Media Lens
Excellent UK-based media analysis
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MEDIA LENS ALERT: SELLING THE FIREBALL – GEORGE BUSH AND IRAN June 25, 2008
MEDIA ALERT: SELLING THE FIREBALL – GEORGE BUSH AND IRAN June 25, 2008 MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media When George Bush arrived in Britain last week as part of his “farewell tour”, the real reasons for the visit were buried well out of sight. The tour was not, as Continue reading
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Media Lens: ‘Complicit Enablers’ – UK Media Ignore US Whistleblowers
11 June, 2008 — MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media In April 2006, George Bush bade farewell to his outgoing White House press secretary, Scott McClellan: “One day he and I are going to be rocking on chairs in Texas talking about the good old days and his time as Continue reading
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Media Lens: Burma And The Making Of Iraq’s Ghost Towns
MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media May 28, 2008 The Rules Of The Game The psychiatrist Harry Stack Sullivan once commented on “how suavely we simply ignore great bodies of experience, any clearly analysed instance of which might present us with a very real necessity for change.” (Quoted, Daniel Goleman, Continue reading
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Media Lens: Somalia – Hidden Catastrophe Hidden Agenda
MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media May 13, 2008 On May 1, the BBC website reported an attack on Somalia with the words: “Air raid kills Somali militants.†One might think the BBC’s headline would identify the agency responsible for the bombing, but the first few sentences also shed no Continue reading
Africa, Burma, Daily Telegraph, Ethiopia, EU, food, Government, ICU, militants, Oil, security, Somalia, The Times, UN, war on terror -
MEDIA LENS ALERT: FLEXIBLE FRIENDS – THE OBSERVER, THE INDEPENDENT, AND THE MYTH OF A MEDIA SPECTRUM
On reflection, it seems incredibly naïve to imagine that free speech will flourish under corporate capitalism. It is true that we do not face the kind of physical threats offered by a totalitarian system – but so what? For most people, the threat of serious damage to a lucrative, high status career is enough to… Continue reading
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Media Lens: Covering Israel-Palestine – The BBC’s Double Standards
22 April, 2008 — MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media An Exchange With The BBC’s Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen The media reported last week that at least 22 people, including five Palestinian children, had been killed during Israeli ‘incursions’ into Gaza. The Israeli military ‘operation’ were ‘sparked’ by a Continue reading
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Media Lens: EXTRA ZERO An Exchange With The Independent’s John Rentoul
9 April, 2008 — MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media In the wake of the July 7, 2005 London bombings, the Independent’s John Rentoul commented: “A Muslim friend of mine in the East End of London says that the sense of victimisation and injustice goes so deep among his fellow Continue reading
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MEDIA LENS ALERT: ‘WITH TOTAL DESTRUCTION’ – THE FAILURE OF JOURNALISM IN IRAQ
<strong class=’StrictlyAutoTagBold’>MEDIA <strong class=’StrictlyAutoTagBold’>LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media On March 22, an Economist magazine editorial described the recent violence in Tibet as a “colonial uprisingâ€, a “revolt†against foreign occupation. This was accurate, as was the implication that China has no legitimate claims over Tibet. (‘A colonial uprising – Tibet,’ Continue reading
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MEDIA LENS ALERT: ISRAELI DEATHS MATTER MORE March 11, 2008
MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media The horrific shooting of eight young people at a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem last Thursday was followed by saturation media coverage. International statesmen lined up with condemnations of the attack and condolences for the victims and their families. Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced: “This Continue reading
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MEDIA LENS ALERT: Israel’s Illegal Assault On The Gaza ‘Prison’
MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media March 3, 2008 Attacking The Prisoners Israel has drawn international criticism for its latest series of onslaughts against the ‘prison’ of Gaza, the crowded home to 1.4 million Palestinians. Since last Wednesday (February 27), 112 Palestinians have died under Israeli air attacks and ‘incursions’ Continue reading
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MEDIA LENS ALERT: ‘CREATIVE DESTRUCTION’ – THE MADNESS OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media February 5, 2008 Watching the corporate media report the ‘financial crisis’ is instructive. From the perspective of power, it is important that a steadying hand is applied to the tiller of news and commentary on the crisis, and the global economy itself. And so Continue reading
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MEDIA LENS ALERT: SUHARTO – COVERING UP WESTERN COMPLICITY
MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media February 12, 2008 The death of the former Indonesian dictator, Suharto, on January 27 could have unleashed a flood of revelations detailing British and American support for one of the 20th century’s worst mass murderers. Instead, the media continued the cover up that has Continue reading
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MEDIA LENS ALERT: ALL SMOKE, NO FIRE – THE NATIONAL JOURNAL SMEARS THE LANCET
January 22, 2008 MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media Last year, we described how mainstream climate sceptics had queued up to praise film-maker Martin Durkin’s now infamous documentary, The Great Global Warming Swindle. The Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph, and their counterparts in the United States, used the film to Continue reading
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Media Lens: David Aaronovitch – A Different Kind of Compassion
MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media January 10, 2008 — Media Lens If “The wages of sin is death”, the returns must seem altogether less bleak to Tony Blair. In November, Blair was reported to have received £237,000 for a 20-minute speech before an audience of Chinese entrepreneurs. While his Continue reading
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MEDIA LENS ALERT: MANUFACTURING THREATS – SUDAN, IRAN, AND THE WAR FOR CIVILISATION
MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media December 18, 2007 News that British schoolteacher Gillian Gibbons had been jailed in Sudan after allowing her pupils to call a teddy bear Mohammed fed straight into the UK media’s hate factory and its “war for civilisation”. The Gibbons story was mentioned in a Continue reading
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Media Lens: The Faceless and the Dead – The Guardian and Iraq’s Refugees
MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media December 6, 2007 “See The World Through Their Eyes†For several months now, non-UK visitors accessing the Guardian website have been shown an endlessly revolving animation in three segments that would not look out of place on FAIR, ZNet, or indeed Media Lens. The Continue reading
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Media Lens: INVASION – A COMPARISON OF SOVIET AND WESTERN MEDIA PERFORMANCE – PART 2 By Nikolai Lanine and Media Lens
MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media November 22, 2007 Blaming ‘External Interference’ A striking feature of Soviet media performance on Afghanistan was its focus on “external interference” – primarily US in origin – and the role of this interference in fuelling the war. In 1988, Pravda reported that Afghan president Continue reading
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Media Lens: INVASION – A COMPARISON OF SOVIET AND WESTERN MEDIA PERFORMANCE – PART 1 By Nikolai Lanine and Media Lens
MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media November 20, 2007 Introduction The writer Simon Louvish once told the story of a group of Soviets touring the United States before the age of glasnost. After reading the newspapers and watching TV, they were amazed to find that, on the big issues, all Continue reading
The New Dark Age 