The job of a real journalist is to be skeptical of establishment power. Sadly, many reporters rather love receiving cuddles from officials, generals and leaders. Michael Hastings is against all cuddles! His work has shown consistent distance and his recent book, The Operators, about the failed war in Afghanistan, is vital reading. His latest piece,…
Showing all posts tagged mainstream media
Al Jazeera’s Listening Post on dangers of journalistic embedding with military
Reporters have been embedding with the US military (and other armies) for years, especially since 9/11. The results are usually pretty dismal, politically tone-deaf, pro-government and lacking criticism. Which is exactly how the military wants it. Al Jazeera’s The Listening Post asked me to comment on this tradition (I appear around 22:34) and my previous…
Obama’s vast, global scope of murdering “terrorists”
The Washington Post reports the largely hidden counter-terrorism policies of the Obama administration, without oversight, legal checks or balances and media scrutiny. There’s a word for this and it ain’t democracy. Part one: Over the past two years, the Obama administration has been secretly developing a new blueprint for pursuing terrorists, a next-generation targeting list…
How “liberal media” covers all those war-mongering Western leaders. Oh wait…
A typically astute Medialens analysis: Liberal journalism is balanced, neutral and objective, except when it’s not. A BBC news report on Hugo Chavez’s latest election triumph in Venezuela… commented: ‘Mr Chavez said Venezuela would continue its march towards socialism… butalso vowed he would be a “better president”.’ (Our emphasis. The article was subsequently amended, although the ‘but’…
My chapter on Wikileaks in new book edited by Dr Helen Caldicott, “Loving this Planet”
I’ve been writing and speaking about Wikileaks since 2006, its year of inception. I support the group for its belief in transparency. There’s a new book just out, through The New Press in the US, that features a range of voices that discuss any number of issues, from climate change to nuclear weapons and US…
America’s (almost) silent drone war and mainstream media largely ignoring civilian murders
America’s unrelenting drone war in Pakistan and elsewhere receives little accurate media coverage. The reality of civilians living in these areas are often ignored. Instead, we’re told “militants” are being killed. But who is really telling us this? A friend, Justin Randle, recently attended the Imran Khan anti-drone march in Pakistan (his report is here…
Remembering the slaughter in Sri Lanka
Last week saw the London launch of a new book by Frances Harrison called Still Counting the Dead. Harrison is a former BBC foreign correspondent. The work is about the civil war in Sri Lanka and the killing of tens of thousands of Tamils in the slaughter. Here’s video of the event:
Chavez wins in Venezuela and The New York Times must be devastated
Hugo Chavez has won another term as President of Venezuela. There’s rarely been a better example of Western corporate media outlets spending years demonising the man and yet he remains popular in his own country. The New York Times have been particularly bad offenders, publishing anti-Chavez propaganda as news. Read this and weep at the…
When the corporate media is oh-so-keen to be bought
Here’s a disturbing report from Glenn Greenwald in the Guardian about CNN and its apparent willingness to broadcast sponsored news from less than savoury regimes. Is this what the crisis in journalism is leading to? Bought “news” on a supposedly independent channel?