Tag: media

What did TV bosses hear about Russell Brand, and when were they told? The repeated warnings over controversial comic whose ‘sinister behaviour’ was an ‘open secret’ among BBC and CH4 senior executives

Repeated warnings over Russell Brand to TV bosses made his ‘sinister behaviour’ an open secret among BBC and Channel 4 executives – it has been claimed as alleged concerns reach back as far as 2004-6.

It comes amid reports that accusations about his ‘sinister’ behaviour towards women were an ‘open secret’ among TV and radio executives following a joint investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4 Dispatches.

Bosses at the BBC and Channel 4 are accused of turning a blind eye towards the entertainer while he worked for them as a presenter between 2006 and 2013. 

The broadcasters insisted they took all necessary steps to deal with him, but executives could still be called before a Government select committee where MPs will grill them over what they knew.

Channel 4 and the BBC have since launched probes into Russell Brand‘s behaviour in light of allegations of predatory behaviour towards staff and audience members in the wake of separate rape and sexual assault allegations, as friends of the comedian begin to distance themselves from him.

The first time the star’s behaviour was reported is claimed to be while he was working on EFourum and Big Brother’s Big Mouth between 2004 and 2006.

But one researcher alleges they complained about Brand pursuing audience members for sex, but their concerns were dismissed.

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Hyping Ukraine Counteroffensive, US Press Chose Propaganda Over Journalism

It has been clear for some time that US corporate news media have explicitly taken a side on the Ukraine War. This role includes suppressing relevant history of the lead-up to the war (FAIR.org, 3/4/22), attacking people who bring up that history as “conspiracy theorists” (FAIR.org, 5/18/22), accepting official government pronouncements at face value (FAIR.org, 12/2/22) and promoting an overly rosy picture of the conflict in order to boost morale.

For most of the war, most of the US coverage has been as pro-Ukrainian as Ukraine’s own media, now consolidated under the Zelenskyy government (FAIR.org, 5/9/23). Dire predictions sporadically appeared, but were drowned out by drumbeat coverage portraying a Ukrainian army on the cusp of victory, and the Russian army as incompetent and on the verge of collapse.

Triumphalist rhetoric soared in early 2023, as optimistic talk of a game-changing “spring offensive” dominated Ukraine coverage. Apparently delayed, the Ukrainian counteroffensive launched in June. While even US officials did not believe that it would amount to much, US media papered over these doubts in the runup to the campaign.

Over the last three months, it has become clear that the Ukrainian military operation will not be the game-changer it was sold as; namely, it will not significantly roll back the Russian occupation and obviate the need for a negotiated settlement. Only after this became undeniable did media report on the true costs of war to the Ukrainian people.

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Russell Brand says he is victim of ‘co-ordinated campaign’ after receiving ‘extremely disturbing letters’ from media firms outlining ‘serious criminal allegations’ as he insists all relationships were consensual as he is backed by Elon Musk and Andrew Tate

Elon Musk and Andrew Tate have backed Russell Brand‘s claims that he is a victim of a ‘co-ordinated media attack’, as the comedian took to his YouTube channel to ‘absolutely deny’ what he called ‘very serious criminal allegations’ made against him.

The video comes ahead of a much-anticipated Channel 4 Dispatches investigation set to air at 9pm tonight, with speculation building over who or what could at the centre of the investigation.

Sources said the long running current affairs documentary series will feature details about a well-known celebrity, which the Mail have been told are shocking.

There is no indication that Brand will feature in the programme, however, last night he made a video address to fans where he insisted any relationships he had ‘during his time of promiscuity’ were ‘consensual’.

Brand said he had received two ‘extremely disturbing letters’ from a ‘mainstream media TV company’ and a newspaper which the comedian said listed ‘a litany of extremely egregious and aggressive attacks, which are untrue’.

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NEW YORK TIMES DOESN’T WANT ITS STORIES ARCHIVED

THE NEW YORK TIMES tried to block a web crawler that was affiliated with the famous Internet Archive, a project whose easy-to-use comparisons of article versions has sometimes led to embarrassment for the newspaper.

In 2021, the New York Times added “ia_archiver” — a bot that, in the past, captured huge numbers of websites for the Internet Archive — to a list that instructs certain crawlers to stay out of its website.

Crawlers are programs that work as automated bots to trawl websites, collecting data and sending it back to a repository, a process known as scraping. Such bots power search engines and the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, a service that facilitates the archiving and viewing of historic versions of websites going back to 1996.

The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine has long been used to compare webpages as they are updated over time, clearly delineating the differences between two iterations of any given page. Several years ago, the archive added a feature called “Changes” that lets users compare two archived versions of a website from different dates or times on a single display. The tool can be used to uncover changes in news stories that have been made without any accompanying editorial notes, so-called stealth edits.

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BBC Cancels Event Of Singer Who Criticized Puberty-Blocking Drugs

The Telegraph is reporting that the BBC has removed Irish singer Róisín Murphy from a prepared feature radio broadcast.

The reason is a comment opposing puberty-blocking drugs. While I understand why such criticism is deeply hurtful to some, it is also political speech. Artists should be able to hold opposing views. I would feel the same way if BBC blocked an artist for supporting puberty-blocking drugs. However, these controversies evidence an orthodoxy that seems to only run against those on one side in this and other issues.

Murphy’s comment on social media was reportedly leaked by a friend last month. In the posting, she wrote “Puberty blockers are f—ing, absolutely desolate, big pharma laughing all the way to the bank. Little mixed-up kids are vulnerable and need to be protected, that’s just true.”

She added:

“Please don’t call me a TERF, please don’t keep using that word against women.”

We have seen cancel campaigns launched against figures like J.K. Rowling as TERFs (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists) for criticizing transgender policies.

The same inexorable pattern emerged for Murphy. They have targeted her new album for boycotts simply because they disagree on the issue. The Guardian declared that the album was now “compromised” and “for many fans, particularly queer fans, this album is DOA [dead on arrival].”

BBC insists that the cancellation was due to other factors, but many have their doubts.  What is clear is that a full boycott campaign is now being launched despite Murphy offering a full-throated apology for uttering opposing views:

“I have been thrown into a very public discourse in an arena I’m uncomfortable in and deeply unsuitable for. I cannot apologise enough for being the reason for this eruption of damaging and potentially dangerous social-media fire and brimstone. To witness the ramifications of my actions and the divisions it has caused is heartbreaking.

I will now completely bow out of this conversation within the public domain. I’m not in the slightest bit interested in turning it into ANY kind of ‘campaign’, because campaigning is not what I do… My true calling is music and music will never exclude any of us.”

What is alarming is that artists must now repeat approved positions on political and social issues or, as here, pledge to remain silent in order to be artists.

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Just The Tip: AP Gave Dem Porn-Wife Heads-Up Before WaPo Scoop, Allowing Her To Delete Videos

Democratic Virginia political candidate Susanna Gibson, who was outed by the Washington Post for performing sex acts online for cash – and instead of owning up to it cried ‘sex crime!‘, was actually tipped off a week earlier by the Associated Press, which didn’t run the story – allowing her to delete videos before the WaPo piece hit, according to the Daily Wire‘s Luke Rosiak.

Gibson, a 40-year-old nurse practitioner and mother of two, streamed various sex acts on ‘Chaturbate,’ where more than a dozen videos of she and her husband were archived on a publicly available site, Recurbate, in September 2022 after she entered the race. The most recent were two videos archived Sept. 30, 2022, however it’s unclear when the live stream occurred.

Rosiak also reports that Gibson’s online sex acts could have exposed her to prostitution charges, lawyers say.

Virginia law states that “any person who, for money or its equivalent … engages in sexual intercourse” or other sexual acts with another person “is guilty of prostitution, which is punishable as a Class 1 misdemeanor.”

Shawn M. Cline, a former prosecutor and defense attorney in Virginia Beach who represents people charged with sex crimes, said in his view it’s a “chargeable offense.”

“The statute is very clear, you cannot for money or its equivalent perform sex acts,” Cline told The Daily Wire. “It doesn’t matter who’s paying for the act, if it’s an observer or the recipient. You can’t receive money.”

“It would definitely be a chargeable offense,” Cline said. -Daily Wire

What’s more, she could be busted for deliberately causing hotel workers to see her performing sex acts.

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BBC defends airing a song which encourages listeners to ‘kick’ women with gender-critical views as 6 Music is accused of ‘blatantly’ refusing to play Roisin Murphy’s songs after the singer criticised puberty blockers

BBC bosses have defended airing a song encouraging listeners to ‘kick’ women with gender-critical views.

Listeners complained after 6 Music played They/Them by Dream Nails, which includes the line ‘Kick terfs all day, don’t break a sweat’.

Terf – trans-exclusionary radical feminist – is a term used as a pejorative against those who advocate for women but oppose transgender people using female-only spaces.

But dismissing the objections, a member of the BBC’s complaints team said: ‘People will interpret songs with any element of nuance or ambiguity differently.’

One furious complainant told the Mail: ‘It endorses an explicit violent threat on the grounds of sex and political belief yet the BBC would not remove it from their playlist.’

It comes as 6 Music was accused of ‘blatantly’ refusing to play Roisin Murphy’s songs after the singer publicly criticised puberty blockers.

The channel has played only a single track by the former Moloko frontwoman since she made the widely-criticised comments online.

The Irish singer was last featured on the channel on September 1, three days after her social media post.

Before that, her songs were played regularly and her album Hit Parade has remained at number two in the charts.

A BBC insider told the Mail: ‘It’s so blatant what they have done.’

Earlier this week 6 Music cancelled ten hours of shows celebrating Ms Murphy, with staff telling the Mail her comments were the reason behind her axing.

The programmes, part of a series called the 6 Music Artist Collection, were due to be aired between midnight and 5am next Monday and Tuesday before they were pulled.

Instead, new shows have been made, featuring rapper Little Simz.

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White House urges news orgs to “ramp up scrutiny” of Biden impeachment efforts

The White House on Wednesday emailed the leaders of several major news organizations, including Axios, arguing the media needs to “ramp up its scrutiny” of House Republicans’ efforts to impeach President Biden.

Why it matters: The White House argues that the media’s reporting about incremental updates on the impeachment inquiry process over the substance of the inquiry “is woefully inadequate when it comes to something as historically grave as impeachment.”

Catch up quick: The letter follows an announcement from House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday in which he declared he would direct House committees to open an impeachment inquiry into President Biden.

  • The move is a reversal of McCarthy’s previous remarks that a probe could only be launched with a House vote.

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Meta deletes Al Jazeera presenter’s profile after show criticising Israel

Al Jazeera Arabic presenter Tamer Almisshal has had his Facebook profile deleted by Meta 24 hours after the programme Tip of the Iceberg aired an investigation into Meta’s censorship of Palestinian content titled The Locked Space.

The programme’s investigation, which aired on Friday, included admissions by Eric Barbing, former head of Israel’s cybersecurity apparatus, about his organisation’s effort to track Palestinian content according to criteria that included “liking” a photo of a Palestinian killed by Israeli forces.

Then the agency would approach Facebook and argue that the content should be taken down.

According to Barbing, Facebook usually complies with the requests and Israel’s security apparatus follows up cases, including bringing court cases if need be.

The investigation followed up on Barbing’s admissions by interviewing a number of human and digital rights experts who agreed that there was a distinct imbalance in how Palestinian content is restricted.

The programme also interviewed Julie Owono, a member of Facebook’s oversight board, who admitted there is a discrepancy in how rules are interpreted and applied to Palestinian content and added that recommendations had been sent to Facebook to correct this.

Al Jazeera has asked Facebook about why Almisshal’s profile was shut down with no prior warning or explanation. It had not received a response by the time of publication.

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GREENWALD EXPOSES “FRAUDULENT” WAPO DISINFORMATION STUDY, DAVID FRUM, AND ADL PROPAGANDA TO SILENCE DISSENT

Journalist Glenn Greenwald has once again dissected a load of establishment propaganda disguised as legitimate reporting – this time shredding a new, and fraudulent, “disinformation study“ from the Washington Post. And of course, Greenwald has receipts.

The study, which was sponsored by the European Union ‘with an Omidyar-funded group’ accuses Twitter (X) of facilitating “pro-Russia propaganda” by failing to censor more.

“The EU-led study insisted that Elon Musk’s new Twitter policies, and those of other Big Tech platforms, help spread Russian propaganda –– by which they mean that Musk’s reduction of political censorship on the site, and the “failure” of Big Tech generally to censor upon command, is “dangerous,”” according to Greenwald.

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