The media is quite good at challenging everyone else in society. It is less wonderful at being modest about its own contribution to debate. Every week the media demonstrates how noisy it can be, and how wonderful and awful by turns. We aim to keep a useful eye on this intriguing beast.
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Why we posted this: It’s a commonplace that the pro-Palestinian activists who sailed in a convoy toward Gaza really were on a humanitarian mission. But it is almost self-evident that they were nothing of the kind. More »
Themes: Campaigning / Interrogating the Media / Media / Politics / Rights. Posted by Richard D North on September 14th, 2010
Why we posted this: It’s become a commonplace that the world fell prey to a capitalist and free market ideology and that the Credit Crunch has killed all that. But does this revisionism hold water? More »
Themes: Interrogating the Media / Money / Truth & Trust. Posted by Richard D North on November 24th, 2009
Why we posted this: The 100-year old business model for journalism is bust. But there are lots of ways of fixing it. Let’s keep the state out of it. More »
Themes: Interrogating the Media / Media / Money / Truth & Trust. Posted by Richard D North on October 25th, 2009
Why we posted this:The papers have been full of bad news about how the UK’s young stack up against the global competition. Badly, of course. Check out the latest gloomy research, from the OECD, and it’s survivable. More »
Themes: Interrogating the Media / Money / Rights / Society. Posted by Richard D North on September 2nd, 2009
Why we posted this: David Aaronovitch has carried his crusade against bogus evidence even deeper into the Happiness Debate. More »
Themes: Interrogating the Media / Media / Money / Society. Posted by Richard D North on August 11th, 2009
Why we posted this: People have forgotten how badly they need to be governed by an elite. The exposure of MP’s allowances in the Daily Telegraph shows just how far we have gone in misunderstanding the problem of public service. The paper of the professions has descended into tabloid destructiveness. More »
Themes: Interrogating the Media / Politics / Society / Truth & Trust. Posted by Richard D North on May 9th, 2009
Why we posted this: Politics and politicians in the UK are mostly decent and public-spirited. So it profoundly matters that journalists should tell us more of what they know about the skullduggery at the heart of Westminster. More »
Themes: Interrogating the Media / Media / Truth & Trust. Posted by Richard D North on April 18th, 2009
Why we posted this: It’s becoming quite common to declare that free market capitalism is dead, long live state interference. Even some Financial Times gurus are taken with this line, and it is useful to wonder if they are right. More »
Themes: Interrogating the Media / Media / Money. Posted by Richard D North on March 10th, 2009
Why we posted this: It’s official: the Israeli military did not – as widely reported at the time – shell a United Nations school in Gaza, killing 43 in its grounds. Time for an apology by the reporters? More »
Themes: Campaigning / Green / Interrogating the Media / Media / Politics. Posted by Richard D North on February 4th, 2009
Why we posted this: Many people failed in the run-up to the current credit crunch and recession. Should journalists share some of the blame? Aren’t they supposed to know what’s going on and tell the rest of us? More »
Themes: Interrogating the Media / Media / Money. Posted by Richard D North on December 13th, 2008