KPFK’s Chris Burnett of Indy Media on air interviews Abby Martin, creator of Media Roots, to talk about politics, activism, and media justice.
KPFK Indy Media Interview About Media Roots
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College Student Detained for Having English-Arabic Flashcards
REUTERS–
Federal agents detained and interrogated a U.S. college student at the
Philadelphia airport simply because we was carrying a set of
English-Arabic flashcards, a lawsuit alleged on Wednesday.
The American Civil Liberties Union said it filed the suit on behalf Nicholas George, 22, a language student at Pomona College in California who was held at Philadelphia International Airport for nearly five hours in August 2009.
George, a U.S. citizen from the Philadelphia suburb of Wyncote, was on his way back to college when airport security officers found him carrying the flashcards, each of which had an English word on one side and its Arabic equivalent on the other, the ACLU said.
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration questioned him, and a TSA supervisor asked him how he felt about the September 11 attacks, whether he knew “who did 9/11,” and whether he knew what language Osama bin Laden spoke, the ACLU said.
He was handcuffed and left in a locked cell for two hours before being “abusively” interrogated by two FBI agents, but was never told why he was being detained, the ACLU said.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. district court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, charges that officers from the TSA, FBI and Philadelphia police violated George’s constitutional rights of free speech and to be free from unreasonable seizure.
“As someone who travels by plane, I want TSA agents to do their job to keep flights safe,” George said in a statement. “But I don’t understand how locking me up and harassing me just because I was carrying the flashcards made anybody safer.”
Neither the federal agencies nor the Philadelphia police could be reached for comment.
© COPYRIGHT REUTERS, 2010
MR Original – Emergence of True Journalism
MEDIA ROOTS- Earlier this year I had the opportunity to interview Peter Phillips, former head of Project Censored, undoubtedly one of the most crucial independent media projects in the country. Project Censored exposes stories that are suppressed by the mainstream media and publishes an annual book showcasing the year’s top 25 most censored stories. The insights he shared caused me to re-evaluate just how important the media has become in shaping our perceived reality.
Many people think that if they haven’t seen an issue addressed on television or by mainstream newspapers that it either doesn’t exist or must not be important. But there are many reasons why significant stories that affect millions of people don’t hit the airwaves.
Since the corporate takeover of the media, we have been seeing more and more consolidation of control in regards to filtering what news we see and do not see. The more one investigates who is behind the scenes, the more one uncovers vast conflicts of interest between the corporate elites’ business goals and the media’s initial purpose of getting “real” information to the masses.
Ideally, the role of the media in a democracy is to keep the population in the know. If vital issues are not addressed or evaluated rigorously by mainstream press, and if 85% of Americans still get their news strictly from television, an enormous cluster of people is adrift in a sea of unrealized ignorance. A democracy only functions properly when the voters are well informed on the people and issues that impact their lives, so that they be choose their representation with their best interests at heart.
It is imperative to seek out alternative news and media for a more balanced look at the world. Only by seeing different sides to every story can we properly contextualize the information we are fed through the corporate media. Peter Phillips brought up a great point when I tried to ask him how we can break through to mainstream audiences. He said that first we need to understand and show how corporate news specializes in irrelevant disinformation (he called it “infotainment”). Then, we need to start funding, supporting and participating in the renaissance of independent and grassroots media.
Abby
Clare McGibbon – Photographer
MEDIA ROOTS- Check out some of our favorite shots of eclectic French photographer Clare McGibbon.
Metal Case
Blonde Fro
Green Dress
To check out more of Clare McGibbon’s fascinating imagery, go to http://www.claremcgibbon.com/
New Healthcare Bill- Reform or Expansion of a Broken System?
NATURAL NEWS- Today the medical mafia struck another devastating blow to the health and freedom of all Americans. With the support of an inarguably corrupt Congress that has simply abandoned the real needs of the American people, the sick-care industry has locked in a high-profit scheme of disease and monopoly-priced pharmaceuticals in a nation that can ill afford either one.
And this Pharma-funded betrayal, it turns out, was led by the Democrats. Passed on a 219-212 vote that was only accomplished thanks to closed-door, last-minute secret meetings among the last holdouts, this new legislation puts America under the stranglehold of the medical mafia while doing absolutely nothing to address real health care reform.
There is no mention in the bill, for example, of vitamin D for preventing cancer, or orthomolecular medicine for preventing degenerative disease. There’s not even a word about protecting health freedom or ending the century of oppression that has been waged against naturopathic practitioners by the AMA, FDA and FTC.
The new legislation does, however, lock in billions of dollars in monopoly profits for the pharmaceutical companies — the same companies who spent millions of dollars pushing for its passage and who depend on the continuation of sickness and disease for their future profits.
There’s only one problem with this health care reform bill: It doesn’t reform health care. It has almost nothing to do with health care at all, in fact: It’s really more of an effort to expand a broken sick-care system. When faced with the problem that our sick-care system doesn’t work, Congress somehow decided that fixing the problem merely involved expanding the failures to include everyone!
Continue reading about New Healthcare Bill- Reform or Expansion of a Broken System?.
© Natural News, 2010
Photo by flickr user soukup