thenatureofmind

UW Professor: The Information War Is Real, And We’re Losing It

It started with the Boston marathon bombing, four years ago. University of Washington professor Kate Starbird was sifting through thousands of tweets sent in the aftermath and noticed something strange.

Too strange for a university professor to take seriously.

 “There was a significant volume of social-media traffic that blamed the Navy SEALs for the bombing,” Starbird told me the other day in her office. “It was real tinfoil-hat stuff. So we ignored it.”

UW Professor: The Information War Is Real, And We’re Losing It

Thank Greenwald, don’t condemn him

Political philosopher Hannah Arendt once noted, “To think critically is to always be hostile.” This should be the mantra of all journalists. As for Greenwald’s critics, perhaps they could turn their hostile gaze from him to a more worthwhile target: the government they’ve been charged with holding accountable.

Thank Greenwald, don’t condemn him.

2014 Pulitzer Prizes honor NSA revelations

A smackdown of the secret government...

The Washington Post and The Guardian won the Pulitzer Prize in public service Monday for revealing the U.S. government's sweeping surveillance efforts in stories based on thousands of secret documents handed over by National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.

The Pulitzer for breaking news was awarded to The Boston Globe for its coverage of the deadly Boston Marathon bombing.

The awards are American journalism's highest honor.

2014 Pulitzer Prizes honor NSA revelations - CBS News.

Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras Returning To U.S. For First Time Since Snowden Revelations

Does the United States have freedom of the press or not? We will find out!

Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, two American journalists who have been at the forefront of reporting on documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, will return to the United States on Friday for the first time since revelations of worldwide surveillance broke.

Greenwald and Poitras, currently in Berlin, will attend Friday’s Polk Awards ceremony in New York City. The two journalists are sharing the prestigious journalism award with The Guardian’s Ewen MacAskill and with Barton Gellman, who has led The Washington Post’s reporting on the NSA documents. Greenwald and Poitras interviewed Snowden last June in Hong Kong as he first revealed himself.

Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras Returning To U.S. For First Time Since Snowden Revelations.

‘Guardian’ reporting of Snowden leaks threatened with closure, conference told

How Britain destroyed the myth of press freedom.

The Guardian deputy editor Paul Johnson has clarified his statement at a radio conference in Dublin that the British Government would close down the newspaper over the Edward Snowden spying affair.

Mr Johnson was asked on Tuesday at the Radiodays conference what specific threats were made by the British Government if they were to publish Mr Snowden’s revelations of mass surveillance by US and UK security agencies.

Mr Johnson responded: “Yes, we were being threatened with being closed down.”

‘Guardian’ reporting of Snowden leaks threatened with closure, conference told

Meet the Journalist Who Connects the Dots Between Wikileaks,Snowden, and the NSA in Barrett Brown

Barrett Brown is a journalist imprisoned without bail, facing over 100 years of potential jail time, much of it for posting an http link to a public forum. He had been writing about several private intelligence companies and set up a Wikipedia-like site, ProjectPM, for crowdsourced analysis of the documents released by Anonymous after several hacking attacks. Some people are petitioning for Brown's freedom from what they view as a politically targeted prosecution, but this article will concentrate on what the information Brown has uncovered can do to explain how PRISM and related spying programs may be used against Americans. The official government line has been that PRISM is targeted at foreign terrorists, but it's just as likely that the program will be used to frustrate expressions of political opinion at home.

Meet the Journalist Who Connects the Dots Between Wikileaks,Snowden, and the NSA in Barrett Brown.

Russia Blocks Access to Major Independent News Sites

Russia's government has escalated its use of its Internet censorship law to target news sites, bloggers, and politicians under the slimmest excuse of preventing unauthorized protests and enforcing house arrest regulations. Today, the country's ISPs have received orders to block a list of major news sites and system administrators have been instructed to take the servers providing the content offline.

Russia Blocks Access to Major Independent News Sites | Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Prosecution of Barrett Brown Still Threatens Journalistic Freedom in U.S.

Last week, the federal government finally dismissed 11 controversial counts from its overzealous prosecution of journalist Barrett Brown. These counts charged Brown with identity theft for sharing a link to records documenting improper and potentially illegal activities by the U.S. intelligence contractor, Stratfor Global Intelligence.

The fact that Brown has been in jail for 18 months, based in large part on these charges, has threatened and continues to threaten press freedom in the United States.

Prosecution of Barrett Brown Still Threatens Journalistic Freedom in U.S. | Electronic Frontier Foundation.

U.S. press freedom rank plummets

How far the mighty have fallen.

The U.S. dropped 13 places to end up 46th on the World Press Freedom index published annually by Reporters Without Borders (RWB).

If we translated our press freedom rating to a scale of military strength, we’d be on par with Croatia, Nigeria and Yemen.

U.S. press freedom rank plummets « Spartan Daily Spartan Daily.

About Abby Martin, Liz Wahl and media wars

A really thoughtful piece by the editor-in-chief of RT News about the hysteria and lack of journalistic integrity in the world of main stream media news.

Today RT America anchor Liz Wahl resigned on air, claiming she disagrees with the channel’s editorial stance. And here’s what I have to say about it.

About Abby Martin, Liz Wahl and media wars — RT Op-Edge.