Media Lens
Excellent UK-based media analysis
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Media Lens: The Ice Melts Into Water By David Cromwell and David Edwards
Last month, climate scientists announced that Arctic sea ice had shrunk to its smallest surface area since satellite observations began in 1979. An ice-free summer in the Arctic, once projected to be more than a century away, now looks possible just a few decades from now. Some scientists say it may happen within the next… Continue reading
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Media Lens: US Consulate Killings – Spontaneous Religious Or Planned Political? By: David Edwards
On September 11, four Americans, including the US ambassador, were killed in an attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya. The following day, the BBC’s Lunchtime News reported that the killings were part of ‘disturbances’ which were ‘linked to an anti-Islamic video’ (BBC News, September 12, 2012). The BBC’s News at Six explained that… Continue reading
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Media Lens: Why Are We The Good Guys? By David Cromwell
One of the unspoken assumptions of the Western world is that ‘we’ are great defenders of human rights, a free press and the benefits of market economics. Mistakes might be made along the way, perhaps even tragic errors of judgement such as the 2003 invasion of Iraq. But the prevailing view is that ‘the West’… Continue reading
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Media Lens: ‘The Man Who Knew Everyone’ – Gore Vidal Through The Eyes Of The One Per Cent Press By David Edwards
Gore Vidal took great delight in demolishing the fragile confections of ‘mainstream’ politics. While corporate journalists typically portray US Presidents as benign demigods, Vidal described George W. Bush as ‘the stupidest man in the United States’. Continue reading
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Media Lens: The Return Of The King – Tony Blair And The Magically Disappearing Blood By David Cromwell
How many war crimes does a western leader have to commit before he is deemed persona non grata by the corporate media and the establishment? Apparently there is no limit, if we are to judge by the prevailing reaction to Tony Blair’s return to the political stage. Continue reading
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Media Lens: Libyan Elections – Burying The Amnesty Report By David Edwards
And indeed everyone, of course, knew that ‘democracy’ in Iraq had to be ‘sensitive’ to American concerns, not least in regard to ‘guys with turbans’ (which sounded like a euphemism for ‘towelheads’). It was obvious what ‘acceptable to the Americans’ meant for the claim that the elections were in any real sense ‘free’. Continue reading
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Media Lens: Blocked By The BBC on Twitter By David Cromwell
Has the internet made journalists more accountable to the public? Only if media professionals are actually willing to engage with those who consume their output. In the case of the publicly-funded BBC, the onus on editors and journalists is surely all the greater. Continue reading
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Media Lens: Houla Massacre Update – The UN Report By David Edwards
US and UK politicians were clearly desperate to use Houla to stoke their regime-change agenda. Rehearsing the crude tactics of the Bush-Blair era, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and UK Foreign Secretary William Hague endlessly repeated their damning judgements: facts were irrelevant, propaganda stunts everything. No holds were barred. The media, as ever, were… Continue reading
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Media Lens: Incinerating Assange – The Liberal Media Go To Work By: David Edwards
The media response to Assange’s asylum request tells us much about the default brutality and reflexive herdthink of elite corporate journalism. We witnessed a rush to be seen to revile Assange as a ‘turd’, ‘weirdo’, ‘narcissist’ and joke. The crucial importance of his achievements, of his cause, was deemed utterly irrelevant beside his allegedly unbearable… Continue reading
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Media Lens: Game Over For The Climate?
Last week, the Independent marked the half-century with a well-meaning but frankly insipid ‘landmark series’ titled ‘The Green Movement at 50’. But there’s a glaring hole in such coverage; and, indeed, in the ‘green movement’ itself: the insidious role of the corporate media, a key component of corporate globalisation, in driving humanity and ecosystems towards… Continue reading
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Media Lens: The Houla Massacre
What kind of evidence would the media need before finding Barack Obama (and even Michelle Obama) personally responsible for this or any other massacre? Clearly, the involvement of US forces would need to be confirmed beyond doubt. They would need to have been acting under orders. Presumably Obama would need to have signed these orders,… Continue reading
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Media Lens: A Private Conversation – The Leveson Inquiry, Corporate Journalism And Elite Collusion
Advertising revenue is almost the life-blood of the press. Although the figure has fallen in recent years, today it constitutes around 60 per cent of newspapers’ total income, including ‘quality’ titles like the Guardian and the Independent. Continue reading
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Media Lens: Good Rockets, Bad Rockets – BBC Bias On India And North Korea
Like Israel and Pakistan, also nuclear powers, India has never signed the NPT. Despite this, the US has supported the development of nuclear weapons in all three countries – India receiving particular support from George W. Bush and Obama. Continue reading
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Media Lens: The Mystery Of The Missing Clocks By David Edwards
The truth peeks out at us from the most unexpected places. It can be seen, for example, in the empty spaces where one might otherwise hope to find a clock in shops. The average retailer doesn’t approve of customers clock-watching – they might realise they have something more important to do and cut short their… Continue reading
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Media Lens: ‘People Will Die’ – The End Of The NHS. Part 2: Buried By The BBC
Every day, researcher Éoin Clarke runs a check on the number of parts of the NHS that have been ‘carved up and offered to privateers that day. The sad news is that the NHS sell off is indeed accelerating.’ Clarke has identified 81 NHS contracts worth a total of more than £2 billion that are… Continue reading
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Media Lens: ‘People Will Die’ – The End Of The NHS. Part 1: The Corporate Assault
Every day, researcher Éoin Clarke runs a check on the number of parts of the NHS that have been ‘carved up and offered to privateers that day. The sad news is that the NHS sell off is indeed accelerating.’ Clarke has identified 81 NHS contracts worth a total of more than £2 billion that are… Continue reading
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Media Lens: ‘People Will Die’ – The End Of The NHS. Part 1: The Corporate Assault
Few political acts have exposed the sham of British ‘democracy’ like the decision to dismantle the National Health Service. In essence, the issues are simple: Continue reading
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Media Lens: When Populism Is Dangerous For Democracy – To The Media Gallows With ‘Controversial’ George Galloway
George Galloway’s stunning victory in last week’s Bradford West by-election afforded a rare opportunity to witness naked imbalance, establishment scorn of any challenges, and blatant anti-Muslim propaganda in the corporate British media. Continue reading
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Media Lens: Postcard From The Precipice – An Appeal For Support
The great claim among sections of the left is that ‘We have to cooperate with the corporate media to get our message out – how else are we going to be heard?’ For decades, often well-intentioned progressives have committed themselves to ‘changing the system from within’. Alas, as ‘insiders’, it is more often the system… Continue reading
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Media Lens: Constructing Consensus – The ‘Victims-And-Aggressor Meme’
Together, politics and media combine to provide an astonishingly consistent form of reality management controlling public perception of conflicts in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria. Alastair Crooke, founder and director of Conflicts Forum,notes how the public is force-fed a ‘simplistic victims-and-aggressor meme, which demands only the toppling of the aggressor’. Continue reading
The New Dark Age 