Tag: media

Western Media Run Blatant Atrocity Propaganda For The Ukrainian Government

The Ukrainian government is quickly learning that it can say anything, literally anything at all, about what’s happening on the ground there and get it uncritically reported as an actual news story by the mainstream western press.

The latest story making the rounds is a completely unevidenced claim made by a Ukrainian government official that Russians are going around raping Ukrainian babies to death. Business Insider, The Daily Beast, The Daily Mail and Yahoo News have all run this story despite no actual evidence existing for it beyond the empty assertions of a government who would have every incentive to lie.

“A one-year-old boy died after being raped by two Russian soldiers, the Ukrainian Parliament’s Commissioner for Human Rights said on Thursday,” reads a report by Business Insider which was subsequently picked up by Yahoo News. “The accusation is one of the most horrific from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but is not unique.”

At the end of the fourth paragraph we get to the disclaimer that every critical thinker should look for when reading such stories in the mainstream press:

“Insider could find no independent evidence for the claim.”

In its trademark style, The Daily Beast ran the same story in a much more flamboyant and click-friendly fashion.

“The dead boy is among dozens of alleged child rape victims which include two 10-year-old boys, triplets aged 9, a 2-year-old girl raped by two Russian soldiers, and a 9-month-old baby who was penetrated with a candlestick in front of its mother, according to Ukraine’s Commissioner for Human Rights,” The Daily Beast writes.

The one and only source for this latest spate of “the Russians are raping babies to death” stories is a statement on a Ukrainian government website by Ukraine’s Human Rights Commissioner Lyudmyla Denisova. The brief statement contains no evidence of any kind, and its English translation concludes as follows:

I appeal to the UN Commission for Investigation Human Rights Violations during the Russian military invasion of Ukraine to take into account these facts of genocide of the Ukrainian people.

 

I call on our partners around the world to increase sanctions pressure on russia, to provide Ukraine with offensive weapons, to join the investigation of rashist crimes in our country!

 

The enemy must be stopped and all those involved in the atrocities in Ukraine must be brought to justice!

This is what passes for journalism in the western world today. Reporting completely unfounded allegations against US enemies based solely on assertions by a government official demanding more weapons and sanctions against those enemies and making claims that sound like they came from an It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia bit.

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Israel Killed Reporter Abu Akleh—but US Media Disguised the Facts

Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, a well-known and much-loved Al Jazeera reporter who covered Palestine for two decades, was shot and killed by an Israeli sniper May 11 while documenting an Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the Occupied West Bank.

Footage of the moments after her death show Abu Akleh, still wearing her press vest and helmet, lying face down on the ground below a tree, as Shatha Hanaysha, another Palestinian journalist and writer for Mondoweiss, sits by her side and attempts to reach out to her. Writing for Mondoweiss (5/11/22), Yumna Patel described the video:

A young Palestinian man is then seen jumping over a wall behind Abu Akleh and Hanaysha. When he attempts to retrieve Abu Akleh’s body, another round of sniper fire can be heard, and he quickly takes cover behind the tree.

No armed combatants are there. Journalists are shouting for an ambulance. The young man tries a second time to remove Abu Akleh, but fails. He manages to help a shaken Hanaysha hide behind the tree. The footage is harrowing.

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NPR Sets Up Snitch Hotline So Employees Can Report Mask Infractions That Could Lead to ‘Termination’

Employees at NPR could lose their jobs if they forget or refuse to wear masks, and a snitch hotline has been set up to ensure the rules are followed.

Dylan Byers of Puck News obtained an internal memo which encourages workers to tattle on those who dare show their faces in the work place.

“NPR is maintaining a very strict mask policy, and has set up an HR tip line for employees to report on colleagues who are not adhering to guidelines—with the possible result of discipline and even termination,” Byers reported.

The memo he shared is titled “Safety Protocol Reminders and Tips Enforcement.” It asks people to confront their non-compliant colleagues about masking.

“We have asked on-site supervisors to remind staff of the masking requirements when needed,” the note says. “Masking is still required, unless recording alone in a studio, working alone in an office with the door closed, or actively eating or drinking. (And “actively” does not mean occasionally drinking from a water bottle.)”

NPR adds it will exempt certain people from mask-wearing in “extremely rare” cases, but noted prior approval from management will be required.

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“They Fall Silent”: Media Criticized For Not Caring About Church Mass Shooting Carried Out by Chinese Gunman

The legacy media and NGOs are facing criticism for largely ignoring another mass shooting over the weekend at a church in Laguna Woods which was carried out by a Chinese-born gunman who targeted Taiwanese people.

68-year-old David Chou drove to Orange County to attend a a lunch held by Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church at the Geneva Presbyterian Church in the community of Laguna Woods.

After chaining shut the doors of the church and placing numerous firebombs, Chou opened fire on a gathering of mainly of elderly Taiwanese parishioners.

It was only due to the heroism of one man who tackled Chou, 52-year-old Dr. John Cheng, that more people weren’t killed. Only Cheng lost his life during the attack in the process of saving the lives of dozens of others.

It was later confirmed that the gunman had deliberately targeted Taiwanese people in a “politically motivated hate incident” because he was upset over Taiwan’s stance towards China.

You’d think the story would have garnered more media attention, but it has received barely a blip of coverage.

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Reuters Uses Image of Men with Paintball Guns for Ukraine Story

Reuters made a questionable cover photo selection in an article about the conflict in Ukraine. For a recent news story on a reported Ukrainian assault in the Sumy region, the outlet went with a picture of soldiers armed with paintball guns.

The photo shows several military gear-clad men crouched in a defensive position with weapons. A close examination of the photo reveals that the men are armed with paintball guns. As would be expected, many Twitter users found the notion of insurgents fighting off a hostile foreign invasion with paintball guns to be absurd. A barrage of ridicule ensued.

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NY Times Blasted For Writing Ukrainian Fighters “Evacuated”, Didn’t Surrender At Azovstal

The “paper of record” managed to completely avoid the reality that some 300 Azov militants surrendered – instead opting to suggest that somehow Ukraine’s forces decided to wind down their “combat mission”. The headline also emphasized they were “being evacuated”.

But then awkwardly, the very first sentence of the Monday Times report indicated after they laid down their arms, the fighters were taken into Russian custody and transferred to pro-Kremlin territory (specifically to Novoazovsk – in the Donestsk People’s Republic). So again, they were “evacuated” by their Russian enemies who’ve captured them.

“Hundreds of Ukrainian fighters were taken by bus to Russian controlled territory,” the NYT report said. “Ukraine’s president said the combat mission in the city was over, capping some of the longest, fiercest resistance.”

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Congrats To The Media For Finally Finding A White Supremacist

Assuming the gunman who shot up the Buffalo, New York, grocery store really was motivated by anti-black racism, let’s do what the media do when faced with an Islamic terrorist who goes on a killing spree in America and just refer to him as a “lone wolf,” a mentally unstable individual who in no way reflects any broader phenomenon or trend.

Except, unlike with violent Muslim extremism, that characterization in this case would be true.

Despite what the media, Democrats, leftists, and, of course, the permanent Washington bureaucracy say (over, and over, and over again), there is no imminent, large-scale threat from white nationalists. It doesn’t exist outside of Joe Biden’s TelePrompter.

To that claim, leftists would surely point to news reports and declarations by the U.S. Justice Department and Homeland Security. The New York Times has been all over it.

“Top law enforcement officials say the biggest domestic terror threat comes from white supremacists.”— New York Times, June 15, 2021

“Homeland Security Dept. Affirms Threat of White Supremacy After Years of Prodding.”—New York Times, Oct. 1, 2019

“The Grave Threats of White Supremacy and Far-Right Extremism.”—New York Times, Feb. 22, 2019

Even under Donald Trump—especially under Donald Trump—the permanent bureaucracy had been hyperventilating about “white supremacy” and the existential threat it supposedly represented to every American, and even democracy itself.

Strangely enough, though, there isn’t a ton of publicly available government data on the topic. More often than not, a government agency or official makes an assertion about white supremacists on a rampage and we’re just supposed to take it as fact without hearing any specifics.

For a threat so pervasive, prolific, and prominent, wouldn’t you expect there to be a nearly unlimited body of work readily available for the public to consume and understand just how grave it is?

It’s not there. You’re supposed to believe it anyway.

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