Al Jazeera & Project Censored

[SlyPokerDog]

I've been following the Fox news thread below. It's interesting to get everyone's perspective on Fox, MSNBC, etc. I like to get my news from a variety of sources, what I'm finding hard is to get news with out some sort of left or right slant to it. Oddly enough a few years back I was trying to see some so Bin Laden video or beheading, I can't remember what it was, when I stumbled onto Al Jazeera. I thought it would be good for a laugh to see how much the Middle East hated America and what their spin on things would be.

Surprisingly they're not a bad news organization. They're pretty "fair and balanced" in what they present. It's also interesting to see what they feel are important news stories about the USA vs what we're feed in our daily news cycle. I'm not saying they're any better than the news providers we have here in the USA but it is a legitimate news provider.

It's bookmark worthy and you might want to check it out every couple of days.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/

Project Censored has released their list of the top 25 non or under reported news stories of the year. I look forward to reading it every year. I haven't seen it mentioned on here and it's always worth checking out.

Here's this years top 25 -

http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/category/two-thousand-and-ten-book/

For those of you who don't know what Project Censored is -

Project Censored was founded by Carl Jensen in 1976, and is a media research program working in cooperation with numerous independent media groups in the US. Project Censored’s principle objective is training of SSU students in media research and First Amendment issues and the advocacy for, and protection of, free press rights in the United States. Project Censored has trained over 1,500 students in investigative research in the past three decades.
Through a partnership of faculty, students, and the community, Project Censored conducts research on important national news stories that are underreported, ignored, misrepresented, or censored by the US corporate media...

Between 700 and 1000 stories are submitted to Project Censored each year from journalists, scholars, librarians, and concerned citizens around the world. With the help of more than 200 Sonoma State University faculty, students, and community members, Project Censored reviews the story submissions for coverage, content, reliability of sources and national significance. The university community selects 25 stories to submit to the Project Censored panel of judges who then rank them in order of importance. Current or previous national judges include: Noam Chomsky, Susan Faludi, George Gerbner, Sut Jhally, Frances Moore Lappe, Michael Parenti, Herbert I. Schiller, Barbara Seaman, Erna Smith, Mike Wallace and Howard Zinn. All 25 stories are featured in the yearbook, Censored: The News That Didn’t Make the News.

 

[BrianFromWA]

This is a legit question from me to those more into the political sphere...should I know who those judges are? I've only ever heard of Chomsky and Wallace, and couldn't tell you much about either, aside from Wallace does/used to do 60 Minutes (a show my grandmother watches, and I don't)

 

[DaRizzle]

My dad watches Al-Jazeera all the time and Im pretty sure he's not a terrorist

 

[BrianFromWA]

Do you guys have satellite? I'm pretty sure I can't get it on Comcast (back when I used to have a few of the foreign language channels)

 

[maxiep]

This is a legit question from me to those more into the political sphere...should I know who those judges are? I've only ever heard of Chomsky and Wallace, and couldn't tell you much about either, aside from Wallace does/used to do 60 Minutes (a show my grandmother watches, and I don't)

Howard Zinn is batshit crazy.

 

[bluefrog]

Project censored is a great resource. There's a lot of stories about the bail outs ranked on there.

 

[bluefrog]

Howard Zinn is batshit crazy.

He seems like a reputable source. Care to elaborate?

 

[maxiep]

He seems like a reputable source. Care to elaborate?

A smart guy, like Noam Chomsky, but the People's History of the US is leftist claptrap.

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

I've been following the Fox news thread below. It's interesting to get everyone's perspective on Fox, MSNBC, etc. I like to get my news from a variety of sources, what I'm finding hard is to get news with out some sort of left or right slant to it. Oddly enough a few years back I was trying to see some so Bin Laden video or beheading, I can't remember what it was, when I stumbled onto Al Jazeera. I thought it would be good for a laugh to see how much the Middle East hated America and what their spin on things would be.

Surprisingly they're not a bad news organization. They're pretty "fair and balanced" in what they present. It's also interesting to see what they feel are important news stories about the USA vs what we're feed in our daily news cycle. I'm not saying they're any better than the news providers we have here in the USA but it is a legitimate news provider.

It's bookmark worthy and you might want to check it out every couple of days.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/

Project Censored has released their list of the top 25 non or under reported news stories of the year. I look forward to reading it every year. I haven't seen it mentioned on here and it's always worth checking out.

Here's this years top 25 -

http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/category/two-thousand-and-ten-book/

For those of you who don't know what Project Censored is -

Rep'd for posting such excellent links.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

My dad watches Al-Jazeera all the time and Im pretty sure he's not a terrorist

I've never seen the Al-Jazeera TV news network but I was surprised that the website isn't a USA hating/pro Muslim propaganda site.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

Rep'd for posting such excellent links.

Thanks!

 

[SlyPokerDog]

This is a legit question from me to those more into the political sphere...should I know who those judges are? I've only ever heard of Chomsky and Wallace, and couldn't tell you much about either, aside from Wallace does/used to do 60 Minutes (a show my grandmother watches, and I don't)

I know that "The most trusted man in America" used to think highly of it.

“Project Censored is one of the organizations that we should listen to, to be assured that our newspapers and our broadcasting outlets are practicing thorough and ethical journalism.”

— Walter Cronkite

 

[BlazerWookee]

I've never seen the Al-Jazeera TV news network but I was surprised that the website isn't a USA hating/pro Muslim propaganda site.

The English language version, maybe...

EDIT: Dang! Where's the tongue-in-cheek smiley?

 

[barfo]

My dad watches Al-Jazeera all the time and Im pretty sure he's not a terrorist

But you aren't 100% sure, are you? If I were you I'd turn him in. If it turns out he's not a terrorist, they'll let him out of Gitmo or Bagram in a few years.

barfo

 

[DaRizzle]

My dad has whipping scars on his back from when he was tortured by the Ba'ath party in Iraq for protesting them 40 years ago.........I had this turned into a joke in my head but I just cant do it even if its obvious I dont really mean it....

Its amazing the crap my dad has been through in his life only to become a self made millionaire, working for himself, living in a great ocean view house with my mom...Definition of the American Dream

 

[MrJayremmie]

only to become a self made millionaire

For real? Nice. That actually sounds like a pretty tight life story.

Edit - Post number 2k!!! DaRizzle you should be proud. I spent it on you.

 

[DaRizzle]

you know you want to become a Lakers fan!

 

[Denny Crane]

http://www.jochnowitz.net/Essays/ExtremistPolReg.html

 

[SlyPokerDog]

http://www.jochnowitz.net/Essays/ExtremistPolReg.html

And?

 

[Denny Crane]

This is a legit question from me to those more into the political sphere...should I know who those judges are? I've only ever heard of Chomsky and Wallace, and couldn't tell you much about either, aside from Wallace does/used to do 60 Minutes (a show my grandmother watches, and I don't)

And?

If you want to know who Noam Chomsky is, read the link.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

If you want to know who Noam Chomsky is, read the link.

Do you really think that essay would be the best example for explaining to someone who Chomsky is?

In this case I think his Wikipedia page provides a better example of who he is -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky

and you could throw this in if you wanted to be a little more "fair and balanced" about the man -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Noam_Chomsky

 

[The_Lillard_King]

My dad has whipping scars on his back from when he was tortured by the Ba'ath party in Iraq for protesting them 40 years ago.........I had this turned into a joke in my head but I just cant do it even if its obvious I dont really mean it....

Its amazing the crap my dad has been through in his life only to become a self made millionaire, working for himself, living in a great ocean view house with my mom...Definition of the American Dream

Then they gave birth to a smart ass free loading son who milks their accountes for prime Laker tickets . . . . American dream bursts in their face because they decided to have a kid.

 

[Denny Crane]

Do you really think that essay would be the best example for explaining to someone who Chomsky is?

In this case I think his Wikipedia page provides a better example of who he is -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky

and you could throw this in if you wanted to be a little more "fair and balanced" about the man -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Noam_Chomsky

I was plenty old enough to get what he was about at the time (Cambodia, Khmer Rouge). The guy defended anything communist (and fascist), no matter how egregious and heinous their acts.

From your second link. Read it.

In 1977 Chomsky, with Edward S. Herman, published a review article, "Distortions at Fourth Hand." Examining reports of mass atrocities committed by the Cambodian Khmer Rouge, they argued that there were "sharply conflicting assessments" of events in Cambodia and that the American media were selective in publishing the most anti-communist accounts. The media were creating "a seriously distorted version of the evidence available, emphasizing alleged Khmer Rouge atrocities and downplaying or ignoring the crucial U.S. role, direct and indirect, in the torment that Cambodia has suffered." Chomsky and Herman wrote:

Space limitations preclude a comprehensive review, but such journals as the Far Eastern Economic Review, the London Economist, the Melbourne Journal of Politics, and others elsewhere, have provided analyses by highly qualified specialists who have studied the full range of evidence available, and who concluded that executions have numbered at most in the thousands; that these were localized in areas of limited Khmer Rouge influence and unusual peasant discontent, where brutal revenge killings were aggravated by the threat of starvation resulting from the American destruction and killing.


They also made this comment about Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge:

But if postwar Cambodia is more similar to France after liberation, where many thousands of people were massacred within a few months under far less rigorous conditions than those left by the American war, then perhaps a rather different judgement is in order. That the latter conclusion may be more nearly correct is suggested by the analyses mentioned earlier.[19]

It is typical of holocaust deniers to claim the genocides number in the mere thousands.

This is who he defended:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge

Following their leader Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge imposed an extreme form of social engineering on Cambodian society — a radical form of agrarian communism where the whole population had to work in collective farms or forced labor projects. In terms of the number of people killed as a proportion of the population (est. 7.1 million people, as of 1975[2]), it was one of the most lethal regimes of the 20th century.[3]

 

[DaRizzle]

Then they gave birth to a smart ass free loading son who milks their accountes for prime Laker tickets . . . . American dream bursts in their face because they decided to have a kid.

...still waiting on the tickets

 

[jlprk]

I have read very few posts on this off-topic board, but a pattern already emerges. Like stocking a hatchery with fish eggs, Denny Crane stuffs the board with posts that simply link to articles, instead of writing out his own opinions. This 3000-word opinion piece is from someone named George Jochnowitz, whose apparent job is to keep his fellow Jews in line with Israel's foreign policy.

 

[MARIS61]

Howard Zinn is batshit crazy.

Howard Zinn is an American hero, a civil rights hero, and a free speech hero.

http://howardzinn.org/default/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=11&Itemid=35

His attempts to bring reality and truth to the world by excluding all the BS lies from politicians and economists serving only their own purposes is a phenomenal benefit to the cause of justice.

Easy to see why you dislike him.

 

[Pontius]

Howard Zinn is an American hero, a civil rights hero, and a free speech hero.

http://howardzinn.org/default/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=11&Itemid=35

His attempts to bring reality and truth to the world by excluding all the BS lies from politicians and economists serving only their own purposes is a phenomenal benefit to the cause of justice.

Easy to see why you dislike him.

And to add further: Matt Damon likes Howard Zinn. Matt Damon.


People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster.

James Baldwin

 

[Denny Crane]

I've got no beef with the other two, but I said my piece about Chomsky. There was a time when he was an icon of the anti-war movement (Vietnam) but his true colors showed after we left with our tails between our legs.

I will add this, though. Mike Wallace is Chris Wallace's dad. That's right, Chris Wallace who hosts Fox News Sunday. Chris also hosted Nightline and Meet the Press at ABC and NBC, respectively, before joining Fox.

Mike Wallace made his name at 60 minutes by putting on anti-capitalist shows, usually producing some damning piece about some company or another.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

I thought Mike Wallace was Ben Wallace's dad.

 

[PapaG]

Noam Chomsky?

May as well put Rush Limbaugh on the panel and still try to call it "objective".