‘Afghanistan earthquake’ images used by major UK media outlets were likely made with AI.

FULL FACT

Five major UK media organisations shared images that were very likely made with AI in their reports on the recent earthquake in Afghanistan. Story here.

Climate Scientist Michael Mann Wins $1M in Defamation Suit

THE ENERGY MIX

A jury on Thursday awarded US$1 million to climate scientist Michael Mann who sued a pair of conservative writers 12 years ago after they compared his depictions of global warming to a convicted sex offender. Story here.

MISLEADING NEWSPAPER SPREADING IN MANITOBA.

City news interviewed me for this story a few years back. I thought it is worth repeating. And please STAY VIGILANT! L.P. ========

Another Blatant Conflict-of-Interest is Ignored on Our National Airwaves. Has CBC Radio's "The House" Let Us Down Again?

by Larry Powell

Will the CBC ever learn?

More than five years ago, the radio program "The House," interviewed their "go-to" guy on just about everything; corporate apologist and big-shot business tycoon Derek Burney (l.), a former Canadian ambassador to the U.S. and adviser to Brian Mulroney.  He sang the praises of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline (extremely controversial even then) and railed against the "violent emotion" being used by environmentalists to oppose it. He never gave, nor was he asked to give, examples of what he meant by violent. Neither did he nor the CBC ever mention that he (Burney) was then (and may still be, for all I know), a director of Trans Canada Pipelines, proponents of the project! It was only after I made a formal complaint to the CBC ombudsman that they apologized for the "oversight." 

Fast forward to this morning and, lo and behold, the same program interviewed the same Derek Burney! This time, in a spiel reminiscent of Nazi-appeaser Neville Chamberlain (the UK's PM at the start of the Second World War), Burney laid out his own blueprint for "getting along" with the incoming Trump administration. Once again, no mention of Burney's business interests! 

Do you suppose Burney just might have an ulterior motive here? Perhaps he doesn't want us to do anything that would rock the boat, or move Trump off his position of support for what is likely still one of Burney's pet projects, the Keystone XL pipeline?

In this age of fake news and rampant conflicts-of-interest, surely the CBC can do better. 

Ya think?

-30-

WATCH BERNIE SANDERS CUT A CORPORATE REPORTER DOWN TO SIZE FOR A STUPID QUESTION...

A Retired Professor Takes a Newspaper Columnist to Task for her Column About Tainted Milk and "Junk Science."

 Dear Editor,

Re; The phony tainted milk scare (Margaret Wente, Globe & Mail, October 29, 2015). 

In her preamble, Ms. Wente suggests that “we need to blow the whistle on junk science”. I agree, but we need to do the same on junk journalism, which is exemplified by her article. My understanding is that journalism’s first obligation is to tell the truth (i.e. the whole truth, and not half-truths & tainted opinions; as is the case with Ms Wente’s piece). 

For example, she states that: The (bovine) growth hormone, also known as rBST, which stimulates the cow’s milk production, is “the same hormone that is naturally produced in the cow’s pituitary gland.” Further: “Milk from treated cows is virtually identical to other milk.”  And: “ there aren’t any effects of  rBGH on human health”.  

These statements are not true; in fact, Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone  (rBGH or rBST) is a genetically engineered drug, originally developed by Monsanto, which later sold  the business to Eli Lilly. RBGH has never been proven safe, as is required by US Federal Law, largely, because its developers and proponents were practicing junk science and deception! That is why Ms Wente’s vitriolic attack on Dr Chopra and on Ms Carol Off of CBC is junk journalism! Let me elaborate.

Fact: several food safety concerns were identified for rBGH by scientists the world-over (including some from within the FDA). Most important among these: when the synthetic hormone is injected into a cow, it elevates the level not only of milk production, but also of another powerful growth hormone, IGF-1 (or Insulin-like Growth Factor-1; a component of milk), which increases the risk of breast, prostate, colon and lung cancer in humans. Further, IGF-1 reduces the effectiveness of various anticancer drugs (Refs: American Cancer Society, 2014; US Center for Food Safety, 2013; “What’s in your milk?—An expose of industry & government cover-up of the genetically engineered [rBGH] milk you are drinking”---book by Samuel Epstein, MD, 2007 ).http://www.amazon.ca/Whats-Your-Milk-Government-Genetically/dp/1412089204 

Thus, based on overwhelming scientific evidence, rBGH was banned in the EU, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and thanks to Dr Chopra & his whistle-blowing colleagues, also in Canada. And why not in the US? Well, for the truth & answer, we turn to Mr. Steven Druker, a US Public Interest Attorney & author (hardly an “activist”), who in his seminal new book (“Altered Genes, Twisted Truth”) exposes how a shady corporate biotech cartel subverted science during the last three decades, corrupted governments and systematically deceived the public. Most of the factual material for the book was derived from 44,000 pages of internal (secret) documents of concerned FDA scientists, which Druker obtained by court order. I highly recommend the book to Ms Wente, if she wants to learn the whole truth about tainted milk and other risky GMO products on our plate (which she apparently considers perfectly safe). Frankly, readers of Canada’s national newspaper expect the whole truth from its columnists!

John Balatinecz, retired professor, University of Toronto, Toronto.

Journalism as Subversion

by Chris Hedges - OpEd News 

The assault of global capitalism is not only an economic and political assault. It is a cultural and historical assault. Global capitalism seeks to erase our stories and our histories. Its systems of mass communication, which peddle a fake…Story here.

A Bucket of Whitewash for Amanda Lang

iPOLITICS

Let’s recap. Amanda Lang gets paid a bushel of money to talk at events sponsored in part by a big bank — the one her boyfriend works for. She then invites the bank’s president on her TV show to crap on a story broken by her CBC colleagues about that bank and the Temporary Foreign Workers Program while, at roughly the same time, she goes AWOL and disses the story herself in The Globe and Mail without warning her bosses.

And it was no big deal. Not, apparently, according to the CBC’s in-house ‘review’ of events. Story here.

Sun News Death a Victory for Intellect

The Tyee

The Canadian network took us for dummies from the start. In the end, it cost them millions. Story here.

It's Just "Nature"

PLT: Just watching the news tonight. According to CTV, the latest, terrible storms, this time in Ontario & Quebec, are due to "nature." All the damage from high winds - trees crushing cars, damaging houses, knocking out power for up to a million people and killing a woman in Quebec, was just because of "nature." So is the heat wave now plaguing the maritimes, apparently. The only mention of global warming came in a promo for some stupid movie involving sharks flying through the air. With this kind of negligence, deceit and ignorance rampant in our mass media concerning the most serious environmental problem facing our planet today, God help us all. 

It's not nature, media! It's climate change! This is what it looks like! And we are to blame! 

Get used to it! Step up! Tell it like it is, you bozos!!!

P.S. CTV is not alone in its malfeasance. While most media are now mentioning the term "climate change" more than they used to, they might as well not. Without the added, necessary explanation that the reason much of this is happening is our excessive burning of fossil fuels which emits greenhouse gases which causes global warming which spawns much of these extreme weather events, it's useless. 

Green Party Leader Gob-Smacks the Media Darling of the CBC and National Post

Greens do politics differently (But not in the way that Rex Murphy thinks)

By Elizabeth May

In his Saturday National Post column, Rex Murphy claimed that Canada’s Green party has no goal other than to get me elected as an MP — and that this has been the case for “two or three general elections.”  Full story here.

Rex Murphy caricature courtesy 

of By the Bay Art Studio

We Are Bradley Manning

Chris Hedges - TruthDig

I was in a military courtroom at Fort Meade in Maryland on Thursday as Pfc. Bradley Manning admitted giving classified government documents to WikiLeaks. Details here.