Edward Snowden and Aaron Alexis—-of COURSE they go together!
Pravda is alive and well, and operating in New Zealand
Worldwatch, Radio NZ National, Friday 24 January 2014
Pravda is alive and well, and operating in New Zealand
Worldwatch, Radio NZ National, Friday 24 January 2014
At 12:45 every weekday afternoon, Radio New Zealand runs a feature called Worldwatch, which is billed as “Extending the news agenda to give you a global perspective on news and current affairs.” In fact, the agenda it follows is something different to the news agenda. More often than not, listening to Worldwatch is not much different than listening to an official broadcast straight out of Washington, or London, or Tel Aviv. Veteran newsman John Greaves announces these poisonous little propaganda pieces; sadly he seems to be immune to what is often outright political slant and sometimes even downright dishonesty.
Today’s edition offered two particularly grievous examples, one after the other. The first was from the BBC’s Mike Wooldridge, reporting from the Syrian “peace talks” in Geneva. After a darkly humorous interview with that embarrassed, bumbling corpse Ban Ki Moon, who failed dismally to explain why he has allowed himself to be bullied into excluding Iran from the talks, Wooldridge still managed to end his item with the obligatory swipe at one of the official enemies. With all the gravitas he could summon, he intoned: “Syria continuing to test diplomacy—to the limits.”
Still, in spite of that absurd parting shot, at least Mike Wooldridge did try to get some sense out of that useless South Korean timeserver.
The next item, however, was sinister. In a society that was serious about truth and justice, it would have led to outrage from listeners. But of course, this is New Zealand, a country which tolerates people like John Banks continuing to occupy a seat in parliament, and where politicians and news media refer to violent knife-killing enthusiasts as “victim advocates”.
Introducing the item, John Greaves read out that the Justice Department is taking a civil case against the United States Investigation, a private company that conducts security-background checks for the federal government. This action comes, Greaves intoned, because of criticism after the USIS had cleared Aaron Alexis, who killed 12 people in the Washington Naval Yard shootings last September—–and also Edward Snowden.
That’s a neat little exercise in character assassination. Aaron Alexis and Edward Snowden. Mass murderer and whistle-blower. Any journalist, in fact any person with an intellect and a conscience would surely see there was something wrong with that equation—but not John Greaves.
Lumping a mass murderer together with a champion of civil liberties like that was not an unfortunate accident. The spin-meisters in Washington thought very carefully about that press release. Reading out their cynical little dig at Public Enemy Number One was exactly what the clever folk at the State Department want and expect from responsible journalists like John Greaves.
