Peter Lloyd ?@prlloyd63 6 Jun 2015 Sydney, New South Wales

@aflashbak Who will ever forget his 22 minutes of applause he received at the 1964 #Democratic convention

#RFK

@onthemedia

Shows up! Trump v. Putin, the German far-Right's media strategy, and a brand new BNCH for migration.

Breaking News Consumer's Handbook: Migration Edition (Abroad)

Jul 29, 2016

Migration and refugees have been in the news a lot in the last two years; a deeper understanding of migration and refugees, unfortunately, has not. From misleading language to distorted facts to the abuse of the very term "breaking news" (when in fact emigration, particularly into Europe, tends to remain constant) -- coverage of refugees and migration is all too often predictably poor.

Brooke talks with Heaven Crawley, Coventry University's International Migration Chair, about mass migration myths and how to identify them when they crop up in the news. The result is Part One of our Breaking News Consumer's Handbook: Migration Edition.

http://www.wnyc.org/story/bnch-migration-heaven-crawley

...Perhaps the most bizarre journalistic decision was NBC News‘ choice (1/18/94) to assign Pete Williams, formerly assistant secretary of defense under President Bush, to cover the release of a report that makes serious charges of wrongdoing against Williams’ former employer. As chief spokesperson for the Pentagon during the invasion of Panama and the Gulf War, Williams specialized in distortion and suppression of information. His January 18 reporting shows that he can perform the same function in the private sector.

Much of Williams’ coverage was taken up by a selective and slanted account of what the Walsh report didn’t prove about Reagan/Bush administration wrongdoing:

His report claims no proof that President Reagan authorized or knew of a scheme to take money from arms sales to Iran and give it to the Nicaraguan Contras. Or that Vice President Bush or Attorney General Meese knew of it either. And no evidence that Reagan authorized Lt. Col. Oliver North to set up the secret Contra-supply operation.

But Williams couldn’t find room to mention anything that Walsh said that Bush was culpable of, including lying to the public about his central role in the Iran arms sales, and withholding evidence from the inquiry. Also unmentioned by Williams were Walsh’s angry criticisms of Bush’s last-minute pardons. If Bush was watching NBC, he would have been proud to see how dedicated Williams was to protecting his ex-boss.

http://fair.org/extra/walsh-reports-scandalous-coverage/

Empires and Underdogs: Brazil's Media Story

Jul 15, 2016

It's a tough time for the Brazilian press. In the unfolding political drama around corruption and presidential impeachment, the mainly right-wing media is accused of deeply biased coverage and coup-mongering. Especially Globo, a giant network of TV and radio stations, newspapers, and magazines with a history that includes supporting the dictatorship.

While a corruption scandal makes huge headlines every day, trusted watchdogs are struggling to keep up at a time of newsroom cutbacks. But in Brazil, everything is complicated. Bob dives into why the country's concentrated media powers are so deeply distrusted -- and what's filling the vacuum.

With:
-Professor Maria Immacolata Vassallo de Lopes, of the Center for the Study of Telenovelas at the University of São Paulo
-Mauricio Santoro, a political scientist with Rio de Janeiro State University
-Diego Escoteguy, editor of the Globo-owned newsweekly, Epoca
-Tai Nalon, co-founder of the independent, crowdfunded fact-checking site Aos Fatos, "To the Facts”
-Patricia Campos-Mello, a reporter-at-large at Folha de Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest daily newspaper
-Eliane Goncalves, a reporter at the national public broadcaster, EBC
-Marcelo Rafael, chief reporter for EBC
-Political columnist Celso de Barros

http://www.wnyc.org/story/empires-and-underdogs

@nytimes

Sydney Schanberg, a former Times correspondent, has died at 82 http://nyti.ms/29DaX5Z

McCain and the POW Cover-Up

Thursday 18 September 2008
by: Sydney H. Schanberg, The Nation

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http://www.truthout.org/article/mccain-and-pow-cover-up