Media Lens

Inspired by Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman's Manufacturing Consent, Media Lens is a website which aims to interrogate and challenge the version of the world as presented by the mainstream British media. 

WHO'S BEHIND IT 

Media Lens was set up in 2001 by David Cromwell and David Edwards. They describe the aim of their website thus: 

"…to raise awareness of the systemic failure of the corporate media to report the world honestly and accurately. We encourage readers to challenge the journalists, editors and media managers who set news agendas that traditionally reflect elite interests. Any improved performance resulting from this public pressure, while important, is always likely to be marginal."

Media Lens has become well-known for its Media Alerts, which are sent out to subscribers and also published on the website. These consist of challenges to mainstream news reports. Facts and claims are checked against alternative sources of information. Any perceived ideological bias is investigated. Subscribers to these Media Alerts are then invited to discover the points raised on the website, or to contact mainstream journalists directly. 

Cynics will, of course, ask who is watching these watchers. That is a valid point. However, another point must be made. Cromwell and Edwards make their philosophy clear on their website. They do not deny their own perspective, which, in essence, fuses the Enlightenment idea of rational engagement with a compassion for life taken from Buddhism. We have to ask ourselves, then, whether the mainstream is ever so upfront about its own intentions. 

14 March 2011