Despite the Sun, Despite TV

Murdoch's in trouble again, but to be honest as bad as the phonehacking scandal was and is, it isn't the first time Murdoch's newspapers have demonstrated a close relationship with the police, nor his companies ability and eagerness to use his connections to the police and government to crush opposition. The Wapping dispute was a blatant demonstration of the power of News International and another example of how Thatchers "Freedom" meant freedom for money over people.

Torrent

In January 1986, Rupert Murdoch moved his printing operation, News International, publishers of the Sun and the Sunday Times, from Fleet St to Wapping in East London. Over 5,000 print workers, clerical staff, cleaners and secretaries were sacked in one day.

'Despite the Sun' is an investigation into the year-long dispute, which shook the print industry. Produced from the point of view of the residents and print workers, the camera records the effects on residents harassed by the police and Murdoch's lorries alike and cavalry-like charges of police horses on the picket lines. Vital questions are raised on the ownership and control of the media, access to it, the organisation of work and impact of the so-called 'new technology'.

Enemies of the Internet

Yep this is another one of them preachy posts, once again accompanied by a nice Infographic from the good people of Open-Site, for a quick recap of similar posts click on the following links:

Technology production
Piracy
Online Activism


 Today's theme is sort of a companion piece to the one about Activism (though arguably they are all interconnected) its about those whom threaten all the good things the Internet gives us, including pornography and fan sites about obscure television shows an out of print pulp series.

From Open-site.org 

If you think that identity theft is the worst-case-scenario of Internet use, you clearly don’t live in any of the nations that make the list of top “Enemies of the Internet.” Not only do these governments monitor their citizens’ web activity, but they also make it nearly impossible for them to safely share and gather information through anonymous microblogs, Facebook pages or Twitter accounts. One nation sports a cyber police force that is larger than the city of Orlando, Florida. And when protests erupted in another country, Twitter accounts were created for the sole purpose of diverting citizens from spreading information. Although these nations represent the extremes of national cybersecurity, the measures they use are based in legislative bills like SOPA, PIPA and CISPA. Check out the following infographic to find out which nations make this list. The next time you surf the web, think carefully about who’s watching you and who’s blocking you.

 If you're finding the graphic a bit small you can get the full sized version here.

Anyway I believe this is a fairly comprehensive list of nations that have less then liberal attitudes to the world wide web. In fact do take a look at both lists in the second image, we have the usual suspects China, Burma, Belarus, Russia, Cuba etc all well known for Authoritarianism but we also have a few surprises, Bahrain, Egypt and Tunisia, all of which had until the Arab Spring been well known for tourism and an accommodating attitude to Westerners.

And yet all of them at least embraced legislation that allowed their security forces to monitor the web. Why is this necessary? Well its quite easy to co-opt mainstream or old media either nationalise it or keep it in private hands and reach an agreement with the owners. Murdoch used to be the perfect example of this in the UK before the phone hacking scandal ruined his credibility and usefulness to government. Remember private ownership of the media doesn't necessarily equal independent or free.

Of course the problem with that framework is lying about a problem doesn't make the problem go away. People whom are frustrated and not getting anywhere through official means often go "underground"  and the internet has made this much easier to do and more effective to reach a larger audience. Owning the Times and Government FM simply won't stop dissent from spreading hence monitoring programs, and criticism laws (which we'll get to later) and don't hold your breadth for the new governments in Egypt and Tunisia to get rid of these particular laws. You would be surprised how useful such measures are once someone else has done the hard work and took the flack for implementing them.

For example in South Africa the ANC kept very unpopular Apartheid era laws in case their Administration faced an insurrection. Or did you think they just forgot about the legal justifications to arrest and beat them when they were the people's Vanguard?


Bahraini bloggers have often faced arrest and fines and that was before the protests against the Monarchy kicked off in full. Now you can expect a night raid and assault.

You may also wonder why Australia and France are on the list, after all those are civilised "Democratic" Western liberal nations. So why are they playing follow the leader with the Moustachioed Despots? Put simply because the same tensions that make surveillance and arbitrary detention so attractive to Governments exist in all nations. Can you honestly think of a nation that is completely homogeneous in outlook and harmonious? I can't... well that's not true North Korea (As its government portrays it anyway) seems pretty orderly, but given that its society is heavily militarised and has an extremely powerful police and intelligence service suggests that harmony is manufactured to some extent. And even they have very restrictive internet monitoring programs.

In the UK Tory and Labour governments have been blocking sites since the 90's. Some because of allegations of terrorism promotion and child pornography but, sometimes file sharing, I can't access Piratebay.Se anymore to give a recent example. In fact if I remember correctly in the 90's most websites blocked or shut down were Scatological pornsites (I'm not checking to make sure, you do that if you want too) which while unpleasant content wise isn't exactly what I'd call and economic or societal menace.

And of course I'm sure we're all familiar with the Alphabet bills in America and the EU trying to increase restrictions on the internet in our lands. SOPA, PIPA, CISPA, ACTA and so on. This initiatives need to be fought, not because they'll take away free films and music (even though its been debunked that piracy negatively affects those industries) but because they all legalise attacks from both government agencies and corporate "Rights holders" to attack our democratic space. You are naive in the extreme if you don't realise that these measures open the door to censorship of ideas and groups. And maybe you don't care all that much when the groups being shut down are "terrorists" or of the political and social opposition, but can you honestly guarantee that that is were the line stops? Would you be so complacent if the party bringing in these policies was one that opposed your beliefs and tried to silence your activism and debate?

Again credit to the Open-Site for the infographic.

More from this series:

Technology production
Piracy
Online Activism

FSRN Donation Drive

"FSRN and our independent media friends are holding a one-day fundraising and consciousness-raising event called #supportyrmedia. Please visit, donate, comment and share before midnight ET (GMT -5) tonight! Help us raise $2,000 and win matching grants!"

Free Speech Radio News (FSRN) is holding a special one day long fund-raiser, the target is two thousand dollars but if they hit that target they'll receive matching donations meaning the total will be four thousand dollars. FSRN has been up and running for nearly twelve years now, that's twelve long years resisting censorship from the top board and getting important but unsettling stories from across the world out to a wider audience.

They have until tonight GMT-5 which will be around 5 in the morning for us in the UK. I know its annoying to be constantly hounded for money but I know a lot of people across the world are sick of the blatant bias and manipulations in the Mainstream Media and its domination by Corporate and Government interests, this is a worthy cause I've shared and uploaded only a fraction of the work this group does, from Hawaii to Palestine, to the forests of India and the coastal towns of Indonesia FSRN has brought important news to the airwaves, please if you feel the standards of acceptable journalism demonstrated by our old friend and defender of decency Rupert Murdoch and his staff, then I strongly recommend you at least take a look at what there asking for.

Some more highlights to sway you:



"In Senegal, residents defied a ban on protests and are demonstrating ahead of an expected court ruling on whether President Abdoulaye Wade will be permitted to run for a third term. The West African country will hold presidential elections next month and in the lead up to the vote, human rights and civil society groups have condemned what they call a government crackdown on opposition leaders. The showdown about who will be on the ballot is the latest in the election process. For more we go to FSRN reporter Alpha Jallow who is in Dakar. He joins us by cell phone."



"Today Iran's supreme leader vowed to retaliate in the event of an attack and condemned Western-backed oil sanctions on his country. According to Reuters, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spoke on state TV to mark the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

On Thursday, the US Senate Banking Committee approved sanctions on Iran that could cut billions of dollars of revenue from abroad. The legislation, called the Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Human Rights Act, would stop transfers through the telecommunications network called Swift, and add to already strict sanctions on Iran's Central Bank. The bill now moves to the full Senate.

Rhetoric from the US and Israel has risen this week as UN said a team of nuclear inspectors will return to Iran later this month.

For more we're joined by Arang Keshavarzian, Associate Professor at NYU's Department of Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies."



"We turn now to New York, to look at a string of police shootings and a beating involving young black males that has community members outraged. FSRN's Jaisal Noor reports."

The link again http://www.razoo.com/story/Fsrn

This Christmas Give the World a Gift That Truly Will Keep On Giving

If you've been following this little blog of mine (thank you for that) then you'll no doubt be aware that one of the biggest and never ending sources of irritation to me is that the Mainstream Media (MSM) whether Corporate or State is so lacklustre. Whether incompetence or deliberate policy I've come to find depressingly little accurate information in the papers and the news channels. Hell many times to me it seems like someone high up the Journo food chain is deliberately withholding information that is very important or at least potentially very important, like a long running Peasant Revolt in India.

There are a couple of exceptions, the BBC documentary wing can and still does commission and broadcast programs made with some investigative journalism and occasionally offer something against the grain of the usual wisdom were spoon fed. And theres BBC Four's World News Today which not only covers important stories from around the world but will also instead of just summarising the latest development it'll also actually make an attempt to explain the context of the story whose on which side and why they're there and what the future will hold. Channel Four and its sister More Four will also have some intelligent discussions and documentaries from time to time.

And of course theres my long standing love affair with the Socialist Daily Morning Star (that's the Morning not Daily Star).

Many who feel the same way as I do have moved on, unfortunately the greener pastures are often the result of fresh paint rather then ethical tending. What am I talking about with that tortured allusion? well I'm talking about the moving from Western media to its main competitors, non western state run or funded news services, like Russia Today, Press TV, Al-Jazeera and CCTV. Now theres nothing wrong with vary your sources of information far from it thats a mature and healthy thing to do. The problem I have is that so many of there new audiences seem to have become so jaded with the poor standards of western news that they'll happily embrace any opposition and be blind to its failings.

Services like Russia Today, and Press TV are good at digging up dirt about the West, however they are even worse apologist (hell they don't actually apologise but you get my meaning) for there paymasters in Tehran and Moscow. These governments are not exactly soft and delicate. For example I have on Press TV seen coverage of Trade union struggles, you know strikes and worries that even more repressive legislation will come into effect, and thats good however I have not seen much coverage of the much worse repression that Trade Unionists in Iran. Which from my support of Labour rights sites like Labourstart I know includes imprisonment assault, death threats wholesale banning etc. And thats not even mentioning the hypocrisy of being sympathetic to UK civil liberties organisations when your pay check is written by the executers of Atheists and Gays.

Russia Today is on balance better then Press TV if only because the Russian government hasn't committed such extreme crimes against its own people. However it is still very much a United Russia rubber stamp outfit. During the Presidential elections I was shocked how brazen they were being, they aired Medvedev's speeches in full several times, whereas the opposition's were routinely cut to a few sound bites. Furthermore the RT teams "analysis" was to ask if UR's platform would be popular, the short answer? yes. Whilst for the other candidates they would question there policies as just absurd and then mock there parties, the CPRF where an old mans club, the liberal (not liberal democrat) candidate was a weird kook wasting there time etc. They also refuse to cover any opposition groups in detail only cutting to them to dispute there claims (often with little evidence).

The point I'm laboriously trying to get at here is that if we really do won't to see the back of the monopoly on information are most important resource after water food and shelter is that we on the "radical" alternatives wing should make a concerted effort to back as much truly independent news sources as possible.

There are some very good sources of information out there however in order to really challenge the MSM stranglehold on the worlds political discourse they require financial support to keep spreading the word. I feel its only fair to state that every time I've advertised donation or funding links on this blog its been for things I myself have already contributed to (another nagging sore of mine is seeing self satisfied celebs touting for donations from the proletarian masses while they give proportionally nothing and in some cases actually get a wage for the pot shaking) myself as I think it would be hypocritical to persuade/pressure others to give if I haven't.

A couple of reasons why you should support the Real News Network from its Big Boss Paul Jay.






And for those who like Radio I can recommend the non-profit group Free Speech Radio News (FSRN for short). This station was born out of a strike at another radio station when the staff objected to censorship imposed on them by the Board of directors. That was in 2000 giving the group of global freelancers over ten years of independence.




Like with Real News I've embedded more then a few videos of there work but if you'd like a sample of why this group is worthy of support here you go.

Report on the ongoing violence in Syria.



And a special documentary on the devastation being wreaked in Mexico as the War on Drugs continues.


Well thats it for me (probably.... maybe) see you year, Merry Christmas to one and to all good day.

Read the Morning Star (Lyrical Version)

Been awhile since we had a good song to listen to. Tommy Reckless has been could enough to record a short song about why the Morning Star is great and all the other British papers are anything but.

Enjoy it, and I'll just live this link to the Morning Star website here.

Your replacement weekend paper

Now that the News of the World has closed down a lot of people will probably have a paper shaped hole on Sunday. If your one of those people don't worry Uncle Michael's got you covered. Now is the perfect opportunity to try out the weekend edition of the MorningStar.
For just £1 you get two days worth of information with almost no adverts (thanks to the ban by the advertising council)with unprecedented coverage of both the labour movement -as opposed to merely regurgitating stock prices like other papers- and the various campaigns to improve are society and the world. It also feature thorough and under appreciated sports sections complete with tips, interviews and analysis of the shady goings on at the managing level that sadly plague many sports at the professional level, without falling victim to blind "my country tis for thee" jingoism that is so prevalent in every other sports coverage that I'm aware of.

Now you can pick up a copy from the shelves in your local Co-op/ Somerfield, or Mcoll's newsagent, as well as a few other chains, or you can ask your local newsagent to order them in for you, (usually they order extra in case other customers are interested). Read a few articles on the website if your a bit unsure, like for example this one. As far as I'm concerned the Morning Star is the only paper where principled journalism is still practised, well the Mirror does have its moments, and the Liberal rags (Independent, and Guardian) are definitely on a level above right wing gutter floaters, but you do have to put up with a ridiculously condescending and self congratulating tone, and for all the protestations about morals and green living won't hesitate to take big payouts from the same companies and individuals they railed against a couple of issues in.

Anyway just a thought.

Rupert the Barefaced Liar

Thought a quick post to celebrate this hilarious song by the folks at Dailyreckless about the on going storm at News International was in order.

An Avalanche in cyberspace

Hey everybody. I noticed that I've been neglecting UK news recently,in my defence I've been somewhat out of the loop on a few stories and was a bit late, I was just recently made aware of the disgusting actions of strikebreakers at the London picket lines besides many other Comrades can usually be relied upon to write about them in a much more compelling and professional way. But thats about to change you see while I'll never be as good at document the plight of women in 21st century patriarchy, wax lyrical about the works of Gramsci,or cover the latent sinophobia within the British establishment or expose the acid culture of economic lies to mask tax hoarding like some others.

But there is one area of UK politics that I think I can safely say I excel at thats right constantly yammering on about internet founded -yet increasingly encroaching on physical plain- campaign group 38degrees . Regulars -oh according the new stats features I actually have regulars now- will probably have thought that they had finally escaped these little updates seeing as I haven't talked about them for a month or two. I am now going to make up for it now as there have been several new developments.


First Murdoch, it seems that Vince Cable hasn't entirely sold his principles for ministerial kickbacks, he seems to have finally bowed to public pressure and called for an inquiry into Murdochs attempts to take complete ownership of BskyB which by its unpronounceable name reminds us is technically a merging of British Satellite Broadcasting and Sky. So good news however Murdoch is very sensitive regarding allegations that he is breaking are already impotent anti monopoly laws, and will no doubt "unleash the hounds" (heh) by which I mean corporate lobbyists to try and dilute the inquiry and any subsequent penalties if and when he or News International are found guilty of any wrong doing, so its imperative that we keep up the pressure.



Next up we have a follow up to this post on the proposed battery farms for cattle being considered in Lincolnshire, for me the one and only home county. It seems that several companies backing the scheme have well backed off due to protests and the Local councils are differing about whether or not to push thorugh so now could be the time to tip the balance. There also running a similar campaign to tighten laws on UK imports of south American agricultural produce that requires deforestation for farmland.

In other environmental news you may of heard of the ConDems plans to make a bit of cash on the side by selling off vast swathes of our green and pleasant land that middle England daily mail readers claim to love so much to private developers, and the response has been phenomenal, over 50,000 signatures in just a few weeks.


Oh and speaking of chopping there's this little campaign to get George Osborne to come clean on his personal tax records and stop using loopholes since he is after all the Chancellor of Exchequer, maybe we should just pass the hat around and see if we can hire a bounty hunter to dig through his accounts. And hand in hand with that is their campaign to crack down on tax avoiders like Vodafone. Since this man is the ConDems real number 2, you might think that any campaign against him will be fruitless, but you have to remember that this is a man so slimy that he changed his name from "Gideon" to George to appear more likeable not to mention his constant lieing about how "were all in this together", and given that the ConDems are positively riven with contradictions with the Liberals looking weaker by the day prompting further defections and electoral disaster Gideon "call me George" Osborne could be set for a fall if we make enough noise about it.

And on a general and final note it seems that 38degrees has been growing into a more professional outfit, they started raising money for campaigns efficiently, they now put up posters and billboards, they've also got rid of those automatic emails making you at least personalise them to an extent getting rid of that spam feel and appear to be making an increasing impact.

There we go its good to be back on form.

Burns photo source

Defeat the Empire, sign up to the Rebellion today!

Well not really, you should sign up just not to the rebel alliance. Its time for another instalment of my long running (as far as this blog is concerned anyway)series about plugging internet based pressure group 38 Degrees and todays a very special episode as its a long overdue bashing of Murdoch. You see Murdochs news International (his main centre of global power) is attempting to fully buy up BSkyB the company in charge of the Sky satellite network.

This is a very troubling prospect for Britain's Democratic future for several reasons. One News international and its many subsidiaries and junior companies already own or hold controlling stakes in a large amount of Britain's not to mention the worlds media,(heres a piece by John Pilger describing the situation in Australia Murdochs native spawning pit), but its also a slap in the face to the people who actually bothered to vote in the last election as the move clearly represents an attempt on Murdochs part to claim the "spoils of war" from his backing of the Tories.

Now you might be wondering how signing a bloody petition on the internet no less could actually help matters. Well there are a few reasons why this action may prove with enough support effective. First the actual minister in charge of deciding whether or not to bring full scrutiny of any take off and then yay or nay them is one Vince Cable. Who is of course firmly on the Dem side of the ConDem coalition so not only is he not entirely in the corporate lobbies hands especially not Murdochs as arguably it was his papers scaremongering about a hung parliament that contributed to the Libdems poor showing.

But it also comes at a time when the Libdems at a particularly vulnerable juncture for the Libdems after all the news that 48% of Libdem voters won't make the same mistake in this poll and with Davey Cameron publically distancing himself from the Liberals over electoral reform (hey what do you know theres a campaign for that too)Vince and Co. could justifiably break with the Tories over one or two minor quibbles such as this one without rocking the boat to much.

The Dust begins to settle

Well May 6th was interesting. Not really sure what happens now, guess its just wait and see for the back room boys to hammer out a deal. While I'm not happy Labour are in second place and parties like Respect failed to make headway, I can't be totally depressed as the Conservatives despite getting the most seats can only regard this as a failure. I mean considering what assets they had,they had 90% of the National press, (The Guardian, and the Independent back the Liberals) the Only papers that still backed Labour were the Mirror and the Morning Star, They also had Lord Ashcroft with a free hand to spend as much money as he wanted thanks to that bizarre Court ruling, and of course they were campaigning against a government that had been in power for over ten years. With that 2010 should have been Labours 1997 moment and been completely obliterated.

But well they weren't, in fact some particularly the Left Labour Mp's actually increased their share of the votes and most of the "big name" scalps that were taken were the rightwingers, the corrupt or the chronic back stabbers , so again a mixed bag.

Also while were on the subject of coalitions, 38 Degrees is currently running two campaigns that will be off interest to some of you. There currently trying to put pressure on Lib Dems to hold true to there commitments on electoral reform, and to halt cuts to the BBC a prospect that seems increasingly likely since Cameron made a Faustian deal with News International (though is their really any other kind with Murdoch?).

Still it looks like we'll have to wait and see, what develops in the coming weeks.

BBC Cuts

Good afternoon everyone, I've just realised that we've been in the whole new month of April for 11 days and I have yet to talk about 38 degrees. Well don't worry I'll correct that oversight right now, by talking about 38 degrees.

Anyway there current Campaigns revolve around the Tobin Tax, a US style recall law for MPs, and the main subject of today's post a campaign to prevent major cuts to the BBC.

Now I know I have been very critical of the BBC at times and there are a number of very serious complaints that can be levelled against it but nevertheless I fully support this campaign. Why? well its really a question of priorities, you see the main cheerleaders for a weakened BBC are the Daily Mail and News International, both of which are much worse. Though the Daily Mail isn't really in a position to profit too much from any wounds to the BBC especially given that many of the proposed cuts will affect the BBC's radio department However news international certainly will be.

Also this particular campaign marks a bit of a shift from 38 degrees usual mode of operation. As well as the usual internet petition 38 degrees has also been canvassing support from MPs and candidates , some of which have signed there pledge. And they also been busy raising money for a series of billboard advertisements around the Country. That last part really makes me excited for two reasons, First it shows that the group is growing and becoming a much more serious activist group. And Second this idea has a promising precedent, you my remember why back in the distant past of February 2010 back when Rod Liddle was on the verge of becoming editor of the Independent (no this isn't a late April fools joke that was actually a very real possibility) it was the fact that the anti Rod campaign was willing to raise money and buy adverts (in the independent no less) attacking Rod as well as al the protest emails and petitions that finally clinched it. So hopefully the ad campaign will have the same effect.

Well the internet seems to have finally sorted itself out for now. I had hoped to write about the Islamic Revolutions 31st anniversary, but its abit to late now most of what's to say has already been said so Iran will have to be put on the back burner for now. But let me give you this link to Lenin's Tomb instead. Besides its not all bad I was trying to resist the urge to make a Mullah lite joke so maybe its better this way.

Anyway Adam Curtis (of the excellent The Trap, and The power of Nightmares) has produced a very interesting and thought provoking mini doc for Charlie Brooker's Newswipe.



Hmm interesting, especially about Murdoch and Thatcher, however I should point out the obvious that Murdoch's papers for the masses was and is motivated by nothing more then a quest for profit rather then as his sound bite implies an attempt to promote the spread of information and the raising of the political consciousness of the common man.



Well I've just had the virtual stuffing kicked out of me.

Real News

Ah News, News is our window to the great outside world, a friendly mentor explaining complex situation in an accessible way that helps us the great ignorant mass know just what the bloody hell is going on in this scary world of ours. Or at least in theory thats how its supposed to go. If you've ever been unfortunate enough to read a newspaper or seen a program by owned by News International you'll no doubt quickly realise that in practice the news leaves a lot to be desired. As that infamous front page demonstrates, (more on Hillsborough here)

But instead of ranting at the evils of Murdoch like countless others have done many of which where much better then what I could do (here, here, and here ) though if you really want a fun game to play, go to any vaguely left wing blog search bar and type in one of the following phrases , Murdoch, Sun, News International, Fox news, Evil, Satan, bastard, Bloodsucker, and well you get the idea, what comes will probable boil the blood of any decent human being.

Where was I? oh right not talking about Murdoch.... the media in general, my old Sociology teacher had a saying regarding the media, "he who pays the piper calls the tune" this is really the main problem with media in general as frequent readers of Private eyes street of shame section will probably be aware of. To clarify, government owned and publicly run enterprises such as the old Pravda, and the BBC ( Bush and Blair Corporation according to George Galloway) are unlikely to be overtly critical of there paymasters and bosses for the sake of career and because the government if its smart will pick those who are ideologically a "safe pair of hands" those this can backfire, I believe were all familiar with Greg Dykes tenure as General Secre- I mean Director General and the Hutton Inquiry Debacle which while a win for the government ended up costing Blair pretty much all credibility on the war and honesty fronts, and strangely the aforementioned Pravda under the editorship of Stalin was initially split with Lenin in early 1917 by calling for support of the Provisional government of Kerensky, so nothing can be taken for granted.

However the private or "free" press as we in the West inaccurately call it is not much better and in my opinion thanks to this capitalist myth that because its a privately owned business it can do what it likes even worse on the question of stepping on there employers and moneymen toes.You know things are bad when you have the Guardian and the New Statesmen taking sponsorship and ad revenue from companies like Shell and E-on, I mean if your a pro environment anti mega corporation newspaper would you see any conflict of interest taking an oil companies money especially one that has a very dodgy record in the Nigerian River Delta and probably *cough definitely* has blood on its hands?

Then of course theirs the insidious PR lobby that stomps down on dissent like an NKVD agent who has a brand new Gulag to fill. A very good example of how powerful and manipulative they can be is found here at around 4:31.

There is also another phenomena linked to the dumbing down of the news which has dire consequences for democracy and decision making, which I'm unfortunately not very good at explaining but fortunately thanks to Charlie Brooker and Adam Curtis (the fellow behind the power of nightmares and the trap) I don't have to explain it I can just link to it here and tell you that the relevant information starts at 1:50 so you might as well just watch the whole thing really.

Anyway all is not lost there are still a few principled voices out there in say the blogosphere and youtube etc, and some unlike me have some actual weight, very good summaries of several victories over corruption via the internet can be found at the excellent A Very Public Sociologist and a somewhat more critical appraisal of these tools of social engineering can be found here at the very good Polemical report.

And of the old media there still exist a few crusaders for truth, for example the most factual and in depth account of the Coup against Hugo Chavez in 2002 and the horrendous state of the media in the Bolivarian Republic was the Irish Documentary the Revolution will not be Televised which can be found in links on the side bar or here if your lazy. But by far the most promising development for journalism of principal in my opinion is the Real news Network (youtube channel is here a news network that is entirely funded by its members and donations ensure full editorial control of content lies with the journalists themselves. Aside from the independence it also boasts some amazingly in depth interviews with scholars and academics (such as this one on Obama's health care reform failures due to some unlikely opposition with the head of campaign for America's future) as well as breaking some phenomenally important international developments which are ignored in the mainstream media for example this expose on the recent shame elections in Honduras which have either been ignored entirely in the West or have been ignored entirely or taken at face value. then there's the frankly excellent discussions on the opposition movement in Iran which for the most part is free of Jingoism and western snobbery, one highlight is the discussion of the legacy of the life of the deceased Ayatollah Montazeri and this in depth analysis of the Revolutionary Guard.

On behalf of myself I just like to take the time to say thank you to the Real news network and the others out there to which honesty and integrity still mean something and I hope to somehow raise awareness of you out there to as many fellow travellers as possible.