[Peace-discuss] Discussion of the "Liberal Media"

[Morton K. Brussel]

An extract of an interview of Media Lens (ML) authors Cromwell and  
Edwards, analyzing the so-called liberal media in the UK, largely  
applicable also to the USA,. For the complete interview see (from  
zmag.org)

  http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm? 
itemID=9465&sectionID=21        --mkb

…
UKW: The liberal media do allow some genuine dissenting voices. The  
Guardian and the independent for instance publish articles by  
principled radicals such as George Monbiot, Mark Curtis, Naomi Klein,  
Robert Fisk amongst others. If the liberal media are truly “Guardians  
of Power” why let these dissenting voices be heard at all?

ML: This is not actually true. The liberal media do not allow genuine  
dissent when it comes to analysing the structural corruption of the  
corporate media system. Monbiot, Klein and Fisk have written  
essentially nothing about this topic in the Guardian and Independent.  
Last time we checked, Curtis had not mentioned the role of the media  
at all in his Guardian articles. Fisk never criticises the  
Independent – in fact he praises it, as he does the British media  
generally. He does not focus on the appalling performance of the  
liberal media – he seems to believe that the Independent really is  
independent; an astonishingly naïve view. Recall that these are our  
most honest writers. Serious media analysis is a completely taboo  
subject within the mainstream. We published one article on the issue  
in the Guardian in December 2004 but that was a one-off gesture in  
response to intense criticism of the Guardian from Media Lens readers  
– it took us four months to place the article and we haven’t been  
invited back.

The only journalist who has been consistently honest about the media  
is John Pilger. It’s interesting to consider how he’s treated. In our  
view he’s the country’s most powerful dissident – his writing is  
superb, and the depth and breadth of his insight is beyond most of  
the other writers you mention. But it seems there’s no place for him  
in any of the quality papers! People talk about the Guardian comment  
editor Seumas Milne as a radical force – but he won’t publish Pilger.  
We’ve asked Milne why and he refuses to answer. So our best living  
dissident – obviously one of the all-time greats – is required to  
write a fortnightly column in the New Statesman which reaches a few  
thousand people. So why is he treated differently to Klein and  
Monbiot? Because he’s honest about the media – he criticises the  
Guardian, he draws attention to the vital role of the entire liberal  
media establishment in crimes against humanity. So he is persona non  
grata. The same is true of Chomsky. …
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/private/peace-discuss/attachments/20060105/b0274211/attachment.htm