Peter Lavelle, the host of RT’s Cross Talk, explains what Consortium News means to him.
From the desk of Peter Lavelle:
Not long ago during a visit he made to Moscow, I told Joe Lauria – now editor-in-chief of Consortium News— that I would read Robert Parry’s brilliant articles before I went to the studio to record my program, CrossTalk, at RT. Indeed it would not be exaggeration to claim Parry was my most important and influential “research assistant.” To this day Consortium News continues to be a valuable source of news and well-reasoned analysis.
The media sphere today is under immense pressure. Governments, media in the service of power, and the growing tyranny of Big Tech have marginalized serious, well-informed journalism. Consortium News is one of the few news outlets I visit on a daily basis. It is refreshing and not bombarded by partisan bluster and low-octane thinkers. Instead, I find excellent, well-edited writing, as well as high-level intellectual honesty.
Most importantly, Consortium News does not bow to power. Robert Parry’s tradition of calling “balls and strikes” reaffirms the purpose of journalism – to critically contribute to the public square. Needless to say there is preciously little of that today. Consortium News fills this indispensable niche.
Please make a donation today during Consortium‘s Fall Fund Drive so it can continue to deliver for you.
Peter Lavelle is host of RT’s political debate program CrossTalk.
Joe et al, It is alarming to see a growing number of posts being removed by those such as backward evolution, Jean and others. i used to support Consortium news & recommened it to others but no longer. This is unacceptable!
Looove to listen to Peter Lavelle and read Consortium News because they speak the truth .
My big Thank You , to both of you.
Why I read CN. Because it offers an alternative to the group think, monolithic, homogeneous, MSM regurgitation of events played out on teleprompters and abided by in news rooms with insider editors hooked into the propaganda who sold their souls long ago to the wealthy influence of the giant money machine.
Surely this was what Robert Parry was up against with his honest investigations which are really plainly true to anyone with a brain. It is painful to uncover truth. Painful for the one who uncovers truth and painful for those who read the discoveries and documented facts presented by the truth teller.
Reading CN is like watching an episode of Columbo where despite the best efforts of the criminals to hide their guilt, Columbo manages to ferret out the bad guys and nail them in the end.
Columbo is a shrewd but inelegant blue-collar homicide detective whose trademarks include his shambling manner, rumpled beige raincoat, cigar smoking, and generally disheveled appearance. His suspects are often affluent members of high society who try to carefully cover their tracks. Initially dismissive of Columbo’s circumstantial speech and apparent absentmindedness, they become increasingly unsettled as his pestering behavior and formidable eye for detail lead him to tease out incriminating evidence.
I’m not saying that Robert Parry was a disheveled reporter but he had Columbo’s keen eye and a knack for teasing out the incriminating evidence from often deliberately obscured facts hidden by affluent members of high society.
One major story which was hugely obscured by the main stream media was the October Surprise which now even republicans admit that George Bush Senior as CIA Director met with Iranian officials in order to prolong the captivity of the American Hostages in Tehran in order to avoid defeat in the national election if Carter was able to succeed in negotiating their release.
Robert Parry launched himself into a tireless and unending search for the truth like Columbo and never gave up just like Columbo. He eventually found proof that the exchange of hostage captivity for arms was real and published it.
You can read his works on the website. This is just a small sampling of his journalistic investigations which in any other universe other than the completely corrupt US government controlled “free” press in which he lived (and we all live in) would have burst the story onto the front pages of every newspaper with the headline
“TREASON! Presidential Candidate prolongs captivity of hostages for political gain!”
Instead the “free press” told us some nonsense in an answer as to why the airplane in Tehran sat on the runway loaded with all the hostages until the second Reagan was sworn in before it took off in a symbolic nod to the masters who had prearranged the release of the hostages until after the inauguration of the president Ronald Reagan.
Later Robert Parry was excommunicated from the press corps for his work uncovering the Iran Contra scandal and when the democrats and republicans realized that the arms deal with the Iranians went back further than the deal with South American Contras they shut down the investigation.
So why do I read this? Because the truth matters. If we are ever going to secure a future for ourselves it must be accomplished with truth. As long as the really big lies are never exposed we are all fish on the end of a hook.
Robert Parry fought against the major main stream media which never told you about the truth. He worked diligently to unravel the story which you probably already or always knew was true. He worked against the fake dialog in the Main Stream Media back in the hostage crisis trying to falsely explain the coincidental release of the hostages from Tehran as: “because Carter was weak and Reagan was strong and the Iranians feared Reagan so they let the hostages go the second that Reagan was inaugurated”
What a gold mine for republicans and their main stream media to usher in the age of conservative control of Washington with the biggest lie that the Iranians released the hostages because they were scared of Reagan.
Thanks Robert Parry for uncovering the truth.
One last point. Contrary to all the press reports about the coincidence that the Iranians released the American Hostages moments after Reagan was Inaugurated because of an abiding fear of the new president it was simply because they had arranged a deal with the new president long before the national election to keep them captive until the election and inauguration and they were artfully fulfilling their end of the bargain. We were either too stupid to see it or we were convinced by our brethren in the high exalted palaces of the media who pulled the sheep’s wool over our eyes.
ML: You’re right I like RT but the comment section there is awful. Same problem Zero Hedge has. I like comment sections in general but if not properly monitored are a waste to read.
I also follow both assiduously, but am always careful NOT to just surround myself with “good”, agreeable sentiments. I usually find the “disgusting” MSM stuff actually more stimulating! My ability to “criticise” finds more expression there. Even pathetic advertisements on MSM television provide insight if viewed critically.
It is not statements or opinions that matter, but the underlying fundamental PERSPECTIVES that lead to them.
Peter Lavelle is a fine person no doubt. But he should learn to ask questions and let his guests answer, instead of making long opinionated speeches before finally giving two seconds to his guests. He is worse than Chris Mathews.
Comparing him in any way to the sycophantic Chris Mathews is a stretch at best, if I may say so.
CrossTalk–from the standpoint of host, guests, covered topics, and depth of discussion–is well beyond anything Chris Matthews has ever produced for television. I watch CrossTalk precisely because I am interested in Lavelle’s informed, rational viewpoint and think he “facilitates” the discussion pretty darn well.
I’ve noticed most of the RT interviewers do this. The worst offender is Oksana Boyko.
As shown in this article, the Untied States scores rather poorly when it comes to an independent evaluation of the freedom of its press:
https://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2018/10/global-freedom-of-press-how-does-united.html
When politicians in other nations see America’s political leaders continuously criticizing their own nation’s news media, leaders around the world may seek to emulate the American example by further suppressing press freedom in their own spheres of influence.
Its frightening to think that there are but a handful of good quality news sites like consortium news. ICH is also worthy of a visit as it has contributions from great writers like John Pilger etc. In the UK we get RT broadcast on normal terrestrial TV which is free to air so we are lucky. Monday crosstalk is the highlight of the week for me and then of course there’s that brilliant journalists Oksana Boyko. She’s quite the best female journalists in the world today and she makes our Uk journalists look shabby. Of course, RT is full to the brim of good journalism.
I think RT and Consortium news should be working together or at least be associated in some way.
Before the internet we were force fed news in the Uk from the BBC and just a couple of commercial TV channels. The print media consisted of blatant lies and garbage from the tabloid, with more covert and insidious lies from the broadsheets masquerading as quality news. God knows what “they” got away with back then!!
I am forever extolling friends, colleges and others to take a look at Consortium news, whilst some of them are highly intelligent in their own way, when it comes to news and current affairs, they have the brains and acumen of a louse!!
I have many conversations with people of my generation 60 plus who just think I get my information and believes that its all RT but when I try to show them most of my information comes from USA based correspondents they just look the other way or there eyes cloud over so now I do not bother to try ,i have gone like George Carlin I have no children so thus no grandchildren so I have no stake in the future of this planet I sit on the sidelines observing and keeping quite and after the previous decades of insults ect I feel more content ,so most mornings I read CON NEWS & ICH the Saker ect and think maybe a reset of the world might a good thing
Don’t be too down hearted, Barrie, if things go on as they are you might well live long enough to see world war three when they blow the whole place up with nukes!! That really will be a reset. As it says in the Bible, “and the meek shall inherit the earth”. Yep, the creepy crawlies will win out and a new world will be born.
I too, enjoy RT, but their comments section is the pits. Awful cretins often comment there, leaving nasty, sexist, racist remarks that mar the site. So I don’t read the comments section of RT and instead come here to read both the articles and comments that often bear repeating. Readers of CN are a stellar group as a whole, even the ones with whom I may disagree. Thanks, CN for always being a bright spot in my news day each morning.
I agree with you about the quality of some of the posters comments on the RT news site, but I sometimes have a laugh at some of them. However, if you start to censor out the ones you don’t like, then you become like Facebook/Twitter, MSM etc. When I see a site that allows course or silly comments then even if like or dislike the article concerned I know the author is prepared to accept criticism as well as praise and this is how it should be.
I have found myself visiting Off-Guardian rather frequently of late.