Guardians of Power: The Myth of the Liberal Media [Paperback]

David Edwards (Author), David Cromwell (Author), John Pilger (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2006

Can a corporate media system be expected to tell the truth about a world dominated by corporations?

Can newspapers, including the 'liberal' Guardian and the Independent, tell the truth about catastrophic climate change -- about its roots in mass consumerism and corporate obstructionism -- when they are themselves profit-oriented businesses dependent on advertisers for 75% of their revenues?

Can the BBC tell the truth about UK government crimes in Iraq when its senior managers are appointed by the government? Has anything fundamentally changed since BBC founder Lord Reith wrote of the establishment: "They know they can trust us not to be really impartial"?

Why did the British and American mass media fail to challenge even the most obvious government lies on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction before the invasion in March 2003? Why did the media ignore the claims of UN weapons inspectors that Iraq had been 90-95% "fundamentally disarmed" as early as 1998?

This book answers these questions, and more.

Since July 2001, Media Lens has encouraged thousands of readers to email senior editors and journalists, challenging them to account for their distorted reporting on Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Haiti, East Timor, climate change, Western crimes in Central America, and much more. The responses -- often surprising, sometimes outrageous -- reveal the arrogance, unaccountability and servility to power of even our most respected media.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Regular critical analysis of the media, filling crucial gaps and correcting the distortions of ideological prisms, has never been more important. Media Lens has performed a major public service by carrying out this task with energy, insight, and care. -- Noam Chomsky I really cannot do justice to this superb, devastating book ... It is not merely excellent, it is outstanding. Buy it. Read it. Use it. -- Morning Star Online Bias can enter the news gathering system at many junctions. Edwards and Cromwell rightly point to the capitalist structures of the corporations that now own the satellites and instruct and direct the crews to various locations which interest them as corporations, and also as competitors, where being first to break the news or , say, report an exclusive story, really matters to them. The development of Media Lens may permit it soon to have the power to act as an alternative source and a correcting influence on the gross distortions in the news we receive at present. -- Henry McCubbin, The Spokesman

Product Details

• Paperback: 241 pages
• Publisher: Pluto Press (February 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0745324827
• ISBN-13: 978-0745324821
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,592,784 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars media propaganda and the liberal establishment, June 23, 2006

By 

Anthony R. Dimaggio (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Guardians of Power: The Myth of the Liberal Media (Paperback)

This book parallels very closely in terms of its ideology other classic works of media criticism on corporations and corporate media, such as The Corporation (Joel Bakan) and Manufacturing Consent (Chomsky and Herman). But whereas Chomsky's work focused on American media, this work looks at the ways in which the "liberal" media in Britain works to reinforce corporate prestige, power, and government propaganda.
The book looks at a plethora of issues, such as media coverage of the Kyoto Protocol, the Kosovo bombing, Iraqi sanctions and the 2003 invasion, among other issues.
Overall, this book is quite good, as it follows in the radical tradition of other works which point to corporate media ownership as the primary impediment to balanced reporting and critical, investigative journalism of the kind expected from media institutions.
The authors spend much of the work reprinting correspondence between them and prominent media personalities and editors at the BBC, Guardian, and Independent, among other news organizations. In this endeavor, they are quite effective in highlighting the tremendous degree of self-preservation and one-sidedness that is apparent within the mindsets of corporate news editors and reporters.
My only criticism is that, being an American citizen, I'm most intrested in reading on the way in which American media propaganda has been used to present americans with one-sided, narrowly ideological, pro-war reporting in the war on terror. while this description is clearly also applicable to british media, it seems most relevant when looking at institutions at the heart of the empire - papers like the new york times, washington post, etc. plus, American media, on the whole, has been much less balanced in presenting pro and anti-war perspectives than has British media (with mainstream left-of-center papers like the guardian and independent).
the correspondence between edwards and cromwell (who run the media watchdog "media lens") and various british editors and reporters does also get a bit tired after a while, considering that those editors/reporters repeat the same old tired excuses for empire, consistently glossing over the points that edwards and cromwell make in their well-reasoned criticisms.
overall a very good work though.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant book on British journalism, October 6, 2008

By 

Lost Johnny (China) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Guardians of Power: The Myth of the Liberal Media (Paperback)

This book derives from the Media Lens web site's media alerts. The authors apply the Chomsky Herman propaganda model to the UK press. You will never look at the BBC or read the Independent in the same way again after reading this book. It's fun reading the responses of journalists who have rarely been challenged in the past. Some are open minded but others make utter fools of themselves, like a certain writer who has recently become the editor of a well known 'liberal' paper, who quickly becomes abusive and offensive.

Thoroughly recommended to anyone who is interested in seeing media bias. Those who read Chomsky will find an indispensable work.

0 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not what I was expecting!, March 9, 2011

By 

Francisca - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guardians of Power: The Myth of the Liberal Media (Paperback)

I bought this book as a present for my husband as he often talks about how disgusting it is that the media has been taken over by big corporations and how you can't believe anything they tell you! He hasn't had the time to read it yet so I read it myself but.... I wasn't impressed, sorry! I found it boring and the chapter about Climate Change horrified me! They believe in it..... I think that the authors haven't understood yet all the lies have been fueled by the alternative energy industry who gains huge sums with all this nonsense. Instead they focus on the mantra of the fossil fuel industry! I was expecting them to be fighting against all the lies we are fed with but instead I got much the same we get from the papers and the news on TV every evening! Already that put me off this book and from checking the Media Lens website! I am the type of person who cares about the truth and I do comment a lot in the papers but I care about what I truly believe in!

I will be looking for other books on the subject as it really interests me and I am curious as to what my husband will think of it as he his opinions are a lot softer than mine, I am much more of a rebel!