MSN Fired Its Human Journalists and Replaced Them With AI That Publishes Fake News About Mermaids and Bigfoot
by Frank Landymore
Futurism
December 2, 2022
Earlier this month, we reported that the Microsoft-operated news site MSN had run a clearly bogus story claiming that Claire "Grimes" Boucher had publicly called out ex-boyfriend Elon Musk on Twitter for not paying child support. The tweet the story based its claims off was an obvious fabrication, but that didn't stop the Inquisitr from publishing it, or MSN from distributing it to a much wider audience.
It turns out that was only the tip of the iceberg in MSN's sloppy propagation of patently fake news.
Take its affinity for Exemplore, a hokey paranormal and conspiracy news site that peddles tales of cryptids, signs of Atlantis, and magical crystals. Here are a few recent — and clearly preposterous — Exemplore articles that MSN has syndicated to its vast readership:
-"Fishermen Catch Mermaid Creature in Their Nets"
-"Woman Films Bigfoot Jumping Out of a Tree in California"
-"Party Stops as Giant UFO Flies Directly Over It"
-"Mars Rover Appears to Catch 'Dark Beast' Roaming the Surface of Mars"
-"Someone Swears They Caught a Biblically Accurate Angel Floating in the Sky Over LA"
Needless to say, if any of these stories were remotely credible, they'd have completely upended the scientific establishment. Instead, the source material for each of these sensational headlines is invariably a grainy and unconvincing video that does nothing to convince us that mermaids, bigfoot, angels, or aliens are real.
While Exemplore's headlines on MSN are blatantly ridiculous, others, like the Grimes story, are more insidious in their plausibility. A cursory examination of the MSN comments section under Grimes-Musk affair shows that many readers were easily fooled.
Futurism reached out to MSN for comment regarding both the Grimes story and the many Exemplore stories and received no response. After we published this story, MSN deleted all the hoax articles — but without a retraction note or anything else documenting the removal.
Is it Exemplore's right to run clickbait garbage? Sure, and maybe its readers have fun suspending their disbelief, like the readers of supermarket tabloids in decades past. Believing in bigfoot isn't exactly harmful, although it probably does indicate a weaker-than-average grasp on reality.
But there's no excuse for MSN, a media giant with the extraordinary resources of Microsoft behind it, to be amplifying — and monetizing — this ridiculous and inaccurate content. Its audience is vast, with the analytics service Similarweb estimating that it attracts nearly a billion readers per month.
Furthermore, MSN wields enormous SEO power that pushes its content to the top of search results, oftentimes superseding the original publication. If by happenstance a reader Googles something that resembles one of MSN's many fake headlines, a search engine will return MSN's republication of a story while sometimes omitting the original, lending it undue credibility.
Many in that immense audience will see lazy and false stories by Exemplore, the Inquisitr and other bottom-tier publishers alongside other legitimate outlets syndicated by MSN, like Bloomberg, The New York Times, and The Daily Beast. The effect, inevitably, undermines the good work done by hardworking and ethical publishers, rewards the nonsense published by low quality content farms, and undermines the public's faith in science and tech journalism.
As such, MSN's seemingly nonexistent editorial standards illustrate the perils of the contemporary media industry. In particular, recent years have seen Microsoft embrace an increasingly callous and cynical strategy toward the site: in 2020, for instance, it gutted MSN by firing dozens of workers, including journalists, editors, and other production staff, vowing to replace them with automated systems instead.
"I spend all my time reading about how automation and AI is going to take all our jobs, and here I am," one fired MSN staffer told The Guardian at the time. "AI has taken my job."
That anonymous staffer imparted a prescient warning: that though the human team had employed close editorial guidelines to vet the material that appeared on MSN's site, the new automated system would likely struggle to bring the same level of nuance and skepticism.
MSN makes lofty promises that there's still "human oversight" over the stories it syndicates, but given the desultory deluge of fake nonsense it appears to run constantly, it seems very unlikely that the site's remaining skeleton crew is accomplishing much at all.
And with its dwindling human staff, fewer still are left to hear readers' concerns, effectively erecting a brick wall that imposes a worrying opacity. Requests for comments go unanswered, and MSN publishes more bogus stories all the time.
Microsoft's end goal, it seems, was to automate its news distribution system, while cutting costs in the process. To that end, Microsoft may have been successful, but in the process has poisoned the well of a news reading public.
That would be worrying at any widely read news aggregator. But MSN isn't just popular; it's the default source of news for many Windows users. Open a new tab on Microsoft's Edge browser and it lands you on an MSN hub. And if you still use Internet Explorer for some reason, MSN is the default home page of that, too. Hell, even the Windows Start Menu will show you its articles. It's even hooked into competitors' systems, picking up untold new pageviews on Google News.
In sum? It's yet another cautionary tale about the growing corporate hunger to offload decision making to flawed AI systems that eliminate important jobs, exercise poor judgment with little oversight, and generally make society worse for the humans still living in it.
Washington Post’s ‘Fake News’ Guilt, by Robert Parry
Re: Washington Post’s ‘Fake News’ Guilt, by Robert Parry
by admin » Fri Dec 09, 2022 11:27 pm
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Re: Washington Post’s ‘Fake News’ Guilt, by Robert Parry
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Meet the Head of Biden’s New “Disinformation Governing Board”. Nina Jankowicz is a veteran information warrior. But her “experience” working with StopFake should have set off alarm bells.
by Lev Golinkin
The Nation
May 12, 2022
https://www.thenation.com/article/polit ... ing-board/
Official portrait of Nina Jankowicz as executive director of the Disinformation Governance Board.
(UHS)
Late last month, the Joe Biden administration publicly confirmed that a “Disinformation Governing Board” working group had been created within the Department of Homeland Security. The news prompted a flood of concern about the impact of such an Orwellian organ on America.
But there’s no need to engage in hypotheticals to understand the dangers. One has to only consider the past of Nina Jankowicz, the head of the new disinformation board.
Jankowicz’s experience as a disinformation warrior includes her work with StopFake, a US government-funded “anti-disinformation” organization founded in March 2014 and lauded as a model of how to combat Kremlin lies. Four years later, StopFake began aggressively whitewashing two Ukrainian neo-Nazi groups with a long track record of violence, including war crimes.
Today, StopFake is an official Facebook fact-checking partner, which gives it the power to censor news, while Jankowicz is America’s disinformation czar.
If the Biden administration is serious about combating threats such as white supremacy, perhaps it should first reflect on the old Roman question: Who will guard the guardians?
StopFake was founded right after Ukraine’s 2014 Maidan uprising ousted the country’s president and swept a new, US-backed government into power. Formed by professors and students from the Kyiv Mohyla Journalism School, StopFake presented itself as a plucky, grassroots group wielding hard facts and semi-permanent smirks as it shredded Russian propaganda. It gained notoriety by producing slick videos hosted by dynamic disinformation warriors debunking the Moscow lies of the day.
Western reporters—and checkbooks—were paying attention. Shortly after its creation, StopFake began receiving funding from Western governments, including the National Endowment for Democracy—an organization mainly funded by the US Congress—and the British embassy in Ukraine. It was also supported by George Soros’s Open Society Foundation. (StopFake has run numerous episodes that cover Soros but fail to disclose this potential conflict of interest—a violation of basic tenets of journalism.)
Among StopFake’s hosts was Jankowicz, a graduate of Bryn Mawr and the Georgetown School of Foreign Service who was already part of the burgeoning disinformation warrior industry while in Ukraine as a Fulbright Clinton Public Policy Fellow. On January 29, 2017, she hosted StopFake Episode 117, whose lead story dealt with a perennial obsession of Russian propaganda: Ukraine’s volunteer battalions.
These are the dozens of paramilitaries formed in 2014 to fight against Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine’s Donbas region. From the beginning, Moscow focused on the violent and far-right nature of many of these units.
At the time of Jankowicz’s piece, the Russian press was bristling at Kyiv’s creating a new holiday to honor military volunteers—Moscow commentators depicted this as a celebration of far-right butchers. Jankowicz offered an emphatically different take.
“Volunteer battalions organized throughout the country and they supported weak Ukrainian armed forces and prevented further Russian separatist encroachment. Today the volunteer battalions are part of the official Ukrainian armed forces, overseen by the Defense and Interior Ministries,” she said in her StopFake debunking segment.
“The volunteer movement in Ukraine extends far beyond military service. Volunteer groups are active in supporting Ukraine’s military with food, clothing, medicine, and post-battle rehabilitation, as well as working actively with the nearly two million internal refugees displaced by the war in Ukraine,” she added.
While Janowicz extolled the battalions, an on-screen graphic displayed patches of four paramilitaries: Aidar, Dnipro-1, Donbas, and Azov. All four have a documented record of war crimes, while Azov is an outright neo-Nazi group.
On September 10, 2014, three years before Jankowicz’s warm portrayal of volunteer battalions, Newsweek ran an article titled “Ukrainian Nationalist Volunteers Committing ‘ISIS-style’ War Crimes.” The story, which covered a report by Amnesty International, featured Aidar, one of the battalions lauded in Jankowicz’s segment. According to Amnesty, Aidar fighters amassed a record of “widespread abuses,” ranging from kidnapping and torture to “possible executions.”
Three months later, Amnesty issued an urgent report about Aidar and Dnipro-1—another paramilitary featured in Jankowicz’s segment—blocking food from eastern Ukrainian towns and villages. “Using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is a war crime,” Amnesty stated.
(Of course, almost every war crime charged against one side in this conflict has also been charged against the other; Russia has reportedly recently been blocking food in its siege of Mariupol.)
The Donbas Battalion—the third paramilitary in Jankowicz’s segment—is another unit notorious for torture, as documented by the UN, among others. The fourth group, Azov, not only has its own history of war crimes, but is avowedly neo-Nazi; indeed, the Azov patch shown in Jankowicz’s video has a stylized Wolfsangel (the “N” with the sword)—a popular white supremacist rune used by groups like Aryan Nations.
Azov—which is now a premier hub of transnational white supremacy—has been extensively covered by Western media outlets, including by me in The Nation. Its nature was well known by the time of Jankowicz’s 2017 StopFake video. (In a 2020 book, Jankowicz briefly acknowledged Azov is a “far-right group,” but immediately pivoted to portraying them as victims of a Russian hoax.)
During Jankowicz’s tenure with StopFake (her last known episode aired May 21, 2017), the disinformation site continued being touted as a pioneer in combating Russian propaganda. In March 2017, a fawning Politico story heralded StopFake as the “grand wizards” of the anti-fake news ecosystem. It was an ironically prophetic description, given that Jankowicz’s misleading “nothing to see here” report about the battalions turned out to be a mere fraction of what StopFake has done for Ukraine’s far right.
By 2018, StopFake started defending C14, a neo-Nazi gang that conducted horrific pogroms of Ukraine’s Roma. After media outlet Hromadske described C14 as neo-Nazi, one of StopFake’s founders tweeted “for Hromadske, C14 is ‘neo-Nazi,’ in reality one of them—Oleksandr Voitko—is a war veteran and before going to the war—alum and faculty at @MohylaJSchool, journalist at Foreign news desk at Channel 5. Now also active participant of war veterans grass-root organization,” as if the fact that the gang has a veteran somehow precludes it from being neo-Nazi.
In 2020, StopFake defended C14 in a press release. The same year, news broke that C14 was aiding Kyiv police in enforcing Covid quarantine measures; StopFake labeled this fake news, denying C14 is far-right, describing it as a “community organization” instead, and citing C14’s own denial of carrying out anti-Roma pogroms as “evidence” of its innocence.
In reality, C14’s ties to Ukrainian authorities have been verified by Radio Free Europe (US government–run media), among others. By now, even the US State Department classifies C14 as a “nationalist hate group.”
StopFake has also continued defending the Azov Battalion. Last month, StopFake tweeted that the unit—which was formed out of a neo-Nazi gang, uses two neo-Nazi symbols on its insignia, and has been documented as neo-Nazi by numerous Western outlets—“doesn’t profess #Nazi views as official ideology,” labeling stories about Azov and neo-Nazism as fake news.
This is particularly disturbing because in February, Facebook reversed its ban on praising Azov. Facebook had previously banned the Azov battalion’s account as well as posts celebrating the neo-Nazi organization. The reversal is stunning, given the platform’s professed commitment to combating far-right extremism.
It’s unclear whether StopFake played a role in Facebook’s decision to lift its Azov ban, but considering StopFake is Facebook’s official fact-checking partner, it’s hard to believe the group’s track record of whitewashing Azov wasn’t a factor.
The “grand wizards” of battling fake news have even dabbled with Holocaust distortion, downplaying WWII-era paramilitaries who slaughtered Jews as mere “historic figures” and Ukrainian nationalist leaders, while attacking members of the US Congress who had denounced Ukraine’s glorification of Nazi collaborators.
Astonishingly, when Jankowicz herself was quoted in a July 2020 New York Times story about StopFake’s going off the rails, the article failed to disclose the fact that the disinformation expert being quoted used to work with the group.
Painting neo-Nazi paramilitaries with an extensive record of war crimes as patriots helping refugees, all while working with a “disinformation” group that turned out to run interference for violent neo-Nazi formations—that’s the experience Biden’s new disinformation czar brings to the table.
by Lev Golinkin
The Nation
May 12, 2022
https://www.thenation.com/article/polit ... ing-board/
Official portrait of Nina Jankowicz as executive director of the Disinformation Governance Board.
(UHS)
Late last month, the Joe Biden administration publicly confirmed that a “Disinformation Governing Board” working group had been created within the Department of Homeland Security. The news prompted a flood of concern about the impact of such an Orwellian organ on America.
But there’s no need to engage in hypotheticals to understand the dangers. One has to only consider the past of Nina Jankowicz, the head of the new disinformation board.
Jankowicz’s experience as a disinformation warrior includes her work with StopFake, a US government-funded “anti-disinformation” organization founded in March 2014 and lauded as a model of how to combat Kremlin lies. Four years later, StopFake began aggressively whitewashing two Ukrainian neo-Nazi groups with a long track record of violence, including war crimes.
Today, StopFake is an official Facebook fact-checking partner, which gives it the power to censor news, while Jankowicz is America’s disinformation czar.
If the Biden administration is serious about combating threats such as white supremacy, perhaps it should first reflect on the old Roman question: Who will guard the guardians?
StopFake was founded right after Ukraine’s 2014 Maidan uprising ousted the country’s president and swept a new, US-backed government into power. Formed by professors and students from the Kyiv Mohyla Journalism School, StopFake presented itself as a plucky, grassroots group wielding hard facts and semi-permanent smirks as it shredded Russian propaganda. It gained notoriety by producing slick videos hosted by dynamic disinformation warriors debunking the Moscow lies of the day.
Western reporters—and checkbooks—were paying attention. Shortly after its creation, StopFake began receiving funding from Western governments, including the National Endowment for Democracy—an organization mainly funded by the US Congress—and the British embassy in Ukraine. It was also supported by George Soros’s Open Society Foundation. (StopFake has run numerous episodes that cover Soros but fail to disclose this potential conflict of interest—a violation of basic tenets of journalism.)
Among StopFake’s hosts was Jankowicz, a graduate of Bryn Mawr and the Georgetown School of Foreign Service who was already part of the burgeoning disinformation warrior industry while in Ukraine as a Fulbright Clinton Public Policy Fellow. On January 29, 2017, she hosted StopFake Episode 117, whose lead story dealt with a perennial obsession of Russian propaganda: Ukraine’s volunteer battalions.
These are the dozens of paramilitaries formed in 2014 to fight against Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine’s Donbas region. From the beginning, Moscow focused on the violent and far-right nature of many of these units.
At the time of Jankowicz’s piece, the Russian press was bristling at Kyiv’s creating a new holiday to honor military volunteers—Moscow commentators depicted this as a celebration of far-right butchers. Jankowicz offered an emphatically different take.
“Volunteer battalions organized throughout the country and they supported weak Ukrainian armed forces and prevented further Russian separatist encroachment. Today the volunteer battalions are part of the official Ukrainian armed forces, overseen by the Defense and Interior Ministries,” she said in her StopFake debunking segment.
“The volunteer movement in Ukraine extends far beyond military service. Volunteer groups are active in supporting Ukraine’s military with food, clothing, medicine, and post-battle rehabilitation, as well as working actively with the nearly two million internal refugees displaced by the war in Ukraine,” she added.
While Janowicz extolled the battalions, an on-screen graphic displayed patches of four paramilitaries: Aidar, Dnipro-1, Donbas, and Azov. All four have a documented record of war crimes, while Azov is an outright neo-Nazi group.
On September 10, 2014, three years before Jankowicz’s warm portrayal of volunteer battalions, Newsweek ran an article titled “Ukrainian Nationalist Volunteers Committing ‘ISIS-style’ War Crimes.” The story, which covered a report by Amnesty International, featured Aidar, one of the battalions lauded in Jankowicz’s segment. According to Amnesty, Aidar fighters amassed a record of “widespread abuses,” ranging from kidnapping and torture to “possible executions.”
Three months later, Amnesty issued an urgent report about Aidar and Dnipro-1—another paramilitary featured in Jankowicz’s segment—blocking food from eastern Ukrainian towns and villages. “Using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is a war crime,” Amnesty stated.
(Of course, almost every war crime charged against one side in this conflict has also been charged against the other; Russia has reportedly recently been blocking food in its siege of Mariupol.)
The Donbas Battalion—the third paramilitary in Jankowicz’s segment—is another unit notorious for torture, as documented by the UN, among others. The fourth group, Azov, not only has its own history of war crimes, but is avowedly neo-Nazi; indeed, the Azov patch shown in Jankowicz’s video has a stylized Wolfsangel (the “N” with the sword)—a popular white supremacist rune used by groups like Aryan Nations.
Azov—which is now a premier hub of transnational white supremacy—has been extensively covered by Western media outlets, including by me in The Nation. Its nature was well known by the time of Jankowicz’s 2017 StopFake video. (In a 2020 book, Jankowicz briefly acknowledged Azov is a “far-right group,” but immediately pivoted to portraying them as victims of a Russian hoax.)
During Jankowicz’s tenure with StopFake (her last known episode aired May 21, 2017), the disinformation site continued being touted as a pioneer in combating Russian propaganda. In March 2017, a fawning Politico story heralded StopFake as the “grand wizards” of the anti-fake news ecosystem. It was an ironically prophetic description, given that Jankowicz’s misleading “nothing to see here” report about the battalions turned out to be a mere fraction of what StopFake has done for Ukraine’s far right.
By 2018, StopFake started defending C14, a neo-Nazi gang that conducted horrific pogroms of Ukraine’s Roma. After media outlet Hromadske described C14 as neo-Nazi, one of StopFake’s founders tweeted “for Hromadske, C14 is ‘neo-Nazi,’ in reality one of them—Oleksandr Voitko—is a war veteran and before going to the war—alum and faculty at @MohylaJSchool, journalist at Foreign news desk at Channel 5. Now also active participant of war veterans grass-root organization,” as if the fact that the gang has a veteran somehow precludes it from being neo-Nazi.
In 2020, StopFake defended C14 in a press release. The same year, news broke that C14 was aiding Kyiv police in enforcing Covid quarantine measures; StopFake labeled this fake news, denying C14 is far-right, describing it as a “community organization” instead, and citing C14’s own denial of carrying out anti-Roma pogroms as “evidence” of its innocence.
In reality, C14’s ties to Ukrainian authorities have been verified by Radio Free Europe (US government–run media), among others. By now, even the US State Department classifies C14 as a “nationalist hate group.”
StopFake has also continued defending the Azov Battalion. Last month, StopFake tweeted that the unit—which was formed out of a neo-Nazi gang, uses two neo-Nazi symbols on its insignia, and has been documented as neo-Nazi by numerous Western outlets—“doesn’t profess #Nazi views as official ideology,” labeling stories about Azov and neo-Nazism as fake news.
This is particularly disturbing because in February, Facebook reversed its ban on praising Azov. Facebook had previously banned the Azov battalion’s account as well as posts celebrating the neo-Nazi organization. The reversal is stunning, given the platform’s professed commitment to combating far-right extremism.
It’s unclear whether StopFake played a role in Facebook’s decision to lift its Azov ban, but considering StopFake is Facebook’s official fact-checking partner, it’s hard to believe the group’s track record of whitewashing Azov wasn’t a factor.
The “grand wizards” of battling fake news have even dabbled with Holocaust distortion, downplaying WWII-era paramilitaries who slaughtered Jews as mere “historic figures” and Ukrainian nationalist leaders, while attacking members of the US Congress who had denounced Ukraine’s glorification of Nazi collaborators.
Astonishingly, when Jankowicz herself was quoted in a July 2020 New York Times story about StopFake’s going off the rails, the article failed to disclose the fact that the disinformation expert being quoted used to work with the group.
Painting neo-Nazi paramilitaries with an extensive record of war crimes as patriots helping refugees, all while working with a “disinformation” group that turned out to run interference for violent neo-Nazi formations—that’s the experience Biden’s new disinformation czar brings to the table.
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Re: Washington Post’s ‘Fake News’ Guilt, by Robert Parry
by admin » Tue Nov 19, 2024 10:45 pm
Israeli Soccer Attacks: Amsterdam Photographer on What Really Happened
by Mehdi Hasan
Zeteo
Nov 12, 2024 #maccabitelaviv #israel #amsterdam
“They told the opposite of what happened in that footage.”
Photographer Annet de Graaf captured the Israeli Maccabi soccer fan violence in Amsterdam. In her first interview with US media, she tells Mehdi Hasan that outlets like Sky News, the New York Times, BBC, and CNN misused her footage and twisted the narrative to frame the Maccabi fans as victims of antisemitic attacks and overlook the anti-Arab racism that fueled the clash.
Transcript
[Mehdi Hasan] violence erupted in Amsterdam this
weekend when what started as a soccer
match between makabi t Aviv and aax
devolved into violent chaos across the
city headlines poured in about
anti-semitic attacks in Amsterdam but
these stories largely overlooked on
camera blatant anti-arab racism from
makabi supporters well beforehand and
yet it was barely a footnote in the
coverage despite the fact that footage
showed macabi supporters chanting racist
and genocidal slogans like death to the
Arabs and the IDF win they were seen
throwing stones and planks of wood at
police after the match Dutch officials
also confirmed that fans attacked a taxi
driver and burned the Palestinian flag
Sky News in the UK posted a video
detailing these attacks noting that
makabi fans are quote notorious for
their racism and physical violence
however that video was quickly deleted
and the network stated that the original
version failed to meet their standards
for balance and impartiality whatever
that means footage taken by Dutch
photographer Anette degraph was used in
both versions of the sky video showing
makabi fans attacking a Dutch resident
media Outlets like CNN the BBC the New
York Times also used or misused the very
same video twisting The Narrative to
suggest that macabi fans were the ones
being attacked we saw headlines about
pogroms and world leaders denouncing
anti-Semitism in Amsterdam as if these
Hooligans were just minding their own
business as if this was an attack not on
Israeli soccer hooligans but on all
Dutch Jews it wasn't the graph has
called On Media Outlets to apologize
stating that journalism is about finding
truth not about making money on a Twist
of the script and I couldn't have said
it better myself look no one is
disputing that there were also reports
of anti-Semitism of a person for example
calling for a Jew hunt which is
outrageous and should be condemned all
violence on all sides should be
condemned but the media's onesided
coverage painting macabi fans these
well-known racist soccer hooligans
chanting genocide and anti-arab slogans
painting them as the innocent victims
has once again proven that our media and
our political class deem the suffering
of Israelis to be more important than
the suffering of Arabs the attacks in
Amsterdam didn't occur in a vacuum and
this Erasure of responsibility this
cuddling of the Israeli farri right this
misuse of words like anti-Semitism and
pogram and this blatant media bias make
the racist violence we saw in Amsterdam
more more likely not less likely to
happen again joining me now is Annette
degraph who captured the events in
Amsterdam she's a renowned iPhone
photographer who's even photographed Tim
Cook H Annette thank you so much for
joining me on Med unfiltered you were on
the streets of Amsterdam as this chaos
took place can you tell us what you saw
and how the events
unfolded yes of course uh I was there
already at 6 o' before the game and um
that was uh well after some incidents
Dom square and uh it was pretty quiet so
the police guided the the supporters to
the Central Station and afterwards I was
thinking like okay let's go back at 11:
so 11:15 I was
there uh waiting and uh two groups of
supporters came one that directly from
Central Station where they also uh left
for the game and the other group was uh
approaching me on the right
side and um there you know I tend
uh how do you say some sort of
aggression they were definitely up to
something so I thought like uh better
watch to watch out uh what are they
doing you know and then uh they went uh
straight
to Dom square and when they were at Dak
that's the street uh between Central
Station and um Dom Square they lit
heavily
fireworks and it was a group of maybe
like 50 people and they went
away and they gathered in front of the
Victoria Hotel and these are makabi fans
you're referring to yes makabi
supporters uh so in your view these
people were behaving violently they
weren't just minding their own business
innocence no not at all what was your
reaction to seeing Outlets like CNN the
New York Times and others using your
footage of what happened but twisting it
to make it look like the macabi fans
were the
victims I was really
surprised I was following the group to
uh the whole route I was there for two
hours when I came back and yeah it was
like a war on uh on Twitter let's say x
and uh people framed my work and of
course uh that's terrible because they
told the opposite of what happened in
that
footage mainstream leading journalist
told the opposite of what happened in
your word Sky News in the UK has been
accused of misrepresenting your footage
as well at first Shing it saying it
showed makabi fans attacking locals maab
fans were seen attacking locals as a
police car can be seen driving by and
then switching it around and just saying
a large group of hooded men striking
people at random a video posted on
social media shows a large group of
hooded men dressed in black running down
the street and striking people at random
what do you make of that and was your
footage muge by Sky and
others yes so um they invite me to a
live show on Friday night that was uh 30
P 9 and uh I was I really had the
feeling that I was in a live show later
on I asked Sky News uh can I have a link
to the to the episode and they said oh
yeah we find it I never received the
link to the live show then I heard in
some sort of clip that was my voice over
and the second clip that was a clip of
Alice Porter uh they changed the whole
narrative again so yeah I was really
flabber guested you've received one
apology so far from a news organization
that misused your footage have any other
networks taken accountability do you
think they will do you think this will
improve reporting practices going
forward yes uh the first apology I
received was from tager Sha and that
that seemed really cool because first
they did um a
revision uh a rectification and then uh
they also um said uh apologies in a in a
broadcast so that was cool but um yeah
from the other um platforms like BBC
News and um and Sky News I didn't
receive any you know so that is really
frustrating when you see when you see
the president of the United States
putting out a tweet talking about the
victims of anti-Semitism in
Amsterdam and there was anti-Semitism
I'm sure from some of the people there's
been reports of people talking about Jew
hunt and others no one's questioning
that but the idea that the president
United States is tweeting about a group
of people who he makes sound like they
were just minding their own business and
they were attacked for being Jewish
you're saying that you are an eyewitness
who took footage on your phone of these
people
attacking an Arab Taxi Driver attacking
a Palestinian flag attacking locals just
to be clear that's what you saw
yeah it it's shocking it's it's really
shocking it's it's unbelievable I really
think it's very dangerous also for our
city you know we have a city with a with
a large history and
uh I think the the the game
uh I think they didn't have to uh invite
the supporters to our uh City I think
that's a mistake yeah these makabi fans
have a history of saying racist things
and doing outrageous things like they
did at the weekend um you haven't only
faced a misrepresentation of your work
but according to what I saw on social
media you've also dealt with character
assassination people attacking you
personally is that what's been happening
since the
weekend yeah especially the Dutch media
the Dutch right-wing media they are they
are after me right now and uh well I'm
not scared not really because yes I have
the truth of my footage and that's the
only thing you know why are they after
you why do you think they're after
you because the truth is unconvenient
they they want it to be about Arab
Muslim mobs attacking innocent Jews when
it was actually Israeli football
Hooligans and people violently
responding to Violent football
holigans well let me be clear uh I can't
say things about other incidents because
I was not there I was not witnessing
that and it's bad you know what happened
in in in all over is bad uh but the
chaos of course uh existed only by the
presence of the israelian
holigans former Israeli Prime Minister
naftali Bennett and the mayor of
Amsterdam among many others have likened
the violence at the weekend in Amsterdam
to a pogram against the Jewish people
was you filmed a
pogram um
no not at all not at all it's even so
that uh the Amsterdam locals the
Amsterdam youngsters who were
provocative of course they were present
I saw only one Palestinian
flag so of course there was provocation
on one hand to the other but I have
haven't seen a flag in that whole two
hours I was there but what I also
witnessed was uh I got messages uh in my
direct message afterwards from Neighbors
who live there and uh definitely knew
that it were israelian Hooligans banging
on the doors and shouting and they were
very scared I think that's a shame for
my City last question Annette what do
you think happen happens to people's
faith in the media when you're saying
that you saw one thing you photographed
and filmed one thing and some of the
world's biggest media
organizations told their viewers and
listeners the exact
opposite it's going on for years so I'm
not surprised but it's definitely
different when it's your own footage you
know I consume sometimes fake news but
yes I do your own research you know but
when you are the witness of your own
footage and they put it in a totally
different perspective yeah that's very
dangerous and of course I have the
responsibility as a world citizens to do
something about it well Annette We
Appreciate You exercising that
responsibility and speaking out and
correcting all of these major media
organizations on your own and facing
these threats from the Dutch far right
please do stay safe uh thank you for
filming what you filmed and thank you
for coming on May the unfiltered today
you're welcome
by Mehdi Hasan
Zeteo
Nov 12, 2024 #maccabitelaviv #israel #amsterdam
“They told the opposite of what happened in that footage.”
Photographer Annet de Graaf captured the Israeli Maccabi soccer fan violence in Amsterdam. In her first interview with US media, she tells Mehdi Hasan that outlets like Sky News, the New York Times, BBC, and CNN misused her footage and twisted the narrative to frame the Maccabi fans as victims of antisemitic attacks and overlook the anti-Arab racism that fueled the clash.
Transcript
[Mehdi Hasan] violence erupted in Amsterdam this
weekend when what started as a soccer
match between makabi t Aviv and aax
devolved into violent chaos across the
city headlines poured in about
anti-semitic attacks in Amsterdam but
these stories largely overlooked on
camera blatant anti-arab racism from
makabi supporters well beforehand and
yet it was barely a footnote in the
coverage despite the fact that footage
showed macabi supporters chanting racist
and genocidal slogans like death to the
Arabs and the IDF win they were seen
throwing stones and planks of wood at
police after the match Dutch officials
also confirmed that fans attacked a taxi
driver and burned the Palestinian flag
Sky News in the UK posted a video
detailing these attacks noting that
makabi fans are quote notorious for
their racism and physical violence
however that video was quickly deleted
and the network stated that the original
version failed to meet their standards
for balance and impartiality whatever
that means footage taken by Dutch
photographer Anette degraph was used in
both versions of the sky video showing
makabi fans attacking a Dutch resident
media Outlets like CNN the BBC the New
York Times also used or misused the very
same video twisting The Narrative to
suggest that macabi fans were the ones
being attacked we saw headlines about
pogroms and world leaders denouncing
anti-Semitism in Amsterdam as if these
Hooligans were just minding their own
business as if this was an attack not on
Israeli soccer hooligans but on all
Dutch Jews it wasn't the graph has
called On Media Outlets to apologize
stating that journalism is about finding
truth not about making money on a Twist
of the script and I couldn't have said
it better myself look no one is
disputing that there were also reports
of anti-Semitism of a person for example
calling for a Jew hunt which is
outrageous and should be condemned all
violence on all sides should be
condemned but the media's onesided
coverage painting macabi fans these
well-known racist soccer hooligans
chanting genocide and anti-arab slogans
painting them as the innocent victims
has once again proven that our media and
our political class deem the suffering
of Israelis to be more important than
the suffering of Arabs the attacks in
Amsterdam didn't occur in a vacuum and
this Erasure of responsibility this
cuddling of the Israeli farri right this
misuse of words like anti-Semitism and
pogram and this blatant media bias make
the racist violence we saw in Amsterdam
more more likely not less likely to
happen again joining me now is Annette
degraph who captured the events in
Amsterdam she's a renowned iPhone
photographer who's even photographed Tim
Cook H Annette thank you so much for
joining me on Med unfiltered you were on
the streets of Amsterdam as this chaos
took place can you tell us what you saw
and how the events
unfolded yes of course uh I was there
already at 6 o' before the game and um
that was uh well after some incidents
Dom square and uh it was pretty quiet so
the police guided the the supporters to
the Central Station and afterwards I was
thinking like okay let's go back at 11:
so 11:15 I was
there uh waiting and uh two groups of
supporters came one that directly from
Central Station where they also uh left
for the game and the other group was uh
approaching me on the right
side and um there you know I tend
uh how do you say some sort of
aggression they were definitely up to
something so I thought like uh better
watch to watch out uh what are they
doing you know and then uh they went uh
straight
to Dom square and when they were at Dak
that's the street uh between Central
Station and um Dom Square they lit
heavily
fireworks and it was a group of maybe
like 50 people and they went
away and they gathered in front of the
Victoria Hotel and these are makabi fans
you're referring to yes makabi
supporters uh so in your view these
people were behaving violently they
weren't just minding their own business
innocence no not at all what was your
reaction to seeing Outlets like CNN the
New York Times and others using your
footage of what happened but twisting it
to make it look like the macabi fans
were the
victims I was really
surprised I was following the group to
uh the whole route I was there for two
hours when I came back and yeah it was
like a war on uh on Twitter let's say x
and uh people framed my work and of
course uh that's terrible because they
told the opposite of what happened in
that
footage mainstream leading journalist
told the opposite of what happened in
your word Sky News in the UK has been
accused of misrepresenting your footage
as well at first Shing it saying it
showed makabi fans attacking locals maab
fans were seen attacking locals as a
police car can be seen driving by and
then switching it around and just saying
a large group of hooded men striking
people at random a video posted on
social media shows a large group of
hooded men dressed in black running down
the street and striking people at random
what do you make of that and was your
footage muge by Sky and
others yes so um they invite me to a
live show on Friday night that was uh 30
P 9 and uh I was I really had the
feeling that I was in a live show later
on I asked Sky News uh can I have a link
to the to the episode and they said oh
yeah we find it I never received the
link to the live show then I heard in
some sort of clip that was my voice over
and the second clip that was a clip of
Alice Porter uh they changed the whole
narrative again so yeah I was really
flabber guested you've received one
apology so far from a news organization
that misused your footage have any other
networks taken accountability do you
think they will do you think this will
improve reporting practices going
forward yes uh the first apology I
received was from tager Sha and that
that seemed really cool because first
they did um a
revision uh a rectification and then uh
they also um said uh apologies in a in a
broadcast so that was cool but um yeah
from the other um platforms like BBC
News and um and Sky News I didn't
receive any you know so that is really
frustrating when you see when you see
the president of the United States
putting out a tweet talking about the
victims of anti-Semitism in
Amsterdam and there was anti-Semitism
I'm sure from some of the people there's
been reports of people talking about Jew
hunt and others no one's questioning
that but the idea that the president
United States is tweeting about a group
of people who he makes sound like they
were just minding their own business and
they were attacked for being Jewish
you're saying that you are an eyewitness
who took footage on your phone of these
people
attacking an Arab Taxi Driver attacking
a Palestinian flag attacking locals just
to be clear that's what you saw
yeah it it's shocking it's it's really
shocking it's it's unbelievable I really
think it's very dangerous also for our
city you know we have a city with a with
a large history and
uh I think the the the game
uh I think they didn't have to uh invite
the supporters to our uh City I think
that's a mistake yeah these makabi fans
have a history of saying racist things
and doing outrageous things like they
did at the weekend um you haven't only
faced a misrepresentation of your work
but according to what I saw on social
media you've also dealt with character
assassination people attacking you
personally is that what's been happening
since the
weekend yeah especially the Dutch media
the Dutch right-wing media they are they
are after me right now and uh well I'm
not scared not really because yes I have
the truth of my footage and that's the
only thing you know why are they after
you why do you think they're after
you because the truth is unconvenient
they they want it to be about Arab
Muslim mobs attacking innocent Jews when
it was actually Israeli football
Hooligans and people violently
responding to Violent football
holigans well let me be clear uh I can't
say things about other incidents because
I was not there I was not witnessing
that and it's bad you know what happened
in in in all over is bad uh but the
chaos of course uh existed only by the
presence of the israelian
holigans former Israeli Prime Minister
naftali Bennett and the mayor of
Amsterdam among many others have likened
the violence at the weekend in Amsterdam
to a pogram against the Jewish people
was you filmed a
pogram um
no not at all not at all it's even so
that uh the Amsterdam locals the
Amsterdam youngsters who were
provocative of course they were present
I saw only one Palestinian
flag so of course there was provocation
on one hand to the other but I have
haven't seen a flag in that whole two
hours I was there but what I also
witnessed was uh I got messages uh in my
direct message afterwards from Neighbors
who live there and uh definitely knew
that it were israelian Hooligans banging
on the doors and shouting and they were
very scared I think that's a shame for
my City last question Annette what do
you think happen happens to people's
faith in the media when you're saying
that you saw one thing you photographed
and filmed one thing and some of the
world's biggest media
organizations told their viewers and
listeners the exact
opposite it's going on for years so I'm
not surprised but it's definitely
different when it's your own footage you
know I consume sometimes fake news but
yes I do your own research you know but
when you are the witness of your own
footage and they put it in a totally
different perspective yeah that's very
dangerous and of course I have the
responsibility as a world citizens to do
something about it well Annette We
Appreciate You exercising that
responsibility and speaking out and
correcting all of these major media
organizations on your own and facing
these threats from the Dutch far right
please do stay safe uh thank you for
filming what you filmed and thank you
for coming on May the unfiltered today
you're welcome
- admin
- Site Admin
- Posts: 37494
- Joined: Thu Aug 01, 2013 5:21 am
Re: Washington Post’s ‘Fake News’ Guilt, by Robert Parry
by admin » Tue Nov 19, 2024 10:47 pm
Amsterdam riots: what really happened
by ABC News In-depth
Nov 18, 2024 #ABCNewsIndepth #ABCNewsAustralia
What really happened in Amsterdam’s soccer riots between supporters of Ajax Amsterdam and Maccabi Tel Aviv? We look at how the truth got lost in the rush to judgement.
Transcript
Amsterdam riots
first the streets of Amsterdam Vision
reportedly showing Jewish soccer fans
hunted like animals the Dutch have been
shamed and shocked by a Jew hunt by
Muslims in the streets of Amsterdam also
full coverage tonight of the Amsterdam
pgam hello I'm Paul Barry welcome to
Media Watch and there were pograms and
Jew hunts making headlines on Sky News
last week after clashes between Pro
Palestinian protesters and Israeli
soccer fans in Amsterdam and newspaper
leads were almost as frightening with
the Australian declaring planes rush to
save Jews in Amsterdam and the New York
Times telling Americans anti-semitic
attacks prompt emergency flights for
Israeli soccer fans but nowhere was
there more fear and outrage than on Sher
markson's Sky News show on Monday where
she reminded us it was Remembrance Day
and launched into this emotional oration
on this precise day this sacred day the
very values our Allied soldiers
sacrificed their lives for are at grave
risk as Islamic fundamentalists and woke
leftists join forces to weaken western
civilization and to rip away at the
fabric that holds our society together
that is some claim the Dutch politicians
were also ramping it up with Amsterdam
mayor fem Halima saying the attacks on
the fans from makabi Tel Aviv reminded
her of Nazi pogroms and telling the
media
so how many soccer fans were killed or
injured thousands hundreds scores in
fact no one died and as the New York
Times reported after 24 hours five
Israelis who had been hospitalized with
injuries were discharged so not exactly
AOG which is defined as an organized
Massacre
but it wasn't just The Usual Suspects on
Sky who were turning ugly street fights
into Echoes of the Holocaust a video
from the Murdo London son also claimed
Israeli football fans had been hunted by
an anti-semitic mob and had the chairman
of the European Jewish Association
calling it all very shocking but
unfortunately very not surprising it is
already from month after month that we
are calling European authorities to
understand that the level of
anti-Semitism in Europe break its record
every single day the rabbis fears of
rising anti-Semitism are undeniable but
that distressing footage actually showed
Israeli fans doing the hunting as Dutch
photographer Anette degraph who filmed
the Rampage made clear on X at the time
and later told zos Mar Hassan and these
are makabi fans you're referring to yes
makabi supporters that's terrible
because they told the opposite of what
happened in that footage and the New
York times admitted they made the same
mistake removing the video and
Publishing a correction that put the
blame on Reuters who distributed the
footage the videoos author told the New
York Times it shows a group of makabi
fans chasing a man on the street a
description the times independently
confirmed with other verified footage
from the scene but it wasn't just the
Sun and New York Times who got it wrong
on x a number of pro Zionist accounts
had already used the video to spread
their message Muslim mobs in Amsterdam
are hunting news tonight with that
single post viewed over 7 million times
and a host of TV networks were doing the
same including NBC zdf Sky News
Australia the ABC and BBC which used it
in its opening shots for newsight and
its Flagship 10 p.m. bulletin and why
were they all running the same vision
because there was really nothing else
the same rampaging macabi fans were also
captured by 14-year-old Dutch vlogger om
who tagged his YouTube video Israeli
holligans turn Amsterdam upside down and
as New York Times visual investigations
expert Christian trebert noted Bender's
17-minute video showed macabi fans
stealing steel pipes putting on masks
and chasing someone a metal pipe appears
to be thrown at a police vehicle but the
media weren't just guilty of missing
this they ignored or glossed over half
the story the day before the match
against local team ax makabi fans ripped
down and burnt a Palestinian flag while
groups of supporters also beat up a taxi
driver and vandalized several taxes and
on Match Day around 1,000 fans masked in
the city center and let off
flares then March to the stadium
chanting racist anti-arab
[Applause]
chants some meter reports did mention
these provocations but only as an
afterthought with ABC's 7 p.m. news
framing its story like this tensions in
the Middle East spilling onto the
streets of
Amsterdam groups of young men scour the
Dutch capital hunting down Israeli
soccer fans now you know how it feel sir
many are ambushed kicked and beaten
before their attackers flee that ABC
report casts the pro Palestinian news as
hunters and attackers
and the macabi soccer fans as prey even
though once again its key footage showed
the macabi fans doing the hunting and
when it eventually came to describing
the actions of the fans the language of
the report was very different this video
emerged on social media one day earlier
and police say the Israeli football fans
set fire to a Palestinian flag and
attacked a
taxi on their way to the game they
masked on the streets setting off FL
playes chanting let the IDF win and
directing swear words at Arabs
Amsterdam's mayor says it's no excuse
that report was rightly picked apart on
Instagram by Jan Fran host of the ABC's
question everything who noted that the
Israeli fans violence and aggression was
framed as allegations not fact and she
continued they weren't chanting let the
IDF win the full chant was let the IDF
win with will [ __ ] the
Arabs here it
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
is that ABC report which was up for a
week has now been taken offline with the
ABC telling Media Watch after being
informed by the agency Reuters that the
description of the vision was incorrect
the ABC removed the story on Friday
otherwise the story was an accurate
snapshot of the information available at
that time Britain's Sky News offered a
far more balanced version of the clashes
with Alice Porter one of the handful to
use the footage of makabi fans correctly
and concluding her report by saying
Dutch Israeli and British leaders
denounced the attacks as anti-semitic
and even referred to it as a pogram but
their statements failed to mention the
assaults by the Israeli Hooligans
against Dutch citizens but as talk of
Jew hunts and pogroms ramped up Sky News
deleted a tweet about the makabi fans
anti-arab slogans and took down the
report re-editing it with a new strap
line that called the violence
anti-semitic taking out Porter's end
comment and adding a grab from the Dutch
pm to say this is simply anti-semitic
violence against Israelis that actually
defies description and having initially
described the key footage thus McVey
fans were seen attacking locals as a
police car can be seen driving by Sky
got Alice Porter to record new
commentary calling them A large group of
hooded men dressed in black running down
the street and striking people at random
all of which resulted in at least one
complaint to the UK media regulator so
what did go down in Amsterdam and how
should the media have reported it
certainly better than they did because
two angry mobs were involved with
violence on both sides and while
anti-Semitism was an ingredient the
claims of a Nazi pogram were ridiculous
and even Dutch authorities have now
toned down their claims with a
preliminary report blaming a toxic
combination of anti-Semitism hooliganism
and anger about the conflicts in
Palestine and Israel yes it's related to
the war in Gaza but it's also complex
and nuanced unlike much of the reporting
which is almost always one-sided often
wrong and at times hysteric
2GB spears and fears
irle but now to Sydney's top rating
breakfast show and a dramatic scoop that
no one else got wind of wait till you
see this footage out of the top end it's
filmed from a police car and there are
two groups throwing Spears at each other
that is 2gb's Ben forom expressing alarm
over a violent video from the top end
which he posted on X and to avoid
reigniting tensions in the community we
have been asked not to show it one is
HIIT in the shoulder another in the leg
and one in the chest the audio Paints
the picture though with police right in
the thick of
it window up window up that was a spear
hitting the police car the video was
filmed on Groot Island and shot from a
nearby police vehicle with running
commentary from officers in the car oh
in the
lake come your
ass oh
s we got to
go forom called it a terrifying incident
and promis listeners Spears flying in
the Northern Territory some wild footage
there we'll talk to our mate Darren
Clark and who is he Darren Clark is an
Alice Springs local his long campaign
against the crime wave in his town he
posted the spear throwing video on his
action for Alice account on X the day
before and he was busting to tell forom
all about it it's insane to watch that
footage um where people actually in this
day and age are getting speared looked
place the police just wouldn't have got
out of their car then because it's just
too unsafe with Clark then taking aim at
the NT police for keeping the public in
the dark we haven't heard a thing about
that there hasn't been a police media
release up here on that um not a thing
mate um so it just gets kind of covered
up and brushed to the side yes a cover
up scandalous but it doesn't take long
to discover it's not true because there
are at least four media releases from
the police about the spe which are all
available online and they're all dated
November 2015 making forum's amazing
scoop 9 years old yet he told his
listeners I'm going to sound really
naive here Darren but I had no idea that
people were still going to war with
Spears in the top end in
2024 no idea that would be right Ben
even though two men were killed during
the riot as the headlines from 2015 make
clear meantime ENT police had to issue a
new press statement last week to say the
footage was old and contains images and
references to Aboriginal people who have
passed away and it may be distressing to
some viewers particularly to family
members a warning 2GB failed to include
so why did forom and Co assume this had
all just happened simply because nobody
checked with forum's mate Darren Clark
apparently taking the video from an
anonymous Tik Tok account and then
turning up in 2gb's breakfast show the
next day to say my
you can't make it up and and we're in
2024 and we've got this stuff going on
yep you can't make it up on Friday we
asked nine why forom had failed to do
any checks and why the story was still
on the 2GB website given police had
warned two days earlier that it was old
this morning Ben forom responded telling
listeners we accept the correction and
apologize for the mistake the first wi
knew about this was Friday afternoon
when we received a media inquiry we
immedi complely removed the website
article and the social media post
relating to the video and I accept full
responsibility for the mistake good on
him shame they didn't check before
hitting the moral panic button but
Coked up ACT
finally let's spin back more than a year
to this warning on the front page of the
Daily Telegraph Top Cop fears byes users
will flood Australia's C up Capital
sydneys Siders are expected to flock to
canra for drug fueled parties yes the
party capital of Australia canra with
that warning coming from the AFP Deputy
Commissioner after the ACT brought in
Drug law reforms which decriminalized
small amounts of illicit drugs like
cocaine cannabis and Ice which saw
Nine's Today Show also pushing the alarm
button this is not a proposal this is
not a thought this is a thing this is
happening that is heroin that is cocaine
that is ice meanwhile Sky Steve price
was also issuing a warning of his own
camber is now a petri dish of lunatics
it's going to become a drug adult druggy
Central and the Daily Mail was ripping
off the Telly story and warning the ACT
would become a fantasy land of drugs
while embedding an alarming video of
fentanyl addicts in Philadelphia and
claiming there were fears the peaceful
streets could be turned into a cesspool
of criminal activity similar to parts of
the United States where drug adult
zombies roam the Pavements and who
feared that apart from the mail it's
didn't say so 15 months on have these
scary headlines about CRA come true
you'll be shocked to hear they have not
with the ABC hitting the streets at
night to discover well not very much
these volunteers haven't seen any
difference I haven't seen an increase or
decrease in in Behavior there's still
drugs around there's still intoxicated
persons we don't see too many hard drugs
out in the city yes pissed punters but
no drug zombies and that was confirmed
by wi News 12 months on from polarizing
policy the game makers of drug
decriminalization calling it a success
the legislation pushing more at risk
hand bearance to Community Support
facilities which is what it was designed
to do but what about Ray Hadley's claim
that vicious bikes would be turning the
capital into a dangerous drug Den
they're saying to these people who deal
in Murder Mayhem rape and
drugs come to camera
and how has that turned out certainly we
haven't seen a significant change in
Behavior at all so have the scaremongers
in the media who made those shock
predictions had anything to say one year
on not that we could find except this
reverse feret from The Daily Mail which
ran an AAP story which all but confirmed
the original fears were just a beat up
half and puff warnings over drug laws
lack
substance no kidding and we'll be
keeping an eye out for all those media
apologies that we sure must be on their
way that's all from us for tonight you
can read a statement from the ABC on our
website
by ABC News In-depth
Nov 18, 2024 #ABCNewsIndepth #ABCNewsAustralia
What really happened in Amsterdam’s soccer riots between supporters of Ajax Amsterdam and Maccabi Tel Aviv? We look at how the truth got lost in the rush to judgement.
Transcript
Amsterdam riots
first the streets of Amsterdam Vision
reportedly showing Jewish soccer fans
hunted like animals the Dutch have been
shamed and shocked by a Jew hunt by
Muslims in the streets of Amsterdam also
full coverage tonight of the Amsterdam
pgam hello I'm Paul Barry welcome to
Media Watch and there were pograms and
Jew hunts making headlines on Sky News
last week after clashes between Pro
Palestinian protesters and Israeli
soccer fans in Amsterdam and newspaper
leads were almost as frightening with
the Australian declaring planes rush to
save Jews in Amsterdam and the New York
Times telling Americans anti-semitic
attacks prompt emergency flights for
Israeli soccer fans but nowhere was
there more fear and outrage than on Sher
markson's Sky News show on Monday where
she reminded us it was Remembrance Day
and launched into this emotional oration
on this precise day this sacred day the
very values our Allied soldiers
sacrificed their lives for are at grave
risk as Islamic fundamentalists and woke
leftists join forces to weaken western
civilization and to rip away at the
fabric that holds our society together
that is some claim the Dutch politicians
were also ramping it up with Amsterdam
mayor fem Halima saying the attacks on
the fans from makabi Tel Aviv reminded
her of Nazi pogroms and telling the
media
so how many soccer fans were killed or
injured thousands hundreds scores in
fact no one died and as the New York
Times reported after 24 hours five
Israelis who had been hospitalized with
injuries were discharged so not exactly
AOG which is defined as an organized
Massacre
but it wasn't just The Usual Suspects on
Sky who were turning ugly street fights
into Echoes of the Holocaust a video
from the Murdo London son also claimed
Israeli football fans had been hunted by
an anti-semitic mob and had the chairman
of the European Jewish Association
calling it all very shocking but
unfortunately very not surprising it is
already from month after month that we
are calling European authorities to
understand that the level of
anti-Semitism in Europe break its record
every single day the rabbis fears of
rising anti-Semitism are undeniable but
that distressing footage actually showed
Israeli fans doing the hunting as Dutch
photographer Anette degraph who filmed
the Rampage made clear on X at the time
and later told zos Mar Hassan and these
are makabi fans you're referring to yes
makabi supporters that's terrible
because they told the opposite of what
happened in that footage and the New
York times admitted they made the same
mistake removing the video and
Publishing a correction that put the
blame on Reuters who distributed the
footage the videoos author told the New
York Times it shows a group of makabi
fans chasing a man on the street a
description the times independently
confirmed with other verified footage
from the scene but it wasn't just the
Sun and New York Times who got it wrong
on x a number of pro Zionist accounts
had already used the video to spread
their message Muslim mobs in Amsterdam
are hunting news tonight with that
single post viewed over 7 million times
and a host of TV networks were doing the
same including NBC zdf Sky News
Australia the ABC and BBC which used it
in its opening shots for newsight and
its Flagship 10 p.m. bulletin and why
were they all running the same vision
because there was really nothing else
the same rampaging macabi fans were also
captured by 14-year-old Dutch vlogger om
who tagged his YouTube video Israeli
holligans turn Amsterdam upside down and
as New York Times visual investigations
expert Christian trebert noted Bender's
17-minute video showed macabi fans
stealing steel pipes putting on masks
and chasing someone a metal pipe appears
to be thrown at a police vehicle but the
media weren't just guilty of missing
this they ignored or glossed over half
the story the day before the match
against local team ax makabi fans ripped
down and burnt a Palestinian flag while
groups of supporters also beat up a taxi
driver and vandalized several taxes and
on Match Day around 1,000 fans masked in
the city center and let off
flares then March to the stadium
chanting racist anti-arab
[Applause]
chants some meter reports did mention
these provocations but only as an
afterthought with ABC's 7 p.m. news
framing its story like this tensions in
the Middle East spilling onto the
streets of
Amsterdam groups of young men scour the
Dutch capital hunting down Israeli
soccer fans now you know how it feel sir
many are ambushed kicked and beaten
before their attackers flee that ABC
report casts the pro Palestinian news as
hunters and attackers
and the macabi soccer fans as prey even
though once again its key footage showed
the macabi fans doing the hunting and
when it eventually came to describing
the actions of the fans the language of
the report was very different this video
emerged on social media one day earlier
and police say the Israeli football fans
set fire to a Palestinian flag and
attacked a
taxi on their way to the game they
masked on the streets setting off FL
playes chanting let the IDF win and
directing swear words at Arabs
Amsterdam's mayor says it's no excuse
that report was rightly picked apart on
Instagram by Jan Fran host of the ABC's
question everything who noted that the
Israeli fans violence and aggression was
framed as allegations not fact and she
continued they weren't chanting let the
IDF win the full chant was let the IDF
win with will [ __ ] the
Arabs here it
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
is that ABC report which was up for a
week has now been taken offline with the
ABC telling Media Watch after being
informed by the agency Reuters that the
description of the vision was incorrect
the ABC removed the story on Friday
otherwise the story was an accurate
snapshot of the information available at
that time Britain's Sky News offered a
far more balanced version of the clashes
with Alice Porter one of the handful to
use the footage of makabi fans correctly
and concluding her report by saying
Dutch Israeli and British leaders
denounced the attacks as anti-semitic
and even referred to it as a pogram but
their statements failed to mention the
assaults by the Israeli Hooligans
against Dutch citizens but as talk of
Jew hunts and pogroms ramped up Sky News
deleted a tweet about the makabi fans
anti-arab slogans and took down the
report re-editing it with a new strap
line that called the violence
anti-semitic taking out Porter's end
comment and adding a grab from the Dutch
pm to say this is simply anti-semitic
violence against Israelis that actually
defies description and having initially
described the key footage thus McVey
fans were seen attacking locals as a
police car can be seen driving by Sky
got Alice Porter to record new
commentary calling them A large group of
hooded men dressed in black running down
the street and striking people at random
all of which resulted in at least one
complaint to the UK media regulator so
what did go down in Amsterdam and how
should the media have reported it
certainly better than they did because
two angry mobs were involved with
violence on both sides and while
anti-Semitism was an ingredient the
claims of a Nazi pogram were ridiculous
and even Dutch authorities have now
toned down their claims with a
preliminary report blaming a toxic
combination of anti-Semitism hooliganism
and anger about the conflicts in
Palestine and Israel yes it's related to
the war in Gaza but it's also complex
and nuanced unlike much of the reporting
which is almost always one-sided often
wrong and at times hysteric
2GB spears and fears
irle but now to Sydney's top rating
breakfast show and a dramatic scoop that
no one else got wind of wait till you
see this footage out of the top end it's
filmed from a police car and there are
two groups throwing Spears at each other
that is 2gb's Ben forom expressing alarm
over a violent video from the top end
which he posted on X and to avoid
reigniting tensions in the community we
have been asked not to show it one is
HIIT in the shoulder another in the leg
and one in the chest the audio Paints
the picture though with police right in
the thick of
it window up window up that was a spear
hitting the police car the video was
filmed on Groot Island and shot from a
nearby police vehicle with running
commentary from officers in the car oh
in the
lake come your
ass oh
s we got to
go forom called it a terrifying incident
and promis listeners Spears flying in
the Northern Territory some wild footage
there we'll talk to our mate Darren
Clark and who is he Darren Clark is an
Alice Springs local his long campaign
against the crime wave in his town he
posted the spear throwing video on his
action for Alice account on X the day
before and he was busting to tell forom
all about it it's insane to watch that
footage um where people actually in this
day and age are getting speared looked
place the police just wouldn't have got
out of their car then because it's just
too unsafe with Clark then taking aim at
the NT police for keeping the public in
the dark we haven't heard a thing about
that there hasn't been a police media
release up here on that um not a thing
mate um so it just gets kind of covered
up and brushed to the side yes a cover
up scandalous but it doesn't take long
to discover it's not true because there
are at least four media releases from
the police about the spe which are all
available online and they're all dated
November 2015 making forum's amazing
scoop 9 years old yet he told his
listeners I'm going to sound really
naive here Darren but I had no idea that
people were still going to war with
Spears in the top end in
2024 no idea that would be right Ben
even though two men were killed during
the riot as the headlines from 2015 make
clear meantime ENT police had to issue a
new press statement last week to say the
footage was old and contains images and
references to Aboriginal people who have
passed away and it may be distressing to
some viewers particularly to family
members a warning 2GB failed to include
so why did forom and Co assume this had
all just happened simply because nobody
checked with forum's mate Darren Clark
apparently taking the video from an
anonymous Tik Tok account and then
turning up in 2gb's breakfast show the
next day to say my
you can't make it up and and we're in
2024 and we've got this stuff going on
yep you can't make it up on Friday we
asked nine why forom had failed to do
any checks and why the story was still
on the 2GB website given police had
warned two days earlier that it was old
this morning Ben forom responded telling
listeners we accept the correction and
apologize for the mistake the first wi
knew about this was Friday afternoon
when we received a media inquiry we
immedi complely removed the website
article and the social media post
relating to the video and I accept full
responsibility for the mistake good on
him shame they didn't check before
hitting the moral panic button but
Coked up ACT
finally let's spin back more than a year
to this warning on the front page of the
Daily Telegraph Top Cop fears byes users
will flood Australia's C up Capital
sydneys Siders are expected to flock to
canra for drug fueled parties yes the
party capital of Australia canra with
that warning coming from the AFP Deputy
Commissioner after the ACT brought in
Drug law reforms which decriminalized
small amounts of illicit drugs like
cocaine cannabis and Ice which saw
Nine's Today Show also pushing the alarm
button this is not a proposal this is
not a thought this is a thing this is
happening that is heroin that is cocaine
that is ice meanwhile Sky Steve price
was also issuing a warning of his own
camber is now a petri dish of lunatics
it's going to become a drug adult druggy
Central and the Daily Mail was ripping
off the Telly story and warning the ACT
would become a fantasy land of drugs
while embedding an alarming video of
fentanyl addicts in Philadelphia and
claiming there were fears the peaceful
streets could be turned into a cesspool
of criminal activity similar to parts of
the United States where drug adult
zombies roam the Pavements and who
feared that apart from the mail it's
didn't say so 15 months on have these
scary headlines about CRA come true
you'll be shocked to hear they have not
with the ABC hitting the streets at
night to discover well not very much
these volunteers haven't seen any
difference I haven't seen an increase or
decrease in in Behavior there's still
drugs around there's still intoxicated
persons we don't see too many hard drugs
out in the city yes pissed punters but
no drug zombies and that was confirmed
by wi News 12 months on from polarizing
policy the game makers of drug
decriminalization calling it a success
the legislation pushing more at risk
hand bearance to Community Support
facilities which is what it was designed
to do but what about Ray Hadley's claim
that vicious bikes would be turning the
capital into a dangerous drug Den
they're saying to these people who deal
in Murder Mayhem rape and
drugs come to camera
and how has that turned out certainly we
haven't seen a significant change in
Behavior at all so have the scaremongers
in the media who made those shock
predictions had anything to say one year
on not that we could find except this
reverse feret from The Daily Mail which
ran an AAP story which all but confirmed
the original fears were just a beat up
half and puff warnings over drug laws
lack
substance no kidding and we'll be
keeping an eye out for all those media
apologies that we sure must be on their
way that's all from us for tonight you
can read a statement from the ABC on our
website
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