Tag Archives: Media

The Rochdale by-election is about Gaza. Is that why the media aren’t covering it?

George Galloway: is he the most popular politician in Rochdale?

Did you know the Rochdale by-election is tomorrow – February 29?

It may have slipped your mind. The mainstream news media seem to have found other things to talk about after Labour’s candidate had his party membership suspended for claiming that Israel allowed the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack to happen in order to have an excuse for genocide in Gaza.

Perhaps coverage has lapsed because the front-runner seems to be the representative of the Workers’ Party, rather than Labour or the Conservatives – because his campaign has focused strongly on support for the people of Gaza, and because this has been popular with the people of the constituency.

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Palestinians support George Galloway and, as you can see from the clip below, people in Rochdale do too:

He has made his position clear from day one of his campaign:

And of course he is bolstered by the fact that both Labour and the Conservative Party have supported Israel’s genocide in Gaza, that has murdered and maimed so many children like those in the clip.

Nobody should be voting for a representative of a party that supported the genocide – This Writer agrees with Tom London (below) on that, and I’m sure the people of Rochdale do too.

He certainly seems to have support on the doorstep:

And he has the support of campaigning journalists too:

If you’re in Rochdale, will he have your vote?


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Lyndsay Hoyle has triggered a wave of Islamophobia by politicians. Media stoke it

Lee Anderson: he’s known to be a big fan of the fellow on the left who said women who wear the burqa look like “bank robbers” and “letterboxes”, so it should be no surprise that he’s a raving Islamophobe.

Here’s how politicians create hysteria from nothing – cheered on by the media.

There’s no evidence that people who support Palestine, or Muslims, or anyone is threatening MPs.

There’s no evidence that Islamists are dominating our streets.

But already this false claim is being used to fuel demands for a new clampdown on protest that could turn the UK into a draconian police state.

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Read the following and then tell me if I’ve missed anything.


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United Kingdom corruption officially at its worst in modern times | Central Bylines

Backhander: the Tories have repeatedly insisted that apparent corruption that we’ve all observed really isn’t; will Labour do the same if Keir Starmer gets into Downing Street?

The UK is sinking into a mire of political corruption:

2023’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), recently published by Transparency International, shows that the UK has fallen from the 11th cleanest country for corruption in 2021, to 18th in 2022 and is now 20th in 2023 – its lowest ranking since records began in 1995.

In recent times, and unable to gain the support of Conservative moderates, the party has instead chosen to close the gap between itself and UKIP to leverage more radical support. For the sake of balance, I would happily concede that Labour also went off in search of more support from the left. These are not honest attempts to better represent their constituents but cynical attempts to capitalise on emerging power bases – in the case of UKIP, inflamed by the careful stoking of a culture war.

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The neo-liberals of the noughties – with a little help from their friends – started to see just what the possibilities were when it came to flexing the tolerances of our political system and leveraging new technology to influence voters.

For example, Matthew Elliott worked hard as founder of several organisations over years, determined to make the case for a new type of conservatism. Part of the Tufton Street furniture, he founded the TaxPayers’ Alliance (2004), Big Brother Watch (2009) and possibly the most clear red flag of all of his real intentions, the Conservative Friends of Russia (2012).

And – true to form – despite many senior Conservatives’ mysteriously close relations with dozens of Russia’s oligarchs, the Conservative Friends was just re-branded.

They all seem to share a common trait – lack of clarity over how they are funded. Each time a Tufton St associate appears on our screens or writes their next column, this lack of transparency can only lead to questions about the abuse of our trust in the institutions of our country; and each incursion into our democracy (whether as think tanks, research groups, trade groups or even cultural exchanges) creates a new opportunity for corruption.

With the political, business and romantic affairs of so many politicians mixed up with each other, it is difficult to see how we could ever be really sure that entrusted power is not being used for private gain.

So the Central Bylines article quoted above suggests that the Tufton Street “think tanks” are stoking corruption.

We’re also hearing that corruption is being boosted by corporate influence over political parties – with firms currently infiltrating election front-runners the Labour Party in order to persuade or bribe its leaders to follow their lead rather than lift a finger for the people who may actually elect them.

This Writer would suggest the billionaire-owned mainstream media, along with social media platform owners, as another source of corruption.

Can you think of any other sources of corruption?

Source: United Kingdom corruption officially at its worst in modern times – Central Bylines


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Media complicity in genocide: Sky News gives airtime to liar and switches off comments

Do not believe the person interviewed below.

It appears to be yet another attempt by Israel’s apologists to claim that Israeli women were subjected to systematic sexual violence by Hamas personnel and other Palestinians when they broke out from Gaza to kill around 1,200 Israelis (roughly half of whom were military personnel) on October 7 last year.

It is still possible that sexual violence took place, but if you read the information below, you’ll see that there’s no evidence for it – certainly not on anything like the scale or level of atrocity that is being alleged.

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Read the cautionary note from Max Blumenthal, and the thread following, before coming to your own conclusion:

It seems we can wipe Zaka off the list of credible sources of information.

And I’d urge you to remember this if you see Camilla Tominey on Politics Live, or any other news commentary shows.


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The double-standard of western media that treat Palestinians as sub-human

An injuried girl lies on the floor of Nasser Hospital in Gaza on January 22: apparently what happens to her isn’t anything like as important as what happens to the Israeli troops who attacked her because she is Palestinian, and Palestinians don’t matter. Why is that?

You are being misled by the mainstream media into believing that every Israeli death in Gaza is a tragedy but Palestinians are sub-human and their deaths are unimportant.

Hopefully, This Site will be able to redress the balance a little – with your help. Please share articles like this on the social media so your friends and contacts can understand the real situation.

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Here’s an article from Declassified, explaining the difference between the handling of Israeli and Palestinian deaths:

Twenty-four Israeli soldiers were killed in two separate incidents in Gaza on 22 January. Mainstream media outlets around the world reacted in unison: that this was the “deadliest day” for Israel since 7 October.

This exact phrase was used in headlines on 23 January carried by news agencies such as Reuters and AFP, and major broadcasters including the BBC, CBS, NBC, CNN, ABC and ITV News.

The exact same phrase was also used by leading news titles including the New York TimesWashington PostWall Street JournalTime magazine, Daily Telegraph, the Sun, Jerusalem PostGuardian, London’s Evening StandardFinancial TimesIndependent and Yahoo News.

On the same day, Israeli forces killed almost 200 Palestinians in Gaza including at least 65 people in Khan Younis alone.

These deaths received no headlines in the above outlets. Where they were reported, they were listed as part of the regular daily round-up of events in an unfolding genocide that has now seen more than 26,000 people killed in Gaza.

How is it possible that the world’s media could embrace exactly the same phrase in relation to Israeli victims but largely ignore the identities of the much higher number of Palestinians killed?

Why would 22 January be described as “deadly” for one group of people but not for another?

Please read the rest of the article and tell us all why you think it is.

Source: For western media, Israel’s bombing of Gaza is not ‘deadly’


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Ridiculous: media claim 3:1 hostage exchange ratio means Israel does not value Palestinian life

Yasmin Porat: she was an Israeli hostage who escaped Hamas, which is not the same as the current situation – but this is the only image of a former hostage that This Site has at the time of publication.

Dept. of Even-Handedness: after spending a huge amount of time defending Gaza and Palestinians from Israeli falsehoods and propaganda, it is only fair that this idiocy be identified as well.

It has been suggested by some media types that the fact that three Palestinians are being traded for every Israeli hostage means Israel thinks Palestinian lives are worth less than Israeli lives:

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This has been seized by the usual propagandists:

But of course this time they have a point.

This Writer hasn’t thought for a moment that the numbers we’re seeing mean Israel doesn’t value Palestinian lives as highly as those of Israelis.

It seems far more likely to me that Hamas demanded three Palestinians for every Israeli and saw that wish granted.

The suggestion that the ceasefire was delayed because of further Hamas demands tends to support that thesis.

I hope none of you have been seduced by this particular form of twisted reasoning.


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The Israel/Hamas propaganda war: who do you believe?

The phrase for the people we’re seeing all over the mainstream and social media at the moment is “bad faith actor” – although some of them might actually believe what they’re saying.

These are people who put out falsehoods and disinformation, constantly, in order to gaslight you into disbelieving the evidence of your own senses.

So, for example, here’s Piers Morgan:

Here’s Jones’s response:

Morgan is wrong – but for a different reason – as This Writer has pointed out:

Yes: it doesn’t matter what Piers Morgan (or anybody else) says. We must judge Israel and Hamas on what we see them doing.

Now here’s Jacob Rees-Mogg on the BBC’s Question Time:

Of course, there’s no evidence that Israel did bring incubators to al-Shifa hospital; in fact, it seems more likely that they brought the guns that they then claimed were Hamas weapons, under the label “medical equipment”.

And who did the killing at that rave (it wasn’t a peace rally)? Evidence seems to be showing that it was the IDF’s “friendly fire” that did it.

Next up: Mark Regev, an advisor to Israely prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, talking about the deaths of Palestinian children, caused by Israel:

Regev’s claim that Israel will destroy Hamas is false. Hamas is an international organisation and cannot be destroyed just by smashing it in Gaza. Also, the murder of Gazan civilians means their relatives are likely to be radicalised.

Mehdi Hasan absolutely nails Regev on the disinformation coming from Israel.

But let’s have that comment about whether Israeli forces have killed children:

The claim is that Gazan children haven’t been killed by Israeli dropping the equivalent of two Hiroshima atomic bombs on their homes, but (presumably) that Hamas killed them.

Do you believe that?

And then there’s the revision of the Israeli death toll – down by 200:

It is unrealistic to expect Hamas to have burned its own members to cinders.

Perhaps this is more convincing:

“This also adds legitimacy to claims that many Israelis found burned beyond recognition were friendly fire victims.” Like all those burned bodies that were supposed to be Israeli babies?

First we were told they were beheaded by Hamas, then they were burned by Hamas. Now it seems they were burned by the IDF.

“Yesterday an Israeli official admitted on TV that Israel had misidentified HUNDREDS of dead Hamas fighters as Israeli because there were so many corpses that were too badly burned to identify. Unless you believe Hamas was also burning hundreds of its own fighters alive, it’s safe to assume that the burned corpses seen in all the images Israel has been bandying about since October 7 were in fact victims of Hellfire missiles fired by IDF forces. The IDF, not Hamas, burned people alive — both Israeli and Palestinian.”

Here’s another claim:

I’m not sure what’s depraved about a woman giving birth in captivity. It happens in prisons, I hear. And we know from former hostages that they have access to medical treatment. The depravity would have been if this lady had been taken to a Gaza hospital and forced to give birth while the IDF was attacking it, or if the baby had needed an incubator but couldn’t use one because the IDF had cut power to it.

“Borrell, in his press conference held today Friday in the city of Ramallah, surpassed the limits of decency and diplomacy, when he tried to distort the right of the Palestinian people to resist the occupation, which is a right guaranteed by international law.”

This is accurate – it is a right guaranteed by international law.

“We see that the US and the EU are violating international law by giving the occupation the green light to commit more crimes and massacres against our people.”

Arguably true. These organisations (the US government and the EU) are supporting Israel, despite actions that are arguably war crimes.

“We reaffirm the right of our people to continue their struggle and resist the occupation, as we find it a very legitimate and legal right. The Palestinian people are the only ones who have the right to sovereignty over their land, and no one has that right to dictate over them.”

Israel has invaded, occupied and stolen Palestinian land. It remains Palestinian land, even though it has been stolen, so this is arguably accurate.

“Our people will remain committed to their legitimate rights, defending them by all means until the occupation is defeated and eliminated, and their state is established, with Jerusalem as its capital.”

Okay… if it’s a commitment to legitimate rights, then this is a call for a two-state solution. But you can bet someone is saying it’s a demand for Israel to be dissolved.

Now try this, for distortion – from Sussex Friends of Israel:

How is this doctor’s honestly-held belief, based on her experience, disinformation?

Back to al-Shifa hospital now where, according to the BBC, Israel has fabricated its claim that Hamas had a command centre there:

Now here’s Norman Finkelstein, with a new revelation:

So: 11,000 people were killed “because of a hole in the ground”.

And it gets worse:

Let’s go over to the United Nations:

A UN rapporteur has said Israel cannot claim it is acting out of self-defence under international law:

It means Israel does not have any excuse for the war crimes it is committing.

Opponents of this point of view may claim that Francesca Albanese is biased towards Palestine – but she has that covered too:

Empirically, the weight of opinion is turning against Israel, with expert evidence and opinion showing that Israel is wrong to do what it is doing and lying about what it has done.

This is an ongoing situation, though. Let’s see what happens next.

This is how UK politicians and media control the narrative on Israel and Gaza

Don’t believe the gaslighters: babies are dying in Gaza – not because of anything Hamas did, but because Israel chose to deny power to the hospital that was caring for them. That isn’t Israel defending itself; it is Israel murdering babies. Only a few weeks ago, Israel was asking us to sympathise with its people on the basis of a lie that Israeli babies had been murdered by Hamas. Do you see how this works?

I know he’s divisive but this YouTube clip by Owen Jones is right on the button.

It immortalises an exchange – more like a confrontation – between the Guardian columnist and primarily Ed Balls, former (useless) Shadow Chancellor who now podcasts with the man who was the UK’s actual Chancellor, George Osborne (see how cosy these guys are?)

And it wasn’t over the horrifying carnage being wrought in Gaza – upon, as Jones rightly states, babies as much as everyone else; it was over the way the vast majority of UK politicians and the mainstream media have been trying to gaslight us all into thinking that Israel is somehow in the right.

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The behaviour of all those in the studio around Jones – but Balls in particular – is highly instructive:

At the end of the day, we all know that Israel is wrong to do what it is doing.

We are watching genocide.

If Israel had any interest in removing Hamas, it would have run an espionage operation to spy out all that organisation’s hiding-places long ago, and then after the October 7 attacks, it would have carried out surgical strikes on those hiding-places. It would also have engaged in international diplomacy to expose and remove Hamas from its bases in other countries. That did not happen.

Instead, Israel has waded into Gaza and is piling up the bodies of innocent people.

Politicians from Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer down have lined up to say Israel has a right to do this because it is defending itself, despite the fact that Israel has already murdered many times the number of innocents that Hamas killed on October 7 (most Israeli casualties were military, remember) without making any real dent in the organisation that it claims is its real enemy.

And when commentators like Jones point out the falsehoods in their arguments, media interviewers like Balls turn up to pick holes in the claims, on the basis that any tiny inconsistency in what Jones says under pressure must mean his entire line of reasoning is wrong. ‘Tisn’t.

You saw it very clearly in the clip, when it was claimed that people on Saturday’s (November 11) peace march were preaching hate – so that meant everybody on the march had to be a racist and an anti-Semite. They very obviously weren’t.

Owen Jones is right. The UK’s politicians – and their client media (and let’s be generous here and agree that it doesn’t include every single member of the UK media establishment – just most of them) – are trying to gaslight us into believing a lie that Israel has to commit genocide in Gaza in order to defend itself.

And he’s right about another element of this: history will judge those people harshly.


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After bombing a hospital, Israeli air strike(s) hit church(es)

Today (October 20, 2023), this happened:

If I’m reading the reports right, the BBC has not even bothered to report on the air strike above, because it has another church to mention:

“On Thursday, an Orthodox Christian church compound in Gaza City where church authorities say hundreds of people were sheltering was hit. Israel says its jets had targeted a nearby Hamas base used to fire rockets at its territory and it was reviewing the incident.”

So Israel isn’t even bothering to deny responsibility now; religious sites are considered to be nothing more than collateral damage.

I’m not sure whether Article 8 of the Geneva Convention is the right rule to quote, but it is certainly true that under international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions, religious buildings are offered special protection. These international laws of war bar firing upon or from a religious building.

So: another Israeli war crime.

And how about this:

“What’s wrong with him?” the clip asks. What indeed! It seems that Israeli officials are now so used to throwing their weight around without being contradicted, that they are trying to dictate what people from other cultures are or are not allowed to wear.

Bravo to the interviewer for standing her ground.

Meanwhile the war of words in the UK’s social media continues unabated:

What? Responsibility does matter. Sadly, Israel continues to refuse to take responsibility for its air strike, despite having initially done so; it then withdrew the announcement. How anybody can complain about Jeremy Corbyn in this context is bizarre.

Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak continued to show his true colours: failing to support Gaza…

… and fawning to Gaza’s persecutor:

There are voices of reason:

And there are some less reasonable comments too:

Meanwhile, it seems Israel may have split opinions within its own population – violently:

Finally, there’s this piece of right-wing lunacy – that tries to assert that demonstrations for peace in the Middle East are in fact the opposite. Why do the authorities never ask questions about this kind of hate-mongering?

And if you do want to join the protest:

The Israel/Palestine conflict as seen on (This Site’s) social media

If you’ve been following the Israel/Palestine conflict on the mainstream media (I haven’t) it seems you may have been led to believe that the attack on Israel by Hamas was pure evil.

Palestinians have been accused of kidnapping children, raping women, murdering indescriminately. Has torture been in the mix?

Meanwhile, what has been said about the reasons given by Hamas for launching its attack in the first place? The constant – several times daily – abuse and occasionally murder of Palestinians (including children) by Israeli occupation forces? Anything?

The social media seems to have offered a more balanced view, as I hope to demonstrate below – with one caveat: there has also been a lot of foaming-at-the-mouth hatred – mostly towards Israel. This Writer can’t tell whether that has been by genuine lunatics or bad-faith actors trying to paint supporters of Palestinian independence as genocidal anti-Zionists.

Here’s some of the back-and-forth, as it appeared on my ‘X’ feed:

Let’s start with Keir Starmer saying there is “no justification” for the Hamas attack – and Jackie Walker’s response, explaining that it is a retaliation against Israel’s illegal occupation and colonisation of Palestine, that is itself an act of war:

This is self-explanatory – an Israeli minister evading questions about what her government and its armed forces have been doing to Palestinians:

Armed struggle by Palestinians against illegal occupiers is legitimate under international law:

Double-standards of Israel’s international supporters is demonstrated by their attitude to the same tactic as Hamas has employed, being carried out in Ukraine:

Former Cabinet minister Sajid Javid says Hamas has been proscribed by the UK as a terrorist organisation. The question is: was that decision justified in the light of what Israel has been doing to Palestine and Palestinians?

Israeli journalist Gideon Levy provides more insight into why people in Gaza might want to resist Israel:

Andrew Feinstein at Double Down News shows footage of what Israel has been doing in Palestine and demonstrates that Israel’s supporters in other countries like the UK are supporting this barbarity by silencing comment on it, many because they see Israel as the centre of an ethno-fascist movement of which they want to be a part:

UK broadcaster Adil Ray points out that Israel’s retaliation is not helpful:

Michael Walker of Novara Media points out how Israeli policy has attacked the very existence of Palestine. Why is it forbidden to question the existence of Israel when Israel illegally erodes the existence of Palestine?

Rapper and activist Lowkey explains the reality of the Israel/Palestine conflict:

Right-wing commentator Dan Hodges tries to score points against UK left-wingers by claiming that a movement that should support international peace has support for terrorism as the “price of admission” to fashionability (whatever that means):

An interesting historical note. I haven’t verified this, though:

Senior political correspondent for the Daily Express attacks Labour MP Apsana Begum for supporting Palestinian freedom from Israel. He seems shocked that Palestinians would say the attacks on Israel were due to Israel’s own behaviour:

More than half of British people feel “unfavourable” towards Israel, according to a poll:

Adil Ray (again), while approving of the messages of support for Israel, suggests that Palestinians might welcome support for their right to an unoccupied homeland:

Supporters of Palestinian independence celebrate the attack on Israel in London. Right-wing commentator Nile Gardiner wants them arrested as possible terrorists themselves, or even illegal migrants, on the basis that they support a strike for freedom from occupation.

Keir Starmer wrongly says there is “no justification” for the attack on Israel; we know there is a reason. He says the perpetrators have “deliberately pushed back the prospect of peace agreements”. Was there any such prospect?

Important context is being ignored by the UK’s news media:

Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he’s going to bomb Gaza into dust, and the people there should leave. This commenter asks the obvious question:

It seems the Hamas incursion into Israel included firing on people at the “Supernova Festival” – a rave held near Gaza. The event is being touted as a “festival for peace” by propagandists:

UK right-wing commentators say Hamas has been targeting civilians – raping women and kidnapping children. Here’s a response:

Renowned journalist John Pilger responds to claims that the Hamas attack was “unprovoked”:

Polling suggests more people in the UK want Palestine recognised as a state than don’t – although it is still a minority:

Here’s a 10-minute criticism of the United States for supporting Ukrainian resistance to Russia’s occupation while supporting Israel’s “occupation/ethnic subjugation” of Palestine. Isn’t that appalling hypocrisy?

Right-wingers respond to a tweet pointing out that Palestinians can’t leave Gaza:

This is self-explanatory:

A report on what is happening in Gaza as Israel retaliates. It seems the Israeli military response is not concerned about harming civilians:

Labour shadow minister David Lammy mourns the death of a British citizen who was in Israel and was killed in the Hamas attack, and supports Israel’s response. Former Labour MP Chris Williamson asks an obvious question and makes a pertinent comment:

Labour’s Wes Streeting supports Israel’s response – and then suggests that a peace deal might still be possible.

More will undoubtedly follow.


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