While the bulk of our mainstream media were infatuated over the presence of fake news taking up valuable time, this week there was real news to be had. Critical news, hopeful news, important news. But it's doubtful you heard about it - or you did and it was shoved into a corner overshadowed by noise. Here's what you might have missed.
(Octavia Nasr - the fatal tweet)
Starting off with a report from Al Jazeera's English news service on July 18th over CNN's firing of Middle East correspondent Octavia Nasr and her tweet over the death of a Muslim cleric.
(Julia Gillard - back on the campaign trail)
Did you know that Monday the 25th is Election day in Australia? You would if you lived there or spent much time listening to ABC Radio National. And if you did, you probably heard this broadcast of AM on July 19th. It's election time again and the issues are flying, and true to form, AM has an interview with the primary candidates.
(Tomorrow never knows)
There was the Kabul Conference this past week with Hamid Karzai reaching out and the U.S. organizing the exit strategy. BBC's Newshour program from July 21st explores the conference on the ground with Lyse Doucet and a number of interesting interviews looking at the scenario of a Post-Occupied Afghanistan.
(A cautious fear that we've entered a new era)
From the CBC program The Current, a piece on the car bombing in Juarez Mexico on July 22nd. Noteworthy in that it's the first of its kind under those (drugs) circumstances. Evidence the war on drugs may have taken a new and more lethal turn. The CBC takes a look at the state of the Drug War in Mexico, drawing parallels between what is happening right now in Juarez and what had happened during an earlier drug war in Colombia. Uncomfortable similarities. The story is far from over.
(In case you didn't notice, spiraling out of control)
The current state of unrest and violence in Somalia is worsening by the day. As reported on this installment of Africa Today on July 22nd, the BBC Africa Service explores the increasing tensions and how this can fan out into a full-blown civil war in a matter of days. You know we're going to be getting involved sooner or later, so it's best you know what the story is now so it doesn't come as a shock when troops start showing up in Mogadishu again. Just saying.
(reports keep changing - the numbers keep growing)
And finally . . . I was originally going to run a piece on the current state of potential bank failures in Spain, owing to failures of recent stress tests. But news broke of the tragedy at the Love Parade Festival in Germany where, at the time of the initial reports (where this collection of news via Radio Berlin comes from) the number of dead were listed as 12. Since that time the number has risen to 18 (as of 5:30 pm in Los Angeles on Saturday). The number of injured is very high and the cause of the tragedy makes no sense. I'm sure more will be revealed in the coming hours, but for the moment I am running initial reports, as heard from Radio Berlin (they're in German so . . . ).
And it's not even Monday yet.
