BBC
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The accessories to war crimes are those paid to keep the record straight By John Pilger
The BBC’s Today programme is enjoying high ratings, and the Mail and the Telegraph are, as usual, attacking the corporation as left-wing. Last month, a single edition of Today was edited by the artist and musician P.J. Harvey. What happened was illuminating. There were weeks of absurd negotiation at Broadcasting House about ways of “countering”… Continue reading
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Media Lens: Propaganda: ‘The Dominant Grand Narrative Of Our Time’ By David Cromwell
‘Propaganda’ sounds like an old-fashioned word from a bygone era. It evokes images of the Nazis in WW2, particularly Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, or Soviet leaders in the Cold War and dictators in ‘Third World’ countries. Propaganda is something spewed out by official enemies of the West, and surely not… Continue reading
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30 years on: Scargill was right – we were right! By John Dunn
All through the Great Strike, and in fact up to the present day, Scargill was pilloried and called a liar; the NUM was branded “the enemy within” by Thatcher; news broadcast after news broadcast labelled us thugs and hooligans: but now SOME of the truth is out – the Thatcher government did have a hit… Continue reading
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Media Lens: The Media’s Hypocritical Oath – Mandela And Economic Apartheid By David Edwards
What does it mean when a notoriously profit-driven, warmongering, climate-killing media system mourns, with one impassioned voice, the death of a principled freedom fighter like Nelson Mandela? Continue reading
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The BBC and Government: time for some more light? By Brian Winston
The unwritten conventions of the British Constitution, anyway very much a concept cut from whole cloth by 19th century Vinerian professors of English Law at Oxford, are scarcely of a piece with the low political horse trading that has gone on at every BBC Charter renewal since the first in 1936. A BBC veto is… Continue reading
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Genetically Modified Politicians: Their Battle to Persuade the Public to Accept GM Food By Lesley Docksey
The official UK government policy on genetically modified (GM) crops is “precautionary, evidence-based and sensitive to public concerns”. Who are they kidding? Continue reading
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9/11 and the Collapse of WTC Building 7: The BBC’s Role in Distorting the Evidence and Misleading the Public By Peter Drew
In their documentary, the BBC went to great lengths to attempt to demonstrate through their own analysis that WTC Building 7 had not actually achieved free fall acceleration, as claimed by the professional experts, and that therefore this was not evidence that could be used to contradict the official version of events on 9/11. The… Continue reading
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The insidious role of the BBC in the Syrian conflict By Rinaldo Francesca
It did not take long before several international commentators and observers pointed out the many implausibilities in the video and the story in general. Among them, Italian author Francesco Santoianni, showed how incongruent the whole story was, sparking the suspicion that the entire video might have been a fabrication. What follows is his analysis. Continue reading
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BBC Jazz 625: Thelonious Monk at the Marquee Club
BBC Jazz 625, the Thelonious Monk Quartet Continue reading
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Media Lens: Launchpad For A Revolution? Russell Brand, The BBC And Elite Power By David Cromwell
When someone with interesting things to say is granted a high-profile media platform, it is wise to listen to what is being said and ask why they have been given such a platform. Comedian and actor Russell Brand’s 10-minute interview by Jeremy Paxman on BBC’s Newsnight last week was given considerable advance publicity and generated… Continue reading
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‘Go Home’ texts expose racist, anti-migrant British policy to the world By Les Back and Shamser Sinha
Last week two London academics exposed a racist government blunder, sparking international embarrassment and a statement from the Prime Minister. A small victory in the jaws of defeat, they say. Here is their report on one week in anti-immigrant times. Continue reading
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“The struggle to tell the truth through stories”: An interview with British film and television producer Tony Garnett—Part 2
In a retrospective this summer, “Seeing Red,” the British Film Institute celebrated the work of veteran film and television producer Tony Garnett. The BFI described Garnett as one of television’s “most influential figures,” who “produced and fostered a succession of provocative, radical and sometimes incendiary dramas.” Continue reading
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“The struggle to tell the truth through stories”: An interview with British film and television producer Tony Garnett—Part 1
In a retrospective this summer, “Seeing Red,” the British Film Institute (BFI) celebrated the work of veteran film and television producer Tony Garnett. The BFI described Garnett as one of television’s “most influential figures,” who “produced and fostered a succession of provocative, radical and sometimes incendiary dramas.” Continue reading
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Media Lens: Where Journalism Collides With State ‘Security’: BBC News, MI5 And The Mantra Of ‘Keeping People Safe’ By David Cromwell
In our May 13 media alert we highlighted how the state, and a compliant media, relentlessly raise fears of the ‘shadows and threats’ that supposedly assail us. Continue reading
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More on Nigeria’s Hidden History By William Bowles
This particular history haunts Africa to this day and one that the British Establishment have yet to pay for, for it resulted in the deaths of millions and almost led to the break-up of Nigeria. The results determined the nature of the Nigeria of today including all the talk about post-colonial ‘corruption’. And, it should… Continue reading
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Yes I know I’ve not been very prolific…
10 October 2013 Yes, I know, I’ve not been very prolific of late, either with articles or my own work (in spite of brief burst of activity over Syria, Sarin and the BBC) but then I’ve been doing this pretty much non-stop for over ten years and I’m just burned out. Worse still, I feel Continue reading
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The NHS and You: The BBC wants to hear from you
The BBC is asking for your views on its news and current affairs coverage. This is a good chance to feedback any comments you may have on its coverage of the NHS Continue reading
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Media Lens: Tilting At Easy Targets: Climate Change And The ‘Highly Ideological’ Liberal Mindset By David Cromwell
When a senior UN climate official warns that the world is ‘heading for a heart attack’ (The Times, September 23, 2013), there is clearly no time to lose in taking the radical action necessary to avert disaster. But we also have to understand why it is that no matter how many scientific warnings and ‘wake… Continue reading
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Media Lens: ‘Damning Evidence’ Becomes ‘No Clear Evidence’: Much-Delayed Report On Congenital Birth Defects In Iraq By David Cromwell
In a 2010 alert, ‘Beyond Hiroshima – The Non-Reporting Of Fallujah’s Cancer Catastrophe’, we noted the almost non-existent media response to the publication of a new study that had found high rates of infant mortality, cancer and leukaemia in the Iraqi city. The dramatic increases in these rates exceeded even those found in survivors of… Continue reading
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BBC editor urged colleagues to downplay Israel’s siege of Gaza By Amena Saleem
The new Middle East online editor for BBC News has been praised by a pro-Israeli website for being “willing to listen to his critics” after he sent internal emails guiding BBC staff to write more favorably about Israel. Continue reading
The New Dark Age 