Why it’s wrong (and racist) to blame Covid-19 on Chinese ‘wet markets’

New York Times depiction (1/25/20) of a wet market in Shenzhen, which is 680 miles from Wuhan | Lam Yik Fei/New York Times

By JOSHUA CHO

US media ‘experts’ on Iran with undisclosed ties to the defence industry

Since US president Donald Trump ordered the drone attack that assassinated Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani and Abud Mahdi al-Muhandis, a leading member of the Iraqi armed forces and eight other officials, US and Canadian television news has been filled with commentary on the strike and its implications. An investigation by the Popular Information website reveals that numerous “experts” appearing on cable TV to opine on Iran have undisclosed financial ties to the biggest arms monopolies. They are deliberately paraded as neutral, independent, non-partisan and “third party experts” to confuse the people and put them out of action. Some are also featured by CBC. | JUDD LEGUM

This is significant because arms monopolies and other entities that do business with the Pentagon profit from war, the most profitable business of all. They sell the products that make war possible. If there is more fighting, they will sell more weapons. That’s why weapons manufacturers saw their stock prices spike after Gen. Soleimani was killed.

US media in state of denial, waits for Trump to knock over a bank

The discussion on the crisis in the US ruling circles is marked by an obtuse refusal on the part of the media to objectively examine the objective reality and the problems facing the current US system. They refuse to look at the realities of the political situation, especially the broad disaffection and discontent which exists, the need for political renewal, and even the realities of their own constitutional and electoral regime | JIM NAURECKAS of FAIR comments on the creation of a parallel universe”

Here’s a Doonesbury cartoon by Garry Trudeau from 1974:

US ’news’ on Cubans in Syria lacks one thing: Cubans in Syria

Fox News illustrated its report on Cubans in Syria with a Reuters photo of Cubans not in Syria

Fox News (10/14/15) reported last week that Cuba has sent Gen. Leopoldo Cintra Frias and hundreds of troops to Syria to assist the Russian and Assad governments in “operating Russian tanks.” This explosive claim was soon echoed by James Bloodworth in the Daily Beast (10/16/15) and subsequently spread widely on social media.

John Pilger: How the media promotes the lies leading to catastrophic war

The world faces the prospect of major war, but the truth is turned upside down and inside out by journalists, including those who promoted the lies that led to the Iraq bloodbath. JOHN PILGER* 

John Pilger talks to the media after meeting with Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy, where he has been seeking asylum for over two years.

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WHY HAS SO MUCH journalism succumbed to propaganda? Why are censorship and distortion standard practice? Why is the BBC so often a mouthpiece of rapacious power? Why do the New York Times and the Washington Post deceive their readers?

L.A. Times reporter cleared stories with CIA

The CIA’s mop-up man by KEN SILVERSTEIN

The Intercept (Sept. 4) – A prominent national security reporter for the Los Angeles Times routinely submitted drafts and detailed summaries of his stories to CIA press handlers prior to publication, according to documents obtained by The Intercept.

Venezuela outcry as Fox TV maligns president Nicolás Maduro

U.S. spy show depicts president of Venezuela as buyer of chemical weapons, sparking denunciation as “hostile and imperialist.” Is it not the USA that has the greatest stockpile of chemical and biological weapons in the world?

VENEZUELA –We Are Maduro • Chavez Vive • Hands Off Venezuela

AP | Caracas (Sept. 3) – Critics have mostly ignored the new US spy drama Legends, but it’s creating a furore in Venezuela.

Officials in the South American country are denouncing the show for portraying the socialist government stockpiling nerve gas to quash dissent.

The telecommunications commission opened an investigation on Tuesday into the series over an episode in which a character names president Nicolás Maduro and his socialist PSUV party as the buyer of chemical weapons.

Behind TV analysts, Pentagon’s hidden hand

A PENTAGON CAMPAIGN Retired officers have been used to shape terrorism coverage from inside the TV and radio networks | DAVID BARSTOW*

Fox military analyst on Syria: ‘We can talk to them when we line them up and kill them’

Think Progress (9 August 2006) – WITH the Bush administration refusing to hold direct talks with Syria, Col. David Hunt, military analyst for Fox News, appeared on “Hannity & Colmes” last night to offer some advice to the president: “I think we can talk to them when we line them up and kill them.” Stating that “the only reason to talk to some of these guys is to just do that,” Hunt went on to argue that America should “absolutely, 100 per cent” seek regime change in both Syria and Iran if they’re “not going to cooperate.” (Watch it: http://thinkprogress.org/2006/08/09/syria-fox/)