Alfred Nobel’s will, written in 1895, left funding for a prize to be awarded to “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”
The first such prize, awarded in 1901, went to Jean Henry Dunant and Frédéric Passy, two men who held and promoted peace congresses, two peace activists, two men who were not elected officials. read more
The push to attack Iran has been on for so long that entire categories of arguments for it (such as that the Iranians are fueling the Iraqi resistance) have come and gone. At DontAttackIran.org we’ve been collecting the arguments for and against attacking Iran for years. We’ve campaigned against an attack, but never been able to claim a success, because decisions not to launch wars are never announced, because those pushing for wars never giveread more
Thanks in large part to the New York and national corporate media a massive campaign to shift power away from giant corporations and into the hands of the people is now afoot all across this continent. It was inspired by peoples’ nonviolent uprisings in other countries and sparked by courageous nonviolence on Wall Street.
Can we keep it going and growing despite the unreliability of the corporate media? When the television networks created Camp Casey in Crawford, Texas, for us — followingread more
Former National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counter-Terrorism Richard Clarke suggests that former CIA Director George Tenet blocked the sharing of information within the government on two members of al Qaeda in the United States, information that Clarke believes could have prevented 911. The CIA admits it knew about the two future hijackers but claims the Director was not informed.
“In early 2000, a number of more junior personnel (including FBI agents on detailread more
“The fiscal good has to outweigh the pain,” a nameless Democrat told the Washington Post regarding President Obama’s latest proposal to massively cut Social Security, against the wishes of the vast majority of Americans, in order to fund a military 670% larger than the next largest in the world, keep in place tax cuts for billionaires,read more
On Friday I read in the New York Times that President Obama would be happy to cut $200 billion out of Medicare in order to inflict pain on his Democratic base, part of an imagined tradeoff in which the two parties inflict pain on their imagined bases in order to reduce the deficit without imposing sensible taxes on billionaires or shrinking military spending to sane levels. Also on Friday I got an Email from True Majority asking me to celebrate Obama’s defense of Medicare.
Gaza Freedom Flotilla: a humanitarian mission or political PR? And MEMRI – the media source shaping the view of the Arab world in the US.
Even before the boats of Freedom Flotilla II set sail for Gaza, the PR and media machine was rumbling. The flotilla is as much a media effort as it is an aid mission. Pro-Palestinian activists have been using the second flotilla journey to bring Gaza back into the media spotlight.
When activists set out last year on the same journey, an Israeli military attack killed nine people on board one of the ships and Israel was internationally condemned. This time around, Israel has been trying to control the story even before the ships have set off. In our News Divide this week we look at how successful both camps have been in getting their stories covered in the media and Israel’s PR strategy in containing this story.
In the News Bytes: Syrian authorities allow foreign journalists back into the country; six months after the fall of President Ben Ali, Tunisia has yet to deliver on its media reform promises; a Chinese investigative reporter has his jail sentence extended; and Google reveals that the US government asks for private user information more than any other country.
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is an organisation set up in the US that specialises in providing translations of Arabic-language broadcasts. It has become a useful tool for many a journalist covering the Middle East with a limited, or in many cases, zero understanding of Arabic. So in its purpose lies its problem.
MEMRI is a source for journalists that do not understand Arabic, but because they do not understand Arabic, they cannot validate the source. When you consider that the source is the brainchild of a former Israeli intelligence officer and has been caught selectively translating Arabic broadcasts that would reflect negatively on the Muslim world, the problem increases ten-fold.
Listening Post‘s Meenakshi Ravi looks at an organisation that is out to influence how the Middle East is seen in the rest of the world’s media.
In an online world, fifteen minutes of fame is just an autotune and remix away. Case in point – a Jamaican relief worker named Clifton Brown. Brown was working to help people across a flooded river when he gave a TV interview. The interview was picked by Jamaica – based DJ Powa who then remixed it, auto-tuned it and stuck it on the web as ‘Nobody Canna Cross it’. Half a million hits later and Brown is negotiating an endorsement deal with a Jamaican mobile phone company. Click here to watch our Internet Video of the Week.
Listening Post can be seen each week at the following times GMT: Saturday: 0830, 1930; Sunday: 1430; Monday: 0430.
Fifty years ago, freedom riders traveled by bus into the U.S. South. Now American freedom riders are joining their allies from around the world on a flotilla bound for Gaza. The U.S. ship is called The Audacity of Hope.
The heroes on this ship have pledged to sail unarmed and to refuse to use violence. The Israeli military, which continues to illegally blockade Gaza, causing endless suffering to the Gazan people, has pledged to use violent force to prevent theread more
LONDON — Before long public pressure might just lead Britain to drop out of participation in US wars, a move that would seriously damage future pretenses of acting as an international coalition.
I’ve spent the past few days here in London talking with leaders of the Stop the War Coalition, sitting in on a weekly planning meeting, and attending a day-long conference on building opposition to the Afghanistan and Libya wars. This movement is strong, smart, well-organized, and eager toread more
IN THIS NEWSLETTER:
1) WHAT OBAMA’S AFGHANISTAN “PROGRESS” LOOKS LIKE
2) INTERNATIONAL MUSICIANS RELEASE PALESTINE SINGLE
3) BOOK: WAR IS A LIE BY DAVID SWANSON
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1) WHAT OBAMA’S AFGHANISTAN “PROGRESS” LOOKS LIKE
