15 August 2013 — Media Lens
Writing for the Washington Post in June, Paul Farhi wondered if, in breaking the story of the US National Security Agency’s spying programme, the Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald had ‘become something other than a journalist in the activist role he has taken’.
19 April 2013 — Information Clearing House
Is Anybody Listening?
U.S. Intel Chief Says Iran Isn’t Building Nukes.
By Nima Shirazi
In testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, the Director of National Intelligence reaffirmed what the U.S. intelligence community has been saying for years: Iran has no nuclear weapons program, is not building a nuclear weapon and has not even made a decision to do so.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article34672.htm
7 February 2013 — Media Lens
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…’
27 November, 2012 — Media Lens
On March 30, 2011 – eleven days into Nato’s war on Libya – Professor Juan Cole wrote from his armchair at the University of Michigan:
‘The Libya intervention is legal [sic] and was necessary to prevent further massacres… and if it succeeds in getting rid of Qaddafi’s murderous regime and allowing Libyans to have a normal life, it will be worth the sacrifices in life and treasure. If NATO needs me, I’m there.’
Cole thus declared himself ready to suit up and reach for the sky with Nato’s bombers. It was an extraordinary moment.
1 July 2012 — The Real News Network
Ed Herman, who wrote the famous book with Noam Chomsky, looks back at his life and what formed his thinking about the world. (includes transcript) Continue reading
1 July 2012 — The Real News Network
Ed Herman, who wrote the famous book with Noam Chomsky, looks back at his life and what formed his thinking about the world. (includes transcript) Continue reading
28 September 2011 — Counterpunch
The Guardian: A Thought Police for the Internet Age
There could be no better proof of the revolution – care of the internet – occurring in the accessibility of information and informed commentary than the reaction of our mainstream, corporate media.
27 July 2011
There are a last few tickets left for the Rebellious Media Conference, taking place on the weekend of the 8th and 9th October. Speakers confirmed so far include:
• Noam Chomsky (Manufacturing Consent etc.)
• Michael Albert, coordinator of one of the world’s largest radical websites, ZNet
• Matthew Alford (Reel Power: Hollywood Cinema and American Supremacy)
• Jessica Azulay (New Standard News)
• Mark Barto (London Video Activist Network)
• Zoe Broughton (Campaign Filmmaker)
• Johann Hari (Independent)
• Dan Hind (The Return of the Public)
• Emily James (Just Do It)
• Robert McChesney (Our Media, Not Theirs)
• Laurie Penny (Penny Red)
• John Pilger (The War You Don’t See)
Plus speakers from Black Activists Rising Against Cuts (tbc), CopySouth, Corporate Watch, the Glasgow Media Group, GreenNet, iContact Video, The Manchester Mule, The New Economics Foundation, Nottingham Indymedia, the Open Rights Group, Platform, Reel News, SchNews, Spinwatch, UK Uncut and many more.
For tickets and more info please visit http://rebelliousmediaconference.org/
16 December, 2010 — Media Lens
In our reply to Piers Robinson, below, we try to show how ‘objective scholarship’, like ‘objective journalism‘, all too often filters out what really matters. Moreover, as in journalism, the scholar’s obsession with objectivity tends to promote the interests of power. Why? Because mainstream academics and journalists are deeply and unconsciously biased. They notice subjective opinion that hurts power because power is on hand to make them aware, in no uncertain terms, with high-level complaints, legal threats, political flak and other attacks. When subjective opinion promotes power no-one notices because peace reigns supreme.
A superb example was provided in John Pilger’s new film, The War You Don’t See. The BBC’s Head of Newsgathering, Fran Unsworth, told Pilger: “it’s the BBC’s duty to scrutinise what it is that people [leaders] say; we’re not there to accuse them of lying, though, because that’s a judgement…”
18 November, 2009 — MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media
Introduction
Jonathan Cook has been covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from Nazareth, Israel, as a freelance reporter for the past eight years. Before that he was a staff journalist at the Guardian and Observer newspapers. His latest books on the conflict are ‘Israel and the Clash of Civilisations’ (Pluto, 2008) and ‘Disappearing Palestine’ (Zed, 2008). His website is www.jkcook.net
Media Lens – Flat Earth News: The Inside View – Part 2
MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media
March 6, 2008
MEDIA ALERT: FLAT EARTH NEWS – THE INSIDE VIEW – PART 2
Churnalism And The Propaganda Model
To be clear, there +is+ much of merit in Flat Earth News – the book is well worth reading. Davies describes, for example, how all was not well in the Observer newsroom in the autumn of 2002. The newspaper’s correspondent, Ed Vulliamy, had been talking with Mel Goodman, a former senior CIA analyst. Despite leaving the agency, Goodman retained his high security clearance and remained in communication with senior former colleagues. Goodman told Vulliamy that, in contradiction to everything the British and American governments were claiming, the CIA were reporting that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction. Moreover, Goodman was willing to go on the record as a named source. It was an incredibly important scoop but the Observer refused to publish it.
MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media
March 5, 2008
Swallowing The Kennel
Nick Davies’s latest book, Flat Earth News, is a “no-holds-barred assault on the British media,†according to Michael Savage writing in the Independent. (Savage, ‘Kamal Ahmed: “Nick is a cowardâ€. Ahmed bites back,’ The Independent, February 11, 2008)
In the same newspaper, Stephen Glover declared: “There can be no more serious allegations against journalists than those made by Mr Davies.†The book, he added, “is gold dustâ€. (Glover, ‘Damning allegations that, if true, bring disgrace upon ‘The Observer’,’ The Independent, February 4, 2008)
The New Dark Age 