Internet

Nigeria Strikes Back at British American Tobacco

by Anne Landman — May 30, 2007 - 10:54am
  • Topics: Internet, Children, Corporations, Ethics, Health, International, Marketing, Race / Ethnic Issues, Tobacco

    • If you think the U.S. tobacco industry is bad, you'll find the behavior of many of the same companies overseas to be truly shocking.

    Happily, the industry is beginning to be held accountable for its operations in the Global South. Nigeria's two largest states are following the lead of U.S. states, in suing British American Tobacco (BAT) of Nigeria, its U.K. parent company and Philip Morris International for the health care costs of treating sick smokers, The Times of London reported this week.

    The new lawsuits demonstrate the importance of the online public databases of previously secret tobacco industry documents. The 1998 U.S. Master Settlement Agreement required major tobacco companies to reveal millions of pages documenting unethical -- and even illegal -- marketing, public relations and lobbying campaigns. A lesser-known treasure trove is the British American Tobacco Documents Archive, which has made some seven million pages of BAT documents freely available. These documents are of particular importance to countries like Nigeria.

    The Not-So-Free Press, Worldwide

    by Diane Farsetta — May 24, 2007 - 1:19pm

    After giving an interview to Afghanistan's Tolo TV in which she called the Afghan parliament "worse than a stable or a zoo," because "at least there you have a donkey that carries a load and a cow that provides milk," Malalai Joya was suspended from Parliament.

    Main Source: 
    Associated Press, May 21, 2007

    Democratic Spin Won't End the War in Iraq

    by John Stauber — May 24, 2007 - 12:13pm
  • Topics: Activism, Internet, Iraq, U.S. Congress

    • After several months of empty posturing against the war in Iraq, politicians in Washington have made what Democratic congressman James P. Moran called a "concession to reality" by agreeing to give President Bush virtually everything he wanted in funding and unrestricted license to continue waging the increasingly detested war that has made Bush the most unpopular president since Richard Nixon.

    This is the outcome that we warned against two months ago when we wrote "Why Won't MoveOn Move Forward?" In it, we criticized MoveOn for backpedaling on its previously claimed objective of ending the war in Iraq immediately. Anti-war sentiment was the main factor behind last year's elections that brought Democrats to power in both houses of Congress. Once in power, however, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed through a "compromise" bill, supported by MoveOn, that offered $124 billion in supplemental funding for the war. To make it sound like they were voting for peace, the Democrats threw in a few non-binding benchmarks asking Bush to certify progress in Iraq, coupled with language that talked about withdrawing troops next year.

    Has the Internet Changed the Propaganda Model?

    by Sheldon Rampton — May 22, 2007 - 1:50pm
  • Topics: Activism, Internet, Iraq, Democracy, Human Rights, International, Media, Politics, Propaganda, U.S. Government

    • In their groundbreaking 1988 book, Manufacturing Consent, professors Ed Herman and Noam Chomsky not only explained, but documented with extensive case studies, how mass media and public opinion are shaped in a democracy. Twenty years later, can their "propaganda model" still be used to explain modern media distortions? That was one of the main questions discussed last week at a conference in Windsor, Ontario, titled "20 Years of Propaganda?" Organized by Dr. Paul Boin, the conference drew hundreds of scholars and activists including myself, and more than 1,000 people attended a closing speech by Chomsky on May 17.

    Drilling for Collective Wisdom

    by Judith Siers-Poisson — May 22, 2007 - 12:53pm

    CMD is a proponent of citizen journalism, particularly through www.SourceWatch.org, our collaborative on-line encyclopedia of people, organizations, and issues shaping the public agenda.

    Main Source: 
    Future Tense radio program, May 21, 2007

    Limits Placed on U.S. Soldiers Online, Journalists in Iraq

    by Diane Farsetta — May 14, 2007 - 2:22pm

    As of May 14, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) began "blocking access 'worldwide' to YouTube, MySpace and 11 other popular Web sites on its computers and networks." General B.B.

    Main Source: 
    Associated Press, May 14, 2007
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