Friday, May 10th
Last update07:20:58 AM GMT
Journalism Glance
Medical reports seen by IPS appear to confirm the testimony of IPS Gaza correspondent Mohammed Omer of physical abuse at the hands of Israelis last month.
Omer said he was physically and mentally abused at the Allenby crossing into Gaza while on his way back from a European tour. In London, he was awarded the Martha Gellhorn prize for investigative reporting.
Former Los Angeles district attorney Vincent Bugliosi became widely known as the prosecutor of Charles Manson and later wrote bestselling books about that case, the O.J. Simpson trial, and other topics. However, Bugliosi's latest effort, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, has faced what CNN calls "a virtual media blackout."
Only about a dozen reporters are currently embedded with U.S. forces in Iraq -- a shockingly low number.
The Marine commanders who saw the photograph were not happy, saying it violated a "trust" between the military and journalists.
Zoriah was immediately "disembedded" from a Marine unit and barred from working with the military in Anbar.
There is a relentless campaign going on to silence Uruknet, by Google.
Many sites have already been "locked" by Blogger for their political content or their links, on the pretext of being so-called "spam sites".
"I made them copies, but then one of the Marines came in and told me to delete my memory card after I give them the photos, and I refused," Miller told IPS, "I told the NCIS that if they forced me to delete them, I would stop sharing them. So they stopped pressing that issue."
During the run-up to the war, Russert, along with the rest of the media, provided a platform for Vice President Dick Cheney and others to present their lying claims about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction without seriously calling any of them into question.
When U.S. President Ronald Reagan killed the Fairness Doctrine in 1988, he killed a piece of American democracy, says Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The duty to inform was taken from the media and replaced with the aims of corporations, to deliver people to advertising and to hell with balance, fairness and critical thinking.
"Today as a result of that [the elimination of the Fairness Doctrine] there are five major corporations that control 14,000 radio stations in the United States. All 2,200 TV stations," he said.
"They no longer have an obligation to serve the public interest. Their only obligation is to serve the shareholders, so they cut costs, they got rid of all their investigative reporters. Eighty per cent of investigative reporters have lost their jobs over the past 15 years," he said.
Page 95 of 100
