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Category: Journalism

Lauryn Hill Cancels Israel Concert After #KillingMeSoftly Social Media Campaign
Lauryn Hill performs in a striped dress and round sunglasses at Royal Bank Bluesfest in Ottawa, Canada on July 10, 2012. (Flickr / Brennan Schnell)
May 6, 2015
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Lauryn Hill Cancels Israel Concert After #KillingMeSoftly Social Media Campaign

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Bowing to intense pressure from a social media campaign based around one of her own hit songs, musician Lauryn Hill canceled a scheduled appearance in Tel Aviv, Israel.

In her Monday announcement, Hill stressed her desire for peace and recovery.

It’s the latest victory for the “cultural boycott” declared by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to end investment in Israel until Israel ends the illegal occupation of Palestine. International support for the BDS movement has grown since last summer’s brutal Israeli offensive which killed over 2,000 Palestinian civilians and left 150,000 homeless.

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Wikileaks Sony Hack Reveals Hollywood’s Hand In Repairing Israel’s Broken Image
The Hollywood sign is seen from an overlook with palm trees. October 6, 2014. (Flickr / Shinya Suzuki)
May 1, 2015
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Wikileaks Sony Hack Reveals Hollywood’s Hand In Repairing Israel’s Broken Image

Posted in Archive, Journalism, and MintPress News

A MintPress News analysis of emails contained in WikiLeaks archive of the Sony Hack reveals how Hollywood executives are working to repair Israel’s public image in the wake of the savage death toll from last summer’s Operation Protective Edge offensive against Gaza. This includes a proposed documentary which would attempt to tie support for Palestine to anti-semitic violence in Europe and the United States.

A group of hackers called Guardians Of Peace held Sony computers hostage last year before leaking thousands of files to the Internet. The U.S. government has attempted to link the crime to North Korea, citing retaliation for the controversial Sony Pictures film “The Interview.”

Previous analysis of the leaked documents revealed how Sony executives, including Amy Beth Pascal, chairwoman of the Motion Pictures Group of Sony Pictures Entertainment from 2006 until just after the Sony Hack in 2015, made racially insensitive comments about Barack Obama.

WikiLeaks released a searchable archive of leaked internal emails and documents on April 16. Investigation of the archive shows a pattern of support for Israel and its violent Zionist policies both during and after the 2014 assault on Gaza by Sony employees and other important members of the film industry.

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Protests In Baltimore Joined In Solidarity in Chicago, Oakland, Elsewhere
Graffiti in Oakland, California reads "Black Lives Matter. May 1, 2015. (Flickr / Thomas Hawk)
April 30, 2015
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Protests In Baltimore Joined In Solidarity in Chicago, Oakland, Elsewhere

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

While the recent protests in Baltimore began soon after the death of Freddie Gray on April 19, the mainstream media has only recently arrived on the streets. Similar to their coverage of Ferguson and other protests in the wake of recent police slayings of black Americans, the focus remains on violent clashes between militarized police and angry citizens.

On Tuesday, after the first night of a citywide curfew was met with arrests and tear gas, two tweets were being widely shared which seemed to ironically highlight the ways police routinely lie about the situation on the ground:

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Freddie Gray Was The Last Straw: Baltimore’s History Of Police Brutality
A row of armored riot police with batons at a Baltimore, Maryland protest on April 25, 2015. (Flickr / Vision Planet Media)
April 29, 2015
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Freddie Gray Was The Last Straw: Baltimore’s History Of Police Brutality

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

The mainstream media is consumed by Baltimore’s reaction to the death of Freddie Gray, a black man who died of severe spinal injuries after a violent arrest. While the TV networks highlight images of a burning CVS, less attention is being paid to a lengthy history of police corruption and brutality that led to this outburst of outrage in the city’s streets.

Gray’s death itself highlights multiple issues with the Baltimore Police Department. As with many other departments, officers with a history of violence are allowed to remain on the force with little to no accountability.

Baltimore Police Lt. Brian Rice, one of six officers suspended after the incident, initiated a bicycle chase after Gray made eye contact with him, which eventually led to the violent arrest that was caught on video. According to a report released by The Guardian on Thursday, Rice has a history of violence while on duty. A man, who the Guardian said its reporters had identified but kept anonymous for his protection, received a restraining order against Rice after a series of violent threats and incidents. During the duration of the order, Rice’s weapons, which included “a personal Glock handgun, long guns and a cross-bow,” were confiscated.

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World Ignores Genocide In Central African Republic Because It’s Not ISIS & There’s No Oil
A child in dirty clothes sits amid squalor in the Central African Republic. (Flickr / UNICEF / Pierre Holtz)
April 23, 2015
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World Ignores Genocide In Central African Republic Because It’s Not ISIS & There’s No Oil

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

When the Seleka, a group of mostly Muslim rebels, led a successful coup in the Central African Republic in March 2013, one of the world’s poorest countries was plunged into turmoil as Christian militias targeted the nation’s minority Muslim population in what amounts to genocide.

The Seleka were ousted from power in January 2014, and the country has since been embroiled in a civil war between the Seleka and an armed coalition called the Anti-Balaka.

While the entire civilian population has suffered enormously throughout the conflicts in the Central African Republic, perhaps no group has suffered more than the country’s Muslim minority.

Read moreWorld Ignores Genocide In Central African Republic Because It’s Not ISIS & There’s No Oil
Chelsea Manning Chronicles Her Incarceration, 140 Characters At A Time On Twitter
An artist’s depiction of WikiLeaks whistleblower Chelsea Manning as she see herself.
April 20, 2015
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Chelsea Manning Chronicles Her Incarceration, 140 Characters At A Time On Twitter

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Whistleblower Chelsea Manning may be facing a 35-year prison sentence for leaking classified military documents to WikiLeaks, but she won’t let that silence her voice.

The documents and video she leaked, including the infamous “Collateral Murder” footage, revealed American war crimes in Iraq and other countries.

She’s already become a writer at the Guardian, condemning CIA torture and the leaders who gave the orders in a recent editorial. Now, she’s joined the social media generation with a popular Twitter account, @xychelsea. Manning’s Twitter has almost 50,000 followers just weeks after it became active, even though she’s only able to tweet sporadically from behind bars at a military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Read moreChelsea Manning Chronicles Her Incarceration, 140 Characters At A Time On Twitter