Profit & Misery.

           I wonder when we will grab the bull by the horns and create a civilised society, a society where the locking people up in cages is finally recognised as barbaric and inhumane. When will we see a society where the only reference to this savage activity is in our history books.
         The fact that these degrading institutions are more and more being run by large corporations for profit, makes them even more unacceptable to civilised people. Inflicting misery and violence on fellow humans for corporate gain condemns them beyond the pale. Profit will always strip away at conditions, making prisons even more damaging to the mental and physical health of those caught up in this human crushing machine. In these inhuman institutions there is never enough money for medical care, security and profit come first. So it comes as no surprise that there have been approximately 260 people infected with covid19 in Kilmarnock prison. This particular human degradation institution is run by SERCO, a company that is no stranger to useing human misery to enhance its profit margins. Apart from prisons, Serco have been grabbing a slice of public money to harvest a profit from the misery of migrants.
        As long as we follow the economic madness of the capitalist system, making money from human misery will be an acceptable method of enhancing shareholders' bank accounts. If we dare to call ourselves civilised, then we have to erase any possibility of this type of enterprise entering the human chain of thought. A civilised society will only grow from the dust of demolished prisons and an end to the profit motive.

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Bias?

       Isn't it interesting how the Western mainstream media are always showing the police violence in places like Russia and Hong Kong, yet police violence in the EU doesn't seem to get much of an airing. Do you think there might be a wee bit of bias there? Police violence is part and parcel of the state system, not as the media would try to have you believe, that it's a product of bad evil states, who, by some strange coincidence, don't fit into the Western capitalist model.
      States and police are co-joined twins, and the job of the police is to dish out what ever violence they deem necessary to protect the power and privileges of the state, no matter the shade, shape or other characteristics of that state. What kind of person takes on the job of beating up their fellow citizens to protect the rich and powerful, who don't give a shit about their paid minders, or the citizens.

 

  

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Failed System.

            The rich developed West, overflowing with wealth, a parasite class living in obscene opulence side by side with outrageous child poverty. The UK, 5th or 6th richest nation on the planet belongs to that unique club where child poverty is above 26%, we are in keeping with other countries that fail miserably to see to the health and welfare of the next generation. In that rich conglomerate of nation states belonging to the world's largest trading block, the EU, (I know that UK is no longer a member, but these figures were compiled shortly before we left.) there are 12 nation states where child poverty is above 26%, with Bulgaria and Romania champions of European child poverty, with Bulgaria at approximately 46% and Romania approximately 49%.

 

 
          This is modern capitalism at work, luxury yachts, grand mansions, tax havens, power and privileges for a small band of leeching parasites and struggle and poverty for the many with children bearing the blunt of this greed driven system of exploitation for profit.
         Large corporations dictate economic policy to the various governments and they put the stamp of legitimacy on them, then enforce the implementation on the population, all to the detriment of the people and the benefit of the corporate parasite class.
         Child poverty will remain with us as long as we tolerate this capitalist system where the holy grail is the economy, where the only reason for any form of production is for profit. Common sense tells us that it would by much better and fairer for all in society, if we built it round a state free public ownership and co-operatives, organised by the communities in co-operation with each other, and all free from the profit motive. However don't expect our prancing political ballerinas and their corporate paymasters to arrange that for you, that task will have to be up to us, to throw their rule book in the bin and take control and shape society to see to the needs of all our people, only then will we see child poverty turn into something your read about in the history books.

 

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Assassination?

          Did President Trump order the assassination of an American citizen on American soil? That's the question some people are asking after the killing of activist and antifascist Michael Reinoehl.

It's Going Down reports on the incident:

        A look at the evidence surrounding the State killing of Portland-area protester Michael Reinoehl – which begs the question, just who directed what seems to be – his execution?
By John Teufel
        That Michael Reinoehl was murdered is hardly in doubt. Whether he was assassinated remains an open question.
         We know the events of September 3rd with some certainty. Five days earlier, Reinoehl had killed a man named Aaron Danielson in downtown Portland. Local police had already publicly named him as a suspect – Reinoehl was a fugitive, and feared that his own death was imminent. Now, Reinoehl was trying to hide at an apartment in Lacey, Washington, a suburb of Olympia. At this, he was failing, as FBI agents watched silently outside.
Murder
       At approximately 6:45 PM, Reinoehl finished a phone call with a friend and left the apartment, walking toward his car parked outside. As he did so, a contingent of U.S. marshals and local police in SUVs approached him at rapid speed. Reinoehl had a cell phone against his ear, and popped a gummy worm into his mouth. He opened his car door and started to get inside. The SUVs reached Reinoehl and, before coming to a complete stop, federal agents and cops descended with weapons drawn. No commands were issued. Within seconds, law enforcement opened fire. Reinoehl tried to duck for cover behind his vehicle, but the barrage of shots – 37 rounds in total – was relentless.
       Medical aid was half-heartedly administered (chest compressions, with the officer still standing) eight minutes after Reinoehl had been pumped with bullets. It wouldn’t have made a difference even if done right. Reinoehl died fast – likely in seconds, according to the coroner.
        Of the 22 civilian witnesses present at Reinoehl’s death, 21 stated that police never issued any commands or announced themselves before opening fire. Five eyewitnesses stated that the gunfire began as soon as the vehicles arrived on the scene. None saw Reinoehl with a gun. One witness initially assumed he was watching a drug-related gang hit, until he noticed the bulletproof vests worn by the shooters.

Read the full article HERE

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       Stuart Christie, who dead recently was a remarkable man, an anarchist, with incredible  skills, resilience, and a remarkable history, it is wonderful that his family and friends are creating an archive of his life and work. We must always remember and record our own, the society we live under would rather such people were erased from history, we must never let that happen, we have a rich and remarkable history we should be very proud of, Stuart Christie made it that bit richer. 

The following from Kate Sharpley Library.

Stuart Christie

The Stuart Christie Memorial Archive

       Friends, family and comrades of Stuart Christie have come up with a plan to commemorate his life by creating an archive at London’s Mayday Rooms and online.
      “Stuart’s life may have been plastered with headlines, Britain’s most famous anarchist was the usual description, but the small print of it was what was important. His courage, imagination, his loyalty, not just to what he believed in, but to his friends and family, his remarkable intelligence, his self-deprecating, droll and spiky humour. He was a man of parts, each one of them remarkable.
     “To reveal the richness of Stuart’s life and the many histories he was a part of, we intend to establish a memorial archive in his name. The Stuart Christie Memorial Archive will be housed at the MayDay Rooms in Fleet Street in London.”
      Read more about the project (and donate!) at
https://www.gofundme.com/f/stuart-christie-memorial-archive

 

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Incompatible.

          It is now becoming ever more obvious that the system is falling apart, for generations we have been subject to our rulers rampant aggression and utter contempt, yet the populace at large, continued to hold onto that mythical thought of some sort of alliance between rulers and ruled. Now the truth is so blatantly obvious that this myth has evaporated, leaving bare the true nature of this incompatible relationship. The powerful rulers of society are aware of this now complete disconnect between ruled and ruler, aware that the illusion no longer holds, and the populace see the glaring truth. This makes them extremely dangerous, if they can’t hold onto their power by smoke and mirrors, by weaving illusions, then they will try to do so by force, we must prepare for this inevitability. The disconnect between ruled and ruler is now complete, the glaring inequality and disparity inherent in the system shows that their reality and ours is completely incompatible. 

        We the public can no longer march to their tune, no longer pick up the sword to defend their wealth, no longer shed our blood in their petty power struggles, no longer sweat our lives away cementing their privileged position. Across the globe people are showing that they have finally grasped this irrefutable truth, open rebellion is in the air. The attempted containment will become more brutal, ever increasing restrictions, ever greater surveillance, ever greater punishments for dissent. We organise in solidarity and face it full on, or we revert to that illusion that there is compatibility between rich and powerful rulers and the ruled and once again accept our serfdom, in a tighter and more frightening new world order.

 

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Black Square.

     Lifted this from ANARCHISM on Facebook

★ I am an anarchist in my very own essence ★

Kasimir Malevich.

       "In 1913, trying desperately to liberate art from the ballast of the representational world, I sought refuge in the form of the black square."
Revolutionary anarchist artist and founder of the Suprematist movement, Kasimir Malevich (Казимир Северинович Малевич) was born on Feb. 11, 1878, in Kiev. He is credited with having painted the first geometric, totally nonrepresentational picture.
He was a regular contributor to Anarkhiia, under the pen name Anti - a Russian weekly, then daily newspaper published by the Moscow Federation of Anarchist Groups.
It was first launched in September 1917, but was suspended in the confusion arising over the Bolshevik seizure of power. It reappeared in March 1918 as a daily newspaper. The last issue, the 99th, was published on 2 July 1918.
The paper had a section devoted to Tvorchestvo or "creativity". It featured many prominent Russian avant-garde artists such Aleksei Gan, Aleksandr Rodchenko, Aleksei Morgunov, Ivan Kliun, Olga Rozanova and Nadezhda Udaltsova.
      The Revolution of the Black Square: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lozgR-z2Sck...
Malevich's Black Square: Symbol of Russian Anarchism: https://nulluslocussinegenio.com/.../malevichs-black.../
The Aesthetics of Anarchy : Art and Ideology in the Early Russian Avant-Garde by Nina Gourianova [Book review]: https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/83bm3h

 

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An Appeal.

       States act with impunity when handing out brutality and do so with the greatest force when it come to those who would dare to demand a change to this authoritarian system that has locked humanity in its grip. A system built on exploitation, by the powerful and privileged, a system that demands submission from the population. Of course they talk of checks and balances on the use of power, however that is always backed up by pieces of paper they have written in their favour, then stamped with their little symbols that is meant to give it legitimacy, therefore binding and can be enforced by what ever force they deem necessary. To appeal to those among the wealthy and privileged to give up some of those privileges and spread that wealth more evenly, is naivety in extreme.
        The Greek state is ahead of the game in Europe, when it comes to trying to crush dissent, though not by much, most states are walking the same path, all at their own pace.
       The following two articles apply to the Greek state, but similarities will be found across the globe.

          At the end of last December the Greek government approved a reform of the national penitentiary system that, in addition to other measures that worsen prison conditions, establishes that those convicted of terrorism cannot access “rural prisons”, more “open” institutions to which long-term prisoners have access. The approval of this law has led to the immediate transfer of political prisoner Dimitri Koufontinas from the rural prison of Kassevitia.
       Dimitri is a comrade convicted for participating in the revolutionary organization 17 November, in prison since 2002. The new set of laws stipulates that inmates in rural prisons are reclassified and then transferred to the last prison they were in. In Dimitri’s case it should have been the Athenian prison of Koridallos. However, the prison administration decided to transfer him, manipulating the transfer papers, to Domokos prison. Although there are no differentiated circuits in Greece, in recent years, the prison administration has turned Domokos into a “hard” prison.
       Such a punitive transfer is aimed at striking a comrade who has always struggled: as a free man, in courtrooms, in prison. Since his capture he has participated in numerous protests and has been on four hunger strikes. This repressive manoeuvre is not only aimed at annihilating Dimitri Koufontinas but also forms part of the Greek’s state repressive project: crushing the most radical and combative parts of society to
avoid the hypothesis of future and general conflicts.
       Faced with the transfer, Dimitri Koufontinas decided to strive once again, using his body as a weapon and last resort. Since 8 January he has begun a hunger strike which will continue indefinitely until he is transferred to Koridallos prison. As the strike continues, the comrade is in a critical and precarious condition in Lamia hospital: according to the doctors he could collapse at any moment. During the strike there were many initiatives and solidarity actions throughout Greece and beyond:
protests, demos, wall writings, banners, attacks against multiple objectives (politicians, banks, post offices, etc.). But time is running out and now we think extra efforts are needed. Dimitri’s struggle is also the struggle of each of us.
        The creation and expansion of international ties is as crucial as ever so we are calling for an INTERNATIONAL day of solidarity and action on FRIDAY 12 FEBRUARY to support Dimitri Koufontinas.

THE DEMAND OF HUNGER STRIKE MUST BE IMMEDIATELY ACCEPTED
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY IS OUR WEAPON

Athens, 7 February 2021
Solidarity Assembly with Dimitri Koufontinas

And regarding the same case of repression:

           On Monday, February 1/2021 the ′′ Solidarity Assembly with the hunger striker D. Koufontinas ′′ intervened with the participation of dozens of comrades at the Athens Bar Association (solicitors general offices union).
      The intervention included hanging a massive banner on the building and gathering in front of the Board of Directors offices with banners, On Monday, February 1/2021 the ′′ Solidarity Assembly with the hunger striker D. Koufontinas intervened with the participation of dozens of comrades at the Athens Bar Association (solicitors general offices union).The intervention included hanging a massive banner on the building and gathering in front of the Board of Directors offices with banners, texts, flyers, and slogans. At the same time, they handed out texts on all floors of the building to the workers and lawyers who were there. Comrades involved in the intervention then left shouting slogans in Academias Street. 

THEY WANT HIM DEAD, LET’S NOT ALLOW IT TO HAPPEN
VICTORY TO THE STRUGGLE OF D. KOUFONTINAS
Solidarity Assembly with hunger striker D. Koufontinas
THEY WANT HIM DEAD, LET’S NOT ALLOW IT TO HAPPEN
VICTORY TO THE STRUGGLE OF D. KOUFONTINAS
Solidarity Assembly with hunger striker D. Koufontinas

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2,000 Dead!!

          Time and time again this pandemic is seen to have been handled by our political ballerinas, lead by bubbling Boris as an economic crisis. Their shut, open shut again, half open and half shut, was obviously driven my thoughts of their corporate friends and a desire to see that they didn't lose too much money. Health and safety of workers was away down the scale. Only when it was seen to be getting out of control did they come up with another prolonged lockdown. However even in these circumstances they still wanted to keep some business earning, so construction was allowed to continuing working as the number of case spiked. 

        The result being that it has meant that those working in the construction industry had to pay a heavy price for this economic decision. According to the Office of National Statistics, the number of construction workers who have died from Covid19 between March 9th, 2020, and December 28th, 2020, is over 2,000. This figure doesn't take into account all the ancillary staff, security guards, delivery personnel, cleaners etc. Nor does it take into account how many of the construction workers' family and friends fell fowl of this disease because of this government's cavalier attitude to the health and welfare of workers.
        Surely this and all the other bungling decisions made with one and half eyes on the economic and half an eye on the medical during this pandemic is a case that must be brought into the open, and justice brought to all those who died unnecessarily through government bungle ineptitude and economic greed. There must be a reckoning or we insult those and their families who died unnecessarily. 

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Back Door.

        Lots of large companies are rubbing their hands with glee and taking this pandemic as a wonderful milk-cow. During the pandemic, millions of pounds of tax payers money has been handed to friends and buddies of the Tory Party, in the form of contracts, without any tendering or public scrutiny, and some have made a right dogs dinner of that contract, but of course held onto the money. Of course it is not just the Bumbling Boris brigade that are guilty of this throwing tax payers money at companies without as much as tendering process or a wee squint of public scrutiny, why here in Bonnie Scotland the same rather dodgy process is alive and well. The recent contract to KMPG being one that we are are aware of, another little slice of the NHS moved into private hands, without the public getting a sniff of the process.

the following extract from Consultancy UK 

       Scotland's health service has awarded a contract worth more than £2 million to Big Four professional services firm KPMG for "management and advisory services" on the nation’s coronavirus vaccine programme.
       According to reports in the Scottish press, three months before the first vaccinations began in Scotland, a contract for "extended flu and Covid vaccination programme management and advisory services" was handed out to KPMG. The deal, worth a total of £2.32 million, was given to the advisory and accounting firm without any other competing bids in September, with the Government citing the "extreme urgency" of the vaccination programme.
       A contract award notice published at the start of 2021 added that the Government’s justification for directly awarding the contract on behalf of NHS Scotland was due to "unforeseeable" events. Statements from the Governments since defended the process, which it said are standard practice in the current pandemic.

      Slice by slice, our NHS is being handed to private companies, sooner or later they will be the ones that call the shots on what kind of care you get and what it will cost you. That is if we allow this back door entrance to big business to continue.

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Eagle Stew.

        The babble and furore of what happened on January 6th in America has now more or less disappeared from the media, no longer able to create sensationalism from that event so it slides down the scale. Of course it is not forgotten by the powers that be, they will milk it for all it's worth to tighten security, ever greater surveillance, passing ever tighter legislation, to clamp down on any form of protest, putting all protests under the umbrella of "domestic terrorism".  We should have no illusions, the establishment in the U$A and here, as elsewhere, is fascist in intent, but wears the cloak of liberalism. This steady march to fascism will not stop, either it will result in a total submissive population, bound to the rigid rules of corporate greed, or it will come to an end when the people finally stand up and grab freedom and justice for all, bringing an end to the whole corporate/state system of greed and exploitation. 

Lots of interesting videos on Kolektiva HERE: 

The latest episode of  System Fail:

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My Friend Joe.

        Friendship is a strange thing, while living it you never think of missing it, it's something that is there on tap, and as they say, "You never miss the water until the well runs dry". More than 40 years of friendship with the last 16 or so years meeting once a week in some pub for a soup, coffee and a good old blether, where nothing was off the agenda. Everything from natural disasters to the latest medical advances, some weird recipe to political corruption, wild life to music, it didn't matter, we always had something to say about it. Joe's stories from his very varied and at times very hard life, were material for a multitude of movies and books, some tragic and other hilarious, sadly they were never recorded. Even yet, things come into my mind, and I think "Oh, I must tell Joe about that", but of course I can't. Joe died from prostrate cancer February 7th 2019, and it left a very large hole in my life. Like some old mine shaft that just can't be filled. Joe, a well known folk singer, but that was just a fragment of the man.

Friendship.

True friendship has many things
anger, annoyance, even squabbles,
there are times, now and again
it falters, wavers, even wobbles
but sure as fate, up it gets
with a smile on it hobbles:
with it comes comfort, warmth, love,
laughter at its foibles.
the longer it lasts the stronger it gets,
any flaw it finds it cobbles.

         This was filmed in his sister's home, a couple of weeks before Joe died, he moved to his sister house as he could no longer make the stairs of his own flat.

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Gaolers

 

 

      It is a thought that has always puzzled me, why does somebody want to become a prison guard, a gaoler of other humans. It seems the most deranged or deluded mind that would wish to earn their living by locking up individuals in cages. I know a lot of us take shit jobs for survival, but surely a spark of humanity in anybody would make them draw back from earning their living by treating members of their community like animals or worse. However history teaches us different, there are those people who for whatever reason will pick up the baton and the gaolers keys, we have still a long way to go before we can call ourselves a civilised species. However, I think it is right and proper that we make our opinions known regards those who would choose to earn their living as the state's skivvy and become a gaoler of people.

The following from Act For Freedom Now:

      We receive and spread:
       The national recruiting competition for the selection of prison guards took place on13th January in Paris, and the walls of the Parc des Expos exhibition centre and the Porte de Versailles metro station served for us to blow our top.
What can make a person lock up another up by force, deprive them of their freedom, personal initiative, identity, responsibility and loves? The lure of gain, no matter how derisory? Blind infinite obedience to an omnipotent authority that orders them “do this for me”? Sadistic delusion masquerading as benevolence, telling oneself “I’ll do it better than anyone else”? A torturer’s dubious ambition? Pressure from the job centre adviser?
      All these reasons disgust us, that’s why we made sure to organize a welcoming committee from the bottom of our hearts for all the adrift and human crap who turned up to the recruitment competition for prison guards on 13th January 2021, 12:30, at Parc des Expos and Porte de Versailles, Paris. The walls of the exhibition park along the route of Tram 1 and those of the metro station corridors served for us to blow our top and were copiously covered in what we think of people who spend three hours competing to become jailers, as well as the world they defend:
Against confinement revolts and freedom
Fire to the prisons
Here we recruit prison guards
Rather unemployed than screw
Screw, watch out
Rather do nothing than be a torturer
Screw, choke on your exam certificate
Fire to the jails and your cars
ACAB
      In the hope that they give up, or at least have some nightmares, but also because we will not passively let individuals become lockers-up. There is no such thing as a “kind screw” a “nice prison guard” or a “caring jailer”. The screws who’d have you believe they are there to help you back into society or to get through your sentence, are and remain the people who lock you up, who have chosen what side they are on: that of authority, oppression, control, prison, the State. Everything we hate.
       Let’s not forget that competitive exams are often run to hire the various servants of power, all of whom deserve our contempt. By the way, the next session of this exam will take place in March.
A word to the wise…
        P.S.: to have an idea of what this exam is: DesDetenus

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Bad News.

     Episode 42 from Bad News via Anarchist Radio Network.

         Welcome to the 42nd edition of B(A)D News: Angry Voices from Around the World, a commonly produced monthly show of the anarchist and anti-authoritarian radio network, on this occasion composed by A-Radio Berlin, an anarchist podcast from Germany.
In this episode we will hear contributions from:
     1) Crna Luknja – An urgent Call for Solidarity with evicted Squat ROG in Ljubljana
      2) Free social radio 1431AM – Report on the Solidarity Fund for imprisoned Revolutionaries in Greece and the Situation of Long Time Prisoner Dimitris Koufontinas who is in an ongoing hunger strike
     3) Announcement for the upcoming A Radio Network Live Show at Saturday 13 th of Februar from 14:00 – 20:00 (CET)
     4) Elephant in the Room – an anarchist estimation of the current situation in Russia and the Protests around the trial against right-wing liberal Nawalny
     5) A Radio Berlin – with a short piece and a quote highlighting anarchist Thinker and Revolutionary Piotr Kropotkin who died 100 years ago

Total length of the show: 39 min
Audio Player

00:00

00:00

Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume. 

You can download it directly from archive.org here:

Bad News Episode 42 2021 01 EN

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Thieving Bosses.

       So Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man, steps down from his cushy job of CEO of Amazon. I doubt if he will have any money worries stepping down from his extremely lucrative little number. It could be mere coincidence that he steps down as Amazon is found guilt of stealing more than $61 million from its workers, it seems that the company simple pocketed all those millions of dollars given by the public as tips for the workers. We know that all large corporation exploit their works to varying degrees, but this one surely takes the biscuit. Of course the media are never too hard on large corporations when they are caught blatantly pilfering their workers money, after all they are dependent on, owned by, and are the mouthpiece of, the corporate world, so we expect this usual whitewashing of their corporate bosses.

    However the point that I would like to make is that the company has been fined, well and good, but the decision of what to do with that money as it came in was made by one or more individuals at the top of the tree. They have names, they as individuals should be held to account for what was obvious theft and corruption, when do we see them brought to account? The anonymous company leaves those individuals sitting pretty, and able to carry on their devious deceptive corrupt endeavours. Actions always have names and faces.
       The following is an extract from Mint Press News, describing how the media reported this blatant stealing of workers money,

       Even worse, many more framed the news as a mere allegation, despite the fact that the FTC had made a formal ruling. Forbes, for instance, led with the headline “Amazon Will Pay $61.7 Million Settlement After Allegedly Withholding Tips From Delivery Drivers.” Others (Daily Caller, Daily Mail) did the same. Meanwhile, in a tweet on the news, Vox claimed that (emphasis added) “Amazon will pay $61.7 million in a settlement over allegations that the company used customer tips to subsidize the hourly wages of some delivery drivers.” Thus, the fact that Amazon had been caught stealing was watered down into a claim that it was merely “subsidizing” “some” of its employees’ wages.
     Perhaps the worst offender was business and tech news site ZDNet, whose headline was “Amazon will pay $61.7 million to settle Flex driver tip dispute with FTC,” which obscured the matter into a foggy and very technical sounding financial dispute. Only a very small number of outlets, including Slate and The Huffington Post, echoed the FTC’s decision by using the word “stole” in their headlines. 

Read the full article HERE:

 

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