What a week! Oh such boundless joy that transports us to the very heavens! It began with Nicholas Witchell gasping statements such as: “I am informed the royal cervix has currently widened to 9cm, and the Queen is said to be ‘thrilled’ at this level of dilation.”
Media
How we are impoverished, gentrified and silenced – and what to do about it
In ‘Brave New World Revisited’, Aldous Huxley describes a new class conditioned to a normality that is not normal “because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives, that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does”.
The new Prince and his 2,000 birthday buddies
By Emily Harle (Left Foot Forward) One of the most talked about babies in the world has just been born. Even before the young Prince’s life began conversations up and down the land covered the name he would likely to be given, whether he will be breastfed, the school he will attend and who will take care of him. Though […]
Baby arrival – royal commands and media expectations
By John Hilley (Zen Politics) A ‘royal baby’ has, apparently, arrived. So announce the BBC, head media midwife, delivering the news that ‘really matters’. And with it, chief royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell’s truly excruciating ‘welcome to baby Cambridge’: “As baby Cambridge’s life progresses, he will need to do what his father, grandfather and great-grandmother have all attempted to do – that is to earn respect […]
The Guardian UK: Guardian of the Truth, or, Guardian of the Establishment?
It is not easy to be the one who bears bad news, questions what’s beneath glitzy packaging, or the one who throws cold water on seemingly good news. Trust me it isn’t. We all want to feel good. It is much easier to cheer than to question and criticize. We want heroes. We like pedestals and figures to worship. I don’t know why but it is what it is, and I am who I am- daring to be unpopular with questions that need to be asked and answers that have to be sought.
Petitioning Journalists to Take a Pledge
Faced with a dangerous escalation of the Syrian conflict, and the alarming role yet again of many Western media in facilitating it, we are asking you to sign this petition, not to our governments but to media organisations and journalists to take a pledge to do their job responsibly and accountably.
We are asking for your support by signing this petition, which we will forward to all journalists reporting on Syria, everywhere we can, asking them to take a personal PLEDGE
Michael Hastings Crash Investigation Heats Up, Police and Fire Told Not to comment!
Crash scene defies laws of physics as engine block found behind the car. San Diego 6 — Kimberly Dvorak’s Investigative Report On Michael Hastings “Crash” – http://is.gd/F6xAEW
Snowden Der Spiegel Interview
Shortly before he became a household name around the world as a whistleblower, Edward Snowden answered a comprehensive list of questions. They originated from Jacob Appelbaum, 30, a developer of encryption and security software. Appelbaum provides training to international human rights groups and journalists on how to use the Internet anonymously.
Assange slams paper for breaking agreement
Following revelations that The New York Times liaised with the White House before publishing information supplied to it by WikiLeaks, the website’s editor-in-chief, Julian Assange, has revealed the British Guardian edited out “all sorts” of information before publishing US diplomatic cables.
Hey, MSM: All Journalism is Advocacy Journalism
by Matt Taibbi (Rolling Stone) So New York Times Dealbook writer Andrew Ross Sorkin has apologized to journalist Glenn Greenwald for saying he’d “almost arrest” him, for his supposed aid and comfort of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. “I veered into hyperbole,” was Sorkin’s explanation. I got into trouble the other day on Twitter for asking if David Gregory may have […]
Snowden Coverage: If US Mass Media Were State-Controlled, Would They Look Any Different?
The Edward Snowden leaks have revealed a U.S. corporate media system at war with independent journalism. Many of the same outlets—especially TV news—that missed the Wall Street meltdown and cheer-led the Iraq invasion have come to resemble state-controlled media outlets in their near-total identification with the government as it pursues the now 30-year-old whistleblower by Jeff Cohen While an independent […]
‘A Political Ploy’? The Guardian Editors Swallow US Claims On Syrian WMD
By David Edwards (Media Lens) Last week, we reviewed the questions and doubts surrounding claims that the chemical weapon sarin has been used in Syria. The Obama administration has since claimed that its ‘red line’ has indeed been crossed – it now has firm evidence that Syrian government forces have used chemical weapons. As a result, the US will begin […]








