Tag: Media Lens

Killing The Story – Bakhmut, Nick Cohen, Kakhovka, Nord Stream and Piers Morgan

The late writer, broadcaster and wit Clive James formulated what he called the ‘Barry Manilow Law’: ‘Everyone you know thinks Barry Manilow is absolutely terrible. But everyone you don’t know thinks he’s great.’ (James, cited Martin Amis, ‘Inside Story,’ Vintage, 2020, e-book, p.74) A Media Lens version of this might read: ‘Everyone you know thinks BBC News is absolutely terrible. […]

BURNED AT THE STAKE: UN SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON TORTURE DEMOLISHES FAKE CLAIMS TARGETING JULIAN ASSANGE

On the face of it, the task seems almost hopeless. As Tolstoy wrote: ‘The power of the government is maintained by public opinion, and with this power the government, by means of its organs – its officials, law courts, schools, churches, even the press – can always maintain the public opinion which they need.’ (Leo Tolstoy, Writings on Non-Violence and Civil […]

‘None Of It Reported’: How Corporate Media Buried The Assange Trial

One of the most imposing features of state-corporate propaganda is its incessant, repetitive nature. Over and over again, the ‘mainstream’ media have to convince the public that ‘our’ government prioritises the health, welfare and livelihoods of the general population, rather than the private interests of an elite stratum of society that owns and runs all the major institutions, banks, corporations […]

Correcting the record: Nafeez Ahmed is clueless in his smears on independent journalists

Background: Our co-ed Alison Banville wrote a piece recently on the corporate media disappearing the children murdered in Syria last week by NATO backed Jihadists. Included was an admonition of Media Lens for consistently refusing to acknowledge Vanessa Beeley’s outstanding investigative work on the ground in Syria. In response, the Davids Edwards and Cromwell posted a reply to Alison on […]

The Fake News Nazi – Corbyn, Williamson And The Anti-Semitism Scandal

One of us had a discussion with an elderly relative: ‘He can’t be allowed to become Prime Minister.’ ‘Why not?’ ‘It’s so awful…’ ‘What is?’ ‘The way he hates the Jews.’ The last comment was spoken with real anguish, the result of continuous exposure to just two main news sources: the Daily Mail and the BBC. What is astonishing is […]

Hold The Front Page. The Reporters Are Missing

In Britain, just one website offers consistently independent media criticism. This is the remarkable Media Lens – remarkable partly because its founders and editors as well as its only writers, David Edwards and David Cromwell, since 2001 have concentrated their gaze not on the usual suspects, the Tory press, but the paragons of reputable liberal journalism: the BBC, the Guardian, Channel 4 News.

Syria: An Exchange Between the Communist Party of Great Britain and Media Lens

We here at BSNews have a great respect for Media Lens, particularly as our co-editor, Alison Banville, has enjoyed friendly email communication with both David Edwards and David Cromwell (with the latter for a decade)and this has proved invaluable in terms of support when the fight to expose the damage wrought by the corporate media became sometimes emotionally and psychologically […]

Movie Review ‘The Damp Squibel’: Cult hit or hit cult?

We don’t normally do movie reviews here at BSNews. In fact, we usually concentrate exclusively on geo-politics and foreign policy, steer clear of sports and let others cover gossip and popular culture. My co-ed occasionally reveals her anthropological fascination and ultimate exasperation with the insidious twins of celebrity culture and the advertising industry but for me, I avoid them both like the plague, I never watch TV and I wouldn’t know a Kardashian if one punched me in the face.

‘Follow Your Bliss’ – The Tweet That Brought Corporate Journalism To The Brink Of A Nervous Breakthrough

Because the corporate press is about selling products and services to billions of consumers, it is loath to discuss the claim that an authentic, incomparable bliss is located within the human heart, and can be experienced by directing some attention away from external sources of ‘happiness’ to internal feelings in meditation. And yet this has been the assertion of every great spiritual master for thousands of years.

Write for love, not money? Journalists appalled

Something quite extraordinary has been happening on Twitter. Corporate journalists have gone into meltdown after two British media analysts – known as Media Lens – tweeted some friendly advice to idealistic youngsters contemplating a career in journalism. Twitter is a social media forum much loved by corporate journalists – probably because media training hones their skills at pithy aphorisms and […]