Media Lens: Massacres That Matter – ‘Responsibility To Protect’ In Egypt, Libya And Syria – Part 1 By David Edwards

27 August 2013 — Media Lens

The ‘responsibility to protect’ (R2P), formulated at the 2005 UN World Summit, is based on the idea that state sovereignty is not a right but a responsibility. Where offending states fail to live up to this responsibility by inflicting genocide, ethnic cleansing and other crimes against humanity on their own people, the international community has a responsibility to act. Economic sanctions and the use of military force can thus be employed as ‘humanitarian intervention’.

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Media Lens: When The Next Moment Matters More: ‘The Special One’ – Part 3 By David Edwards

22 May 2013 — Media Lens

Introduction

I caught up with an old friend, after many years, on a muggy afternoon in Camden. Outwardly, he seemed the same wonderfully ebullient character he had always been – I got the usual bear hug and bristly smacker on the cheek. But as we talked, it became clear something had changed.

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Media Lens: ‘This Madman Must Be Stopped’ – Syrian Chemical Weapons By David Edwards

8 May 2013 — Media Lens

Last August, Barack Obama told reporters at the White House:

‘We have been very clear to the Assad regime… that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilised.

‘That would change my calculus; that would change my equation.’

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Media Lens: ‘The Stupidest And Most Extreme Section Of The British Left’

23 April 2013 — Media Lens

An Appeal For Your Support From Media Lens

In a media alert earlier this year, we described our under-resourced challenges of the corporate media as ‘jousting with toothpicks’. Although the analogy was light-hearted, the work of Media Lens is serious and would not be possible without your support.

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Media Lens: Thatcher’s Tyrants – The Tanks, The Guns, The Christmas Cards By David Edwards

18 April 2013 — Media Lens

The late American historian Howard Zinn wrote:

‘The truth is so often the reverse of what has been told us by our culture that we cannot turn our heads far enough around to see it.’ (The Zinn Reader – Writings on Disobedience and Democracy, Seven Stories Press, 1997, p.400)

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Media Lens: Jousting With Toothpicks – The Case For Challenging Corporate Journalism By David Edwards

7 February 2013 — Media Lens

Jousting With Toothpicks – The Case For Challenging Corporate Journalism 

A critic responding to a recent alert, objected to our use of the term ‘corporate journalist’:

‘The problem is it has no clear meaning. Chomsky regularly writes for “corporate media”, as does Pilger, Klein, and Michael Moore. Pilger has had his documentaries aired by “corporate media”. Klein promotes her books through the “corporate media”. I could go on…’

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Media Lens: ‘Sworn Enemies’? A Response To George Monbiot

6 November, 2012Media Lens

‘Sworn Enemies’? A Response To George Monbiot

Hi George

It’s good to know that your email is intended in a ‘friendly and constructive spirit’, and not as a follow-up to something you wrote of us three weeks earlier: ‘I could spend my life unpicking their falsehoods. Perhaps I should, cos no one else is.’

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Media Lens: US Consulate Killings – Spontaneous Religious Or Planned Political? By: David Edwards

25 September, 2012Media Lens

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 the US ambassador was killed ‘in a protest’. This was mild language indeed given that the consulate had been attacked with assault rifles, hand grenades, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars. (According to the New York Times, two US security guards were killed by mortar fire).

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ColdType, March 2012

1 March 2012 — Coldtype

In this month’s 88-page COLDTYPE MAGAZINE

The cover story of this month’s biggest-ever issue returns to the Middle East where the world is being prepared for a replay of the just-ended war in Iraq. Our seven essays by writers in North America and Europe point out, among other things, that there seems to be a media blackout of the fact that Israel also acquired its nuclear arsenal by devious means, won’t let anyone examine its nuclear plants, and is far more aggressive than Iran. Never let the truth get in the way of a good war is the message, it would seem. 

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Media Lens Cogitation: Free to be Human – An Interview with David Edwards

18 November 2011 — Media Lens

Introduction

The aim of Richard Capes’ More Thought blog is ‘to provide detailed audio/video/written interviews with authors of non-fiction social, political, philosophical and environmental books that I consider essential reading’. Here is Richard’s November 10 interview with Media Lens co-editor David Edwards about his book Free to be Human. The interview is quite long, we urge readers to ensure a steady supply of tea/coffee and biscuits.

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