Monday, January 31, 2011

The Age censors informed comment about Middle East

The Age On-line National Times section has a woeful record of censorship of informed credentialled comments about the Middle East.

Below are some examples of such censorship by what is arguably the most progressive of look-the-other-way Australia's appalling Mainstream media.

1. The Age published an article by UK-based Egyptian writer and lecturer Mona Eltahawy on the current Egyptian Revolution and entitled “All Egyptians are being liberated from the burden of history” (The Age, Melbourne, 31 January 2011: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/all-egyptians-are-being-liberated-from-the-burden-of-history-20110130-1a9qi.html ). The Age is arguably Australia’s most liberal Mainstream medium, but it apparently declined to publish the carefully researched, informed and credentialled views of Dr Gideon Polya while publishing about 20 views of mostly anonymous bloggers. This is what The Age’s Censor(s) decided that its readers should not read or know:

Excellent article. One hopes that the Egyptian people will throw out the US-backed, pro-Israel Mubarak dictatorship and achieve a genuine democracy, setting an example for the whole Arab world.

A key aspect of the dead hand of Anglo-American and Anglo-American-backed Israeli domination of the Arab world is the deadly deprivation of 300 million Arabs outside the Gulf States. This has a dreadful consequence measured as avoidable mortality (excess mortality, excess deaths, avoidable death, deaths that did not have to happen) that can be measured using UN data as the difference between the actual deaths in a country and the deaths expected fro a decently governed, peaceful country with same demographics.

Annual avoidable mortality in Egypt under Mubarak has been 0.22% (2003 data), this meaning today that each year 180,000 Egyptians die avoidably from deprivation out of a population of 82 million and that about 16 million have died avoidably from deprivation since 1950 (see "Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950").

The annual avoidable death rate of 0.22% for Egyptians under Mubarak can be compared with 0.0% (Arab Gulf States), 0.05% for Western Europe, 0.38% (South Asia), 0.97% (non-Arab Africa) and 1.8% (Indigenous Australians).

Of acute relevance to the Egyptian tragedy is the 50% increase in international cereal grain prices in the last year (Google "World Food Situation").

Anglo-American-backed, genocidal colonization of Palestine, US-backed Israeli occupation of territory of all its neighbours, US backing of Arab dictators and the Anglo-American-imposed Iraqi Holocaust and Iraqi Genocide (4.4 million dead, 1990-2011) has devastated the Arab world.

All decent folk hope that Egypt will arise again.”

Astonishingly by about 11 am The Age removed the article itself which had thus only lasted a few hours for readers who get up at 7am. Is The Age now censoring its own writers on behalf of the Zionists? If so it appears that Mona Eltahawy’s “crime” was to mention the gross and acutely relevant Israeli violation of the Palestinians in an article about the gross violation of Egyptians’ human rights by US-backed, pro-Israel Mubarak dictatorship. This appears to be an extraordinary example of Mainstream media censorship operating at several levels to maintain a pro-Zionist and pro-US narrative in the Western Murdochracies.

2. The Age published an article by UK ME reporter Richard Spencer about the Egyptian Revolution and entitled “”Gambling on life without Mubarak” (The Age On-line national Times, 1 February 2001: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/gambling-on-life-without-mubarak-20110131-1ab32.html ). By 2 pm The Age had published about 30 comments (all but anonymous) but had evidently decide not to publish the informed, credentialed comment from Dr Gideon Polya made about 6 hours previously – this is what The Age’s Censor(s) decided that its readers should not read or know:

“Decent people hope for removal of the US-backed, pro-Israel dictator Mubarak, flowering of democracy in Egypt and removal of the deadly and malignant legacy of 2 centuries of violent Western colonialism and hegemony in the Middle East.

Anglo-American-backed, genocidal colonization of Palestine, US-backed Israeli occupation of territory of all its neighbours, US backing of Arab dictators such as Mubarak and the Anglo-American-imposed Iraqi Holocaust and Iraqi Genocide (4.4 million dead, 1990-2011) have devastated the Arab world.

Annual avoidable mortality (excess mortality, excess deaths, avoidable deaths) in Egypt under Mubarak has been 0.22% (2003 data) i.e. each year 180,000 Egyptians die avoidably from deprivation out of a population of 82 million. About 16 million have died avoidably from deprivation since 1950 (see "Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950").

The annual avoidable death rate of 0.22% for Egyptians under Mubarak can be compared with 0.0% (Arab Gulf States), 0.05% for Western Europe, 0.38% (South Asia), 0.97% (non-Arab Africa) and 1.8% (Indigenous Australians).

Of acute relevance to the Egyptian Revolution is the 50% increase in international cereal grain prices in the last year (due to increasing meat consumption, mandated biofuel, man-made climate change and urban expansion; Google "World Food Situation" and "Biofuel Genocide").

Of course it is not just Egyptians who cry out for democracy. Of 12 million Palestinians only the adults of the 1.5 million Palestinian Israelis are able to vote for the government that currently rules all of Palestine plus bits of Lebanon and Syria. Hamas which gained 76 out of 132 seats in 2006 Occupied Palestinian elections is holed up in the Gaza Concentration Camp.”

Friday, January 28, 2011

The Age censorship re feminism, intergenerational inequity, mass infanticide & educational apartheid

On The Age newspaper online version published a sensible article by feminist Anne Summers about irrelevant public interest in the personal attributes and personal lives of female leaders. Thus there has been great media interest in the personal attributes and personal lives of Australia new Federal Labor PM Julia Gillard (49, childless, unmarried) and the new Leader of the Tasmanian Labor Minority Government Lara Giddings (38, single, childless, unmarried).

The article entitled “” Hairstyles the least of leaders’ worries” (see The Age, On-line, National Times, 27 January 2011: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/hairstyles-the-least-of-leaders-worries-20110127-1a5n8.html ) attracted 61 comments (all but 4 anonymous). However The Age declined to publish the following successive comments from a named person, Dr Gideon Polya: "Excellent article. The physical attributes, marital status and childlessness of politicians are utterly irrelevant to the performance of their job.

However one suspects that such issues might be raised, not merely from continuing ignorance, prejudice or sexism, but as "straw men" diversions to hide the real issues of the responsibilities our politicians have toward mothers and children. Examples below.

1. According to top climate scientists the world must reach zero carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2050; Australia, a world leader in annual per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution, must achieve this by 2020; and it can be done (see the acclaimed Zero Carbon Australia by 2020 or ZCA2020 Report. of Beyond Zero Emissions; Google BZE). Yet the Lib-Labs continue to threaten Australia's children with disaster through inaction on man-made climate change. Australia's domestic plus Exported GHG pollution was 4% bigger under Labor in 2008 than under the Coalition in 2006. PM Gillard's hairstyle, marital status and childlessness are irrelevant - the real issue is this gross failure on intergenerational equity.

2. 311,000 under-5 year old infants die annually in US-, US Alliance- and Australia-occupied Afghanistan where post-invasion infant deaths total 2.6 million.(UNICEF). Ms Gillard's childlessness is irrelevant - the real issue is that the US Alliance is violently imposing childlessness on 300,000 Afghan subject mothers annually in gross violation of the Geneva Convention.

3. Ms Gillard's elocution is grating but irrelevant to the real issue of Educational Apartheid in Australia - the 2 out of 3 Australian kids attending state schools are disproportionately excluded from university, top universities and top courses."

And:

"My carefully researched comments on this article made under my own name evidently didn't make it. In short, the personal attributes and lives of politicians are irrelevant.

Irrelevant obsession with the childlessness of particular female politicians should be replaced by trenchant criticism of these same female politicians outrageously ignoring gross violation of the rights of the child e.g.

(1) Intergenerational Inequity (Lib-Lab inaction on man-made climate change).

(2) Passive Mass Infanticide (Lib-Lab complicity in 2.6 million post-invasion Afghan under-5 infant deaths, 90% avoidable and due to US Alliance war crimes).

(3) Educational Apartheid (the two thirds of Australian children attending state schools are disproportionately excluded from university, top universities and top courses by the Lib-Labs)."

The Age evidently didn't want its readers to be exposed to the Awful Truth of most Australian women and men - the 85-90% who are Lib-Lab voters - being complicit in bad treatment of children.

Scholars, writers & journalists on censorship

Preface.

A precursor of this alphabetical compilation was an account originally published by Gideon Polya, "Rare ethical writers expose Mainstream media lying", Countercurrents, May 2010:

http://www.countercurrents.org/polya290510.htm.


The most palpable reality in the Western democracies is that Mainstream Media massively lie by omission and lie by commission. Normally people try to cover their tracks when they lie but numerous examples show that the lying of Mainstream Media is all too readily discerned.

Thus, for example, “holocaust” is the death of a huge number of people and “genocide” is defined by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention as “ acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group” (see: http://www.edwebproject.org/sideshow/genocide/convention.html ). However there are major holocaust and genocide events, past and present, that are almost completely ignored by Mainstream Media. And, of course, holocaust ignoring and genocide ignoring are vastly worse than repugnant holocaust denial and genocide denial because while denial admits of the possibility of public debate, media ignoring simply obviates any such public discussion.

I have analyzed such holocaust ignoring and genocide ignoring by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), the ostensibly authoritative Australian equivalent of the UK BBC. The ABC has a search engine that allows one to “search the entire ABC site” and one can use this to compare ABC reportage with the results of Google searches. For example, in the 1943-1945 Bengali Holocaust (the first World War 2 atrocity to be described as a “holocaust”) the British deliberately starved to death 6-7 million Indians (see BBC, “The Bengal Famine”: http://www.open2.net/thingsweforgot/bengalfamine_programme.html ), an atrocity greater in magnitude than the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million Jews killed, 1 in 6 dying from deprivation).

However the ABC Search results/Google Search result for the phrase “Bengali Holocaust” is 0/6,930 whereas it is 101/206,000 for the phrase “Jewish Holocaust”. A similar ABC Search/Google Search analysis has been performed in to relation to 23 past and present holocaust and genocide atrocities ranging from “Aboriginal Holocaust” (0/3,000) to Palestinian Genocide (0/44, 800) (for the shocking details see “Australian ABC ignores holocaust and genocide atrocities ”: http://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammedialying/australian-abc-ignores-huge-genocidal-realities ).

Many more examples can be given of the ABC and other Mainstream Media ignoring huge, Elephant-in-the-Room realities. Indeed I have created a website “Mainstream Media Lying” to progressively document this gross abuse of truth, ethics and morality (see: http://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammedialying/home ).




AARONS, Mark.

Mark Aarons and J. Loftus on “the holes in history” (see Mark Aarons and J. Loftus “The Secret War Against the Jews”): “The hidden parts of history, the covert sides, are far more orderly and rational, but can be seen and understood only if you are told where to look. The holes in history are what makes sense of the thing.”


AUSTEN, Jane.

Jane Austen (brilliant English novelist) had a sceptical attitude to the “official version” e.g. that Richard III had murdered the Princes in the Tower of London: “...I am rather inclined to suppose him a very respectable Man;...but it also has been declared that he did not kill his two Nephews, which I am inclined to believe true; & if this is the case, it may also be that he did not kill his wife...” (Jane Austen on Richard III in her Juvenilia writing “The History of England”, 1791). Jane Austen has also posed a germane series of questions that are directly relevant to this problem of public honesty. In her novel “Northanger Abbey” the heroine, Miss Catherine Morland, affected by the somewhat Gothic atmosphere of the Tilney family home and the romantic horrors of Mrs Radcliffe's Gothic novels, conceives the fantasy that General Tilney (the father of her beloved, Henry Tilney) has done away with the late Mrs Tilney. Henry reproves Catherine as follows:

"If I understand you rightly, you have formed a surmise of such horror as I have hardly words to -. Dear Miss Morland, consider the dreadful nature of the suspicions you have entertained. What have you been judging from? Remember the country and the age in which we live. Remember that we are English, that we are Christians. Consult your own understanding, your own sense of the probable, your own observation of what is passing around you. Does our education prepare us for such atrocities? Do our laws connive at them? Could they be perpetrated without being known, in a country like this, where social and literary intercourse is on such a footing, where every man is surrounded by a neighbourhood of voluntary spies, and where roads and newspapers lay everything open?”"

[My answers to Henry Tilney's questions are “Yes! Yes! Yes!” ]


BURCHETT, Wilfrid.

Wilfrid Burchett (outstanding Australian journalist who was severely persecuted for reporting World War 2, and the Korean and Indo-China Wars from the Communist side) writing to his brother on 12 October 1969 (see Ben Kiernan, editor, “Burchett. Reporting the other side of the world 1939- 1983): “ Thank goodness I have been able to maintain my independence throughout all these years, awfully difficult from all viewpoints though it was. To be able to speak to Russians, Chinese, Vietnamese, Koreans, Cambodians as a friend but completely independent, enables me to do and say things others may not. But now and again this yields positive results.”


CAREY, Peter.

Peter Carey (outstanding Australian novelist) on media censorship (panel discussion on ABC TV Q&A, Monday 24 May 2010: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s2901978.htm ):

“TONY JONES [ABC presenter]: All right, let's hear from Peter [re truth and lying in public life]..

PETER CAREY: I keep on thinking about the role of the medial generally in this and how the media is always so continually hysterical about people lying and not telling the truth. And if I really think there's a big problem in our society today, it's that the media is not telling the truth to people and they know what it is. If you really want to know what's happening the world, you go out and get drunk with journalists and they will tell you what isn't in the papers. So they're living - these guys are living every day with the reality of a proprietor, say, or a corporation who owns them will not permit them to tell what they know to be true. So, okay, this guy lied. He's not a good person because he did it but I think the hysteria is about a bigger, bigger issue, which is we are not being honestly reported to. And if there was, you know, Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction but...

MALCOLM FRASER [former Australian PM}: But they knew he didn't.

PETER CAREY: Yeah.

TONY JONES: They knew he didn't, you say?

MALCOLM FRASER: Yes.

PETER CAREY: Yes.

TONY JONES: You mean the Howard Government knew he didn't?

MALCOLM FRASER: It should have. I think the British Government did, the American Government did and the Australian Government should have.”


KINGSOLVER, Barbara.

Barbara Kingsolver in her great novel "The Lacuna" (lacuna meaning hiatus, blank, missing part, gap, cavity, or empty space) has Russian Communist revolutionary and theorist Leon Trotsky (Lev) and his assistant Van have the following discussion about media (part 3, p159, Faber & Faber, London, 2009 edition): ""But newspapers have a duty to truth", Van said. Lev [Trotsky] clicked his tongue. "They tell the truth only as the exception. Zola [French novelist of "J'accuse" fame] wrote that the mendacity of the press could be could be divided into two groups: the yellow press lies every day without hesitating. But others, like the Times , speak the truth on all inconsequential occasions, so they can deceive the public with the requisite authority when it becomes necessary." Van got up from his chair to gather the cast-off newspapers. Lev took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. " I don't mean to offend the journalists; they aren't any different from other people. They're merely the megaphones of other people" … [Trotsky observes to his assistant Shepherd] “Soli, let me tell you. The most important thing about a person is always the thing you don't know”” (p218).


MILLAR, Robert.

Robert C. Millar, a United Press correspondent covering the Korean War in 1952 (quoted by John Pilger: http://evatt.labor.net.au/news/201.html ) “There are certain facts and stories from Korea that editors and publishers have printed which were pure fabrication ... Many of us who sent the stories knew they were false, but we had to write them because they were official releases from responsible military headquarters and were released for publication even though the people responsible knew they were untrue”

PILGER, John.

John Pilger (outstanding expatriate Australian UK writer and journalist) reviewing “The First Casualty” by Phillip Knightley (Evatt Foundation, 13 March 2003. “The people don't know and can't know”: http://evatt.labor.net.au/news/201.html ): “When I read the first edition of this remarkable book twenty-five years ago, I was struck by the following quotations. During the First World War, Prime Minister David Lloyd George told C P Scott, editor of the Manchester Guardian: "If the people really knew [the truth] the war would be stopped tomorrow. But of course they don't know and can't know." The truth was reported, insisted The Times correspondent, Sir Phillip Gibbs (knighted for his services), "apart from the naked realism of horrors and losses, and criticism of the facts…Like [William Howard] Russell's, the best journalism is the first draft of history: for that we are indebted to Phillip Knightley, whose clear-sighted and principled book throws down a challenge to journalists to examine their role in the promotion of the war, in propaganda and its myths, and the subliminal pressures applied by organisations like the BBC, whose news is often selected on the basis of a spurious establishment "credibility". The following pages ought to be read by every young reporter and by those who retain pride in our craft of truth-telling, no matter how unpopular and unpalatable the truth. The rest is not journalism.”



QUAKERS (FRIENDS)


The Religious Society of Friends is a name used by a range of independent religious organizations which all trace their origins to a Christian movement in mid-17th century England and Wales. The Friends are otherwise known as the Quakers because of their commitment to pacifism. George Fox was an important 17th century founder of the Friends movement (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_Society_of_Friends ) .

The Preamble to the Quaker document “Speak Truth to Power” (1955): “Speak truth to power. A Quaker Search for an Alternative to Violence. A study of international conflict prepared for the American Friends Service Committee.

A NOTE TO THE READER.

For more than thirty-five years the American Friends Service Committee has worked among those who suffer, recognizing no enemies, and seeking only to give expression to the love of God in service. Out of this experience, gained under all kinds of governments and amidst all kinds of people, has come some appreciation of the problems of peacemaking in the modern world. This has led the Committee to issue over the past five years a series of studies on possible ways to ease tension and move toward international peace. The series began in 1949 with the publication of The United States and the Soviet Union. It was continued in 1951 with Steps to Peace and in 1952 with Toward Security through Disarmament. This is the fourth of the series, while a fifth, dealing with the future of the United Nations, is now in preparation.

All of these reports have been prepared for the American Friends Service Committee by study groups convened especially for the purpose. They have been approved for publication by the Committee's Executive Board-not as official pronouncements, but in the interest of stimulating public discussion of the issues raised, and in the hope that such discussion will contribute to the formation of policies that will bring peace.

The other studies have been developed on the assumption that reliance on military power is so integral in the policy of every major nation, that the most practical approach to peacemaking is to suggest specific next steps to reduce tension and thereby move gradually away from the reliance on force. Many other individuals and organizations have made similar suggestions, so that discussion of such alternatives to present policy has been fairly widespread. A large area of agreement has indeed been reached, and many Americans both in and out of government concur on the kind of constructive measures needed.

Yet American policy has continued to develop in the opposite direction. This study attempts to discover why this should be so. It finds its answer not in the inadequacy of statesmanship or in the machinations of evil men, but in what seem to the drafters of this report to be the unsound premises upon which policy is based. Most Americans accept without question the assumption that winning the peace depends upon a simultaneous reliance upon military strength and long-range programs of a positive and constructive character. They accept also the assumption that totalitarian communism is the greatest evil that now threatens men and that this evil can be met only by violence, or at least by the threat of violence. We believe these assumptions cannot be sustained, and therefore that the policies based on them are built upon sand. We have here attempted to analyze our reasons, and without denying the value of proposals that might ease present tensions, to suggest another and less widely considered alternative built on a different assumption, namely, that military power in today's world is incompatible with freedom, incapable of providing security, and ineffective in dealing with evil.

Our title, Speak Truth to Power, taken from a charge given to Eighteenth Century Friends, suggests the effort that is made to speak from the deepest insight of the Quaker faith, as this faith is understood by those who prepared this study. We speak to power in three senses:

  • To those who hold high places in our national life and bear the terrible responsibility of making decisions for war or peace.
  • To the American people who are the final reservoir of power in this country and whose values and expectations set the limits for those who exercise authority.
  • To the idea of Power itself, and its impact on Twentieth Century life.

Our truth is an ancient one: that love endures and overcomes; that hatred destroys; that what is obtained by love is retained, but what is obtained by hatred proves a burden. This truth, fundamental to the position which rejects reliance on the method of war, is ultimately a religious perception, a belief that stands outside of history. Because of this we could not end this study without discussing the relationship between the politics of time with which men are daily concerned and the politics of eternity which they too easily ignore.

But our main purpose is not to restate the many prophetic expositions of the pacifist position. Beginning with The Sermon on the Mount, the Christian tradition alone has produced a library of enduring religious statements, and the same can be said for the literature of other great faiths. The urgent need is not to preach religious truth, but to show how it is possible and why it is reasonable to give practical expression to it in the great conflict that now divides the world.

In recent years, outside of theological circles, and infrequently there, there has been little able discussion of the pacifist point of view. Pacifism has been cataloged as the private witness of a small but useful minority, or as the irresponsible action of men who are so overwhelmed with the horror of war that they fail to see that greater evil sometimes exists and that the sacrifices of war may be necessary to turn it back. Whether condemned or in a sense valued, pacifism has been considered irrelevant to the concrete problems of international relations.

This study attempts to show its relevance. It is focused on the current international crisis. It begins with a survey of the same concrete problems with which any discussion of world affairs must deal. It is concerned with problems of security, the growth of Russian and American power, the challenge to American interests presented by Soviet Communism. It recognizes the existence of evil and the need to resist it actively. It does not see peacemaking as the attempt to reconcile evil with good. It speaks to the problem of inevitable conflict.

We believe it is time for thoughtful men to look behind the label "pacifist," to deal fairly with the ideas and beliefs which sustain those whose approach to foreign policy begins with the rejection of reliance upon military power. We speak to the great majority of Americans who still stand opposed to war, who expect no good of armies and H-bombs. Their reluctant acceptance of a dominantly military policy has been based on the belief that military power provides the necessary security without which the constructive work that builds peace cannot be undertaken. They are for a military program because they feel they must be. "There is no alternative."

We have tried to present an alternative and to set forth our reasons for believing that it offers far greater hope and involves no greater risk than our present military policy. Our effort is incomplete, but we believe it is a step toward the serious examination of a nonviolent approach to world problems. Is there a method for dealing with conflict which does not involve us in the betrayal of our own beliefs, either through acquiescence to our opponent's will or through resorting to evil means to resist him? Is there a way to meet that which threatens us, without relying on our ability to cause pain to the human being who embodies the threat?

We believe there is a way, and that it lies in the attempt to give practical demonstration to the effectiveness of love in human relations. We believe able men, pacifist and non-pacifist alike, have taken this initial insight, developed it, demonstrated it, and built understanding and support for it in field after field of human relations. In view of this, it is strange that almost no one has made a serious attempt to explore its implications in international affairs. There is now almost no place in our great universities, few lines in the budgets of our great foundations, and little space in scholarly journals, for thought and experimentation that begin with the unconditional rejection of organized mass violence and seek to think through the concrete problems of present international relations in new terms. It is time there was.

New conditions demand new responses. We have tried here to suggest a new response. We hope the reader will bring to it an open mind, and if in any way challenged, will join in a serious effort to explore farther the lines of thought we have suggested.

Submitted to the Executive Board and approved for publication March 2, 1955.

STEPHEN G. CARY, Chairman

JAMES E. BRISTOL
AMIYA CHAKRAVARTY
A. BURNS CHALMERS
WILLIAM B. EDGERTON
HARROLP A. FREEMAN
ROBERT GILMORE

CECIL E. HINSHAW
MILTON MAYER
A. J. MUSTE
CLARENCE E. PICKETT
ROBERT PICKUS
NORMAN J. WHITNEY.” [1].

[1]. Friends (Quaker) document “Speak Truth to Power” (1955): “Speak truth to power. A Quaker Search for an Alternative to Violence. A study of international conflict prepared for the American Friends Service Committee, 2 March 1955: http://www.quaker.org/sttp.html .


RATHER, Dan

Dan Rather, eminent American journalist speaks out on journalist and Mainstream media self-censorship.

Daniel Irvin "Dan" Rather, Jr. (born 1931) is an American journalist, former news anchor for the CBS Evening News and now managing editor and anchor of a television news magazine, Dan Rather Reports, on the cable channel HDNet. Rather was anchor of the CBS Evening News for 24 years, from March 9, 1981, to March 9, 2005. He also contributed to CBS' 60 Minutes. Rather was involved in controversy about a disputed news report involving the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election, subsequently left CBS Evening News in 2005 and left the CBS network altogether after 43 years in 2006 (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Rather ).

Dan Rather on press self-censorship to the National Coalition Against Censorship (2008): “Therein, I believe, lies the central challenge of this cause to defend First Amendment rights: To make it understood from sea to shining sea, in towns big and small, that the First Amendment is not some scoundrel’s refuge for elites real or imagined, but a bulwark against tyranny for all Americans.

In the case of the press, the guarantee of a free press represented the Framers’ implicit understanding that journalists had an essential role to play in our democracy—that without the raw material of information, We the People would not be able to govern ourselves wisely or well.

So it is not for the press but for the people that we fight for access to the corridors of power, as the people’s surrogates. It is not for the press but for the people that we pressure our elected representatives and our candidates for office to answer the questions that the people might ask, if they had the opportunity. And it is not for the press but for the people that we defend (and call for our publishers and news owners to defend) our right to print and broadcast the truth—straight, no chaser.

If journalists hope to enlist our fellow Americans in the defense of the Constitutional rights that are there for all of us, we must inspire in them a sense that we are using these rights with a sense of Constitutional purpose. That is not to say that they are in any sense a privilege, rather than inalienable rights; it is to say that these rights will be taken seriously—and we will be taken seriously—only to the degree that we put them in practice towards serious ends.

And we might recognize that, when we work towards trivial ends, we undermine our case and we play a hand in eroding our hard-won freedoms.

I will say, in closing, that one of the most pernicious ways in which we do this is through self-censorship, which may be the worst censorship of all. We have seen too much self-censorship in the news in recent years, and as I say this please know that I do not except myself from this criticism.

As Mark Twain once said, “We write frankly and freely but then we ‘modify’ before we print.” Why do we modify the free and frank expression of journalistic truth? We do it out of fear: Fear for our jobs. Fear that we’ll catch hell for it. Fear that someone will seek to hang a sign around our neck that says, in essence, “Unpatriotic.”

We modify with euphemisms such as “collateral damage” or “less than truthful statements.” We modify with passive-voice constructions such as “mistakes were made.” We modify with false equivalencies that provide for bad behavior the ready-made excuse that “everybody’s doing it.” And sometimes we modify with an eraser—simply removing offending and inconvenient truths from our reporting.” [1].

[1]. Dan Rather's remarks at NCAC's Annual Celebration of Free Speech and Its Defendents, National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), 29 October 2008: http://ncac.org/Dan-Rathers-Remarks-at-the-Annual-Celebration .


ROY, Arundhati.

Arundhati Roy (brilliant humanitarian Indian writer) on simultaneous First World holocaust commission and holocaust denial (see Arundhati Roy in “The Chequebook and the Cruise Missile”): “the ultimate privilege of the élite is not just their deluxe lifestyles, but deluxe lifestyles with a clear conscience.”


RUSSELL, Howard.

William Howard Russell, who was sent by The Times (UK) to cover the Crimean War, in a letter to his editor (see: http://evatt.labor.net.au/news/201.html ) : “Am I to tell these things? or am I to hold my tongue?" To which his editor Delane replied, "Continue to tell as much truth as you can."


SUGIMOTO, Yoshio.

Professor Yoshio Sugimoto commenting on press censorship via the “reporters' clubs” in Japan (see his book “An Introduction to Japanese Society”, Cambridge University Press, 1997; pp211-215): “ Japan 's mass media tend to be docile because of the way in which information-gathering units are based on government and business-establishments. Government ministries, prefectural and municipal governments, police headquarters, and business and union organizations all provide reporters of major print and electronic media with office space called kisha kurabu (reporters' clubs). These clubrooms are normally equipped with telephones and other communications machines, service personnel, and other facilities. Media organizations use them free of charge. In almost all cases, club membership is restricted to the reporters of major news organizations and is not open to journalists from minor presses or to foreign journalists. …By constantly feeding information to reporters in this environment, representatives of the institutions which provide club facilities can obliquely control the way in which it is reported to the public. Reporters cannot risk being excluded from their club because they would then lose access to this regular flow of information.”


VOLTAIRE

Voltaire's "Candide" criticizes corruption of English freedom of speech by "party feeling and party spirit"



François-Marie Arouet (21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778), better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a brilliant and prolific French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of belief. His polemical novel “Candide” is critical of the passivity and acceptance induced the philosophy of optimism, that this is the best of possible worlds (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltaire ).



In Chapter 25 of Voltaire's novel "Candide", entitled "Visit to Lord Pococurante, Venetian nobleman"
: "Martin noticed some shelves laden with English books. "I trust", he said, "that a republican must take pleasure in the majority of those books written with so much freedom". "Yes", replied Pococurante, "it's a fine thing to write what one thinks; it's the privilege of man. In all Italy people write only what they don't think; those who inhabit the native land of the Caesars and the Antonines don't care to have an idea without permission of a Dominican. I would be happy with the freedom that inspires the English geniuses if party feeling and party spirit didn't corrupt everything estimable in that precious freedom."

The Australian censorship re man-made climate change & extreme events

THE AUSTRALIAN newspaper censorship re man-made climate change & attendant disastrous extreme events

The Australian newspaper is the national flagship of the Murdoch News Limited Media Empire in Australia. The Murdoch Empire controls about 70% of city dailies in Australia and has a disproportionate influence on Australian public life – hence the term , originally coined by outstanding expatriate Australian journalist John Pilger, “Murdochracy” to describe Western democracies in which Murdoch is the effective “king-maker”.

The pro-war, pro-coal, pro-gas, pro-oil, pro-fossil fuel, pro-US, pro-Zionist Murdoch media in Australia- most notably The Australian and the Melbourne tabloid newspaper The Herald-Sun - are notorious for climate change denialism.

On 17 January The Australian published an article about the devastating Queensland floods and the demand by Greens leader and senator Dr Bob Brown that the coal industry be taxed to help pay for the cost of such extreme events linked to greenhouse gas pollution. The article was entitled “Miners attack Greens leader Bob Brown over call for coal producers to fund flood clean-up”: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/queensland-floods/miners-attack-greens-leader-bob-brown-over-call-for-coal-producers-to-fund-flood-clean-up/story-fn7iwx3v-1225989350682 .

The Australian published 88 comments about the article (all but 7 anonymous) but did not publish the following carefully researched, informed, credentialed comment from a 5-decade career scientist, Dr Gideon Polya, submitted under his own name: “Dr Bob Brown is essentially correct. Fossil fuel burning successively increases atmospheric greenhouse gases (GHGs), sea temperature, evaporation and precipitation.

We know that breathing in pollutants from the burning of coal, gas, oil and cigarettes is associated with lung disease but we cannot prove that a specific case of lung cancer is due to any of these causes.

Similarly, while man-made global warming has been associated with a huge increase in extreme flood events throughout the world, because the weather is variable one cannot attribute a particular event such as the La Nina-linked Queensland floods to climate change.

However the message is clear from scientists that to avoid lung disease and extreme weather events such as the disastrous Queensland floods we must stop burning coal, oil and gas and remove the resultant atmospheric pollution (atmospheric CO2 must be urgently reduced to about 300 ppm; see "Climate change & flooding" c/- 300.org).”

What Dr Brown said: “Burning coal is a major cause of global warming. This industry, which is 75 per cent owned outside Australia, should help pay the cost of the predicted more severe and more frequent floods, droughts and bushfires in coming decades.”

For 50 expert, science-informed, referenced opinions about the link between man-made global warming and increased precipitation events see the following detailed compendium c/- 300.org and entitled “Climate change & floods: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/climate-change-floods .

The Age censorship re Australian intellectuals

THE AGE censors informed, credentialled intellectual comments on Australian intellectuals

Ask any forthright scientist and you will discover concern about the huge gap between scientific perception and public perception (notably over man-made climate change).

Part of the problem lies with scientists and academics in general – they are mostly intimidated from speaking out by well-founded fears in relation to institutional or corporate Codes of Conduct; sullying hard-won scientific reputation through involvement in the hurly-burly of public debate; and loss of research grants. In addition, scientists are highly focused on their research targets and are very busy people working 6-7 days per week.

For a detailed analysis of intellectual self-censorship in ‘look the other way” Australia see Dr Gideon Polya, “ Current academic censorship and self-censorship in Australian universities”, Public University Journal, Volume 1, Conference Supplement, pp20-24 (2003): http://www.publicuni.org/journal/volume/1/jpu_1_s_polya.pdf .

For a further hard-hitting analysis of academic censorship and self-censorship see Dr Gideon Polya, "Crisis in our universities", ABC Radio National , Ockham's Razor, 19 August 2001:

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ockham/stories/s347931.htm .

A major part of the problem is Mainstream media (MSM) censorship of scientists and intellectuals – even if scientists and intellectuals are prepared to comment the MSM may censor them. Some examples involving The Age newspaper (Melbourne), arguably Australia's most progressive Mainstream medium, are provided below.

1. Australian writer and journalist Brigid Delaney wrote an amusing article entitled “Bogan benefits lost on smug intellectuals” (The Age On-line National Times, 28 December 2010: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/bogan-benefits-lost-on-smug-intellectuals-20101227-198g0.html?comments=80#comments ) in which she compared the lumpen proletarian, plebeian “bogns” with the “intellectuals”, the latter being dismissed thus: “As there are more intellectuals than there are intellectual jobs, they have to share the spoils. Thus we have intellectuals doing part-time gigs teaching at La Trobe, undertaking part-funded, postdoctoral work at Melbourne Uni, writing for broadsheets over the summer break, being casual producers at Radio National or novelists on the dole. The junior intellectuals deeply resent the older intellectuals who took all the good jobs - the staff writers, tenured academics, the Booker Prize-nominated author, the film reviewer for The Monthly.”

The Age published 80 comments on the article (all but 5 evidently anonymous) but failed to publish the following successive informed and credentialed comments from a named academic intellectual Dr Gideon Polya, which could, accordingly, be taken as representative of what The Age does not want its readers to read or know.

(i) Very droll indeed but there is a deadly serious side to intellectuals in Australia as opposed to the "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi" Lib-Lab yobs.

1. To state the obvious, it is an increasingly dangerous world and we need to think hard about how to get out of the looming climate catastrophe. Indeed Australian intellectual and Nobel Laureate Professor Peter Doherty has stated "We are in real danger"; intellectual Professor Peter Seligman (bionic ear electrical engineer, University of Melbourne) has published a book "Australian Sustainable Energy - By the Numbers" (100% renewable energy for Australia by 2030 for $250 billion); and 20 engineer intellectuals of Beyond Zero Emissions have published their much-acclaimed ZCA 2020 Report (100% renewable energy for Australia by 2020 for $370 billion).

2. Of course intellectuals don't just include Nobel Prize-winning medical scientists and Planet-saving engineers - also included are the roughly 25% of Australians who are university graduates (from university-educated taxi drivers to brain surgeons). And don't forget TAFE graduates (e.g. my plumber belongs to Probus) - indeed the people in addition to university students to whom I give lectures about climate change are intellectuals (e.g. University of the Third Age, Probus and climate action group intellectuals). Remember also the Aboriginal intellectuals who kept Australia's now-devastated flora and fauna intact for 50,000 years.

3. Australia leads the world in intellectuals - Google "Education Index" and discover that we top the world together with New Zealand, Finland, Denmark and Cuba.

4. 50% of undergraduate university tuition in Australia is done by impoverished, part-time "contract" intellectuals.

(ii). Censorship limits bogan and societal improvement. My earlier comment didn’t make it – a self-censored version below.

1. To state the obvious, it is an increasingly dangerous world and we need to think hard about how to get out of the looming climate catastrophe. Indeed Australian intellectual and Nobel Laureate Professor Peter Doherty has stated "We are in real danger"; intellectual Professor Peter Seligman (bionic ear electrical engineer, University of Melbourne) has published a book "Australian Sustainable Energy - By the Numbers" (100% renewable energy for Australia by 2030 for $250 billion); and 20 engineer intellectuals of Beyond Zero Emissions have published their much-acclaimed ZCA 2020 Report (100% renewable energy for Australia by 2020 for $370 billion).

2. Of course intellectuals don't just include Nobel Prize-winning medical scientists and Planet-saving engineers - also included are the roughly 25% of Australians who are university graduates (from university-educated taxi drivers to brain surgeons). And don't forget TAFE graduates (e.g. my plumber belongs to Probus) - indeed the people in addition to university students to whom I give lectures about climate change are intellectuals (e.g. University of the Third Age, Probus and climate action group intellectuals). Remember also the Aboriginal intellectuals who kept Australia's now-devastated flora and fauna intact for 50,000 years.

3. Australia leads the world in intellectuals - Google "Education Index" and discover that we top the world together with New Zealand, Finland, Denmark and Cuba.

4. 50% of undergraduate university tuition in Australia is done by impoverished, part-time "contract" intellectuals.

The Age censorship re US Alliance & 20 million Muslim refugees

THE AGE censors informed comments about refugees & Australia's complicity in US Alliance generation of 20 million Muslim refugees


The Age recently published an article by humane Australian writer David Marr entitled “How did this boat get so close to the coast?” about the December 2010 Christmas Island tragedy in which possibly 40 refugees perished as their boat was dashed to pieces on the cliff (The Age On-line, National Times, 16 December 2010: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/how-did-this-boat-get-so-close-to-the-coast-20101215-18ya6.html ).

The Age published 142 comments (all but 9 anonymous) about the article but evidently did not want its readers to read my carefully researched comments on “cause and effect” in this disaster:

"Excellent, humane article by David Marr.

Missing from public "cause and effect" discussion is who created about 20 million Muslim refugees in the first place, the breakdown being roughly 7 million Palestinians, 5-6 million Iraqis, 3-4 million Afghans, 2 million Somalis and 2.5 million Pashtun refugees generated in NW Pakistan by US Alliance war policies.

Former PM Kevin Rudd described those trying to find a safe haven for desperate Muslim refugees as "scum of the earth who should rot in hell". How then does one describe the Zionist and neocon warmongers of the US Alliance responsible for generating over 20 million Muslim refugees?

Also ignored in "cause and effect" public discussion is what the refugees are fleeing. Post-invasion violent deaths and non-violent avoidable deaths in the Occupied Palestinian, Iraqi and Afghan Territories (ignoring Occupied Somalia, Occupied Haiti, robot-bombed Pakistan etc) total 0.3 million, 2.5 million and 4.9 million, respectively, these estimates being consonant with post-invasion under-5 infant deaths of 0.2 million, 0.8 million and 2.6 million, respectively (UN Population Division data; Google Muslim Holocaust, Muslim Genocide).

Violent deaths and non-violent avoidable deaths associated with the US Alliance War on Terror now total 8 million as compared to 5-6 million Jews killed in the Jewish Holocaust (1 in 6 dying from deprivation; see Professor Sir Martin Gilbert's "Atlas of the Holocaust").

The annual death rate is 7% for under-5 year old Afghan infants under US Alliance Occupation as compared to 4% for Poles under the Nazis and 5% for French Jews in Nazi-occupied France in WW2. Reality: US Alliance and Australian holocaust commission and holocaust denial."

The Age censorship re man-made climate change

THE AGE censors informed, credentialled, scientist comments about man-made climate change

The Age newspaper (Melbourne, Australia; Fairfax media empire) is arguably Australia's most "liberal" Mainstream newspaper.

The Age has an On-line version that has a National Times section that includes op-ed articles by in-house journalists, politicians, and other commentators. It invites reader comments on these articles. However as set out below, The Age variously censors informed, credentialled, scientist comments about man-made climate change.

Leading US climate scientist Dr James Hansen (head of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies) has stated "Human-made climate change is, indeed, the greatest threat civilization faces" (p70, James Hansen, "Storms of my Grandchildren, Bloomsbury, London, 2009).

1. The Age published an article by non-scientist Senator Kim Carr (Federal Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research in the notoriously anti-Science Australian Labor Government) entitled “Science champions needed to battle merchants of doubt” in which he said more scientists should speak out publicly to inspire Australians (The Age On-line National Times, 19 November 2010: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/science-champions-needed-to-battle-merchants-of-doubt-20101118-17z7p.html . The Age published 97 comments about the article (all but 2 anonymous) but evidently didn’t want the following comment from a much-published 5-decade career scientist (Dr Gideon Polya) to be read by its readers:

"Fine words indeed from Senator Carr but he, his Australian Labor Party (aka Another Liberal Party) colleagues and the pro-coal, pro-gas Lib-Labs in general should practise what he is preaching and listen to and act on what top scientists are saying in the peer-reviewed scientiific literature. Some examples below of the anti-science mainstream Lib-Lab culture in Australia.

1. Gas is dirty energy and depending upon the rate of industrial gas leakage, gas burning can be dirtier than coal burning in terms of greenhouse gas pollution. Yet Labor politicians falsely declare that "gas is clean energy", support massive LNG exports and support a pointless "coal-to-gas" transition for power production.

2. Mathematicians tell us that 2 plus 2 equals 4 but the Lib-Labs evidently prefer Big Brother's notorious assertion otherwise. There are so many examples of this media-permitted Orwellian violation of the numbers by the anti-science Lib-Labs that one despairs. Thus UN Population Division demographic data instruct that post-invasion under-5 infant deaths in Occupied Afghanistan total 2.6 million, 90% avoidable and due to gross US Alliance violation of the Geneva Convention. Yet the Lib-Labs ignore the authoritative data and try to outdo each other in warmongering when the US and NATO clearly want out.

3. Plenty of top scientists say what they think about the acute seriousness of man-made climate change but are ignored by Mainstream media and Lib-Lab politicians. 255 top US scientists recently said "delay is not an option" but Australia's Domestic plus Exported greenhouse gas pollution remorselessly increases under both Labs and Libs.

Sensible voters must reject the anti-science Lib-Labs and vote Green."

However The Age did publish my further comment:Senator Carr's hypocrisy is revealed by remorseless Federal and State Labor inaction on man-made climate change despite, for example, 255 eminent US scientists belonging to the prestigious US National Academy of Science recently declaring in an Open Letter that "delay is not an option".

The Age (while arguably the best mainstream medium in Australia) also ignores informed scientific opinion. Thus carefully researched comments on Senator Carr's article by a 5-decade career scientist (circa 100 scientific research papers in refereed journals, 4 books, numerous chapters in books, still teaching a complete second year science subject, theory and practical classes, at a major university) and made under his own name have evidently been found "not fit to print" in this thread - but can be read on the US Newsvine (link provided [ see: http://gpolya.newsvine.com/_news/2010/11/18/5490210-oz-science-minister-re-skeptics-science-champions-needed-to-battle-merchants-of-doubt- ]).

2. The Age state political editor Paul Austin's article “The figures point to electoral wilderness for Victorian Labor”, ( The Age On-line, National Times, 16 December 2010: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/the-figures-point-to-electoral-wilderness-for-victorian-labor-20101215-18y4a.html ) omitted to mention the Greens or pro-environment voters in his analysis of the 2010 Victorian State elections.

The Age published 23 comments on the article (all but 1 anonymous) but not my carefully researched comment under my own name (Dr Gideon Polya). I frequently make informed comments under my own name to The Age National Times but am increasingly subject to censorship. This is what The Age did not want its readers to know in this instance:

One must certainly respect Paul Austin's expert judgment that "history suggests it is a much better bet that Victoria's next Labor government is at least eight years away".

However the analysis ignores the Green vote of circa 11% in the recent elections. The Greens are the kingmakers and Labor can only return to power with Greens preferences.

About 80% of Greens voters currently give their second preference to Labor but in my view this is a profoundly mistaken strategy for getting required action on climate change.

As long as the pro-coal, pro-gas Labs are effectively just as bad as the pro-coal, pro-gas Libs (both want a derisory "5% off 2000 level by 2020"), the correct Green voter strategy is to put an "effective climate denialist" but potentially reformist Labor last until it agrees to serious, requisite action e.g. zero CO2 emissions by 2020 and 100% renewable energy by 2020 as demanded by Science.of major per capita polluters like Australia.

Top climate scientist Professor Schellnhuber (Potsdam and Oxford Universities) says that for a 67% chance of avoiding a catastrophic 2C temperature rise (EU policy) the world must cease CO2 emissions by 2050 and leading annual per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) polluter the US (27 tonnes CO2-e per person per year) must cease by 2020.

Australia (Domestic plus Exported per capita GHG 54 tonnes CO2-e per person per year) must accordingly get to zero emissions within about 8 years i.e. after 2 more government terms in Victoria.

Pro-Planet voters should accordingly vote 1 Green and put Labor last until Labor commits to requisite major action on climate change."

3. The Age published an article by its esteemed political analyst Michelle Grattan about the 2010 Victorian state elections and entitled “”Chilly Victorian winds could cause shivers in Canberra”. This headline had a double entendre that the Victorian election result bodes ill for the Greens politically , while “chilly” and “shivers” inexplicitly but poetically suggests doubt about the reality of man-made climate change. Grattan: “There are national messages for Greens and independents, too. Ted Baillieu's tough-minded preference decision has punctuated the Greens' rise, at least with a semicolon. This election has exposed their vulnerability, rather than reinforcing their strength. Nationally, they should beware of overreaching, in case people decide they've got too much power. For Adam Bandt, the Green MP for Melbourne there on Liberal preferences, the future becomes more problematic” (The Age On-line, National Times, 29 December 2010: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/chilly-victorian-winds-could-cause-shivers-in-canberra-20101128-18c9y.html ).

The Age published 25 readers’ comments (all but 1 anonymous) but completely censored the following informed, credentialed comments from a 5-decade career scientist writing under his own name (Dr Gideon Polya): "Victorian voters have collectively done in the State election what Australians voters did in the Federal - punish an incompetent, Lobby-driven and spin-driven incumbent.

We accept that an AFL coach will whip a non-performer off the field and will do likewise to the replacement. I have been told by a top corporate strategist that "Punish the incumbent" is the correct strategy for Australian voters who have evidently collectively come to the same conclusion. Mr Baillieu will have 4 years to do what has to be done or face removal.

The Liberal strategy in the Victorian state elections of putting the Greens last should be emulated by the Greens. The Libs and Labs have very similar pro-coal and pro-gas anti-environment policies although Labor put a better spin on its outrageous inaction. Labor can only win State or Federally with Greens preferences. Accordingly Greens must bite the bullet and adopt a "put Labor last" policy until Labor adopts serious climate change policies demanded by top climate scientists, specifically 100% renewable energy by 2020, cessation of CO2 pollution by 2020, cessation of Australia's coal and gas exports, cessation of old growth native forest destruction.

Unless the Greens (or the voters collectively) think this through and adopt such a ruthless preference policy, Victoria and Australia will continue to have a succession of irresponsible, pro-coal, pro-gas, anti-environment Lib or Lab governments at both the State and Federal level.

Key parameter for voters and Greens: Victoria's annual Domestic plus Exported GHG pollution was about 120 Mt CO2-e under Labor and set to rise to 170 Mt CO2-e by 2020."

Not wishing to be censored on such an important matter, I sent a further comment ot The Age. However The Age then savagely censored my subsequent comment as follows (censored portions in bold):"I sent a carefully researched comment on this article this morning but it evidently hasn't made it.

Even more briefly, the Greens remain the kingmakers. Labor can only be elected with Greens preferences. Unless Labor agrees to take strong climate action (minimum: 100% renewable energy by 2020, cessation of coal & LNG exports, cessation of native forest destruction, population control, cessation of species extinctions) Greens voters - and indeed all voters - should Put Labor Last. Delayer Labs and denier Libs are equally inactive on climate change in practice and Australia's Domestic plus Exported greenhouse gas pollution is still remorselessly rising under the Australian Labor Party (aka Another Liberal Party) as under the Libs.

Unless the Greens voters (and indeed all voters) think this through and adopt such a ruthless preference policy, Victoria and Australia will continue to have a succession of equally irresponsible, pro-coal, pro-gas, anti-environment Lib or Lab governments at both the State and Federal level.

Key parameter for voters and Greens: Victoria's annual Domestic plus Exported greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution was about 120 Mt CO2-e for a decade under under Labor and is now set to rise to 170 Mt CO2-e by 2020. Yet top climate scientists say we must reduce atmospheric CO2 to 300 ppm from the present dangerous and damaging 392 ppm.

The Lab inaction is morally worse than the Lib inaction because many of the Labs actually know they are betraying our children, grandchildren, Humanity and the Biosphere."


4. Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young published an article about the huge cost of repairing the damage from the huge Australian floods and entitled “After the deluge comes the mudslinging” (The Age One-line National Times section, 1 February 2011: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/blogs/gengreens/after-the-deluge-comes-the-mudslinging/20110131-1aaq9.html ). At the time of writing this, The Age had published 58 comments (all but 2 anonymous; by the time Comments had closed 106 comments, of which all but 10 were anonymous) but evidently still did not want to publish the informed and credentialed comment from Dr Gideon Polya 6 hours after submission - this is what The Age evidently did not want its readers to read or to know:

“A sensible article from Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young. A means-tested levy is fine as is the suggestion of a disaster fund because man-made climate change promises more extreme weather disasters in the future and income is directly related to greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution in a carbon-based economy.

Climate scientists tell us that because the weather is variable one cannot attribute the severity of specific events such as the La Nina-connected Australian flood disasters to man-made climate change. However they tell us that increase in such events is predicted by climate models; that there has already been a 4-10 fold warming-associated increase in severe floods since the 1950s; that ocean temperatures are increasing; and that global warming means increased humidity and increased precipitation (for a detailed compendium of numerous such science-informed views Google "man-made climate change and floods").

Greens leader and senator Dr Bob Brown has sensibly demanded that the major GHG polluters such as the gas and coal industries should be taxed to pay for the damage they cause via climate change. Indeed, extreme weather aside, it can be estimated that carbonaceous fuel burning pollutants kill over 12,000 Australians every year.

Instead, the do nothing, pro-coal, pro-gas, anti-renewables Lib-Labs support a $10 billion pa subsidy for fossil fuel burning (that should be used for post-disaster reconstruction) and $1 billion pa for a criminal and unwinnable Afghan War that so far has killed 4.5 million Afghans, this including 2.3 million avoidable Afghan infant deaths (money and resources that should be used for flood relief rather than for passively killing Asian children).”


5. The Age published an article by leading Australian political commentator Michelle Grattan about the Gillard Labor Government in 2011, the floods and the Levy (The Age On-line, National Times section, 4 February 2011: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/gillard-sets-her-sights-high-20110203-1afdu.html ) . The Age published 104 comments on the article ( all anonymous and hence uncredentialled) but declined to published the following informed, credentialled comments from Dr Gideon Polya, one supposes because it felt that its readers must be protected from such facts and such views:

Asserting that "Gillard sets her sights high" is an Orwellian turning of reality upside down, whether it is flood relief or man-made climate change action (the 2 matters being connected).

Scientists inform that because the weather is variable one cannot determine the contribution of man-made global warming to specific events such as the Queensland flood and cyclone disasters. However increased air and sea temperature means more intense precipitation and cyclone events. The incidence of severe floods has increased globally 4- to 10-fold since the 1950s and the incidence of severe cyclones has doubled in recent decades (for extensive compendia of expert scientific opinion Google "man-made climate change and floods" and "man-made climate change and cyclones"). Pro-coal, pro-gas Labor has adopted counterproductive and dangerous polices.

1. The income-related disaster levy is fair but fairer still would be abolition of the circa $10 billion pa in subsidies for climate-damaging fossil fuel burning that remain in place under pro-coal, pro-gas Labor.

2. Labor supports continued and expanding climate-damaging coal and gas exploitation that makes Australia a world leader in per capita Domestic plus Exported GHG pollution (60 times worse than warming-threatened Bangladesh).

3. While Labor subsidizes fossil fuel pollution, it is now punishing ordinary taxpayers, the renewable energy industry needed to avert disaster, and universities who research and inform about the dangers and solutions.

4. 12,000 Australians die pa from fossil fuel burning pollutants but Labor ignores the $120 billion pa cost (US EPA estimate) that is equivalent to circa $400 per tonne carbon. Instead Labor offers a derisory carbon price of circa $10 per tonne carbon.”

The Age censorship re crimes of racist Zionist-run Apartheid Israel

The Age censors comments re the appalling crimes of race-based, racist Zionist-run Apartheid Israel

Australian Mainstream media are appallingly pro-Zionist and often censor the views of decent, anti-racist Australians critical of the appalling crimes of race-based, racist Zionist-run Apartheid Israel.

Thus, for example, the taxpayer-funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation (the ABC, Australia’s equivalent of the BBC) has an in-house search engine that enables one to get “search results from the entire ABC site”. A search fro the term “Palestinian Genocide” on 11 January 2011 elicited zero (0) results (see: http://search.abc.net.au/search/search.cgi?form=simple&num_ranks=20&collection=abcall&query=%22palestinian+genocide%22 ) whereas a Google Search yielded 34,700 results and a Yahoo Search reveled 66,200 results, the number 1 result being a website entitled “Palestinian Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ . This is shocking testament to disgraceful censorship of the ongoing Palestinian Genocide by an evidently cowardly, pro-Zionist-infested, genocide-ignoring ABC.

A recent multi-author book bout the ongoing Palestinian Genocide (the term used by many scholars commenting on this ongoing atrocity) is “The Plight of the Palestinians” (editor Professor William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ). In summarizing the contribution of many eminent Jewish and non-Jewish writers to this important book (of whom many used the term Palestinian Genocide) I stated: ““The Plight of the Palestinians” authoritatively exposes the ongoing Palestinian Genocide and forces comparisons with other genocidal atrocities (for historical details of such atrocities see Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global Avoidable Mortality since 1950”, Polya, Melbourne, 2007, and F. Chalk and K. Jonassohn, “The History and Sociology of Genocide. Analyses and Case Studies”, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1990).

After the WW2 Holocaust (30 million, Slavs, Jews and Gypsies killed), the defeated Germans adopted a CAAAA (C4A) post-Holocaust protocol involving Cessation of the killing, Acknowledgment of the crimes, Apology for the crimes, Amends for the crimes and Assertion "never again to anyone". While in 1945 many Germans said that “they didn’t know” about what had been happening in Nazi-occupied Europe, Westerners can no longer say “we didn’t know” – the Awful Truth is only a few mouse-clicks away and “The Plight of the Palestinians” is only a few feet away in your local bookstore or library. .

What can decent, anti-racist, humanitarian people do? Decent folk must (a) inform everyone they can about the ongoing Palestinian Genocide and (b) impose Sanctions and Boycotts against nuclear terrorist Apartheid Israel and against all people, politicians, corporations and countries complicit in this ongoing genocidal atrocity (see: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ).

As set out below, The Age, Melbourne, arguably Australia's most progressive Mainstream newspaper, is no exception to this Australian Mainstream media censorship of the views of decent, anti-racist Australians critical of the appalling crimes of race-based, racist Zionist-run Apartheid Israel.

One of Australia's top newspapers, The Age, Melbourne, published an article by Kern Group director Neer Korn about vastly more US patents in 1980-2000 by Israelis (7652) than by Egyptians (77) or Saudi Arabians (171). The article was entitled “A lesson on employment courtesy of Israeli Army” (see The Age On-line National Times section, 11 January 2011: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/a-lesson-on-employment-courtesy-of-israeli-army-20110110-19l1f.html ) .

The article attracted at least 2 comments by about 7.30 am but only 1 was published from an anonymous person “Reality Check” stating:The real FACT remains that Israel is supported by massive US taxpayer funds and does not have a real economy. It based on a militarized occupation of a foreign land. The real state of Israeli economy is hidden by US taxpayer largesse”.

My carefully researched comment that was sent about that time was not published but provides a record of what one assumes The Age censors involved do not want readers to read or to know:


"Between 1980 and 2000 Egyptians registered 77 patents in the US, Saudis registered 171 and Israelis 7652" and this attributed in part to a questioning culture of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF).

Unfortunately these Israeli "good ideas" don't seem to include basic notions of racial equality, one-man-one-vote, democracy, rights of the child, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not kill children, thou shalt not steal, non-proliferation, nuclear disarmament, self-determination, obedience to international human rights conventions and international law.

While Egypt and Saudi Arabia essentially haven't invaded, occupied and devastated any other countries in centuries, in just 63 years the State of Israel has militarily attacked 11 other countries (Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Iraq, Libya, Tunisia, Uganda, Sudan, the USA), has violently occupied the territory of 5 other countries for long periods (Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, and Palestine) and continues to illegally and violently occupy all of the Holy Land, part of Lebanon and a huge chunk of Syria.

1950-2005 avoidable deaths from deprivation total 37 million in countries attacked by the State of Israel and 24 million in countries illegally occupied by the State of Israel. There are now 7 million Palestinian refugees forbidden to return to their homes and 20 million Muslim refugees (see "Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950").

In the Occupied Palestinian Territory post-invasion excess deaths total 0.3 million, post-invasion under-5 infant deaths total 0.2 million, 85% of Christian Palestinians have fled and 800,000 children are abusively and indefinitely imprisoned in Gaza as are Hamas MPs who won 76/132 seats in the only Holy Land democratic elections.”

It is very likely that numerous comments from decent, anti-racist Australians critical of race-based, racist Zionist-run Apartheid Israel would have been submitted to The Age about this article and likewise censored. Indeed controversial articles like this in The Age On-line often attract over 100 comments.

The Age censorship re WikiLeaks & Labor warmongering to US re China

THE AGE censors comments re secret Labor warmongering to its US ally over China as revealed by WikiLeaks

The Age On-line National Times published an excellent article by former PM Malcolm Fraser entitled “Slavish devotion to US a foreign policy folly for Australia” ” (The Age One-line, 14 December 2010: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/slavish-devotion-to-the-us-a-foreign-policy-folly-for-australia-20101213-18vec.html?comments=110#comments ) re warmongering by Labor politicians revealed by Wikileaks..

Malcolm Fraser points out that while former Labor leader and now Australian Ambassador to the US, Kim Beazley, offered Austrtalian troops ifd there were a war with China, former conservative PMs would not.

Thus the following key quotes : “We now know that Australian ministers or prime ministers have given commitments to the US that have been secretly withheld, probably from their own government and certainly from the Parliament. The idea of partnering the US in a war with China, which comes specifically from Kim Beazley's reported comments, is the ultimate example. A war over Taiwan would be an absurdity. The idea that we should participate in such a conflict is unconscionable and totally contrary to Australia's interests and indeed to Australian security… What I am saying is not particularly new for Australia. When China was shelling offshore islands close to Taiwan in the 1950s, the US moved its Pacific fleet in or close to the Taiwan Strait, and invasion of Taiwan from China was then feared. That likelihood is now increasingly remote. But in the middle of the 1950s, only a year or two after the ANZUS treaty had been signed, then Australian prime minister Robert Menzies told the US that if it went to war with China over Taiwan, Australia would not be part of it. Menzies had a longer-term understanding of the necessity of Australia's future than has been shown by any current leaders.”

It is important to note that former Labor PM Rudd has been revealed by WikiLeaks as suggesting that the US attack China. According to ABC News (; 6 December 2010: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/12/06/3085195.htm ): “The Federal Government is refusing to comment on revelations that Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd suggested force may be needed if China could not be successfully integrated into the international community. ccording to a US diplomatic cable released by the WikiLeaks website, Mr Rudd made the comments during a conversation with US secretary of state Hillary Clinton in March last year, while he was still prime minister. he document is the first to be released by WikiLeaks with a significant mention of Australia. According to the confidential cable, Ms Clinton asked for Mr Rudd's advice on dealing with the growing power of China, asking him: "How do you deal toughly with your banker?" He responded by saying he was a "brutal realist on China". He said China should be integrated into the international community but that countries should be prepared to "deploy force if everything goes wrong". ”

Federal independent MP Andrew Wilkie: “I'm wondering the degree to which Kevin Rudd was fair dinkum [truthful] about that. The prospect of using force against China or supporting the US using force against China just because it might be sitting slightly outside the international community from time to time - I think that is just an inconceivable notion. I suspect there was some posturing on Kevin Rudd's place at that time" (ABC News, 6 December 2010: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/12/06/3085195.htm ):

An informed and credentialled comment on this article from a 5-decade career academic scientist, Dr Gideon Polya, was secretly rejected by The Age, evidently as containing facts its readers should not be allowed to read about. In contrast, The Age published 110 comments from other readers, all but 1 anonymous (i.e. uncredentialled).

This is what The Age did not want its readers to read: “"Excellent article by Malcolm Fraser who has, together with Dr Bob Brown, been the conscience of Australia on fundamental human rights issues for many years.

When slavishly pro-US and pro-war Labor politicians like Kim Beazley and Kevin Rudd secretly advocate US war with China with Australian participation one realizes that the Australian Labor Party (aka the American Labor Party) is dangerously adrift from reality and fundamental decency - the more so when we are informed by Mr Fraser that back in the Cold War 1950s "then Australian prime minister Robert Menzies told the US that if it went to war with China over Taiwan, Australia would not be part of it."

Beazley should be immediately sacked as Australian Ambassador to the US and Rudd should be sacked as Foreign Minister.

There is a good case for both to be kicked out of the Labor Party for this appalling war-mongering directed at a peaceful giant neighbor which is also a major trading partner that has kept Australia remarkably unscathed by the GFC.

Enough is enough. Australia has been involved in all post-1950 US Asian wars, conflicts that have been associated so far with violent deaths and non-violent deaths from deprivation totalling 24 million, the breakdown being 1 million (Korea), 13 million (Indo-China i.e. Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia), 4.4 million (Iraq, 1990-2010), 4.9 million (Afghanistan) and 0.8 million global opiate drug-related deaths - 3,000 Australian, 100,000 American - due to US Alliance restoration of the Taliban-destroyed Afghan opium industry from 6% of world share in 2001 to over 90% today.

Decent pro-peace Australians must put warmonger Labor last.