – 750 international journalists have signed a letter criticizing media coverage of Zionist-American aggression against Gaza and the killing of journalists while covering Gaza-related crimes.
Journalists from Reuters, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, and Washington Post criticized newsrooms for inhumane rhetoric justifying the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
Over 750 American journalists signed an open letter condemning the killing of journalists in Gaza and criticizing Western media coverage of the war, as reported by The Washington Post.
The newspaper pointed out that signing the letter was, for some journalists, a bold and even dangerous step, adding that journalists in media organizations had been expelled because they adopted public political positions that might expose them to accusations of bias, as the newspaper said, without specifying these means.
The letter’s authors said it was a call to recommit to justice and not abandon it.
YPA
Local journalists say Israel’s war is ‘unprecedented’ but it won’t stop them from doing their work
My feeling is that Israel targets journalists intentionally, as part of their scare tactics to prevent information from spreading. So they cut communication services, and target those who report on the situation.
Mansour
https://www.rt.com/news/586914-interview-with-gaza-reporters/
Nov 9, 2023
© RT / RT
Reporters in Gaza are struggling to do their jobs with severely limited internet access, and a fuel shortage which prevents them from moving around. They are working in constant danger from airstrikes, which have claimed more than 10,000 lives so far.
It’s been more than a month since Hamas militants infiltrated Israel in the deadliest attack on the Jewish state since its inception in 1948.
More than 1,400 Israelis were brutally murdered on October 7, and over 7,000 were wounded. In retaliation, Israel waged war on Hamas, vowing to kill all those responsible for the massacre. It also promised to uproot the Islamic movement, which has been ruling Gaza since 2007.
For the past five weeks, Israel has been pounding Gaza, home to 2.3 million people, with thousands of bombs. The death toll in the Palestinian coastal enclave has exceeded 10,000. Thousands are still under the rubble and unaccounted for. Among those killed are Palestinian journalists. According to the latest data, at least 40 have lost their lives in the current wave of violence. RT spoke with two men reporting from Gaza to gauge their opinions on the conflict and what it’s like to work under fire. One of them, Rami Almughari, is a veteran in the field. The other, Mansour Shouman, is a newcomer to the profession, but both described the fear and constant smell of death that accompany their work.
RT: First of all, tell us about your backgrounds.
Rami: I have been in this business for more than two decades, and during my career I have done print, radio and TV. I have reported for Al Monitor and the New Arab, for Channel News Asia, and for RT. I have also taught at Gaza universities. Throughout those years I made sure not to affiliate myself with any political faction. I am an independent journalist and will remain such.
Mansour: I am not coming from this field. I have a degree in engineering and a master’s in business from Canadian universities. For the past 17 years, I have been working in the field of manufacturing and management of supply chains, oil and gas, as well as consulting. I was introduced to journalism only four weeks ago, when the war erupted and when there was a need for English speakers, who could help get the voices of 2.3 million Gazans out to the world.
RT: Tell us what it’s like to report in wartime. How difficult and how dangerous is it? Do you feel that being a reporter turns you into an immediate target?
Rami: I can tell you that working as a journalist definitely puts you at risk. You keep moving from one item to another, you talk to people, and you visit destruction sites so you are more exposed. I don’t think journalists are being singled out or intentionally targeted. Everyone is in danger, and everyone needs to take precautions but journalists are more vulnerable because by the nature of their work, they are more exposed.
In the past, I can tell you journalists linked to Hamas have been targeted and killed. In 2021, Israel raided the apartment of one journalist who was linked to the group and who was working for the local radio. I can’t say that this is what’s happening now. But the intensive strikes make everyone vulnerable, and it seems that Israel is trying to send a message that we should refrain from going out, so as not to be targeted.
Also, this war is more challenging than anything else we have experienced so far. There is no fuel, so people need to either move on foot or use donkeys and horses. Very often there is no electricity or connection to the internet or mobile services, so getting information out has been a challenge. But we keep on doing our duty, there is no other way.
Mansour: It has been extremely challenging to function as a reporter, and it is also very dangerous. The mere fact that you are working as a journalist may put your life at risk and we know that some 46 reporters have already been killed in their homes and offices. Also, don’t forget the Al Jazeera journalist Shereen Abu Aqleh, who was killed by them in cold blood in 2022. My feeling is that Israel targets journalists intentionally, as part of their scare tactics to prevent information from spreading. So they cut communication services, and target those who report on the situation. But I am a strong believer in God, and I believe that I need to continue to do the right thing, which is getting the news out to the general public.
RT: Take us to the first moments after the war started. Where were you, and did you have an urge to leave, or did you want to stay and report what was going on?
Rami: It was 6.30am and I was awoken by the sounds of heavy shelling. I immediately started getting myself updated on the situation, and when my friends and acquaintances asked me what was going on, I remember I told them that was a khalifa – Arabic for destruction, elimination. I immediately realized it was an unprecedented escalation. But I didn’t have any urge to flee, I felt I needed to stay and report. First I made sure that my family was safe, but after that was done I went to the studios and started reporting. On my way there, I saw the panic and fear on people’s faces. I noticed that cars were scarce, as people were leaving or hiding. Many were confused, worried and scared. I was reporting for several days from the office as it was a safer place than home. Then, when the media company I was working with evacuated to the south for fear of their safety, and our paths parted, I decided to use my basic equipment, including a phone and a microphone, to do stories and interview people.
Mansour: We woke up at 6.30am to the sound of rockets and strikes and we didn’t know what was happening. A few hours later when the videos started emerging, we realised that something big would happen and that it would have an impact not only on us in Gaza but also on the entire world.
As I told you earlier, before the war, I was not a journalist. I was a family man and a consultant, and my initial urge was to leave, but soon we realised that it was not possible. The Rafah crossing was closed, so I stayed to tell the story. Now I see it as my religious, national and humanitarian obligation.
RT: As a journalist you have seen many terrifying and emotional scenes. What was the most memorable so far?
Rami: For me, the scariest thing was back in 2021, when I went to interview a family who had lost their house. I was completely sure that that area was safe, as it had already been bombed and had nothing else to destroy. But while we were there, the area was struck again, and only by miracle I and my crew remained alive.
Mansour: I think the scariest experience so far was when the first missiles started hitting Gaza. They bombed our local mosque, which is located only 100 meters away from the house. The explosion shattered the house. The windows were shaking. It was the real first taste of war. Another thing that hurt me was to see a child looking at his parents and telling them to wake up, it was time to go home. Little did he know that both of them were long dead.
RT: Have you lost anyone in this round of hostilities?
Rami: One of the airstrikes that took place some three weeks ago hit a residential building where my aunt lived. She died at the age of 61 along with many other members of my extended family. Although the rescue operation is still ongoing, many of those who died are still under the rubble and cannot be reached. On another occasion, my 27-year-old cousin, who was walking on the street, died when the jets attacked a residential building. These strikes are sudden and nobody can anticipate when they can happen. Death is literally everywhere.
Mansour: My extended family are not in Gaza, all of them are in Jerusalem, where I am originally from. But my wife’s family is in Gaza, and she has several cousins who have been injured or who have lost their homes. My children have also lost classmates from school.
By Elizabeth Blade, RT Middle East correspondent
Elon gets it. The NY Times is a propaganda machine of the USA. The CIA runs its editorial room. Fake news factory.
The tech giant’s AI chatbot Bard is already notorious for serving up false information as factual
https://www.rt.com/news/580131-google-journalism-ai-chatbot-genesis/
July 23, 2023
© Getty Images / sarah5
Google is testing an AI-powered journalism product and pitching it to major news organizations, the New York Times reported on Thursday, citing three sources close to the matter. The Times was allegedly one of the outlets approached by Google.
Known internally as Genesis, the tool is capable of generating news stories based on user inputs – details of current events like who, what, where, or when, the sources said. The company allegedly sees it as “responsible technology” – a middle-ground for news organizations not interested in replacing their human staff with generative AI.
In addition to the creep factor – two executives who saw Google’s pitch reportedly called it “unsettling” – Genesis’ mechanized approach to storytelling rubbed some journalists the wrong way. Two insiders told the Times it appears to take for granted the talent required to produce news stories that are not only accurate but well-written.
A spokeswoman for Google insisted that Genesis was “not intended to… replace the essential role journalists have in reporting, creating, and fact-checking their articles” but could instead offer up options for headlines and other writing styles.
One source said Google actually viewed Genesis as more of a “personal assistant for journalists,” capable of automating rote tasks so that the writer could focus on more demanding tasks, like interviewing subjects and reporting in the field.
The discovery that Google was working on a “ChatGPT for journalism” sparked widespread concern that Genesis could open a Pandora’s Box of fake news. Google’s AI chatbot Bard quickly became infamous for spinning up complex falsehoods and offering them as truth following its introduction earlier this year, and CEO Sundar Pichai has admitted that while these “hallucinations” appear to be endemic among AI large language models, no one knows what causes them or how to keep an AI honest.
Worse, Genesis could marginalize real news if Google encourages its adoption by tweaking its search algorithms to prioritize AI-generated content, radio editor Gabe Rosenberg tweeted in response to the New York Times article.
Several well-known news outlets have dabbled with using AI in the newsroom, with less than inspiring results. BuzzFeed went from using AI to generate customized quizzes to churning out dozens of formulaic travel pieces to announcing all content would be AI-generated in under six months, despite promising its writers in January that their jobs were safe.
CNET was caught earlier this year passing off AI-written articles as human content and using AI to rewrite old articles in order to artificially increase their search engine rankings.
Despite these disasters, OpenAI, the company responsible for ChatGPT, recently began signing deals with major news organizations like the Associated Press to encourage the technology’s adoption in the newsroom.
An editor at Radio New Zealand has been suspended and is under investigation for the time-honored practices of providing balanced and factual reporting, writes Tony Kevin.
Australian Broadcasting Company journalists edit incoming feeds from Reuters and other wire services all the time. They add context, link to previous stories, and add Australian-relevant material. The problem is, this person in RNZ was adding such context from the “wrong ‘side.’”
Violent Maidan coup in Ukraine, 2014. (Wikipedia)
By Tony Kevin
in Canberra
Special to Consortium News
June 13, 2023
On Friday The Guardian Australia website carried a news report, with a follow-up piece on Monday, whose implications for free speech are profoundly disturbing.
They concern a Radio New Zealand, or RNZ, broadcasting employee — unnamed, but everyone in the small New Zealand broadcasting world will soon know who it is — who has been placed on leave while their professional conduct is investigated. Obviously, a career hangs in the balance.
The malign ghosts of Orwell’s 1984 stalk this story.
‘Russian Garbage’
This unnamed person in RNZ committed the cardinal sin of “inappropriate editing” of incoming Reuters news feeds on the war in Ukraine to insert “Russian garbage” in the contemptuous words of Paul Thompson, chief executive of RNZ. That is to say, they drew on Russian news sources to insert balancing pro-Russian material to the incoming Western news agency feeds.
The Guardian tells us that in fact accurate information about Ukraine was added to the Reuters copy:
“The articles in question made a range of amendments: adding the word ‘coup’ to describe the Maidan revolution; changing a description of Ukraine’s former ‘pro-Russian president’ to read ‘pro-Russian elected government’; adding references to a ‘pro-western government’ that had ‘suppressed ethnic Russians’; and on several occasions adding references to Russian concerns about ‘neo-Nazi elements’ in Ukraine.”
And more truth was added to the story, The Guardian says:
“In one article, a paragraph was added reading: ‘The Kremlin also said its invasion was sparked by a failure to implement the Minsk agreement peace accords, designed to give Russia speakers autonomy and protection, and the rise of a neo-Nazi element in Ukraine since a coup ousted a Russian-friendly Ukrainian government in 2014.’
Another added that Russia launched its invasion ‘claiming that a US-backed coup in 2014 with the help of neo-Nazis had created a threat to its borders and had ignited a civil war that saw Russian-speaking minorities persecuted.’”
This, it seems, is an offence not to be countenanced any longer in New Zealand. “An RNZ spokesperson, John Barr, said in a statement after the first article came to public attention that ‘RNZ is taking the issue extremely seriously and is investigating how the situation arose,’” the newspaper wrote.
The Guardian, in its effort to “correct” the story, says: “Ukraine says these claims are discredited Kremlin propaganda … The anti-corruption movement was peaceful and had widespread public support. Yanukovych fled to Russia months later after his security forces shot dead more than 100 unarmed protesters.”
[Consortium News has published numerous stories laying out the facts of the events of 2014, including these two exhaustively corroborated accounts: On the Influence of Neo-Nazism in Ukraine and Evidence of US-Backed Coup in Kiev]
‘Gutted’
The RNZ executive Thompson was “gutted” to learn what has been going on under his watch. We read that 250 past published articles have been gone through “with a fine tooth comb” to investigate and counter such offensive inserted material, and thousands more are being reviewed.
Sixteen such offending articles have been found and warning commentaries added to them. Investigations continue while the staffer remains indefinitely suspended. The responsible minister is being briefed. Clearly, these editors have not delved very deeply into the Ukraine story.
Luke Harding’s Involvement
Both Guardian articles carry a tagline that says “Additional reporting by Luke Harding.” This should be a key warning to everyone in New Zealand’s and Australia’s broadcasting world, indeed in the entire English-speaking world.
Luke Harding at the Nordic Media Festival, 2018. (Thor Brødreskift / Nordiske Mediedager/ Wikimedia Commons)
Harding carries a formidable reputation as an inveterate anti-Russian British journalist with alleged strong links to the U.K. anti-Russian disinformation system and even to MI6, the U.K.’s secret intelligence service.
He was heavily involved in the Julian Assange affair and in the now discredited campaign to label former U.S. President Donald Trump as under Russian control. He is known as a leading Western disinformation warrior.
Normal Editorial Practice
Australian Broadcasting Company journalists edit incoming feeds from Reuters and other wire services all the time. They add context, link to previous stories, and add Australian-relevant material.
The problem is, this person in RNZ was adding such context from the “wrong ‘side.’”
The ABC has long been exposed as an obedient servant of the U.S.-dominated Five Eyes intelligence network and runs along approved anti-Russian and anti-Chinese editorial lines. RNZ, by contrast, is still widely respected in New Zealand. But it committed the sin of allowing counter-perspectives to be heard on the responsibility for the present tragic war in Ukraine.
Rendering of the “Five Eyes” intelligence network that includes Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K., the U.S. (@GDJ, Openclipart)
Read the two Guardian articles to see what exactly Harding in London and his colleagues in U.K. disinformation appear to be objecting to. It sends a strong message across the Tasman Sea, from New Zealand to the Australian media world: We watch every word you say and every word you write.
Cancelled for the Same Thought Crimes
The examples of journalistic misconduct identified in the two articles match exactly research and opinions on the historical context and causes of the war in Ukraine and mounting Russia-West tensions that I have been trying to express publicly in Australia as an expert former senior diplomat since the publication of my book Return to Moscow in 2017.
As a result, I have been cancelled, unpersoned, silenced — dropped down the Australia Broadcasting Company memory hole, never to be allowed on its airwaves again.
[Related: Caitlin Johnstone: 60 Minutes Australia Churning Out War-with-China Propaganda]
An innocuous interview I conducted from Moscow with Paul Barclay for the respected ABC program “Big Ideas” in February 2022 was “disarchived” — yes, you read it right — a few weeks later, under pressure from unidentified critics.
Ukraine is Losing
The war in Ukraine now winds steadily towards its inevitable pro-Russian denouement. Russia clearly has the military edge and this will not change now. Billions of dollars worth of supplied U.S./NATO equipment continue to be destroyed in combat.
In suicidal offensives ordered by the doomed Zelensky regime in Kiev, an estimated half a million Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or crippled since February 2022. [Exact casualty figures are very hard to come by]. Many more proxy warriors will die in the coming weeks as this brutal war of attrition demanded by the U.S. and NATO continues to destroy what is left of poor Ukraine.
Australians and New Zealanders with naïve faith in the professional integrity of their national broadcasters will continue to be insulated from these tragic truths.
Fortunately, for those who dare to read them, there are now plenty of accessible reliable sources of alternative perspectives on Russia-West relations and the pivotal importance of the war in Ukraine in transforming the world. This world now looks very different from outside the Western laager. We are in the midst of huge global changes.
But, thanks to the likes of Harding and his Anglo-American friends, we won’t find such information anywhere on the ABC or RNZ. We Antipodeans in the colonies will be the last to know.
Tony Kevin is a former Australian senior diplomat, having served as ambassador to Cambodia and Poland, as well as being posted to Australia’s embassy in Moscow. He is the author of six published books on public policy and international relations.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.