Tag: mainstream media

Tehran denies western media reports about ‘seeking mediation’ to end war

Iran has categorically denied requesting that regional countries pressure Washington for an end to Israel’s war against the country, as some recent reports in western media have said. 

Sources close to the Iranian Foreign Ministry confirmed to The Cradle on 17 June that no such contacts have been made with any country. 

Lebanese journalist Radwan Mortada also reported on Tuesday that “Iran has not requested any mediation to halt the Israeli war against it.”

“All claims circulating among journalists or foreign reports about its mediation with Arab or foreign countries to halt the war are pure fabrication. All Iranian officials involved in this matter have categorically denied these claims,” Mortada said. 

“This systematic campaign aims to portray Iran as begging for a ceasefire, when in reality, Iran is escalating its attacks more violently by the day. Tehran has made it clear that Israel started the war, but it certainly won’t decide when it ends,” he added. 

On 16 June, Reutersreported that Iran has asked Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Oman to pressure US President Donald Trump to “use his influence” to get Israel to agree to a ceasefire.

The report, which cites two Iranian and three regional sources, also said “Iran is willing to be flexible in the nuclear talks if a ceasefire is reached.”

One of the sources told the outlet that Gulf states are “deeply concerned the conflict will spin out of control,” and have “all appealed to Washington to press Israel to agree to a ceasefire and to resume talks with Tehran towards a nuclear deal.”

Keep reading

How NYT Magazine Threw Away Journalistic Ethics on Suicide

The New York Times Magazine recently published a cover story (6/1/25) that gave in-depth representation to the challenges faced by a chronically sick, disabled woman named Paula Ritchie, age 52. Ritchie dealt with underdiagnosed illnesses and pain, as well as challenges in supporting herself and managing her mental health.

The Times then told the story of Ritchie ending her own life out of despair over her situation. The journalist, Katie Engelhart, observed and documented her suicide, up until the last breath left her body. “I was with Ritchie until the very end,” she posted on X (6/1/25). Engelhart gave lengthy justifications for Ritchie’s choice to end her life, and described several people who supported her in that decision.

Articles like this aren’t common in the media. Suicide prevention is typically regarded as both a social good and an ethical responsibility. In the US and Canada (where the article takes place), suicidal people are involuntarily detained to prevent their deaths. It has long been illegal in Canada (and many US states) to assist or even “counsel” a person to commit suicide.

There are also ethical standards that guide media outlets in reporting on suicide, in order to minimize the risk of glamorizing or idealizing it. These guidelines are based on research showing that the media has an outsized influence when it comes to suicide. Graphic, detailed and sensationalized coverage has been shown to increase the “risk of contagion,” according to one guide. AP News specifically tries to avoid detailing the “methods used” in stories that reference suicide, based on this research.

The Times violated almost all of the published guidelines by personalizing, detailing, dramatizing, justifying and sentimentalizing Ritchie’s suicide, as well as by making it a cover story. The story featured close-up images of the method of Ritchie’s death and what appears to be her post-mortem body.

Keep reading

Social media now main source of news in US, research suggests

Social media and video networks have become the main source of news in the US, overtaking traditional TV channels and news websites, research suggests.

More than half (54%) of people get news from networks like Facebook, X and YouTube – overtaking TV (50%) and news sites and apps (48%), according to the Reuters Institute.

“The rise of social media and personality-based news is not unique to the United States, but changes seem to be happening faster – and with more impact – than in other countries,” a report found.

Podcaster Joe Rogan was the most widely-seen personality, with almost a quarter (22%) of the population saying they had come across news or commentary from him in the previous week.

The report’s author Nic Newman said the rise of social video and personality-driven news “represents another significant challenge for traditional publishers”.

The institute also highlighted a trend for some politicians to give their time to sympathetic online hosts rather than mainstream interviewers.

It said populist politicians around the world are “increasingly able to bypass traditional journalism in favour of friendly partisan media, ‘personalities’, and ‘influencers’ who often get special access but rarely ask difficult questions, with many implicated in spreading false narratives or worse”.

Despite their popularity, online influencers and personalities were named as a major source of false or misleading information by almost half of people worldwide (47%) – putting them level with politicians.

The report also stated that usage of X for news is “stable or increasing across many markets”, with the biggest uplift in the US.

It added that since Elon Musk took over the network in 2022, “many more right-leaning people, notably young men, have flocked to the network, while some progressive audiences have left or are using it less frequently”.

In the US, the proportion that self-identified as being on the right tripled after Musk’s takeover.

In the UK, right-wing X audiences have almost doubled.

Rival networks like Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon are “making little impact globally, with reach of 2% or less for news”, it stated.

Keep reading

ABC forced to delete story as it’s revealed reporter received $16,000 from a weapons company for travel costs

The ABC is investigating one of its reporters after it was revealed he received $16,000 in travel costs from a weapons company he covered in one of his stories. 

Andrew Greene travelled from Sydney to Germany on business class flights worth about $16,000, and was put up in hotels in Hamburg and Kiel to attend a press event for the German weapons company TKMS. The company paid for his trip.

The senior defence correspondent for the ABC later filed a segment for The World Today about TKMS including quotes from its CEO Oliver Burkhard. After revelations of Greene’s junket came to light, the story was removed from the ABC website.

‘We know what we’re doing,’ Mr Burkhard told Greene in the report.

‘I know our competitors, they never have been exported in the past.’

Greene did not disclose the trip to either his ABC audience or his bosses, according to Media Watch. 

As far as the ABC knew, he was on personal leave and had obtained audio of Mr Burkhard’s press conference by email, rather than travelling to Germany in person.

Media Watch host Linton Besser was highly critical of the veteran reporter, saying that ‘while Andrew Greene might have a long history as a news breaker, he’s now been brought undone by weakness before temptation’.

Keep reading

‘Not Illegal to Be Undocumented’: Watch Sunny Hostin Flip Out Over ‘Misinformation’

On Monday, co-hosts from “The View” criticized President Donald Trump for sending the National Guard to Los Angeles in order to help quell the rioting.

As noted by Hanna Panreck with Fox News, one co-host, Sara Haines, suggested that President Trump intentionally amplified the rioting to bolster his approval ratings, which she said are “ … dropping like rocks.”

Haines continued, saying, “But there’s one catch here, current support right now, though, is that 66 percent of the American public actually thinks it’s crime enough to be undocumented and therefore deported.”

Co-host Sunny Hostin questioned Haines, asking, “That it’s criminal to be undocumented?”

Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin responded, “Even if it’s a civil offense.”

Referring back to Trump and the LA riots, Haines continued, “So what I’m saying is, a massive amount of this country actually agrees with, not how he’s doing it, but with what he’s doing.”

This prompted further discussion, with one co-host remarking, “So there’s misinformation out there.”

Haines said of President Trump, “I think the strategy here is, he’s leaning into a scene right now, creating a bigger thing, because it is the one thing that he remains supported in.”

This exchange visibly agitated co-host Sunny Hostin, who stuttered, “Well let’s, let’s let’s fix that right now, because it is not illegal to be undocumented.”

Turning to speak directly to the camera, Hostin said, “It is not a crime to be undocumented. People are not illegal … We need to put that information out there.”

Keep reading

Over a Hundred More Christians Massacred by Islamists in Nigeria in Ongoing Genocide Campaign — Where is the Media Coverage?

Fulani Islamic militants have unleashed another round of unspeakable violence on the village of Yelewata in Nigeria’s Benue State.

Over the weekend, attackers stormed homes, locked families inside, and set them ablaze — killing over 100 civilians, including women and children.

The attack, which began late Friday and stretched into the early hours of Saturday, left dozens missing and hundreds injured. With no access to medical aid, survivors watched their communities reduced to ash.

Benue is located in Nigeria’s “Middle Belt,” an important where the Muslim North meets the Christian South.

Foreign-funded jihadist groups and radicalized Fulani herdsmen are pushing southward in deadly waves, slaughtering Christian farming communities under the banner of conquest.

The Yelewata massacre is not an isolated event, but rather a systematic campaign of genocide and extermination.

Just days prior, in coordinated assaults across Benue and Plateau States, Fulani jihadists murdered over 130 Christians in cold blood.

Between May 24th and June 2nd, villages like Gwer West, Apa, and Munga Dasso were turned into charnel houses.

Victims were butchered, burned, or executed as militants moved with total impunity.

Keep reading

Media Critics Call on CNN to Fire Brian Stelter Over Reckless Tweet Following Minnesota Shooting

Two media critics are calling on CNN to fire ‘media reporter’ Brian Stelter over a reckless tweet in which he clearly tried to politicize the recent shooting of two Democrats in Minnesota by an appointee of Governor Tim Walz.

Before all of the facts were even known about the shooting, CNN correspondent Edward-Isaac Dovere tweeted:

“In the last week, Marines were deployed in an American city,the president has called for a gov to be arrested &the speaker of the House has called for that gov to be tarred & feathered, a senator has been pinned & handcuffed, and 2 state legislators have been shot in their homes.”

Brian Stelter then quote tweeted that message, saying:

“And it all points in the same direction.”

Stephen L. Miller, who hosts a media criticism podcast on Substack named ‘Versus Media’ called for Stelter’s firing over this.

Miller made the point that this was actually worse than a reckless tweet that just got reporter Terry Moran fired from ABC News.

Keep reading

Here’s How The Media Are Lying Right Now: Alex Padilla Just ‘Asking A Question’ Edition

Whatever your feelings are on an obnoxious Democrat leader being restrained by federal security — yeah, I don’t really care, either — the one thing I don’t appreciate is being told that what I saw with my eyes isn’t what happened. But if there’s anything the dying news media excel at these days, it’s precisely that.

Video of Alex Padilla has been on replay everywhere since Thursday after the California Democrat abruptly pushed his way to the front of a press briefing led by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Noem was in Los Angeles overseeing federal law enforcement of illegal alien apprehensions and conducting the briefing to explain her department’s work and answer questions from attendees.

In video footage featuring Padilla, the senator is seen advancing toward Noem’s podium, unannounced, and saying something unintelligible before being blocked by security, who attempted to push him back.

“Hands off,” Padilla says. As he continues to struggle with security, he says, “I am Senator Alex Padilla” and “I have questions for the secretary.” He does all this while still pushing himself toward Noem, who was in the middle of speaking. Padilla, a hulking figure standing above six feet — “a big, tall guy,” according to one of his Senate colleagues — was eventually removed from the event while continuing to struggle and ultimately forced to the ground where he was handcuffed.

Afterward, he delivered a Shakespearean on-camera statement where he mustered up a knot in his throat and said he simply had “a question” for Noem. Oh boy, did the dying media take it from there.

New York Times: “The footage shows Mr. Padilla stepping to one side, introducing himself and starting to call out a question …”

NBC: “Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., was forcibly removed from a news conference in Los Angeles on Thursday after he tried to question Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem …”

Reuters: “Democratic U.S. Senator Alex Padilla was shoved, forced to the ground and handcuffed by security after attempting to ask a question at a press conference …”

Politico: “… the handcuffing of Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) by law enforcement after he tried to ask a question at a news conference …”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, the white male version of Kamala Harris, said on social media, “If they can handcuff a U.S. Senator for asking a question, imagine what they will do to you.”

If Padilla was just “asking a question,” then Kanye West is just thinking out loud.

Keep reading

Fired ABC Hack Terry Moran Admits He is Liberal Activist — Pledges to Fight Trump During This ‘Dark Time’

To the surprise of absolutely nobody, fired ABC hack Terry Moran has outed himself as a liberal activist.

Earlier this week, Moran was fired by ABC after launching an extraordinary attack on President Trump’s senior policy advisor Stephen MIller.

The thing about Stephen Miller is not that he is the brains behind Trumpism.

Yes, he is one of the people who conceptualizes the impulses of the Trumpist movement and translates them into policy.

But that’s not what’s interesting about Miller. It’s not brains. It’s bile.

Miller is a man who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred. He’s a world-class hater.

You can see this just by looking at him because you can see that his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats his hate.

Trump is a world-class hater. But his hatred only a means to an end, and that end is his own glorification. That’s his spiritual nourishment.

Moran’s rant was too much even for far-left ABC, who fired him hours later.

The 65-year-old is now embarking on a new journey as a left-wing activist who will fight for democracy during this “dark time” in American history.

He wrote in a post on Substack.

In institution after institution, from the law firms to the universities to the Senate itself, and beyond the institutions into our everyday lives—force is being applied to your willingness to speak up and tell the truth about what you are seeing and experiencing.

Sometimes it is physical force. Sometimes it is a threat of physical force, or the online mob descending into your digital life. Sometimes it is the threat to people’s livelihoods and the survival of businesses great and small.

In the face of that danger, all of us, sooner or later, will have to make a choice. Many of us will just want to avert our eyes, pretend that the danger is not real or not that bad or will soon pass over. And some already see it for what it is, and cower before it.

It’s a dark time.

Keep reading

Tucker Carlson Names “Warmongers” Who Want US Involved In Iran/Israel War

As Iranian ballistic missiles rain down on Tel Aviv, and US forces are reportedly helping to repel them, Tucker Carlson has called out those who seem to want the US to get involved as “warmongers.”

The Iranian counterstrike came after Israel launched a massive campaign of precision strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities and missile sites.

Scientists involved with Iranian nuclear work were also reportedly directly targeted for assassination, along with Iranian Revolutionary Guard leadership.

President Trump declared Friday morning that Iran must make a deal immediately before it is completely obliterated.

It may already be too late though as Israel says “red lines” have been crossed by Iran targeting civilian areas in Tel Aviv.

Taking to X in response to the escalation, Tucker Carlson wrote “The real divide isn’t between people who support Israel and people who support Iran or the Palestinians.”

“The real divide is between those who casually encourage violence, and those who seek to prevent it — between warmongers and peacemakers,” he added.

“Who are the warmongers?” Carlson continued, emphasising “They would include anyone who’s calling Donald Trump today to demand air strikes and other direct US military involvement in a war with Iran.”

He then went on to name “Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Rupert Murdoch, Ike Perlmutter and Miriam Adelson.”

Keep reading