TV News LIES

The former executive producer of 60 Minutes, Bill Owens, said he faced intense internal pressure from his corporate bosses to avoid certain stories that had the potential to generate backlash for parent company Paramount, in his first public remarks since his sudden resignation in late April.

In January, 60 Minutes ran a segment featuring former state department employees who had quit over how Joe Biden’s administration handled the war in Gaza. The segment drew backlash from pro-Israel organizations and unnerved Paramount’s controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, a strong supporter of Israel.

“She didn’t like the story,” Owens told an audience at Colby College in Maine on Friday evening, where he accepted an award given for courage in journalism.

Afterwards, Owens says, he was basically told: “Well, you’re not going to do another Gaza story, are you?” While Redstone didn’t call him directly, “that message was relayed to me by people with authority over me”, he said.

The show continued covering the story. “When I said we were going to do another Gaza piece, that was like hitting a hornet’s nest,” he told the crowd. “This idea that we were doing stories that [lacked] balance, on the face of it – it’s just wrong.”

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A shooting near Howard University has left at least four people shot, police in Washington DC said.

The shooting happened as thousands descended on the campus for homecoming celebrations.

Police responded to shots being fired at 8.23pm on the 600 block of Howard Place, near the university’s Yard and the School of Architecture building.

Police say the shooting left one person in critical condition and one person in serious condition. Police have not confirmed whether a suspect or suspects were apprehended.

DC emergency services spokesperson said seven people were treated with injuries, four of whom had been shot.

DC traffic police confirmed the shooting investigation in a social media post detailing the road closures. Police confirmed in a separate social media post that the scene was secure.

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The U.S. military is sending an aircraft carrier to the waters off South America, the Pentagon announced Friday, in the latest escalation of military firepower in a region where the Trump administration has unleashed more rapid strikes in recent days against boats it accuses of carrying drugs.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford and its strike group to deploy to the U.S. Southern Command region to “bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said on social media.

The USS Ford, which has five destroyers in its strike group, is now deployed to the Mediterranean Sea. One of its destroyers is in the Arabian Sea and another is in the Red Sea, a person familiar with the operation told The Associated Press. As of Friday, the aircraft carrier was in port in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea.

The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations, would not say how long it would take for the strike group to arrive in the waters off South America or if all five destroyers would make the journey.

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Keir Starmer has said a Russian-sponsored attack on a warehouse in London shows the dangers Britons face from Vladimir Putin's regime.

The PM said he would be stepping up efforts to stop fellow world leaders purchasing "tainted resources" from Russia. Mr Starmer, standing alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, told a press conference: "Just a few moments ago, here in the United Kingdom, we saw the sentencing of six men for Russian sponsored arson attack on a warehouse in East London.

"This was a warehouse storing humanitarian aid and satellite equipment destined for Ukraine. We will not tolerate this hostile activity, and it just underlines the point - your security is our security.

"What happens on the frontline of Donetsk today is shaping our collective future for years to come." He accused Vladimir Putin of stalling and playing for time, saying: "Putin is the only person who does not want to stop this war. His strikes on civilians this week made that crystal clear once again, targeting energy infrastructure ahead of winter."

He said a 12-year-old girl and a six month old baby were among those killed in Putin's strike. "This is who Putin is," Mr Starmer stated. "Time after time he rejects the chance to end the war."

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They were freed in exchange for Israeli hostages held in Gaza, but instead of going home, 154 Palestinian ex-prisoners were exiled to Egypt, where they are confined to a hotel and kept under tight surveillance.

All of them had been sentenced by Israeli military court to life in prison on charges of murder, belonging to Palestinian militant groups banned by Israel, and other acts of violence.

But when a ceasefire took effect in Gaza earlier this month, the group was put on buses and sent to Egypt, where authorities have put them in a five-star hotel that they cannot leave without clearance.

"We were separated from our families for 20 years," Murad Abu al-Rub, a 45-year-old who spent two decades behind bars for murder and for belonging to a Palestinian organisation banned by Israel, told AFP.

Now, he is living in uncertainty and under close surveillance, far from the Palestinian city of Jenin where he was born.

"Nothing has changed. I still can't see mother or my siblings," Abu al-Rub told a team of AFP journalists who were able to access the hotel.

Since the US-brokered ceasefire took hold on October 10, Hamas has freed all 20 surviving Israeli hostages in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, most of whom returned to Gaza and the West Bank.

During previous truces in the war sparked by Hamas's October 2023 attack, thousands of other Palestinian prisoners were freed in similar exchanges.

The vast majority of those with life sentences were exiled to Egypt, which has formal ties with Israel and played a key mediation role.

Rights groups have long criticised Israel's use of military courts to try Palestinians suspected of security offenses, saying they do not offer fair trial guarantees.

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Illinois gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey's son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren have been killed in a helicopter accident, his campaign said in a statement on Oct. 23.

Bailey's son Zachary, daughter-in-law Kelsey and two grandchildren, 12-year-old Vada Rose and 7-year-old Samuel, died in the crash, which occurred in Montana.

Another grandchild, 10-year-old Finn, was not on the helicopter and is safe, the statement said.

"Darren and Cindy are heartbroken by this unimaginable loss," the statement said. "They are finding comfort in their faith, their family, and the prayers of so many who love and care for them. The Baileys deeply appreciate the kindness and support they have received and ask for privacy as they grieve and hold their loved ones close during this difficult time."

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Zohran Mamdani called former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s latest attacks against him “disgusting” and “racist” in the closing days of the New York City mayor's race, which show Mamdani leading in polls.

Cuomo on Oct. 23 said Mamdani, 34, couldn’t handle a crisis like the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the city nearly 25 years ago. Cuomo, running as an independent, appeared on the conservative radio show, “Sid and Friends in the Morning,” the morning after a heated final debate with Mamdani, the Democratic nominee and a member of the state Assembly, and Republican Curtis Sliwa.

“God forbid, another 9/11, can you imagine Mamdani in the seat?” Cuomo, 67, asked.

“I could,” host Sid Rosenberg said. “He’d be cheering.”

After laughing, Cuomo responded, “That’s another problem.”

Mamdani, a democratic socialist state assemblyman, would be the first Muslim mayor in New York City history if polls hold until the Nov. 4 general election. Nearly one in 10 New Yorkers are Muslim, and many faced profiling and surveillance in the aftermath of the 2001 attacks. Data also indicates rising Islamophobia.

TVNL Comment:  You would think there was no place in NYC for Islamophobia.  Yeah, you'd think so, but apparently racism is alive and well here.   Don't let it get to you, Assemblyman Mamdani.  We really are better than this, with a few obvious exceptions.

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U.S. Vice President JD Vance criticized Thursday Israel's parliament vote on West Bank annexation, saying it amounted to an "insult." Vance's scathing remark came as his visit wrapped up Thursday and after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he would now be traveling to Israel.

Vance's words and the intense diplomacy indicate that U.S. President Donald Trump's administration was intent on keeping up the momentum on the U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Speaking on the tarmac of Tel Aviv's international airport before departing Israel, Vance said that if the Knesset vote was a "political stunt, then it is a very stupid political stunt."

"I personally take some insult to it," Vance said. "The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel."