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Ex-BBC journalist tells RT who dominates world news
Stonewall Groups heavy influence on BBC News
9 Nov, 2021 09:14
Robin Aitken says there is an “acceptable and polite” view of world events which is dominated by media liberals. The former BBC employee warns that we must all be wary of the “hidden persuaders” that operate in all forms of news.
Speaking to RT, former BBC journalist Robin Aitken said that media consumers in the West don’t always get a fair picture of what is happening around the world due to the presence of the liberal agenda behind much Western reporting.
“You’ve got a media culture in Britain, but this extends into other Western countries as well, where there is an acceptable and polite view of world events which is dominated by media liberals,” Aikten stated.
The journalist-turned-author contended that this was very clear when it came to former US President Donald Trump, noting that there was “unanimity” in Britain’s mainstream media that Trump was a “bad thing and a bad man.”
In a similar vein, Aikten suggested that there is a general anti-Russian atmosphere in the British media. As a result, he argued, people in the UK are exposed to a very one-sided view of events in and about Russia.
Aikten, who left the British public broadcaster in 2007, warned that we should all be “sceptical of the hidden persuaders” that operate in the media. He noted that the uninitiated, or those unfamiliar with the way media works, should be aware that news bias is about the “selection of stories which you carry” rather than their content specifically.
Expanding his point, he said that there are thousands of newsworthy events happening around the world every day and urged people to question why some stories are reported, and why others are not. “It’s because journalists have made a selection of stories for presentation to their audience,” he contended.
Speaking more specifically about the BBC, Aikten contended that it was probably difficult to speak out on some issues due to a cohesive and occasionally coercive internal culture, particularly on issues relating to LGBTQ policy. He noted that a member of staff would be well advised to keep their issues to themselves on the matter.
He said it was particularly concerning that an organization such as the Stonewall lobby group, which he argued takes a very different view on transgender rights to the rest of the population, should not be embedded within the public broadcaster. Aikten suggested it was even “dangerous” for internal staff organisations or mechanisms, such as those brought in by Stonewall, to be used to impact the BBC’s output, adding that such a situation jeopardizes its credo of impartiality.
The Stonewall group plays an important role in the corporate culture of the BBC as well as other public and state institutions through its diversity schemes, which other organisations adopt.
A recent investigation highlighting the extent of Stonewall’s influence on the broadcaster prompted employees within the organisation to speak out and express their concerns.
Of course, none of their concerns became news stories, because that would not suit the acceptable narrative.
Welcome the ‘Great Narrative’, brought to you by
the mastermind of the 'Great Reset'
10 Nov, 2021 22:51
© Reuters / Denis Balibouse
The Davos-based World Economic Forum is kicking off its “Great Narrative” initiative with a meeting in Dubai. It will be headlined by WEF chair Klaus Schwab, the mastermind behind the “Great Reset.”
Schwab will open the event on Thursday with the United Arab Emirates’ Minister of Cabinet Affairs Mohammad Abdullah Al-Gergawi, followed by four other UAE officials and a journalist discussing their vision of the gulf state’s future.
According to the WEF, the Great Narrative initiative is “collaborative effort of the world’s leading thinkers to fashion longer-term perspectives and co-create a narrative that can help guide the creation of a more resilient, inclusive and sustainable vision for our collective future.”
The project is supposed to involve “top thinkers” from multiple disciplines, “including futurists, scientists and philosophers,” and result in a book to be published in January 2022.
But no one representing God or Biblical prophecy! What a waste of time and money. Nevertheless, this narrative will undoubtably be promoted by most media outlets on the planet.
Romans 1:22
Professing to be wise, they became fools
1 Corinthians 1:20
Where is the wise? ... Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
1 Corinthians 1:21
For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God...
1 Corinthians 1:25
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
1 Corinthians 1:27
But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;
1 Corinthians 2:14
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Schwab has shot into global prominence during the Covid-19 pandemic, arguing for a more globalized response to problems ranging from viruses to climate change that he dubbed the “Great Reset.”
“The pandemic represents a rare but narrow window of opportunity to reflect, reimagine, and reset our world,” he famously said in early 2020.
The WEF has long believed in the value of narratives, publishing a guest post in 2015 arguing that “in the battle for hearts and minds of human beings, narrative will consistently outperform data in its ability to influence human thinking and motivate human action.”
A good story is far more likely to lead to real change in policy and behavior than statistics or impact evaluations, argued the author of that article, economics professor at the University of San Francisco Bruce Wydick.
LGBT staff quitting BBC over ‘hostile’ environment – reports
This is the best news I've heard in a long time.
11 Nov, 2021 17:26
Several BBC employees have reportedly quit over the broadcaster’s perceived insensitivity toward LGBTQ-related matters. While some see the network as ultra-woke, others apparently see just the opposite.
“The BBC is a hostile place to be LGBT at the moment,” one senior staffer, a bisexual woman, told Vice on Thursday, accusing the organisation of “touting transphobic nonsense.”
The employee, who declined to give her name, was one of several to quit in recent months, citing the broadcaster’s treatment of LGBT staffers and its news coverage.
The BBC will be on the wrong side of history and I can’t be here to see it behave so embarrassingly.
Others told Vice they felt “hidden” and “ashamed” while working there, with the most recent departure reportedly happening last week.
The outlet obtained a leaked 90-minute “listening session” held on Monday via Zoom at which some 100 LGBTQ staffers aired their frustrations. A follow-up session is expected with BBC Director-General Tim Davie on Friday.
Some of Monday’s complaints focused on the broadcaster’s decision to drop its partnership with LGBTQ nonprofit Stonewall, which runs a ‘diversity program’ focused on “ensuring all LGBT+ staff are accepted without exception in the workplace.” Clients pay the group a sign-up fee and Stonewall in turn “helps the organisations create more inclusive working environments for LGBTQ employees, such as giving advice on inclusive toilets and changing room facilities.”
Another sticking point was the network’s publication of an article describing some transgender women as rapists. One staffer claimed they knew someone who “walked out the other day over [that] article.”
After staff outcry, the network actually changed the article, removing the contributions of one woman “in light of comments” she had made after it was published – but apparently that was not enough.
“My trans and LGBT friends have lost confidence in the BBC,” complained another employee, making the point that it wasn’t just staffers supposedly fleeing the network in droves. Meanwhile, a nonbinary ex-employee claimed it was “incredibly difficult” to challenge BBC editors on transphobic content.
One gay man “in the process of exiting” the BBC, said it was an “enemy” of the LGBT community. “To appease a certain audience, we’re trying to split apart the LGBT community, and it’s trans people who will pay the price on the streets. Not in my name,” he told Vice.
At the same time, the BBC has been accused by others of “promoting” a transgender agenda. As a public broadcaster funded by taxpayer money, it is supposed to remain politically neutral. A BBC spokesperson told Vice it’s “committed to being an industry-leading employer on LGBTQ+ inclusion.”
Russian prison torture leak activist put on wanted list
12 Nov, 2021 11:17
The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs has reportedly listed a prominent prisoners’ rights activist who exposed harrowing scenes of torture behind bars on its register of wanted criminals over a court-ordered arrest warrant.
In a statement issued on Friday, Vladimir Osechkin, the founder of civil liberties group Gulagu.net, announced that he had been informed of the decision by his lawyers. A Moscow court in August ordered Osechkin be arrested if he sets foot in Russia as part of an ongoing fraud case. He is currently living abroad.
Last month, Gulagu.net released a series of videos purporting to show sickening torture (2nd story on link) at a prison tuberculosis facility in Saratov, where inmates were allegedly penetrated with objects, beaten and forced to engage in sexual activity for the camera.
Osechkin claims that the charges are politically motivated and alleges that documents shared by prosecutors were signed by an official from the penal service in Saratov. He has offered to give his Mercedes-Benz E-class, which retail at around $55,000, “to anyone who can clearly prove that I took at least one single ruble for my work as a human rights activist.”
On Wednesday, Anton Efarkin, the acting head of the prison service in Saratov, revealed that a number of correctional officers have been sacked for involvement in the shocking episodes.
“To date, five criminal cases have already been initiated, 18 employees have been dismissed from their roles for breaches, and 11 people have faced the strictest possible disciplinary proceedings,” the prison chief explained. “We’re doing what we can to understand what went on and to come to the appropriate conclusions. I’m certain this won’t happen again in the future.”
However, Gulagu.net founder Osechkin told RT in October that there were still more revelations to come and that videos taken from a leaked drive would implicate a number of other jails.
So, it seems that Russians would like to stop anymore videos from showing the torture that occurs behind bars. They, apparently, don't want to know about what goes on in other prisons, etc. They would rather the torture continue than for it to be revealed and made public. This is no better than America's attitude toward Assange.
US journalist jailed for spreading misinformation in Myanmar
12 Nov, 2021 06:57
American journalist Danny Fenster has been sentenced to 11 years in prison by a Myanmar court on charges that include spreading false information – months after he was arrested trying to leave the country.
Fenster’s lawyer revealed on Friday in Myanmar that his client – an American who works as the managing editor of Frontier Myanmar – had been found guilty by a court on charges of spreading false information, unlawful association, and violating immigration law. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
Fenster still faces several other charges, including sedition and terrorism, which could land him in jail for even longer. The journalist is currently detained at Insein Prison.
Just a few months after the February 2021 Myanmar coup, Fenster was arrested by authorities at Yangon International Airport while trying to leave the country to visit his family in Detroit, Michigan.
Frontier Myanmar condemned the sentence in a statement on Friday, claiming that the court “disregarded a significant amount of evidence of his employment at Frontier.”
“The charges were based on the allegation he was working for Myanmar Now in the aftermath of the February 1 coup,” Frontier Myanmar explained, claiming however that Fenster had “resigned from Myanmar Now in July 2020 and joined Frontier the following month, so by his arrest in May 2021 he had been working with Frontier for nine months.”
Frontier Myanmar called Fenster’s sentence “the harshest possible under the law.”
Myanmar Now, an independent news agency that has been critical of the country’s military, was one of five news outlets to lose its license following the coup earlier this year.
In his own statement, Thomas Kean – the editor-in-chief of Frontier Myanmar – said his magazine was “disappointed and frustrated” at the court’s decision to sentence Fenster to 11 years in prison, and argued “there is absolutely no basis to convict Danny of these charges.”
Myanmar is a predominantly Buddhist country.
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