the royal family on his you tube channel activists in argentina resumed their battle to legalize abortion demonstrators rounds in the capital where politicians are presenting a bill to allow abortions up to the 14th week of pregnancy a similar measure was now in the defeated last year those are the headlines the news continues after the listening post i will see you very soon. in 2012 al-jazeera traveled to iraq people who are definitely scared to speak on camera they're saying that if they talk to us they think they'll be arrested down the line to take the pulse of a country ravaged under us occupation some of these graves are completely destroyed it's one of the most holy and sacred sites in all of iraq had turned into a battleground between the mighty army and the americans rewind returns to iraq after the americans on al-jazeera. the world was watching this show that it would be a while because. the radical right and we're learning about what may have led to

increase taxes to try to raise the right time ron i've read years radical intelligence about threats to american forces. hello i'm richard burton you're at the listening post here are some of the media stories that we're covering this week journalists and news junkies are taught to consider the source and one of the challenges in understanding the u.s. iran showdown is that the key sources are on name. an anti sematic video published by a.j. plus arabic is pulled down the network issues an apology and suspends to journalists julian assange now faces more charges in the us that have precedent setting implications alarming ones for mainstream news outlets the perils that women journalists face in the age of the internet and gimmicks galore election coverage on indian news channels and what popped up at let's go tell then who will

stop us if you've heard this one before anonymous sources in washington quoted in the u.s. media over purported intelligence reports on specific but on specified threats from a middle eastern country and this buildup of u.s. military forces around said country because as the narrative goes somehow maximum pressure perhaps even war is the best way to bring peace to the reach this would not be the 1st time the american media withing lee or unwittingly has made the case for war on the basis of vague anonymously sourced intelligence in 2003 it was iraq this time it's iran much of american news reporting on u.s. iran relations glosses over president trump's role how his policies have led to this standoff there's even less space given to reflect on the history of american aggression against iran which is not to say that the islamic republic ruled by authoritarians and involved in wars in syria and yemen is an innocent player

however inflammatory headlines unnamed sources and decades of misinformation in the us media over iran don't help our starting point this week is washington d.c. . headlines like it's about iranian belligerence a new tensions with the u.s. came from sources like the the official who declined to be identified the 3 u.s. officials. familiar with the find a defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly it's a safe bet that the official was authorized to speak anonymous if we were to write a headline on the coverage of this story it would read anonymous government sources u.s. news media risks being manipulated again. all of a sudden you have a news headline that takes over the world which comes from a rather dubious and questionable sources but by the time the people start asking

questions it's already too late because the narrative has been framed one has to take into account a single source story we can potentially start of this disaster of confrontation and this really i think increases the burden of responsibility. to make sure to triple check their sourcing and. media outlets relying on certain sources is not something peculiar or uncommon on the country because worldwide whether in the us or elsewhere and then this is especially true when the masses relate to state security or intelligence which always involves particular sources who can provide verification or information. that there was a wall street journal report on the threat from iran it would seem very interesting is that the headline was almost the exact opposite of what the story was describing all along the reporting you would see points and information would refute

actual conclusion that one would get from the headline and there's a good part of the audience that only sees that headline on their phones on their website and then they move on to the next story. those headlines have been largely based on 2 things u.s. intelligence report that was 1st reported upon on may the 6th and gunboat attacks against foreign oil tankers 2 of them saudi the took place. a few days later and have been blamed on iran or its proxies the intelligence report has not been made public its contents have reportedly been described to various news outlets by those anonymous officials who talk about specific but unspecified threat from iran against american interests in the region including u.s. forces in iraq and syria. for media watchers observers of american foreign policy and victims of those policies moving on is not an option because of memories of

iraq anonymous sources were an issue back then too as was dubious intelligence vague claims of iraqi w m d's he develops weapons of mass destruction that the us media swallowed far too readily and obediently if he gets weapons of mass destruction jerry if he is what does that mean for the world iraq 2003 is considered the greatest collective failing in the history of american journalism and it is far too soon to see those kinds of editorial practices in use once again the us media was not critical at all that george w. bush administration in the lead up to the iraq war even though there were multiple sources outside of the us government saying that there is no evidence that iraq had weapons of mass destruction and in this instance we are seeing the same sorts of attributions beginning again of the land and us media they're talking a lot about threats from iran and yet they're not providing much intel about that

we are now dealing with people in the top administration like john bolton who have a long track record of trying to politicize intelligence to advance their agenda whatever the regime change so the burden of responsibility is really underscored shoulders of the journalists to go beyond the trumpet ministration and trying to talk to u.s. allies in the region and the iranians also to get their perspective. in the news business context and it's largely missing in the u.s. iran coverage for most americans this conflict goes back to $979.00 the islamic revolution and the subsequent hostage taking a $52.00 americans in tehran held captive in their embassy for 444 days but it's what led to the 1979 hostage crisis that iranians remember the 1953 and the u.s. led cooed that brought down the government of prime minister mohammad mosaddegh and

reinstalled the autocratic shah of iran who would rule his people for a quarter century but there's even more to us iran has such as the role that america played in the iran iraq war in the 1980 s. when the reagan administration helped sadam the saints forces and his army used chemical weapons at least 100000 iranians were casualties but despite that long troubled backstory in 2015 there ron came to an agreement with the u.s. the e.u. and 5 other countries in which it agreed to limit its national nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions the iranians stuck to their end of the deal trump administration did not pulling out of the pact last year unilaterally but u.s. news outlets that are usually not shy with their criticism of president trump provide him with much more leeway on foreign policy than on domestic issues when it

comes to domestic politics especially under the trumpet ministration the us mainstream media has been quite good at trying to be critical of the administration and what it's doing but the president's trying to any budget proposal dead on arrival what is the political strategy behind this move but when it comes to foreign policy traditionally us mainstream media does not really push back and try to understand the bigger context of why are we even going to engage in something like this at a u.s. government official. tell c.b.s. news this category of weapon is routinely supplied by iran to its proxies in iraq iran's policies in the region are often the scribed as malign and various destabilizing as if everybody else's actions in the region are benign and stabilizing a look at what saudi arabia has done in yemen in the past 4 years look at what the u.s. did in the region by destabilizing iraq so i think this kind of demonizing the iran

and portraying iran as the source of all evil in the region is by definition hype and by the finish and results and misguided policies that could produce another tragedy like the iraq war what nobody had to cover in 195-3979 or in 2003 with iraq was an american commander in chief on twitter effectively negotiating with a major foreign state on a microblogging site donald trump not the most articulate president the us has ever produced can be remarkably clear and forceful on twitter however diplomacy is not easily conducted when the players are limited to $280.00 characters or few the tramp ones will be the from the very beginning trumpets used twitter as a tool in his campaign but he now uses it to make statements that differ from his actual policy when he threaten north korea with fire when he did so to restart negotiations while the latest threats by trump obviously make headlines as he's the

us president they are no longer can see this shocking so his strategy is no longer is a factor when. you have now i know president trump has used that on north korea and it has worked and it seems like he's trying to use the same blueprint for iran to eventually get them to the negotiating table like he did with kim jong il on but there are a leadership thanks very differently than the north koreans they are now. looking for in the gym you see. on the world stage with the president don't want to negotiate with him public even said it numerous times because he said he's been disrespected and his twitter is actually an important part this tired to suspect campaign. if not the main pillar of it. donald trump would not be the 1st occupant of the white house accused of using iran as a useful distraction from domestic political troubles in

a stream of tweets in 2012 and 13 americans were warned that barack obama was preparing to do the same thing to start a war with iran in order to get elected to save face. by donald j. trump. that kind of context hasn't made it into the headlines but it's a big part of the story. we're discussing other media stories that are on our radar this week with one of our producers tara tarek the 1st story we're looking at strikes close to home it's about al-jazeera want to its digital online outlets a.j. plus arabic last week it posted a story questioning the holocaust what did that story actually say 1st off this video. and the offensive involved have been suspended and there's an ongoing investigation into it but let me back up

a little bit and give you some details on the video itself it was produced by our brick and put out with the caption said what is the truth about the holocaust and how did the zionist movement benefit from it the report then claims that the killing of 6000000 jews was quote a narrative that was adopted by the zionist movement the video hundreds of thousands of views before it was pulled down and we wrote the executive director of digital. the vision of an infant of this statement we. deeply regret the mistake and the offense caused by the content individuals and communities across the world i want to reiterate that al-jazeera does not tolerate any thoughts or material on any of the network platforms and we are ensuring that additional process is being put in place for that this type of error doesn't happen again but the reaction online was instant it was already out there much of it came from within al-jazeera

itself including a.j. plus the english language version did not that's right the video was widely criticized online some of the criticism has centered on just how different the content puts out by the arabic language with can be from the english language one the head of the english language version of a.j. plus with categorical tweeting i was personally shocked and appalled by a video on the holocaust published last friday by the editorial. arabic language a.j. plus the video since removed was an unconscionable violation of. moving on to julian assange now the u.s. justice department is charging the wiki leaks founder who would already been charged under one law with another 17 counts of breaking a 2nd law the espionage act that is disturbing not just for us she was looking at up to 175 years behind bars but also has implications for other journalists tell us why because of the precedent these latest charges would set a son who was initially charged and the computer fraud and abuse that since he'd

helped his source chelsea manning get classified material out of defense department computers that stage the justice department appeared to be trying to make a distinction between a songe and the rest of the media including needs outlets like the new york times and the guardian that partnered with wiki leaks and published its material some of these new charges under the espionage act relate to how the signage in. courage to thor's to provide him with material the kind of thing journalists do every day but they also focus on wiki leaks publishing classified documents and that has implications for mainstream news outlets then the same remember the difficulty in differentiating what wiki leaks does from what news organizations do is what prevented the obama administration from using the espionage act against this in the 1st place which explains why the american civil liberties union calls these latest

charges an extraordinary escalation of the trumpet ministrations attacks on them ok thanks to our we're turning now to dispatches from what they call the virtual war zone a story about the perils of online journalism reporters have always had to defend their work and the trolling of journalists is now routine but many female media professionals deal with the kind of hate messages men will never see comments about their gender their appearance and sexuality the language can be ugly and violent threats of sexual assaults and rape have grown alarmingly common because for trolls hiding behind an online profile is easy the anonymity of social media has made the dissemination of abuse and hate as easy as a simple click the listening post spoke to 2 journalists maria ressa in the philippines and said that he could go in india about their experience with online harassment and the impact it's had on their work and their wellbeing also talking

us through this story hannah storm the former director of an organization that trains reporters on how to stay safe both on and off the web. and used to be a war zone correspondent but in a war zone you know where the enemy you know what to prepare for you know how to stay safe. in this new landscape. this is intimate you take it home with you you wake up with it it's with you all the time. i've been attacked as a communist operative busy a cia agent every kind of word. or and i'm all.

for now and then you name it and it's been thrown out. as a journalist i'm used to defending the work i do but how do you respond when someone threatens you with rape when someone wants you dead inundated with the barrel and you're paid to the vitriol it's called you things like a prostitute to a whole world because somebody else is a sex slave that they could just do things to you that are really sexually explicit women genocide 3 times more likely to experience on the rest of the man 160 plus times shame them into silence by calling them names by undermining the reputation and by trying to violate their oldest child in august of 2016 rappler came out with a series of stories i call that the propaganda machine that series showed the social media has been weaponized that accounts that are that are in the middle of this the content creators are working for government and it was all connected to

anyone who questioned the drug war as soon as the series was published i started receiving an average of 90 messages per hour i'll read one to you is that all right so this one this one this is from a real. kid maybe maria ressa is dream is to become the ultimate porn star in a gangbang scene so it's not but it's there. 2nd one is make sure maria ressa gets publicly raped to death when martial law expands to ensure it would bring joy in my heart. it's meant to tear you down so low that you don't have the confidence to continue reporting that's one and then the 2nd is .