Habit 1: don't believe the hype
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Skeptic | Evolution See Inside Image: Illustration by Thomas Fuchs
The Skeptic's Skeptic: Scientific American
The Media, the crisis, and the crisis in media | openDemocracy
The financial crisis and a series of aggressive wars have demonstrated beyond doubt how prevailing forms of media ownership in the west serve to buttress the power of elites and marginalise alternatives to the status quo. In his new book, The Return of the Public ↑ , Dan Hind argues that a system of public commissioning, which gives citizens the power to decide which issues are the subject of journalistic investigation, has the potential to reframe the terms of debate and make policy-making more democratic and accountable. Writing in the early days of the twentieth century the great anti-imperialist J.A. Hobson ↑ complained that a ‘small body of men’ had secured popular support for an aggressive war in South Africa ‘by the simple device of securing all important avenues of intelligence and using them to inject into the public mind a continuous stream of false and distorted information’.
Donald Rumsfeld. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images Hours after a commercial plane struck the Pentagon on September 11 2001 the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, was issuing rapid orders to his aides to look for evidence of Iraqi involvement, according to notes taken by one of them. "Hard to get good case. Need to move swiftly," the notes say.
Blogger bares Rumsfeld's post 9/11 orders | World news | The Guardian
Clockwise, starting at top left: a joint patrol in Samarra ; the toppling of the Saddam Hussein statue in Firdos Square ; an Iraqi Army soldier readies his rifle during an assault; a roadside bomb detonates in South Baghdad . Iraq (post invasion) Peshmerga Awakening Councils Multi-National Force – Iraq United States (03–11)
Iraq War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Introduction The question of the public good and national interest is never so rigorously tested when issues such as national security and conflict are high on the political agenda. When a country decides to go to war it frequently divides members of national parliaments, sections of the public; and in the case of the recent military action in Iraq all of these as well as international organisations such as the United Nations and the Member States of the European Union. In cases such as the coalition's invasion of Iraq in 2003, governments have put forward a variety of arguments to justify aggression on a grand scale against the Iraqi state in the name of regime change and the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, the second of which have failed to materialise. Government action in the name of the public and national interest is crucially legitimised by public support.
14th JAMCO Online International Symposium./Public Service Broadcasting in Europe and the Coverage of the Iraq War
Bill Hicks - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
American culture , American politics , current events , pop culture , human sexuality , philosophy , religion , spirituality , recreational drug use , entheogens , conspiracy theories , consumerism William Melvin "Bill" Hicks (December 16, 1961 – February 26, 1994) was an American stand-up comedian , social critic , satirist , and musician . His material largely consisted of general discussions about society, religion, politics, philosophy, and personal issues. Hicks' material was often controversial and steeped in dark comedy .