Category: Human Rights

‘Occupy’ Protests Grow in Philadelphia

As the “Occupy” movement spreads to scores of American cites, some encampments are encountering challenges, from sanitation woes to chilly weather to hostility from local authorities. But the occupation in Philadelphia appears determined to persevere, as photo-journalist Ted Lieverman reports.

Vatican Decries Financial Excesses

The Christian Right talks about applying Biblical tenets to political issues, but ignores the most central of Jesus’s teachings standing with the poor, opposing financial elites and abhoring violence. The Vatican has now issued a reminder of those principles, as Daniel C.…

Toward a Non-Violent Revolution

Like the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street, the French Revolution began as a rejection of an unjust system where the few were obscenely rich and the many had little money or power. Where it went off-track was in its…

Israel Rejects Appeal for Change

During a recent visit to Israel, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta delivered a blunt message that the country’s leaders must adjust to the changing realities or risk ending up isolated in the region and losing international support. But Israel’s leaders only…

Low-Balling Afghan Civilian Deaths

Night-time raids by U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan are taking a lethal toll on Taliban militants and on civilians who happen to be nearby. Earlier this year, the international community played down this “collateral damage” by taking a narrow look at the…

NPR Retaliates Against Opera Show

After discovering that the host of an opera program had joined pro-democracy protests in Washington, NPR decried the woman’s ethics and got her ousted from one job. But the opera show refused to buckle, so NPR dropped it from national…

Ending the Iraq Catastrophe

Exclusive: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told President Barack Obama that U.S. troops wouldn’t have immunity from Iraqi laws after December, forcing the last thousands of American soldiers to leave. That signals the end of the Iraq War and the…

Through the US Media Lens Darkly

From the Archive: U.S. officials are congratulating themselves after NATO aircraft bombed a convoy fleeing the Libyan town of Sirte, leading to the capture and murder of Muammar Gaddafi the grisly affair justified by Gaddafi’s supposed role in the bombing of Pan Am 103.…

NPR Ousts Producer Over ‘Occupy DC’

For years now, U.S. “public broadcasting” has run scared from right-wing attacks and Republican funding cuts. So, NPR and PBS lard on more right-wing pundits, while purging any sign of liberal dissent as just happened with a producer of an opera show…

Missing Hope in Palestinian Statehood

The New York Times’ lack of objectivity on the Middle East is one of the core violations of U.S. journalistic ethics, obvious yet rarely acknowledged. Ethics professor Daniel C. Maguire thought it worth noting in a letter to Times columnist…