Free Republic

Freepers!...we're losing the image war. Photographs of the wounded at Fort Hood do not circulate among the major media. The wounded in Vietnam were commonly depicted in a way which maximized the public disgust with the war effort but the victims of jihadists are not shown in such an emotional way. The blood of civil rights demonstrators and marchers were commonly shown in the '60s and the image of the murdered and mutilated Emmett Till is a common icon to this day. But there is a lack of circulation of 9-11 pics (outside conservative media), mall shootings, Jihad victims, and...

There are 29 of 'em. And they can be handily compared with the Newsweek Obama covers (here: http://trackacrat.com/2009/10/09/5007/), which number 30, both in terms of frequency and tone of coverage. I can safely report that the findings conform to the pattern established earlier: namely, that President Bush was consistently treated like a leper, while President Obama receives the all-star treatment. Some choice Newsweek Bush covers include the wonderfully objective titles of, “Bush’s $87 Billion Mess“, “The Price of Denial“, “How Much Power Should They Have?“, “Will Bush Listen?” and the awesomely condescending “Father Knows Best.” Follow the jump for links...

When Barack Obama promised to deliver "a new kind of politics" to Washington, most folk didn't picture Rahm Emanuel with a baseball bat...What is a little novel is the public and bare-knuckle way in which the Obama team is waging these campaigns...In recent weeks the Windy City gang added a new name to their list of societal offenders: the Chamber of Commerce. For the cheek of disagreeing with Democrats on climate and financial regulation, it was reported the Oval Office will neuter the business lobby. Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett warned CEOs they'd be wise to seek better protection. That was...

When George W. Bush was President, ABC and Charles Gibson, like most media members, couldn't get enough of anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan. Now that Barack Obama is in the White House, the host of "World News Tonight" is no longer interested in Sheehan, even telling WLS radio in Chicago, "Enough already." I guess she served her purpose as reported by the Washington Examiner's Byron York Thurday: In an appearance August 18 on WLS radio in Chicago, ABC News anchor Charles Gibson was asked about anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan's plans to travel to Martha's Vineyard next week, where she will protest...

I missed this yesterday at Newsbusters but Treacher, rightly aghast, tipped me to it this afternoon. Never will you see a starker example of MSNBC getting away with the sort of deception for which Fox News would be pilloried, especially in the context of race. If you missed Monday’s post about this, go watch the footage (or look at this photo) and see if you can deduce why they wouldn’t want to show the guy with the rifle from the neck up during this particular segment. For all the well-deserved heat that MSNBC’s primetime line-up has taken for its demagoguery...

In an interview last week with Julie Menin CNN anchor Campbell Brown said that the network is the only one doing journalism when compared to Fox and MSNBC. From TVNewser CNN's Campbell Brown sat down late last week with Julie Menin. And right out of the gate, Brown explained what sets CNN apart from its competitors. "CNN is the only one who's still doing journalism," said Brown, anchor of CNN's 8pmET program. "I don't mean that as a criticism of what the other guys are doing, it's just...we're comparing apples and oranges. Fox has made a choice to go in...

...snip....TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Already volatile Honduras slid toward greater instability after soldiers blocked an airport runway to keep ousted President Manuel Zelaya from returning, and protests that had remained largely peaceful yielded their first death. ...snip...Critics feared Zelaya might try to extend his rule and cement presidential power in ways similar to what his ally Chavez has done in Venezuela — though Zelaya denied that. But instead of prosecuting him or trying to defeat him at the ballot box, masked soldiers flew the president out of the country at gunpoint, and Congress installed Micheletti in his place. ...snip..."This is a...

I heard ABC News report on the radio at 2:00 PM today that made me sick. They had "sources" that stated that the "Neda" video of her being shot and dying on the street "was definitely not from an Iranian security force" and "appeared to be staged to get international attention". I guess I can't be too surprised. The liberals at ABC News are running propoganda broadcasts for Obama, so why not for the Iranian dictators? Besides, that fight for freedom in Iran is none of our business. ABC and the rest of the American left need to squelch it...

Palestinian sources reported Tuesday that former US president Jimmy Carter was the target of a thwarted assassination attempt, according to Israel Radio. Reportedly, there was a cluster of explosive devices stashed near a road he was scheduled to travel during a visit to the Gaza Strip.

At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee. Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/05/un-report-israel-gaza-negligence

MIAMI (Reuters) - Right-wing extremists in the United States are gaining new recruits by exploiting fears about the economy and the election of the first black U.S. president, the Department of Homeland Security warned in a report to law enforcement officials. The April 7 report, which Reuters and other news media obtained Tuesday, said such fears were driving a resurgence in "recruitment and radicalization activity" by white supremacist groups, antigovernment extremists and militia movements. It did not identify any by name. DHS had no specific information about pending violence and said threats had so far been "largely rhetorical." But it...

JERUSALEM (Map, News) - An American demonstrator was critically wounded Friday in a clash between protesters and Israeli troops over Israel's West Bank separation barrier. Peace activists with the International Solidarity Movement said Tristan Anderson, of the Oakland, Calif., area, was struck in the head with a tear gas canister fired by Israeli troops. The military and the Tel Aviv hospital where Anderson was taken had no details on how he was hurt. "He's in critical condition, anesthetized and on a ventilator and undergoing imaging tests," said Orly Levi, a spokeswoman at the Tel Hashomer hospital. She described Anderson's condition...

Charitable contributions at Southern California mosques are down by as much as 30% to 50% over the last few years. Blame the climate of fear. That’s what Rafe Husain, a board member for the Islamic Center of Corona Norco, is doing. “People feel tense and uncomfortable,” Husain is quoted as saying in a recent Los Angeles Times article. Just another story about the woeful recession we currently find ourselves in? Mosque-goers are feeling jittery about their dwindling 401k accounts and have decided to fork over less money to the needy? Not quite. What’s got some L.A.-area Muslims in a cold...

I don't know if Newsweek is as eager to be rid of Israel as "The State of Islam" is these days or not, but on its interactive online map of the mid east, the news mag is featuring a map of Israel labeled as "Palestinian Territory." Once you click over to the Newsweek map, holding the mouse over the tiny red shape north of Egypt will bring up a popup map showing Israel clearly labeled as "PalestinianTerritory." Here is a screen shot of the current map on Newsweek's site:

In the March 9, 2009 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, March 2), "Radical Islam is A Fact of Life. How To Live With it" Fareed Zakaria makes the case for why the West needs to adopt a more sophisticated strategy toward Radical Islam. Plus: Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman discuss the country's future in their first foreign media interview since winning in the recent election. Lastly: A review of the latest comic book inspired movie, "Watchmen."

Some Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences folks recently went over to Iran to lend their expertise in filmmaking. “I can confirm that a group of Academy members . . . are currently in Iran” on a “completely private initiative for educational and creative exchange and with no political agenda,” Academy Communications Director Leslie Unger told the AFP. According to Unger, the Tinseltown travelers include actresses Annette Bening and Alfre Woodard, screenwriter and film director Frank Pierson (writer of “Dog Day Afternoon,” producer William Horberg (“Cold Mountain”) and former Universal Pictures Chairman Tom Pollock. The team supposedly went to...

In his latest “Memo from Cairo,” New York Times correspondent Michael Slackman virtually begs the Obama administration to avoid using the word “terrorist” in reference to Hamas and Hezbollah. According to Slackman... calling these groups “terrorists” turns off the Arab world, in which people view Israel as the “real terrorist,” whereas Hamas and Hezbollah are just “trying to liberate their countries.” In turn, intimates Slackman, using a “loaded word” like “terrorist” when describing Hamas or Hezbollah makes peace impossible. Let’s leave aside for a moment that Slackman has managed to pass off his own view on the mind-numbingly dull one-man’s-terrorist-is-another-man’s-freedom-fighter...

WASHINGTON – News organizations will be allowed to photograph the homecomings of America's war dead under a new Pentagon policy, defense and congressional officials said Thursday. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has decided to allow photos of flag-draped caskets at Dover Air Force Base, Del., if the families of the fallen troops agree, the officials told The Associated Press. Gates planned to announce his decision later Thursday, they said. The current ban was put in place in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush. At least two Democratic senators have called on President Barack Obama to let news photographers attend ceremonies at...

Abuse of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay has worsened sharply since President Barack Obama took office as prison guards "get their kicks in" before the camp is closed, according to a lawyer who represents detainees. Abuses began to pick up in December after Obama was elected, human rights lawyer Ahmed Ghappour told Reuters. He cited beatings, the dislocation of limbs, spraying of pepper spray into closed cells, applying pepper spray to toilet paper and over-forcefeeding detainees who are on hunger strike. The Pentagon said on Monday that it had received renewed reports of prisoner abuse during a recent review of conditions...

BBC staff protest failure to air pro-Palestinian video Many have wondered if the BBC had a pro-Palestinian bias in their reporting. This has now been confirmed. Over 400 of their staff have signed a protest petition because they failed to air a video that the corporation deemed to be too biased in favor of Palestinians. That must have been one very biased news video. Hat tip to Axis of Right.

The AP buried the information after the fifth paragraph, where it would not get picked up by tomorrow’s World News sections in your local newspaper, but they have independent confirmation that Hamas terrorists were firing from the UN school that got hit by Israeli tank fire yesterday. Israel’s military said its shelling at the school - the deadliest single episode since Israeli ground forces invaded Gaza on Saturday after a week of air bombardment - was a response to mortar fire from within the school and said Hamas militants were using civilians as cover. Two residents of the area who...

The combination of media bias and incompetence is so pronounced that it generates a mythology that buries the facts and the truth in a dark, deep journalistic sinkhole. This is most easily seen in the reporting coming out of the Middle East in which the media has willing allies in the United Nations and major nations across the globe in demonizing Israel and legitimizing the forces of genocide and terrorism. This column will try to cut through some of that bias, incompetence, and media mythology to get a better picture of the current Israel-Hamas conflict. But you will note that...

NEW YORK - The Al Jazeera Network plans to announce on Thursday that it has signed a deal to run its news on Worldfocus, a syndicated nightly news program produced in New York and distributed throughout the United States. The deal would help the international news network, one of the top services in the Arabic-speaking world, broaden its reach in the United States, where it so far has been available to only a limited audience. Worldfocus, hosted by former NBC News correspondent Martin Savidge, is produced by New York City public broadcaster WLIW and syndicated to a number of Public...

As the Israelis continue their push into Gaza; as they continue an offensive military campaign against Hamas, born of the need to protect Israeli civilians from rockets fired by Hamas jihadis, it is almost impossible to gather accurate information regarding the conflict, at least not from the mainstream media. The accounts advanced by mainstream news sources are so devoid of balance – and, thusly, devoid of a whole and honest truth – that their product reaches a caliber of propaganda not seen since the disinformation campaigns of the Third Reich. Goebbels would be envious. It is next to impossible for...

Israel should no more allow the press unfettered access to Gaza than it should allow a brigade of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to fly into Gaza’s airport to reinforce their Hamas proteges. The last thing Israel needs is Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s resident apologist for radical Islam, wallowing in an emergency room full of wounded civilians, or BBC reporters weeping over the death of senior Hamas terrorists, as Barbara Plett wept for the dying Yasser Arafat. And leaving aside issues of balance, the media has repeatedly shown itself to be susceptible to manipulation by the propaganda arms of terrorist organizations...

4. Well then, why is the world supporting Hamas, and not Israel—if, as you say, Israel enjoys the moral high ground? The better question would be, why would Israel gain world support? After all, the world is mostly authoritarian in Russia, China, and much of Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America; when has it ever been a barometer of morality? If it had been, some would have rallied to stop the murder of 6 million Jews during the Holocaust, or stopped the Rwandan killing or the Cambodian genocide. Only the US and its NATO allies put an end...

The Palestinian terrorists in Gaza are expert at manipulating the news media to their point of view. Already, the top media outlets have filled television screens with human interest stories of Palestinian women and children being blown to bits by the overpowering and relentless Israeli Defense Forces. Story after story appears with frantic Palestinian women crying out that their lives are disrupted by these terrible bombing raids, that there is no food to feed their families, that their husbands are missing. And while they are talking, there is chaos in the background of bombed out buildings and B-roll of children...

The MSM is busily showing video clips of the damage in Gaza many of them falsified. Palestinian Media Watch has reported this example: A Palestinian journalist has complained that the media and others are manipulating the images going out to the world "A mother of one of the martyrs stood by the door of the intensive care unit while crying... relatives and those around her were telling her what she should say to the television cameras: 'Say your son [before he died] prayed and went out.' Another tells her: 'Curse the Arab leaders'... The journalists [in the hospitals] are going...

If the Israeli Defense Forces are targeting civilians, they are doing one hell of a lousy job. Israel, lone democracy in the Middle East and true ally to the United States, has been taking a lot of hits lately, and not just rockets. Much of the world has been quick to condemn the ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza. They have distorted what is happening, ignoring HAMAS missiles fired at Israeli citizens in population centers, yet labeling Israeli attacks on Gaza as massacres, war crimes, and a blatant murder of civilians. The truth is, while Israel wages war on HAMAS, it...

To my Conservative Friends: Admittedly, I am not an astute follower of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. I am more a student of American History and politics... However, I have been watching this current conflict in Gaza and trying to understand both points of view. I am trying to understand in the most fair and objective way possible to assess the situation and determine who is wrong and who is right.... Although I never believe one party is 100% to blame and one party is 100% in the right.... Therefore, when I listen to the Israeli side, I find myself shaking my...

North Korea presents more "evidence" of recovered Kim Tue Dec 16, 9:37 pm ET SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea stepped up its campaign to prove leader Kim Jong-il is well and in control by showing him looking at an electronic copy of a newspaper dated Tuesday in a series of photos released through its official media. U.S. and South Korean officials have said Kim, 66, suffered a stroke in August, raising questions about leadership in Asia's only communist dynasty and who was making decisions about the North's nuclear program. Despite re-emerging in early October in official media reports about making...

Apparently, if one calls an Arab-American an A** H*le, Reuters and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee want all Americans to know that this is to be considered a "violent hate crime." At least that is what it seems when looking over the very lose and sloppy definition of "violent hate crimes" in a recent story on the falling numbers of such crimes against Arab-Americans in the U.S. While ostensibly a good story -- discrimination against Arab-Americans has decreased -- it is still odd that Reuters allows this Muslim advocacy group to define even name calling as a "hate crime" and "violent"...

(REUTERS/Jim Bourg)(REUTERS/Jim Bourg)< (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) (REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton)

What is political astroturf? When a political movement portrays itself to be grass-roots, and later we find out it was actually planned and coordinated by a political party or candidate. This is usually done in support of the cause or candidate behind the astroturf effort. The Republicans are now being attacked by a new type of fake grass: dirty atstroturf. Democratic activists are infiltrating Republican rallys pretending to be Republican grass-roots supporters. The Democratic activist's goal? Discredit Republican grass-roots supporters. Their tactic has been to yell vile statements about Democratic candidates, hoping it would smear Republican grass-roots supporters. So far,...

Revealed: Shocking footage that could prove 90 Afghans - not seven - died in U.S. airstrike Shocking images that may have forced the U.S. military to reopen an investigation into an airstrike that killed Afghan civilians have been published in the media. The grim, eight minute clip, filmed on a mobile phone in the aftermath of the bombing, shows rows of shrouded bodies laid side-by-side in a make-shift morgue. Among them are at least 11 children, many of them toddlers. ...Afghanistan claims more than 90 people, many of them women and children, were killed in the August 22 strike.... The...

Gaza smuggling tunnels are for milk, say Palestinians Gaza smuggling tunnels are for milk, say Palestinians Palestinian officials from the Gaza Strip have distributed a set of carefully-staged photographs they say are evidence that the smuggling tunnels running under the Gaza-Egypt border are for milk and other essential goods, not weapons. The photographs show masked Palestinian militants lifting jugs of milk and sacks of baby food from the entrance to one of the tunnels on the Gaza side of the border. Israel insists that the tunnels, of which intelligence estimates indicate there are hundreds, are used to import small arms...

Coalition special forces teams, likely the terrorist hunter-killer teams of Task Force 88, have captured a Hezbollah Brigades propaganda specialist during a raid in New Baghdad. The propaganda specialist was positively identified by his wife after the raid, and he later admitted to his role in seeding websites with attack videos

The Afghan journalist who filmed and photographed the July 12 execution of two women by the Taliban says he was detained and held for two days by authorities in Afghanistan for suspected ties to terrorists. The footage and photographs of the executions were distributed by the Associated Press and widely circulated on the Internet, giving rise to suspicions that the photographer, Rahmatullah Naikzad, was connected with the Taliban. In an exclusive telephone interview, Naikzad told FOXNews.com that he turned himself in to Afghan authorities early this week and was held in custody and investigated for 48 hours. He said officials...

As news spread across the world of Iran’s provocative missile tests, so did an image of four missiles heading skyward in unison. Unfortunately, it appeared to contain one too many missiles, a point that had not emerged before the photo appeared on the front pages of The Los Angeles Times, The Financial Times, The Chicago Tribune and several other newspapers as well as on BBC News, MSNBC, Yahoo! News, NYTimes.com and many other major news Web sites.

AL DURA UPDATE: "Israel Radio's Paris correspondent Gil Michaeli has just reported that the French Court of Appeals has overturned the libel judgment against Phillipe Karsenty and has determined that Karsenty did not libel France 2 correspondent Charles Enderlin when he reported that the 'death' of 12-year old Mohamed Al-Dura at Netzarim in the Gaza Strip in September 2000 may have been staged, and that it was unlikely that the death was caused by IDF soldiers." Perhaps the Israeli military should start filing foreign libel suits against media outfits that collaborate in fake reporting. There's likely enough to keep quite...

By see-dubya • May 9, 2008 01:55 AM For what it’s worth, the New York Times reports that the U.S.’s designated new commander in Pakistan, General James Hood, has not been allowed to take up his new job. He had served as commander of Gitmo, and although he actually did away with some of the roughest forms of interrogation there and won some (grudging) praise from human rights groups, his legacy in the Middle East is tainted by Newsweek’s lie: General Hood, who took command of the detention center at Guantánamo Bay in March 2004, shortly before the Abu Ghraib...

The site of Freeper EUPHORIADEV was hacked. She has lost over 2 years worth of data. Euphoriadev was covering the Haditha and Hamdania incident extensively she has lost over 2 years worth of data we do NOT believe it is the people who are claiming the hack

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Palestinian officials say an Israeli military strike in the Gaza Strip has killed a Palestinian cameraman who worked for the Reuters news agency.

BAGHDAD, (AP) -- The U.S. military released Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein on Wednesday after holding him for more than two years without filing formal charges. Hussein, 36, was handed over to AP colleagues at a checkpoint in Baghdad. He was taken to the site aboard a prisoner bus and left U.S. custody wearing a traditional Iraqi robe. He was smiling and appeared in good health. "I want to thank all the people working in AP. ... I have spent two years in prison even though I was innocent. I thank everybody," Hussein said after being freed. AP President Tom...

Islamist Forum Posts Instructions for Conducting 'Media Jihad' In a message posted March 2, 2008 on the Islamist forum Al-Ikhlas (hosted by Piradius.net in Malaysia), a member calling himself "abumuslim22" urged his fellow forum members to engage in "media jihad," and provided advice and safety tips. The following are excerpts from the posting: [1] "… 1. Exercise patience, because each of the following stages takes time… "2. Become a 'media mujahid'… Next to jihad on the battlefield, this is the most dangerous [type of] jihad, because you are new [to it] and inexperienced… "A. Be careful, and do not trust...

Reuters Fauxtography Alert: Spreading Hamas Propaganda With Fake Power Outage Photos Reuters Fauxtography Alert: Spreading Hamas Propaganda With Fake Power Outage Photos By Warner Todd Huston January 26, 2008 - 13:53 ET Photos Posted Below the FoldThe Jerusalem Post caught another fauxtography scam out of the mideast this week. It appears that Hamas legislators have staged fake power outages to illustrate how oppressed they are for the benefit of journalists. The Journalists were treated to a photo op of the Hamas legislators sitting in their halls of power surrounded by burning candles in rooms with curtains drawn. The scene...

Adam Gadahn - American al-Qaeda Killed In U.S. Strike? February 7, 2008 UNCONFIRMED: Following unconfirmed reports of killing of a high-profile al-Qaeda commander Abu Laith al-Libi, there are now rumours that an American al-Qaeda militant Adam Gadahn, also known as Azzam al-Amriki, had been killed in the alleged Predator attack by the US on a house in Mirali, North Waziristan, a few days back. 32-year-old Adam Gadahn, who is American citizen belonging to southern California, has been accused by the US of praising the perpetrators of September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington and attending al-Qaeda training camps...

It has been clearly established that terrorist organizations have adopted unusual and innovative ways of using cutting-edge online technologies to expand their movements. Al-Qa`ida’s principal media wing, al-Sahab Media Production, has recently released a flood of new audio and video recordings over Arabic-language internet chat forums, and has even solicited open questions from forum participants to be addressed by al-Qa`ida’s second-incommand, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Yet, while much time and thought has been dedicated to studying the physical content broadcast over these chat forums, there has been far less attention focused on studying the individual users who populate them. In fact, during...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - The chief of the U.S. military said Sunday he favors closing the prison here as soon as possible because he believes negative publicity worldwide about treatment of terrorist suspects has been "pretty damaging" to the image of the United States. "I'd like to see it shut down," Adm. Mike Mullen said in an interview with three reporters who toured the detention center with him on his first visit since becoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff last October.