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Keeping
the media
safe
for big
business
Essays by
David Cromwell
& David Edwards
Jonathan Cook
The Authors
David Cromwell & David Edwards are co-editors of the London media
watchdog, Media Lens. Their book, Guardians of Power, was released in
2006, Their web site is http://www.medialens.org
Jonathan Cook is a British journalist living in Nazareth, Israel. His new book,
published this month, is Disappearing Palestine: Israel’s Experiments in
Human Despair (Zed Books). His website is http://www.jkcook.net
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Keeping
the media
safe for big
business
M ❝
artin Tierney is one of a tiny In 1996, Noam Chomsky attempted to
number of mainstream jour- explain to an equally bemused Andrew
nalists willing to review our Practitioners Marr (then of the Independent):
book, Guardians of Power. In of alternative Marr: “This is what I don’t get, because
June 2006, he published an accurate out- journalism also it suggests – I mean, I’m a journalist – peo-
line of our argument in the Scottish daily, seek to redress ple like me are ‘self-censoring’...”
the Herald, commenting: “It stands up to what they consider Chomsky: “No – not self-censoring.
scrutiny.” an imbalance of There’s a filtering system that starts in kin-
He added that we “do not see conscious media power in dergarten and goes all the way through and
conspiracy but a ‘filter system maintained mainstream media, – it doesn’t work a hundred percent, but
by free market forces.’ After all it wouldn’t which results in it’s pretty effective – it selects for obedience
be appropriate to show the limbs of third the marginalization and subordination, and especially...”
world children during Thanksgiving as it (at worst, the Marr: “So, stroppy people won’t make it
would only remind consumers who was re- demonization) of to positions of influence...”
ally being stuffed.” certain social and Chomsky: “There’ll be ‘behaviour prob-
Exactly so. But if no conspiracy is in- cultural groups lems’ or... if you read applications to a
volved, how on earth does the market and movements graduate school, you see that people will
manage to filter dissident views with such tell you ‘he doesn’t get along too well with
consistency? As baffled Channel 4 news his colleagues’ – you know how to inter-
reader, Jon Snow, told us: pret those things.”
“Well, I’m sorry to say, it either happens Chomsky’s key point: “I’m sure you be-
or it doesn’t happen. If it does happen, it’s lieve everything you’re saying. But what
a conspiracy; if it doesn’t happen, it’s not I’m saying is, if you believed something dif-
a conspiracy.” (Interview with David Ed- ferent you wouldn’t be sitting where you’re
wards, January 9, 2001; http://www.me- sitting.”
dialens.org/articles/interviews/jon_snow. So what happens when a professional
php) journalist does express “something differ-
I
than twice that size.
n many ways, my introduction to jour- When they first By definition, free newspapers are ad-
nalism was far from typical. In the mid- emerged, some of vertising platforms – since they have no
1980s, after university, I was casting the independently other way of raising revenue. But when
around for a career and decided to “try” owned ones were they first emerged, some of the indepen-
journalism. I called the local free newspa- not as dire as dently owned ones were not as dire as they
per in the city in which I had graduated, they uniformly uniformly are today – for reasons we will
Southampton, and offered my services. are today – for come to. The Southampton Advertiser was
Free newspapers were a new and rap- reasons we will one of a small chain of free newspapers on
idly growing form of print media. Cheap come to the south coast owned by a local business-
production had been made possible by the man. He made no effort to conceal the fact
new technologies about to revolutionise that he saw his newspapers simply as ve-
the working practices of all papers, includ- hicles for making money.
ing those in Fleet Street. I was using a small Most ambitious journalists start out on
Macintosh computer, writing stories and a daily local newspaper (I would soon end
designing the pages, at a time when the na- up on one), owned by one of a handful of
tionals were still laboriously typesetting. At large media groups. There, as I would learn,
the Southampton Advertiser, we produced a one quickly feels all sorts of institutional
weekly newspaper with just four editorial constraints on one’s reporting. As a young
staff: an editor, two reporters and a pho- journalist, if you know no better, you sim-
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