Reviewing David Cromwell and David Edwards' "Guardians of Power" - by Stephen Lendman
David Cromwell is a Scottish writer, activist and oceanographer at the National Oceanography Centre in Britain. David Edwards is also a UK writer who focuses on human rights, the environment and the media. Together they edit an extraordinary "UK-based media-watch project" called Media Lens. It "offers authoritative criticism of mainstream media bias and censorship, as well as providing in-depth analysis, quotes, media contact details and other resources."
Today, the media is in crisis, and a free and open society is at risk. Fiction substitutes for fact, news is carefully filtered, dissent is marginalized, and supporting the powerful substitutes for full and accurate reporting. As a result, wars of aggression are called liberating ones, civil liberties are suppressed for our own good, and patriotism means going along with governments that are lawless.
The authors challenge these views and those in the mainstream who reflect them - the managers, editors and journalists. Their aim in Media Lens and their writing is to "raise public awareness" to see "reality" as they do, free from the corrupting influence of media corporations and their single-minded pursuit of profit "in a society dominated by corporate power" and governments acting as their handmaiden. They note that Pravda was a state propaganda organ so "why should we expect the corporate press to tell the truth about corporate power" and unfettered capitalism when they support it? They don't and never will.
The authors go further and say their "aim is to increase rational awareness, critical thought and compassion, and to decrease greed, hatred and ignorance (and do it by) highlight(ing) significant examples of systemic media distortion." There are no shortage of examples.
That objective is highlighted in their 2006 book, "Guardians of Power: The Myth of the Liberal Media" and subject of this review. It's a work distinguished author John Pilger calls "required reading" and "the most important book about journalism (he) can remember" since Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman's classic - "Manufacturing Dissent." Cromwell and Edwards "have done the job of true journalists: they have set the record straight" in contrast to the mainstream that distorts and corrupts it for the powerful. Their book is must reading and will be reviewed in-depth, chapter by chapter, to show why. It's also why no major broadsheet ever mentions it or its important content. This review covers lots of it.
The Mass Media - Neutral, Honest, Psychopathic
Years ago, journalist and author AJ Liebling said "The press is free only to those who own one." He also warned that "People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news." "Guardians of Power" lifts the confusion powerfully. It starts off noting that the term media is "problematic." It's the plural of medium suggesting something neutral, and news organizations want us to believe "they transmit information in a similarly neutral, natural way" which, of course, they never do. Why? Because corporate giants are dominant, and large corporate entities control the media.
The authors thus argue that the entire corporate mass media, including broadcasters like BBC and the so-called mislabeled "liberal media," function as a "propaganda system for elite interests." It's especially true for topics like "US-UK government responsibility for genocide, vast corporate criminality, (and) threats to the very existence of human life - (they're) distorted, suppressed, marginalized or ignored." Cromwell and Edwards present documented forensic proof to set the record straight and expose corporate media duplicity.
Doing it requires "understanding (that) curious abstract entity - the corporation," more specifically publicly-owned ones. They're required by law to maximize shareholder equity and do it by increasing revenue and profits. Corporate law prohibits boards of directors and senior executives from being friends of the earth, good community members or whatever else may detract from that primary goal. Social responsibility is off the table if it reduces profits, and executives who ignore that mandate may be sued or fired for so doing.
That led Canadian law professor Joel Bakan to call corporations "psychopathic creatures" that can't recognize or act morally or avoid committing harm. It shows up at home and in foreign wars of aggression with Iraq as Exhibit A that's the focus of three of the book's 13 chapters.
First, an explanation of what Chomsky and Herman called the "propaganda model" in "Manufacturing Dissent" and that Herman later wrote about in "The Myth of the Liberal Media." It works by focusing on "the inequality of wealth and power" and how those with it "filter out the news to print, marginalize dissent (and assure) government and dominant private interests" control all information the public gets. It's done through a set of "filters" that remove what's to be suppressed and "leav(es) only the cleansed (acceptable) residue fit to print" or broadcast on-air. The media is largely shaped by market forces and bottom line considerations. They also rely on advertisers for most of their revenue and are pressured to assure content conforms to their views.
More generally, the dominant media serve wealth and power interests that include their own as well as other corporate giants. They thus rely on "official sources" for news and information and ignore others considered "unreliable." More accurately, they ignore the unempowered who have no say or whose views are out of the "mainstream."
Media expert, Robert McChesney, explains the dilemma by saying publishers know their journalists must appear neutral and unbiased when, in fact, that notion is "entirely bogus" for three reasons:
-- to appear neutral, journalists rely on "official sources" as legitimate news and opinion when, in fact, they're not;
-- a news "hook" or dramatic event is needed to justify covering a story, but the power elite does the selecting to serve its own interests; and
I am a 72 year old, retired, progressive small businessman concerned about all the major national and world issues, committed to speak out and write about them.
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Thank you for pointing the way to a UK site I had not heard about.
For some time I have written articles about the American situation and in the back of my mind was feeling guilty at not doing much on the UK situation, except for looking at George Galloway and the like.
Thanks for giving me a new 'renewal' for taking on, with others, the global corporations stranglehold on the the media, the breathtaking hypocracy of government, government lackeys et al.
P.S. I have read your work for some time and you are one of the ones I 'follow' whenever I see your name on an article. This one is long, comprehensive, informative and devestating. More power to your elbow!
by
ibrahim turner (26 articles, 32 quicklinks, 5 diaries, 184 comments [2 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Wednesday, Jan 9, 2008 at 1:11:42 PM
All your articles are in my "don't miss" category, but I suspect you know that!!
This issue of getting media complicity on the WAR CRIMES agenda is a tough one to crack. I found this year, I couldn't put the Robert Parry video on my blog, which was the finest statement about the media I could find . it just took too long to load and I had to take it off, sigh.
I live in this kind of mind boggling world ... we sometimes see the war photos up here on the news in Canada (and at least we do see the Afghan war casualties, MOSTLY, we do) while the US is so smothered in patriotic claptrap on a regular basis.
As the war bs (I don't know what else to call it) grinds on from -- give them sanctions, to Gulf War I, to get Al Qaeda, to get Saddam, to create democracy, to the "surge" is working and the media just continues to whitewash and sanitize real human suffering .. it's simply amazing how much the corporate media gets away with, with hardly a peep coming from those who digest huge amounts of the "plug in drug" ..
Contrasting that with the amount you hear or see about impeachment which is virtually nil during the whole bloody fiasco.
As V. Lenin would say "what is to be done ..??"
Fox News interfering in the elections debate is the just the latest outrage. They're not even a US-owned entity and Kucinich is RIGHT.
I've TRIED to "work" with The Real News TV people and I don't see much help from them really either. It's basically a one man with control operation.
The mediums themselves create a lot the problem as the equipment to be "on the airwaves" is very expensive, not something that can be created very quickly.
I think your timing of this review, in light of what is happening, is impeccable.
So many thanks!!
ps - did you notice that ICH is FINALLY running the Michael Hudson podcast this week? about time .. I've left them links about it since August. Maybe Mike is finally "catching" on??
by
ladybroadoak (39 articles, 20 quicklinks, 12 diaries, 394 comments) on Wednesday, Jan 9, 2008 at 1:56:38 PM
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