If the news that black Libyans and black migrants from sub-Saharan Africa were being sold as slaves in Libya was a surprise to you, then you were not reading Black Agenda Report during the 2011-2012 NATO intervention in that country. We covered it. Almost everybody refused to question US foreign policy in Africa during the reign of our first black president. Many US news outlets, many otherwise reasonable people with access to foreign news, and countless others around the world averted their eyes and their ears to the anguish of hunted, lynched and massacred black Africans in Benghazi, in Tripoli, in Sirte and Bani Walid. But as the US Navy and US Air Force unleashed thousands of tons of bombs and missiles on innocent civilians and the military forces of the Libyan government, without which Uncle Sam’s and Barack Obama’s racist rebels could never have toppled Muammar Gadaffi, you heard and read about it each week in Black Agenda Report.
That is, if you were listening to or reading Black Agenda Report.
This kind of unflinching coverage is the reason Black Agenda Report has been targeted by Google, which now suppresses the appearance of our content in its search results alleging that we are so-called “fake news” or tools of the Russians. Of the roughly two dozen leftist publications singled out in this manner Black Agenda Report is the only one owned by blacks or oriented toward a black audience. There are slicker and prettier web sites with far larger audiences peddling other kinds of black experience and consciousness, profitably delivering black eyeballs to corporate marketers. These outlets do not challenge cherished beliefs. They neither question nor contradict the lies our corporate masters tell us, lies which some of us repeat to each other.
During the bloodletting in Libya Black Agenda Report carried accounts of responsible journalists and our own commentary in print, audio and video on the lynchings, the massacres and the politics behind them. Though many of these events were covered elsewhere on the African continent they were almost completely absent from US coverage of the Libyan crisis. Even DemocracyNow!, which had a correspondent on the ground and ran two, three or more Libya stories weekly for more than a year, only reported on the persecution of black Africans in Libya a handful of times with no followup. But Black Agenda Report helped give our audience a coherent picture of the US sponsored catastrophe that befell Libya in 2011 and 2012.
Since early 2011, Black Agenda Report has run about 60 articles on the Libyan crisis. You can find a list of their dates and authors and links to all these at the end of the print version of this article at BlackAgendaReport.com. They include audio coverage of a July 2011 Atlanta public report back in which former US Atty. General Ramsey Clark, former US Rep. Cynthia McKinney, Rev. Derrick Rice of Atlanta’s Sankofa Church of God and others who recently returned from Libya recounted their experiences in that unhappy country, and richly sourced accounts of the reasons the US and NATO overthrew what was once the most prosperous nation on the African continent.
Apparently that’s what you do if you want the Washington Post and Google to name you as a purveyor of “fake news” and a tool of the Russians. You tell the truth without fear or favor. Frankly, it can be a bad business model.
In the face of suppression by the corporate owners of social media, Black Agenda Report needs your help to keep on delivering news, commentary and analysis from the black left. There are three ways you can help.
Number one is to share the content of Black Agenda Report via email and social media with your friends.
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For Black Agenda Radio I’m Bruce Dixon. Find us on the web at www.blackagendareport.com and on Soundcloud at Black Agenda Radio and Black Agenda Radio Commentaries.