Media In The West Have More Important Items On Their Plate...

...Japan, nuclear end of world, death of Liz, Junos, Hockey concussions, etc. etc. etc.

Paul Russell: More Israel news, please, but limit anti-nuclear and pro-Justin coverage


After two years of relative calm, a suitcase bombing in Jerusalem, rocket attacks from Gaza, and Israeli counter-attacks reminded the world that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is still unresolved. A few readers accused the Western media of ignoring this issue.

“I have noticed that the global media no longer bothers to hide its lack of interest in Israel’s war on terror, focusing only on how many Arabs Israel kills in self-defence while publishing micro-sized articles on the murder of a sleeping [Jewish West Bank] family or a bomb placed [near] a public bus stop during rush hour,” wrote Sarah Samole, a resident of Ma’ale Adumim, a Jewish settlement in the West Bank. “Could you imagine if the bomb blast occurred at a downtown NYC bus stop? But it’s just Israel, a country that has been so demonized by mainstream media — excluding the National Post, usually — that it has merited no right to defend itself, according to those who can’t even point it out on a map.”

A handful of other readers were upset by a headline on our front page on Thursday: “Bus blast heralds new cycle of violence.”

“There is no ‘cycle,’ merely deliberate Read More »

A Simple Request To Porter...

...don the uniform and protective gear of a Toronto police officer and communicate with protesters from the front line and then post her comments.

Porter: When police stick to phony script

June 26, 2010
Catherine Porter

They call it the Miami Model.
But it could be called the Genoa model, the Pittsburgh model and, after this weekend, the Toronto model.
It refers to police tactics used in Miami seven years ago, during the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit, and, more importantly, the protests erupting on the streets outside.
Manny Diaz, Miami’s then-mayor, called the police methods exemplary — a model to be followed by homeland security when confronting protesters.
Human rights groups including Amnesty International called it a model of police brutality and intimidation.
Protesters were beaten with tear gas, sticks, rubber bullets . . . You can watch police stun cowering protesters with Tasers on YouTube. Last year, the city agreed it had trampled citizens’ right to free speech by forcing marchers back from planned protests and settled out of court with Amnesty International.
What is the Miami Model?
I called Naomi Archer to find out. She is an indigenous rights worker from North Carolina who happened to be giving a lecture on the Miami Model yesterday at the U.S. Social Forum — the G20 for community activists.
Archer, who was in Miami as a liaison between protesters and police, has a 40-box checklist to identify the Model. Here are the main themes.
 •  Information warfare. This starts weeks before the event. Protesters are criminalized and dehumanized, and described as dangerous “anarchists” and “terrorists” the city needs to defend against.
“Often, a faux cache is found,” says Archer. “They are usually ordinary objects, like bike inner tubes, camping equipment, but the police make them out to look threatening. It lays the groundwork for police to be violent and it means there’s a reduced accountability of law enforcement.”
 • Intimidation. Police start random searches of perceived protesters before any large rallies. They are asked where they are staying, why they are walking around. Police raid organizer’s homes or meeting places, “usually just before the summit, so there’s maximum chaos organizers have to deal with,” says Archer.
“All this is meant to dissuade participants. The best way to make sure you don’t have a critical mass of people taking over the streets like in Seattle is to reduce the numbers at the outset.”
This is usually made possible by last-minute city regulations, curtailing the right to protest. In Miami, the city commission passed a temporary ordinance forbidding groups of more than seven to congregate for more than 30 minutes without a permit.
 •  “They threw rocks.” That’s the line police use after tear-gassing or beating protesters most times, Archer says. Urine and human feces are variations on the theme. But it’s always the protesters who triggered the violence. A popular police tactic is called “kettling.” Officers on bike or horses herd protesters into an enclosed space, so they can’t leave without trying to break through the police line. Take the bait; you provoke a beating or arrest. And of course, there are the famous agent provocateurs, outted publicly two years ago in Montebello. Police officers dressed up like militant protesters to protect the peaceful crowd, they say; Archer says it’s to instigate trouble.
In Montebello, one of the three cops dressed in black was holding a rock.
“It’s the same lies every single protest,” she says. “It’s justification by law enforcement for their violent actions. This is a propaganda war.”
 • Job well done. At the end, regardless of the bodies clogging the temporary holding cells and hospitals, the police always congratulate themselves. And by the time the cases go to court, the story is long forgotten and the circus has moved to a new unsuspecting town.
More than 270 people were arrested in Miami during the summit seven years ago . How many were convicted, in the end? I called the American Civil Liberties Union to find out.
“None,” said lawyer Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, who was the president of the Miami chapter back then.
So far in Toronto, the police show has unrolled according to script; we’ve seen the propaganda, the cache, the intimidation, the secretive new regulations, the scary military arsenal. . . .
Next up, rocks. Will we all believe that one too?

Catherine Porter usually appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Email: cporter@thestar.ca

I'm Not! You Say You're Not! So It Must be The Person At That Table...

A land of bias from sea to shining sea

Lawrence Martin

Canada's Fox Newd Network...

Jonathan Kay: Who’s to blame for a Canadian woman trapped in Saudi Arabia? Israel, of course!

Posted: April 08, 2010, 3:15 PM by NP Editor Filed under: Israel,CBC,saudi arabia,women's rights

 

I don’t get much of a chance to bash the CBC for anti-Israeli agitprop anymore: The network has done a good job cleaning up its more tiresome Zionophobes over the last few years. But every now and then, they pop up -- often on The Current with Anna Maria Tremonti. On today’s show, the subject was the very sad case of Nazia Quazi, a dual Indian and Canadian citizen who made the mistake of visiting her father in Saudi Arabia two years ago. Under the country’s Medieval rules, he has been able to assume “guardianship” over the 24-year-old woman, which means he is able to block her exit from the country on his whim. (Following the usual tribal/Islamist obsession with women and “honour,” the underlying issue is, of course, Nazia’s selection of the “wrong” mate back home.) All in all, it was a good piece of CBC journalism -- until they brought in the usual, disgruntled Liberal-era suspect to blame the whole thing on Harper and his lack of “balance” on Middle East policy. To quote from Canadian Foreign Service veteran Gar Pardy, whom Tremonti interviewed:

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Let's Get It All On The Table........

.....a patio table for Stephen and a couple of banquet tables for Jean and Paul.

Tables are turned on Conservatives TheStar.com - comment - Tables are turned on Conservatives

April 16, 2008

In politics, as in life, what goes around comes around. That's a lesson that should have been learned by now by the federal Conservatives.

Running against a scandal-plagued Liberal regime in the 2006 federal election, Stephen Harper and the Conservatives were heavy on rhetoric about the need to restore ethical government. And they got a boost mid-campaign from a highly unusual RCMP intervention in the form of an announcement that the Liberal government was under investigation for allegedly giving some investors advance notice of a pending government initiative on income trusts.

Now Harper and the Conservatives are in power, and they are the ones under fire. Their transgressions are too numerous to list in full here, but in two short years under Conservative rule we have seen the Cadman affair, NAFTA-gate, and the cover-up of treatment of Afghan detainees. Now we have the "in-and-out" controversy arising from the Conservatives' slippery campaign financing manoeuvres.

And to top it off, yesterday we witnessed an RCMP raid on Conservative party headquarters in Ottawa.

Elections Canada was tight-lipped about the reasons for the raid, although Harper effectively confirmed in the Commons that it was, indeed, connected to the in-and-out scheme.

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This Will Save Left Wing Bloggers Some Time

Lemon: Just Another Day in Our Unbiased Media

The Usual:
$1.2M went to Quebec Tories for ads
Conservatives cut back applicants in lawsuit
Tories backtrack from candidate as 'representative'
Stockbroker's rage at Flaherty fuelled by losses and a margarita
Alta. newcomers told to accept conservatism or leave

And, of course, another unattributed Liberal financial error
Millions wasted on Airbus upkeep, audit finds

And the normal puff pieces for the Grits from their PR department
Liberals eye economy as election issue
Liberals to come out swinging

Taken from National Newswatch