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UK Media Helps Pave Road to War on Syria
The Editors, 8 May 2013
The Syrian conflict has been accompanied by a distinct media narrative. Within this narrative - which poses a binary division between the forces engaged in the conflict, identifying the players as good (the rebels, who must receive 'our' support) and bad (the government) - the role the West must play is that of potential saviour, whose aim is to cautiously observe the conflict so that it may intervene to 'fix' the situation, as The Guardian's Simon Tisdall put it:
So what can Obama do? As Vladimir Putin was expected to make plain to John Kerry in Moscow on Tuesday, he cannot count on Russian (or, therefore, Chinese or UN security council) support to fix Syria.
This sentiment, that the West can put...
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'Could Prove Useful to Israel': Media Support for Western Arms Deals
The Editors, 23 April 2013
An important job for the representatives of any world power is to fly around the world selling arms to client states. Despite David Cameron's constant rhetoric that countries to have a right to defend themselves (preferably using British-made hardware), it is certainly undeniable that continuous arms sales in no way make the world a more peaceful place. Yet depending on who...
Don't mention the occupation: BBC Newsnight on Palestinian Application for Non-state Observer Status
Peter Allen, 3 April 2013
In my previous article on Newsnight's coverage of Israel/Palestine I looked at the discussion of a possible Israeli invasion of Gaza - in a report responding to fast moving events - and how an Israeli perspective was used to structure it. This time, I am going to analyse a different kind of report where the Newsnight team take the...
A Case Study of BBC Newsnight Reporting of Israel/Palestine
Peter Allen, 25 March 2013
'Why is this lying bastard lying to me?' is a remark about interviewing politicians commonly attributed to Newsnight's Jeremy Paxman (actually originally made by Louis Heren of The Times ). For those of us who watch Newsnight and its like the question we need to ask is not only 'why', but also 'how' these lying bastards are lying to us. You may...
Reporting on Syria: How the Media Designates a Role for the UK
The Editors, 20 March 2013
'We believe that a people is in danger today [...] we have to give the Syrian opposition the means finally to gain the upper hand, that is the departure of Bashar al-Assad', announced French president Francois Hollande recently, while David Cameron explained that 'what we want to do is work with [the Syrian opposition] and try to...
The BBC's 'Bogeyman' Narrative on Hugo Chavez
The Editors, 7 March 2013
The BBC maintained a strong a record of misleading reporting throughout the presidency of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who died on Tuesday, following a two year battle with cancer. Yet today's article by Jon Kelly, ' Hugo Chavez and the era of anti-American bogeymen ', takes a particularly spiteful slant on the issue of what is presented as 'Anti-Americanism'...
The Representation of Torture in the 'War on Terror'
Josh Watts, 11 February 2013
In the mainstream media, we are presented with 'a "war on terror" conducted by a "civilized" West against a less civilized "other"' 1 . There are obvious flaws with this narrative. For example, even the barest of bones of the 'civilized' West's historical record demolishes its proclaimed values and objectives. Thus, a nation cannot claim to act to promote democracy and human rights...
Eye on the News
Language Creep as BBC Discuss Chemical Weapons in Syria
6 May 2013, BBC News
The BBC, reporting on the various suggestions that the rebels or regime have used chemical weapons in the Syrian civil war, report incorrectly that 'evidence that government forces have used chemical weapons' has been found by western governments. In reality, what western governments have found, according to David Cameron, is 'limited, but growing' evidence - clearly not conclusive evidence.
Such reporting can easily mislead readers - a correct report may have referred to evidence that government forces may have used chemical weapons.
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Editors' Blog Latest
The Leveson Debate, Transcript
Blog: The Editors, 18 January 2013
The Leveson Debate, hosted by Soho Skeptics and Conway Hall on 17 January, asked, 'What are we to make of the Leveson Report? Is the Leveson Report a threat to public interest journalism?'
Chair: Helen Lewis, deputy editor of the New Statesman.
Panellists: Journalist Nick Cohen (The Observer, The Spectator), journalist and columnist Suzanne Moore (The Guardian, The Mail on Sunday), former Liberal Democrat MP, Evan Harris (Hacked Off), and, Co-Director of the Goldsmiths Leverhulme Media Research Centre, Natalie Fenton (Hacked Off).
The following transcript includes the opening statements of each panellist.
An audio recording of the debate is available in full at the Pod Delusion.
Helen Lewis: The idea of having statutory-underpinned regulation - it's absurdly hyperbolic to say that's going to turn us into Belarus, or Iran, or China. Isn't...
Audio
BBC's Ben Brown Singles Out Hamas as Preventing a Truce
18 November 2012 on BBC News
Reporting from southern Israel, the BBC's Ben Brown comments that: 'Despite that hope, that possibility of a truce, a ceasefire certainly doesn't seem to have been responded to by the militants in Gaza. The Israeli government have been saying if there were a cessation of hostilities, if the rockets stopped coming...
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