We no longer have a media worthy of the name; we have a propaganda machine. A Ministry of Truth stretching from the ‘’soundly conservative to utterly reactionary’’ to use Ralph Miliband’s apt description. A daily scripted fog-horn ramping up the population for war against Russia; and we have been brought to this impasse by a cabal of fanatics ensconced in an ideological bubble – the neo-conservatives – who are frankly deranged.
The briefing, according to the speakers, is designed to give “a clear view on what is the real agenda of these Hollywood so called “first responders” who received an Oscar for their performance”.
Anybody who pays critical attention to outputs of corporate news media will be aware that the idea of a free press, while lauded in principle, is scarcely actualised in practice. A further worrying development is that the very principles animating the idea are apparently being called into question by an organisation that purports to defend them.
Earlier this month, the Joint Investigatory Mechanism (hereafter the JIM), a panel of ‘independent’ individuals set up by the UN to assign blame for reported chemical weapons incidents in the ongoing war in Syria produced its 7th report. In this report they concluded “the Leadership Panel is confident that the Syrian Arab Republic is responsible for the release of sarin […]
In what has become an ugly habit with Monbiot, and one I have noted before, he has enthusiastically adopted the role of Witchfinder General. Any questioning of evidence, scepticism or simply signs of open-mindedness are enough apparently to justify accusations that one is an Assadist or conspiracy theorist.
I’m worried about George. An admirer of many years standing of his excellent columns charting what John Smith’s even more excellent Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century refers to as “capitalism’s destruction of nature”, I’m dismayed both by his stance on Syria and manner of defending it. His latest Guardian piece, yesterday – A lesson from Syria: it’s crucial not to fuel far-right conspiracy […]
Whilst most debate has focused on questions relating to the overselling of intelligence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, the most important information to emerge from the Chilcot Report concerns the formation of the ‘war on terror’, according to an academic at the University of Sheffield. The Chilcot Report, published on June 6 2016, delivered damning criticisms of the […]
The great Ed Herman has died. As someone said on Twitter: ‘The world is a dumber, more dangerous place. Unless everyone goes back and reads his writing now.’
The truth of corporate journalism, and the great irony of its obsession with ‘fake news’, is that it is itself utterly fake. What could be more obviously fake than the idea that Truth can be sold by billionaire-owned media dependent on billionaire-owned advertisers for maximised profit?
Those who tweet and write in Bana Alabed’s name seem unconcerned about the enforcement of harsh punishments by Jabhat al-Nusra, such as the execution of women. Nor are they concerned about the group’s violence or terror tactics, which are detailed on the Australian National Security webpage.
On 30th October 2017 BSNews eds had the honour of interviewing the legend that is writer, historian and activist, Dean Henderson, who hooked up with us direct from deepest Missouri.
Amnesty International has a moral mission: ‘to undertake research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of human rights’. Could that be an impossible mission for an organisation that calls for military intervention on human rights grounds? This question arises from an attempt to understand Amnesty International’s role in the war in Syria. Critics have argued that by justifying […]
