Media

For the great writers of the 20th century, art could not be separated from politics. Today, there is a disturbing silence on the dark matters that should command our attention.

John Pilger examines news as parody as those prominent in the British media seek to justify the official versions of the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The festive edition of the New Statesman offers a menu of good news to celebrate in 2009. John Pilger adds his own wish list.

John Pilger borrows from Lord West of Spithead to deconstruct current mythology, such as the ‘impartiality’ of the BBC and the ‘radical changes’ implemented by President Obama.

John Pilger describes how censorship in Hollywood works in the age of the ‘war on terror’. Unlike the crude days of the cold war, it’s by omission and ‘introspective dross’.

John Pilger describes “an iceberg of relentless inhumanity” beneath the Guardian’s revelations about illegal phone tapping at Murdoch’s Sunday tabloid and the impact of his empire in Britain and all over the world.

John Pilger asks his readers to set aside the usual summer holiday reading lists and reach for books that help us make sense of extraordinary times and to resist our “training” to make war.

John Pilger asks why directors and writers allow Hollywood formula propaganda to dominate the movies, with a hot contender for the Oscars airbrushing a million dead Iraqis, Clint Eastwood dispatching the truth of the struggle against apartheid and George Clooney amusing himself with the same old stereotypes.

John Pilger argues that years of ‘identity politics’ have had a marked effect on those who might otherwise see clearly the principles raised by WikiLeaks and the need to defend Julian Assange.