Brand’s critics are asking the wrong question
I am staying on the Brand theme a little longer. As I mentioned yesterday, the liberal media backlash against Brand has begun in force. Below is a prime example of the vacuous responses to Brand that...
View ArticleWhy the Guardian axed Nafeez Ahmed’s blog
Nafeez Ahmed’s account of the sudden termination of his short-lived contract to write an environment blog for the Guardian is depressingly instructive – and accords with my own experiences as a...
View ArticleMonbiot: A compromised critic of power
I am aware that there is a danger I sound churlish about George Monbiot. Usually when I have referred to him in these posts, it has been to criticise him, even while I agree with most of what he writes...
View ArticleQueen helped stop Scots ‘ominous’ yes vote
Here are two intriguing, related articles in the Guardian on the Scottish independence referendum that achieve two seemingly contradictory goals. First, they reveal that under pressure from the British...
View ArticleWhat Hebdo execution video really shows
I am well aware that I’m stepping into a hornet’s nest by posting this video, which is going viral. Those who wish to silence all debate have an easy card to play here, accusing me of buying into a...
View ArticleYes, the new Charlie Hebdo cover is offensive
Those who want to claim we are in the midst of a clash of civilisations have an easy time perpetuating their narrative. Just look at the very different responses to the new Charlie Hebdo cover. The...
View ArticleWhy do critics love American Sniper?
I watched American Sniper the other night and it really is the most puerile propaganda imaginable. It is not even as though it is simply unfair to the “enemy” – that is, mostly ordinary Iraqis, who are...
View ArticleGuardian editor’s hypocrisy on anti-semitism
I have been a critic of Jonathan Freedland before on these pages, but he – and the BBC – sank to a new low last week on the BBC’s Question Time. Question Time is a current affairs show that allows an...
View ArticlePeter Oborne opens a media can of worms
The revelations last week by the Daily Telegraph’s former chief political commentator Peter Oborne that his newspaper spiked stories that upset advertisers to avoid losing lucrative ad revenue have...
View ArticleHSBC and the sham of Guardian’s Scott Trust
When I and others accuse the British media of systematic and consistent bias in favour of corporate power, and point out that the media is structurally part of that system of corporate power, we...
View ArticleHow the media discredit Greek democracy
The language the Guardian and all other corporate media have been using about Syriza’s victory at the weekend against draconian EU-imposed austerity is revealing. Here are some examples of the subtle...
View ArticleUS lies and excuses for bombing hospital
Here is the US changing its story for the FOURTH time of why it launched an air strike on the Doctors without Borders hospital in the Afghan town of Kunduz at the weekend, massacring at least 22...
View ArticleGuardian admits its cowardice over Paris
From the horse’s mouth: For fear of upsetting readers, the paper silenced any commentary in the first days after the Paris attacks that might have suggested there was a causal relationship between...
View ArticleThe rebirth of the media barons of old
Imagine we lived in a Britain where a handful of multi-millionaires owned almost the entire media, and had names like Viscount Rothermere, Lord Northcliffe and Baron Beaverbrook. That was the situation...
View ArticleNo fair hearing for Assange at the Guardian
At what point do we cry foul when we witness the abuse of a political dissident, one who dares to take on mighty vested interests? When his own state, the local legal system and the media all turn on...
View ArticleLies about UN body imperil not just Assange
Something extremely dangerous is happening before our eyes as we watch British officials and the corporate media respond to today’s ruling of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which found...
View ArticleWhy the Assange ruling is not ‘ridiculous’
Mads Adenaes, until recently the Norwegian chair of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, agrees with my post that a Guardian editorial on Friday seriously misrepresented the group’s legal...
View ArticleThe deeper truths journalists are blind to
As I have found out myself, there is nothing media outlets like less than criticising other media publications or the “profession” of journalism. It’s not really surprising. The credibility of a...
View ArticleWhy Blair is baffled by Sanders and Corbyn
The Guardian’s interview with Tony Blair published today inadvertently offers two major insights. The first, smaller one is that, as this interview shows yet again, the Guardian and the liberal-left...
View ArticleUS media want to keep Palestine boring
Glenn Greenwald and Murtaza Hussain offer an intriguing insight into how behind the scenes the US media seek to prevent us from engaging with the debate about Israel and Palestine. Their article...
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