....LMB: "Untruthful Press Jerks"....

September 19, 2002

You see an awful lot of "Lying Bastards" and "Media Bastards" on this site, but not all that much in the field of "Lying Media," bastard or otherwise. Lately I'm more of the opinion that the journalists themselves aren't doing much lying, they're simply repeating the lies that they've been told without bothering to check on the facts.

They could attend a press conference where Dick Cheney said "Look out! Osama bin Laden is right behind you!" and they would write "at today's press conference, Vice President Dick Cheney stated that Osama bin Laden was right behind us," without so much as turning their heads to look and see for themselves whether or not the statement was true.

A really good journalist might go so far as to check with an opposing Democrat for a counter-quote, "Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said that he didn't know if Osama bin Laden was hiding behind the press corps, but that he was strongly opposed to all the same things that Republicans are strongly opposed to."

Whatever you want to call it, I did manage to find many examples of poor journalism-- negligence or outright lies, you decide.

First off we have some straight press criticism from FAIR alleging that a recent ABC News report by Peter Jennings on the reintroduction of wolves into Idaho was very misleading and inaccurate. According to FAIR, the story had a very strong moralistic tone, sadly decrying an abusive federal government's efforts to force life changes on local people who wanted nothing to do with it. Except that apparently, the people of Idaho seem to have no problem with the wolves. You can read Peter Jennings' response to the criticism of his story, in which he more or less admits it: the story was never meant to be about the reintroduction of the wolves, but about the struggles between federal government and individual rights. In other words, he was completely unconcerned with getting the story right, he just wanted to use his version of events as an illustration to the point he was trying to make.

A few weeks back, I wrote about an erroneous news story alleging that the National Education Agency was sympathetic to Al Qaeda, that was picked up and gleefully repeated by America's conservative pundits. Now Spinsanity has a follow-up piece showing even more journalistic fraud in the initial fraudulent story, and how pundits and journalists are continuing to pretend that this fiction is truth.

The LA Times reports that a government commission has found that "Madison Avenue-style advertising aimed at 'selling' America to Middle Eastern audiences isn't likely to work and could backfire. While the lying bastards of the PR industry report the exact opposite finding, that these efforts need more money.

I wrote earlier this week about the fictional terror threat in Florida. Virtually every allegation of wrong-doing against these fellows had been debunked, and now I think the very final accusation has now bit the dust. A toll-booth worker in Alligator Alley, Florida stated in a sworn affadavit that one of the three non-terrorists sped through her lane without paying the toll. Now police have a video tape of the lane which shows definitively that the man did indeed pay the toll. Amusingly, the toll booth attendant has now changed her sworn affadavit to say that "a toll may have been paid."

But many cable journalists have learned never to let the truth get in the way of a good story. After the three men were found innocent of anything relating to terrorism, local law enforcement tossed around the possibility that the men had said suspicious things in public on purpose as a prank or hoax. Then the officers seemed to abandon that theory, because there was no evidence to support it. But the press held that story tight, and debated endlessly whether or not these men should be punished for their "sick joke."

This entire story is based upon one woman's memory of what she thinks she overheard from a conversation among some men at a nearby table in a restaurant. She claims they made some menacing (if you interpret them in a certain way) comments about 9/11, while the men claim that they didn't say a word about the date. And from that, the media concludes that these men played a mean-spirited joke on an innocent patriotic woman. That's some of the worst journalism you could possibly imagine.

Posted by Jake at 05:08 PM
Comments

How to point out the Jewish bias

by Peter Penwrite 620 words
This issue is so sensitive, it should be studied by an international organization who’s objectivity is beyond question. Such a study should look first at the U.S. and then other countries. It should briefly state the past and present biases and flaws of the U.S. media: yellow journalism, the eastern seaboard bias, the big cities bias, the shortsightedness, the liberal bias, and the uneven reporting on the wealthy or powerful. This would make it easier to point out the Jewish bias which is:
- The Jews are more special than other groups.
- Their suffering has been more important.
- The Holocaust was somehow the pivotal event of history.
- The Jews deserve more pity, reparations, homage, and coverage than others.
- We can never hear enough about Israel.
- Disagreement with this is anti-Semitic, which is unthinkable.

The international organization should answer these questions:

HISTORY
- Has the anti-gentile part of the Talmud shaped Jewish behavior over the centuries?
- Why did 8 popes issued edicts and encyclicals condemning various Jewish activities?
- Why were Jews expelled from many countries?
- Which respected sources over the centuries have made anti-Semitic statements? [Voltaire, Geo. Washington, Ben Franklin, Mark Twain, H.L. Menkin, Henry Ford I ….] Have those statements validity?
- Why have Jews been kept from owning land, joining law firms, etc.?

WWII
- What other groups escaped the Nazis in WWII? How much attention have they gotten in comparison?
- Does the section of the U.S. Justice Dept. that hunts Nazi war criminals concentrate mostly on those who killed Jews in WWII? What about other groups and other wars?

THE HOLOCAUST
- Numerically, how does it compare to other tragedies?
- What other groups died in it?
- How much attention have they gotten in relation to the Jews?
- Is that a great example of racism?
- How many museums, memorials, etc. to the Jews are there in the U.S.? To other groups?
- How often have Jews demanded reparations for their suffering? How often have other groups?
- What reparations have Jews gotten? What have others, including Palestinians?

ISRAEL
- Are Israeli spies in the U.S. treated more leniently than other spies?
- Are there counterparts to Israel’s lobby? How effective are they, considering the great wealth of the Arabs?
- Why have Israelis gotten $700/person, Egyptians $50/person and Africans $7/person in foreign aid in recent years?.
- How often has the U.S. protected Israel in the U.N.? How has this affected our relations with the rest of the world?

COVERAGE
- How many in the news media were raised in a Jewish household? [23%?]
- How many of the largest advertising agencies [which influence the media] are under Jewish ownership or direction?
- Which influential publications are owned, managed and/or edited by Jews?
- How much more general coverage do the Jews get than other groups? How much more coverage does their suffering get than the suffering of others?
- What percent of coverage favors Israel over the Arab states? Over Muslim states?

POWER AND INFLUENCE
- Why do mainstream media organizations and think tanks fail to mention or study the bias?
- How much more attention do politicians pay to the Jews [by donning skull caps, visiting memorials, visiting Israel …] than to other groups?
- In what other fields is this true? [entertainment, media, business …]
- Does more government money go to Jewish projects than to those of other groups?

SUMMARY
The Jews are talented and have contributed greatly to the U.S. and the world – perhaps more than any other group, but the Jewish bias in the media has brought unimagined, preferential coverage and favoritism. This needs to be pointed out clearly and fairly.

Posted by: at January 12, 2003 08:46 AM

I'm a jew and non of these things are true about me . So who the fuck are you thinking that you can talk this about my people you fuckun coward

Posted by: steven Friend at October 12, 2003 01:28 PM

I'm a jew and non of these things are true about me . So who the fuck are you thinking that you can talk this about my people you fuckun coward

Posted by: steven Friend at October 12, 2003 01:28 PM

I'm a jew and non of these things are true about me . So who the fuck are you thinking that you can talk this about my people you fuckun coward!

Posted by: steven Friend at October 12, 2003 01:29 PM

I'm a Gentile and I think all of what you're saying is true. And I have some jewish friends who admitted there are too many yids in the media. So what the last guy is saying is bullshit. I think it's time we get rid of a few. Some yids can't admit to any wrongdoing. It's not because you're God's chosen people that you should look down upon the Goyim all the time. And besides, a yarmulka is meant to be worn in synagogue, not on the street you silly.

Posted by: Jim Kroeger at December 5, 2003 02:24 PM
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Lying Media Bastards is both a radio show and website. The show airs Mondays 2-4pm PST on KillRadio.org, and couples excellent music with angry news commentary. And the website, well, you're looking at it.

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Media News

November 16, 2004

Tales of Media Woe

Senate May Ram Copyright Bill- one of the most depressing stories of the day that didn't involve death or bombs. It's the music and movie industries' wet dream. It criminalizes peer-to-peer software makers, allows the government to file civil lawsuits on behalf of these media industries, and eliminates fair use. Fair use is the idea that I can use a snippet of a copyrighted work for educational, political, or satirical purposes, without getting permission from the copyright-holder first.

And most tellingly, the bill legalizes technology that would automatically skip over "obejctionable content" (i.e. sex and violence) in a DVD, but bans devices that would automatically skip over commericals. This is a blatant, blatant, blatant gift to the movie industry. Fuck the movie industry, fuck the music industry, fuck the Senate.

Music industry aims to send in radio cops- the recording industry says that you're not allowed to record songs off the radio, be it real radio or internet radio. And now they're working on preventing you from recording songs off internet radio through a mixture of law and technological repression (although I imagine their techno-fixes will get hacked pretty quickly).

The shocking truth about the FCC: Censorship by the tyranny of the few- blogger Jeff Jarvis discovers that the recent $1.2 million FCC fine against a sex scene in Fox's "Married By America" TV show was not levied because hundreds of people wrote the FCC and complained. It was not because 159 people wrote in and complained (which is the FCC's current rationale). No, thanks to Jarvis' FOIA request, we find that only 23 people (of the show's several million viewers) wrote in and complained. On top of that, he finds that 21 of those letters were just copy-and-paste email jobs that some people attached their names to. Jarvis then spins this a bit by saying that "only 3" people actually wrote letters to the FCC, which is misleading but technically true. So somewhere between 3 and 23 angry people can determine what you can't see on television. Good to know.

Reuters Union Considers Striking Over Layoffs- will a strike by such a major newswire service impact the rest of the world's media?

Pentagon Starts Work On War Internet- the US military is talking about the creation of a global, wireless, satellite-aided computer network for use in battle. I think I saw a movie about this once...

Conservative host returns to the air after week suspension for using racial slur- Houston radio talk show host (and somtime Rush Limbaugh substitute) Mark Belling referred to Mexican-Americans as "wetbacks" on his show. He was suspended for a couple of weeks, and then submitted a written apology for the racial slur to a local newspaper. But he seems to be using the slur and its surrounding controversy to boost his conservative cred with his listeners.

Stay Tuned for Nudes- Cleveland TV news anchor Sharon Reed aired a story about artist Spencer Tunick, who uses large numbers of naked volunteers in his installations and photographs. The news report will be unique in that it will not blur or black-out the usual naughty bits. The story will air late at night, when it's allegedly okay with the FCC if you broadcast "indecent" material. The author of this article doesn't seem to notice that Reed first claims that this report is a publicity stunt, but then claims it's a protest against FCC repression. I'd like to think it's the latter, but I'm not that much of a sucker.

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Mission: Mongolia

Jake's first attempt at homemade Mongolican barbecue:

Failure.

What went right: correctly guessing several key seasonings- lemon, ginger, soy, garlic, chili.

What went wrong: still missing some ingredients, and possibly had one wrong, rice vinegar. Way too much lemon and chili.

Result: not entirely edible.

Plan for future: try to get people at Great Khan's restaurant to tell me what's in the damn sauce.

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