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The UK-Based Index on Censorship
Currently, defamation is casting a chill on free speech as a recurring theme. In the past year, UK libel law favored claimants by being hostile to free expression. In addition, "libel tourism," letting overseas plaintiffs sue in British courts, has turned the country into a virtual "international tribunal for defamation," but not without countermeasures from other countries, including in America where New York, Illinois, and Florida passed laws protecting their residents from English libel suits. Congress is also considering a law to make them unconstitutional.
The Index on Censorship magazine devoted an entire issue to the state of defamation around the world, and found that while the spirit for reform is strong, scant change followed.
The Hyperreality of a Failing Corporate Media System
Andrew Hobbs and Peter Phillips explain that "Hyperreality is the inability to distinguish between what is real and what is not," typical of how the corporate media operate, especially Fox News. Since most people rely on television for information, they're "embedded in a state of excited delirium and knowinglessness," the same sentiment expressed by an old TV sitcom law professor complaining about new students "com(ing) in(to his classroom) with a head full of mush...."
In the corporate media, model democrats like Hugo Chavez are called strongmen, autocrats and dictators. Figures like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck become folk heros for the extreme right. Others as bad get prime time exposure while real journalists are nowhere in sight.
Is PC a Left-Leaning, Conspiracy-Oriented Organization?
Peter Phillips and Mickey Huff would agree about a conspiracy for truth over propaganda, lies, disinformation, and junk news. Each year, "over 200 faculty and students from multiple disciplines and political orientations work with PC," and since 1976 "Over 1,500 students have been trained in media research techniques," ones that produce real journalism, not the fake, deceptive corporate-controlled kind that delivers everything but what people need to know.
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