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Propaganda Blitz: How the Corporate Media Distort Reality
We are all too familiar with the havoc the twenty-four-hour news cycle can wreak on political campaigns. Feeding on a haze of half-facts and a fog of moral outrage, the corporate media is able to inflict maximum damage almost instantaneously. As David Edwards and David Cromwell show, these propaganda blitzes also have transnational outcomes, distorting the war reporting coming out of both right-wing and liberal media outlets.
Propaganda Blitz shows the damning effect of spin in UK media, not just in right-wing newspapers like the Sun, Times, Daily Mail, and the Express, but also in trusted liberal outlets like the BBC and the Guardian. The book uncovers a storm of top-down campaigns behind war reporting from Iraq, Syria, and Palestine, as well as the media’s destruction of the credibility of figures on the left, including Jeremy Corbyn, Russell Brand, and Hugo Chavez. Exposing propagandists at the top levels of the BBC, as well as their reporting on the Scottish Independence referendum, the dismantling of the National Health Service, and looming climate chaos, Propaganda Blitz shows how the corporate media hide the real issues from the public view, often completely reversing the truth. Outlining a new model for anti-business media activism, the authors make an impassioned plea for a return to objective journalism.
Propaganda Blitz shows the damning effect of spin in UK media, not just in right-wing newspapers like the Sun, Times, Daily Mail, and the Express, but also in trusted liberal outlets like the BBC and the Guardian. The book uncovers a storm of top-down campaigns behind war reporting from Iraq, Syria, and Palestine, as well as the media’s destruction of the credibility of figures on the left, including Jeremy Corbyn, Russell Brand, and Hugo Chavez. Exposing propagandists at the top levels of the BBC, as well as their reporting on the Scottish Independence referendum, the dismantling of the National Health Service, and looming climate chaos, Propaganda Blitz shows how the corporate media hide the real issues from the public view, often completely reversing the truth. Outlining a new model for anti-business media activism, the authors make an impassioned plea for a return to objective journalism.
336 pages, Paperback
Published November 15, 2018
57 people are currently reading
710 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
October 30, 2022
Sigh. I don't know when we've lost our ability to 'discuss' things in their complexity; I don't remember when news have become so black and white, where you are either 100 percent with us or you're against us. Bush junior was prophetic in some ways (also telling and scary how he mixed up Ukraine and Iraq. I swear it gave me goosebumps.).
This book is excellent but it will not reach anyone outside 'the already convinced'. I have even journalist friends who will literally deny the existence of corporate media (although knowing figures like Rupert Murdoch do exist in real life). They are convinced that the very idea of corporate media which systematically distort news to serve elite interests is a conspiracy theory ("the greatest trick the corporate media ever pulled was
convincing the world that corporate media bias doesn't exist").
Here is where complexity would come in handy: indeed, conspiracy theorists also think like I do that some 'mainstream' news support certain agendas. But the understanding of how and why this is so is totally different. Or: certain pro Putin folks also say like I do that some of the mainstream news on, say, the war in Ukraine and Syria are distorted in a specific pro-Western and pro-NATO way. But, again, I am not challenging the mainstream news narratives on these wars in support of certain dictators but because I think it is just not the truth, or often not the whole truth, told in order to get the population behind certain foreign policies which they would maybe not support if they were presented with the whole story/ different perspectives. In any case, the moment someone is trying to engage on these issues outside the mainstream news narrative (narratives - there are of course diverse views), it is being shut down as either conspiracy stuff and/or pro 'the other side'. Like, try criticizing NATO now, you'll be told to be Putin's handmaiden. Could we not be 100 percent against NATO and 100 percent against Putin (of course, we could. I can.).
Anyway, this very excellent book 'Propaganda Blitz: How the Corporate Media Distort Reality' (2018, Pluto Press)
by David Cromwell and David Edwards (the guys behind Media Lens) breaks down the 'mechanics' of how corporate media distort reality, including through what they refer to as 'propaganda blitz' - you're probably all too familiar with this 'attack': often this involves allegations
of dramatic new evidence (let's say chemical weapons used - even if not since this is usually an allegation); communicated with high emotional intensity and moral outrage (newborns killed! maternity ward bombed!) apparently supported by an informed corporate media/academic/expert consensus; reinforced by damning condemnation of anyone daring even to question the apparent consensus. Of course, this then leaves only one morally acceptable option to which there is no alternative (such as a military intervention). It's always the lesser evil in this fake dilemma: there's no alternative to arming Ukraine (uh-ha, why not actually?).
The book uncovers a storm of top-down campaigns behind war reporting from Iraq, Syria, and Palestine, as well as the media's destruction of the credibility of figures on the left, including Jeremy Corbyn (for me, the best documented and shocking concerted efforts by the corporate media to destroy someone who could have become a real challenge to this 'intersectional imperialism' and progressive neoliberalism. <3 JC).
The book also exposes concerted spin on the Scottish Independence referendum, the dismantling of the National Health Service, and looming climate chaos - it shows how the corporate media hide the real issues from the public view, often completely reversing the truth (the book focuses primarily on the BBC and Guardian, including the role of these outlet's famous in-house 'progressives' (think Owen Jones) who - usually with a heavy heart - also come on board, thus making the spin appear as a broad consensus, even including progressives with only conspiracy nutters still challenging this view.)
I also appreciated the chapter on 'fake news' - and how the mainstream news' faux obsession with fake news primarily serves to portray themselves as the 'real news' - respectable and 'objective' quality journalism, committed not to their billionaires owners or advertising clients but the cause of truth and liberal democracy.
It's a must read but I am afraid that those who are interested in this book are already familiar with the subject. I think many people are so used to an extremely distorted reality that clarity looks like a lie.
This book is excellent but it will not reach anyone outside 'the already convinced'. I have even journalist friends who will literally deny the existence of corporate media (although knowing figures like Rupert Murdoch do exist in real life). They are convinced that the very idea of corporate media which systematically distort news to serve elite interests is a conspiracy theory ("the greatest trick the corporate media ever pulled was
convincing the world that corporate media bias doesn't exist").
Here is where complexity would come in handy: indeed, conspiracy theorists also think like I do that some 'mainstream' news support certain agendas. But the understanding of how and why this is so is totally different. Or: certain pro Putin folks also say like I do that some of the mainstream news on, say, the war in Ukraine and Syria are distorted in a specific pro-Western and pro-NATO way. But, again, I am not challenging the mainstream news narratives on these wars in support of certain dictators but because I think it is just not the truth, or often not the whole truth, told in order to get the population behind certain foreign policies which they would maybe not support if they were presented with the whole story/ different perspectives. In any case, the moment someone is trying to engage on these issues outside the mainstream news narrative (narratives - there are of course diverse views), it is being shut down as either conspiracy stuff and/or pro 'the other side'. Like, try criticizing NATO now, you'll be told to be Putin's handmaiden. Could we not be 100 percent against NATO and 100 percent against Putin (of course, we could. I can.).
Anyway, this very excellent book 'Propaganda Blitz: How the Corporate Media Distort Reality' (2018, Pluto Press)
by David Cromwell and David Edwards (the guys behind Media Lens) breaks down the 'mechanics' of how corporate media distort reality, including through what they refer to as 'propaganda blitz' - you're probably all too familiar with this 'attack': often this involves allegations
of dramatic new evidence (let's say chemical weapons used - even if not since this is usually an allegation); communicated with high emotional intensity and moral outrage (newborns killed! maternity ward bombed!) apparently supported by an informed corporate media/academic/expert consensus; reinforced by damning condemnation of anyone daring even to question the apparent consensus. Of course, this then leaves only one morally acceptable option to which there is no alternative (such as a military intervention). It's always the lesser evil in this fake dilemma: there's no alternative to arming Ukraine (uh-ha, why not actually?).
The book uncovers a storm of top-down campaigns behind war reporting from Iraq, Syria, and Palestine, as well as the media's destruction of the credibility of figures on the left, including Jeremy Corbyn (for me, the best documented and shocking concerted efforts by the corporate media to destroy someone who could have become a real challenge to this 'intersectional imperialism' and progressive neoliberalism. <3 JC).
The book also exposes concerted spin on the Scottish Independence referendum, the dismantling of the National Health Service, and looming climate chaos - it shows how the corporate media hide the real issues from the public view, often completely reversing the truth (the book focuses primarily on the BBC and Guardian, including the role of these outlet's famous in-house 'progressives' (think Owen Jones) who - usually with a heavy heart - also come on board, thus making the spin appear as a broad consensus, even including progressives with only conspiracy nutters still challenging this view.)
I also appreciated the chapter on 'fake news' - and how the mainstream news' faux obsession with fake news primarily serves to portray themselves as the 'real news' - respectable and 'objective' quality journalism, committed not to their billionaires owners or advertising clients but the cause of truth and liberal democracy.
It's a must read but I am afraid that those who are interested in this book are already familiar with the subject. I think many people are so used to an extremely distorted reality that clarity looks like a lie.
June 5, 2022
An important book exploring the corporate media landscape, and laying bare the political and economic forces that lie behind practically every news item you read/watch. The authors pay particular attention to pseudo-left media such as the Guardian, Independent, NYT and BBC, which play a crucial role in any 'propaganda blitz' by creating an atmosphere of total consensus. The current proxy war between NATO and Russia being an apposite example. The book's chapters deal with the media coverage of the Iraq war, the Libya war, the Syria war, the Scottish independence campaign, the relentless attack on Jeremy Corbyn, the gradual dismantling of the NHS, and more.
Required reading, IMHO.
Required reading, IMHO.
January 8, 2019
Excellent, superb. Lays out incisively how the MSM sells the interests of the corporate oligarchy to the public against our interests. Very well researched and eloquently argued.
February 7, 2019
"Fake news" and "main stream media" are epithets that are not really new but have been much more prominent in our collective lexicon over the last couple of years. They are, as phrases, politically ambivalent until you understand the angle of the person taken to wield them and both, but moreso the former, have been misused greatly. The phrase became famous when Donald Trump used it to describe any and everything that he disagreed with, and his followers gleefully took up the catchphrase whereby it is now the go-to defence of the political right when faced with an inconvenient truth. However, we are now seeing this peculiar axiom being used by a wholly new interlocuter, and that is where the main stream media, or MSM come in.
Newspapers, particularly so-called quality newspapers, current / former broadsheets and such see themselves as papers of record, their integrity unquestionable and their honesty unimpeachable. On examination this high-minded self-promotion holds no water. Nowadays the vast majority of newspaper income comes not from sales but from advertising and affiliation space sold over to huge corporations to reach a wide audience. How can the Guardian’s credentials as a progressive organ on, say, climate change maintain alongside a willingness to hand over daily space to BP or Shell to tell us how wonderful they are. As soon as the Guardian wants to write a piece on the unethical behaviour of the oil industry, naming and shaming corporations involved, they are unable due to the threat of advertising revenue being pulled by those companies.
But something much darker is happening in media circles than underreporting, and it is the targeting of smaller independent minded organisations and journalists by the corporate media, and fake news is the route they are taking to do that at the behest of senior editors and the financial backers of these institutions. In response the fake news epidemic that has plagued large scale national and global campaigns in recent years Google released an update which was supposed to remove untrusted pages from the first set of results a user got back from a basic search; this new algorithm was programmed to promote “trusted” news sources, or to put it another way, mainstream media. A result of this was that progressive independent news organisations reported massive drops in the amount of people clicking on, and so seeing, their stories. World Socialist Web Site and Counterpunch feature award winning progressive journalists from around the world and their traffic dropped by hundreds of thousands as soon as this Google update was brought in; among the websites that remain in the “trusted” bracket are things like The Sun, The Express and the Daily Mail along with the other daily newspapers; their longevity should not signify trustworthiness.
If we look at the social media output of star columnists for the Times, Guardian etc we see that they are littered with slanderous comments aimed at small organisations that haven’t the budget to fight back. Journalists who work for MediaLens, Truthdig or any other progressive organisation are called out time and again by six-figure salaried writers who they dare to question. Doxing and gaslighting has been a part of this as has the denial of people’s qualifications to write in their chosen field, despite photographic evidence to the contrary, and it is with this chapter on the state of corporate media today, the BBC included, that this new book from Cromwell and Edwards of MediaLens shines. Much of it is an update on the previous two books about the latest in a long line of state propagandising on behalf of big business or the military industrial complex; very valuable in itself but what is new is this coordinated assault by the biggest companies in the world against small outfits that seek truth and justice and aren’t beholden to advertising revenue so can’t be bought. The corporate world is jumpy; they see how Momentum pushed Jeremy Corbyn to almost becoming British Prime Minister while the whole artillery of the press was opposed to him to almost no avail. They realised their smears were not sticking as people actually had the ability to find out for themselves what was true and what was not, they have started to be able to tell the fact from the fiction and if people start to do that the whole edifice of corporate / government / media threesome comes crashing down as they all exist to sustain one another, and a threat to one is a threat to all.
MediaLens is one of those vital parts of journalism; it watches the watchers and lets us know what the watchers aren’t telling us. This book is a collection of evidence against the more trusted side of the corporate media that they are just as bad, and at times worse in giving us the full picture. It Is hard to conclude at the end of this book that a rightist ideology has not grabbed our media, top to bottom, in a vice like grip of control; at times overt and at times subtle but always there but at no point does this theory enter conspiracy claims. The point of how our media sustains itself is that a conspiracy doesn’t need to take place; the ideology is already shared between the actors who just play their role as they always would have, but in doing so they advance more than those who don’t play by or understand “the rules”. This is a most valuable volume and critical at a time when our politicians seem to be able to lie with impunity without anyone holding them to account, when big business, quite literally in terms of Grenfell tower for instance, gets away with murder and when our hitherto most trusted news organisations have started drinking from the same well as those they are meant to hold to account. I would urge anyone who wants to understand how the media manipulate their readers and viewers to read this book.
Newspapers, particularly so-called quality newspapers, current / former broadsheets and such see themselves as papers of record, their integrity unquestionable and their honesty unimpeachable. On examination this high-minded self-promotion holds no water. Nowadays the vast majority of newspaper income comes not from sales but from advertising and affiliation space sold over to huge corporations to reach a wide audience. How can the Guardian’s credentials as a progressive organ on, say, climate change maintain alongside a willingness to hand over daily space to BP or Shell to tell us how wonderful they are. As soon as the Guardian wants to write a piece on the unethical behaviour of the oil industry, naming and shaming corporations involved, they are unable due to the threat of advertising revenue being pulled by those companies.
But something much darker is happening in media circles than underreporting, and it is the targeting of smaller independent minded organisations and journalists by the corporate media, and fake news is the route they are taking to do that at the behest of senior editors and the financial backers of these institutions. In response the fake news epidemic that has plagued large scale national and global campaigns in recent years Google released an update which was supposed to remove untrusted pages from the first set of results a user got back from a basic search; this new algorithm was programmed to promote “trusted” news sources, or to put it another way, mainstream media. A result of this was that progressive independent news organisations reported massive drops in the amount of people clicking on, and so seeing, their stories. World Socialist Web Site and Counterpunch feature award winning progressive journalists from around the world and their traffic dropped by hundreds of thousands as soon as this Google update was brought in; among the websites that remain in the “trusted” bracket are things like The Sun, The Express and the Daily Mail along with the other daily newspapers; their longevity should not signify trustworthiness.
If we look at the social media output of star columnists for the Times, Guardian etc we see that they are littered with slanderous comments aimed at small organisations that haven’t the budget to fight back. Journalists who work for MediaLens, Truthdig or any other progressive organisation are called out time and again by six-figure salaried writers who they dare to question. Doxing and gaslighting has been a part of this as has the denial of people’s qualifications to write in their chosen field, despite photographic evidence to the contrary, and it is with this chapter on the state of corporate media today, the BBC included, that this new book from Cromwell and Edwards of MediaLens shines. Much of it is an update on the previous two books about the latest in a long line of state propagandising on behalf of big business or the military industrial complex; very valuable in itself but what is new is this coordinated assault by the biggest companies in the world against small outfits that seek truth and justice and aren’t beholden to advertising revenue so can’t be bought. The corporate world is jumpy; they see how Momentum pushed Jeremy Corbyn to almost becoming British Prime Minister while the whole artillery of the press was opposed to him to almost no avail. They realised their smears were not sticking as people actually had the ability to find out for themselves what was true and what was not, they have started to be able to tell the fact from the fiction and if people start to do that the whole edifice of corporate / government / media threesome comes crashing down as they all exist to sustain one another, and a threat to one is a threat to all.
MediaLens is one of those vital parts of journalism; it watches the watchers and lets us know what the watchers aren’t telling us. This book is a collection of evidence against the more trusted side of the corporate media that they are just as bad, and at times worse in giving us the full picture. It Is hard to conclude at the end of this book that a rightist ideology has not grabbed our media, top to bottom, in a vice like grip of control; at times overt and at times subtle but always there but at no point does this theory enter conspiracy claims. The point of how our media sustains itself is that a conspiracy doesn’t need to take place; the ideology is already shared between the actors who just play their role as they always would have, but in doing so they advance more than those who don’t play by or understand “the rules”. This is a most valuable volume and critical at a time when our politicians seem to be able to lie with impunity without anyone holding them to account, when big business, quite literally in terms of Grenfell tower for instance, gets away with murder and when our hitherto most trusted news organisations have started drinking from the same well as those they are meant to hold to account. I would urge anyone who wants to understand how the media manipulate their readers and viewers to read this book.
February 13, 2019
"Behind any presented fact … is a judgement – the judgement that this fact is important to put forward (and, by implication, other facts may be ignored). And any such judgement reflects the beliefs, the values of the historian [or journalist], however he or she pretends to ‘objectivity’."- Howard Zinn.
"Everyone knows in a totalitarian state you can’t trust the media. Everyone knows they’re being lied to. Thought control in totalitarian states is totally ineffective because the entire population pretty much know: don’t trust that stuff from the party.
In democracies, there is thought control. There’s undeniably thought control. Media and political elites often work in each other’s interests. They don’t go round in a big cauldron saying, ‘Let’s do down the working classes and send our boys off to die, because we want them to do that.’ They just mix. They go to the same schools. Their children go to the same schools. They share the same interests, the same cultural interests. So, we do end up with a degree of thought control without conspiracy ...” The most charitable justification for what the entire book spends decrying.
"It is cost-effective to postpone global climate action. It is profitable to let the world go to hell."
"The issue of 'fake news' only emerged because the elite monopoly of fake news was under threat." This cut deep.
The feckless BBC gets its comeuppance. It fooled me once with its Libya coverage but by the time Syria rolled around, I was conscious of its ways- thanks in part to the contradictory coverage of the same war in publications like Frontline.
"Everyone knows in a totalitarian state you can’t trust the media. Everyone knows they’re being lied to. Thought control in totalitarian states is totally ineffective because the entire population pretty much know: don’t trust that stuff from the party.
In democracies, there is thought control. There’s undeniably thought control. Media and political elites often work in each other’s interests. They don’t go round in a big cauldron saying, ‘Let’s do down the working classes and send our boys off to die, because we want them to do that.’ They just mix. They go to the same schools. Their children go to the same schools. They share the same interests, the same cultural interests. So, we do end up with a degree of thought control without conspiracy ...” The most charitable justification for what the entire book spends decrying.
"It is cost-effective to postpone global climate action. It is profitable to let the world go to hell."
"The issue of 'fake news' only emerged because the elite monopoly of fake news was under threat." This cut deep.
The feckless BBC gets its comeuppance. It fooled me once with its Libya coverage but by the time Syria rolled around, I was conscious of its ways- thanks in part to the contradictory coverage of the same war in publications like Frontline.
January 8, 2021
'The media are not conduits for news and views; they are global systems designed and evolved to highlight a certain type of news to impose a certain kind of view.'
In a world where truth and falsehood can seem interwoven like paint colours spoiled in a palette, and rhetoric of injustice bombards us from all angles - what we all need is our trusted, impartial news sources. It's a good thing then, we have a plethora of world leading non-sponsored channels with fearless journalists who speak truth to power....(well, at least that's what they say about themselves..)
From worldwide wars to the BBC, the NHS to climate change, this book of 12 chapters shows examples of what a lot of the mainstream media worked to cover....and also what they worked to cover up. With some intriguing and yet disheartening truths, the book has plenty of nuggets of information well-referenced to further material. While many of us probably already assume we know or hold skepticism about media bias or motives - this cleverly researched book puts together the evidence to illustrate it across the mainstream media spectrum.
The overall structure of the books and chapters, and accessibility to information is structured coherently, and makes clear findings. In some chapters, the content may have been better structured - or some points could have had stronger examples or stats -but that isn't to take anything away from what is clearly a tremendous effort pieced together. The authors have clearly spent their lives work to try to force the truth from its murky veils. This is worth the read.
In a world where truth and falsehood can seem interwoven like paint colours spoiled in a palette, and rhetoric of injustice bombards us from all angles - what we all need is our trusted, impartial news sources. It's a good thing then, we have a plethora of world leading non-sponsored channels with fearless journalists who speak truth to power....(well, at least that's what they say about themselves..)
From worldwide wars to the BBC, the NHS to climate change, this book of 12 chapters shows examples of what a lot of the mainstream media worked to cover....and also what they worked to cover up. With some intriguing and yet disheartening truths, the book has plenty of nuggets of information well-referenced to further material. While many of us probably already assume we know or hold skepticism about media bias or motives - this cleverly researched book puts together the evidence to illustrate it across the mainstream media spectrum.
The overall structure of the books and chapters, and accessibility to information is structured coherently, and makes clear findings. In some chapters, the content may have been better structured - or some points could have had stronger examples or stats -but that isn't to take anything away from what is clearly a tremendous effort pieced together. The authors have clearly spent their lives work to try to force the truth from its murky veils. This is worth the read.
February 8, 2021
Easy to read, insightful and shocking.
The work of contemporary journalists is used to present the bias and distortion of the media. This book exposes the façade of media objectivity, one example is in regards to Jeremy Corbyn. In 2016 he was heckled by a man shouting at him, saying he was failing traditional Labour voters. This incident made the front pages of the national press, however, it turns out the whole incident was staged by a public relations professional employed by an agency. Other insights include the BBC’s downplaying of the privatization of the National Health Service.
The book quotes Greg Dyke, a former BBC Director-General, as stating - 'The BBC is part of a ‘conspiracy’ preventing the ‘radical changes’ needed to UK democracy.' Quoted from the book - “Dyke argued that a parliamentary commission should look into the ‘whole political system’, adding that: I fear it will never happen because I fear the political class will stop it.”
A great book that I feel highlights the bias within today's mainstream journalism.
The work of contemporary journalists is used to present the bias and distortion of the media. This book exposes the façade of media objectivity, one example is in regards to Jeremy Corbyn. In 2016 he was heckled by a man shouting at him, saying he was failing traditional Labour voters. This incident made the front pages of the national press, however, it turns out the whole incident was staged by a public relations professional employed by an agency. Other insights include the BBC’s downplaying of the privatization of the National Health Service.
The book quotes Greg Dyke, a former BBC Director-General, as stating - 'The BBC is part of a ‘conspiracy’ preventing the ‘radical changes’ needed to UK democracy.' Quoted from the book - “Dyke argued that a parliamentary commission should look into the ‘whole political system’, adding that: I fear it will never happen because I fear the political class will stop it.”
A great book that I feel highlights the bias within today's mainstream journalism.
June 3, 2019
Another emotional discourse about "our" guys are holy, "their" guys are the devil.
January 29, 2019
From the curators of the unmissable, essential https://medialens.org website, with its exoteric 'Media Alerts' and esoteric (but no less esseential) 'Cogitations' comes an absolute master-class in deconstruction of the supposedly 'objective' power-friendly propaganda of the Corporate Media.
Working from the 'Propaganda Model' outlined by Edward S. Herman with help from Professor Noam Chomsky in their 1988 classic 'Manufacturing Consent', David Edwards and David Cromwell detail with abundant examples and citations from across the popular broadcast, print and online media, exactly how the interests of power, profit and political expediency are dressed in the robes of respectable 'analysis', and apparent-but-actually-not-at-all 'adversarial challenge' by a strictly disciplined and controlled 'Overton Window' of credentialized media stenographers and their daily babblings in the Great Spectacle.
Focusing - correctly - on the apparently 'independent' and 'left-leaning' media - The Guardian, the Observer, the BBC etc. - they convincingly and rigorously annihilate any semblance of a genuinely plural and accountable media-spectrum which is in any sense or form 'telling truth to power' or acting as a Fourth Estate 'holding power to account' - with the obvious and ever increasingly urgent results of this failing being the civilization-threatening doom of the climate catastrophe which is already upon us, the increasingly likely spectre of nuclear annihilation between insane world powers, and the inevitably of another world-breaking financial collapse.
An essential read for helping de-program the mind and soul from the unrelenting nonsense pumped out every day to imprison us in false narratives about the World we live in, and a timely exposure of the apparatchicks and stenographers in the Corporate Cult who demonize, marginalize, ridicule and smear any and every genuine threat to the ecocidal 'least among us' who currently lead.
Pass it on to a friend after you've read it, and tell them to do the same.
Working from the 'Propaganda Model' outlined by Edward S. Herman with help from Professor Noam Chomsky in their 1988 classic 'Manufacturing Consent', David Edwards and David Cromwell detail with abundant examples and citations from across the popular broadcast, print and online media, exactly how the interests of power, profit and political expediency are dressed in the robes of respectable 'analysis', and apparent-but-actually-not-at-all 'adversarial challenge' by a strictly disciplined and controlled 'Overton Window' of credentialized media stenographers and their daily babblings in the Great Spectacle.
Focusing - correctly - on the apparently 'independent' and 'left-leaning' media - The Guardian, the Observer, the BBC etc. - they convincingly and rigorously annihilate any semblance of a genuinely plural and accountable media-spectrum which is in any sense or form 'telling truth to power' or acting as a Fourth Estate 'holding power to account' - with the obvious and ever increasingly urgent results of this failing being the civilization-threatening doom of the climate catastrophe which is already upon us, the increasingly likely spectre of nuclear annihilation between insane world powers, and the inevitably of another world-breaking financial collapse.
An essential read for helping de-program the mind and soul from the unrelenting nonsense pumped out every day to imprison us in false narratives about the World we live in, and a timely exposure of the apparatchicks and stenographers in the Corporate Cult who demonize, marginalize, ridicule and smear any and every genuine threat to the ecocidal 'least among us' who currently lead.
Pass it on to a friend after you've read it, and tell them to do the same.
March 8, 2024
The authors of Propaganda Blitz have been slandered, libelled, trashed and traduced, ridiculed and reviled by much of the mainstream media for two decades. Well, they muct be doing something right! This book is a must-read for anyone with an interest in the media and particularly its bias and why it does what it does. It is a forensic take-down that exposes how the corporate media (and it is a corporate entity) promotes elite interests and seeks to destroy those who threaten the status quo. The book’s chapters highlight what constitutes a propaganda blitz and details those who have suffered due to the jaundiced and biased media. The list of victims includes Jeremy Corbyn, Julian Assange, Hugo Chavez and the Palestinian people. Propaganda Blitz also details how the media have misreported world events and wars like Israel/Palestine, Lybia, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, the NHS, Scottish Independence and the climate crisis. The book also includes a rallying cry for anti-business media activism. It really is an excellent read.
August 12, 2019
This book should be part of the national curriculum!
March 26, 2024
finally finished took me 3 months lmao. 3.75?
this is a vital piece of work and it’s changed my outlook hugely. turns out our liberal newspapers are just as bootlicking the state and capital as the right 👍
really varied text: geopolitical topics such as lsraeli propaganda and UK involvement in Iraq, Yemen, Libya, and Syria; topics closer to home such as the Indy Ref, the NHS and Jeremy Corbyn; the niche to the broad such as the chapter on Russell Brand (aged poorly lol) to the climate crisis. basically the UK is fucked in more ways than we can imagine. independence now saor alba etc etc 🏴
i struggled to get through this. each chapter follows the same effective format by identifying the issue, presenting the mainstream media’s take/reaction, revealing their obfuscation/contradiction/lies, with lots of quotes. this worked well for the authors’ aims but it meant reading it became a slog. took a month-long break before finishing the last few chapters, and i know there’s information i haven’t been able to retain. i’ll probably reread certain chapters when they become relevant in the news again
this is a vital piece of work and it’s changed my outlook hugely. turns out our liberal newspapers are just as bootlicking the state and capital as the right 👍
really varied text: geopolitical topics such as lsraeli propaganda and UK involvement in Iraq, Yemen, Libya, and Syria; topics closer to home such as the Indy Ref, the NHS and Jeremy Corbyn; the niche to the broad such as the chapter on Russell Brand (aged poorly lol) to the climate crisis. basically the UK is fucked in more ways than we can imagine. independence now saor alba etc etc 🏴
i struggled to get through this. each chapter follows the same effective format by identifying the issue, presenting the mainstream media’s take/reaction, revealing their obfuscation/contradiction/lies, with lots of quotes. this worked well for the authors’ aims but it meant reading it became a slog. took a month-long break before finishing the last few chapters, and i know there’s information i haven’t been able to retain. i’ll probably reread certain chapters when they become relevant in the news again
December 17, 2019
Speaks truth to power. Well-researched and succinct, with a few paragraphs that are nothing short of brilliant. Some chapters however are a little less engaging than others (just for the their subject matter) and occasionally the writer's own conclusions seem a little out of left field - he will defend some politicians and publications a little *too* much, when there are plenty of examples I could provide of their own special brand of reality distortion. At any rate a good read. (Hey that's the name of the website!)
November 22, 2018
A very intensive look at the corporate media that argues very successfully that news outlets control the political sphere in the UK - and that supposedly left wing outlets like the Guardian are amongst the worst. Standout chapter for me was the one on the NHS. The authors could do with focusing a little less on he-said-she-said parts outlining their social media spats because these, although illustrative of their point, don’t come across particularly well.
April 12, 2024
Top book on the media an important read
This is a well researched book on bias in the different forms of media. It shows how the corporate media are used by the establishment to shape views and attitudes and also
to stop radical change occuring or even movements developing.
Its an important read for anyone who wants to challenge the status quo.
This is a well researched book on bias in the different forms of media. It shows how the corporate media are used by the establishment to shape views and attitudes and also
to stop radical change occuring or even movements developing.
Its an important read for anyone who wants to challenge the status quo.
May 18, 2021
Frightening and thought-provoking. *If* you buy their narrative, confirms suspicions long-held about the role of the media in all manner of recent social and political trends and events. The big takeaway is "question everything".
October 16, 2018
Essential reading for absolutely everyone. An unyielding bright light among the fog of disinformation.
June 3, 2019
From the guys @medialens, this is detailed look at how mainstream media and the political class work hand in hand to manufacture consent and control the narrative within the broader public.
November 10, 2020
Very interesting but not that much evidence to counter what the corporate media says. Very easy to read.
September 11, 2024
David Edwards and his co-worker are Media Lens, honing in on our media, particularly those which pledge themselves to be impartial and objective. He concludes that they buoy up the establishment/ government and are loath to upset their advertisers, where this applies. Well argued and fairly incontrovertible in the examples given, particularly the dishing of Jeremy Corbyn and the role of the so-called liberal media in helping to bring this about. Interesting look at the campaign of Hillary Clinton and her loss of the presidential election.
Government is not immune from dealing in fake news.
Useful read to start off 2024.
Government is not immune from dealing in fake news.
Useful read to start off 2024.
December 20, 2020
can't argue with these chaps, because they're right. it's a mess and even those papers and journalists you trusted are probably in thrall to the bitter forces of the market, and eaten by capitalism, or neoliberalism, or another of the devil's various masks. read it and weep, and then decide who to follow on Twitter (and don't let it be Owen Jones)
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