5: Please Stop Smearing Victims of Police Brutality
The media’s tabloid obsession with David Dao’s “sordid history” is taking the focus off of our nation’s severe problem with police violence.
Sometimes I wish I were a bit more desensitized, because whenever a grainy viral video of police brutality hits the internet, I can’t help but internalize it. After seeing so many of the same nightmare scenarios play out on YouTube, I sometimes envision myself being shot by the cops and the cameras: slumped in the front seat of my car with blood spreading across my white T-shirt like Philando Castile; bullets spinning me around like a ballet dancer before I topple to the asphalt like Laquan McDonald; or failing to win a fatal footrace with three bullets like Walter Scott.
The most recent addition to our nation’s shameful library of violence perpetuated by the state isn’t as grotesque as those previously mentioned—in fact, it wasn’t even lethal. But it has still managed to sear its way into my psyche. And a big part of that isn’t just the abuse documented, but the way it’s being covered by my colleagues.
Vice News
As Secretary of State Rex Tillerson meets with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, in Russia to talk about the war in Syria and other issues, we spend the hour with the longtime investigative journalist Allan Nairn. For decades, Nairn has covered the impact of U.S. foreign policy across the globe in East Timor, Guatemala, El Salvador, Indonesia and other countries. Democracy Now! spoke to Nairn on Monday, discussing the escalation of U.S. military operations across the Middle East, as well as the unique danger Trump poses both abroad and at home. We began by asking Allan Nairn about last week’s U.S. attack on a Syrian air base.
Democracy Now
3: MSNBC’S RACHEL MADDOW SEES A “RUSSIA CONNECTION” LURKING AROUND EVERY CORNER
ONE DAY AFTER her network joined the rest of corporate media in cheering for President Trump’s missile attack on Syria, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow was back to regular business: seeing Russian collaboration with Trump at work.
It’s “impossible,” fellow anchor Lawrence O’Donnell told Maddow on April 7, to rule out that “Vladimir Putin orchestrated what happened in Syria this week – so that his friend in the White House could have a big night with missiles and all of the praise he’s picked up over the past 24 hours.”
Maddow concurred, suggesting that only the FBI’s ongoing probe into Trump’s alleged collusion with Russian electoral interference will determine the truth. “Maybe eventually we’ll get an answer to that from [FBI Director] Jim Comey,” Maddow said.
The Washington Post noted that the “conspiracy theory” drew “derision from across the political spectrum.” But it was not out of place.
MSNBC, the country’s most prominent liberal media outlet, has played a key role in stoking the frenzy over Trump’s alleged involvement with Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential race — in lock step with the Democratic Party’s most avid partisans.
The Intercept
2: ‘Charging Bull’ sculptor calls for New York to remove ‘Fearless Girl’ statue
The sculptor behind the “Charging Bull” statue near Wall Street in New York said on Wednesday that the “Fearless Girl” sculpture placed in front of his artwork is a violation of his rights, changing its meaning and context.
With his attorney steadying him at the lectern, Italian-born Arturo Di Modica was visibly emotional as he explained that his work, installed in 1989, was meant to symbolize “freedom, world peace, strength, power and love”.
Now, he says, thanks to the March installation of a bronze statue of a girl facing down the bull, that message has been transformed into one of negativity and fear.
“The Charging Bull no longer carries a positive, optimistic message. Rather, it has been transformed into a negative force and a threat,” said Di Modica’s attorney, Norman Siegel. “Clearly, a deliberate choice was made to exploit and to appropriate the ‘Charging Bull’ through the placement of the ‘Fearless Girl’.”
The Guardian
1: Putin slams Trump ties as top diplomats spar on Syria
The trust between Washington and Moscow has “deteriorated” since Donald Trump was elected US president, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday, as the Kremlin dismissed US calls to abandon Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as “short-sighted” and “absurd”.
The comments came as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the Trump administration to clarify its policies as he opened a fraught meeting with his American counterpart, Rex Tillerson.
“One could say that the level of trust on a working level, especially on the military level, has not improved but has rather deteriorated,” Putin said in an interview broadcast on Russian television.
Aljazeera
