Media Lens
Excellent UK-based media analysis
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Media Lens: Death Of A Bogeyman – The Corporate Media Bury Hugo Chávez By David Edwards
What lies behind the Western media’s obsession with Chávez? Why the extreme hostility and bias? A clue was provided by the Guardian when it observed that Venezuela is sitting on ‘The world’s biggest oil reserves’… One of the great tasks of our time is to appreciate how these undeniable realities distort coverage right across the… Continue reading
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Media Lens: BBC Newsnight, Iraq And The Export Of Democracy By David Cromwell
It is a prerequisite for corporate journalists that they respect the ideological conventions of their paymasters and of state power – a vital source of ‘news’ and ‘informed’ comment, after all. At the same time, the corporate journalist likes to project a self-serving image as a valiant investigator, a champion of democracy, and a facilitator… Continue reading
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Media Lens: ‘The Special One’ – Part 2: Looking Under The Lamppost By David Edwards
There is an emptiness at the core of our being. The ego’s great task is to fill that emptiness with evidence that we are ‘someone’ rather than ‘nobody’, that we are ‘special’. But no matter how hard we try, our achievements continue to fall and vanish into the void. Continue reading
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Media Lens: Forever Groundhog Day For Climate? A Tale Of Ice, Smokescreens And Rebellion By David Cromwell
A spectacular event captured on film in a new documentary, ‘Chasing Ice’, depicts the stark impact of global warming on the Arctic. The stunning sequence shows the largest glacier calving event ever filmed. An on-screen graphic emphasises the huge scale of the ice collapse: Continue reading
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Media Lens: Cartoon Politics: Rupert Murdoch, The Pro-Israel Lobby And Israel’s Crimes By David Cromwell
A crucial element of pro-Israel political lobbying is the reprehensible smearing of justified criticism of the Israeli state as ‘antisemitic’. Thus, a recent cartoon by Gerald Scarfe in the Sunday Times provided a convenient target for outrage. Continue reading
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Media Lens: Eyes Like Blank Discs – The Guardian’s Steven Poole On George Orwell’s Politics And The English Language By David Edwards
January 21, ‘Orwell Day’, marked the 63rd anniversary of George Orwell’s death, Steven Poole notes in the Guardian. To commemorate 110 years since Orwell was born (June 25), BBC radio will broadcast a series about his life while Penguin will publish a new edition of his essay, ‘Politics and the English Language’. This essay, Poole… Continue reading
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Media Lens: Death Of A Hero By David Cromwell
One measure of a society’s honesty is what it says about its political and military leaders when they die. Are the deceased leader’s perceived virtues exalted, while any blemishes are airbrushed out of the picture? Recent media coverage following the death of General Norman “Stormin’ ”Schwarzkopf, the Allied military commander during the Persian Gulf War… Continue reading
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Media Lens: The Illusion Of Democracy By David Cromwell
In an era of permanent war, economic meltdown and climate ‘weirding’, we need all the champions of truth and justice that we can find. But where are they? What happened to trade unions, the green movement, human rights groups, campaigning newspapers, peace activists, strong-minded academics, progressive voices? We are awash in state and corporate propaganda,… Continue reading
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Media Lens: Won't Get Fooled Again? Hyping Syria's WMD 'Threat' By: David Edwards
Reading about crimes of state over many years, it is tempting to try to fathom the mind-set of political leaders. What actually is going on in their heads when they order sanctions that kill hundreds of thousands of children? What is in their hearts when they wage needless wars that shatter literally millions of lives?… Continue reading
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Media Lens: Won’t Get Fooled Again? Hyping Syria’s WMD ‘Threat’ By: David Edwards
Reading about crimes of state over many years, it is tempting to try to fathom the mind-set of political leaders. What actually is going on in their heads when they order sanctions that kill hundreds of thousands of children? What is in their hearts when they wage needless wars that shatter literally millions of lives?… Continue reading
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Media Lens: ‘The Special One’ – Celebrity, Comedy And Spiritual Egotism – Part 1 By David Edwards
After I published my first book, I encountered quite a few celebrity writers, journalists and activists. I discovered that some of the planet’s most difficult and arrogant people have devoted their lives to ‘making the world a better place’. They claim to be driven by compassion, but their harshness and hatred of criticism (as though… Continue reading
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Media Lens: Cogitation: ‘The Special One’ – Celebrity, Comedy And Spiritual Egotism By: David Edwards
Twitter and Facebook have been cunningly designed to exploit our need to feel ‘special’. To be ‘retweeted’, ‘favourited’ and ‘followed’ on Twitter subtly suckles our ego, generating quiet, short-lived satisfaction. Other users who have 100,000 or 1,000,000, or – God help us! – 20,000,000 ‘followers’, seriously challenge the idea that we are ‘the one’. Negative… Continue reading
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Media Lens: Gaza Blitz – Turmoil And Tragicomedy At The BBC By David Cromwell and David Edwards
Newsnight’s journalistic failures on child abuse are bad enough, rightly heaping pressure on the broadcaster. But there was no comparable pressure for senior staff to ‘step aside’ over the BBC’s truly catastrophic failure to challenge US-UK propaganda on Iraq’s non-existent weapons of mass destruction and the country’s supposed ‘threat’ to the West. Continue reading
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Media Lens: ‘Sworn Enemies’? A Response To George Monbiot
Above all, we’re trying to stimulate debate and participation. Engaging with journalists is certainly part of that, but we have few illusions about influencing media employees who often have little room for manoeuvre and who are deeply dependent on the corporate system. Continue reading
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Media Lens: Bad Pharma, Bad Journalism By David Cromwell
‘Drugs are tested by the people who manufacture them, in poorly designed trials, on hopelessly small numbers of weird, unrepresentative patients, and analysed using techniques that are flawed by design, in such a way that they exaggerate the benefits of treatments. Continue reading
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Media Lens: ‘But’ Or ‘And’? Reporting Chavez, Obama, Biden, Miliband, Cameron By: David Edwards
Liberal journalism is balanced, neutral and objective, except when it’s not. Continue reading
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Media Lens: Channel 4 News Misrepresents Chavez’ Election Bid
As Venezuelans head to the polls today, Channel 4 News has published a very biased piece with clear misrepresentations concerning the election. Continue reading
The New Dark Age 