I stopped reading the #news. Is the #problem me — or the #product?

source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/08/how-to-fix-news-media/

“Hope is like water,” says David Bornstein, co-founder of the nonprofit Solutions Journalism Network. “You need to have something to believe in. If you’re in the restaurant business, you’re gonna give people water. Because you understand human biology. It’s weird that #journalism has such a hard time understanding this. People need to have a sense of #possibility.”

#press #future #economy #society #politics #crisis

Roger Waters ~ Free Assange Now! F the Warmongers!

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/1546420512741625857

#PinkFloyd's #RogerWaters uses footage of #CollateralMurder during his current tour to call attention to continued #unjust #imprisonment of #JulianAssange
The collateral murder incident occurred #15-years-ago tomorrow #12July

#julianassange #freeassange #dropthecharges #weareallassange #wikileaks #journalism #freespeech #freepress

Uber broke laws, duped police and secretly lobbied governments, leak reveals

#Guardian #Journalism #Investigation #Uber #Capitalism #GigEconomy

The Uber Files

#ICIJ #Journalism #Investigation #Uber #Capitalism #GigEconomy

Free Assange now!

IFJ

> See also: Don’t Extradite Assange (Media Lens)

Tags: #media #news #censorship #journalist #journalism #assange #wikileaks #manning #julian_assange #chelsea_manning #press #freedom_of_the_press #the_guardian #bbc #dissidents #witch_hunt #JournalistsSpeakUpForAssange #Nils_Melzer #Melzer #whistle_blower #corporate_media #mainstream_media #double_down_news #freeassangenow

Why There Is No Public Sense Of A Climate Crisis

Media Lens

(...) Increasingly, now, we do have citizens among us: scientists – particularly, climate scientists – who are awakening from their ‘mainstream’ slumber to the reality that they are citizens of a decaying society on a dying planet. (...)

To be fair, even veteran activists are asking themselves: ‘In what kind of world have we actually been living all along?’ For when it comes to anything other than maximising profit for corporations and pacifying the public, there appears to be no-one piloting the ship of state. (...)

The confusion and outrage are understandable. But why is climate denial still so prevalent? Why are so many people behaving as if there is no crisis? (...)

State-corporate interests generate and galvanise public fear into action with great efficiency when they want to. We need only think of World Wars I and II when millions of people were mobilised to kill and be killed to defend ‘democracy’, the ‘Fatherland’, the ‘Motherland’. After 1945, public fear and outrage were similarly brought to fever pitch by ‘red scares’ insisting that ‘The Russians are coming!’ As Zinn noted, the alarm was also rung to devastating effect in 1990 at the time of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. (...)

The same was true at the time of Nato’s assault on Serbia in 1999, also in 2003 when Iraq was invaded and conquered, in 2011 when the Libyan government was overthrown, and when the same attempt was made in Syria. (...)

This is why there is no sense of climate crisis, of emergency. It has nothing to do with human indifference; it has to do with people with authority and power – interests fanatically committed to expanding profits – NOT producing banner, front-page headlines of this kind:

‘CLIMATE COLLAPSE: THE WORLD LOOKS THE OTHER WAY. WILL YOU? OR WILL YOU BECOME VERY, VERY ANGRY?’

‘FOSSIL FUEL INTERESTS ARE KILLING US FOR SHORT-TERM PROFIT: THE WORLD LOOKS THE OTHER WAY. WILL YOU? OR WILL YOU BECOME VERY, VERY ANGRY?’

Far from alarming us, front page headlines are still literally celebrating indications of looming climate collapse. On January 2, the Sunday Telegraph front page featured a smiling, costumed performer at London’s New Year’s Day parade, under the headline:

‘Warmest New Year’s Day on record’

(...) Even when the impacts of climate change are not being celebrated, they are still being questioned. A BBC article asked:

‘Are soaring temperatures linked to climate change?’

How, in 2022, with everything we know, can this even be a question? By contrast, during ‘red scares’ and ‘the war on terror’, often bogus ‘threats’ were shrieked out as undisputed and utterly terrifying. Any expressions of doubt were reviled as genocide-denying treachery.

This surreal combination of celebration and denial is being produced in the context of devastating weather extremes that are only going to get much, much worse. (...)

More than 20 US states were experiencing dangerously hot temperatures impacting nearly 100 million Americans as grim footage was shared of thousands of cattle killed by dangerous temperatures, raising the much-feared spectre of global food shortages as temperatures continue to rise. (...)

It is reported that the current drought in Italy threatens more than 30% of national agricultural production. In Sydney, 50,000 people have been urged to evacuate their homes as floods hit Australia’s largest city for the third time this year. (...)

Climate scientists are warning that ‘every heatwave occurring today is more intense due to climate change.’ Heatwaves linked to climate change reportedly killed 157,000 people worldwide between 2000 and 2020, with four-fifths of those deaths during the 2003 European heatwave and 2010 Russia heatwave. (...)

António Guterres, the UN secretary general, has been scathing in his denunciations of the fossil fuel industry and their political backers. Addressing a climate conference organised by the White House, he warned:

‘We seem trapped in a world where fossil fuel producers and financiers have humanity by the throat. For decades, the fossil fuel industry has invested heavily in pseudoscience and public relations – with a false narrative to minimise their responsibility for climate change and undermine ambitious climate policies.’

He continued:

‘They exploited precisely the same scandalous tactics as big tobacco decades before. Like tobacco interests, fossil fuel interests and their financial accomplices must not escape responsibility.’ (...)

Scientists like Kalmus are now pleading with the corporate media to drop the denialism and phony ‘balance’, and hit the alarm button with full force:

‘The single biggest media failure of all time is how the media still isn’t treating global heating as an emergency.’

He added:

‘Climate journalists, the climate emergency just isn’t a normal thing to report. There need to be new rules/norms/practices when our entire planet is at stake. It’s a singular story.’

(...) How to escape state-corporate control of the means of mass communication?

It is a problem no-one has yet managed to solve. But a powerful step in the right direction must be for scientists to radicalise and mobilise – to look deeply and understand the true nature of corporate politics and corporate media – and to act together to demand public insurrection, rebellion and revolutionary change.

Complete article

> See also: It’s democracy v plutocracy – this is the endgame for our planet (The Guardian)

> See also: ‘There Is No Way To Fool Physics’: Climate Breakdown And State-Corporate Madness (Media Lens)

Tags: #climate #climate_change #climate_crisis #global_warming #sea_level #ocean_level #water_security #drought #desertification #paris_agreement #cop26 #government #international_cooperation #pollution #water #water_quality #supreme_court #lobby #rupert_murdoch #media #journalism #journalist #corporate_media #state #public_opinion #heat_wave #extreme_weather #food_shortages #deforestation #bush_fires #propaganda

It’s democracy v plutocracy – this is the endgame for our planet

George Monbiot (The Guardian)

The US supreme court is helping to destroy our climate. But it was a much smaller decision, closer to home, that was the final straw for me.

It feels like the end game. In the US last week, the third perverse and highly partisan supreme court decision in a few days made American efforts to prevent climate breakdown almost impossible. (...)

The day before, in the UK, the government’s climate change committee reported a “shocking” failure by Boris Johnson’s administration to meet its climate targets. (...) [T]he UK government also announced that it intended to scrap the law protecting the UK’s most important wildlife sites.

But the final straw for me was a smaller decision. After two decades of disastrous policies that turned its rivers into open sewers, Herefordshire county council (...) finally did the right thing. It applied to the government to create a water protection zone. (...) [T]he UK’s environment minister, Rebecca Pow, refused permission, claiming it “would impose new and distinct regulatory obligations on the farmers and businesses within the catchment”. This is, of course, the point. (...)

Just at the point at which we need a coordinated global effort to escape our existential crises – climate breakdown, ecological breakdown, the rising tide of synthetic chemicals, a gathering global food emergency – those who wield power string razor wire across the exit. (...)

I never imagined that we would one day confront what appears to be an ideological commitment to destroying life on Earth. (...)

As Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has documented, hundreds of millions of dollars in dark money (funds whose sources are unknown) were poured into the nomination and confirmation of the three judges appointed to the court by Donald Trump. (...)

Once the favoured justices were in place, the same networks started using their financial power to steer their decisions. They do so through “amicus briefs”. (...)

In this case, the supreme court has strayed way beyond its mandate of interpreting the law, into the territory of the executive and the legislature: making the law. It is imposing policies that would never survive democratic scrutiny, if they were put to the vote. By seizing control of regulatory power, it sets a precedent that could stymie almost any democratic decision. (...)

The media often represent politicians’ interests as if they were mere political preferences. Very rarely is the lobbying and political funding behind a decision explained in the news. (...)

All these cases expose the same political vulnerability: the ease with which democracy is crushed by the power of money. We cannot protect the living world, or women’s reproductive rights, or anything else we value until we get the money out of politics, and break up the media empires that make a mockery of informed political consent. (...)

Until we change our political systems, making it impossible for the rich to buy the decisions they want, we will lose not only individual cases. We will lose everything.

Complete article

> See also: ‘There Is No Way To Fool Physics’: Climate Breakdown And State-Corporate Madness (Media Lens)

‘When I began work as an environmental journalist I never imagined we would one day confront what appears to be an ideological commitment to destroying life on Earth.’ Photograph: Charlie Riedel/AP.

Tags: #climate #climate_change #climate_crisis #global_warming #sea_level #ocean_level #water_security #drought #desertification #paris_agreement #cop26 #government #international_cooperation #pollution #water #water_quality #supreme_court #lobby #amicus_brief #rupert_murdoch #media #journalism #journalist

#PlantFoodNow #FoodShortage #FoodShortages #Famine #GlobalFamine #Starvation #GlobalFoodCrisis #GlobalFoodEmergency #FoodSecurity #FoodSupply #SupplyChain #Agriculture #FoodJustice #Health #HealthyEating #HealthFood #Food #Nutrition #Eating #Diet #FoodJustice #FoodScience #Wellness #WellBeing #UN #KnowThyEnemy #Righteous #Righteousness #Vigilance #Peace #ReWild #Wild #ReWildorDie #Activism #Activist #SocialJustice #Justice #Equality #Freedom #Liberty #HumanRights #Humanitarianism #Humanitarian #Organize #Collaboration #FunctionalCollaboration #Coordination #Cooperation #Empowerment #SocialTheory #SocialScience #Government #Politics #PoliticalJustice #PoliticalScience #PoliSci #PublicPolicy #Policy #Democracy #MaintainingDemocracy #FunctionalDemocracy #ParticipatoryDemocracy #ParticipatoryEducation #Citizen #Citizenship #CitizenCommunications #GrassrootsEducation #Socialism #Mutualism #MutualAide #SocialEcology #Anarchy #Anarchism #Anarchist #Christian #Collectivism #Capitalism #AntiFacist #AntiFa #Economics #EconomicJustice #Journalism #News #FightPropaganda #Propaganda #Truth #Corruption #Lies #Environment #Environmentalism #EnvironmentalJustice #Ecosystems #EcoActivism #EcologyActivism #Weather #Climate #ClimateJustice #ClimateActivism #ClimateActivist #ClimateChange #Carbon #WaterProtectors #Water #Sustainability #ToxicCulture #ToxicConformity #WhiteSupremacy #Fascism #Paternalism #XenoPhobia #Nationalism #Oppression #Persecution #Slavery #NoNazis #Tyranny #Union #StaySane #Power #Survival #Prepper #Prep #Preppers #DeColonize #DeColonization #DeAssimilate #InformationJustice #InfoShare #KnowledgeIsPower #CBDC #DigitalCurrency #OneWorldCurrency #OneWorldGovernment #Progressive #WEF #Eugenics #Genocide #Depopulation #GreatReset #Reset #Resistance

ONLY 10 WEEKS OF WHEAT SUPPLIES LEFT

"It is important to note that the lowest grain inventory levels the world has ever seen are now occurring while access to fertilizers is highly constrained"

#PlantFoodNow

The world has about 10 weeks of wheat supplies stored as Russia's invasion of Ukraine enters its fourth month, a food insecurity expert told the UN.

Sara Menker, the CEO of agriculture analytics firm Gro Intelligence, told the UN Security Council that the Russia-Ukraine war was not the cause of a food security crisis but "simply added fuel to a fire that was long burning."

Menker said droughts across the world are contributing to declining wheat resources. Menker said global food supplies are also being impacted by climate change and fertilizer shortages.

"We currently only have 10 weeks of global consumption sitting in inventory around the world. Conditions today are worse than those experienced in 2007 and 2008," she said.

Menker said estimates from official government agencies from across the world show that wheat inventories at 33% of annual consumption, but added that models created by Gro Intelligence show that the figure may actually be closer to 20%, a level not seen since 2007 and 2008.

"It is important to note that the lowest grain inventory levels the world has ever seen are now occurring while access to fertilizers is highly constrained," she said. "And drought in wheat growing regions around the world is the most extreme it's been in over 20 years. Similar inventory concerns also apply to corn and other grains."

https://www.insider.com/world-has-10-weeks-of-wheat-supplies-left-in-storage-food-expert-warns-2022-5

Tags, Topics and Terms -

#PlantFoodNow #FoodShortage #FoodShortages #Famine #FoodSecurity #FoodSupply #SupplyChain #Agriculture #Health #HealthyEating #HealthFood #Food #Nutrition #Eating #Diet #FoodJustice #Wellness #WellBeing #UN #FoodScience #KnowThyEnemy #Righteous #Righteousness #Vigilance #Peace #ReWild #Wild #ReWildorDie #Activism #Activist #SocialJustice #Justice #Equality #Freedom #Liberty #HumanRights #Humanitarianism #Humanitarian #Organize #Collaboration #FunctionalCollaboration #Coordination #Cooperation #Empowerment #SocialTheory #SocialScience #Government #Politics #PoliticalJustice #PoliticalScience #PoliSci #PublicPolicy #Policy #Democracy #MaintainingDemocracy #FunctionalDemocracy #ParticipatoryDemocracy #ParticipatoryEducation #Citizen #Citizenship #CitizenCommunications #GrassrootsEducation #Socialism #Mutualism #MutualAide #SocialEcology #Anarchy #Anarchism #Anarchist #Christian #Collectivism #Capitalism #AntiFacist #AntiFa #Economics #EconomicJustice #Journalism #News #FightPropaganda #Propaganda #Truth #Corruption #Lies #Environment #Environmentalism #EnvironmentalJustice #Ecosystems #EcoActivism #EcologyActivism #Weather #Climate #ClimateJustice #ClimateActivism #ClimateActivist #ClimateChange #Carbon #WaterProtectors #Water #Sustainability #ToxicCulture #ToxicConformity #WhiteSupremacy #Fascism #Paternalism #XenoPhobia #Nationalism #Oppression #Persecution #Slavery #NoNazis #Tyranny #Union #StaySane #Power #Survival #Prepper #Prep #Preppers #DeColonize #DeColonization #DeAssimilate #InformationJustice #InfoShare #KnowledgeIsPower #CBDC #DigitalCurrency #OneWorldCurrency #OneWorldGovernment #Progressive #WEF #Eugenics #Genocide #GreatReset #Reset #Resistance

What Julian Assange and Donald Trump Have in Common
They share enemies—and they use similarly nihilistic tactics toward similarly antidemocratic ends.
By George Packer

If it were just dumb luck that landed WikiLeaks in the Trump camp, then the only question would be how Republicans became so unprincipled that they would welcome the political help of avowed enemies of American democracy. But it’s always a mistake to explain Trump’s motives as sheer opportunism. In fact, the lift from WikiLeaks wasn’t dumb luck, and more than self-interest led to the embrace between Trump and Assange. For years, WikiLeaks was considered politically on the left, the darling of Western progressives. Then why did it organize its releases to inflict the greatest damage on Hillary Clinton? Why not go after Trump instead? Or, at least, Trump too? What made WikiLeaks a hero to Fox News and the American right?

also: Documents Reveal New Details in WikiLeaks’ Exchanges with Guccifer 2.0

posting this old article, because as more damning information is uncovered by the J6 Commission, Assange's extradition appears imminent, and the US continues to support Ukraine against Putin's brutal war, I wouldn't be shocked to see some new WL "revelations" about Hunter's Laptop™ as an attempted distraction.

#Atlantic #Assange #WikiLeaks #trump #J6 #January6Committee #Russia #Putin #DOJ #journalism #Guccifer #RogerStone #DonJr #ButHerEmails #Hillary #2020Election #TheBigLie #EmmaBest

What's Really Stopping a Trump Prosecution?
Hurdles, Real and Imagined

Luppe B. Luppen
Jun 20

On Saturday, in an apparent effort to prick the momentum generated by the January 6th Committee’s recent public hearings, the New York Times published a story headlined “Despite Growing Evidence, a Prosecution of Trump Would Face Challenges.”

The headline, of course, is substantially true. Any prosecution of a powerful, well-resourced person for a serious crime faces challenges, no matter the strength of the evidence arrayed against them, and those challenges grow geometrically when the person in question is a former president who sits at the top of a fanatical mass movement that’s willing to pursue its goals without ethical or legal restraints and that elevates personal fealty to him over adherence to factual reality or a set of pre-agreed rules. Nevertheless, the story is misbegotten, and I think it’s important to understand why.

[...]

[T]he paper is asserting that any conceivable offense the federal government might charge Trump with would include a particular knowledge element... This is, not to put too fine a point on it, horseshit.

#NYCSouthpaw #trump #J6 #DOJ #January6Committee #2020Election #politics #democracy #insurrection #NYT #journalism #law

Let's talk about Trump's denials from the committee....

keep your eye on the ball. it's not about crowd size or temper tantrums. it's about overthrowing democracy. it's about knowingly sending an armed crowd to the Capitol. it's about saying Pence deserved to be executed because he didn't help him steal the election...

#botfc #politics #J6 #HSC #hearings #January6Committee #testimony #Trump #democracy #elections #insurrection #media #journalism

Как журналисту избежать интернет-слежки

Журналисты, работающие в странах с ограниченной свободой, должны заботиться о своей безопасности, конфиденциальности передаваемых данных, а также защите источников информации.

В странах с ограниченными правами и свободами граждан, как правило, журналисты всегда находятся «под колпаком». Иногда слежка ведётся в массовом порядке, а иногда происходит целенаправленное наблюдение с использованием электронного шпионажа, что позволяет отслеживать действия какого-то конкретного репортёра. Порой такая слежка воспринимается журналистами как нечто само собой разумеющееся, они могут адаптироваться, приняв наблюдение за собой как нежелательный, но неизбежный риск в своей профессии. Но когда слежка может представлять угрозу для личной безопасности журналиста, либо его источников информации, приходится принимать соответствующие меры. Несколько таких способов защиты представил известный журналист и медиаконсультант Джордж Льюис Сьерра (Jorge Luis Sierra).

How Journalists (and citizens) Can Detect Electronic Surveillance https://t.co/Z33Wzc7ou6 via @gijn

— Jorge Luis Sierra (@latinointx) 14 вересня 2017 р.

Ключевой вопрос: если журналист планирует бороться с электронным наблюдением, как он может узнать, что это происходит? Вот несколько советов для тех, кто считает, что он находится в группе потенциального или реального риска для своей конфиденциальности, личной безопасности, безопасности данных и под угрозой идентификации журналистских источников.

1. Будь настороже

Электронное наблюдение (в частности, интернет-слежка) — это не просто способ сбора информации о работе и источниках журналиста, поскольку его также можно использовать для подготовки более серьезной атаки, если другие формы запугивания не смогли остановить его расследований. В любом случае журналисты должны сообщать о слежке официальным органам власти, а также обращаться за поддержкой к другим коллегам в соответствующих сообществах, к их представителям в средствах массовой информации и международным правозащитным группам — таким как «Комитет защиты журналистов», «Репортеры без границ», Rory Peck Trust, Freedom House или Article 19.

2. Защити свои девайсы

Все ваши устройства, — компьютеры, мобильные телефоны, планшеты, — должны быть защищены антивирусным ПО, шифрованием жёсткого диска и надёжными паролями или кодовыми фразами. Вам необходимо следить за своевременным обновлением каждого приложения и используемого вами софта. Эти два шага станут вашей первой линией обороны. Вы можете найти более подробный список средств защиты информации, которые можно установить на своих устройствах, на сайте проекта ISC.

3. Чётко соблюдайте правила безопасности

Наиболее распространённый способ слежки со стороны частных компаний, злоупотребляющих наблюдением за пользователями правительствами и преступными группами — заражать устройства посредством спир-фишинга (целевой «ловли» информации). Это электронные сообщения, которые поступают посредством электронной почты, текста или мессенджеров, с просьбой открыть ссылку или файл, содержащий программное обеспечение для слежки. Независимо от того, что вы делаете, не нажимайте на подозрительные ссылки или файлы: анализируйте каждое полученное сообщение, даже если вы доверяете отправителю. Более подробное руководство по определению и предотвращению спир-фишинга Джордж Льюис Сьерра представил в специальном файле, посвящённом именно этой теме.

4. Мониторинг данных

Если вы подозреваете, что ваше устройство заражено, проверьте, не произошло ли резкое увеличение использования данных. Когда программное обеспечение, предназначенное для слежки активно, оно потребляет ваш трафик, крадя фотографии, сообщения, контакты, видео и метаданные.

5. Мониторинг [работы] аккумулятора

Плохая производительность батареи является индикатором того, что может быть запущена нежелательная программа, отчего ваше устройство быстро разряжается. Убедитесь, что батарея вашего устройства использует больше энергии, чем обычно, при подключении к Интернету.

6. Мониторинг температуры вашего устройства

Если вы не используете свое устройство и оно более теплое, чем обычно, это может быть еще одним индикатором запуска вредоносной программы.

7. Сбрасывание [текущих настроек] устройства

Одним из превентивных действий, которые вы можете предпринять, является жесткий сброс текущих настроек вашего устройства. Если вы считаете, что ваше мобильное устройство заражено, выполните резервное копирование данных и выполните жесткий сброс (hard reset), чтобы вернуть свой телефон к заводским настройкам.

8. Шифрование ваших коммуникаций

Если вам необходимо сделать телефонный звонок или отправить сообщение с конфиденциальной информацией, попробуйте использовать шифрование. OpenPGP и MeetJitsi — хорошие варианты, а Signal — уже полюбившееся мобильное приложение многими журналистами-расследователями.

9. Знать и быть готовым к другим видам слежки

Если вы подозреваете, что находитесь под электронным наблюдением, следите за своим физическим окружением. Существуют ли необычные или подозрительные транспортные средства возле вашего офиса или дома? Журналисты, выполняющие связанные с высоким риском работы, всегда должны проверять, чтобы за ними не следили, особенно если они держат связь с источником, который может подвергаться опасности.

По материалам The Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN)

#журналистика #журналисты #слежка #защита #роскомсвобода #journalism #journalists #surveillance #protection #Roskomsvoboda #lang-ru #lang_ru

Источник

Don’t Extradite Assange

Media Lens

Last Friday’s decision by UK Home Secretary Priti Patel to authorise the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States is both deeply shameful and unsurprising. Her action paves the way for Assange to be tried under the 1917 Espionage Act, introduced by the US government shortly after entering World War I, with a sentence of 175 years if found guilty. In essence, the US wishes to set a legal precedent for the prosecution of any publisher or journalist, anywhere in the world, who reports the truth about the US.

Despite all the warnings from human rights groups, advocates of press freedom, Nils Melzer (then UN Special Rapporteur on Torture), doctors, lawyers and many other people around the world, it has long been clear that Washington is determined to punish Assange and make an example of him as a warning to others. As always, US allies will go along with what the Mafia Godfather wants. (...)

Peter Oborne, an all-too-rare example of a journalist speaking out on behalf of Assange, called Patel’s decision a ‘catastrophic blow’ to press freedom. But, he said, it was a blow that had been carried out with:

‘the silent assent of much of the mainstream press. Too many British newspapers and broadcasters have treated the Assange case as a dirty family secret. They have failed to grasp that the Assange hearing leading up to the Patel decision is the most important case involving free speech this century.’

Not only was there ‘silent assent’, but much of the media actually cheered and applauded Assange’s arrest in the Ecuadorian Embassy in April 2019 ‘with undisguised glee’, as Alan MacLeod wrote at the time. (...)

As Nils Melzer packed up and moved on from his term as the UN Special Prosecutor on Torture, on the day that Patel announced Assange’s extradition, he said:

‘How far have we sunk if we prosecute people who expose war crimes for exposing war crimes?

‘How far have we sunk when we no longer prosecute our own war criminals because we identify more with them than we identify with the people that actually exposed these crimes?

‘What does that tell about us and about our governments?

‘How far have we sunk when telling the truth becomes a crime?’

(...) The Guardian is a prime stoker of revitalised Cold War rhetoric about the ‘threat’ of Russia and China, mirroring what is prevalent across the whole ‘spectrum’ of ‘mainstream’ news. Indeed, as revealed by Declassified UK, an independent investigative news website, the UK’s leading liberal newspaper has essentially been ‘neutralised’ by the UK security services. Mark Curtis, editor and co-founder of Declassified UK, observed that the paper’s:

‘limited coverage of British foreign and security policies gives a misleading picture of what the UK does in the world. The paper is in reality a defender of Anglo-American power and a key ideological pillar of the British establishment.’

(...) In a brave and eloquent interview, Stella Assange, Julian’s wife and mother of their two young children, declared that:

(...) ‘And then you have the actual case. He’s charged under the Espionage Act. He faces 175 years. There is no public interest defence under the Espionage Act. It’s the first time it’s being repurposed; it’s being used against a publisher. It’s an Act that’s been repurposed in order to criminalise journalism, basically. And, of course, if you say that publishing information is a crime, then Julian’s guilty. He published information and he faces a lifetime in prison for it.’

(...) We can take a significant step towards a saner society by shouting loudly for Julian Assange to be freed immediately. A good start would be to share widely this video from Double Down News in which Stella Assange describes the importance of the case and how we can all help.

Please also visit the Don’t Extradite Assange website to see what actions you can take now.

Complete article

Tags: #media #news #censorship #journalist #journalism #assange #wikileaks #manning #julian_assange #chelsea_manning #press #freedom_of_the_press #the_guardian #bbc #dissidents #witch_hunt #JournalistsSpeakUpForAssange #Nils_Melzer #Melzer #whistle_blower #corporate_media #mainstream_media #double_down_news

"Protecting press freedom and supporting journalists is a pillar of democracy. Proud of our spokespersons who uphold the integrity and transparency of the U.S. government as we explain our work, activities, and policies. We could not achieve our goals without them." - Secretary Antony Blinken

source: https://nitter.net/SecBlinken/status/1521472139307610112

#press #journalism #assange #freedom #wikileaks #humanrights #usa #quote #democracy #news #prison #government #politics

Why the Past 10 Years of American #Life Have Been Uniquely #Stupid

source: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369/

#Babel is not a #story about tribalism. It’s a story about the #fragmentation of everything.

...

The #digital #revolution has shattered that mirror, and now the public inhabits those broken pieces of glass. So the public isn’t one thing; it’s highly fragmented, and it’s basically mutually hostile. It’s mostly people yelling at each other and living in bubbles of one sort or another.

...

“Those who express sympathy for the views of opposing groups may experience backlash from their own cohort.” In other words, political #extremists don’t just shoot darts at their enemies; they spend a lot of their ammunition targeting dissenters or nuanced thinkers on their own team. In this way, #social #media makes a political #system based on #compromise grind to a halt.

#politics #society #problem #filterbubble #extremism #altRight #internet #journalism #press #future #discussion #ethics #moral #democracy

Complicating the Narratives - What if journalists covered controversial issues differently — based on how humans actually behave when they are polarized and suspicious?

source: https://thewholestory.solutionsjournalism.org/complicating-the-narratives-b91ea06ddf63

"I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I’ve been a journalist for over 20 years, writing books and articles for Time, the Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal and all kinds of places, and I did not know these lessons. After spending more than 50 hours in training for various forms of dispute resolution, I realized that I’ve overestimated my ability to quickly understand what drives people to do what they do. I have overvalued reasoning in myself and others and undervalued pride, fear and the need to belong. I’ve been operating like an economist, in other words — an economist from the 1960s."

#journalism #press #psychology #society #problem #conflict #management

The UK's Decision to Extradite Assange Shows Why The US/UK's Freedom Lectures Are a Farce

#politics #freedom #journalism #Assange #WIkileaks #FreeAssange

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-uks-decision-to-extradite-assange

#MOSCOW: Russians look at photos of destructions in #Ukraine

watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFg7AZ1Aajs

What can we do now? Go out on the street, get hit by a bat on the head and go to jail?

...

I think everyone knows this.

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#Russia #war #politics #people #news #opinion #press #journalism #censorship #knowledge

#WhiteHouse Briefs #TikTok Stars On #Ukraine #War

source: https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-briefs-tiktok-stars-on-ukraine-war

The officials offered information on the goals of the U.S. in the region and answered questions from the group on how to get aid to Ukrainians, working with #NATO, and what the U.S. response to a Russian nuclear #attack would look like.

TikTok, a social media platform popular with younger users that revolves around short videos, has been at the forefront of sources for those seeking on the ground information about what is going on in Ukraine since #Russia invaded the country late last month.

#news #internet #media #social #society #youth #press #journalism #USA #politics #war #conflict