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Media Lens is a British

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...

analysis

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...

established in 2001 by

David Cromwell David Cromwell (born 1962) is a British media campaigner and oceanographer. With David Edwards, he is a co-editor of the Media Lens website. Cromwell was born in Glasgow. His mother was a practicing Catholic. He spent his formative years in Ba ...

and David Edwards. Cromwell and Edwards are the site's editors and only regular contributors. Their aim is to scrutinise and question the

mainstream media In journalism, mainstream media (MSM) is a term and abbreviation used to refer collectively to the various large mass news media that influence many people and both reflect and shape prevailing currents of thought.Chomsky, Noam, ''"What makes mai ...

's coverage of significant events and issues and to draw attention to what they consider "the systemic failure of the corporate media to report the world honestly and accurately". Media Lens is financed by donations from website visitors. The editors issue regular "Media Alerts" concentrating on mainstream media outlets such as the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

and

Channel 4 News ''Channel 4 News'' is the main news programme on British television broadcaster Channel 4. It is produced by ITN, and has been in operation since Channel 4's launch in November 1982. Current productions ''Channel 4 News'' ''Channel 4 News'' ...

which are legally obliged to be impartial or on outlets such as ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' and ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' which are usually considered

left-leaning Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

. The site's editors frequently draw attention to what they see as the limits within which the mainstream media operates, and provide "a riveting exposé of the myth of liberal media based on a variety of empirical case studies", according to Graham Murdock and Michael Pickering. Media Lens is admired by

John Pilger John Richard Pilger (; born 9 October 1939) is an Australian journalist, writer, scholar, and documentary filmmaker. He has been mainly based in Britain since 1962. He was also once visiting professor at Cornell University in New York. Pilge ...

, who has called the website "remarkable" and described the writers as "the cyber guardians of honest journalism". Other journalists, in particular

Peter Oborne Peter Alan Oborne (; born 11 July 1957) is a British journalist and broadcaster. He is the former chief political commentator of ''The Daily Telegraph'', from which he resigned in early 2015. He is author of ''The Rise of Political Lying'', ''Th ...

, have also made positive comments about the group, although it has come into conflict with other journalists. ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

''s foreign editor Peter Beaumont asserted that the group ran a "campaign" against

John Sloboda John Anthony Sloboda OBE FBA (born 13 June 1950) is Research Professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he currently leads research on the Social Impact of Making Music. He is also one of the founders of the Iraq Body Count projec ...

and the

Iraq Body Count Iraq Body Count project (IBC) is a web-based effort to record civilian deaths resulting from the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq. Included are deaths attributable to coalition and insurgent military action, sectarian violence and criminal violence ...

for underestimating the number of deaths in Iraq. See also

George Monbiot George Joshua Richard Monbiot ( ; born 27 January 1963) is a British writer known for his environmental and political activism. He writes a regular column for ''The Guardian'' and is the author of a number of books. Monbiot grew up in Oxfordsh ...

wrote that Media Lens was "belittling the acts of genocide" in their defence of

Edward S. Herman Edward Samuel Herman (April 7, 1925 – November 11, 2017) was an American economist, media scholar and social critic. Herman is known for his media criticism, in particular the propaganda model hypothesis he developed with Noam Chomsky, a fr ...

, who had questioned the number of deaths in the

Srebrenica massacre The Srebrenica massacre ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Masakr u Srebrenici, Масакр у Сребреници), also known as the Srebrenica genocide ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Genocid u Srebrenici, Геноцид у Сребрен ...

Foundation and influences

By the late 1990s, David Edwards had concluded that there was a "media suppression of the truth about the effect of the sanctions" against Iraq, and an indifference to

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

: "the media were still celebrating the idea that Britain might soon be blessed with a Mediterranean climate". Another motivation came from interviewing

Denis Halliday Denis J. Halliday (born c.1941) was the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq from 1 September 1997 until 1998. He was previously Deputy Resident Representative to Singapore of the United Nations Development Programme.Murphy, C.N., 2006 ...

, former head of the UN’s humanitarian aid program, after concluding its actions in Iraq were "

genocidal Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...

". Interview also reproduced at Meanwhile,

had found coverage of certain issues to be "paltry", and had gained a negligible response from the newspapers to which he had written. The two men first met in 1999, and Edwards suggested beginning a collaborative website. Central to Media Lens analysis is the Propaganda model, first developed by Edward Herman and

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is ...

, in their book ''

Manufacturing Consent ''Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media'' is a 1988 book by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky. It argues that the mass communication media of the U.S. "are effective and powerful ideological institutions that carry out ...

'' (1988). The theory posits that the way in which news media is structured (through

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

media ownership Concentration of media ownership (also known as media consolidation or media convergence) is a process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media. Contemporary research demonstrates in ...

, government sourcing and others) creates an inherent

conflict of interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations i ...

which leads to

systemic bias Systemic bias, also called institutional bias, and related to structural bias, is the inherent tendency of a process to support particular outcomes. The term generally refers to human systems such as institutions. Institutional bias and structur ...

and propaganda for undemocratic forces. Edwards has also cited

Erich Fromm Erich Seligmann Fromm (; ; March 23, 1900 – March 18, 1980) was a German social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was a German Jew who fled the Nazi regime and settled in the U ...

, who thought "a society that subordinates people and planet to profit is inherently insane and toxic", and his practice of

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

as influences. Media Lens has expressed admiration for Australian born journalist

on several occasions. Around 2006, Media Lens said ''The Guardian'' would not publish Pilger "because he’s honest about the media" and "draws attention to the vital role of the entire liberal media establishment in crimes against humanity. So he is ''persona non grata''". In a 2007 interview, Media Lens said Pilger was a "huge inspiration" and, while discussing his work in the mainstream media, stated that "on the one hand, his work has a tremendous effect in enlightening a lot of people. On the other hand, his work is used to strengthen the propaganda system‘s false claims of honesty and openness". Writing in

Z Communications Z Communications is a left-wing activist-oriented media group founded in 1986 by Michael Albert and Lydia Sargent.Max Elbaum''Revolution in the Air: Sixties Radicals Turn to Lenin, Mao and Che'' London, England, UK; New York, New York, US: Vers ...

in May 2014, Elliot Murphy said that Media Lens pay careful attention to the writings of

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitar ...

, "noting the prevalence of clichés which should arouse suspicion in any reader of the press or listener of parliamentary debates. These include 'at a time when', 'demands difficult choices', 'pivotal moment', 'towards', 'inextricably linked', 'courage', 'human being', 'some people say that', 'left of centre', and 'history tells us'. Cromwell and Edwards observe that 'it is not important to make sense in the media; it is important only to be able to bandy the jargon of media discourse in a way that suggests in-depth knowledge: Iran-Contra, IMF, G8, the "roadmap to peace", "UN resolution 1441", and so on' ".

Activities and main arguments

In 2001, Media Lens began issuing regular online Media Alerts, scrutinising media coverage, the arguments used,

source Source may refer to: Research * Historical document * Historical source * Source (intelligence) or sub source, typically a confidential provider of non open-source intelligence * Source (journalism), a person, publication, publishing institute o ...

selection, and the framing of events to highlight bias, omissions and direct lies. The media alerts are distributed without charge by email to an international readership. According to Media Lens, the readership was around 14,000 people in 2009. Funding is through reader subscriptions and donations. The editors engage in email and

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

exchanges with British journalists and editors. They also invite their readers to challenge journalists, editors and programme producers directly via email, specifically discouraging abusive contact.At the end of each alert is the advice: "The goal of Media Lens is to promote rationality, compassion and respect for others ... we strongly urge you to maintain a polite, non-aggressive and non-abusive tone." See for example: . According to Cromwell and Edwards, journalists in the mainstream media articulate an "'official' version of events ... as Truth. The testimony of critical observers and participants" and "especially those on the receiving end of Western firepower – are routinely marginalised, ignored and even ridiculed". The editors "reject all conspiracy theories. Instead, we point to the inevitably corrupting effects of 'market forces' operating on, and through, media corporations seeking profit in a society dominated by corporate power ... Media employees are part of a corporate system that, unsurprisingly, selects for servility to the needs and goals of corporate power". They believe that mainstream journalists gradually absorb an unquestioning corporate mindset as their careers progress, becoming unwilling to question their occupations or governments claims, but not consciously lying. They also say that the limitations of the corporate media are not unexpected as " did not expect the Soviet Communist Party's newspaper

Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the co ...

to tell the truth about the Communist Party, why should we expect the corporate press to tell the truth about corporate power?" In Cromwell and Edwards' opinion, western government actions have followed an "historical pattern of deception" going back several centuries,Quoted in and "the corporate media is the source of some of the greatest, most lethal illusions of our age". Edwards wrote that, because of these corporate distortions, "we believe, society is not told the truth about the appalling consequences of corporate greed for poor people in the Third World, and for the environment". According to Cromwell and Edwards, the centre-left wing of the mainstream media are gatekeepers "of acceptable debate from a left or Green perspective, 'thus far and no further'" and that dissenting views have difficulty gaining attention in a corporate system. They have contrasted positive comments the mainstream media make about western leaders, with the epithets used to describe politicians such as

Hugo Chávez Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician who was president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013, except for a brief period in 2002. Chávez was also leader of the Fifth Republ ...

, Venezuela's former President. In 2013, Media Lens described the corporate media as "an extremist fringe" from which progressives should completely dissociate themselves. In May 2011, and more extensively in January 2015, Media Lens advocated "a collective of high-profile writers and journalists willing to detach themselves from corporate and state media, and to place themselves entirely at the mercy of the public" with their output freely available "from a single media outlet" and financed by donations. "The support would be vast, ''if'' the initiative was posited as an alternative to the biocidal, corruption-drenched corporate media", they said in an interview with The Colossus website in January 2016. Cromwell wrote in 2016 that, to find coverage of the

Yemeni Civil War Yemeni Civil War may refer to several historical events which have taken place in Yemen: *Alwaziri coup, February – March 1948 *Yemeni–Adenese clan violence, 1956–60 *North Yemen Civil War, 1962–70 *Aden Emergency, 1963–67 *South Yemen#Di ...

, " t unusually, one has to go to media such as" the Russian television network RT and the Iranian news network

Press TV Press TV (stylised as PRESSTV) is an Iranian state-owned news network that broadcasts in the English and French languages owned by Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), the only organization legally able to transmit radio and TV broadc ...

, which are "so often bitterly denigrated as 'propaganda' operations by corporate journalists".

Reception

In December 2002, eighteen months after the site's creation, Australian journalist John Pilger described Media Lens as "becoming indispensable". In a ''

New Internationalist ''New Internationalist'' (''NI'') is an international publisher and left-wing magazine based in Oxford, England, owned and run by a worker-run co-operative with a non-hierarchical structure. Known for its strict editorial and environmental pol ...

'' interview in 2010, Pilger said Media Lens "has broken new ground with the first informed and literate analysis and criticism of the liberal media". Regarding their work on the invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, he wrote that "Without edia Lens'meticulous and humane analysis, the full gravity of the debacles of Iraq and Afghanistan might have been consigned to bad journalism's first draft of bad history". In a 2007 article about them, John Pilger mentioned their first collaborative book, '' Guardians of Power'' (2006), and wrote that "not a single national newspaper reviewed the most important book about journalism I can remember", including the left-wing '' Morning Star''. The ''Morning Star'' did review their second book, ''Newspeak In The 21st Century'', in 2009. Peter Barron, former editor of the BBC's ''

Newsnight ''Newsnight'' (or ''BBC Newsnight'') is BBC Two's news and current affairs programme, providing in-depth investigation and analysis of the stories behind the day's headlines. The programme is broadcast on weekdays at 22:30. and is also availa ...

'' commented in 2005: "In fact I rather like them. David Cromwell and David Edwards, who run the site, are unfailingly polite, their points are well-argued and sometimes they're plain right." In June 2006, Peter Beaumont wrote in ''The Observer'' that Media Lens "insist that the only acceptable version of the truth is theirs alone and that everybody else should march to the same step", and described them as "controlling

Politburo A politburo () or political bureau is the executive committee for communist parties. It is present in most former and existing communist states. Names The term "politburo" in English comes from the Russian ''Politbyuro'' (), itself a contraction ...

lefties". He likened the group's email campaigns to "a train spotters' club run by Uncle Joe Stalin". Media Lens responded that "Beaumont was unwilling to challenge even one of the thousands of arguments and facts published in 2,000 pages of Media Alerts and in our book ''Guardians Of Power'' – so, instead, our 'nastiness' was the focus of attention". The journalist

Peter Wilby Peter John Wilby (born 7 November 1944) is a British journalist. He is a former editor of ''The Independent on Sunday'' and the ''New Statesman''. Early life and career Wilby was educated at Kibworth Beauchamp grammar school in Leicestershire b ...

, wrote in January 2006 that "their basic critique is correct" and he occasionally commissioned Cromwell and Edwards while he was editor of the ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...

''. He also wrote that "the Davids are virtually unknown; as leftist critics, they are marginalised." Writing in ''The Guardian'' in July 2008, Wilby described Media Lens as "formidably researched. It avoids easy targets, such as the Mail and Sun, and criticises the Guardian, Independent, Times and Telegraph, arguing the "liberal media" isn't as liberal as it thinks it is. Edwards and Cromwell might be described as early examples of citizen journalists". In his 2007 book ''The Triumph of the Political Class'', journalist

wrote that while researching media coverage of the Iraq war, he had found the site "extremely useful". Media Lens are "often unfair but sometimes highly perceptive". On 2 December 2007, Edwards and Cromwell were awarded the

Gandhi International Peace Award The Gandhi Foundation is a United Kingdom-based voluntary organisation which seeks to further the work of Mahatma Gandhi through a variety of educational events and activities. Aims and activities As part of its mission, the Gandhi Foundation ...

. The award was presented by Denis Halliday, the former

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

Humanitarian Co-ordinator in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

, and himself a recipient of the award in 2003. Oliver Boyd-Barrett, an academic specialising in Communications Studies, said in 2010 that Media Lens possess a "relentless commitment" to assessing the media "on criteria of rationality and humanity, for what they write and fail to write, and doing so in a tone that is determinedly polite and respectful, even when the content is highly critical". In February 2011, John Rentoul wrote about his interactions with what he called Media Lens "adherents". He said an email exchange,

"may continue until journalist is too busy to reply or until the snarl of Chomskian-Pilgerism is unwittingly betrayed and journalist realises he or she has not been engaging with a reasonable person. At this point, Media Lens adherent then posts the email chain on the sect's website, without notice or permission eginning a thread This is supposed to embarrass the apologist for the corporate media/torture/Tony Blair and expose him to ridicule by other sect members".

In January 2012, ''The Guardian''s Michael White, accused Media Lens of suggesting the newspaper's two most left-wing writers, Milne and

"trim their sails and pull their punches to accommodate their paymasters". White was responding to He added: "Media Lens doesn't do subtle. Nor do its more acceptable heroes, such as John Pilger or 'The Independent''s

Robert Fisk Robert Fisk (12 July 194630 October 2020) was a writer and journalist who held British and Irish citizenship. He was critical of United States foreign policy in the Middle East, and the Israeli government's treatment of Palestinians. His stanc ...

". Media Lens responded that corporate journalists did more that merely “trim sails”. There were “whole areas of thought and discussion are demonstrably off the agenda” and “the corporate nature of the mass media tends to produce performance that defends and furthers the goals of the corporate system”. In May 2016, White wrote that their work suggests "their own editing priorities may be as partisan and un-self-aware as the corporates they so severely condemn". In February 2012, the philosopher

Rupert Read Rupert Read (born 1966) is an academic and a Green Party campaigner and a former spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion. Read is a reader in philosophy at the University of East Anglia

criticised Media Lens' use of

Michel Chossudovsky Michel Chossudovsky (born 1946) is a Canadian economist and author. He is professor emeritus of economics at the University of Ottawa and the president and director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), which runs the website global ...

and articles by

Robert Dreyfuss Robert "Bob" Dreyfuss is an American investigative journalist and contributing editor for ''The Nation'' magazine. His work has appeared in ''Rolling Stone'', ''The Diplomat'', '' Mother Jones'', ''The American Prospect'', TomPaine.com, and other ...

and Aisling Byrne as sources for the situation in Syria. Specifically Read was responding to a two-part alert ( and ) These alerts were reprinted on the ''New Internationalist'' websit
here
an
here
Media Lens responded to Rupert Read o
their forum
on 21 February. (Archived from the (unavailable
original
on 27 March 2012.) A later version of Read's piece: was partiall
disowned
by NI. Read had written about Media Lens use of sources earlier in In May 2014, Elliot Murphy wrote in

ZNet Z Communications is a left-wing activist-oriented media group founded in 1986 by Michael Albert and Lydia Sargent.Max Elbaum''Revolution in the Air: Sixties Radicals Turn to Lenin, Mao and Che'' London, England, UK; New York, New York, US: Vers ...

that Media Lens "have carefully exposed the shortcomings and lies of the press" and "their Alerts are invariably well researched, well argued, and often entertaining". He described their book ''Guardians of Power: The Myth of the Liberal Media'' as a brilliant assessment of the "balance of reporting when it comes to ‘our’ crimes versus ‘theirs’". He criticised them for generally confining their suggested actions to email campaigns rather than "direct action, non-violent civil disobedience, or even the odd promotion of an upcoming rally or lecture" and suggested that they "rethink their tactics when trying to influence, typically through electronic means, the actions and thoughts of other political writers and their general readership". Regarding Media Lens’ criticism of left-wing sources, Murphy wrote: "Writing detailed critiques of corporate media reports is admirable, but isolating yourself from those who could not only help you out, but who may in fact also need your help in undermining the very corporate media forces you’re attempting to expose as fundamentally subservient to power, is not the action of an organisation trying to improve the world". In August 2015, Helen Lewis, deputy editor of the ''

'' wrote about an interview she had with

Yvette Cooper Yvette Cooper (born 20 March 1969) is a British politician serving as Shadow Home Secretary since 2021, and previously from 2011 to 2015. She served in Gordon Brown's Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2008 to 2009 and Work and Pen ...

. Media Lens messaged Lewis on

twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

asking why she had not mentioned that Cooper had voted in favour of wars that "wrecked"

and Libya. Media Lens said that Lewis did not reply but ''New Statesman'' columnist Sarah Ditum wrote an article in which she said Media Lens are "largely engaged in an endless project of separating the anti-war sheep from the goats to be purged". In response to Ditum, Edwards wrote: "Cooper’s voting record of course has grave implications for the near-certainty of future wars waged on more states around the world. Any reasonable commentator understands the need to pay careful attention to the candidates’ record and thinking on war". David Wearing, writing in

openDemocracy openDemocracy is an independent media platform and news website based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 2001, openDemocracy states that through reporting and analysis of social and political issues, they seek to "challenge power and encourage de ...

in September 2015, commented that while the group has "a vocal, dedicated following", it also has "a long record of alienating potential allies with their purity tests and aggressive oversimplifications". In February 2016,

Oliver Kamm Oliver Kamm (born 1963) is a British journalist and writer who is a leader writer and columnist for ''The Times''. Early life and career Kamm is the son of translator Anthea Bell and publisher Antony Kamm. Kamm is the grandson of Adrian Bell ...

described Media Lens as a "far-left pressure group" who are "doughty defenders of Venezuela's revolutionary regime". In March 2016, journalist

Owen Jones Owen Jones (born 8 August 1984) is a British newspaper columnist, political commentator, journalist, author, and left-wing activist. He writes a column for ''The Guardian'' and contributes to the ''New Statesman'' and '' Tribune.'' He has two ...

wrote that the editors' "attack me with even more force than writers who actually defend the status quo. Those writers confirm their analysis, after all: my presence disrupts it, and therefore I’m actually arguably worse", accusing them of "once tweeting a paragraph I wrote summing up the arguments of those who attacked critics of Obama, and pretending those arguments were what I actually thought". Padraig Reidy wrote in an August 2016 piece for ''

Little Atoms ''Little Atoms'' is a website, podcast and magazine dedicated to ideas and culture. The radio show broadcast weekly from London on Resonance FM 104.4. It is hosted by Neil Denny. The website is edited by Padraig Reidy. The first edition of '' ...

'', that Media Lens "is only ever asking questions it thinks it already knows the answer to". When one of the Media Lens' editors suggested on

in 2018 that young writers should "follow your bliss" (a term coined by the American writer

Joseph Campbell Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American writer. He was a professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work covers many aspects of the ...

) and contribute "what you absolutely love to write to inspire and enlighten other people" rather than bothering about prestige or financial reward, extensive responses were posted on the social media platform. Journalist James Ball responded that writers should try the mainstream first to gain attention for their work as "virtually all of the best journalism comes out of 'corporate' or 'mainstream' media", such as the parliamentary expenses scandal, "the exposure of offshore leaks", "

Iraq War Logs Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

", " Libor rigging", and "dozens of other major pieces of accountability stories".

Case histories

Iraq

Justification for war

In 2002, prior to the

Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...

, Media Lens argued that it was fraudulent for the UK and US governments to justify a war on the basis that Iraq still possessed a credible

Weapons of Mass Destruction A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or any other weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to numerous individuals or cause great damage to artificial structures (e.g., buildings), natura ...

(WMD) threat and had an active WMD programme. Media Lens cited the work of former chief UN arms inspector

Scott Ritter William Scott Ritter Jr. (born July 15, 1961) is an American author and pundit and a former United States Marine Corps intelligence officer and United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) weapons inspector. He served as a junior military analyst d ...

, who had stated 4 years previously that a thorough investigation by UN inspectors had found that Iraq had "fundamentally disarmed" with 90–95 per cent of its WMD capability eliminated. Media Lens further cited Ritter's opinion that it would have been impossible for Iraq to rearm "from scratch" within the four years since the UN had left, given the level of scrutiny they were under. A 30 April 2003 Media Lens database search, covering the period leading up to and including the

invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Ba'athist Iraq, Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one mont ...

found that, of the 5,767 articles published by ''The Guardian'' and its sister paper ''The Observer'', only twelve made any mention of Scott Ritter. According to Edwards, this constituted "a shocking suppression of serious and credible dissident views", which he said were "soon to be entirely vindicated". Eddie Girdner agreed with Media Lens and cited it as one of the few who had drawn this conclusion before the war began. According to Richard Alexander, writing in 2010 about the Iraq war, Edwards and Cromwell "trenchantly dissected the servant role the British media played in bolstering the lies to the British public purveyed by the UK government". After referring to the "mountain of evidence" assembled by Cromwell and Edwards for their argument, John Jewell wrote for ''

The Conversation ''The Conversation'' is a 1974 American mystery thriller film written, produced, and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Cindy Williams, Frederic Forrest, Harrison Ford, Teri Garr, and Rober ...

'' website: "It must be remembered that the press was not completely united in its support for Blair" pointing to the opposition of the ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ...

'' to the invasion of Iraq as an example. Jewell's assertion about the "anti-war" ''Mirror'' was not entirely shared by Media Lens who criticised its respect for Blair's "patent sincerity".

Nick Robinson Nicholas, Nicky or Nick Robinson may refer to: * Nick Robinson (journalist) (born 1963), British political journalist * Nick Robinson (paperfolder) (born 1957), British origami artist * Nicky Robinson (rugby union) (born 1982), Welsh rugby player ...

in ''Live From Downing Street'' (2012), refers to an exchange between Media Lens and then Head of BBC News

Richard Sambrook Richard Sambrook is a British journalist, academic and a former BBC executive. He is Emeritus Professor in the School of Journalism, Media and Culture at Cardiff University. For 30 years, until February 2010, he was a BBC journalist and later ...

in late 2002 a few months before the invasion of Iraq:

" believe you are a sincere and well-intentioned person ... but you are at the heart of a system of lethal, institutionalised deception. Like it or not, believe it or not, by choosing to participate in this propaganda system, you and the journalists around you may soon be complicit in mass murder. As things stand, you and your journalists are facilitating the killing and mutilation of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of innocent men, women and children". Robinson cites from:

Robinson responded to this argument: "It is absurd – not to mention offensive – to suggest that journalists who report both the case for war and the case against it are morally responsible for those who die in it".

Reporting of conflict

In 2003, Media Lens compared the BBC's reporting on the Iraq war to "''

Boys' Own ''Boys' Own'' or ''Boy's Own'' or ''Boys Own'', is the title of a varying series of similarly titled magazines, story papers, and newsletters published at various times and by various publishers, in the United Kingdom and the United States, fro ...

'' war pornography". They cited a rhetorical question posed by BBC correspondent

Bridget Kendall Bridget Kendall (born 27 April 1956) is an English journalist who was the BBC's Diplomatic correspondent working for the corporation's radio and television networks. Since July 2016, she has been Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge: the first woman ...

in 2006, about whether the Iraq war was "justified" or a "disastrous miscalculation" as a demonstration of personal bias, and not meeting the requirement for reporting to be impartial. In their opinion, Kendall's question excluded the view, held by the anti-war movement and ex- UN secretary general

Kofi Annan Kofi Atta Annan (; 8 April 193818 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founder ...

, that the war was "an illegal war of aggression". (extract from ''Newspeak in the 21st Century'', 2009). Media Lens cited comments made by

Andrew Marr Andrew William Stevenson Marr (born 31 July 1959) is a British journalist and broadcaster. Beginning his career as a political commentator, he subsequently edited ''The Independent'' newspaper from 1996 to 1998 and was political editor of BBC N ...

in 2003, while he was the BBC's political editor, in support of their argument that journalists regularly present inflated assessments of the accomplishments of western politicians. They considered Marr to be overtly sympathetic to

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...

. In 2003, Cromwell and Edwards said that "there never was an Iraqi threat" and "If Tony Blair and George W. Bush are not guilty of war crimes, who is?"

Casualty figures

Media Lens has challenged the mainstream media coverage of the effect of the

2003 invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...

and subsequent occupation on the Iraqi

mortality rate Mortality rate, or death rate, is a measure of the number of deaths (in general, or due to a specific cause) in a particular population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit of time. Mortality rate is typically expressed in units of de ...

=''The Lancet'' surveys

= ''

The Lancet ''The Lancet'' is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal and one of the oldest of its kind. It is also the world's highest-impact academic journal. It was founded in England in 1823. The journal publishes original research articles, ...

'' published two

peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

studies of the effect of the 2003 invasion and occupation on the Iraqi mortality rate at two separate points in time. Both surveys used recognised statistical methods. The first survey was published in 2004 and estimated an excess death rate of 100,000 Iraqis as a result of the invasion and occupation of Iraq up to that time. The second ''Lancet'' survey, published in 2006, estimated that, as at the end of June 2006, 655,000 more deaths had occurred since the invasion, than would have been expected in the absence of conflict. The 2004 ''Lancet'' survey was discussed by mathematician

John Allen Paulos John Allen Paulos (born July 4, 1945) is an American professor of mathematics at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has gained fame as a writer and speaker on mathematics and the importance of mathematical literacy. Paulos write ...

in an article published in ''The Guardian''. Following criticism of the article by Media Lens, Paulos acknowledged he had been wrong to use a "largely baseless personal assessment", to call into question the findings of ''The Lancet'' study. In 2005, Media Lens challenged ''The Independent''s senior leader writer on foreign affairs, Mary Dejevsky, to explain why an editorial in the paper said the results of the 2004 ''Lancet'' study were obtained "by extrapolating from a small sample" and that " ile never completely discredited, those figures were widely doubted". Dejevsky responded that, while the sample may have been standard, it seemed small from her "lay perspective". Her main point "was less based on my impression than on the fact that this technique exposed the authors to the criticisms/dismissal that the govt duly made, and they had little to counter those criticisms with, bar the defence that their methods were standard for those sort of surveys". The response was considered incoherent by Edward Herman who called it "Massive incompetence in support of a war-apologetic agenda". According to Mukhopadhyay, the exchange was evidence that journalists, who do not have the statistical expertise to evaluate technical reports, "do not always take the obvious step of seeking expert advice". Reviewing Media Lens' engagement with press coverage of ''The Lancet'' study, Arvind Sivaramakrishna drew a similar conclusion stating, "Political correspondents are clearly ignorant of

sampling frame In statistics, a sampling frame is the source material or device from which a sample is drawn. It is a list of all those within a population who can be sampled, and may include individuals, households or institutions. Importance of the sampling fra ...

s and techniques, confidence limits,

significance level In statistical hypothesis testing, a result has statistical significance when it is very unlikely to have occurred given the null hypothesis (simply by chance alone). More precisely, a study's defined significance level, denoted by \alpha, is the ...

s, likelihood estimators, and so on." The 2004 survey findings were described as exaggerated and flawed by the US and UK governments which cited a much lower figure, a position which was largely supported in US and UK media coverage. Media Lens said the media "fell into line" with the governments' view despite earlier accepting the estimates from a similar study by the same researchers, using the same methods, which had estimated 1.7 million deaths in the Congo.

=The Iraq Body Count

= The

Iraq Body Count project Iraq Body Count project (IBC) is a web-based effort to record civilian deaths resulting from the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq. Included are deaths attributable to coalition and insurgent military action, sectarian violence and criminal violence ...

(IBC) was set up by

as an attempt to record civilian deaths resulting from the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq. Project volunteers examined news stories for reports of civilian casualties. Each incident reported by at least by two independent news sources was included in a database. As at the middle of 2006, the IBC study estimated between 38,725 and 43,140 civilian deaths arising from the 2003 invasion. Starting in January 2006, Media Lens began examining the IBC project. Its criticisms were that IBC results were not produced by experts in

epidemiology Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population. It is a cornerstone of public health, and shapes policy decisions and evidenc ...

and were not peer reviewed, unlike the two ''Lancet'' surveys. They also said that studies similar to that of the IBC had been found to only capture a fraction of actual deaths. The lower count produced by the IBC’s method was, Media Lens argued, used by politicians and journalists "particularly of the pro-war variety" (they named ''

Herald Sun The ''Herald Sun'' is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the Murdoch owned News Corp. The ''Herald S ...

'' journalist Adam Bolt(sic) and the Liberal Democrats as their examples) to "downplay the tragedy of the civilian death toll" and "suggest, for example, that the results of the invasion have been far less severe than the consequences of leaving Saddam Hussein in power". In April 2006, David Fuller, a ''

BBC Newsnight ''Newsnight'' (or ''BBC Newsnight'') is BBC Two's news and current affairs programme, providing in-depth investigation and analysis of the stories behind the day's headlines. The programme is broadcast on weekdays at 22:30. and is also availab ...

'' journalist, wrote about Media Lens' four campaigns against the IBC project's methods on the BBC website. The Media Lens editors refused two invitations to appear on ''Newsnight'' as they did not believe they would be treated fairly on the programme. In response Fuller accused them of " efusingto engage in any way that does not allow them total control of the interaction". In an interview with Fuller, Sloboda said Media Lens was "a pressure group that use aggressive and emotionally destructive tactics". He acknowledged that Iraq Body Count were "amateurs" but stated this did not have any negative connotations for their work. Also in April, Iraq Body Count published a paper defending its work against criticism. It described the criticism of Media Lens and others as "inaccurate and exaggerated, personal, offensive, and part of a concerted campaign to undermine IBC's reputation among those who use our data". In June 2006, Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor for ''

'' newspaper, accused the Media Lens editors' of a "campaign apparently designed to silence" John Sloboda and the Iraq Body Count project, because it produced a victim count lower than ''The Lancet'' study.

Srebrenica: Chomsky and others

On 31 October 2005, ''

'' newspaper published an interview with Noam Chomsky conducted by

Emma Brockes Emma Brockes (born 1975) is a British author and a contributor to ''The Guardian'' and ''The New York Times''. She lives in New York. Biography The daughter of a South-African-born mother,Emma Brockes"My mother's secret past" extract from ''She ...

. Chomsky complained about the interview in a letter to the readers’ editor,

Ian Mayes Ian Mayes is a British journalist and editing, editor. He was the first Organizational ombudsman, "readers' editor" – a title he invented for the newspaper ombudsman role Diana Johnstone Diana Johnstone (born 1934) is an American political writer based in Paris, France. She focuses principally on European politics and Western foreign policy. Early life Johnstone gained a BA in Russian Area Studies and a PhD in French Literature f ...

. ''The Guardian'' also wrote that " ither Prof Chomsky nor Ms Johnstone have ever denied the fact of the massacre". Media Lens responded to ''The Guardian''s apology in a second article posted on 21 November. The repercussions of the Brockes interview continued for some time. Ian Mayes, then the readers' editor of ''The Guardian'', wrote on 12 December 2005 that he and Brockes had received "several hundred" emails from Media Lens followers, who were protesting about Chomsky’s treatment. In December 2009, Media Lens removed

and David Peterson’s article, ''Open Letter To Amnesty International'' from its site. It explained to its readers that the removal was in response to "ill-tempered" comments from some readers and to avoid "publishing defamatory statements from either side". Soon after, Kamm wrote in his blog for ''The Times'' newspaper that the article Media Lens had removed repeated false claims about Serb-run detention camps in Bosnia which had led in 2000 to a successful libel action brought against '' LM'' magazine (originally ''Living Marxism'') by ITN. In 2009, Media Lens summarised Herman and Peterson’s articles on Srebrenica by saying that, although Herman and Peterson were "not denying that mass killings took place at Srebrenica", they "do not accept the figure cited by Kamm and others, but that they are perfectly entitled to do". In June 2011,

wrote that Media Lens "maintained that Herman and Peterson were 'perfectly entitled' to talk down the numbers killed at Srebrenica". He also wrote that Herman and Media Lens had taken "the unwarranted step of belittling the acts of genocide committed by opponents of the western powers". In response, Media Lens said their argument had been that Herman and Peterson were "perfectly entitled" to debate the facts not that "they are entitled to falsify, mislead, wilfully deceive, or whatever 'talk down' was intended to suggest". They also wrote that journalists reporting on the effects of the Iraq war were not accused of ‘genocide denial’ if they chose to use the IBC’s estimate of 100,000 deaths over the Lancet study’s estimate of 655,000 Iraqi dead in 2006. They said "typically, someone is adjudged guilty of ‘genocide denial’ only when they question accounts of crimes committed by official enemies of the West". Monbiot returned to this subject in a slightly later article: See also Regarding the use of the term 'genocide' they wrote:

To be clear, we reject the right of any court, any government, indeed anyone, to apply labels like "genocide" to historical events and then, not merely argue but demand that they be accepted. The assumption that human institutions are in possession of Absolute Truth belongs to the era of The Inquisition, not to serious debate.

Kamm wrote in October 2012: "The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) has revealed the identity of 6,598 people missing since the fall of Srebrenica, through DNA analysis of human remains in mass graves. It estimates the total number of victims as around 8,100. If ML maintains that deniers erman and Petersonare 'perfectly entitled' to their position, it must believe that the ICMP has faked that analysis". In his opinion, Media Lens "stands with genocide deniers" in its connection with Herman and his colleague, David Peterson, both of whom he linked in their statements about Srebrenica with Holocaust deniers.

Syria

Rupert Read Rupert Read (born 1966) is an academic and a Green Party campaigner and a former spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion. Read is a reader in philosophy at the University of East Anglia

, an academic and

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...

politician said that Media Lens tends to talk up the numbers of victims of western actions but minimise those of governments in conflict with the west, such as those of

Bashar al-Assad Bashar Hafez al-Assad, ', Levantine pronunciation: ; (, born 11 September 1965) is a Syrian politician who is the 19th president of Syria, since 17 July 2000. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the ...

in Syria and

Slobodan Milošević Slobodan Milošević (, ; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the president of Serbia within Yugoslavia from 1989 to 1997 (originally the Socialist Republic of Serbia, a constituent republic of ...

. He described the articles by Aisling Byrne and

, which Media Lens had used as sources for fatalities in the conflicts in Syria, as "dubious". He said the effect of this is "tacitly to increase the credibility of Assad's black propaganda". David Edwards responded that there was already enough media coverage of the "crimes of official enemies" which, he said, tended to empower the "US-UK war machine". He said Media Lens preferred to "challenge the false assumption of US-UK benevolent intentions, the hypocrisy in media reporting, and the belief that war is the only alternative". In May 2012, Media Lens had an exchange on twitter with cartoonist and writer

Martin Rowson Martin Rowson ( ; born 15 February 1959) is a British editorial cartoonist and writer. His genre is political satire and his style is scathing and graphic. He characterises his work as "visual journalism". His cartoons appear frequently in ''The ...

. Rowson had published a cartoon after the

Houla massacre The Houla massacre ( ar, مجزرة الحولة) was a mass murder of civilians by Syrian government forces that took place on May 25, 2012, in the midst of the Syrian Civil War, in the town of Taldou, in the Houla Region of Syria, a string ...

depicting a bloodstained Bashar al-Assad. The cartoon also depicted "

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Oppo ...

and

Christine Lagarde Christine Madeleine Odette Lagarde (; née Lallouette, ; born 1 January 1956) is a French politician and lawyer who has been serving as President of the European Central Bank since 2019. She previously served as the 11th managing director of the ...

lashing a pile of human bones with euro-laden cats-o’-nine-tails". Media Lens asked Rowson what evidence about the massacre he had used in drawing his cartoon. When Rowson replied that he had "no more evidence than media & UN reports, like anyone else. Also used cartoonist’s hunch", Media Lens asked whether he would "rely on a “hunch” in depicting Obama and Cameron with mouths smeared with the blood of massacred children?" '' Tribune magazine'' published an article by Howson about the exchange in which he asked why Media Lens had not sought his "evidence for alleging that Merkel and Lagarde have really truly desecrated corpses, as depicted in my cartoon". He said one possible reason was they were "shilling for tyrants". In February 2017, Media Lens compared the media coverage of comments made on Syria by

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...

’s spokesperson

Seumas Milne Seumas Patrick Charles Milne (born 5 September 1958)Winchester College: A Register. Edited by P.S.W.K. McClure and R.P. Stevens, on behalf of the Wardens and Fellows of Winchester College. 7th edition, 2014. pp. 582 (Short Half 1971 list heading) ...

in October 2016 with the coverage of UK foreign secretary

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

’s comments in January 2017. Media Lens wrote that Johnson’s change in policy, announced in January 2017, to accept that President Bashar al-Assad should be allowed to stand for election and remain in power, was the result of newly elected President Trump’s opposition to Obama’s war for

regime change Regime change is the partly forcible or coercive replacement of one government regime with another. Regime change may replace all or part of the state's most critical leadership system, administrative apparatus, or bureaucracy. Regime change may ...

in Syria. They said Milne’s comments were "not defending Assad, merely calling for greater attention to US-UK atrocities". They described the media reaction as "ferocious criticism of Milne’s innocuous comments and the complete absence of any criticism of Johnson’s policy shift". According to them, the reason for the difference was that "the corporate media system is ideologically aligned against an authentically left-wing Labour leader, is working to undermine his reputation, and to protect the reputation of the Conservative government". Media Lens described the media’s "supposed compassion for the Syrian people" as "manufactured, fake". In June 2017, the German newspaper ''

Die Welt ''Die Welt'' ("The World") is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE. ''Die Welt'' is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group. Its leading competitors are the ''Frankfurter Allg ...

'' published an article by

Seymour Hersh Seymour Myron "Sy" Hersh (born April 8, 1937) is an American Investigative journalism, investigative journalist and political writer. Hersh first gained recognition in 1969 for exposing the My Lai Massacre and its cover-up during the Vietnam Wa ...

in which he said the attack by the Syrian government at

Khan Shaykhun Khan Shaykhun ( ar, خَان شَيْخُون, Ḵān Šayḵūn), sometimes spelled Khan Sheikhoun or Khan Shikhoun, is a town in the Maarrat al-Nu'man District, within the southern Idlib Governorate of northwestern Syria. Khan Shaykhun is locate ...

in April 2017 did not involve sarin and that US intelligence knew this. Hersh wrote that his sources said the attack struck a building which housed "fertilisers, disinfectants and other goods". Media Lens tweeted that their search of a newspaper database showed no mention of Hersh’s report. In June 2017, journalist

Brian Whitaker Brian Whitaker (sometimes credited as Brian Whittaker; born 13 June 1947) is a British journalist and writer. He studied Arabic studies at the University of Westminster and Latin (BA Hons) at the University of Birmingham. A former joint invest ...

criticised Media Lens for being unconcerned that Hersh had not provided the sources for his story. Whitaker wrote that Media Lens had previously criticised ''The Guardian'' for quoting "unnamed American officials" in a story about Iraq.

References

External links

*
Media Lens website

David Edwards and David Cromwell
''New Statesman'' articles (2003–06)
Gandhi International Peace Award acceptance speech
{{Footer Gandhi International Peace Award recipients Criticism of journalism Media analysis organizations and websites Gandhi International Peace Award recipients