The media burqa

[airiefairie.livejournal.com]

Watching and reading the reports from Turkey in the recent days, one thing sticks out. The media's servility to the powers that be. A journalist was shown the other day, saying that his newspaper was asked to "be fair and balanced" about the events at Taksim Square, which essentially meant he had to end up looking for excuses for the actions of the police. It all started with people having a peaceful protest, but then the police suddenly starting to shoot at them with tear gas. And they had promised to only use it as a last resort, and for self-protection. Of course people at Taksim never intended to be a threat to the police. They wanted to express their discontent with the unilateral decision of the local authorities to remove one of the last remaining green spots in Istanbul, and to build a shopping centre and a replica Ottoman barracks and a big mosque in its place.

Things escalated quickly after the tear gas. There were helicopters overhead. They must have seen something that the journalists couldn't. Or maybe not really.

What is known for sure at this point, these protests are a dark time of revelation for the Turkish media. With little exceptions, the people who were supposed to be showing what was happening on the streets and report about the true scope of the police brutality, about the tens of thousands of protesters and the arrogance of the ruling elite, have failed to do that.

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(no subject)

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

http://reason.com/archives/2013/06/12/three-reasons-the-nothing-to-hide-crowd
http://www.cato.org/blog/why-nsa-collecting-phone-records-problem
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110524/00084614407/privacy-is-not-secrecy-debunking-if-youve-got-nothing-to-hide-argument.shtml
http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/the-data-trust-blog/2009/02/debunking-a-myth-if-you-have-n.html

There are a significant number of people who respond to any revelation that government is violating the law (yes, the Constitution is part of the law) with a shrug and "I've got nothing to hide". These people are selfish fools at best. They are not looking at the bigger picture and/or aren't considering other people. Plus, they probably aren't paying attention to the fact that everyone in America is currently a criminal, that everyone violates a law with serious penalties at some point, whether you know it or not. (And the fact that that is the case is another problem, but that's outside the scope of my point here.)

Even Biden and Obama railed against what they are themselves supporting now, before they were in power. That alone should be enough to make you stop and think about what having that kind of power available can do to people.