Let's have a space where we can compare the relative merits of the mainstream media versus those ['alternative media'] websites...
Plaudits.
I believe that the mainstream media... will issue a correction of a story that was later found to be incorrect.
This may be correct but I have a number of issues with this that are too complex to drag out here. In summation, ideological priorities and positioning i.e news values, secondly, timing. It's all well and good issuing a retraction, the falsification has already been rendered, the damage, done. Part and parcel of a rolling news propaganda model.
This is an opportunity to justify the accusations of lying and cite examples (WITH LINKS) of instances where either the mainstream media or the alternative media have posted a story that turned out to be incorrect and failed to issue a correction.
I would like this thread to stick to evidence to support your views, not just another back and forth of people's opinions.
One example at a time. Good.
Libya. Objective, historical facts: CIA infiltrated sovereign nation in turmoil. Leader of nation sodomised, anally raped with a knife, murdered without trial.
Leave opinions to one side. These are facts. Selective facts, granted. Still facts. Actually that's a third issue here (or relevant to my first point concerning news values, rather).
An example of presentation that week. This one is from the British Broadcasting Corporation:
Transcript (capitalised words highlight the words their voices emphasise to viewers):
Person A: Let's just take you live to Tripoli, I want to show you some pictures there. This is people in Tripoli, in Seta, I think it's GREEN SQUARE, renamed Martyr Square. Call it... Well choose your names really...
Person B (interjects): Pick your names really. I think it's still Green Square, renamed by those... but as you can see a MASS, a HUGE throng of people turning out. We spoke very briefly to [a BBC correspondent] this morning who described the scenes of jubilation and celebration saying it was a VERY GOOD DAY.
Person A: More on that after 7.
End of transcript. The United Kingdom finishes their eggs and toast, turns off the television and goes to work with visions of jubilation and celebration at a pivotal moment in human history.
Fact: It is not Tripoli. It is India.
Reread transcript and note possible - only possible - "Freudian" quality (my emphases).
Person A: Let's just take you "LIVE" to "Tripoli". I WANT to SHOW YOU some pictures THERE. This IS people in Tripoli, in Seta, I think it IS GREEN SQUARE, renamed Martyr Square. Call it... Well, [we will] chose [our]
your names really...
Person B (interjects): Pick [our]
your names really. I think it's still [not] Green Square, renamed by those [at the BBC]... But as YOU CAN SEE a MASS, a HUGE throng of people turning out. We spoke very briefly to [a BBC correspondent] this morning who described the scenes of jubilation and celebration saying it was a VERY GOOD DAY.
Person A: More on that after 7.
End of transcript.
As this video instance is embedded here I would like to point out one or two of the comments below the upload, in speech marks, as they help inform us of something. Firstly, the standard faux-pragmatism, the standard rhetorical retort comment:
"Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence."
Then:
"BBC reports live from Libya, but shows people in India. They obviously think people are that stupid."
People are that stupid. In fact it is not stupidity at all. It is wilful desire to trust, perfectly understandable, an innate human quality, and unfortunately, very easily exploited.
Most apposite and informative comments, in my opinion, are these two, from the same gentleman:
"The BBC received 50,000 emails and responded that it was just a terrible mistake".
Could have been, most certainly could have been. This would of course support what is claimed here on this thread. The falsification is a fact of history, the idea has been visually seeded in the viewer's mind, but yes, they have retracted the assertion. However, the gentleman's second comment leaves us with doubts on the sincerity of this retraction:
"The BBC claimed they chose the wrong footage by mistake. Impossible... it was supposed to be a live stream and by accident they roll [historical] footage of Indian Independence day".