Media Lens is an invaluable source to in describing and measuring how far the “respectable media” kowtows to state and corporate interests. This excerpt from their latest media alert illustrates the mendacity that is common place in what is considered to be “acceptable journalistic practices”.
“The key to what is precisely wrong with corporate journalism is explained in this nutshell by the US commentator Michael Parenti:
‘Bias in favor of the orthodox is frequently mistaken for “objectivity”. Departures from this ideological orthodoxy are themselves dismissed as ideological.’
Examples of bias towards the orthodoxy of Western power are legion every day of the week. On January 30 this year, David Loyn reported for BBC News at Ten from Bagram airbase in Afghanistan as US troops prepared to withdraw from a blood-strewn occupation. Standing beside a large US military plane, he intoned:
‘For all of the lives lost and money spent, it could have been so much better.’
The pro-Nato perspective of that remark masquerading as impartial journalism is stark. By contrast, Patrick Cockburn summed up the reality:
‘After 12 years, £390bn, and countless dead, we leave poverty, fraud – and the Taliban in Afghanistan…60 per cent of children are malnourished and only 27 per cent of Afghans have access to safe drinking water…Elections are now so fraudulent as to rob the winners of legitimacy.’
The damning conclusion?
‘Faced with these multiple disasters western leaders simply ignore Afghan reality and take refuge in spin that is not far from deliberate lying.’
BBC News has been a major component of this gross deception of the public.”
Hmm. What is troubling is that many outside of the UK look to BBC as a “better” source of news that is more reliable that what is available in North America.
Admittedly, I would take BBC reporting hands down over anything from the propaganda mill known as Fox News, but how many people have the time to really sink their teeth into multiple news sources? How many people even care about the news that much anymore?
I’m shocked that so many people have consciously chosen ignorance as their strategy for dealing with the news and world events. Denial of the world ‘out there’ can only lead to insular thinking and simplistic interpretations of complex problems. We need more people, not less, grounded in rationality with a gist of how the world actually works. How can you effect change in the world if you know nothing of how it works?
9 comments
February 25, 2014 at 6:22 am
violetwisp
Oh, the BBC are awful, unfortunately, although I guess you’re right they’re much better than Fox. I like Euronews these days, it gives basic, useful news, and also shows different scenes from around the world with no comment, which is excellent. Do people not watch Al Jazeera now? It’s pretty good. Anyway, I can’t really talk, I’m actually one of those people who’s chosen ignorance as their strategy for dealing with the news and world events …
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February 25, 2014 at 6:53 am
john zande
We have CNN International or BBC here. That’s it. CNN is no-longer watchable, so that leaves Auntie, whom i still love. Surprisingly, RT News does some marvellous reporting.
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February 25, 2014 at 10:01 am
syrbal-labrys
Your final question is the one I ask friends all the time; they simultaneously bitch about the state of things AND say they can’t stand to watch the “depressing” news. The very topic can end a low blood pressure event for me…
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February 25, 2014 at 10:56 am
The Arbourist
@VW
I’ll have to check Euronews out, it sounds interesting. Al-Jazeera is good on many topics, but as I’ve meandered over there it seems they are moving toward more videos and less words. I hate that. Watching a video is such cumbersome way of getting a point/news across.
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February 25, 2014 at 11:03 am
The Arbourist
@JZ
I do have a soft spot for the BCC, the live feed kicks in after CBC is done it’s radio programming. Also, another community station picks up the BBC feed so Auntie isn’t very far away. :)
I was all over RT in when they first came out, but always in the back of my mind would niggle the idea that RT is being produced in one of the hotbeds of state propaganda and censorship in the world. I really liked the way they picked up the dissident left from the US, seeing Chomsky, Zinn and others given the time they deserve warmed my heart immeasurably.
On a different topic our media is doing a shit job of providing anything other than “there is unrest and barricades” in Venezuela – any thoughts on what is going down there? Was the Chavez holding the country together by the force of his will alone? It seems his successor is doing it wrong…
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February 25, 2014 at 11:15 am
john zande
The problems existed under Chavez but he was the master manipulator… and died before the shit really hit the fan. I haven’t been following it closely, but it’s going to get mighty ugly. The Chavista’s are poor, under-educated, are the majority, and have grown accustomed to subsidised living. This was always going to be unsustainable. The blackouts, for example, were happening 6 years ago, so this really isn’t new. Argentina is about to collapse, too… and our hapless President here has no idea how to even manage the inflation she caused by ordering the banks to slash interest rates 4 years ago. I’m as liberal as the come, a rational socialist, but by the love of Velles the left wing in S. America is freaking hopeless!
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February 25, 2014 at 11:28 am
The Arbourist
@Syrbal
Consider though that the state you describe is precisely where our political elite want us to be, said state is promulgated through the educational system and media. You have to work hard to get outside the shitty mental bubble wrap they want to cloak your mind in. The real downer is that once outside the veil, one can succinctly quantify exactly how powerless one is vis a vis the rest of society and how much work it will take to organize, protest, revolt and take society back again for the people as opposed to the rich.
This, with the background of the ‘civilized nations’ happily destroying the biosphere that we need to live(because profit!) can contribute to a somewhat fatalistic worldview that needs to be periodically brightened with the infusion of kittens and puppies. :)
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February 25, 2014 at 11:30 am
syrbal-labrys
Oh, yes. An infusion of puppies and kittens would do it. I’m all for turning loose hungry wolves and big cats on the Congressional floor!
What? What??
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February 25, 2014 at 1:18 pm
The Intransigent One
Maybe not both at the same time though? We do want them to stay focussed, after all.
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