Sheep are the smartest animals in the farmyard, Fox News is ... a propaganda machine, and Julian Assange may have four love children.These discoveries and more after the jump.
On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies.
The links below open in a new window. Newer ones are on top.
Fox News: If You Only Knew
Asked what most viewers and observers of Fox News would be surprised to learn about the controversial cable channel, a former insider from the world of Rupert Murdoch was quick with a response: “I don’t think people would believe it’s as concocted as it is; that stuff is just made up.”
The sharpest mind in the farmyard
Over the past few decades, evidence has quietly built up that sheep are anything but stupid. It now turns out that the humble domestic sheep can pass a psychological test that monkeys struggle with, and which is so sensitive it is used to look for neurological decline in human patients.
Assange Has 4 Love Children, Former WikiLeaks Employee Says
From his bombastic OKCupid profile to his creepy love letters to a 19-year-old girl, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has some strange romantic proclivities. Strangest of all is his apparent obsession with littering the world with offspring. He’s fathered at least four children with mistresses, and he boasts about it.
Indian Court Strikes Down Suit Against Astrology
The Bombay high court dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking action against bogus astrologers, tantriks, vaastu shastra practitioners and the like on Thursday.
Wikipedia’s Editing Process Still a Mystery to Students
Although many students understand that Wikipedia can be edited by anyone, some remain blissfully unaware of how articles in the encyclopedia are created and revised, a study has found.
Is Twitter Worth $10 Billion?
As Internet valuations climb and bankers and would-be buyers circle Silicon Valley in an increasingly frothy tech market, many eyes are on one particularly desirable, if still enigmatic, target: Twitter. Discussions ... have produced an estimated valuation of $8 billion to $10 billion.
Class and Gender in Egypt
What social forces are behind the protest movement in Egypt? The old guard (represented, first, by the Mubaraks and the “crony globalizers,” and, then, by the torturer Omar Suleiman and the rich men in the “Council of the Wise”) seems to have lost control of the process. Who, then, is pushing the movement forward?
Scapegoating public sector workers
Across the United States, there’s a concerted campaign to demonize public sector workers and to balance state budgets by cutting workers’ pensions and social services.
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Speaking of propaganda… how is your great propaganda mission progressing, MarthaA?
Where is your ThomasG alter ego? Havent seen him for awhile. What have you done with him? Is he tied up in the in the same trunk where he kept you for awhile?
Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News Network is the Propaganda Network and Fox does lie, so I can understand why someone would not want what they had to say twisted into something they didn’t say, which is what FOX does on a regular basis for their master, Rupert Murdoch, who also buys as well, along with the Koch brothers, as Rupert Murdoch buys his lies.
I refuse to argue with OzarkMichael over my Christianity, perhaps he will peruse a few of these links about Right-Wing use of binary EMOTIONAL rhetoric and transfer propaganda, and sophism in use of the media and Christianity for benefit of the Right:
“MarthaA” presents herself as a Christian who is fighting “extremism”.
Not long ago MarthaA(in her Christian fight against extremism) posted this:
Thanks to “Zeitgeist” and all similar documentary type movies ... more and more people are becoming aware and Conservative Right-Wing Republican EXTREMIST sophistry and propaganda is hitting a brick wall…
MarthaA recommends Zeitgeist to us as a basis of truth against “extremist sophistry”. Before I comment, i want everyone to see that “MarthaA’s” recommendation of Zeitgeist isnt a slip of the tongue. She recommended it in every one of these Truthdig posts:
Fox News Network IS a REPUBLICAN Conservative EXTREMIST propaganda machine and should be removed from the public’s airwaves, because REPUBLICANS can not OWN the public’s airwaves, because the public’s airwaves are OWNED by the public and the public needs to dump all propaganda machines polluting their air waves, starting with FOX Bews Network and any news media that Rupert Murdoch owns.
By Simon Girty, February 14, 2011 at 7:50 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
As thought it matters that FOX just makes stuff up? Their audience just likes the way their fat ripples and the trailer rocks, laughing at New York libruls trying to say Große Lüge: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXRjmyJFzrU&feature=related
Of course sheep are intelligent. I can show you dozens of photographs of
shepherds and sheep in a variety of countries, and the shepherd is usually
walking behind. The sheep and goats, who are also smart, know very well
where they are going. The really weird thing is that urban societies have so lost
touch with the earth that this comes as a big surprise. Try tasting donkeys; they
are very intelligent.
For all of human history the pastoral peoples have been as important as the
urban cultures, periodically providing the empires with new leadership. All of
the Western religious tradition comes from pastoral roots, and our sacred texts
abound with images of shepherds and flocks. The urban traders on the coast
were the enemy of the Hebrew tribes. However, today’s pastoral people and all
that they stand for, the independence of their tribes, the patriarchy of their
families, and their disdain for borders makes them enemies now of the empire
of Mammon, its Enlightenment religion, and its Platonic attempt to build a new
genderless social order. Those who live with sheep and know their ways most
intimately are systematically attacked now from Palestine to Afghanistan, and
the religious values that grew out of their way of life are ridiculed.
Benghazi: Dissecting Congressional Follies, Media Coverage and ‘Cover-Up’ Charges
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By OzarkMichael, February 20, 2011 at 8:24 pm Link to this comment
Speaking of propaganda… how is your great propaganda mission progressing, MarthaA?
Where is your ThomasG alter ego? Havent seen him for awhile. What have you done with him? Is he tied up in the in the same trunk where he kept you for awhile?
Report thisBy MarthaA, February 20, 2011 at 4:27 pm Link to this comment
Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News Network is the Propaganda Network and Fox does lie, so I can understand why someone would not want what they had to say twisted into something they didn’t say, which is what FOX does on a regular basis for their master, Rupert Murdoch, who also buys as well, along with the Koch brothers, as Rupert Murdoch buys his lies.
Report thisBy Simon Girty, February 20, 2011 at 12:26 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Koch BUYS, FOX LIES, Glocks rise, America dies!!!
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/scarce/fox-lies#comment-1781101
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9005...
Report thisBy MarthaA, February 15, 2011 at 2:55 pm Link to this comment
I refuse to argue with OzarkMichael over my Christianity, perhaps he will peruse a few of these links about Right-Wing use of binary EMOTIONAL rhetoric and transfer propaganda, and sophism in use of the media and Christianity for benefit of the Right:
How Republicans and Their Big Business Allies Duped Tens of Millions of Evangelicals into Voting for a Corporate Agenda:
http://www.alternet.org/story/148795/how_republicans_and_their_big_business_allies_duped_tens_of_millions_of_evangelicals_into_voting_for_a_corporate_agenda
FOXLEAKS: How Bill Sammon Slanted Fox’s Cairo Speech Coverage: http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-news-section/68-68/4948-foxleaks-how-bill-sammon-slanted-foxs-cairo-speech-coverage
Bill Moyers: America Must Be Exposed to the Truth, Even if it hurts, because it will help in the future: http://www.alternet.org/story/149925/bill_moyers:_america_can’t_deal_with_reality_—_we_must_be_exposed_to_the_truth,_even_if_it_hurts?page=entire
FOX NEWS INSIDER: “Stuff Is Just Made Up”:
http://mediamatters.org/blog/201102100007
Bill Moyers: “Facts Still Matter ...”: http://www.truth-out.org/bill-moyers-facts-still-matter67571
11 of the Tea Party GOP’s Most Ridiculous Policy Ideas (So Far): http://www.alternet.org/story/149848/11_of_the_tea_party_gop’s_most_ridiculous_policy_ideas_(so_far)
Glenn Beck’s hysterical rants about Egypt play on fear: http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-opinion-section/71-71/4929-glenn-becks-hysterical-rants-about-egypt-play-on-fear
Report thisBy OzarkMichael, February 14, 2011 at 8:49 pm Link to this comment
“MarthaA” presents herself as a Christian who is fighting “extremism”.
Not long ago MarthaA(in her Christian fight against extremism) posted this:
Thanks to “Zeitgeist” and all similar documentary type movies ... more and more people are becoming aware and Conservative Right-Wing Republican EXTREMIST sophistry and propaganda is hitting a brick wall…
MarthaA recommends Zeitgeist to us as a basis of truth against “extremist sophistry”. Before I comment, i want everyone to see that “MarthaA’s” recommendation of Zeitgeist isnt a slip of the tongue. She recommended it in every one of these Truthdig posts:
https://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/obamas_new_role_model_ronald_reagan_20110127/?ln#381601
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/without_obama_we_lost_so_much_more_than_an_election_20110124/#381614
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/keith_olbermann_leaves_msnbc_20110121/#381646
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/where_liberals_go_to_feel_good_20110124/?ln#381608
We see that “Christian” “MarthaA” recommends Zeitgeist heartily and without reservation.
Zeitgeist has three parts. The foundational first part of the movie ‘proves’ that Jesus is a myth.
As a Christian, how can “MarthaA” recommend a movie that proclaims Jesus is a only myth as its basis and foundation?
As a Christian, how can she proclaim ‘Jesus is a myth’ four times, denying Christ more often than Peter did?
The answer is simple. MarthaA is not a Christian. She is merely a ‘spiritual’ sock puppet for ThomasG.
Everything you post MarthaA, is turned into farce because of this stupid sock-puppet game you play.
A person can be whatever they are and we are all cool with that. But this sock-puppet farce has got to be called for what it is.
Report thisBy MarthaA, February 14, 2011 at 12:50 pm Link to this comment
Fox News Network IS a REPUBLICAN Conservative EXTREMIST propaganda machine and should be removed from the public’s airwaves, because REPUBLICANS can not OWN the public’s airwaves, because the public’s airwaves are OWNED by the public and the public needs to dump all propaganda machines polluting their air waves, starting with FOX Bews Network and any news media that Rupert Murdoch owns.
Report thisBy Simon Girty, February 14, 2011 at 7:50 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
As thought it matters that FOX just makes stuff up? Their audience just likes the way their fat ripples and the trailer rocks, laughing at New York libruls trying to say Große Lüge:
Report thishttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXRjmyJFzrU&feature=related
By Gulam, February 14, 2011 at 3:23 am Link to this comment
Of course sheep are intelligent. I can show you dozens of photographs of
shepherds and sheep in a variety of countries, and the shepherd is usually
walking behind. The sheep and goats, who are also smart, know very well
where they are going. The really weird thing is that urban societies have so lost
touch with the earth that this comes as a big surprise. Try tasting donkeys; they
are very intelligent.
For all of human history the pastoral peoples have been as important as the
Report thisurban cultures, periodically providing the empires with new leadership. All of
the Western religious tradition comes from pastoral roots, and our sacred texts
abound with images of shepherds and flocks. The urban traders on the coast
were the enemy of the Hebrew tribes. However, today’s pastoral people and all
that they stand for, the independence of their tribes, the patriarchy of their
families, and their disdain for borders makes them enemies now of the empire
of Mammon, its Enlightenment religion, and its Platonic attempt to build a new
genderless social order. Those who live with sheep and know their ways most
intimately are systematically attacked now from Palestine to Afghanistan, and
the religious values that grew out of their way of life are ridiculed.