Society's Child

Associated Press bungles again - this time it's balloons

Kathryn Shihadah
If Americans Knew
Sat, 15 Aug 2020 00:00 UTC

As has too often been the case, Associated Press once again fails the test of good journalism on the subject of Palestine, earning poor marks on accuracy, balance, and context.

Associated Press, considered one of the most respected sources of global news reporting, has been the subject of more than one If Americans Knew investigation. We have detailed AP's slanted coverage of the Israel/Palestine issue for years in hopes that the organization would revamp its efforts there. (Our major studies are here and here, and previous analyses are here.)

(IAK has also reported on other news organizations that exhibit the same lack of objectivity - as have other watchdogs. Read here about a broad, 50-year study.)

A recent erroneous story is about balloons. AP's original story is 120 words - 7 sentences, of which 4 cite statements by Israeli spokespersons. 2 are factual, and 1 is grossly exaggerated and misleading. The story provided 0 sentences from Palestinians. The AP article was carried by many large news outlets, including the New York Times and ABC News.

No news organization as busy as AP would be expected to cover every detail of a story like this, but readers deserve a less Israel-centric story and instead a more objective, balanced report. Time to set the record straight.

Anything goes to spite GOP? Popular British historian draws fire by cheering on hurricanes about to batter 'Trump voting states'

RT
Sun, 23 Aug 2020 11:11 UTC

Two potentially devastating hurricanes hitting the United States may actually be a good thing, since they would disrupt next week's Republican convention and stick it to Donald Trump, British historian Dan Snow said.

Tropical Storms Laura and Marco are moving through the Gulf of Mexico towards Texas and Louisiana and are projected to make landfall on Monday and Tuesday, less than 24 hours apart. One might think the destruction and loss of life they could cause is bad news, but not so for Dan Snow, a popular British media personality famous for his historical films.

Snow managed to find dark irony in the potentially deadly storms, saying they will smash "into Trump voting states the night before the climate crisis denying authoritarian's acceptance speech" during the upcoming Republican National Convention.

Comment: There are worse storms brewing in the US than these, the ramifications of which promise to be epic.

Fear-mongering overlords now want Covid-19 to rob us of sex scenes in movies

Zachary Leeman
RT
Fri, 21 Aug 2020 18:30 UTC

British filmmakers are being encouraged to cut sex scenes in their movies to protect actors from Covid-19, but the ridiculous suggestion is just an excuse to censor art and expression.

Directors UK, a professional association of directors in Britain, which has more than 7,000 members, has unleashed 'Intimacy in the Time of Covid-19' - new recommendations for filmmakers returning to productions in the midst of the current pandemic. Put together by board members Susanna White and Bill Anderson, and 'intimacy coordinator' Vanessa Coffey, the guidelines are the latest fear-mongering nonsense to have dropped as a result of coronavirus.

The most alarming section of the pamphlet is the "narrative alternatives" bit, about depicting sex scenes. The recommendations are not only ill thought out, but also essentially encourage the rewinding of the clock by more than a few decades and returning to the talkies of the 30s, when the Hays Code banned the portrayal of sex and other morally dubious activities onscreen.

Instead of actually showing scenes of intimacy, filmmakers are now being encouraged to show only the before-and-after moments book-ending the act. One could show a bedroom door closing, the guidelines suggest, and then leave everything "up to the viewer's imagination," or characters could be seen "fixing their own clothes/re-dressing after the event."

And in truly bizarre Covid-19 fashion, "sexting" and intimate video chats are suggested as replacements for physically intimate scenes.

Comment: Yet another part of life on the chopping block, destined for the editing floor and another personal preference decision deleted!

Care homes 'ordered not to resuscitate' residents during height of pandemic

Elisa Menendez
Metro
Mon, 24 Aug 2020 11:46 UTC

Care homes were told to impose a blanket 'do not resuscitate' order on all of their residents during the peak of the UK's coronavirus outbreak, according to a report.

Charity, The Queen's Nursing Institute, found one in 10 care homes were told by the NHS to change resuscitation orders for patients, without discussion with staff, the residents or their family.

Half of staff members who were told to change the orders, which were imposed in a bid to free up hospital beds, worked in homes taking care of people with learning or cognitive disabilities. The other 50% worked in elderly residential homes.

Professor Alison Leary, an expert in healthcare and workforce modelling at London South Bank University who wrote the report, described the findings as 'worrying' and called for an inquiry.

A fifth of the 128 surveyed care home managers and nurses said they received patients from the hospitals who had tested positive for coronavirus during March and April. Almost half of staff said they also received residents that had not been tested before leaving hospital, while a third said they often did not have access to PPE.

One respondent was quoted in The Times as saying:

"We were advised to have them in place for all residents. We acted in accordance with medical advice and resident wishes, not as advised by a directive to put in place for all by a clinical care group representative. We challenged this as unethical."

Top French professor of medicine exposes the 'casedemic' hysteria

Ivor Cummings
The Duran
Mon, 24 Aug 2020 18:52 UTC

Professor Jean-François Toussaint

Professor of Medicine Jean-François Toussaint exposes the lunacy of the current #Casedemic hysteria. Wakey wakey guys - the Epidemic is long since over. But now we are dealing with the rights-destroying and economy-eviscerating reactions to the current concocted #CASEDEMIC !

Comment: It seems a sane view of the "pandemic" is slowly making it's way into the mainstream.

Ancestry.com acquired by Blackstone group

Chibuike Oguh
Reuters
Wed, 05 Aug 2020 18:28 UTC

© REUTERS/George Frey
Attendees look around the Ancestry.com booth at the RootsTech annual genealogical event in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S., February 28, 2019.

Blackstone Group Inc BX.N said on Wednesday it agreed to acquire genealogy provider Ancestry.com Inc from private equity rivals for $4.7 billion, including debt, placing a big bet on family-tree chasing as well as personalized medicine.

Ancestry.com is the world's largest provider of DNA services, allowing customers to trace their genealogy and identify genetic health risks with tests sent to their home.

Blackstone is hoping that more consumers staying at home amid the COVID-19 pandemic will turn to Ancestry.com for its services.

"We believe Ancestry has significant runway for further growth as people of all ages and backgrounds become increasingly interested in learning more about their family histories and themselves," David Kestnbaum, a Blackstone senior managing director, said in a statement.

Suspected ISIS terror attack on major gas pipeline knocks out power across Syria

Bel Trew
The Independent
Mon, 24 Aug 2020 18:05 UTC

© SANA
According to SANA, the electricity minister said a pipeline explosion in the Damascus area late Sunday "led to an electricity blackout across Syria"

An explosion at a gas pipeline in Syria caused a nationwide blackout on Monday, in an incident that the US believes was "almost certainly" perpetrated by Isis.

The blast struck lines that feed three power stations in the south of Syria and caused massive electricity cuts, the country's oil minister, Ali Ghanim, told state news agency Sana, adding that it "was the result of a terrorist attack".

The electricity minister, Zuhair Kharbotli, later told the agency the explosion hit the Arab Gas Pipeline after midnight between the towns of Adra and Dumair, northwest of the capital, Damascus.

Comment: Service is gradually being restored:

The electricity minister said some power stations had been reconnected and power provided to vital infrastructure, adding that by dawn electricity was gradually returning to several provinces.

The incident was the latest in a string of alleged attacks against the government's energy infrastructure.

CNN's Stelter says network will do live 'fact-checks' of Republican convention, gets mocked for not doing same with Democrats

RT
Mon, 24 Aug 2020 17:11 UTC

The news channel's media critic Brian Stelter says CNN will have live "fact-checks" for the RNC, leaving many to wonder where those fact-checks were during the respective Democratic event.

Warning about a possible "stream of disinformation" at the RNC, scheduled to take place from August 24 through August 27, Stelter promised CNN will "fact-check" and "cut away" from the event as needed.

He also blasted rival Fox News network for their coverage of the Democratic National Convention and their conservative bias.

Comment: Oy. There's our Brian, running true to form. One wonders if he's capable of producing an unscripted sentence. But then, he knows exactly what his boss, Jeff Zucker expects of him.

'First Day', the drama about a transgender 12yo, shouldn't be on the BBC children's channel. It's harmful, shameless propaganda

Debbie Hayton
RT
Mon, 24 Aug 2020 12:19 UTC

I'm transgender myself but this film is misleadingly telling viewers as young as six that if they are unhappy with their sex then they can choose the other one, and then all will be fine. But they can't and it won't, of course.

The transition from primary school to secondary school can be an anxious time for all children, and it is surely a worthy topic for children's television to cover.

But "First Day" - the latest offering from the children's arm of the BBC - focusses on a transgender-identified child who transitions from male to female at the same time. The synopsis is simple: an unhappy feminine boy, mocked and bullied by others, overcomes enormous adversity to become the centre of attention, popular with peers and feted by teachers after they metamorphose from boy to girl.

Married tax collector is accused of child sex trafficking and 'illegally using state's DMV database to look up a minor and women who he was engaged in "sugar daddy" relationships with'

Luke Kenton
Daily Mail
Sun, 23 Aug 2020 21:46 UTC

The charges were unveiled against Joel Greenberg, the former tax collector of Seminole County until his resignation in June, in a criminal indictment filed by the US Attorney’s office on Friday.

A former tax collector of a Florida county allegedly paid for sex with an underage girl and illegally used the state's DMV database to look up information on the minor and women with whom he was engaged in 'sugar daddy' relationships with.

The charges were unveiled against Joel Greenberg, the former tax collector of Seminole County until his resignation in June, in a criminal indictment filed by the US Attorney's office on Friday.

The document, which alleges six new counts against Greenberg in addition to six counts from two previous federal grand jury indictments, doesn't offer specifics about the sex trafficking charge.

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Scoot Over

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Rowan Cocoan

.. .. today's' atta bot' awards nominee: [Link]

Jibrish

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Jibrish

Society's Child

Associated Press bungles again - this time it's balloons

Anything goes to spite GOP? Popular British historian draws fire by cheering on hurricanes about to batter 'Trump voting states'

Fear-mongering overlords now want Covid-19 to rob us of sex scenes in movies

Care homes 'ordered not to resuscitate' residents during height of pandemic

Top French professor of medicine exposes the 'casedemic' hysteria

Ancestry.com acquired by Blackstone group

Suspected ISIS terror attack on major gas pipeline knocks out power across Syria

CNN's Stelter says network will do live 'fact-checks' of Republican convention, gets mocked for not doing same with Democrats

'First Day', the drama about a transgender 12yo, shouldn't be on the BBC children's channel. It's harmful, shameless propaganda

Married tax collector is accused of child sex trafficking and 'illegally using state's DMV database to look up a minor and women who he was engaged in "sugar daddy" relationships with'

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