Media
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Reporters Once Challenged the Spy State. Now, They’re Agents of It
Just over ten years ago, on July 25, 2010, Wikileaks released 75,000 secret U.S. military reports involving the war in Afghanistan. The New York Times, The Guardian, and Der Spiegel helped release the documents, which were devastating to America’s intelligence community and military, revealing systemic abuses that included civilian massacres and an assassination squad, TF 373, whose existence the… Continue reading
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Media Reform Coalition Our Upcoming Events
These events are part of the MRC’s The BBC and Beyond: Reimagining Public Media campaign, trying to reimagine what public media can be in the digital age. Later this year we will be creating a “Manifesto for a People’s Media”, with ideas for re-envisaging the BBC, Channel 4, and democratically-run independent media. If you have any ideas… Continue reading
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BBC, Free Media, and Julian Assange
A video in which Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev is interviewed by Orla Guerin has resurfaced; the interview took place in November 2020. (The BBC version.) Revealing is what is not seen in the BBC version. When Aliyev held up the mirror to Guerin’s “accusation” that there was no free media in Azerbaijan, the BBC responded… Continue reading
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Silicon Valley Algorithm Manipulation Is The Only Thing Keeping Mainstream Media Alive
The emergence of the internet was met with hope and enthusiasm by people who understood that the plutocrat-controlled mainstream media were manipulating public opinion to manufacture consent for the status quo. The democratization of information-sharing was going to give rise to a public consciousness that is emancipated from the domination of plutocratic narrative control, thereby opening up the possibility of revolutionary… Continue reading
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A School for Spooks: The London University Department Churning Out NATO Spies
Alan Macleod uncovers the deep links between the British security state and the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, responsible for training a large number of British, American, and European agents and defense analysts. Continue reading
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Coverage of Prince Philip garners most complaints in BBC history, but…
By Rob Woodward – TruePublica: The BBC’s wall-to-wall coverage of the death of Prince Philip has become the most complained-about moment in British television history. It has elicited one of the most negative reactions to BBC programmes ever seen. Continue reading
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Media Concern Trolling About Afghanistan Withdrawal Again
“Concerns are mounting from bipartisan US lawmakers and Afghan women’s rights activists that the hard-won gains for women and civil society in Afghanistan could be lost if the United States makes a precipitous withdrawal from the country,” CNN tells us. Continue reading
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Questions about BBC producer’s ties to UK intelligence follow ‘Mayday’ White Helmets whitewash
The BBC’s Chloe Hadjimatheou produced a podcast serial designed to rehabilitate the White Helmets’ late, scandal-stained founder, while blaming critics for his demise. Was she a channel for a wider British intelligence operation? Continue reading
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West’s Information War Continues
Iranian state media is only the most recent target of US censorship and information warfare, with YouTube, Facebook and Twitter having also recently de-platformed government accounts in Myanmar as well as a concerted effort by these same networks to either de-platform or undermine the credibility of Russian and Chinese state media. Continue reading
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Meet the Censored: U.S. Right to Know
“A nonprofit that investigates Genetically Modified Organisms and the origins of Covid-19 is the latest to see its traffic plunge after a search engine update,” writes Matt Taibbi in TK News. Taibbi reports on the dramatic drop in web traffic U.S. Right to Know experienced after Google’s last core algorithm update in early December – for… Continue reading
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LATEST REPORT: WHO OWNS THE UK MEDIA?
We have produced an updated version that suggests that, not only does concentrated ownership persist but that the problem may be getting worse. Sadly, the situation has deteriorated since then so make sure you read our very latest report on UK Media ownership Continue reading
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Letter from London: A Troubling Decision
In the last Letter from London, I discussed the background to the contempt of court case against the historian, journalist and former diplomat Craig Murray for his reporting of the criminal and civil proceedings against Scotland’s former first minister, Alex Salmond, on allegations of sexual assault, for which he was acquitted on all charges at… Continue reading
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Need a Quote From an Official Enemy Denouncing Democracy? Do Like the New York Times and Make It Up
The New York Times (3/29/21) produces a new installment in its ongoing project of demonizing China (FAIR.org, 1/29/21): “As President Biden predicts a struggle between democracies and their opponents, Beijing is eager to champion the other side.” Continue reading
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To Western Media, Prosecuting Bolivian Coup Leaders Is Worse Than Leading a Coup
One can imagine an editor of the London-based Guardian (3/17/21) shaking her head sadly as she typed the headline: “Cycle of Retribution Takes Bolivia’s Ex-President From Palace to Prison Cell.” The subhead told readers, “Jeanine Áñez’s government once sought to jail the country’s former leader Evo Morales for terrorism and sedition—now she faces the same charges.” Continue reading
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Do U.S. and UK Have the World’s Most-Censored Press?
How can democracy exist in a nation where none of the mainstream media, and few even of the non-mainstream media, are reporting the realities that all of the controlling billionaires want the public not to know? Continue reading
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WSJ Rage at ‘Woke’ China Foreshadows New Redbaiting of Social Justice Activists
The Wall Street Journal editorial board (3/7/21) has accused a major Chinese newspaper, and by extension the People’s Republic of China, of exploiting progressive rhetoric around racial justice to create division in the United States. Continue reading
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Racism in British News Media – The Missing Story
On Saturday October 29, 2011 over 500 people from across England protested near the Parliament building in London. What was startling for me, an American journalist covering that protest against brutality by British police, was not who attended but who was absent. Continue reading
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NYT Fails to Examine Its Participation in Brazil’s ‘Biggest Judicial Scandal’
The Brazilian Supreme Court on March 8 dismissed all charges against former President Luis Inacio “Lula” da Silva made during the Lava Jato investigation, a little over a month after the investigation was officially ended. The termination came shortly after the Supreme Court admitted 6 terabytes of leaked Telegram chats between public prosecutors and judges as evidence in… Continue reading
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Fear and Celebration of Substack Are Both Misplaced
A debate rages in the media world about the trend of writers with substantial online followings moving away from writing for traditional publications and simply going to the website Substack, where writers sell content directly to their readers, untethered from any editorial constraint. (It’s like a less titillating version of OnlyFans.) Substack has a number… Continue reading
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Purging Inconvenient Facts in Coverage of Biden’s ‘First’ Air Attacks
When the Biden administration bombed Syria on February 25, the attack killed “at least 22,” most of them members of Iraqi militias, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based monitoring organization opposed to the Syrian government. The US said the bombing was retaliation for three rocket attacks on US bases in Iraq… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 