journalists
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MEDIA LENS ALERT: FLEXIBLE FRIENDS – THE OBSERVER, THE INDEPENDENT, AND THE MYTH OF A MEDIA SPECTRUM
On reflection, it seems incredibly naïve to imagine that free speech will flourish under corporate capitalism. It is true that we do not face the kind of physical threats offered by a totalitarian system – but so what? For most people, the threat of serious damage to a lucrative, high status career is enough to… Continue reading
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Media Lens: Covering Israel-Palestine – The BBC’s Double Standards
22 April, 2008 — MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media An Exchange With The BBC’s Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen The media reported last week that at least 22 people, including five Palestinian children, had been killed during Israeli ‘incursions’ into Gaza. The Israeli military ‘operation’ were ‘sparked’ by a Continue reading
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MEDIA LENS ALERT: ‘WITH TOTAL DESTRUCTION’ – THE FAILURE OF JOURNALISM IN IRAQ
<strong class=’StrictlyAutoTagBold’>MEDIA <strong class=’StrictlyAutoTagBold’>LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media On March 22, an Economist magazine editorial described the recent violence in Tibet as a “colonial uprisingâ€, a “revolt†against foreign occupation. This was accurate, as was the implication that China has no legitimate claims over Tibet. (‘A colonial uprising – Tibet,’ Continue reading
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Media Lens: Iraq Body Count: “A Very Misleading Exercise”
MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media October 3, 2007 MEDIA ALERT: IRAQ BODY COUNT: “A VERY MISLEADING EXERCISE” Introduction The mainstream media are continuing to use figures provided by the website Iraq Body Count (IBC) to sell the public a number for total post-invasion deaths of Iraqis that is perhaps Continue reading
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Media Lens: I, (Fascist) Robot – The BBC’s Gavin Esler Lets Rip
MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media September 26, 2007 MEDIA ALERT: I, (FASCIST) ROBOT – THE BBC’S GAVIN ESLER LETS RIP In response to our September 18 alert, ‘The Media Ignore Credible Poll Revealing 1.2 Million Violent Deaths In Iraq,’ BBC Newsnight presenter Gavin Esler sent one Media Lens reader Continue reading
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Media Lens: Facts are not sacred: Royal Tantrums And The Cold War Billions
August 9, 2007 — MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media When Royals Attack The big media story of the last month has been the BBC apology to the Queen for showing footage that implied she had stormed out of a portrait session during a documentary. This followed the revelation that Continue reading
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Blogopopsicles of the world unite! by William Bowles
The Web has opened a veritable can of worms as far as the mainstream media are concerned, even so-called liberal journalists seem to feel threatened by the emergence of a global, independent media, the latest one to emerge being Robert Fisk (who I referred to in my last piece). Now whether, as fellow blogopopsicle Chris… Continue reading
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Media Lens: Bush-Brown Summit – The Media Deception Continues
In our July 23 alert, ‘From Blair to Brown – The Killing Will Continue,’ we described how the media were working hard to defend the status quo by attempting to distance new prime minister Gordon Brown from Tony Blair and his war crimes. Continue reading
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Letter from a far-off galaxy by William Bowles
1 August 2007 “I despise the internet. It’s irresponsible and, often, a net of hate. And I don’t have time for Blogopops. But here’s a tale of two gutless newspapers which explains why more and more people are Googling rather than turning pages.” — Robert Fisk: “No wonder the bloggers are winning”, Published in the Continue reading
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The BBC Photoshop’s the news By William Bowles
I have been following BBC coverage on both the World Service and BBC Radio 4 as well as the BBC Website over the past few days of the shooting death of the Italian secret serviceman and the wounding of the freed Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena. The discrepancy between eyewitness accounts of the event and the… Continue reading
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Dr David Kelly, loyal foot soldier of the state By William Bowles
Far from being troubled about the impending invasion, Dr David Kelly could just as easily have been troubled by the use of ‘evidence’ that “takes away from the case for war.” In other words, Kelly’s statements can be interpreted as continued support for the war but that he objected to the way it was being… Continue reading
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Through a glass objectively By William Bowles
The idea that there is some kind of ‘objective’ ground from which to view events, particularly of the political variety, is a long-held fantasy, especially of British journalism. It’s still taught in British universities would you believe, that out there, somewhere, there’s a space that the journalist can occupy, which sits perfectly in the middle,… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 