By John Pilger - November 23, 2012

...[I]n the Middle East...the Israeli state has successfully intimidated the BBC into presenting the theft of Palestinian land and the caging, torturing and killing of its people as an intractable “conflict” between equals...So great is this distortion that young viewers of BBC news have told Glasgow University researchers they are left with the impression that Palestinians are the illegal colonizers of their own country. The current BBC “coverage” of Gaza’s genocidal misery reinforces this.

Citizens in the countries of the west, as is proper in democracies, are of course caught up in “our” engagement with Syrian issues by their media, i.e. supplied with war propaganda so that they understand which side deserves “our” support and which side death. This pre-fixed partisanship selects the images and stories – always showing victims on the side of the rebels and the civilian population, and looking for perpetrators on the side of the regime. In this way, the reader is engrossed in the partisan perspective of the reporting...

By Nozomi Hayase - Dissident Voice

“The people of this world are treated like mushrooms: Kept in the dark, and fed shit. Wikileaks is a fundamentally anti-mushroom organization…. Wikileaks proposed that the people reject their status as fungi – find out what their governments are doing, what corporations are doing, what the powerful are doing, what the 1% are doing...[WikiLeaks] may become the most powerful intelligence agency on earth, an intelligence agency of the people.”

- Dan Mathews, speaking at a rally in Melbourne, Australia, in support of Julian Assange

Israeli aggression is called self-defense. Legitimate defense is called terrorism. Media scoundrels support Israel in lockstep. It plays out the same way every time.

Gaza rockets respond defensively to provocative Israeli bombing and shelling. Blame the victim articles and commentaries follow.

Longstanding NYT articles, op-eds, and editorials are notoriously one-sided for Israel. Palestinian rights don't matter, only Jewish ones.

Haaretz used most of its November 7 issue covering it. Doing so reflects the importance of America to Israeli interests.

As a writer and radio host, I'm often asked why I don't discuss good news. My answer is when I find some I will. Today I did, and here it is.

Ordinary Greeks face deepening Depression conditions. At a time vital help is needed, force-fed austerity is policy. Corrupt governance mandates it. Severe repression targets resisters. Now they've got another woe. Press freedom isn't tolerated.

Doing the right thing is risky. Greek magazine publisher Costas Vaxevanis faces charges of violating state privacy laws. Potentially he faces two years in prison.

By DAVID ROVICS - Counterpunch

I have been a regular listener to...Democracy Now! for about twelve years now...and being a musician, I have paid special attention to the music breaks and to stories related to culture. Over the years the music breaks have changed in dramatic ways, haphazardly going from really good to really bad to just plain bizarre.

American media scoundrels honed it to an art form. Britain's BBC and commercial media regularly feature it. So does a newly licensed anti-Iranian TV channel.

Dissent is marginalized and targeted. Democratic values are fast eroding en route to disappearing altogether in Western societies and Israel.

A year ago Sir Jimmy Savile died aged 84. According to his obituaries in the UK media, Savile had been an iconic British broadcaster, a tireless worker for charity, and a close friend of many of the rich and famous including Prince Charles.

America never treated Muslims respectfully. US media and Hollywood play lead roles. Jack Shaheen's book "Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People" documented how American filmmakers slander them.