nibbler

good call- thanks bouche

if no couches available- what hotel are out-of-towners bunking down at?

Any couches available for crashing on?

Just waiting for the results from the blood test...

nibbler, I am still waiting for an apology for your absurd statement that "y'all seem to like death and violence and shit".

Groupthink is contagious.

Aww shucks- I love you too AD.

As I suggested nine posts ago, a new thread focused on media issues would be an interesting addition to the boards.

Amy Miller - Alternative Media Centre, Independent Journalist from Darren Puscas on Vimeo.

Tragic and sad, but what does that have to do with what some of us are attempting to discuss here?

It has everything to do with this discussion:

As multinational ownership, consolidation, and control of media at all levels continues unchecked, journalists who report the truth as it happens are increasingly punished for doing so.

Kev points out a general process used to rid the MSM of the 'old guard'. In a similar context, Bill Maher lost his current affairs television show "Politically Incorrect" in 2001 because the corporate sponsors didn't like what he was saying. Never mind the record all time high ratings the show was getting at the time.

Did you look over that page I linked to? Look at the numbers of independent vs. embedded reporters killed in Iraq. What do those imbalanced numbers tell you?

If the killing of journalists bothered the controllers of the MSM, don't you think more of an effort to report the story would be evident in MSM "news coverage"?

As it stands, the journalists being threatened and killed are the ones willing to get out of their office chairs, away from computer screens, and hit the streets asking tough questions. In other words, its the courageous journalists who take their duty seriously, that is to report the news to the people, those are whom the MSM controllers fear the most. Lo and behold, look which journalists are getting the beats from police/ threatened with sexual assaults/ getting killed by "friendly fire" in Iraq.

Scroll back a few pages in this G20 discussion and watch the video of Steve Paikin discussing how a reporter for The Guardian is physically assaulted by a police supervisor right in front of Paikins eyes- and then arrested for doing nothing more than his job.

Watch the video below of Amy Miller reporting how she was physically assaulted, arrested, and threatened with sexual assault by police. All because she was trying to report on the events as they happened.

Apologies if my response to your "big" post fell short of your expectations.

Since 1992, 818 journalists have been killed on the job, 524 of those were confirmed murders without impunity, 454 journalists live in exile worldwide today. 17 journalists have been confirmed murdered for the news they tried to report in 2010 alone. Seeing as y'all seem to like death and violence and shit, a thread specifically discussing the Main Stream Media's present state is long overdue.

Statistics provided by Committee to Protect Journalists

AD,

It's all three. Trust me. The Conservatives feel that the CBC is a huge Liberal supporter when it comes to bias. However, that train of thought thinks that ANY journalism that asks questions they don't want to answer is automatically lib-biased.. Ridiculous.

As for the budget, it's pennies in the grand scheme of things (compare to other gov't spending) yet they constantly try to convince people that it's breaking the bank

The bias of the MSM is not slanted towards a particular political party- its slanted in favor of corporate interests.

Where there appears to be bias slanted towards a particular party or politician, it is moreso a reflection of how aligned that individual/party is with corporate interests in general.

edit to add: when did the mainstream media become a singular entity?

It must have happened during the heat-gun-turkey-bag days.

The term mainstream media (MSM) denotes those media disseminated via the largest distribution channels, which therefore represent what the majority of media consumers are likely to encounter. The term also denotes those media generally reflective of the prevailing currents of thought, influence, or activity.

Large news conglomerates, including newspapers and broadcast media, which underwent successive mergers in the U.S. and elsewhere at an increasing rate beginning in the 1990s, are often referenced by the term. This consolidation of ownership has raised concerns of a progressive homogenization of viewpoints presented to news consumers. Consequently, the term mainstream media has been widely used in conversation and the blogosphere, often in oppositional, pejorative, or dismissive senses, in discussion of the mass media and media bias.

link to source

Again, if someone relied on the MSM to get their G20 coverage and came to the same conclusion as someone who relied on independent media, twitter, blogs, facebook etc, how has the MSM failed?

I doubt the MSM led you to conclude that the violence was deliberately encouraged by police in order to push a Tough on Crime agenda whilst justifying a more than 1.3 Billion dollar summit pricetag. However if they did then I tip my hat to them.

Independent journalists have been and are willing to continue doing the job of reporting events as they happen on the ground. Whilst I agree with your point: its a great turn of events that the MSM is apparently raising the bar, I also think its unfortunate that they didn't do it out of choice. Rather they are doing it to prevent obsolescence.

(for the "factual" side of this story rather than my conjecture, please investigate how many sources of print media and daily newspapers are presently going bankrupt all over the globe thanks to the WWW.)

To illustrate with an example: I think its great that many people put effort into learning about Haiti when the country was rocked by a catastrophic earthquake earlier this year. I think its commendable that some people were so touched by the event that they passionately urged friends to donate aid towards the cause. Yet I think its unfortunate for Haitians and the victims of colonialism the world over that it takes a catastrophic earthquake or some such calamity to wake citizens of G8 countries up from our comfortable lives.

nibbler, what do you make of people whose opinions about the protests / coverage etc has been 100% from mainstream media? I haven't looked at any of the alternative media reports or sites, but yet still am pretty shocked at police tactics and results etc. If my only source is mainstream media and I hold generally the same reaction as you, how has the mainstream media failed in this case?

Your "reaction" to the events as retrospectively told in the MSM was my "expectation" of the events long before they began. If you havent already done so, please read this short article from The Star

While the G20 was happening, the MSM focused on footage of smashed windows and burning police cars, cementing an image of violent protesters into the minds of millions of viewers, images which were supposed to galvanize support for the summit's billion dollar budget, and the tory 'Tough on Crime' agenda.

It wasn't until after the events of Saturday night, when members of the press corps were caught up in the indiscriminate net cast by the police that the tables turned and the MSM began telling the 'protesters as victims' side of the story rather than the intended 'protesters as antagonists' angle.

Several major factors at play here:

1) the presence of tens of thousands of video cameras on the streets created a convincing body of evidence which very few Main Stream Media outlets are willing to challenge as doing so would seriously blemish their credibility.

2) Typically the Main Stream Media strategy would try to marginalize and discredit individuals raising criticism of the police, but in this case if they tried to discredit ALL of the allegations against police they would fail, as hundreds, perhaps thousands, of eyewitness accounts from protesters corroborate. As in point 1, the MSM would appear to be mere propaganda outlets if they failed to report the truth as it is already widely circulating in the independent media, via word of mouth, and its backed up by plenty of convincing videos and photos.

3) Just as the police stand up for their own, so do the press corps: perhaps the most important factor at play here- the police screwed up: their heavy handed tactics did not discriminate between protester and journalist, they physically assaulted and arrested several members of both the MSM press corps and indymedia journalists, thus forming a bond between the two branches of journalism, while creating a deep rift between police and MSM.

"Rally for a Public Inquiry Concerning the Actions at the G20"

Where: Queen's Park, Toronto

When: 5:30 P.M. today- Canada Day

Who: Canadians who actually give a shit, LIKE YOU!!!

website

facebook event page listing

"Rally for a Public Inquiry Concerning the Actions at the G20"

Where: Queen's Park, Toronto

When: 5:30 P.M. today- Canada Day

Who: Canadians who actually give a shit, LIKE YOU!!!

website

facebook event page listing

Kev,

One of the videos you posted titled "G20 Toronto Protest painclothes cops arresting..." shows many plainclothed police officers retreating through a line of cops after throwing some indiscriminate beatings around. Incredible how many of them are dressed up in black bloc costume- minus the scarf to cover their faces of course! Also gotta love the policewoman who growls at the cameraman while giving a good whack with the telescoping club!

Seriously though- great to see so many cameras on the streets, so much youtube footage of the events, its really fucking with the Main Stream Media's initial attempts to smear the protest movement. Maybe there is hope for Democracy 2.0 after all.

Now you're suggesting that the G20 debacle was staged to cover up Bill C-36? Ha!

Kevin,

Naomi Klein was interviewed on Democracy Now presenting these same points yesterday. Its not what I would call the Main Stream Media, but it is circulating globally.

iWe are DEVO.

‘I will not forget what they have done to me’

20 people arrested at the G20 tell of ‘inhumane’ treatment at the hands of police

Published On Mon Jun 28 2010, The Star

excerpt: just 2 of the 20 stories

Amy Miller, Montreal

Miller, an independent journalist, was on her way to the jail solidarity protest Sunday around noon with fellow journalist Adam MacIsaac. She stopped at Bloor and St. Thomas Sts. where she saw police officers searching a group of young people carrying backpacks. She says police attacked her.

“I was throttled at the neck and held down. Next thing you know I was being cuffed and put in one of the wagons.†She says she was threatened and harassed by police at the Eastern Ave. detention centre. “I was told I was going to be raped, I was told I was going to be gangbanged, I was told that they were going to make sure that I was never going to want to act as a journalist again.â€

She also says she spoke to numerous young women who were strip-searched by male officers.

Selwyn Firth, 59, Toronto mayoral candidate

Wanting a better view of a protest outside Queen’s Park on Saturday, Firth walked to an elevated U of T building. When police told him to leave, he identified himself as a mayoral candidate. He refused and was forced to the ground, his cheek lacerated. He was arrested for obstruction.

“I wasn’t obstructing anyone, I was asking questions,†said Firth, who was taken to the Eastern Ave. detention centre where he needed insulin for his Type 1 diabetes. Sunday morning he was taken to the Finch Ave., courthouse and again needed insulin, so was sent to hospital. He later returned to court and was released on $1,000 bail. He is considering suing the city and police.

Read the entire article by linking to the source