Joe Lauria: As the US funnels money and arms to Ukraine, independent media faces pressure to parrot the official narrative

Joe Lauria: As the US funnels money and arms to Ukraine, independent media faces pressure to parrot the official narrative

Democracy Now July 14, 2022 As the Pentagon authorizes an additional $400 million for Ukraine’s defense on Friday, bringing estimated total U.S. security spending on Ukraine under President Biden to a staggering $8 billion, we speak to Joe Lauria, editor-in-chief of Consortium News, about the pressure on news media to follow a single approved narrative […]

Jan Oberg: Of course, the UN’s Michelle Bachelet should be criticised for her visit to China

Jan Oberg: Of course, the UN’s Michelle Bachelet should be criticised for her visit to China

Jan Oberg May 31, 2022 It was the first visit to China by a UN human rights chief in 17 years. For years, governments and human rights organisations have accused China of many kinds of human rights violations – and a series of them calls what has happened in Xinjiang “genocide” in line, one could […]

Whitewashing Nazis Doesn’t Help Ukraine

Whitewashing Nazis Doesn’t Help Ukraine

Members of Ukraine’s Azov Regiment march in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2019. Their flags display the group’s Wolfsangel logo, a variant of that used by the Nazi SS. (Goo3 / Wikimedia Commons) Branko Marcetic April 29, 2022 The same Western media that once documented and decried Ukraine’s far right is now playing it down and even […]

John Pilger: War In Europe And The Rise Of Raw Propaganda

John Pilger: War In Europe And The Rise Of Raw Propaganda

John Pilger April 5, 2022 Marshall McLuhan’s prophecy that “the successor to politics will be propaganda” has happened. Raw propaganda is now the rule in Western democracies, especially the US and Britain. On matters of war and peace, ministerial deceit is reported as news. Inconvenient facts are censored, demons are nurtured. The model is corporate spin, […]

Edward Curtin Review: John F. Kennedy – Destiny Betrayed

Edward Curtin Review: John F. Kennedy – Destiny Betrayed

Edward Curtin April 5, 2022 Oliver Stone Documents the Past to Illuminate the Present The timing of the early March 2022 release of this digital streaming documentary could not be more auspicious.  For anyone wanting to understand how we arrived at a new Cold War with the second Irish-Catholic Democratic president in US history, Joseph […]

Julie Hollar: Ukraine – How Much Less Newsworthy Are Civilians in Other Conflicts?

Julie Hollar: Ukraine – How Much Less Newsworthy Are Civilians in Other Conflicts?

Julie Hollar March 29, 2022 A lot less, particularly when they’re victims of the US As US news media covered the first shocking weeks of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, some media observers—like FAIR founder Jeff Cohen (Common Dreams, 2/28/22)—have noted their impressions of how coverage differed from wars past, particularly in terms of a new […]

Bryce Greene: What You Should Really Know About Ukraine

Bryce Greene: What You Should Really Know About Ukraine

Maidan protests in 2014 in Kiev. GENYA SAVILOV / AFP – Getty Images Bryce Greene March 29, 2022 The history of U.S. involvement in Ukraine is rarely analyzed by corporate media. The desire to open Ukraine to finance capital, the 2014 U.S. backed coup, and the drive to expand NATO all played a role in creating […]

Bryce Greene: Calling Russia’s attack ‘unprovoked’ lets the US off the hook

Bryce Greene: Calling Russia’s attack ‘unprovoked’ lets the US off the hook

Wikimedia map of NATO expansion since 1949 created by Patrickneil.  Bryce Greene March 18, 2022 Originally posted on FAIR.org on March 4, 2022 Many governments and media figures are rightly condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine as an act of aggression and a violation of international law. But in his first speech about the invasion, […]

Edward Curtin: JFK Revisited – Through the Looking Glass by Oliver Stone – A Film Review

Edward Curtin: JFK Revisited – Through the Looking Glass by Oliver Stone – A Film Review

Edward Curtin February 21, 2022 Two of the greatest speeches ever delivered by an American president bookend this extraordinary documentary film. It opens with President John F. Kennedy giving the commencement speech at American University on June 10, 1963 and it closes with his civil rights speech to the American people the following day. It is a deft […]

Alex Lo: How Xi Jinping became the real-life Dr Evil through the mainstream Western media

Alex Lo: How Xi Jinping became the real-life Dr Evil through the mainstream Western media

Cartoon printed by The Japan Times Alex Lo February 18, 2022 Endless negative news stories and opinion pieces about how bad China is in almost every way are bound to shape public perception. Almost nine in 10 Americans (89 per cent) consider China a competitor or enemy, rather than a partner, according to the authoritative […]