Primary source sharing

I'm running really short on time today, but here's the primary sources we've gathered. I'll get on and add commentary and extra info tomorrow when everything isn't quite so hectic..

Anonymous and the Panama Papers

One of th most interesting things to me about the spread of a message is the way that message changes from source to source. Sort of like a mass media version of the game telephone, except in the media version, various journalists comb through the original version of a story or an article and then they create a new and unique article with pieces from the original that benefit the agenda of the secondary publication.

The scandal surrounding the release of the Panama papers has fueled many publications over the week to release their own version of the event based on what was originally released on Sunday. In particular, the hacktivist group, Anonymous, has been releasing statements that surround these papers all week.

On Monday, they released an overview of the leak, focusing the driving force of their commentary on political officials involved and highliting with useful graphics the sheer size of this leaked data.

I hope my graphics work okay this time...

Next, Anonymous honed in on one of their least favorite corporations: Walmart.

Anonymous posted information that was found in an article written in June of 2015 under the tag line "Well, now we know where it is. Thanks to Panama papers." The report, originally posted by Americans for Tax Fairness accused Walmart of hiding roughly 76 billion dollars in offshore accounts. It's interesting that even old news can be added to the fuel for this fire.

http://www.americansfortaxfairness.org/files/Walmart-tax-haven-map-for-web.jpg

Next, as Anonymous is wont to do, they posted an article highlighting the biased portrayal of the leak by conventional media sources. Anonymous criticized the release of the data by western sources, citing that the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists is funded by the USA's Center for Public Integrity. As a result, they say, the media that is being released to the American Public is highly geared toward a western political agenda. They state that even though many other heads of state have been involved, the release has been geared toward Vladamir Putin and Assad while skimming over the presence of "hundreds of Israeli companies and shareholders" in the leaked reports.

Though Anonymous is not the most trustworthy news sorce in my opinion(they have an agenda, just like everyone else...) they are usually more centered on filtering out media bias and corruption and are not particularly geared toward caring that this money is not being taxed. As a result, the tenor of their coverage of this situation is uniquely interesting. It will be interesting to see what they have to say about  the leak when the data is released in its entirety next month.