Sputnik International — EXCLUSIVE: How Liberal Media 'Operates as Propaganda System for State Power'

In 2001 David Cromwell and David Edwards founded the website MediaLens, which scrutinizes the work of the mainstream media coverage. The experience has led them to a stark conclusion - "the Western 'free press' operates as a propaganda system for state-corporate power".…

"Mainstream news outlets don't merely distort, hype or 'sex up' — they reverse the truth, render issues completely impossible to understand, and ignore the most important facts, arguments and voices. It's an awesomely effective form of thought control, all happening in the absence of any controlling conspiracy. The key to understanding this was supplied by Noam Chomsky — 'the basic principle, rarely violated, is what conflicts with the requirements of power and privilege does not exist'," they tell Sputnik.…

"The Times, Telegraph and Daily Mail set limits on the extent to which racism, warmongering and open class war are acceptable in the mainstream. So it's vital to ask why The Guardian isn't publishing Chomsky's most excoriating critiques of Western power, rather than why The Times isn't — for if his work doesn't appear in The Guardian, it doesn't appear anywhere, and if it's not appearing anywhere, then we don't have a 'free press', which is a problem. The limits on free speech liberal media has imposed have had disastrous consequences for our own society and societies such Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen," they say.… 

To say the least, MediaLens' work has won the Davids few not a single friend in the corporate media — after all, their work places journalists "in an impossible situation".

For instance, Owen Jones and George Mobiot, The Guardian's best-known progressive commentators, have frequently clashed with the pair via email and social media. While revered by many readers as "dissidents" providing "no-holds barred commentary" on key issues, MediaLens has identified many major, crucial shortcomings in their analysis, which mean they fit easily into the mainstream propaganda matrix as any other journalist.

Moreover, the remaining filter — of elite ownership — still applies to The Guardian to a sizeable degree. Historically, the paper was owned by non-profit entity the Scott Trust, but it was wound up in 2008 and replaced by a limited company — its board is comprised of individuals with links to banking, insurance, advertising, consumer goods, telecommunications, information technology, venture investment, marketing services and other sectors of the establishment. As a result, the paper almost inescapably ends up serving power — but neither Jones nor Monbiot can discuss that openly....

Another reason to add to the list of why the Western elites hate Sputnik.

Sputnik International
EXCLUSIVE: How Liberal Media 'Operates as Propaganda System for State Power'