Type of site | News website |
---|---|
Available in | English |
Founder(s) | Mnar Adley |
URL | mintpressnews |
Commercial | Yes |
Registration | Optional |
Launched | 2011 |
MintPress News (MPN) is an American far-left [1] news website. It was founded and edited by Mnar Adley and was launched in January 2012, [2] and also publishes the MintCast podcast. The site covers political, economic, foreign affairs and environmental issues.
MintPress News supports Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, and the governments of Russia, Iran, and Syria. [3] [4] It opposes the governments of Israel and Saudi Arabia, [5] and reports geopolitical events from an anti-Western perspective. [6] In one contentious article, MintPress News asserted that the Ghouta chemical attack in Syria was perpetrated by rebel groups rather than by the Syrian government, a claim pushed by the Russian and Syrian governments and rejected by much of the international community. [4]
MintPress News was a major media domain that spread disinformation about the White Helmets, a Syrian volunteer organization. [7] The site has been accused of regularly publishing pro-Russian propaganda, [8] and has been described as a conspiratorial website by media studies and disinformation scholars. [9] [10]
MintPress News is headquartered in Minnesota, where it operated one office location until 2014. [11]
MintPress News was founded by Mnar Muhawesh (now Adley), a broadcast journalism graduate of St. Cloud State University. She began her career as an intern at Minnesota television station KARE and as a freelance journalist. [12]
After posting her own work on a blog, in 2011 she decided to launch her own news site. [13] Muhawesh said she believed that "our media has failed us very miserably" and that "We are in a crucial time in American history where most Americans don't know what's going on in the world around them." She spoke of her aspirations for MintPress, citing uninformed public debates around issues like Iran's nuclear capabilities, or intervention in Syria. [2]
MintPress News said it was a for-profit "regular news organization," with an initial business plan where advertising revenues would exceed costs after three years. [12] MintPress's anonymous investors were originally intended to fund MintPress operations until 2015. [2] The editor had investors, who Muhawesh claimed were "retired businesspeople", but she would not name them, a situation MinnPost said was "unfortunate for a journalism operation fighting alongside people seeking transparency. The site's 'About Us' page is similarly skinny." [12]
In a 2013 email to BuzzFeed News , Muhawesh said she restructured the business plan: "MintPress was originally funded by angel investors when I was first putting the company together over a year ago, but that route fell through last year as I restructured the business plan." She added: "I am the sole investor of MintPress." [14] MintPress News' offices closed in 2014. Since then, the website encourages donations from the public via Patreon and through crowdfunding. [11]
Muhawesh in 2015 said her funding comes "from donations, sponsorships, grants and ad revenue," and that MintPress was opposed to U.S. intervention in foreign wars. [15]
Soon afterward, Brian Lambert of MinnPost wrote an article following up on Burke's challenge to find out where MintPress's money came from. He reported that emails to them went unanswered, their phone was disconnected, and the original office address in Plymouth, Minnesota, "haven't been valid in well over a year". While MintPress listed 20 of its writers, Lambert wrote it did not indicate where the money was "coming from to pay any of these people". [16]
MintPress News received $10,000 in grants from the Association for Investment in Popular Action Committees. [11]
In 2022, Robert Scheer reported that Google AdSense informed publishers, including MintPress News, that, "Due to the war in Ukraine, we will pause monetization of content that exploits, dismisses, or condones the war." According to Scheer, these restrictions included "any pieces that question the NATO narrative on Ukraine into the content it describes". [17]
The initial release of MintPress News was described by MinnPost as a "typical left-of-center" web outlet that reported on matters such as climate change and "bizarre" comments by Republican candidates. Additionally, the site's content had a clear focus on Israel and how "'American imperialism' was abetting the humiliation and slaughter of innocent Arabs". [16] The site publishes disinformation [18] and coded antisemitic conspiracy theories, [19] including ones on George Soros. [20]
MintPress News has reposted content from Russian state media outlets RT and Sputnik, [21] [22] and is listed as a "partner" of PeaceData, a Russian fake news site run by the Internet Research Agency. [23] [24] [25] A report from New Knowledge includes MintPress News as part of the "Russian web of disinformation," [26] [27] and the site has published fake authors attributed to the GRU, the Russian military intelligence agency. [28] MintPress News defended Russia's invasion of Crimea, claiming Ukraine's post-revolution government was "illegitimate". [29]
The site ran numerous stories sympathetic to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. [16] The false information published by MintPress News attracts communities, including some Twitter users, that support Assad and the Russian government. [3]
On August 29, 2013, an unverified MintPress article attributed to Dale Gavlak and Yahya Ababneh said that Syrian rebels and local residents in Ghouta, Syria alleged that rebels were responsible for the chemical weapons attack on August 21. [14]
The story alleged that Saudi Arabia had supplied the rebels with chemical weapons, which the rebels then accidentally set off; Foreign Policy magazine described it as one of the most "crazy" conspiracy theories about chemical weapons attacks in Syria. [30] Human Rights Watch found no evidence for the claims. [31]
On September 20, the Brown Moses Blog published a statement from Gavlak saying that "despite my repeated requests, made directly and through legal counsel, they have not been willing to issue a retraction stating that I was not the author. Yahya Ababneh is the sole reporter and author of the Mint Press News piece." [32] [33] Gavlak also said the report had not been verified. [16] [34]
Gavlak also told the New York Times that "There was no fact finding or reporting by me for the piece. I did not travel to Syria, so I cannot corroborate [Ababneh's] account" and that Muhawesh refused to remove her name from the byline because "this is an existential issue for MintPress and an issue of credibility as this will appear as though we are lying." [32]
MintPress added an editor's note at the top of the article stating Ababneh was the sole reporter on the ground in Syria, while Gavlak assisted in researching and writing the article. It said that Gavlak was a MintPress News correspondent who had freelanced for the Associated Press (AP) in Jordan for a decade. A note at the bottom of the story says: "Some information in this article could not be independently verified. Mint Press News will continue to provide further information and updates." [35] The Russian Foreign Ministry cited the article in future statements. [36] [37] On September 21, 2013, MintPress published a statement by Muhawesh saying soon after the article was published, Gavlak retracted her involvement due to pressure from third parties, which Gavlak believed was prompted by Prince Bandar. The statement also claimed that Abadneh was being threatened by Saudi officials. [38]
Following the publication of the article, Gavlak stated she has been suspended from the AP. [32] The story continues to be cited by conspiracy websites and supporters of the Assad regime. [39]
When asked about the MintPress News story, Åke Sellström, the chief U.N. weapons inspector in Syria remarked, "They are famous for 1001 Arabian Nights stories!" [40]
In October 2015, the Minnesota Star Tribune published a citizen op-ed by Terry Burke, an activist for the Committee in Solidarity with the People of Syria, in which she accused MintPress News and other "alternative 'news' organizations" of "never publish[ing] the international human rights organizations' reports about the regime's crimes. Instead, they post interviews with Assad, polls that claim most Syrians support him, articles on rebel or ISIL abuses, and stories that blame the U.S. for Syria's uprising." [41]
BuzzFeed News in 2013 described the site as having "an agenda that lines up, from its sympathy with the Syrian regime to its hostility to Sunni Saudi Arabia, with that of the Islamic Republic of Iran." [14]
According to Bellingcat , MintPress News has received the Serena Shim Award (organized by the Association for Investment in Popular Action Committees), a financial award of an unknown amount, along with other websites which "routinely promote pro-Assad conspiracy theories". [42]
In November 2016, a MintPress News article entitled "Media Blackout As Millions Of Muslims March Against ISIS In Iraq" became a top trending story on Facebook, which prompted criticism that the article was misleading. BuzzFeed News countered, "This week has seen millions of Shiite Muslims participate in Arbaeen, one of the world's largest pilgrimages, in Iraq. But they are not specifically marching against ISIL, nor has there been a 'media blackout.'"
BuzzFeed News said the article had been sourced from American Herald Tribune, a website edited by Anthony Hall, a 9/11 and Sandy Hook shooting conspiracy theorist suspended from his job as a professor at the University of Lethbridge on charges of antisemitism. [22] [43]
Snopes described the claims in the MintPress article as inaccurate: "The pilgrimage was not a massive protest against ISIS, nor did a "media blackout" prevent news agencies from covering the event." [44] MintPress stood by its story. [45]
In 2018, MintPress News falsely claimed that Coca-Cola and Nestlé were privatising the Guarani Aquifer, a major South American water reserve. The site additionally made the false claim that the alleged deal was being negotiated by Brazilian president Michel Temer and has reached an "advanced" stage. [46]
The site offered no evidence to support their claims and only provided vague statements. Experts, like law professor Gabriel Eckstein, noted that it would be physically impossible for a private company to control the aquifer due to its large size. Coca-Cola and Nestlé also refuted the allegations. [47]
A study led by Kate Starbird at the University of Washington found that MintPress News was part of a core cluster of websites amplifying disinformation about the White Helmets, a volunteer organization formed during Syrian Civil War. The White Helmets has been the target of disinformation campaigns perpetrated by pro-Assad and pro-Russian groups. Such disinformation increased dramatically following the Douma chemical attack. [48] [5] [49] Many of Vanessa Beeley's conspiracy theories about the White Helmets appeared on MintPress News. [50]
In 2018, during the 2018–2022 Nicaraguan protests, MintPressNews published a "lengthy, insinuation-infused attack" on the photojournalist Carl David Goette-Luciak, a freelance reporter for NPR and The Guardian , implying he was anti-regime. [51] [52]
According to journalist Joshua Collins, MintPress accompanied the story, entitled "How an American Anthropologist Tied to US Regime-Change Proxies Became the MSM's Man in Nicaragua", [53] with a photo of Luciak beside an armed soldier labelled as an opposition figure, when it was in fact a government-supporting Sandinista. [54]
The false story nevertheless went viral, Luciak went into hiding, was eventually captured by state forces, threatened with torture and deported from the country. [51] [53] [52]
Eva Bartlett, Vanessa Beeley, Max Blumenthal, Miko Peled, Kevin Zeese, and the cartoonist Carlos Latuff are listed as regular contributors to the website. [55]
In 2023, Randi Lucile Nord, a MintPress News staff writer, [56] [55] admitted to spray-painting a swastika and the word "Azov" (in reference to the Azov Brigade) on a synagogue in Royal Oak, Michigan, in order to undermine United States support to Ukraine during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. [57]
MintPress News frequently partners with the outlets Project Censored, Free Speech TV, Media Roots Radio, ShadowProof, The Grayzone , Truthout , CommonDreams , and Antiwar.com. [55]
In September 2013, Antiwar.com apologized for linking to and reprinting a MintPress News story that Syrian rebels were responsible for the Ghouta sarin attacks of 2013. [58]
Bashar al-Assad is a Syrian politician who is the 19th and current president of Syria since 2000. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the secretary-general of the Central Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. He is a son of Hafez al-Assad, who was President of Syria from 1971 to 2000.
Michel Chossudovsky is a Canadian economist and author. He is professor emeritus of economics at the University of Ottawa and the president and director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), which runs the website globalresearch.ca, founded in 2001, which publishes falsehoods and conspiracy theories. Chossudovsky has promoted conspiracy theories about 9/11.
Max Blumenthal is an American journalist, author, blogger, and filmmaker. He was a writer for The Nation, AlterNet, The Daily Beast, Al Akhbar, Mondoweiss, and Media Matters for America, and has contributed to Al Jazeera English, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. He has been a writing fellow of the Nation Institute. He is a regular contributor to Sputnik and RT.
Douma is a city in Syria. Its centre is about 10 km (6 mi) northeast of the centre of Damascus. Being the capital of Rif Dimashq Governorate, the city is also the administrative centre of Douma District. Douma is a major city of the region known as Ghouta, for the peri-urban settlements to the east and south of Damascus.
Eliot Ward Higgins, who previously wrote under the pseudonym Brown Moses, is a British citizen journalist and former blogger, known for using open sources and social media for investigations. He is the founder of Bellingcat, an investigative journalism website that specialises in fact-checking and open-source intelligence. He has investigated incidents including the Syrian Civil War, the Russo-Ukrainian War, the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 and the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal. He first gained mainstream media attention by identifying weapons in uploaded videos from the Syrian conflict.
There have been numerous reports of chemical weapons attacks in the Syrian Civil War, beginning in 2012, and corroborated by national governments, the United Nations (UN), the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Human Rights Watch (HRW), and media organizations. The attacks occurred in different areas of Syria, including Khan al-Assal, Jobar, Saraqib, Ashrafiyat Sahnaya, Kafr Zita, Talmenes, Sarmin and Douma. The deadliest attacks were the August 2013 sarin attack in Ghouta, the April 2017 sarin attack in Khan Shaykhun and April 2018 Douma chemical attacks. The most common agent used is chlorine, with sarin and sulphur mustard also reported. Almost half of the attacks between 2014 and 2018 were delivered via aircraft and less than a quarter were delivered from the ground, with the remaining attacks having an undetermined method of delivery. Since the start of uprisings across Syria in 2011, Syrian Arab Armed Forces and pro-Assad paramilitary forces have been implicated in more than 300 chemical attacks in Syria.
The Ghouta chemical attack was a chemical attack carried out by the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in the early hours of 21 August 2013 in Ghouta, Syria during the Syrian civil war. Two opposition-controlled areas in the suburbs around Damascus were struck by rockets containing the chemical agent sarin. Estimates of the death toll range from at least 281 people to 1,729. The attack was the deadliest use of chemical weapons since the Iran–Iraq War.
Maram Susli, also known as Mimi al-Laham, PartisanGirl, Syrian Girl and Syrian Sister, is a Syrian-born Australian conspiracy theorist, media personality, and political commentator who prepares videos on the Syrian civil war, United States foreign policy in the Middle East, and Gamergate. She has defended the Syrian government under Bashar al-Assad, and criticised Syrian rebels including ISIS.
The Rif Dimashq offensive , code-named Operation Damascus Steel, was a military offensive launched by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in February 2018 in a bid to capture the rebel-held eastern Ghouta suburb during the Syrian Civil War. East Ghouta, a pocket of towns and farms, had been under government siege since 2013 and had been a major rebel stronghold in the vicinity of the capital of Damascus. According to the United Nations, nearly 400,000 people live in East Ghouta.
Al-Masdar News was an online newspaper founded by Leith Abou Fadel. Al-Masdar is Arabic for "the source". Al-Masdar's coverage focuses largely on conflict zones in the Middle East: Syria, Yemen, and Iraq. Al-Masdar has been described as being favorable to President Bashar al-Assad during its coverage of the Syrian civil war. As of 2023, it appears to be inactive.
The Khan Shaykhun chemical attack took place on 4 April 2017 on the town of Khan Shaykhun in the Idlib Governorate of Syria. The town was reported to have been struck by an airstrike by government forces followed by massive civilian chemical poisoning. The release of a toxic gas, which included sarin, or a similar substance, killed at least 89 people and injured more than 541, according to the opposition Idlib Health Directorate. The attack was the deadliest use of chemical weapons in the Syrian civil war since the Ghouta chemical attack in 2013.
The following is a timeline of the Syrian Civil War from January to April 2018. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found at Casualties of the Syrian Civil War.
The siege of Eastern Ghouta was a siege that was laid by Syrian Government forces in April 2013, to the area in eastern Ghouta held by anti-government forces since November 2012, during the Syrian civil war. The cities and villages under siege were Douma, Mesraba, Arbin, Hamouria, Saqba, Modira, Eftreis, Jisrin, as well as suburbs of Damascus Beit Sawa, Harasta, Zamalka, Ein Tarma, Hizzah and Kafr Batna. By 2016, around 400,000 people were trapped in an area just over 100 square kilometres in size, thus with a population density around 4,000 inhabitants/km2.
On 7 April 2018, a chemical warfare attack was launched by the forces of the government of Bashar al-Assad in the city of Douma, Syria. Medics and witnesses reported that it caused the deaths of between 40 and 50 people and injuries to possibly well over 100. The attack was attributed to the Syrian Army by rebel forces in Douma, and by the United States, British, and French governments. A two-year long investigation by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) concluded in January 2023 that the Syrian Air Force perpetrated the chemical attacks during its military campaign in Douma. On 14 April 2018, the United States, France and the United Kingdom carried out a series of military strikes against multiple government sites in Syria.
On 14 April 2018, beginning at 04:00 Syrian time (UTC+3), the United States, France, and the United Kingdom carried out a series of military strikes involving aircraft and ship-based missiles against multiple government sites in Syria during the Syrian Civil War. The strikes were a reprisal for the Douma chemical attack against civilians on 7 April, widely attributed to the Syrian government. The Syrian government called the airstrikes a violation of international law.
Eva Karene Bartlett is an American Canadian activist, journalist, commentator, and blogger who has propagated conspiracy theories in connection to the Syrian civil war, most notably the disproven allegation that the White Helmets stage rescues and "recycle" children in its videos.
The Grayzone is an American fringe news website and blog characterized as far-left by numerous sources. It was founded and edited by American journalist Max Blumenthal. The website was initially founded as The Grayzone Project and was affiliated with AlterNet before becoming independent in early 2018.
Vanessa Beeley is a British activist and blogger known for sharing conspiracy theories and disinformation about the Syrian civil war and about the Syrian volunteer organisation the White Helmets.
The Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media (SPM) is a controversial group of academics and activists whose stated purpose is to study propaganda and information operations surrounding the Syrian civil war. It was formed by environmental political theory professor Tim Hayward and former academic Piers Robinson in 2017.
Aaron Maté is a Canadian writer and journalist. He hosts the show Pushback with Aaron Maté on The Grayzone and, as of January 2022, he fills in as a host on the Useful Idiots podcast. Maté has worked as a reporter and producer for Democracy Now!, Vice, The Real News Network, and Al Jazeera, and has contributed to The Nation.
These grassroots communities are particularly evident on Twitter, where they coalesce around individual personalities like right-wing activist Andy Ngo, and around platforms with uncritical pro-Kremlin and pro-Assad editorial lines, like The Grayzone and MintPress News. These personalities and associated outlets act as both producers of counterfactual theories, as well as hubs around which individuals with similar beliefs rally. The damage that these ecosystems and the theories that they spawn can inflict on digital evidence is not based on the quality of the dis/misinformation that they produce but rather on the quantity.
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