Fausta's blog

Anne-Elisabeth Moutet, former deputy editor of Proche-Orient.info writes about the alDura trial and verdict:
L'Affaire Enderlin
Being a French journalist means never having to say you're sorry.

You might think Enderlin's professional standing would have been damaged by all this. You would be wrong. In less than a week, a petition was whipped up by his friends at Le Nouvel Observateur, France's premier left-wing newsweekly. The petition conceded no gray areas, no hint of doubt. It called Karsenty's vehemently argued but exhaustively documented stance a "seven-year hate-filled smear campaign" aimed at destroying Enderlin's "professional dignity." It flatly stated in the opening paragraph that Muhammad al-Dura was killed "by shots coming from the Israeli position." It expressed rank astonishment at a legal ruling "granting equal credibility to a journalist renowned for his rigorous work, and to willful deniers ignorant of the local realities and with no journalistic experience." It professed concern about a jurisprudence that would-shock! horror!-allow "anyone, in the name of good faith and of a supposed right to criticize and so-called freedom of speech, to smear with impunity the honor and the reputation of news professionals."

Read about the aftermath of the verdict.

Powerline:

Based on film footage provided by a Palestinian cameraman, Enderlin's report has become infamous among students of Arab propaganda both for its destructive effects and for its probable falsity. The al-Dura affair now bids to join the Dreyfus affair in the French hall of shame.

Indeed.

Prior posts on the al-Dura trial here.
Most recent podcast here
To donate to Second Draft, the mailing address is
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P O Box 590591
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Labels: AlDura, France2, Israel, propaganda

The real story: Chavez is nationalizing the mining industry. Let's look at three headlines:

CNN correctly states Venezuela 'taking control' of mines".

The IHT couches the seizure of property by citing the environment minister: Environment minister says Venezuela is asserting national interest in mining sector. At least they have the delicacy of attributing the propaganda to a Venezuelan government official.

But leave it to Associated Press to put a real gloss on the pig's lipstick: Venezuela puts nation's interests first in mining. They don't need to attribute the propaganda to any environment minister; they can do a propaganda job on their own, thanks. Those are the folks that, if you quote them, will have you go through the toll booth.

Good luck on that, AP.

Related
AP's confused.



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Labels: APDD, Associated Press Deficit Disorder, Cubazuela, Hugo Chavez, propaganda, Venezuela

The Court of Appeals Decision: A Professional Translation into English As you can see from the details, the judge dismissed the case after she ripped Enderlin. Just one paragraph (emphasis added)

Given that, indeed, the testimony by Luc ROSENZWEIG, former chief editor of MONDE, established that after having met, in May 2004, some colleagues who shared with him their doubts about Charles ENDERLIN's commentary, and having thereafter himself shared these doubts with Denis JEAMBAR and Daniel LECONTE, on October 22, 2004, he viewed with them FRANCE 2's rushes and was surprised that, of the 27 minutes of Talal ABU RAHMA's rushes, more than 23 minutes of the scenes on film had nothing to do with the images broadcast by the station, including those of little Mohamed's death, and consisted of young Palestinians faking war scenes. The witness concluded his testimony at the hearing in the lower court by stating his conviction that "the theory that the scene [of the child's death] was faked was more probable than the version presented by FRANCE 2," while admitting that, as a journalist, journalistic "criteria did not allow him to go further than that."

and found,

ON THESE GROUNDS

The court

By judgment rendered after due hearing of the parties and after having deliberated according to the law;

In view of the interlocutory order of October 3, 2007;

Declares no objection to the pleadings submitted by Philippe KARSENTY;

Overturns the deferred judgment and dismisses the charges against Philippe KARSENTY;

Dismisses the demands of the civil parties.

Go read the entire translation. Dr Landes is going to comment on the text of the decision in the future, so I'll be posting updates.

Via Maria,
Jonathan Rosemblum writes, Pallywood: For once, the good guys win. The article summarizes the details of Enderlin's nefarious blood libel (emphasis added), one of the most harmful anti-Israel propaganda videos ever made:

Enderlin distributed the France 2 clip free of charge, and it was subsequently broadcast thousands of times. The image of the terrified boy cowering behind his father quickly assumed iconic status. It featured prominently in mass anti-Israel demonstrations in Europe, where it was juxtaposed to the image of the Jewish boy with his hands raised in the Warsaw ghetto.

To heighten its impact, Palestinian TV cropped into the France 2-clip pictures of an Israeli soldier firing. The image of "Muhammed al-Dura" beckoning other Palestinian children to join him as martyrs in paradise features prominently in the Palestinian death cult. His name was invoked by the Ramallah mob that disemboweled two Israeli reservists, in Osama bin Laden's 9/11 video, and in that of Daniel Pearl's beheading.

France2 has played the footage thousands of times over the years (and the footage is still played by the international media as if it were true) but to the best of my knowledge have not reported on the court decision in their newscasts. I watch the France2 newscasts almost daily.

The whole Enderlin footage was a lie:

From the general to the particular. The sole footage of "Muhammed al-Dura's death" was that of Palestinian cameraman Talul Abu-Rahmeh working for France 2. Abu-Rahmeh is a liar. On October 3, 2000, he testified under oath to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights that there had been 45 minutes of sustained Israeli fire directed at the man and boy. As an experienced war reporter, he could verify that they could have only been hit by Israeli fire. Abu-Rahmeh claimed to have filmed 27 minutes of the fusillade. Later he told German documentary filmmaker Esther Schapira that he had filmed six minutes.

We now know that the boy could have only been hit by Palestinian fire. The story of a 45-minute fusillade was on its face laughable: Had Israeli soldiers wanted to kill Palestinians, they had dozens of rioters immediately in front of the Israeli stockade from which to choose. Moreover, Abu-Rahmeh's entire footage of the man and boy consisted of 58 seconds comprised of six spliced scenes.

The rest of his 27 minutes of footage - only 18 minutes of which France2 produced when ordered to do so by the French appeals court - consists of obviously staged scenes, according to three veteran French journalists who viewed it. The "al-Dura" footage was shot in the same area that Abu-Rahmeh and other Palestinian cameramen spent the day shooting such staged scenes.

Abu-Rahmeh once declared, "I went into journalism to carry on the fight for my people," and was certainly not above employing his camera for a bit of deception. A Reuters clip from the day shows him filming another staged scene involving a Molotov cocktail. That scene was inexplicably omitted from the rushes produced in the French court.

Whether Charles Enderlin knew from the first that his voice-over was false is unclear. That he lies is certain. He drew for gullible journalists a false map of Netzarim Junction, which wrongly placed the Israeli position in a direct line of fire to the man and the boy. Worse yet, he repeatedly claimed that he had edited out the last three seconds of the "al-Dura" footage because the boy's death throes were too painful to watch.

Enderlin was ridiculed in the courtroom:

Enderlin drew twitters of laughter in the French courtroom when he offered that perhaps the crowd was anticipating the boy's death.

There were no such death throes. In those last three seconds, the boy lifts his head, peeks out from under his arm (with which he is shielding his eyes) prior to resuming a prone position -- albeit with his leg still held aloft. A nearby mob chants, "the boy is dead, the boy is dead," before he even lies prone the first time. Enderlin drew twitters of laughter in the French courtroom when he offered that perhaps the crowd was anticipating the boy's death.

What has the French media done? They're circling the wagons and claiming that Enderlin is a victim - along with the Palestinians - of the Jews.

The word perfidy doesn't begin to describe it.

Dr Landes and Yaacov Ben Moshe have been my podcast guests, most recently on May 20, the day before the final verdict. You can listen to the podcast here.



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Labels: AlDura, France2, journalism, media, propaganda

Via Instapundit and Memeorandum, Mark Morford goes off - waaay off - the spiritual deep end,

Barack Obama isn't really one of us. Not in the normal way, anyway.
...
To them I say, all right, you want to know what it is? The appeal, the pull, the ethereal and magical thing that seems to enthrall millions of people from all over the world, that keeps opening up and firing into new channels of the culture normally completely unaffected by politics?

Ok, guys, before we continue reading let's cue to Caine's theme from the old Kung Fu series:


While the music plays (the video only shows the photo of Caine, so you can read on while the music plays), let's read the good part:

Here's where it gets gooey. Many spiritually advanced people I know (not coweringly religious, mind you, but deeply spiritual) identify Obama as a Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to lead us not merely to new foreign policies or health care plans or whatnot, but who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet, of relating and connecting and engaging with this bizarre earthly experiment. These kinds of people actually help us evolve. They are philosophers and peacemakers of a very high order, and they speak not just to reason or emotion, but to the soul.

Forget Chris Matthews's thrill up his leg: I never thought I'd say this, but this article may be ushering a new era of fellational propagandistic political prose with a New-Age twist.

My joy is complete.

Then I checked out Joyner's post and it turns out Morford was rather low-key about the Obamamessiah - some folks have worked themselves up to a screaming orgasm (marked by the CAPS at the end):

Through the miracle of Google, I see a discussion from February that points out that, "There is one candidate still left in this race who is an Earth Ally. His name is Barack Obama. Yes, thats right. Barack Obama is an Earth Ally. He is a light worker. He is a being of light. He is not conscious of this, but subconsciously he is. His speeches of change and hope are evidence of this. He is the candidate the Galactic Federation of Light would like to win." It is also noted that "Obama is a Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) member. The CFR IS THE ILLUMINATI!"

Cassandra posted on the holy crap a while ago, but when it comes to the Morford article Jay noticed that No Quarter's asking,

If Obama is a "lightworker" then what does that make anyone who opposes him, even mildly?

Good question. As Jonah Goldberg puts it,

Obama willing, my re-education facility will be somewhere in the mountains, with a nice view.

Add tango lessons and tango shoes for mine.

Related
Obama, Political Viagra and Obama’s Race an Asset for Young Voters
And more...
Gods for the New Age



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Labels: Barack Obama, Democrats, Election2008, journalism, politics, propaganda

Nidra Poller writes in the WSJ European edition Al-Durra Case Revisited,

It's hard to exaggerate the significance of Mohammed al-Durra, the 12-year-old Palestinian boy allegedly killed by Israeli bullets on Sept. 30, 2000. The iconic image of the terrified child crouching behind his father helped sway world opinion against the Jewish state and fueled the last Intifada.

It's equally hard, then, to exaggerate the significance of last week's French court ruling that called the story into doubt. Not just whether the Israeli military shot the boy, but whether the whole incident may have been staged for propaganda purposes. If so, it would be one of the most harmful put-up jobs in media history.

You probably didn't hear this news. International media lapped up the televised report of al-Durra's shooting on France's main state-owned network, France 2. Barely a peep was heard, however, when the Paris Court of Appeal ruled in a suit brought by the network against the founder of a media watchdog group. The judge's verdict, released Thursday, said that Philippe Karsenty was within his rights to call the France 2 report a "hoax," overturning a 2006 decision that found him guilty of defaming the network and its Mideast correspondent, Charles Enderlin. France 2 has appealed to the country's highest court.

Judge Laurence Trébucq did more than assert Mr. Karsenty's right to free speech. In overturning a lower court's ruling, she said the issues he raised about the original France 2 report were legitimate. While Mr. Karsenty couldn't provide absolute proof of his claims, the court ruled that he marshalled a "coherent mass of evidence" and "exercised in good faith his right to free criticism." The court also found that Talal Abu Rahma, the Palestinian cameraman for France 2 who was the only journalist to capture the scene and the network's crown witness in this case, can't be considered "perfectly credible."
...
Judge Trébucq said that Mr. Karsenty "observed inexplicable inconsistencies and contradictions in the explanations by Charles Enderlin

France2's reaction? They haven't reported on the decision at all. The inconsistencies and contradictions remain.

Prior posts on the Al Dura case here. Last week's podcast here.

Don't miss also Richard Landes's Pallywood,




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Labels: AlDura, Israel, Middle East, propaganda

As I mentioned yesterday the Court of Appeals overturned a libel verdict won by France 2 television. According to Reuters,

The Paris court ruled in favour of media critic Philippe Karsenty, who called into question the veracity of the report, but it also said that it did not rule out that journalists at France 2 had acted professionally.

Karsenty, head of an online media commentary site, had appealed a 2006 decision which found libellous his statement that the station's Israel correspondent had orchestrated images which later became a symbol for Palestinian militants.

In February, Karsenty presented judges with new evidence including a ballistics report and footage from other sources, which he said proved 12-year-old Mohammed al-Durra's death had been staged.

The court said in its ruling the new footage "did not allow to rule out the opinion of (France 2) professionals," but it also rejected claims by state prosecutor Antoine Bartoli that the new evidence was "neither complete nor serious."

France2's newscasts have not mentioned the decision at all; the only place in their website that mentions it is Enderlin's own blog where he sticks to his guns and says he's going to appeal. Enderlin wasn't even present at the supposed shooting. Dr. Richard Landes notices that comments to the contrary are not allowed.

My friends Nidra Poller and Erik Svane are in Paris.

While one can objectively say that France2's credibility has imploded, the media - both in France and in the USA - is totally ignoring this fact. Erik sent this article from Liberation, Reportage sur la mort d'un enfant palestinien: Charles Enderlin débouté en appel, which repeats Enderlin's assetion that his fake story is true. Erik comments,

Notice also how they end the article by writing "that he didn't die at that exact moment" suggesting nothing more than perfidious playing around with the details of what is a very real tragedy. Whereas PK is really saying that his movements prove that not only did the boy not die
at all, he was just pretending to be killed in a deliberately-written script...

Nidra:

The joke is that the media didn't cover the trials, didn't consult the documentation, didn't inform readers that there was a controversry. Now they suddenly jump in, report the verdict, and then reverse it in their sly little way.

Every article I've seen in French includes a paragraph that re-reports the death of Mohamed al Dura more or less as Enderlin told it in September 2000. So all these journalists who never came to see what was really happening are now smarter than the court, smarter than Karsenty who won, smarter than their readers who will sooner or later catch on!

Excuse the profanity, but that's more than smart, that's smartass!

Here in the US, none of the major newspapers have anything on this decision. If you do a google news search you find that most of the news stories come from Israeli newspapers. A few bloggers are writing about it, among them Yid With Lid, who wants to know where in the world is Muhammad al-Dura. Pamela also posted Nidra's report, where Nidra noticed how the spin started immediately. ShrinkWrapped expects that the media posturing will continue indefinitely.

Which is exactly what the media is doing.

This is a disgrace: the image of Mohammed al-Dura shot and "dead" has been played thousands of times over and over. As Scott Johnson (via Powerline) said earlier this year,

Based on film footage provided by a Palestinian cameraman, Enderlin's report has become infamous among students of Arab propaganda both for its destructive effects and for its probable falsity.

Richard Landes explains,

In the asymmetrical warfare of global Jihad against the West, the "weak" side treats the media of the "strong" side as a theater of war, and no single case shows the Western journalism's vulnerability to this kind of manipulation better than the Al Durah affair. Nothing illustrates the dysfunctions of our media more than their pervasive refusal to reconsider this case, despite the amount of damage it has produced. Nothing endangers Western democracies more than mis-information, and news broadcasts, products of a free and honest media, are the eyes and ears of the civil polity. No creature, no matter how powerful, can survive if its senses betray it, especially in a war zone.

Pajamas Media also has an article by Phillipe Karsenty where he explains what the decision means:

Our victory today was a victory for freedom — the freedom to think and to speak one’s mind; the freedom to question what one is told; and the freedom to disbelieve the solemn pronouncements of others when the individual concludes that his reasoning is correct and that the state and the state-run media — and all of the institutions they represent — are wrong.

The al-Dura lie is an assault on our ability to think, to criticize, to evaluate, and finally to reject information — especially the right to reject information on which we base our most cherished assumptions. One of Europe's most cherished assumptions is that Israel is a vicious Nazi-like entity that deliberately murders Palestinian Arab children. Moreover, polls conducted in Europe have identified Israel as the greatest threat to world peace, greater than Iran and North Korea, Pakistan and Syria. The al-Dura hoax is one of the pillars on which these assumptions rely.

Phyllis Chesler states,

There are no stories (at least, not yet), in which the mainstream Western media admit that in the past, they have allowed themselves to be fooled, over and over again, by the narrative of Palestinian Victimhood and Israeli Evil because it suited them–the facts be damned.

Expect nothing more from the media.

Update
One article at The Media Line, via Siggy.



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Labels: AlDura, France2, Israel, propaganda

This is what Chavez is telling the Venezuelan public about the USA:

Here's the translation, incoherence and all. If you use this translation, please credit me:

"This [Venezuela's] percentage is one of the highest in the continent for health spending. Do you know where the government spends almost nothing on health? In the United States. It's all pure capitalism, compadre. Nothing on health and nothing on social security.

"See how much poverty and misery have increased in the US in the last few years.

"That's why today the President of the US was saying, when talking about Fidel's decision, or was asking himself what it meant for the Cuban people, that there was hope for the Cuban people to stop suffering!

"What must be said, what must be done about, in my criteria, is to take the President of the US's words and return them to him. Because, if something has increased in these years in the US, it's the suffering of its people. Social crisis, violence breaking out everywhere, hunger, misery, drug trafficking, drug addiction, businesses going broke, thousands and thousands homeless, economic crisis, economic recession, unemployment!

"At least this gentleman will be leaving soon. At least, because that one's really leaving.

"Uh, Ah, Bush si se va, (Bush is leaving).

"Hopefully there will come a government in the US that instead of spending, look, it's millions and millions of dollars on military spending to invade peoples, to build atomic bombs; They are building weapons for a gallactic war, we don't know against whom, against the Martians, maybe, the gallaxy war. Missile shields, and I don't know what many other things, invisible planes.

"But it's that they spend thousands of millions of dollars on military spending, neglecting their own people. Hopefully there will soon come a government in the US that will take care of that people, the one we also love, the one we also respect, because it's a people which deserves respect, they are human beings same as us."

As the Noticias 24 article notes, Chavez forgot to mention his own military spending.

What's even funnier that this crap Chavez spewed out, is the comments section. Among the few clean comments,

Hopefully there will soon come a government in the US that will take care of that people
Take the revolution to them
leave us alone,
we're unworthy of all this privilege!

Humor aside, every time Chavez has a chance he's telling Venezuelans that there are severe food shortages in the US because Costco is limiting the sale of commercial sized 20 lbs bags of rice (not the retail size bags) to four per customer.

These are the bags we're talking about:

Costco has limited the amount each customer can purchase to 4 per customer per trip to the store.

And now for a reality check:
Take a look at the lines for milk in Venezuela:

A las 7:15 de la mañana cerca del estadio de Guaraguao-Anzoategui (el Estado donde actualmente se extrae y procesa mas petroleo), la gente fue ubicada en una estructura metalica para hacer la cola que le permitiria comprar dos kilos de leche por persona. La venta estuvo a cargo de Pdvsa.
My translation:

At 7:15AM near Guaraguao-Anzoategui stadium (in the state which presently produces and processes the most oil), people were placed in a metal structure to stand in line for buying two kilos of milk per person. PDVSA was in charge of the sale.

While this is going on, this article at Nueva Prensa talks about how many people in Cambalache are living off what they can scavenge at the local dump,

Ortiz indicó que pese a que la venta de cartón, el papel y el vidrio se ha reducido, otros productos como el plástico de las botellas, equipos de música, sillas y poncheras se ha incrementado, generando ganancias monetarias para sus recolectores.
Ortiz stated that even when the sale of cardboard, paper and glass has decreased, other items, such as plastic bottles, musical instruments, and chairs, has increased generating income for the scavengers.

Rest assured, sandalistas everywhere will spin this as an exemplary ecologically aware miracle brought about by the Bolivarian Revolution.

Welcome, Instapundit readers. Here are my other posts on Latin America this week:
Expect more food shortages and black markets in Bolivia, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba
Paraguay: Fernando Lugo, Hugo's latest buddy
The Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean
and The Puerto Rican Pre-Raphaelites.
And on a different subject, this week we talked to Expelled producer Mark Matthis in our podcast.



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Labels: Hugo Chavez, propaganda, Venezuela

Last week I predicted

expect another fellational report soon since "the island prepares for commemorations to mark Che Guevara's death 40 years ago."

I didn't have a long wait:
On Friday: Che: The icon and the ad

Today: Hero. Rebel. Revolutionary. These are words one often hears in association with Ernesto Che Guevara. And, of course, reporting about the compulsory attendance rallies as if they were voluntary: Cuba pays tribute to Che Guevara

Other commemorations are being held in Bolivia and Venezuela, countries where the Argentine-born hero was active.

In today's video, which must have been narrated while the worshipful reporter was kneeling down: Forty years after the death of Che Guevara some of the people who fought alongside him have paid tribute. Starting with the opening words,

The Argentine revolutionary, Ernesto Che Guevara, a visionary, a man of ideas

But the reporter doesn't stop there:

the Argentine doctor... after the victorious revolution in Cuba... he is still remembered in Bolivia with affection by those who fought alongside him... but the poverty and injustice he fought against have not gone away

Wait - there's more:

If you go to the Spanish BBC page, the Beeb actually has a video of testimonials to go with the Remembering Che memorial page, complete with flash quotes from their beloved:
"Hay que endurecerse sin jamas perder la ternura" (We must toughen up without losing tenderness);
"Seamos realistas y hagamos lo imposible" (Let's be realistic and do the impossible);
"Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado" (I'd rather die standing than live on my knees);
"El conocimento nos hace responsables" (Knowledge makes us responsible);
"Si no hay cafe para todos no habra para nadie" (If there's not enough coffee for all, there won't be any for anyone).

The Beeb forgot this words, also from Che: "We don't need proof to execute a man. We only need proof that it's necessary to execute him. A revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate."

The Beeb buried in a corner a link to El Che, el déspota which talks about Che's executions, glossed over by saying that Che wasn't perfect because he was only human.

The Beeb has paid tribute indeed, as does the Tehran Times

Not one name of the 216 documented victims of Che Guevara in Cuba in 1957-1959 (PDF file).

Not a word about Che's homophobia:

He thinks about that cruel ritual he has witnessed so many times, when the guards strip all the prisoners naked and parade the most handsome in front of the newly arrived inmates to find out who among them is gay. He thinks about how anyone who gets aroused is taken away for a special mandatory "rehabilitation" program that includes the application of electrical currents to the genitals.

(From Carlos Eire's Waiting for Snow in Havana, page 256).

Then there's Che's specialty:

Che specialized in psychological torture. Many prisoners were yanked out of their cells, bound, blindfolded and stood against The Wall. The seconds ticked off. The condemned could hear the rifle bolts snapping ..... finally – FUEGO!!

BLAM!! But the shots were blanks. In his book, "Tocayo," Cuban freedom fighter Tony Navarro describes how he watched a man returned to his cell after such an ordeal. He'd left bravely, grim-faced as he shook hands with his fellow condemned. He came back mentally shattered, curling up in a corner of the squalid cell for days.

While the Beeb shows plenty of photos, it doesn't show this one:

Humberto Fontova speaks on Che Guevara and the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him. Watch his entire lecture - all forty-five minutes.

And by the way, Che didn't have a medical degree. Fontova has documented that on the last day of his life Che admitted he was not a doctor.

The Monkey Tennis Centre has more on The BBC’s vile infatuation with Che Guevara. Blue Crab Boulevard is posting. Babalu has more. Don't miss Marc Masferrer's essay on Che Guevara's bloody legacy.

As Paul Berman said, The cult of Ernesto Che Guevara is an episode in the moral callousness of our time.



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Labels: BBC, Che Guevara, Communism, Cuba, propaganda

E. Buki of Pamphlet Primer and Bleuet left a most interesting comment to yesterday's post, Shilling for Auntie:

I have to thank the British taxpayers as my son was born on their bill. My wife is a British citizen and has her rights to the National Health Service. Never mind the incompetence that the midwives in the NHS hospital displayed in not helping open the passages my son passed through and which nearly suffocated him before his first breathe. The point is that while my wife and I waited for her cervix to open to the optimal metric width I watched a talk TV program on the BBC. The usual complaints about US military power in Iraq was discussed and when a retired member of the British Armed Forces called in to provide his opinion something approximating this exchange occurred.

Host: So what you are saying is the US did not go into Iraq simply because of WMD but because of sanctions against Iraq that were not being upheld by the UN?

Caller: That is correct.

Host: Well then why hasn't the US gone in to enforce the sanctions against Israel?

Caller: Oh G-d, well Israel's Army isn't like Iraq's Army was.

Host: So, what you are saying is that since the Israeli Army could protect itself against the Americans that is why the US is leaving them alone and even supporting them.

Caller: Uh yeah, I think that makes sense.

It’s this sort of misinformation that British Television should now be made famous for. I would have liked the host of this program to be reminded that there are no UN sanctions against Israel.

I am sorry I can't remember the program's name but it ran on February 16th 2006. I don't recall which BBC channel either. I was focused on more meaningful issues in my family life.

Another interesting method used to install political agendas is typified by the following. I sat amazed as a documentary shown with footage taken from news, private cameras and security cameras told the story of Britain's single largest traffic mishap. Traffic became backed up on the M-1 and M-5 and G-d knows how many other major expressways. An accident had caused the mother of all pileups and back-ups on these major arteries as well as the side roads leading to them. Due to the backup of traffic and lack of routes off the highway those scheduled to take over in the towers of one of London's airports could not make it to work. Those who had been working the tower all night were forced to remain although exhausted. Passenger planes collided due to this, which further aggravated the state of transportation in the nation. People were stranded overnight on these transportation venues. I think they called this documentary "The Day Britain Stood Still". It was something of the sort. Lawsuits and sackings ensued from this mess and even years later all involved were traumatized by the deaths in the air, the deaths on the road and the deaths of those who had been stuck over night on the highways in freezing weather. It wasn't until the story went black that one was informed they had watched a mockumentary designed to teach the people of Britain what could happen if one or the other political party had its way in deciding how much money went to the Ministry of Transportation. It’s not the same as distorting the news or excluding relevant information but it is similar in its intent to express a bias as truth.

Thank you, E. B.

Labels: BBC, news, propaganda, UK

Media Mythbusters Blog has inagurated their Media Mythbusters Wiki Page

This is great news, and I'll be visiting often.

Labels: blogs, media, propaganda

While Chavez is busy suing Globovision after having closed RCTV, Globovision continues to produce and post videos for RCTV on You Tube twice a day. Here's yesterday evening's (in Spanish):

Tamara Slusniys explains that the RCTV webpage, El Observador, which had been shut down from a DOS attack is now back on line El Observador. The actors from one of the RCTV comedy shows is taking their show on the road showing on screen one of the shows they couldn't broadcast when the station was closed by the government.

On Wednesday there was a huge demonstration of students who went to the National Assembly. As the WaPo correctly explains, there have been no opposition lawmakers since 2005. Daniel explains that the students are Settling into a protest routine, Venezuela style

El Universal has a slide show. This man's wearing a sign that reads, "Sorry for the inconvenience. We're working for your freedom!"

Of course, a cadena followed, and this is no news: Chavez calls protesting students 'pawns of Washington'.

Via Miguel, a new blog The end of Venezuela as I know it. That blogger is certainly no "pawn of Washington", or of anyone for that matter. But not everyone is as strong: Gustavo Coronel writes about The Dark Hour of Gustavo Cisneros.

Here's A priceless statement on the RCTV shutdown by a Government adviser. Indeed, as Daniel states in his article for Index on censorship, The non-renewal of the licence of the main opposition station is part of a broader, worrying, trend in Chavista Venezuela

AP has an article, Venezuela seeks leftist defense bloc

President Hugo Chavez called for the creation of a common defense pact between Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia, while the leftist Latin American bloc announced the creation of a development bank to finance joint projects.

which is something I've been posting on for a while, but now the rethoric's a little hotter,

Chavez said Wednesday that the four-nation Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, or ALBA, which began as a socialist-leaning trade group, should cooperate militarily to become more independent of U.S. influence. "It seems to be the moment to establish a joint defense strategy," Chavez said. He called for joint military aid as well as intelligence and counterintelligence cooperation "to prepare our people for defense so that nobody makes any mistake with us."

Austin Bay's Washington Times op-ed looks at Venezuela's current land claims against Colombia, Guyana and Holland (because of Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire) and asks, A second Falklands?

One thing is clear, Hugo's networking involves Bolivia, and terrorist-supporting states:

Update: The Economist says Much though Evo Morales (left) might want to be another Hugo Chávez, he will not find it easy

Brazil's Senate is not too happy over recent developments: Stratfor has an excellent article, Mercosur and Brazil: The Venezuela Question and Quitting Time

Summary: Despite recent conciliatory gestures between the presidents of Brazil and Venezuela, Brazil's Senate has shown a new determination to block full membership for Venezuela in the trade group Mercosur as part of the fallout from the revocation of Radio Caracas TV's license. If Mercosur denies Venezuela, it could become a more viable trade group, though that greatly depends on Argentina's stance following elections later this year. Ultimately, Brazil will have to leave Mercosur if it does not become a more effective trade body.

Hugo's even ordering Fidel around, Get out of your trackies, Chavez tells Castro

"I believe the time has come to return to wearing the uniform," said Mr Chavez, a staunch supporter and protege of Castro.

"We want you in uniform ... That's an order," he joked.

I guess Hugo doesn't understand the dotty dictator's fashion sense.

Update Excellent round-ups at A colombo-americana's perspective



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Labels: Bolivia, Brazil, censorship, Communism, Holland, Hugo Chavez, news, propaganda, RCTV, TV, Venezuela

When I get up in the morning I never have to worry about having nothing to post about. To the contrary, between the New Jersey and local news, American politics, the Latin Americans, the French and Europeans, the hundreds of books and CDs in the house, and the movies playing in theaters and at TCM - and, of course, shoes - my habitual morning dilemma is not not having something to post about but rather having too much to post about.

And then sometimes the subject for a post just falls on my lap.

Yesterday Siggy commented, Immorality is a powerful drug.
His comment referred to the MSM's coddling of Chavez, Castro, Arafat, Che, et al

To now anticipate any kind of appropriate response from the MSM is an absurd thought.

The press has tried mightily for decades to turn night into day. Despites decades of failure, they will forge ahead.

Immorality is a powerful drug.

Siggy is a very dear friend whose blog I visit daily and on whose support I rely on for my podcasts. I owe him much.

As it is customary for him, he's come up with a most insightful comment.

Because in all decisions, big and small, the question is, what is the right thing to do: Not the convenient thing. Not the fashionable thing. Not the thing that will get you the most attention or the most readership or the most celebrity and acclaim from the cool kids, whoever they may be.

Doing the right thing boils down to morality, to doing the moral thing. Doing the right thing implies that the person has a moral compass that will lead them to moral actions.

By consistently avoiding doing the right thing, a person ends up sinking into immorality. An immoral person's moral compass is broken. This breakdown means that, like the picture of Dorian Gray, a gradual process corrodes the soul and blinds the spirit.

Journalists tossed away what moral compass, broken as it was, they had to begin with.

For over a century the press has willfully ignored morality and has consistently brought out stories with ever-greater depravity and evil. Mind you, not stories of depravity and evil, not because they were writing about evil things, but because by avoiding the reality of evil they have facilitated the evil doings of others.

By doing so, they have descended into immorality.

While Walter Duranty wasn't the first, and is certainly not the last, he is the classic example of the immoral journalist. He attained seldom-reached heights of immorality:

What we do know is that, in March 1933, while telling his readers that there had indeed been "serious food shortages" in the Ukraine, he was quick to reassure them that "there [was] no actual starvation." There had been no "deaths from starvation," he soothed, merely "widespread mortality from diseases due to malnutrition." So that was all right then.

But, unlike Khrushchev, Duranty, a Pulitzer Prize winner, no less, was keeping count - in the autumn of 1933 he is recorded as having told the British Embassy that ten million had died.

Lest you think that statement is exaggerated, check the footnote in the article, and also read The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression a book I highly recommend, but suggest that you don't read it before going to bed at night. The writers estimate that communists killed between 85 million and 100 million people in the 20th century. I specifically say that communists killed, not that Communism killed, because the ideology needed the executioners.

Duranty in the 1930s was the precursor of hundreds of present-day collaborators who under the guise of journalism continue to promote and publicize dictators, big and small, everywhere in the world. As regular readers to my blog know, Matt Lauer, Barbara Walters, Charles Enderlin, and dozens other journalists go and report without mentioning dissidents, concentration camps, censorship, Hezbollah's Israeli casualties, and whatever else doesn't fit their glowing image of the dictator du jour. By doing so, they show they are not good men, they show how immoral they are. As John Milton once wrote,

None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license.

They don't love freedom. If they did, they would be on the streets of Caracas talking to the people protesting the closing of TV stations as their colleague Adam Housely does. They would be asking about the hundreds of Cuban dissidents in concentration camps. They would name the hundreds of people that Che executed. They would be showing the real story about Hezbollah. They would shed some light on the manifestations of 21st century communism.

Instead, they propagandize for all the above so they can self-congratulate each other, and earn the acclaim of the Left and the license (in every sense) of the regimes they continue to support.

They do it in part because, as Bob Godwin was saying the other day.

the more unpleasant reality impinges, the more denial is necessary.

Bob's commenter Cryptic Life pointed out,

The media is often guided by principles which de-emphasize the truth in service of sales or politics, often to the point where it becomes quite difficult to make valid comparisons

I'll leave to Siggy, Bob, and the Sanity Squad to examine the causes for this denial, but as I see it, it is due to a blindness to the humanity in others.

A blindness that leads to immorality.

And, as Siggy said, Immorality is a powerful drug.



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Labels: Communism, Cuba, Hizbollah, journalism, propaganda, Sigmund Carl and Alfred, Venezuela

Cuba shows new images of Castro still wearing his jogging suit.

As in previous recent "apperances" Fidel's suits had not come back from alterations or the cleaners, and he was posing with officials from Communist countries.

Matt Lauer's in Cuba today and wants your questions. Maybe Fidel will drop by, wearing Addidas. Maybe Matt could ask him about organized terror groups in Cuba.

And if he doesn't show up, there's a good question for Matt.

Check out the blogburst.


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Labels: Bloggers United for Cuban Liberty, Communism, Cuba, Fidel Castro, propaganda, Today Show, TV

After a week's worth of protests against the closing of RCTV, Hugo's PR campaign kicks in: Chavez supporters back TV closure by marching in Caracas, and the The Guardian has a letter signed by prominent Brits who say that,

What is truly amazing is that it has taken five years for the Chavez administration to take action in any way against media that helped carry out this coup

Belmont Club notices how this line is echoed by many,

You would have thought they were singing from the same scoresheet, but maybe they just see things the same way.

My own personal opinion is that anyone would have to be a fool or on the Left not to recognize an incipient tyrant in Hugo Chavez. That does not necessarily mean that his opponents, like the owners of RCTV are honest or upstanding men. They may very well be thugs. That doesn't change the fact that Hugo Chavez is a thug as well. But it seems clear to me that the Left's criteria for judging fascisms is entirely partisan. Although they use such words as "democratically elected" or "legitimate" to justify Chavez, none of these words are really operative, except as protective coloration. What matters is that he is "their guy". He is their thug. Principle, clearly on the Left and possibly among conservatives too, runs a far second to belief.

Meanwhile, Daniel in Venezuela aks, Fiasco at the Chavista march? Take a look at the picture

The one on the left is from Globovision, which Chavez is now suing, and the one on the right is from the new TVes, which replaced RCTV.

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Labels: censorship, Communism, Hugo Chavez, Latin America, propaganda, Venezuela

Via Daniel,

The WaPo says that Protests in Venezuela Reinvigorate Opposition
Rallies by Free Press Advocates Deride Chávez Over TV License

Authorities here say that RCTV supported a coup that dislodged Chávez for two days in 2002 and consistently violated a range of telecommunications regulations, leading the government not to renew its broadcast license when it expired.

But press freedom groups note that the station has not been officially sanctioned, nor have its owners or managers been charged with conspiracy against the state. Other private stations that were harshly anti-Chávez but have toned down critical coverage avoided the same fate, as communications Minister William Lara readily acknowledged in an interview broadcast Friday on CNN's Spanish-language service.

Polls show that 65 to 80 percent of Venezuelan respondents disagreed with the government's decision to end RCTV's concession, though many were simply upset that they wouldn't be able to see some of their favorite soap operas.

The widespread dissatisfaction has reenergized an opposition movement that lost much of its momentum after its efforts to recall Chávez were defeated in 2004 and after its decision to boycott parliamentary elections in 2005 left it without representation in the National Assembly.

Venezuela row over TV shutdown spills to Internet
Enjoying the moment: chavismo on the defensive

Waiting for Lula: Cardoso asks Lula to advocate democracy in Venezuela

Don't miss You Tube and Adam Housely

More blogging later

Update: Slowly The World Turns
Hugo Chavez Versus YouTube


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Labels: censorship, Communism, Hugo Chavez, Latin America, propaganda, Venezuela

May 25 article at the American Libraries On Line website (emphasis added): Library Film Festival Riles Anti-Castro Community

The Princeton (N.J.) Public Library came under fire in mid-May over the inclusion of two documentaries about Cuba among 14 films in its 2007 Princeton Human Rights Film Festival. The controversy resulted in a shouting match at the May 12 screening of ¡Salud! What Puts Cuba on the Map in the Quest for Global Health, as well as accusations in the conservative blogosphere that the library was disseminating pro-Castro propaganda.

PPL Director and ALA President Leslie Burger told American Libraries that the purpose of the festival, now in its third year, is to highlight "what we think are human rights issues like the right to clean water or the right to a safe environment or the right to clean air." Emphasizing that the 2 1/2 day event is "not about the human rights records of countries around the world," Burger said that the film-selection committee chose ¡Salud! to spark discussion about what constitutes a quality public health system.

Which Cuba doesn't have.

Click on the photo.

But area resident Faustia Wertz blogged May 8 that she saw PPL's choice of ¡Salud! as well as The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil. as indicative of the library's indifference to Castro's human rights record. "People started organizing letter-writing campaigns," Burger explained, "pressuring us to remove the films from the screening list, which we refused to do." She said the library also refused to "uninvite" Ellen Bernstein of Pastors for Peace, who is a frequent traveler to Cuba, as a speaker after the ¡Salud! screening.

"The thing about the two films is not that they're being shown. I have no objection to that. The facts on Cuba are not the facts that were shown," Wertz told the May 18 Princeton Packet.

A couple of things here:
That's Mrs. Wertz to you. Mrs. Fausta Wertz, while you're at it.

At no time did I ask that Ellen Bernstein be disinvited.

And I'm not an "area resident", I am a taxpayer in Princeton Township, whose taxes support the Festival.

"To have a film festival that doesn't address the blatant and egregious human rights violations in Cuba seems really unbalanced," agreed Maria C. Werlau of Summit, New Jersey, and executive director of Cuba Archive.

"If we want to have a discussion about people having public health care, we have to choose a film that allows us to have that discussion," Burger asserted. "Unfortunately because Cuba appeared in the title of that film, we never had that discussion." She added that PPL would continue holding the Human Rights Film Festival, "broadening our community involvement in it. We're willing to take the heat."

One suggestion, if the Princeton Public Library is calling its film festival the Princeton Human Rights Film Festival, it might be a good idea not to ignore the human rights abuses in the systems it defends, such as the medical apartheid system prevalent in Cuba, when three eye-witnesses in the audience wanted to talk about it.

The Princeton Packet at least emailed me before quoting me, and managed to spell my name correctly.

You can read my account of the PHRFF here.

Labels: Cuba, health care, Princeton, propaganda

UK lecturers support Israel boycott call British Faculty Association Votes to Boycott 2 Israeli Universities

Today's round-up:
Malasia's highest court denies a woman the right to convert from Islam (h/t 762 justice)

"My carbon footprint's a lot bigger than yours" - way bigger!

Is this picture from Atlanta? North Carolina's reseach triangle? Someplace in Florida?

News The Husband probably won't want to hear: the new Saks 5th Ave shoe department will be so big it'll have its own zip code, and a VIP room, too. Ferragamo's right across the street, also ready and waiting.

Run, Fred, run!

A group of Cuban doctors working in Namibia who sought asylum in the US had to go into hiding... oh, wait, but let's keep an open mind!

Janet-my-personal-trainer has nothing to fear.

What an Anchoress does

1986 Redux: Proposed Senate Immigration Reform Repeats Past Failure

Robbing Rector
Does the WSJ read before they editorialize?

Bush Finally Fires Up the Base

Labels: Cuba, Fred Thompson, Friends I Haven't Met Yet, Global Warming, Great Britain, Iraq, Islam, Princeton, propaganda, shoes, The Anchoress, UK

Updated with a sneak preview of Sicko
Obi's Sister sent me the link to the AP story: Castro Says He's Better, Weight Stable

Fidel Castro's recovery from intestinal surgery 10 months ago was delayed because the first of several operations he had went badly, the communist leader said in a statement that gave the most detailed account of his health since August.

Castro, 80, said in the Wednesday statement that he is now eating solid food and improving after "many months" of intravenous feeding. It was the most information released about Castro's condition since his Aug. 13 birthday, when he asked Cubans to be optimistic but not rule out possible "adverse news."

Notice how it's a statement, not a personal appearance, a press conference, a phone call, or anything such.

The WaPo has a picture of Fidel reading the newspaper, which, as they notice, is undated.

Michael Moore, who's at the Cannes Film Festival and

praises the Socialized healthcare system that let 15,000 die from heat in 2003 (many waiting for ice water in hospital hallways).

(and who has a vested interest in not having to pay for his lifestyle choices) would be shocked to hear that El Comandante was at death's door because the excellent Cuban healthcare system (the same excellent Cuban healthcare system that could not treat Gabriel Garcia Marquez's cancer so he had to go to LA for chemo and radiation) botched up not once, or twice, but three times, or maybe more,

A January story in the Spanish newspaper El Pais described Castro as being in "very grave" condition after at least three failed operations for diverticular disease. The Cuban government denied that report.

After which, the excellent Cuban healthcare system had to be set aside and they called cancer specialist Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido, and Castro required medications that were paid by the Spanish taxpayers.

But hey, it's free healthcare!

Obvoiously all of this stress is getting to him - the previously uniformed Fidel's letting himself go, perhaps inspired by Michael,

"I don't have time now for films and photos that require me to constantly cut my hair, beard and mustache, and get spruced up every day," he said, evidently referring to the preparation required for some of the official images.

Here's a picture of Michael. Apparently Fidel can't let go of the newspaper.

Meanwhile, Fidel Castro Appeals for Investment in Health Rather Than in Arms, or more specifically, invest in his tripe.

Update: Via Manuel, LiveLeak has a segment from Sicko, where Michael More is in an NHS hospital and says, "In British hospitals, instead of money going in to the cashier's window, money comes out!"


Update, Friday 25 May


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In other, more relevant Latin American news, Congress should approve a free trade agreement with Colombia, and Investor's Business Daily explains why:
Colombia Warning

Americans might not realize it, but Colombia has shown great friendship with the U.S, at a high cost to itself.

- It's lost 2,658 of its own troops in the drug war since 2002, but cut coca cultivation 9%, the United Nations found. Next door, the Venezuela that Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., praises is doing little about soaring trafficking.

- Colombia also has doubled oil production on the year, moving to become a top-15 U.S. supplier at a time when Venezuela is destroying its own energy industry.

- It has provided rare know-how to the U.S. in Afghanistan. Sending its own security forces into harm's way, Colombia's taken a top role in helping Afghanistan defeat the illegal drug cultivation that is a new threat to its stability.

- Do any Democrats remember that Colombia was first on the scene to offer swamp and jungle rescue teams, to help to the victims of the New Orleans disaster?

If Colombia is denied a free trade pact by Congress, its future will be severely hurt. To treat any ally in this way is unconscionable. But in the case of Colombia, it also is self-defeating.

Labels: Colombia, Communism, Cuba, Fidel Castro, health care, Latin America, Michael Moore, propaganda

I had previously posted on May 14 on the Farfur/Mickey terrorist children's program, which you have already seen on YouTube,


Here are a couple of related items,
Via Greta, Disney Explains Reaction to Hamas Show

The Walt Disney Co. didn't speak out when Hamas militants used a Mickey Mouse look-alike to preach Islamic domination because the company felt it would be ineffective, Disney's chief executive said Monday.
...
The show was removed from the channel "for review" after Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti said the character represented a "mistaken approach" to the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation.

Iger said Disney had nothing to do with the decision to pull the program, although the company did speak to several government officials. Iger did not elaborate on those discussions.

Gateway Pundit was able to make a video of the France2 report showing a Palestinian family with twelve children in Gaza reacting to the Farfur/Mickey TV show (in French):

Anchorman David Pujadas introduces it as "an example of Islamist propaganda in the Palestinian territories."
The report was filed by Charles Enderlin, Israel correspondent for France2 (Neo-neocon has posted about him), who has been known to send Palestinian stringers to the locations.

The video shows the portion of the Farfur/Mickey program that you can see on the You Tube video above. Then they show the whole family, with twelve children, gathered in front of the TV.

The girl, unnamed, says that "it's a good program because Farfur/Mickey shows us respect and how to be good muslims."

The man, identified as "Hazam, a school teacher," says that it's a good program and that Islam is against violence.

The woman, fully covered except for her eyes, says it was good because "it keeps children off the street, where they can come under bad influences".

Fathi Hamad, programming director for TV Al Aksa, s