the guardian
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Media Lens: Selective Outrage – Iran And Libya
News that a fourth scientist in two years, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, had been assassinated in Iran by an unknown agency generated minimal outrage in the press. Continue reading
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Media Lens: ‘A Death Sentence For Africa’
The UN climate summit in Durban, South Africa, ended with one of those marathon all-night cliffhanger negotiations that the media love so much. The outcome was a commitment to talk about a legally-binding deal to cut carbon emissions – by both developed and developing countries – that would be agreed by 2015 and come into… Continue reading
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ColdType, November 2011: OWS / Guantanamo / UK / South Africa / Libya…
Cover story this month is an 11-page section on the War on Wall Street with words by Tom Engelhardt and Richard Pithouse, accompanied by David Shankbone’s photo essay on the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City and a full-page cartoon from Mark Hurwitt. Continue reading
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Media Lens: To Avert A Bloodbath – Libya And The Press – Part 1
Naturally it is the role of the enlightened West to steer Libya towards democracy. Editors working for the media conglomerate at the heart of the phone hacking police/political corruption scandal – a major attack on democracy and civil rights – presumably perceived no irony in their preaching of ‘democracy, and legal freedoms’. Words that should… Continue reading
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Media Lens: 'Extreme Dishonesty’ – The Guardian, Noam Chomsky and Venezuela
Noam Chomsky was once famously described by the New York Times as ‘arguably the most important intellectual alive’. And yet, as mentioned earlier, the Guardian is normally happy to ignore him and his views. But when Chomsky expresses criticism of an official enemy of the West, he suddenly does exist and matter for the Guardian. Continue reading
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Wikileaks founder Julian Assange interviewed by Russia Today, criticizes Guardian, New York Times, and Facebook
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange interviewed by Russia Today, criticizes Guardian, New York Times, and Facebook. Gives his opinion on the Arab revolutions. Continue reading
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Media Lens: Yemen’s Useful Tyranny – The Forgotten History of Britain’s ‘Dirty War’: Part 1
All revolutions are not equal. While Libya is deemed worthy of the West’s ‘humanitarian intervention’ – express delivery by B-2 bomber, F-15 fighter and cruise missile – protesters elsewhere have been denied such Western largesse. In response to the atrocities in Yemen, for example, Obama has sent mere words. The reason, as one astute commentator… Continue reading
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Media Lens: Comment Is Free But Freedom Is Slavery – An Exchange With The Guardian’s Economics Editor
In the dark days before Media Lens existed, and before Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger stopped responding to our emails, he actually granted us the courtesy of a chat by telephone. The interview was notable for its long gaps, its ums and ahs, as Rusbridger responded amiably to our questions about the news propaganda role of… Continue reading
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Wikileaks and ‘cablegate’ – a threat to national security or a step forward for transparency?
With its latest release, Wikileaks has attracted an unprecedented amount of attention, sparking international debate and sharply dividing commentators, both political and media. The 250,000 confidential diplomatic cables were shared with the Guardian, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and El Pais, and the Guardian passed them on to the New York Times. Some of the stories… Continue reading
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Wikileaks: Prelude to a new wave of ‘legal’ repression? By William Bowles
What is dangerous about the turn of events…is that it if there is an ulterior motive to the release of the cables it might be a new wave of repressive laws, in all likelihood under the infinitely expanding umbrella of the ‘war on terror’. Already, it’s illegal in many countries to ‘assist terrorists’ by putting… Continue reading
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Incredible – over 500,000 signatures in one day for press freedom! Join the massive outcry and spread the word…
The massive extra-judicial intimidation of WikiLeaks is an attack on democracy. We urgently need a public outcry for freedom of the press and expression. Sign the petition to stop the crackdown and forward this email to everyone — let’s get to 1 million voices and take out full page ads in US newspapers this week. Continue reading
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Incredible – over 400,000 signatures in one day for press freedom! Join the massive outcry and spread the word…
The massive extra-judicial intimidation of WikiLeaks is an attack on democracy. We urgently need a public outcry for freedom of the press and expression. Sign the petition to stop the crackdown and forward this email to everyone — let’s get to 1 million voices and take out full page ads in US newspapers this week. Continue reading
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Jonathan Cook: On being a journalist in the Middle East
In the mid-1990s, I arrived in Jerusalem for the first time–then as a tourist–with the potent Western myth at the front of my consciousness: that of Israel as “a light unto the nations,” the plucky underdog facing a menacing Arab world. A series of later professional shocks as a freelance journalist reporting on Israel would… Continue reading
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MEDIA LENS ALERT: “VEILED THREATS” OF “INDUSTRIAL CHAOS”
On 19 September, the Sunday Times ran a major interview with Brendan Barber, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (Andrew Davidson, ‘King of compromise alone on a tightrope’, Sunday Times, business section, 19 September, 2010; online article is hidden behind a pay wall). The bias was clear even from the text immediately following the… Continue reading
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MEDIA LENS ALERT: MCCHRYSTAL – DEATH SQUAD POSTER BOY
In May 2009, Petras sampled from McChrystal’s CV. The general had played a central role in directing units involved in “extrajudicial assassinations, systematic torture, bombing of civilian communities and search and destroy missions”. He was “the very embodiment of the brutality and gore that accompanies military-driven empire building”. Continue reading
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MEDIA LENS ALERT: HEADSHOT – PROPAGANDA, STATE RELIGION AND THE ATTACK ON THE GAZA PEACE FLOTILLA – PART 2
As discussed in Part 1, media coverage of the non-violent Iranian capture of 15 British sailors (in Iranian waters) focused on the humiliating failure of the sailors to open fire in self-defence. Journalists took a very different view of the May 31 Israeli attack on the ship Mavi Marmara carrying human rights activists and supplies… Continue reading
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MEDIA LENS ALERT: HEADSHOT – PROPAGANDA, STATE RELIGION AND THE ATTACK ON THE GAZA PEACE FLOTILLA – PART 1
The public, in a sense, does not receive news – it receives the +same+ event repeated over and over again. The same security forces are always taking regrettable but necessary action against terrorists and militants. The public no longer sees real, changing, complex events; it sees the same frozen, benevolent image of the world. As… Continue reading
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MEDIA LENS ALERT: THE ART OF LOOKING PRIME MINISTERIAL – THE 2010 UK GENERAL ELECTION
On April 15, news media broadcast the first of three live, 90-minute “prime ministerial debates” between Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg, the leaders, respectively, of the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties. By the end of the second debate on April 22, the word ‘Iraq’ had been mentioned a total of five times… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 