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The US Mainstream Media is Out of Control - The Liberty Web English
Pressure is on Labor and crossbenchers to pass Coalition media reforms.
A rare mass gatheringof media chief executives will bein chilly Canberra on Wednesday puttingthe heat on Labor andcrossbenchers to passthe government's proposed media reforms without amendments.
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Australia's media ownership laws are due for an update, and the media barons are set to benefit.
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Low wage rises and high household debt are adding to the risk of a negative first quarter.
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The stand out listings traded on the ASX captured at key moments through the day, as indicated by the time stamp in the video.
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The ACCC has launched federal proceedings against health fund NIB, accusing it of concealing changes to some of its policies. Vision courtesy ABC News
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Three men were trapped in a cherry-picker when it fell into a building site in Geelong.
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Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan has provided an update on the $165 million tax fraud syndicate involving the son of a deputy Commissioner.
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For the first time in more than 25 years, the ratings agency Moody's has downgraded China's debt rating.
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The airline has started to clear the backlog of stranded passengers after a global computer system failure left planes grounded at Britain's two biggest airports on Sunday.
Australia's media ownership laws are due for an update, and the media barons are set to benefit.
Having successfully argued for more cuts to broadcast licence fees and accepted restrictions on gambling ads, the companieswant to keep up the momentum for change.
Communications Minister Mitch Fifield has proposed a basket of reforms that enjoys total industry support, but does not yet have enough senatorial support.
Newspaper, television and radio executives will argue reform is vital for survival at a time when more and more eyeballs and advertising revenue are going to unregulated online sites.
They do not see a sustainable future for all of Australia's existing media companies, and say concentration will occur eitherthrough legal mergers or corporate collapse.
While industry is united, the move to scrapcross-ownership rules has attracted objections from Labor, Greensand One Nation.
Minister Fifield is still sevenvotes short of getting the bill through the Senate. But he will succeed ifeither Nick Xenophon or Pauline Hanson and theirparties vote with the Coalition.
The big sticking point is scrapping the two-out-of-three rule, which stops one entity owning print, radioand television in one city.
One Nation is concerned removing therestriction will lead to "monopoly control of media distribution in a single region".
Senator Xenophonhas hinted he may support the laws if it includes some tax or levy on Facebook and Google, which profit from all the content created by other companies.
There are still restrictions stopping one entity owning more than one television or two radio stations, and some rules about having at least five independent companies in cities and four in regional areas.
But Labor, which introduced the two-out-of-three rule in the 1980s, is still worried its removal will reduce voices and ideas.
"The widely acknowledged fact is that removing the two-out-of-three rule will lead to further media consolidation and, consequently, a reduction in diversity of media control in Australia," opposition communications spokeswoman Michelle Rowland said.
The Greenswill propose splitting the bill to protectthe two-out-of-three rule, said senatorScott Ludlam, communications spokesman.
"We are not really here to advocate for the corporate interest, but protecting the public interest as much as possible," he added.
But most parties are happy to pass what is known as the reach rule, which currently prevents metro networks like Seven, Nine and Tenfrom owning regional broadcastersSouthern Cross, Prime and WIN. These are themost likely mergers if the laws passas there is potential to immediately save money on back-office costs like administration, legal fees, broadcasting facilitiesand affiliation fees.
There are less obvious savings in merging mastheads and broadcasters, except that both produce news content. News Corp has successfully merged some editorial content from pay TV service Sky News with mastheads, with several columnists and journalists appearing on both. But Fairfax Media (publisher of BusinessDay) has very little editorial overlap between mastheads like The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, with its part-owned radio stations 2GB and 3AW.
Chief executive of regional broadcasterWIN Television,Andrew Lancaster, believes Australians are getting so much news from online sources that the reach rule and two-out-of-three are now irrelevant.
"The best way to protect diversity is by having healthy, viable media companies," he said.
But whether Australians see the online outlets such asThe Guardian,BuzzFeed, TheNew York Times,CrikeyandHuffingtonPost as equal to the task of today's newspapers, radioand television stations is yet to be seen.
Professor of communication at Deakin University, Matthew Ricketson, said industry consolidation is the most likely impact of the rules passing as an entire package.
The worst outcome from the new laws would be "ownership of the media in an already concentrated market for newspapers, radio and television will becomingeven more concentrated", he said.
"The diversity provided by the internet is diversity of opinion. That is not the same as diversity of sources of news and current affairs reporting," he added.
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Is Australia ready to scrap its 30-year-old media cross-ownership laws? - The Sydney Morning Herald
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. --Lucy McBath is afraid many more people will die if Florida Gov. Rick Scott signs a bill making it harder to prosecute when people claim they commit violence in self-defense.
She already lost her son, an unarmed black teenager, when a white man angry over loud music and claiming self-defense fired 10 times at an SUV filled with teenagers.
The measure before Scott would effectively require a trial-before-a-trial whenever someone invokes self-defense, making prosecutors prove the suspect doesn't deserve immunity.
Scott hasn't revealed his intentions, but he's a National Rifle Association supporter, and this is an NRA priority.
"If it passes in Florida, then they take that same legislation and they push it on the legislative floors across the country," said McBath, whose 17-year-old son Jordan Davis was killed by Michael Dunn outside a Jacksonville convenience store in 2012.
Many states have long invoked "the castle doctrine," allowing people to use even deadly force to defend themselves in their own homes.
Florida changed that in 2005, so that even outside a home, a person has no duty to retreat and can "stand his or her ground" anywhere they are legally allowed to be. Other states followed suit, and "stand your ground" defenses became much more common in pre-trial immunity hearings and during trials.
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Michael Dunn, charged with fatally shooting a 17-year-old boy after an argument over loud music, says he thought he saw the barrel of a gun point...
The 2012 killing of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman opened a debate about the limits of self-defense, and it hasn't let up since Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder after jurors received instructions on Florida's "stand your ground" law.
Florida Republicans made this bill a priority after the state Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that the defendant has the burden of proof before trial. If Florida starts a national trend to shift that burden to prosecutors, it'll be just fine with Republican Rep. Bobby Payne, who sponsored the bill.
Only four of the 22 or more state "stand your ground" laws mention this burden of proof - in Alabama, Colorado, Georgia and South Carolina - and all place it on defendants.
"It's about following our right of innocent until proven guilty," Payne said. "It's about Fifth Amendment rights, it's about due process, it's about having a true immunity, for when folks really believe they're in imminent threat of great bodily harm or death, to defend themselves properly."
Jordan Davis and Michael Dunn
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Senators originally wanted prosecutors to prove "beyond a reasonable doubt" before trial that self-defense didn't justify a violent crime. The final legislation lowered the threshold to "clear and convincing" evidence.
Either way, it makes prosecuting violent crimes more difficult, experts say.
"I think there will be more false 'stand your ground' claims," said former Broward County prosecutor Gregg Rossman, who has tried 65 murder cases. The pre-trial hearings are "very much going to be like a mini-trial."
Proving a killer didn't act in self-defense when there are no living witnesses would be particularly hard, he said: "I worry the most about the one-on-one cases. You and I get into an argument and I shoot you. Who speaks for you?"
But public defenders say it should help people who were simply trying to defend themselves. Prosecutors often use the threat of minimum mandatory sentences to coerce people into accepting a plea deal even if their use of force was justified, said Stacy Scott, a public defender in Gainesville.
Trayvon Martin George Zimmerman
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"It's going to force them to deal more fairly with citizens who are charged with crimes, and will help our clients either get better plea offers or exonerate themselves earlier in the process so they don't have to wait until a jury trial and risk everything they have in order to litigate their case," Scott said.
McBath, who lives in Marietta, Georgia, believes the guilty will more likely escape convictions. It took two trials to convict her son's killer of murder.
"We're just one out of so many," she said. "Because we won our case, I honestly, honestly believe that's the reason why they're putting these additional measures into 'stand your ground.' "
Justifiable homicide claims have doubled on average in states that have passed "stand your ground" laws, said John Roman of the independent research organization NORC at the University of Chicago.
Also, whites who kill black people are 10 times more likely to win a "stand your ground" claim than blacks who kill whites, said Roman, who analyzed these cases while at the Urban Institute think tank.
Studies also show that white people are more likely to feel threatened by black people than the other way around, "and if you then add onto implicit bias the ability to use lethal force, it's reasonable then to expect that lethal force will be disproportionately applied to minorities," he said.
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Florida could pave new changes in controversial "stand your ground" laws - CBS News
Out Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors (rt) with Jonathan Perez and Immigrant Youth Coalition members. (Photo Karen Ocamb)
How many people here have been tear gassed? out ESPN/CNN contributor LZ Granderson asked the audience at the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justices fourth annual Fueling the Frontlines Awards. The question might have seemed jarring at any other LGBT fundraiser. But this May 25 event at the NeueHouse in Hollywood was filled with frontline activists who instantly knew he was describing the demonstrations in Ferguson, Missouri after a white cop shot unarmed black 18-year old Michael Brown in August 2014.
Granderson noted that many asked what happens next? The audience knew that, too: a movement propelled by activists such as performance artist, freedom fighter and Fulbright scholar Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, one of the most important organizations in the past 25-30 years, Granderson said.
#BlackLivesMatter was founded as a social media call to action by queer Black women Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi in July 2013 after George Zimmerman was acquitted of killing 17-year old Trayvon Martin in Florida. BLM helped organize the protests in Ferguson.
Cullors accepted her Astraea award with a call-and-response by the late African American poet Lucille Clifton, ending with: Come celebrate with me that every day something has tried to kill me and has failed.
An Angelino, Cullors called out the LAPD and the L.A. Sheriffs Department for destroying black and brown families and then brought up five Immigrant Youth Coalition activists to issue an immediate call to action. Jonathan Perez choked up talking about how ICE came after their friend Claudia Ruedas mother, who they got out of detention. Then in retaliation, ICE came for Claudia, a beloved DACA-eligible college student. Nudged by Cullors and TransLatina Coalition founder Bamby Salcedo, the youth asked everyone to call 619-557-6117 and ask ICE San Diego field director Gregory Archambeault to grant Claudia Sarahi Rueda (A# 213-081-680) prosecutorial discretion and immediately release her to her family.
Astraea has always understood that the fight for LGBTQI equality is intersectional it requires fighting for black and brown rights, for migrant rights, economic rights and more, said Cullors. Im proud to be part of the resistance and ready to continue the fight.
Astraea also honored transgender activist/organizer Jennicet Gutierrez, co-founder of Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement; critically acclaimed Univision News anchor and journalist Jorge Ramos and his queer daughter Paola Ramos, former Deputy Director of Hispanic Media for Hillary for America; and out Oscar-winning producer Bruce Cohen, a major marriage equality advocate and Executive Producer of ABCs historical LGBT series When We Rise.
As a journalist fighting for LGBTQI equality, immigrant rights and human rights, it is not enough to just report on what is happening, we need to inform the public about whats happening and present reality as it is and not the way we want it to be, said Jorge Ramos, who came to the attention of non-Latino America when he stood up to presidential candidate Donald Trump and was forcefully removed from a news conference (he was eventually allowed back in). And the reality is that discrimination is still very present in this country, Ramos continued. As individuals we must take an aggressive stand against those violating the rights of others and we need organizations like Astraea to ensure that the rights of everyone are being protected. Neutrality only helps the oppressor.
Introduced by famous trans model Isis King, Gutierrez talked about the violence faced by her trans sisters, reading off the names of ten trans women who have died since January. Rest in Power, she said, adding, even if you dont invest (in the trans community), trust the trans leadership of trans women of color.
Actress Mary McCormack introduced her best friend Bruce Cohen, a fellow Probe disco dancer, saying he is wholly unafraid to challenge oppression. Cohen noted that he co-founded the Uprising of Love coalition with Oscar-winning writer Dustin Lance Black and Grammy-winning singer Melissa Etheridge to stop the oppression of gays before the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Cohen, Black and director Gus Van Sant had already experienced the courage of LGBT Russians when they appeared at a screening of Milk as part of the LGBT Side by Side Film festival in St. Petersburg. They failed to stop the persecution instigated by the new anti-homosexual propaganda law. But they brought a film crew to Sochi and captured the moment when a young gay man named Vladimir ran yelling to President Obamas lesbian emissary Billie Jean King that his life was in danger, begging for asylum. They found a way to get him to safety in Americaand the gay Russian is now happily married in Fairfield, Iowa. Were sad we didnt bring (Russian President Vladimir) Putin to his knees, Cohen said. We failed at that. But we saved Vladimirs life. Echoing the nights theme, Cohen concluded: All that you touch, you change. All that you change, changes you.
The Fueling the Frontlines Awards is an amazing opportunity to celebrate our radical community our successes and our fight, said J. Bob Alotta, Executive Director, of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice. If we want to maintain and build on the resistance in this current moment then we need to celebrate and support the activists at the forefront of the movement. By utilizing their experience as artists and journalists, our honorees Patrisse, Jorge, Jennicet, Paola and Bruce illustrate, there is a place for everyone to contribute their talents, utilize their platforms and lift their voices to help support the resistance.
From the young activists of color to the older feminists supporting Astraea since its radical philanthropy started funding marginalized groups in 1977, the NeueHouse space felt filled with family. Helping create that sense of fellowship was a mini-concert by the brilliant, dynamic Toshi Regan and the cast of Octavia E. Butlers Parable of the Sower: The Operaa fusion of inspiring art and activism that had everyone eager to dance to the frontlines wearing a rainbow badge of courage and joy in their hearts.
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Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice honors frontline activism - Los Angeles Blade
BHOPAL: State toppers of the CBSE Class 12, results of which were announced on Sunday, firmly believe that social networking is a great distration and students should keep away from them. For example, state topper Bhavesh has kept himself aloof from such sites and has not even opened an account on Facebook.
Talking about social networking, the toppers feel that it is a waste of time. "What is the use of Facebook I have failed to understand? I have no FB account and still I have a lot of friends and social life is like any other student," said Bhavesh. He prefers to spend time talking with friends on phone and playing different sports.
Bhavesh admits that keeping away from social networking is one of the main reasons for scoring good marks in the CBSE . "I do not know how others can maintain a balance between social networking and studies. Personally, I think social networking is just a distraction," said Bhavesh.
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CBSE 12th result 2017: Keep off social networking, say state toppers ... - Times of India