If every single high-profile journalist, politician and priest is currently expressing heartfelt devotion to Britain’s deceased, 96-year-old monarch, it is not because she ‘served’ her country diligently in doing her ‘duty’ for 70 years. The powerful interests that determine Britain’s political and media agenda are not sentimentalists; they do not impose ‘managed democracy’ as a kind of game. Propaganda blitzes are always pragmatic.
6 November 2019 — Novara Media
On 11 April 1992, Murdoch-owned redtop newspaper The Sun ran with the headline ‘It’s the Sun Wot Won It’, proudly proclaiming to have handed a general election victory to Conservative John Major, to the detriment of ‘evil’ left-winger Neil Kinnock. However, a few years later, scientific research found ‘no support’ for this bullish claim.
29 July, 2011 — Media Lens
When Rupert and James Murdoch appeared before the House of Commons media select committee on July 19, not one of the MP inquisitors demanded accountability for News International’s biggest moral crime – its shameful role as a facilitator of war. Robin Beste, of the Stop the War Coalition, put it succinctly: Continue reading
22 July 2011 — Daily Telegraph
Ini Comment: Who’da thunk it?
What with the the phone-hacking scandal, the eurozone crisis and the US economic woes, the greedy few have left people disillusioned with our debased democracies.
21 July 2011 — John Pilger
In Scoop, Evelyn Waugh’s brilliant satire on the press, there is the moment when Lord Copper, owner of the Daily Beast, meets his new special war correspondent, William Boot, in truth an authority on wild flowers and birdsong. A confused Boot is brought to his lordship’s presence by Mr. Salter, The Beast’s foreign editor.
16 July 2011 — williambowles.info
16 July 2011
Murdoch apology in press adverts
BBC News Today at 05:13
Rupert Murdoch takes out national press adverts to apologise for the phone hacking by the News of the World, as two of his most senior aides resign.
12 July 2011
From the middle of the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth imperialism was the dominant national ideology, transcending class and party divisions. Britain was saturated in the ethos and attitudes of empire. They infused plays and books and, later, films. They informed school textbooks. They inspired paintings, prints and engravings. They filled newspapers and magazines. They figured in advertisements and packaging. The impact was arguably greater than that of any previous dominant ideology because its pre-eminence coincided with the rise of the mass market and the mass media. — ‘Imperialism and juvenile literature’ edited By Jeffrey Richards. Manchester University Press, 1989
So what’s changed? Not much really. Today of course, the ideology of imperial expansion now masks itself as ‘humanitarian intervention’ or ‘democracy-building’.
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 the clip of the Queen furiously marching out in fact showed her furiously marching into the photo-shoot. Photographer Annie Leibovitz recalled:
“She entered the room at a surprisingly fast pace, as fast as the regalia would allow her, and muttered, ‘Why am I wearing these heavy robes in the middle of the day?’ She doesn’t really want to get dressed up any more. She just couldn’t be bothered…” (Adam Sherwin, ‘“I’ve had enough of this,” said Queen as she snubbed bossy photographer,’ The Times, July 12, 2007)
31 May 2005 — Media Lens
Just over one year ago, British journalists and politicians were fulminating over photographs published in the Daily Mirror that appeared to show Iraqi prisoners being abused by British soldiers. The British military, it was claimed, now possessed incontrovertible proof that the pictures were fake. Mirror editor, Piers Morgan – a fierce opponent of the war – was condemned far and wide for inciting additional hatred of British troops in Iraq, so putting their lives at risk. The Daily Mail’s Melanie Phillips said on BBC’s Newsnight programme: Continue reading
30 April 2005 — Media Lens
How Anti-War Dissidents Are Singled Out For Attack
Just over one year ago, British journalists and politicians were fulminating over photographs published in the Daily Mirror that appeared to show Iraqi prisoners being abused by British soldiers. The British military, it was claimed, now possessed incontrovertible proof that the pictures were fake. Mirror editor, Piers Morgan – a fierce opponent of the war – was condemned far and wide for inciting additional hatred of British troops in Iraq, so putting their lives at risk. The Daily Mail’s Melanie Phillips said on BBC’s Newsnight programme:
The New Dark Age 