#political reporting

[thefirsthogokage]

Apparently we need to pay more attention to Teen Vouge for political reporting. You read that right.

(link to tweet)

Commentary on this:

#teen vouge #political reporting #lexi mcmenamin

[debasishsinha]

Unveiling Biases: Decoding Western Media's Portrayal of India

A growing number of people are worried that various news organisations are covering stories in a biassed or partial way, which is a major problem in today’s ever-changing media environment. This does more than just damage to journalism’s credibility; it also makes it much harder to promote international understanding and collaboration. This article explores the complex depictions of India in…

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#Biased reporting #Contemporary media narratives #Cultural stereotypes #Historical biases #India&039;s global image #Indian journalism #international relations #Media portrayal of India #Political reporting #Western media bias

[the-woke-left]

"They shouldn't socially transition until after 25"

So trans people magically aren't adults at 18 like cis people!?!?!????

[sarcasm] Wow yeah that sounds good and like something a normal government would say. Hope this isn't a dangerous precedent that will be used to repeal rights from other minority groups

#politics #uk politics #trans rights #cass report

[jacqcrisis]

Award to this man for the funniest take ever

#uk politics #im still laughing about it #queen elizabeth #just imagining somber british doctors around the old bat in pieces #reporting 'yes things are quite concerning she seems very ill at the moment-'

[booasaur]

The US soldier who set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in protest of the genocide in Palestine is Aaron Bushnell.

This tweet will take you to his video where he discusses why he's doing this, and then the immolation itself, which the uploader has blurred. It also quote tweets the earlier initial frame where he's on fire.

Unfortunately, he has passed.

#israel #palestine #free palestine #us politics #aaron bushnell #this poor lad #rip #I wish it would change something #but the news can barely report on it

[allthecanadianpolitics]

CTV directed journalists not to use the word “Palestine” and has cultivated a “culture of fear” that is suppressing critical coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza, according to internal emails obtained by The Breach and interviews with several employees. The journalists said senior producers and senior editors across the platforms of CTV’s parent company Bell Media have disparaged Palestinian guests, told employees that protests calling for a ceasefire should not be reported on, and blocked or delayed stories that included too much contextual information about Israel’s military occupation and regime of apartheid in Palestine. The journalists, who are not being identified for fear of retribution, described a widespread bias at the media conglomerate against Palestinians that’s resulted in one-sided, incomplete coverage of the violence in Gaza that does “a huge disservice” to Canadians.

Continue Reading

Tagging @politicsofcanada

#cdnpoli #canada #canadian politics #canadian news #CTV #censorship #biased reporting #freedom of press #palestine #solidarity with palestine #racism #zionism is racism

[mysharona1987]

#israel #palestine #news #journalism #free palestine #france #reporters without borders #Wapo #democrats #republicans #politics #woc #books #reuters #gaza #lebanon #usa

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

Y'all regularly send in questions wanting to know how to report concerns you've observed at zoos you've visited. I've been able to point people at the USDA (regulatory) option, but with regard to accrediting groups I haven't had a good answer. I spent the last six months or so really digging into why there hasn't been a good answer. What I've found is that the majority of zoological accrediting groups in the United States don't provide any way for the public to report issues they've observed at accredited facilities, and none of said organizations have a mechanism for truly supporting / protecting staff who might choose to report issues at their own facilities. Which is. not great.

I wrote a whole Substack post about it a few days ago, arguing that in order to remain credible institutions accrediting groups must facilitate public reporting, anonymous reporting, and commit to enforcing penalties for any retaliation against staff who choose to utilize the option. I'm linking it below for anyone who is interested in all the details. CW at the beginning for animal abuse mentions - I started the piece by discussing a truly egregious welfare situation that occurred last year at a Miami facility, which might have been prevented or at least caught earlier if the two groups that accredit the facility had had a reporting mechanism in place.

What I want to talk about here, though, is specifically why accrediting orgs need to not only have an anonymous reporting option for staff, but why they must ban retaliation and penalize any facility that does it anyway. Whenever something terrible happens at a zoo or sanctuary, people always ask "why didn't the staff say something?" And the answer is, basically, because taking that risk can get you not just fired, but blacklisted from the field. People literally end up having to choose between their careers and making noise about issues that aren't being resolved, and that's absolutely not freaking okay. But I want to explain for you the extent of the issue.

If you're not industry, something you might be surprised to learn is that most zoo staff don't have any special reporting options above and beyond what the public does. Most zookeepers and other low-level staff never interact with people from accrediting groups except during an actual inspection - so if there's a problem, it's not like they know someone they can back-channel a concern to if they don't feel safe reporting it publicly. And for the most part, reporting things your facility is doing to an accrediting group will always be considered inappropriate and probably get a keeper in trouble (even if it's a really valid issue).

The zoological industry runs on a strongly hierarchical system. Staff are expected to “stay within their lanes” and work within the established bureaucracy to resolve issues. Deviating from this, if staff feel like management are suppressing issues or something needs to be addressed urgently, is very heavily frowned upon. Basically, going around management to bring something to an accrediting group (or USDA, or the media) is seen as indicating that your facility has failed to address a problem, or that the individual making the report feels they know more than their superiors. At most places, no matter how extreme an issue may become, there's never a point at which it would be acceptable for a staff member to reveal a facility’s internal issues to their accrediting body. 

The thing is, attempting to resolve issues through the proper internal channels at a facility doesn't always work! It can result in an issue being covered up (especially if the company is kinda shady) or suppressed rather than addressed. If staff decide to push the issue, it can really backfire and jeopardize their job, because it's expected that if management says something is fine, staff need to acquiesce and go along with it.

There have been a couple high-profile examples of this in the last decade: the incident I mention in my Substack where new management at the Miami Seaquarium decided to starve dolphins to coerce them into participating in guest programs, and an issue at the Austin Zoo five-ish years ago where the director was perpetuating serious welfare issues and ignoring staff feedback. In both cases, there's always the questions of where the accrediting group was. We don't know anything about what happened with the Seaquarium (it's been over six months since the USDA report documenting the diet cuts was released and AMMPA and American Humane haven't said a thing), but I remember hearing that ZAA had no idea what was happening at Austin because nobody had reached out to them about it.

This is why I'm arguing that all zoological accrediting groups need to make visible reporting options and make sure staff feel safe enough to use them! If you've got a facility perpetuating or not dealing with major issues, it's pretty probable that they're going to be unhappy if their staff reports those issues to any oversight body. That's not a situation where it's currently safe to speak up right now - and four out of five zoological accrediting groups in the US don't have standards prohibiting retaliation against staff for bringing up issues like that! (Surprisingly, it's not AZA. It's the sanctuary accrediting group, GFAS). Without any option for internal reporting, issues may not get addressed - which hurts animal welfare - or people risk losing their job, possibly their entire career in the field (which is a huge part of people's identities!), and their financial stability to advocate for their animals.

Currently, the two accrediting groups that do have reporting options (AZA and GFAS) stay they'll attempt to keep reports anonymous, but acknowledge it may not be possible to do so. (Which tracks, because zoo jobs are highly specialized and only a few people may be exposed to an issue). However, only GFAS prohibits facilities from retaliating against people who make reports. On top of that, there's absolutely no transparency about what happens next: GFAS, ZAA, AMMPA and AH have no information about how the process transpires and if someone making a report will get any information back about what happened. AZA straight up says that all accreditation stuff is proprietary (read: confidential) so you just have to trust that they dealt with it appropriately. Just yeet your report into the void and hope the groups doing oversight handle it correctly when there's no accountability? That's... not a great look for animal welfare concerns.

I hope the industry chooses to fix this problem. I hope it chooses to invest in transparency and increased credibility. I don't know what I expect, but I'd like to see these accrediting groups do the right thing.

My full write-up on how accrediting groups in the US handle reporting and concerns (or don't) is linked below.

#zoo industry #zoo animal welfare #accreditation #anonymous reporting #zoo politics #my research

[probablyasocialecologist]

The methodology for the Cass review was established by a team from the University of York including Tilly Langdon, who has previously been involved in promoting Gender Exploratory Therapy – an approach which, despite its neutral-sounding name, discourages children from identifying as trans and has been likened to conversion therapy. Her approach included setting a very high bar for evidence to be considered in the review, ruling out 100 of the existing 103 studies into the use of puberty blockers and hormones to treat trans children. The reason given for excluding all these studies was that they did not incorporate a double blind approach – in other words, they did not involve giving puberty blockers to some patients and placebos to others. This might sound like a reasonable objection on the face of it – until one considers that puberty is a dramatic physical and psychological process, and people can easily tell when it’s happening to them, so a double blind simply wouldn’t work in practice. The Cass review called for more research and, again, few would disagree with this. The suggestion that treatment should be withheld in the process, however, is not neutral. It presupposes that the harm done by puberty blockers (demineralisation of bones, which is usually temporary in the short-term treatment recommended and is similar to what occurs in pregnancy) is more severe than the harm done to a trans child by going through the wrong sort of puberty. The latter is linked to high rates of self-harm and suicidal ideation, together with the need, in many cases, for extensive surgical procedures. Confusingly, the review states that children taking puberty blockers showed “no changes in gender dysphoria or body satisfaction”, which suggests that the author didn’t actually understand what puberty blockers do at all. They don’t make children feel better – they just delay a process that makes them feel worse. This is one of several oddities in a report that lacks internal consistency. It states that there is no established definition of social transition, for instance, and does not offer one, but goes on to talk about it as if there were. It also talks about autistic ‘girls’ identifying as trans in increasing numbers, treating this as mysterious and as cause for concern, despite acknowledging elsewhere that more and more girls are being diagnosed as autistic, so one would expect more diagnoses to be present within any subsection of the young female-assigned population.  Perhaps the most worrying of the review’s conclusions – which should concern people far beyond the trans community – is the suggestion that as far as NHS treatment is concerned, trans people should be treated as children until they are 25. The rational for this is that 25 is the age when (on average) the brain stops developing. As any neurologist will tell you, the brain is in fact never static, and within ten years or so of that age, it begins to shrink. Deciding who has the capacity to make decisions based on brain age could have unintended consequences for the likes of Cass (64).  That aside, what would setting the age of true adulthood at 25 mean for everybody else? If we couldn’t allow people to consent to medical treatment at 24, should we ask them to risk dying for us? If not, then at a stroke we could lose a quarter of our armed forces. Likewise, we would have to give serious thought to what to do about a third of parents who might not be considered competent to look after their newborn children.  And then there are issues like contraception. Right-wingers have long contended, on one pretext or another, that teenage girls shouldn’t have the right to take the pill without their parents’ consent. This is where the review’s suggestion starts to look less like a double standard and more like the thin end of a very nasty wedge.

#cass review #cass report #uk politics #transgender #lgbt

[hussyknee]

Ayat Khaddura, 27, was a digital content and podcast presenter in North Gaza. She was one of the five journalists murdered by Israel's targeted air strike on Nov 20, along with her sister and grandmother in her home. She posted this video in the knowledge that these were probably her last moments.

Video description:

A young Arab woman in a hijab and abaya speaks into her camera in Arabic in a high, frightened voice. The subtitles read: "This might be the last video from me. Today the Occupation Forces dropped phosphorus bombs on the Beit Lahia residential area, and frightening sound bombs. And uhm, they dropped letters from the sky ordering us to evacuate. So of course nearly everyone evacuated for the most part. Everyone ran into the streets in a crazy way. No one knows where they're coming or going. Uhm, we're all split up and around. Me and some others stayed at home. The others evacuated and left. We don't know where they've gone, that's for sure. The situation is terrifying, the scenes are horrifying [voice breaking as she starts to cry], the situation is extremely difficult. May God have mercy on us." [She closes her eyes as she starts to cry openly. End clip.]

[New clip.] The same young woman is seated on a desk in front of a world map wearing a jacket over a t-shirt and her hijab. Large video caption reads "Message from Ayat Khaddura who was martyred yesterday". Her voice is sad and resigned, and her face is tired and tear-stained as she speaks in Arabic. Subtitles read:

"We are human beings, just like other human beings around the world. We had many big dreams, but unfortunately today our dreams are that if we are killed we will be martyred in one piece, one body (not torn to pieces) so that people can recognise us, and we will not be cut off in pieces and put in a bag. [struggles not to cry.] When we are martyred there will be a shroud for us and we will be buried in a grave. Our dreams have become that the war will stop, that we stop hearing the sound of bombing. We never imagined we would reach such a stage and live such a life that does not have the lowest basic necessities. [Blinks back tears.] There are things we can't talk about, there are things that people photographed and did not document. When the war will end, who will continue to talk to people? What happened to us, how we lived, what we saw. Everything is being destroyed before our eyes." [Looks down with a sob. End video.]

Israel dropping leaflets onto trapped and hiding people minutes before bombing them is nothing but a sick PR exercise— there's nowhere safe to go, no telling where the bombs will drop, no way to not leave family members behind while fleeing. Many people in North Gaza decided not to evacuate to the South, not only because similar calls to go South have ended in Israeli airstrikes massacring the refugees, but the possibility of being killed while trying to make the journey, the lack of food and water to sustain them, and inability to leave old and disabled family members behind. Some like Hind Khaudary, who had the opportunity to leave the Gaza strip entirely through foreign embassies, stayed behind to continue reporting the situation unfolding in the North. Meanwhile, Israel is continuing to bomb the South, despite their own evacuation orders.

Ayat is one of the fifty-three Middle Eastern journalists killed since Oct. 7. Forty-six of them were Palestinian, most massacred along with their families. Air strikes on other journalists managed to kill only their families instead. This is the deadliest period for journalists recorded by the Committee to Protect Journalists in its thirty years of existence. In fact, Israel killed one of the CPJ's own journalists documenting the murders around the same time as Ayat.

Nearly all these are targeted strikes. Israel controls the census in Gaza and therefore has information on where everyone lives. They also track journalists cellphones and use surveillance drones and quadcopters (drone snipers). Journalists and their families are known to receive threatening phone calls from unknown numbers before they're eventually attacked.

As to why Israel is so concerned about journalists? For the same reason the Biden Administration has stated openly.

But the administration remains wary about Netanyahu’s endgame and seeming lack of a plan for what to do once Hamas is defeated. There was no sense that the pause would turn into a lengthier cease-fire, a senior administration official said. And there was some concern in the administration about an unintended consequence of the pause: that it would allow journalists broader access to Gaza and the opportunity to further illuminate the devastation there and turn public opinion on Israel.

Please spread news of these journalists' murders, show their faces, say their names. While Western journalists from CNN and BCC are embedded with IOF teams to safely "report" on Gaza, Palestinian journalists who have been reporting there for years, wearing a press jacket and helmet they know won't protect them, are documenting and broadcasting the situation on the ground, watching their colleagues being picked off one by one for the last month and half, not knowing when it will be their turn. Ayat was not a combatant. She was a young woman a lot like most on this site, young and angry at injustice, armed with only a degree and internet connection to fight for her people. She wanted the world to witness her last moments: documenting the situation till the end, her terror of dying, how she clung to her faith and wanted to live. Hers and her compatriots work is to resist letting their people disappear among the vast uncounted; she resisted it to her last breath.

Empires and colonizers win wars by reducing people to numbers. When people become numbers they become collateral, cattle, "unavoidable casualties". This is what Palestinians have fought for decades to show: "We Are Not Numbers". If the West wants to kill human beings with impunity, everyone gets to see exactly which lives and loves and hopes it's snuffing out forever.

#free palestine #ayat khuddura #gaza genocide #palestinian genocide #gaza under attack #I/p #israel palestine war #media freedom #censorship #war crimes #media suppression #journalism #war reporting #genocide joe #joe biden #us politics #world news #tw murder #tw death #knee of huss

[fondwand]

I'm really panicked about the Cass Report sitch in the UK right now. I just have this horrible, sickened feeling. the articles proclaiming about the 'puberty blocker scandal' as if the report said that puberty blockers had been proven harmful, and not just that the report reoghtfully claimed that there hadn't been enough research.... which is basically the exact same situation as such medications as SSRIs, birth control in the NHS and yet those situations won't be used to bolster and reaffirm a hateful congregation of idiotic transphobes with too much power into dragging trans rights and healthcare in the UK through subsequent decades of incredibly harmful stagnation, fearmongering, and outright harm.

the Cass Report seems to me only to confirm what we know about almost every other sector of the NHS: that it's broken, underfunded, bogged down in failing beurocracy and not interested in preventative care as its mainline strategy. that's a position where the blame should be laid at the feet of the Conservative party, not at the feet of people who believe trans people should have adequate care which as at least a first line BELIEVES THEM

calling this a 'watershed' moment as if giving trans individuals gender affirming care is evil, while everyday within the NHS racism, medical misogyny, regional disparities between the North (edited add wales also) and Souths standards of healthcare which cause life expectancy to be lower, a mental health sector which is so utterly broken it can't actually help anyone. ..... etc etc etc are happening. its transphobia. its just hateful transphobia. transphobia which is now seen to be validated by idiots

I feel so sick and scared

#trans rights #trans #transgender #trans uk #cass report #uk politics #nonbinary #transphobes

[oatmilkovich]

not now sweetie mummy is busy watching the tory party collapse in on itself for the second time this year

#uk politics #LIKE HUHHH????! #THE REPORTS COMING ON RN 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 #also if you saw this on my yr acc no you didn’t

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

BREAKING: Bolsonaro supporters storm Brazil National Congress

Hundreds of people appear to have overcome security and stormed the National Congress building. Bolsonaro backers have refused to accept leftist Lula's election victory.

Supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro stormed the National Congress building in Brasilia on Sunday.

According to news agency LUSA, hundreds of people invaded the building, calling for military intervention to overthrow President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Lula was inaugurated one week ago. 

LUSA said the group crossed a police barrier and climbed the ramp that gives access to the roof of the Chamber of Deputies and Senate buildings.

Continue reading.

#brazil #politics #brazilian politics #democracy #brazilian elections #brazilian elections 2022 #there are reports about some of them packing heat so yay us #a brazilian tries to have a chill sunday and- #mod nise da silveira #image description in alt #january 8

[the-woke-left]

Fuck the Cass report

Fuck the Tories

Fuck Labour

Fuck TERFs

#the cass report #cass report #uk politics #trans lives matter #trans rights

[clownsuu]

Hey! I wanted to ask you about how do you feel about fanarts made with your AU? Not going to say names but, some people have already drawn some *suggestive* WH arts with your AU. Does it leave you upset? Should we report it? Also love your arts,I love how you draw Howdy so fluffly! he's a cutie pie!. I hope you're feeling great!

I mean I don’t mind people making fanart of my au lol, there is already a bunch of people who have made incredible art for it!

I personally do not mind suggestive stuff. H O W E V E R, what I DO mind is if it breaks (other) clowns boundaries. This goes for every single welcome home au out there- just because it’s an au does NOT automatically mean it can randomly subside boundaries. The characters are STILL (other) clown’s property and he has final say on what he wants at the end.

#Welcome home #welcome home mob au #Report/block it if it obviously breaks (other) clown’s boundaries! Or at the very least inform politely #Please don’t witch hunt and bully people btw- it just makes people more likely to retaliate with negativity

[pratchettquotes]

"Your Ankh-Morpork soldiers aren't in a position to protect you, however."

"Sir, you are right. You could have me killed right now," said de Worde simply. "You know that. I know that. But you won't, for three reasons. The officers of Borogravia tend towards honor. Everyone says that. That's why they don't surrender. And I bleed most distressingly. And you don't need to, because everyone's interested in you! Suddenly, it's all changed!"

"Interested in us?"

"Sir, in a sense you could help a lot right now. Apparently, people back in Ankh-Morpork were amazed when...look, have you heard about what we call 'human interest,' sir?"

"No."

De Worde tried to explain. Blouse listened with his mouth open, and at the end, said:

"Have I got this right? Although many people have been killed and wounded in this wretched war, it's not been of much 'interest' to your readers? But it is now, just because of us? Because of a little skirmish in a town they've never heard of? And because of it, we're suddenly a 'plucky little country' and people are telling your newspaper that your great city should be on our side?"

"Yes, Lieutenant. We put out a second edition last night, you see."

Terry Pratchett, Monstrous Regiment

#william de worde #lieutenant blouse #monstrous regiment #discworld #terry pratchett #ankh morpork #the ankh morpork times #journalism #news #newspaper #international news #war #soldiers #war reporter #human interest #politics #public opinion #interest #cross cultural communication #plucky little country #second edition #long quote