and the time magazine person of the year goes to the protester from egypt to the u.k. the us to libya unrest has spread like a wildfire around the world so why are these protesters and why are some treated like heroes and others like villains. and speaking of pros as it looks like the u.s. is moving right on down its checklist of foreign enemies next stop syria where bashar al assad is clinging on to power will ask if syria is on its way to becoming

a libya two point zero. the friendship with him going to grow embody the two were getting along with the opposite sex sort of and as protests have been around the world leave it to the mainstream media to miss the real headline looks like these outlets are more concerned with getting out the story first over getting it right. it is wednesday december fourteenth four pm in washington d.c. i'm christine for you watching our team. well let's start off with the person that time magazine deems is the person of the year this year where there were whispers that would be steve jobs but no this year time chose the protester kind of an interesting visual for the protester but in many ways the choice make sense from the arab spring to the crisis in the euro zone to occupy wall street the protester

has come to embody much of what two thousand and eleven has been about fighting whether violently or not for a change so we want to take a look at a few of this year's protests that we see significant and examine what they resulted in and talk about what connects them and what sets them apart let's begin with egypt and more specifically the mass protests in tahrir square now the reasons ranged from widespread poverty to anger at the thirty year reign of egyptian president hosni mubarak protesters most of them peaceful came to embody the arab spring was mubarak to step down the protest was embraced by the american media and government alike but fast forward to today after months of military rule egyptians voted propelling two parties to power the formerly banned muslim brotherhood and their more radical religious brother in the salah fees raising the very real prospect of a conservative theocracy emerging on to libya now where the country split in half

between moammar gadhafi loyalists and those who the west dubbed rebel fighters in the midst of this civil war the u.s. and nato forces stepped in with airstrikes and aid for those who are who oppose gadhafi never mind that many of them were islamists and had ties to al qaeda a national transitional council was formed and in october colonel moammar gadhafi was dragged into the street and brutally killed now you don't hear too much about libya now but the fight continues there with near daily battles between factions jockeying for power. as spring turned into summer a twenty nine year old man in tottenham england is shot and killed by police and investigation later revealed it was a mistake a peaceful protest of following that shooting turn into what much of the western world referred to as riots and to be sure over the course of a week more than three thousand people were arrested five killed and several stores buildings and cars were vandalized the mass media was full of talk of mobs greed

and a lack of moral compass but little was said about anger frustration and a loss of faith in the system. then came a movement that is still ongoing occupy wall street it started with a group of a few hundred gathering to protest the corruption of a system in which the one percent or most wealthy and powerful in america make the rules and the other ninety nine percent lose out occupy wall street spread around the country and around the world here in the us harks and squares were occupied by peaceful protesters for months they were met with police brutality in the form of pepper spray tear gas and rubber bullets and the mainstream media who called them dirty hippies with no clear message just a few days days ago we saw protests in russia people who expressed anger about the recent elections there that landed the united russia party back with the majority of power the us media covered it as the arab spring on russia shores reporters

goest about a resurgence of the liberal opposition completely ignoring the very ugly nationalist and anti-semitic leanings among them. and finally on to syria where protests are still ongoing now you hear a lot of talk on the mainstream media about the protests and about the five thousand people who have reportedly been killed but there's little mention that this is actually part of an ongoing civil war protestors there are armed and are battling the government the divide very much along sectarian lines sunni sunni's versus shiites most recently a former official with the f.b.i. is reporting u.s. and nato forces have already landed just outside of syria and are planning to train the militants to overthrow the regime regime of president bashar al assad critics say this move will fuel the civil war and give an excuse for a future intervention. so we want to delve into this there were of course many more protests this year but we want to focus specifically on these and bring in pepe

escobar asia times correspondent in south pole brazil hey there poppy looking at all of these what is the guy in tahrir square and a guy in moscow have in common what unites them. well it's very hard to make a synthesis of a global movement in fact this is now occupy the world but basically this is the beginning of the end of neo liberalism as we know it durable capitalism financial capitalism and the people who are proving this are not they're not even the one percent they are there's zero zero point one percent in fact against seven billion facts so this is a movement of the seven billion most of them are young the most of them are connected and a great deal have very good education as well so in moscow into rear square in bahrain in some streets in latin america or even in hong kong even in asia as well

they are all fighting for the same saying we want to fight for another world is possible this is something a kind of slogan that came out with the world social forum then years ago but the world social forum never became a movement the world wild movement it took that tunisia any took terrier square for the movement to go to europe to madrid and then from madrid to the u.s. and from the u.s. it went all over the world in fact so this is the new generation it's the educated but it's also the excluded to people who are not part of this banquet which we are living in a becher's bank with all of us in fact are in reminds me of the rolling stones in the sixty's and my first reaction when i saw occupied was this is the new may sixty eight well remembered that make well there we actually have a when you saw the front cover of time magazine i don't know if you noticed it not

only is the president there a protester but it is a woman who has his face is covered his head is covered looks like you know perhaps he's coming from an arab country what what what do you think about the fact that they chose this visual to end by oh if a protester. at least this time to head off for the time magazine concept and for the execution i've never been a fan of time magazine i was more rolling stone so you know what i mean anyway my first impression was this is a woman in the rain and she was in front of the poor roundabouts in the rain she's probably an educated shiite woman like some some i mean called i was in contact with some of them in fact she was probably a rested off towards her movement is going nowhere because the repression was or rendez did not only destroyed the poor roundabouts which was the graphic symbol of the protest movement in bahrain that they evaded mosques they arrested doctors so

the repression in bahrain which is the untouchable in terms of western media we cannot we can't talk about libya we can talk about syria now adays but nobody talks about their reign anymore any my view this was one of the strongest protests of all the arab different arab spring and the repression which was coordinated between the g.c.c. countries and we direct intervention by saudi arabia proved to all of us that the saudis are at the top of the counter revolution against these protests and you know you mentioned syria and you say you know it has been covered and it has to an extent but not very much is certainly more than bahrain but on one hand let's talk about the coverage of syria on one hand there's this talk by a lot of western media this need for assad to step down the need to protect the poor citizens in syria it can sound at times i think a lot of people think like the pre libya rhetoric on the other hand you know russia

and china have already vowed to veto any sort of u.n. security council resolution so break this down for me kind of the two sides with where we are right now in with syria well this stakes in syria are so much higher compared to libya because this is a. than rock it's. back that direct clash between the u.s. and nato on one side and russia and china on the one you know on the other side much more than it was in libya in libya russia and china and even that the other brics and germany as well they said ok maybe this is not the red line yet let's give them the benefit of the doubt i mean the french the brits and the americans they knew what happened the country was destroyed not in an iraqi style extent but this most of it destroyed the infrastructure was destroyed in syria you cannot do that because first of all they're going to have to fight a real army even if they are not very competent but they are battle hardened

there's been two wars in the middle east the syrian army it's a smaller country there's more population you cannot simply landing invasion is out of the question because the you know would go all over the place the repercussions to turkey to jordan to iraq to saudi arabia so nato's plan is to foment civil war and that's it's like it was exactly what they were doing some of us broke a few weeks ago the story that there's a command and control center in southern turkey and i'll see bill edmonds former f.b.i. whistle blower in her website she broke an amazing story this week which was not picked up by american media off course because there's a gag order you cannot talk about these things they are troops now at the syrian jordanian border and these troops are clearly from iraq where obama's standing is that the war is over no it's not over now it's a counter-insurgency war in iraq this war will go on for a long time because the u.s. does not want an iraq there is supposed to read i want to listen for

a moment i think it's important you brought this up that there are troops that have been seen right along the border there and i want to take a minute and listen to secretary of state hillary clinton meeting with the syrian national council last week. ok obviously a democratic transition includes more than removing the assad regime. it means setting syria on the past. the rule of law and protecting the universal rights all citizens regardless of fact or ethnicity or gender so i mean you already mentioned forces said to be along the border there what is going on in terms of the state department and what what's being planned sort of behind closed doors from what you understand. look when it's time to disagree with pivotal what hillary clinton just said but what she didn't say is the real story and watch it didn't say is we want to bring this regime down we want

three g. change but we still don't know how to do it so nato splenda in fact is to sub contracts this civil war basically to turkey and the turks just a simpson that a lot of us have been discussing over the past few weeks what would be sturrock is a must they're all they have a foreign policy that implies they won't create any problems with any of their neighbors this is their foreign place for the past eight years in fact and now they're creating a plumber who have direct neighbor the castle it's free trade agreement between turkey and syria they're losing money you know people in turkey who do businesses are they losing money it's then i'd shooting yourself in the in the in the flip effect and they're trying to please they don't with being at let's say at the forefront of a war because of their own interests as well they would love to set up for instance

a kurd area inside syria so the kurds you know not the idea would migrate to this whole tone of this area inside syria and turkey would get rid of their kurdish problem this is good politically crazy it's not going to happen because the syrians would never allow it the only way to do this would be doing fade syria in nobody's crazy to you know in the middle of a transatlantic crisis it cannot make financial and moral cultural nobody's going to invest in that new lead war in the middle east have a way that we've gone from libya bahrain and syria now let's let's talk a little bit about saudi arabia i want to talk about a story very few people have heard anything about a saudi arabian woman and her sixty's was recently beheaded they're charged with the crime. of sorcery now authorities who arrested her say that she had tricked people into thinking that she could treat their illnesses charging them hundreds of dollars per session now you may remember

a little while back while in iran when there was talk of a woman being stoned to death for the crime of adultery the public outcry was immediate and widespread and the story absolutely dominated the cable networks. to germany and internet postings worldwide outcries against the imminent execution of shockey muhammad. a forty three year old mother of two convicted in two thousand and six of committing adultery in iran so this is part of a clip from c.n.n. that this story was all over the mainstream media when it was a woman in iran that woman's life ended up being spared in part a result of so much outrage so a simple question for you where was the outrage for the saudi arabian woman. well that's that graphic metaphor for anybody who cares to look at it of the double standards by the u.s. and nato iran is

a full they're evil they're part of the axis of evil and how to solve they are our bastards so we cannot criticize them this story of this woman in fact it goes way beyond what he has been leaked if you if you follow the saudi arabian press nobody even talks about it the b.b.c. tried anything representation and some saudi bloggers are some middle eastern brothers are advancing what i sink is the moral lesson what really happened she's a faith healer but she is a woman she spoke for she was in the lowest rank of social strata in saudi arabia and because she is a healer and she was having some success she was in fact going a guest is a very but your article society male dominated and the clerics in saudi arabia had to do something because their power was being undermined but this is very complicated to explain to a western audience who want to do a three paragraph strike so nobody talks about it and the cases in iran the sakena

case it was amazing i remember traveling in the middle of italy in italy villages in front of the preface your you had huge photos of saki mace of we have to free her from those crazy people in iran those crazy ayatollah so it's not because we in the west simply we refuse to understand the other according to their cultural background according to their beliefs and we only criticize one side of the a on their side of it is that shiites in general be they in iran iraq has been a lot allow is in syria but they soon as they get away with literally murder as they got away with murder in iraq for a long time and just like the house of solving the al khalifa in bahrain they got away. with murder repressed in their own. by the world repent they were almost out of time i really quick want to touch upon there has been some alternative media that has covered the story and one of the main reasons that they point to is not

only the cozy relationship i guess you could say between the u.s. and saudi arabia but also a multimillion dollar effort by p.r. firms here to keep the saudi image in good light just real briefly can you talk about that absolutely. the saudis the have they can hire some of the best p.r. firms in washington prince turki was he's a washington man directed he knows it all the decision makers bipartisan effect do you really are they prefer to speak farsi they don't dress with this suit and tie western style their style you know their rhetoric is much more complicated because it's lost in translation so if this is simply so simple so straight to the point but he makes a lot of difference all right re singular and says is lost in translation so i would suggest them to hire a p.r. un-american p.r. serum as well and you're right this will go up as

a times correspondent that they ask o'barr in south hollow brazil a lot to talk about today and we do appreciate your insight there thank you very much well turning now to mainstream media coverage of the recent post-election protests in moscow as r.t. is honest going to reports that some outlets here in the u.s. have been setting their eyes to some of the obvious details while inflating the others and doing the exact same thing with the protests here at home. double standards in journalism were once embarrassing they are now increasingly mainstream here is u.s. media coverage of post-election protests in moscow there's a lot of chanting a lot of places it is a good night crowd here is coverage of protests continuing for three months right under their noses at home but. they are at the store going on as they look on this one of the protest nobody seems to know demonstrators in the u.s.

presented as a margin of american society truly based in the end of kiss roots of american politics they told me in russia flags of truly radical nationalist groups right behind this interviewee and this one just ignorance and a sea of them present on the ground on experience you have the new media you know. the russian. and. not american protests the many letters who underwent a go get a job treating protests at home and abroad differently these days seems to be a trend of protesters against foreign countries particularly countries that are economic or political rivals to the united states are always good protesters in our country who are against the american system are usually bad that's the construct that the media begins with they just want a party american mainstream media channels took at least two weeks to catch up with and then undermine the occupy wall street protests across the us all you have to do

is take a shower and they get a job that we were archie has been on the ground since day one this is just the beginning of an occupying wall street crowd say they're going to be here until their demands are heard showing the hundreds of arrests and tear gas use against the protests largely ignored by the mainstream media when here again and these kinds of less than week of weapons are being used and. during the arab spring protests this was seen as an unacceptable crackdown on protesters r.t. has also covered demonstrations in moscow what can easily be called moscow's biggest protest in twenty years. as well as should be arrests that took place in russia where there were big in which everyone but it would not be without covering the protests are covering protests and showing a commitment to the story which is quite remarkable while others were not even

committed enough to commit to a crew on the ground in moscow he logan is following the developments from london and she joins us now with more candy what can you tell us usually the skeleton crew that they have at their moscow bureau you know spend all their time with each other or local bars they're not down on the street this could lead to knowledge painfully thin on t.v. screens. who are going so far as to show protests that are not russian but greta that most americans seriously could not find russia on a map so you know when you when you're dealing with that audience a producer is going to say well you know that's were we can't the people are too stupid to understand this stuff anyway while some mainstream media outlets continue to pick and choose approaches to event coverage according to a graphic location and political gain it becomes increasingly visible to the naked eye that selective facts are not really facts at all and so i say churkin our party

new york. so it seems like a little bit of a recurring theme here double standards in the way a story is interpreted based on its position on the political chessboard and i want to bring honest back she's in our studio in new york to talk more about this and as i say i know here's one example over the weekend i read the sunday new york times there was a story about the russian protests and then a story right below it about how russian state run media was actually covering the protests as opposed to ignoring them talk a little bit about this i know danny schechter mentioned this in your piece about this expectation that the russian media which is going to pretend it wasn't happening which by the way was it was what happened in many cases when occupy wall street first began here with the american media. well christine that's definitely something that many u.s. skeptics or certainly expecting that the t.v. channels in russia try to ignore these protests that they would try to pretend like they never happened but that certainly has not been the case we know that the big

state owned network have certainly been following the protests on the ground we know that there were even anchors who refused to carry out news shows in case those protests were not covered so this is certainly something that's been important to russian journalists and not only on t.v. but also alternative media the protests have been going on and the elections themselves have been the number one discussed topic in russia both saw on the internet and on t.v. screens for sure and i know you mentioned this in your report but i think it bears kind of going a little bit into detail about and this is the aspect of these nationalist flags flying while you know some of the mainstream networks were interviewing people on the ground without putting it in context context at all some people would compare these nationalist flags to confederate flags to just ignore that seems a little strange. well you know christine we talk about the time magazine person of the year today if we had to pick

a topic for the mean stream media the topic of the year for them that would certainly be loving one protester and hating the other the issue of marginalization of some protesters as a really significant problem because we have been seeing so many people that occupy wall street marginalized the media would go down there they would find one questionable questionably looking person and then they would spin stories around that as if this was proof of the fact that the people protesting were in fact marginals but on the other hand when it comes to coverage of the russian protests we have seen in the report that we can bring bring up and in others cases where reporters would be interviewing people and showing these flags that were sort of in the background but they didn't explain what this was and we did see that there were quite in fact many flags carried around by nationalist groups and what those groups are are anti jewish russia for russia for russia for russians anti-gay groups and so on and of course this is something that is in fact something that's very

marginal of course the mainstream media covering from the united from in moscow for the united states really failed to mention some of those examples another great one i think as we saw in a couple of reports seniors russian seniors holding signs in english you know with grammar mistakes and something has been shaking cittie there a lot of people have been saying there's no way that those sort of english speaking grammar mistake sort of stereotypical russian signs were found there for you know the seniors bought them out themselves somebody must have been must have been giving those out and certainly this is something that the mainstream media here has largely ignored as well and we should we should mention to our viewers as well you want to have been on the ground covering occupy wall street literally since that first day since september seventeenth you have a really interesting perspective here on a. well capital account is up next on our t.v. let's go to lauren lister to see what's on today's agenda hey there lauren i know

i've just been hearing whisperings of what is going on with the euro are you i imagine you're all you'll speak about that today we will christine because the news of course that we've seen come out that's been a big headline is that the euro plunged to an eleven month low that there are some concerns now that hey this dilution that e.u. leaders had to their crisis that once they got home you know it might not be so easy to implement but this is kind of the day to day news christine that we so often focus on and analyze we're going to take that news but we're going to look at it big picture in just the bigger context of an issue like debt and we're also going to throw in there energy and the environment because our guest says all three are intertwined cannot be separated because the place where we've reached has gone exponential you're not going to want to miss it this episode may have you wanting to go out and buy farmland and learn how to purify your own water wow lauren lyster sounds very exciting exam that's going to do it for us here above for

more on the stories we covered go to our t. dot com slash usa or you tube dot com slash r t america you can also follow me on twitter at christine for south.

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