Tag: media

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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BBC’s disinformation correspondent and chief fact-checker Marianna Spring is accused of lying on her CV by falsely claiming to have worked with a Beeb journalist when applying for a job in Moscow

The BBC‘s disinformation correspondent is facing claims that she lied about her experience on her CV.

Marianna Spring, 27, shot to prominence with her reporting on the way social media has been used to peddle false information.

But she is now facing the embarrassing allegation that she gave misleading information herself –  one claim of working with a respected BBC correspondent – to try to secure work.

According to a report, about five years ago Ms Spring was trying to get work as a freelancer in Moscow for US-based news site Coda Story.

An article in The New European said when she applied to the website’s editor-in-chief Natalia Antelava in 2018, she said she had worked alongside BBC correspondent Sarah Rainsford on covering the ‘perception of Russia’ during the 2018 football World Cup.

Her CV reportedly bragged: ‘June 2018: Reported on International News during the World Cup, specifically the perception of Russia, with BBC correspondent Sarah Rainsford.’

According to The New European, Ms Antelava, a former BBC journalist herself, is said to have rebuked Ms Spring after checking out the claim.

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US Intel Official: Media Misleading Americans About Ukraine’s Battlefield Success

In an interview with renowned reporter Seymour Hersh, a US intelligence official scolded the media for misleading the American public about Ukraine’s battlefield failures during the Spring counteroffensive. The unnamed official additionally told Hersh he believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the assassination of PMC Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin to deescalate tensions with NATO.

Responding to reports in recent weeks that Ukrainian forces were gaining momentum and recapturing territory, the official remarked, “Where are the reporters getting this stuff?” he asked. “There are stories talking about drunk Russian commanders while the Ukrainians are penetrating the three lines of Russian defense and will be able to work back to Mariupol.”

He continued, “The goal of Russia’s first line of defense was not to stop the Ukrainian offense, but to slow it down so if there was a Ukrainian advance, Russian commanders could bring in reserves to fortify the line.” The official added, “There is no evidence that Ukrainian forces have gotten past the first line. The American press is doing anything but honest reporting on the failure thus far of the offense.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered a similarly optimistic message during his trip to Kyiv on Wednesday. “In the ongoing counteroffensive, progress has accelerated in the past few weeks. This new assistance will help sustain it and build further momentum,” he said at a press conference.

The official says that message is being delivered from military intelligence to the White House, while the CIA has drawn other conclusions. “This kind of reporting from the military intelligence community is going to the White House. There are other views,” he said, referring to the CIA. The official explained those views do not reach President Joe Biden.

For over three months, Kyiv has ordered its forces to advance on entrench Russian defensive lines in southern Ukraine. Russian minefields caused Ukraine to lose a significant portion of its Western-trained soldiers and equipment in the opening weeks of the offensive. The massive push by Ukraine resulted in nearly no territorial gains.

Still, Washington has pushed Kyiv to continue the counteroffensive. The White House acknowledges that for Ukraine to have a possibility of success, Kyiv will have to be willing to sustain high casualties.

The official told Hersh no matter how committed Kyiv is to the war effort, President Zelensky’s goals are unattainable.  “Zelensky will never get his land back,” he said.

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GoFundMe freezes donations for The Grayzone, sparking free speech debate

GoFundMe froze a fundraising campaign for the far-left news outlet The Grayzone due to “external concerns”, in the latest case to highlight the contentious role of tech companies in regulating controversial speech.

The Grayzone says it was unable to access more than $90,000 that about 1,100 contributors donated to support the work of three reporters.

Max Blumenthal, the founder and editor of The Grayzone, said the California-based crowdfunding company informed him in mid-August that he would not be allowed to transfer the donations pending a review of the fundraiser related to unspecified “external concerns”.

The donations were ultimately refunded to the donors after The Grayzone moved the fundraising campaign to a rival crowding funding platform.

Blumenthal said he believes the review was undertaken for “political reasons” related to the website’s coverage of the war in Ukraine.

“They only told me due to some external concerns, and I assume that someone would have to be fairly powerful to get GoFundMe to overlook the profit motive that usually governs companies like this to cancel a fundraiser that is extremely successful,” Blumenthal told Al Jazeera on Friday.

Blumenthal added that The Grayzone’s managing editor Wyatt Reed had similar problems with payment platforms Paypal and Venmo following his reporting on the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.

GoFundMe said that every fundraiser on its platform is subject to review and that The Grayzone was able to continue to solicit donations until it cancelled the fundraiser.

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