We've received some really encouraging feedback from Lamestream listeners and subscribers this week.
Some readers, who work in the media, told us how helpful its been to have our reporting and analysis explain what's going on in workplaces they care about, like our reporting about the ABC cuts and how that decision includes the gutting of arts coverage at the public broadcaster.
Even nice is hearing from people who care about the news they're getting and have got in touch to say conversations we've had have helped make sense of things they're struggling to understand through the mainstream media – like the discussion we had on the podcast this week about the media's manipulation by Israel to help it's strikes on Iran.
It's the biggest story in the world right now, with Donald Trump promising overnight that he will make the decision on whether the US will join the war and attack Iran, "in the next two weeks."
It's a chilling possibility and it's so important we give it attention, which is why Os has an analysis piece for you today on how the media became swept up in a march towards war. It's an important decoding of the coverage we're seeing, clearly laying out how the media has chosen to cover pro-war propaganda in a way they cover no other story involving Donald Trump.
This is a story that matters to Australians, as Scott mentioned on the podcast this week, whenever the US directly attacks targets in the Middle East, Australia is involved – even if it's only logistic support like ground control, refueling or surveillance – you'd be hard pressed to find any strike in the last 25 years, Australia hasn't joined in a when the US intervenes in the middle east.
If Australia is at risk of supporting a Donald Trump war on Iran, Australians deserve to know what is happening – and they deserve journalism that pushes our political leaders on whether they would really help conduct illegal killings and aggression overseas.
Thank you for your support.
Here is what we've got for you this week:
👀 Killer Grabs: Quotes from around the traps.
✍ In 2003 the media let us into a devastating war. They're doing it again. — By Osman Faruqi
🏆 The Good Ones: The best journalism, opinion and entertainment for you to enjoy.
Killer Grabs
"A requirement for union members to give up their rights to industrial action for 12 months." – Email sent to unionised ABC staff by the journalist's union.
It's awkward timing, but fresh from last week's cuts ABC management has to sit down at the bargaining table with staff on Monday to hammer out the next enterprise bargaining agreement. It's understood the broadcaster's bosses will offer a one-year pay increase upfront, but only if they get a written promise that union staff won't take any action in the next 12 months.
Why would ABC leaders want industrial action off the table so badly? It couldn't be because there's more job cuts coming in the next 12 months, could it?
"All of the messages you send to family and friends on WhatsApp are end-to-end encrypted meaning no-one except the sender and recipient has access to those messages." — A spokesperson for WhatsApp gets dragged into the Israel-Iran war.
This week, Iran accused WhatsApp's parent company Meta of helping Israel zero-in on its assassination targets. The strange thing is, Iran never accused the company of sharing the content of messages or of knowingly collaborating with Israel. The accusation was that location data had been used by Israel.
So are there some loops still to be closed, before the fact checkers put this bed?
In 2003 the media let us into a devastating war. They're doing it again.
By Osman Faruqi
This week, Tucker Carlson went viral.
That’s not a sentence I thought I’d write, let alone thought I’d use to open a piece about the media’s role in manufacturing consent for a war in Iran.
The deeply conservative, pro-Trump, racist, former Fox News host conducted an interview with Republican Senator Ted Cruz, which tens of millions have viewed, and it's been shared by those on the left, more than by Republicans or Trump supporters.
