Hold the front page! We need free media, not an Order of Mates by John Pilger

Dandelion Salad

by John Pilger
http://johnpilger.com
9 May 2013

The other day, I stood outside the strangely silent building where I began life as a journalist. It is no longer the human warren that was Consolidated Press in Sydney, though ghosts still drink at the King’s Head pub nearby. As a cadet reporter, I might have walked on to the set of Lewis Milestone’s The Front Page. Men in red braces did shout, “Hold the front page”, and tilt back their felt hats and talk rapidly with a roll-your-own attached indefinitely to their lower lip. You could feel the presses rumbling beneath and smell the ink.

The Omissions of “Mainstream” Journalism: “History in the Un-Making” by John Pilger

Dandelion Salad

by John Pilger
Global Research
http://johnpilger.com
5 December 2012

Project Censored: Important stories unreported or suppressed by the media most Americans watch or read.

In the week Lord Leveson published almost a million words about his inquiry into the “culture, practice and ethics” of Britain’s corporate press, two illuminating books about media and freedom were also published. Their contrast with the Punch and Judy show staged by Leveson is striking.

For 36 years, Project Censored, based in California, has documented critically important stories unreported or suppressed by the media most Americans watch or read. This year’s report is Censored 2013: Dispatches from the media revolution by Mickey Huff and Andy Lee Roth (Seven Stories Press).

Juice News: A News Hope – Julian Assange vs Rupert Murdoch

Dandelion Salad

Image by savebradley via Flickr

Jun 2, 2012 by RussiaToday

Juice Rap News presents the new bulletin of “news show for the internet nation”.

Robert Foster talks about rebel journalists who dare to challenge the establishment’s grip on information. No reliable media at a time of corporate wars. The people of Earth are misinformed as “speakers of truth are censored and imprisoned”.

The Leveson Inquiry into the British press – oh, what a lovely game by John Pilger

Dandelion Salad

by John Pilger
www.johnpilger.com, 31 May 2012
Global Research, June 1, 2012

Rupert Murdoch is a bad man. His son James is also bad. Rebekah Brooks is allegedly bad. The News of the World was very bad; it hacked phones and pilloried people. British prime ministers grovelled before this iniquity. David Cameron even sent text messages to Brooks signed “LoL”, and they all had parties in the Cotswolds with Jeremy Clarkson. Nods and winks were duly exchanged on the BSkyB deal.

Shock, horror.

Joe Lauria: The evolving corporate coup d’etat, interviewed by Peter B. Collins and Sibel Edmonds

by Peter B. Collins and Sibel Edmonds
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Originally published by Boiling Frogs Post
August 26, 2011

Image by Kodak Agfa via Flickr

Joe Lauria is back from his three month long trip to the Middle East, which included, among others, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, and Israel, and shares with us his impressions and analyses on the uprisings in some of these countries, especially in Egypt, where he spent the most time. He discusses the upcoming vote on Palestinian UN membership next month, and the possible implications of planned demonstrations by Palestinians and sympathetic Israelis inspired by the recent nonviolent protests in the region.

Outsourcing power (and its consequences) By William Bowles

by William Bowles
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
williambowles.info
23 July, 2011

For well over a century the British state has relied on its professional civil service (known as the Establishment and for reasons I hope that become apparent) to maintain the status quo and whilst the state has had to make concessions over time (eg, universal suffrage, legalize trade unions and eventually establish the ‘welfare state’) the Establishment’s primary function is to preserve the rule of Capital, regardless of the party in power. Thus continuity is preserved through the role of a permanent and unelected elite run by the ‘Whitehall Mandarins’.

The Fourth Estate is Bankrupt By William Bowles

by William Bowles
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
williambowles.info
12 July, 2011

From the middle of the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth imperialism was the dominant national ideology, transcending class and party divisions. Britain was saturated in the ethos and attitudes of empire. They infused plays and books and, later, films. They informed school textbooks. They inspired paintings, prints and engravings. They filled newspapers and magazines. They figured in advertisements and packaging. The impact was arguably greater than that of any previous dominant ideology because its pre-eminence coincided with the rise of the mass market and the mass media. — ‘Imperialism and juvenile literature’ edited By Jeffrey Richards. Manchester University Press, 1989

The Jeff Farias Show: John Pilger + Jan Ruhman

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https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

Posted with permission from Jeff Farias

The Jeff Farias Show
March 15, 2010

00:00 John Pilger returns to discuss his recent article:

Welcome To The World’s First Murdochracy …Murdoch’s most unabashed, if entertaining retainer is Greg Sheridan, foreign editor of The Australian. On one his adoring trips to the United States, home of Murdoch HQ, Sheridan wrote, “The US is the greatest possible argument for media deregulation. Every morning, I flick between Fox, CNN and MSNBC as I eat my cereal … why did it take so long for pay TV to get to Australia? …” He was referring, as if instinctively, to his master’s pay TV company, Foxtel. As for terrorism, Sheridan blames “Pilgerist Chomskyism” for “ideologically fuelling the followers of Osama bin Lenin, sorry Laden.”

Welcome To The World’s First Murdochracy By John Pilger

https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

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By John Pilger
March 10, 2010 “Information Clearing House”
www.johnpilger.com

Adelaide is Australia’s festival city. Its arts festival is currently in swing. Polite debate, aesthetics and high-octane wine are putting the world to rights. With one exception. Adelaide is where Rupert Murdoch began his empire. The voracious trail starts here. No statue stands; his is a spectral presence, controlling the only daily newspaper, even the printing presses. Across Australia, he owns almost 70 per cent of the capital city press and the only national newspaper, and Sky Television, and much else. Welcome to the world’s first murdochracy.

What is a murdochracy? It is where the fealty and augmentation of Murdoch’s editors and managers are undisguised, an inspiration to his choir on seven continents, where even his competitors sing along and wise politicians heed the Murdochism: “What’ll it be? A headline a day or a bucket of shit a day?”

Rupert Murdoch: Genius or dummy and should we care? by William Bowles

By William Bowles
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Creative-i
1 December 2009

So the multi-billionaire Rupert Murdoch reckons that all his ‘news’ is being stolen by Google and it follows, the rest of us, so next year he plans to start charging for access to his ‘news’.

My first reaction is to say hooray! Aside from research and references, I never read anything News Corp. produces, so let him charge. So for many of us, not being able to read Murdoch’s rubbish online will not a be loss, if anything it might declutter the online world somewhat.

But the issue is much more complex and important than Murdoch wanting to get his pint of blood many times over.