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Inside the New Print Edition of Our Subscriber-Only Newsletter! Drug Companies and Psychiatrists
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Inside the New Print Edition of Our Subscriber-Only Newsletter!
Drug Companies and Psychiatrists
Partners in CrimeEugenia Tsao reports on the upcoming revision of one of the most important books in America, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Here’s where the drug lords, the shrinks and the insurance companies collude in establishing hundreds of bogus psychic conditions requiring the psychotropic drugs from which they reap billions every year. There are about 250,000 migrant laborers in Israel, mostly from the Philippines and Thailand. Meanwhile tens of thousands of Palestinians can’t find work. From Tel Aviv, Yonatan Preminger reports on Israel’s vicious employment strategy. Also in this latest newsletter Andrew Cockburn updates his CounterPunch world exclusive on how the U.S. has secretly helped build Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. Get your new edition today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! CounterPunch books and t-shirts make great presents.
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Today's Stories July 9, 2009 Ronnie Cummings July 8, 2009 Saul Landau Dean Baker Winslow T. Wheeler Eric Walberg Ray McGovern David Rosen Dr. Mona El Farra Ron Jacobs Benjamin Dangl Alan Farago Website of the Day July 7, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Uri Avnery Brian M. Downing Gary Leupp Gregory A. Burris David Macaray Laura Flanders Alan Farago Greg Moses Dan Bacher Website of the Day July 6, 2009 Patrick Cockburn Diana Johnstone Nikolas Kozloff Gary Leupp Jonathan Cook Tim Wise Franklin Lamb Charles R. Larson Carlos Benemann Shepherd Bliss Jerry Kroth Karyn Strickler Website of the Day July 3-5, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Eamonn Fingleton Jeffrey St. Clair Mike Whitney Pam Martens George Ciccariello-Maher Paul Craig Roberts Patrick Cockburn Anthony DiMaggio Roger Burbach John Ross Nikolas Kozloff Gareth Porter Andy Worthington Saul Landau David Macaray Adam Federman Jane Slaughter Labor's Vague Rally for Health Care Russell Mokhiber Black Caucus Muzzled on Israeli Kidnapping of McKinney Robert Jensen Robert Bryce Belén Fernandez Missy Comley Beattie C. G. Estabrook Stephen Martin Charles R. Larson Lorenzo Wolff Kim Nicolini Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend July 2, 2009 Andrew Cockburn Nikolas Kozloff Wendell Potter Ellen Hodgson Brown Christian Christensen Iran: Networked Dissent? Patrick Irelan Binoy Kampmark Returning Iraq Nicola Nasser Brian Tokar Dan Bacher Website of the Day July 1, 2009 Vijay Prashad Alberto Vallente Thorensen Paul Craig Roberts Robert Weissman Manuel García, Jr. Victor Figueroa-Clark / Pablo Navarrete Norman Solomon Franklin Lamb Martha Rosenberg Diane Rejman Website of the Day June 30, 2009 Michael Hudson Esam Al-Amin Benjamin Dangl Jonathan Cook Franklin Lamb George Wuerthner Todd Gordon Ron Jacobs Kenneth Libby Julian Vigo Website of the Day
June 29, 2009 Ishmael Reed Nikolas Kozloff Clifton Ross Patrick Cockburn Uri Avnery Conn Hallinan James G. Abourezk Ralph Nader Carol Miller Greg Moses Website of the Day June 26-28, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Doug Peacock Daniel Wolff Mike Whitney John Ross David Rosen Emily Ratner Gareth Porter Farid Marjai Nadia Hijab Paul Craig Roberts Fred Gardner Carl Ginsburg Paul Watson David Ker Thomson Farzana Versey Geoff Berne Todd Alan Price Ramzy Baroud Jeff Sher Dr. Carol Paris Despite My Arrest by Max Baucus, I Will Continue to Advocate for Quality Health Care for All Walter Brasch Adultery as Family Value? Glen Johnson Charlotte Laws Charles R. Larson Kim Nicolini David Yearsley Lorenzo Wolff Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend June 25, 2009 Kathy Kelly Jack Bratich Wendell Potter Charles R. Larson Alan Farago Jonathan Cook Gareth Porter Bitta Mostofi / David Macaray Mark Schuller Website of the Day June 24, 2009 Andrew Cockburn Dean Baker Andy Worthington James Bovard Diana Gibson / P. Sainath Gareth Porter Robert Alvarez Dave Lindorff Steven Colatrella Remembering Giovanni Arrighi Website of the Day
June 23, 2009 David Price Patrick Cockburn James Ridgeway / Dave Lindorff Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero Gary Leupp Brian M. Downing Robert Bryce Nicholas Dearden Yousef Munayyer Website of the Day June 22, 2009 Michael Hudson Esam Al-Amin Chris Floyd Jack Z. Bratich Atash Yaghmaian Laura Carlsen Paul Craig Roberts Vijay Prashad Fred Gardner Andy Thayer David Macaray Website of the Day
June 19 - 21, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Patrick Cockburn Al Giordano Henry A. Giroux Anthony DiMaggio Paul Craig Roberts John Ross Gareth Porter Carl Ginsburg Tommi Avicolli Mecca Joe Bageant Serge Halimi P. Sainath Jim Goodman Dave Lindorff Rannie Amiri Robert Fantina Harvey Wasserman Walter Brasch David Ker Thomson Charles R. Larson David Yearsley Kim Nicolini Ben Sonnenberg Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
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July 9, 2009 Fake a Wish Goes ViralHow Jeff Goldblum Didn't DieBy PAUL KRASSNER A friend of mine received an e-mail from Global Associated News, complete with a professional-looking logo of the globe. Their “Breaking News” was about the death of Jeff Goldblum. She forwarded it on to others, including a reporter. Later, when she learned that it was an untrue report, she felt dismayed and guilty about her inadvertent role in helping to spread such a falsehood. Incidentally, my computer’s spellcheck informs me that “Goldblum” is “Not in dictionary,” suggesting that I use instead: Globule, Godbout, Glabellum or Hoodlum. Furthermore, “spellcheck” itself is not in their dictionary, and I’m advised to use spell-check or spell check. Anyway, I googled (also not in dictionary) Global Associated News, and there it was, with a notation in red, “This Story Is Still Developing,” preceding the account:
I scrolled down to the bottom, where this admonition appeared:
The logo for “Fake a Wish—Celeb Fake News Generator” is a solid red circle with the warning, “Bullshit.” I’m instructed to “Enter a celebrity name to see a list of fake news items about them. I type “Jeff Goldblum,” only to find out there are three other ways he died: “Actor Jeff Goldblum hospitalized after traffic altercation.” “Luxury yacht sinks off coast of Tropez, France. Jeff Goldblum reported missing.” “Jeff Goldblum presumed dead in private plane crash.” Plus there’s a link to “Back By Popular Demand! Jeff Goldblum is new Masturbation World Champion!” The link leads to this: Jeff Goldblum Shatters Masturbation World Record!
I contacted Rich Hoover, the man behind the electronic curtain. “The whole network started in 1998 with UselessJunk.com,” he told me. “Fake a Wish kind of spawned off after that uploading content, gag things, something to spark water cooler conversations. Information didn’t travel as quickly as it does today. It’s incredible how fast these rumors have gone viral. Mind boggling. I started with a cubicle environment in mind, me being in a cubicle myself. Just type a name into the generator and then tap your neighbor on the shoulder to come look at your PC, and everybody could laugh about a fake story. A lot of these fake stories originally started with non-celebrities. The arrested ones—car crash, possible DUI—hurt their reputation, and the non-celebrities freaked out, so I focused more on celebrity templates.” The roster of fake death reports that have gone megaviral includes Tom Hanks (2006) and Tom Cruise (2008); both fell to their death in New Zealand. Hoover has never been threatened with a libel suit, except for one “cease and desist” request, from Michael Vick for a report about his coming out of the closet. Vick even went on live TV in Atlanta to deny rumors that he’s gay, claiming defamation of character. That kind of homophobia, coming from a man who was convicted of organizing vicious dog fights, is mighty ludicrous. I decided to type in the name Miley Cyrus on FakeAWish.com, and this is what I found:
I clicked on that icon, and it linked me to the same exact story as Jeff Goldblum, with Miley’s name at every point where Goldblum’s was, but—due to a template limited by its own sexist programming--the pronouns remain masculine. The final sentence reads, “When asked what his next world record achievement would be, Miley Cyrus said, ‘My immediate goal is to get a bag of ice and some lotion on my penis to soothe the burning.’” Good luck, Miley! Goldblum had made a cameo appearance each night that week on Comedy Central’s Colbert Report. A staffer tipped me off that one of Stephen Colbert’s writers had been assigned to instigate the fake news item in the hope that it would Facebook-and-Twitter its way into viral status, just so that Goldblum could then personally insist on the show that he was still alive. At 2:30 a.m. last night, I checked the Goldblum site, which now reads, “Actor Jeff Goldblum died while filming a movie in New Zealand early this morning—July 7, 2009.” How could he have denied on TV a story about his death that had not yet been published? But the site is automatically refreshed so that the date changes every midnight. This was just like Groundhog Day, with Goldblum dying in the same way again and again, every morning at approximately 4:30 a.m. I told Hoover how the prank was perpetrated, but he insisted it was merely “a coincidence that went viral. There’s no way that the show’s producers would have found FakeAWish.com and been able to successfully send it viral with any level of confidence it would actually be a hit. Thousands of celebrity names hit the site, but very few of them ever gain traction.” Had I, a professional prankster, been the “victim” of a hoax myself? In my recent interview on Larry King Live, we discussed the ethics of fake news. Here’s a clip from that show. Paul Krassner edited Pot Stories For Soul, available at paulkrassner.com.
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Now Available from CounterPunch Books! Yellowstone Drift:
Spell Albuquerque:
Waiting for
Lightning
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