medialens vs george monbiot part 1

[dudeness]

27th October 2003

MEDIA LENS ALERT: CENTRES OF POWER

George Monbiot Queries Media Lens - Part 1


In the first two weeks of December 2002, Media Lens published a total of three alerts on exchanges with Guardian columnist George Monbiot ('George Monbiot Responds on Iraq and "Just War"', December 2, 2002; 'George Monbiot Responds Again on Iraq and "Just War"', December 7, 2002; and 'Final Exchange With George Monbiot On The Guardian And The Propaganda Model', December 10, 2002. See: www.medialens.org).

These exchanges followed a comment we had made in a Media Alert on November 27. We quoted Monbiot as follows:

"f war turns out to be the only means of removing Saddam, then let us support a war whose sole and incontestable purpose is that and only that..." (Monbiot, 'See you in court, Tony,' The Guardian, November 26, 2002)

We wrote:

"Monbiot would doubtless deny to his last breath that his support for an assault against just this shattered Third World country as a last resort has anything to do with the ceaseless propaganda that has poured from the tireless cynics of the Bush/Blair administrations and their media commissars. He holds his views (+he+ believes) because Iraq +is+ a special case, not because propaganda has +made+ Iraq seem a special case. This is the awesome power of deception - fascinating for everyone except the people on the end of our bombs." ('Iraq - Panorama Editor and Guardian Editor Respond', November 27, 2002)

During the exchange that followed, Monbiot referred to Media Lens in his Guardian column accusing us of "ridiculous evasion" and "intellectual wriggling".

On December 3, 2002, Monbiot wrote: "I must end this letter with an apology. I do not have time to write another, as I have a very busy schedule. So please do not expect a response to your next reply." On December 12, Monbiot wrote again: "This really will be the last thing I write."

We heard no more from Monbiot until October 10 of this year when we received the following email in response to our October 10 Media Alert: 'Lulling Us Into Submission':


http://www.medialens.org/

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