Gabriele Zamparini Interviews Media Lens' Editors
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14 | VARIANT 25 | SPRING 2006 Guardians of Power Gabriele Zamparini interviews Media Lens’ editors ‘Guardians of Power: The Myth of the Liberal that shapes their assumptions about the world. Media’1 is a new book by David Edwards and But they also have access to some honest ideas David Cromwell, the two editors of Media Lens, in comparatively small circulation newspapers an internet-based watchdog “correcting for the like the Guardian and the Independent, and distorted vision of the corporate media”. primarily through one or two honest writers like According to Noam Chomsky, John Pilger and Robert Fisk. This acts as a kind of vaccine—tiny doses of dissent that inoculate “Regular critical analysis of the media, filling crucial people against the idea that they are subject to gaps and correcting the distortions of ideological thought control. But the reality is that this dissent prisms, has never been more important. Media Lens is flooded and overwhelmed by propaganda that has performed a major public service by carrying out keeps us thinking the right way, keeps us passive this task with energy, insight, and care.” and in line. By the way, we don’t intend to suggest Edward Herman wrote, that this is the result of any kind of conspiracy. It happens as a kind of side-effect of the media’s “Media Lens is doing an outstanding job of pressing pursuit of maximised profits in a state-capitalist the mainstream media to at least follow their own society. stated principles and meet their public service obligations. It is fun as well as enlightening to QUESTION: What is Media Lens? When did it watch their representatives, while sometimes giving start? How does it work? straightforward answers to queries, often getting ANSWER: Media Lens is an attempt to subject flustered, angry, evasive, and sometimes mis-stating the mainstream corporate media to analysis the facts.” uncompromised by personal hopes of employment, John Pilger thinks that, payment or status within the media system. We do “The creators and editors of Media Lens, David Edwards this by comparing the media’s versions of events and David Cromwell, have had such influence in a short with what we believe are honest versions based on time that, by holding to account those who, it is said, rational arguments, verifiable facts and multiple, write history’s draft, they may well have changed the credible sources. We provide references and links course of modern historiography [...] Not since Noam for all of these, so that readers can evaluate for Chomsky’s and Edward Herman’s ‘Manufacturing themselves whether we are distorting the facts Consent’ have we had such an incisive and erudite in some way. We then invite readers to judge for guide through the media’s thicket of agendas and themselves which is more reasonable and accurate, vested interests. Indeed, they have done the job of and to send their opinions to both journalists and true journalists: they have set the record straight. ourselves. It is vital for us to provide an accurate For this reason, ‘Guardians of Power’ ought to be account of the media version because we are not required reading in every media college. It is the most ‘selling a line’—we are encouraging readers to important book about journalism I can remember.” make a rational judgement on the basis of the facts. This is why we think it is wrong to describe But not everybody agrees. After he was recently us as a “lobby”, as often happens. The tobacco contacted following Media Lens coverage of the lobby, for example, is not motivated to provide the “But it is not just governments that have a Guardian, its Readers’ Editor Ian Mayes described public with the facts it needs to make an informed responsibility. Individuals must act too. By opting to them as “an electronic lobby group”. Expressing judgement. The goal of the tobacco lobby is to cycle or walk, instead of driving everywhere, we can all his views about the Guardian’s readers, his job and subordinate truth to maximised profits. Their do something to reduce emissions. If more of us turned the very idea of democracy, he also said: goal is to manipulate the public, to persuade off electrical devices when not in use and recycled “I did not engage with or respond to this lobby, whose them of their version of the truth. Our goal is to our waste properly, our societies would be hugely less members poured several hundred emails into the empower the public to establish their own version energy inefficient... A failure to act now will not be Guardian. I did not read more than a tiny sample of the of the truth based on their own evaluation of the forgiven by future generations.” emails directed at me. I consider organised lobbies in arguments. The world needs self-confident, critical As though these words had not appeared, the rest general to be in effect—whatever the rights or wrongs thinking, empowered human beings, not Media of the paper returned to adverts, consumer advice 2 of their position—oppressive to put it mildly.” Lens drones. and financial news (“bet on easyJet to fly higher”). Mayes also happens to be the President of the Our readers can check the media version of The Independent’s holiday supplement, The Traveller, Organization of News Ombudsmen. events for themselves, so we have every reason to urged readers to climb on fossil fuel burning be accurate and honest in describing these. Our I asked David Edwards and David Cromwell to tell planes and visit Paris, Brussels, Syria, Panama, readers can also easily check out the credibility me more about their book and their work at Media Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Aspen, Chamonix, Mallorca, and accuracy of the facts and sources we give Lens. Australia, Dubai, New Zealand, Lapland, Spain, because, as discussed, we provide references for all North America, Austria, Germany, the Maldives, QUESTION: Why the title (and the subtitle) of them. As Noam Chomsky has noted many times, and on and on. ‘Guardians of Power: The myth of the liberal dissidents challenging the corporate status quo are Advertising industry sources told us that media’? automatically subjected to intense and relentless between January 1st and October 7th, 2005, ANSWER: The title is obviously a not very subtle attack regardless of the honesty and accuracy of Independent News and Media PLC—owners of the reference to the Guardian, but it also refers to their views—our arguments have to be extremely Independent newspapers—received the following the media in general. The sub-title is intended to accurate and reasonable if they are to stand a revenues from advertisers: chance of being taken seriously. indicate that the liberal media—the best media, BP Plc: £11,769 Also, unlike, say, corporate lobbies, we are not like the Guardian, the Independent, the Observer (as (this figure has risen substantially since October 7 motivated by profit, nor status or power. Our goal it used to be) and the BBC—play a really crucial as a result of the ‘Beyond Petroleum’ campaign) role in protecting power. In a totalitarian system is to provide the facts so that people can draw it doesn’t matter what people think—if they get their own conclusions. Citroen UK Ltd: £418,779 out of line, you can hit them on the head, drag QUESTION: Please, give us a couple of concrete Ford Motor Company Ltd: £247,506 them away in the middle of the night. Thanks to examples of your work? Peugeot Motor Co Plc: £260,920 centuries of popular struggle, violence of that kind ANSWER: is no longer an option for Western elites. Instead, Renault UK Ltd: £427,097 in our society, control is primarily maintained by Example One - Climate Change and Advertising Toyota (GB) Ltd: £715,050 controlling what people think. An editorial in the Independent on December 3, Vauxhall Motors Ltd: £662,359 It’s ironic that we tend to associate this kind 2005 entitled ‘Global warming and the need for all Volkswagen UK Ltd: £555,518 of thought control with Soviet-style systems, but of us to act now to avoid catastrophe’, declared: in fact it’s far more important in an ostensibly BMI British Midland: £60,847 democratic society like ours. If you are to convince “Governments must demand greater energy Bmibaby Ltd: £12,810 people in our society that they are free, you can’t conservation from industry. And action must be just censor everything as they did in the Soviet taken to curtail emissions from transport. That British Airways Plc: £248,165 means extensive investment in the development of Union, because then everyone knows they’re Easyjet Airline Co Ltd: £59,905 living in a kind of prison. In our society people are alternative fuels and the taxation of air flights.” bombarded with business and political propaganda The editors concluded: Monarch Airlines: £15,713 VARIANT 25 | SPRING 2006 | 15 Ryanair Ltd: £28,543 DE: ‘What, sorry, on why you haven’t...?’ (Email to Media Lens, December 12, 2005) GE: ‘No, I mean all these questions tend in a particular It is enlightening to compare these figures with the direction. Do you think that Newsnight is acting as a Independent editors’ suggestion: pro-government organisation?’ DE: ‘My feeling is that you tend to steer away from “Individuals must act too. By opting to cycle or walk, embarrassing the government [Entwistle laughs] in instead of driving everywhere, we can all do something your selection of interviewees and so on, they tend to reduce emissions.” to be establishment interviewees. I don’t see people At the same time, the Independent is hosting like Chomsky, Edward Herman, Howard Zinn, Michael adverts specifically designed to disarm dissent and Albert, you know—there’s an enormous amount of pacify the public.