the Independent
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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
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MEDIA LENS ALERT: WAR AS PR – OPERATION MOSHTARAK, MEANING “TOGETHER”
Idiocy is one thing, but the BBC’s idiocy all went one way – no journalist swooned with comparable helplessness at the feet of experts excoriating US-UK propaganda. As news of Sambrook’s move arrived, his former colleagues at the BBC were once again deferring to the “intelligent”, “thoughtful”, “sceptical” American and British politicians hawking the public… Continue reading
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Media Lens Alert: Chilcot Inquiry – the establishment goes to work – part 2
The Iraqi “threat” was a fantasy invented by the immensely powerful, nuclear-armed bullies of the West. This is why former British ambassador to Washington, Christopher Meyer, was able to observe last month that prior to the attacks on September 11, 2001, Iraq was merely “a grumbling appendix”. Continue reading
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MEDIA LENS ALERT: CHILCOT INQUIRY – THE ESTABLISHMENT GOES TO WORK – PART 1
The use of military and economic force to control and exploit the world is non-negotiable for these interests. We are free to vote for the Labour party to attack ‘threatening’, but in fact defenceless, Third World countries, or we can vote for the Conservative party to do the same. We can buy the Guardian that… Continue reading
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MEDIA LENS ALERT: SIDING WITH THE GENERALS – THE INDEPENDENT ON HONDURAS
The BBC Q&A noted: “The role of the US is key, as it is Honduras’s biggest trading partner.” Curiously, the article failed to mention that the US has its only Central American military base in Honduras. In fact the Honduran military is armed, trained and advised by Washington in a relationship that is deep and… Continue reading
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MEDIA LENS ALERT: AFGHANISTAN — “BIG BEASTS” BIG BLOODBATH
At the heart of the uncertainty lies the internet and how to make it pay. For 100 years the corporate mass media has flourished thanks to its monopoly of the means of mass communication. Reviewing the history of the British media, James Curran and Jean Seaton write that the industrialisation of the press in the… Continue reading
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Media Lens: The BBC, Impartiality, And The Hidden Logic Of Massacre — Part 2
Despite the input of hundreds of journalists working for numerous large, well-resourced corporations, we were unable to find a mainstream account that made sense of what was happening in Gaza. Continue reading
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MEDIA LENS: CAN THIS BE TRUE? GEORGE MONBIOT CHALLENGES MEDIA LENS ON HYPOCRISY
How casually Monbiot has chosen to confront us with this damning public criticism. This, of course, is how internet-based media with essentially no resources are often treated by corporate journalism. If Monbiot had been targeting a powerful think tank or political party, he would perhaps have checked if the posting was “correct” Continue reading
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Africa Bound By William Bowles
The irony of Dowden’s many misleading notions about Africa are that they could just as easily apply to Europe or indeed anywhere on Earth, perhaps in different forms due to different circumstances and at different times, but always reflecting the nature of who holds real political and economic power. That Dowden chooses to make a… Continue reading
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Media Lens: INTELLECTUAL CLEANSING: PART 3 — Comment Is Closed
MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media October 15, 2008 In Part 1 of this alert, we noted how journalists who threaten their employers’ interests – and the interests of their key political and corporate allies – tend to be unceremoniously dumped. We also described how the force of the law Continue reading
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MEDIA LENS ALERT: NEWS INTERNATIONAL THREATENS MEDIA LENS WITH LEGAL AND POLICE ACTION
MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media July 10, 2008 On June 28 and July 3, Media Lens received repeated threats of both legal and police action from Alastair Brett, legal manager of News International’s Times Newspapers. Noam Chomsky described the threat, pithily, as “pretty sick.” (Email, June 28, 2008) David Continue reading
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Media Lens: EXTRA ZERO An Exchange With The Independent’s John Rentoul
9 April, 2008 — MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media In the wake of the July 7, 2005 London bombings, the Independent’s John Rentoul commented: “A Muslim friend of mine in the East End of London says that the sense of victimisation and injustice goes so deep among his fellow Continue reading
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MEDIA LENS ALERT: Israel’s Illegal Assault On The Gaza ‘Prison’
MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media March 3, 2008 Attacking The Prisoners Israel has drawn international criticism for its latest series of onslaughts against the ‘prison’ of Gaza, the crowded home to 1.4 million Palestinians. Since last Wednesday (February 27), 112 Palestinians have died under Israeli air attacks and ‘incursions’ Continue reading
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Media Lens: David Aaronovitch – A Different Kind of Compassion
MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media January 10, 2008 — Media Lens If “The wages of sin is death”, the returns must seem altogether less bleak to Tony Blair. In November, Blair was reported to have received £237,000 for a 20-minute speech before an audience of Chinese entrepreneurs. While his Continue reading
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Media Lens: INVASION – A COMPARISON OF SOVIET AND WESTERN MEDIA PERFORMANCE – PART 1 By Nikolai Lanine and Media Lens
MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media November 20, 2007 Introduction The writer Simon Louvish once told the story of a group of Soviets touring the United States before the age of glasnost. After reading the newspapers and watching TV, they were amazed to find that, on the big issues, all Continue reading
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Media Lens wins the Gandhi Foundation Peace Award And An Appeal For Support
The Gandhi Foundation Peace Award And An Appeal For Support MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media November 13, 2007 We are happy to report that we will be accepting the Gandhi Foundation International Peace Award on December 2. See here: http://www.gandhifoundation.org/peaceaward.html Continue reading
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Failing to make the right connections By William Bowles
7 August 2007 I’m torn, really torn between trying to keep up with the deceptions the corporate press keep feeding us and wanting to ignore the entire sorry mess completely, but well you know how it is, almost without exception, everyday there’s a story that grabs my attention because it represents all that’s wrong with Continue reading
The New Dark Age 