‘Ten days ago, Andy Burnham stood outside Number 10 and announced “the biggest changes in the last forty years”. One thing that won’t change is the use of British bases by American military aircraft bombing Iran.’ New from @desfreedman.bsky.social, on the blog: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ju...

Des Freedman | Bombs Away

Ten days ago, Andy Burnham stood outside Number 10 and announced a ‘circuit breaker for Britain, bringing forward the...

lrb.co.uk

’On 20 June, two thousand activists from across Europe and beyond will gather at Westminster Central Hall for a conference to oppose the growing atmosphere of militarism. But don’t expect to see anything about it in the papers or on TV.` @desfreedman.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ju...

Des Freedman | Wages Not Weapons

John Healey’s resignation as defence secretary is the latest skirmish in a wider campaign to secure an increase in...

lrb.co.uk

‘Despite regular demonstrations of bigotry on the world’s streets, more than 99 per cent of stories that mention “hate marches” have been published since 7 October 2023 and have focused on anti-racist protesters.’ @desfreedman.bsky.social on ‘hate marches’. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...

Des Freedman | ‘Hate Marches’

Two marches will assemble in central London tomorrow. One is championing the rights of Palestinians and commemorating 78...

lrb.co.uk

It takes a lot of work to make it seem that the UK isn't at war www.counterfire.org/article/sell...

Selling a ‘defensive’ war

Des Freedman examines the British Media’s failure to challenge Britain’s aggression on Iran Britain is, apparently, not at war with Iran.

counterfire.org

New book out in May via @politybooks.bsky.social that puts capitalism centre stage for any understanding of media

In its report on Israel's accepting the number of people killed in Gaza, the BBC notes without irony, that "Israel has previously cast doubt on figures from the Hamas-run health ministry." How about NOT using this qualifier whose only purpose is to cast doubt on the figures?

The BBC make it sound like Maduro has had some kind of episode rather than being violently kidnapped by US special forces. Of course this is just obeying the memo from on high - do NOT call it what it is…

It turn out that @bbc was only saying - albeit with a lousy edit - what the Telegraph and Mail were saying about Trump inciting people on Jan 6: that he was 'encouraging' and 'inciting' the storming of the Capitol. And now the whole media is set to pay. www.counterfire.org/article/dona...

Donald Trump vs the BBC

Despite the egregious failings of the BBC, Trump’s bullying must not be allowed to silence any and all critics in the media, argues Des Freedman Donald Trump has announced that he will definitely s...

counterfire.org

Mainstream news devoted plenty of headlines & air time to the UK couple on hunger strike recently in Iran. Meanwhile pro-Palestine activists currently on hunger strike here in the UK are virtually ignored - not a peep out of the BBC edm.parliament.uk/early-day-mo...

Routine failures are usually more revealing than the exceptional ones...Some thoughts for @declassifieduk.org on why the BBC wants you to look away from atrocities carried out by Israeli forces www.declassifieduk.org/the-bbc-edit...

The BBC edit no one will resign over

Failure to air footage of Israeli soldiers executing unarmed Palestinians shows the corporation’s true bias

declassifieduk.org

A tale of two edits. The Panorama one saw the resignation of three senior figures while the removal of a sentence criticising Trump from @rcbregman’s Reith lecture has been filed under “culture” and caused minimal fuss www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Historian Rutger Bregman criticises BBC for removing Donald Trump line from Radio 4's Reith Lecture

Rutger Bregman says he is

bbc.co.uk

Looks like someone is missing from the bottom right-hand corner. That would be Shumeet Banerji who's just resigned from the BBC Board after being "cut out" of recent top-level discussions that led the DG & head of news to quit. Yet we're told there was no coup - just a healthy difference of opinion

Actual number of murders in London have halved in last 20 years while stories in the media have multiplied by four. You tell me what’s going on…

‘The BBC could never do enough to satisfy its enemies on the right, who are as exercised by what the BBC represents – a “public service” model in an increasingly commercial media landscape – as they are by what it says or does.’ @desfreedman.bsky.social on the blog. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/no...

Des Freedman | Whose BBC?

From the revelations about Jimmy Savile in 2012 to the gender pay gap debacle in 2017, the BBC was for many years its...

lrb.co.uk

Don't miss @markcurtis30.bsky.social, co-founder of the brilliant investigative news site @declassifieduk.org, speak on "How the UK News Cover Up Foreign Policy". 5pm Wednesday 19 November at Goldsmiths in SE London @mediacomgold.bsky.social www.gold.ac.uk/calendar/?id...

How the UK News Media Cover Up Foreign Policy

A talk by Mark Curtis, founder of Declassified UK and Visiting Fellow in Goldsmiths' School of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies (MCCS).

gold.ac.uk

This really isn't the first dodgy @BBC edit but it's certainly the one that counts because delegitimising striking miners in 1984 or undermining Corbyn in 2019 apparently don't matter. Some thoughts for @LRB blog www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/no...

Des Freedman | Whose BBC?

From the revelations about Jimmy Savile in 2012 to the gender pay gap debacle in 2017, the BBC was for many years its...

lrb.co.uk

Did The Times call it for Cuomo or did ChatGPT get it right this time?

Wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt in the newsroom will totally undermine the BBC's commitment to anti-racism (in a way that its appalling coverage of Gaza will presumably not). Some thoughts on "Our BBC" www.counterfire.org/article/our-...

Our BBC – hardly…

The BBC’s impartiality means that it marches in lockstep with establishment opinion rather than challenging it, failing the cardinal journalistic ethic, argues Des Freedman The BBC's position on im...

counterfire.org

The UK media have suddenly woken up to the fact that Israel is not a paragon of virtue. My thoughts for @declassifieduk.org www.declassifieduk.org/the-uk-media...

The UK media discover Israel is off the leash

Britain’s national press finally realise that Israel might be a problem but still fail to recognise their own role in legitimising atrocities in Gaza.

declassifieduk.org

Wrote this about the manufactured & hypocritical outrage concerning the pro Palestine hip hop outfit Kneecap www.counterfire.org/article/knee...

Kneecap: pilloried for supporting Palestinians

The controversy over the band Kneecap is a blatant example of double standards when it comes to free speech and Palestine, explains Des Freedman The Irish hip-hop band Kneecap are facing calls to b...

counterfire.org

Nothing like a boom in defence industry shares to keep us safe and nothing like an independent media to ask tough questions www.declassifieduk.org/the-mainstre...

The mainstream media are beating the drums of war

When did you last see someone interviewed on the BBC who opposed spending more money on the military?

declassifieduk.org

Me and @sydneyforde.bsky.social find evidence of “systematic failures in public service media coverage of Gaza and highlight its use as an instrument perpetuating state power and control” doi.org/10.1093/ccc/...

Arm’s length or joined at the hip? Public service media’s coverage of Gaza

Abstract. Critiquing normative articulations of a public versus commercial media binary, we explore the contradictory juxtaposition of democratic expectati

doi.org

This is a very significant and welcome development in the context of the still ongoing “independent” antisemitism inquiry at Goldsmiths. You’d think that if there was anything to find, they’d have found it by now www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-lond...

London university apologises to lecturer wrongly accused of antisemitism

Goldsmiths also pays damages to Ray Campbell after dismissing complaint against him over social media posts

middleeasteye.net

Please come to this meeting at Goldsmiths on the huge grass roots protest movement in Serbia that’s shaking the government. It's been going on for 3 months & the media have finally started to wake up to the fact there's a mass popular revolt in the heart of Europe www.eventbrite.com/e/revolution...

Really looking forward to speaking at this next weekend along with @andrewfeinstein.bsky.social & many more. Protest is the most effective way of organising solidarity with Gaza and holding our own government to account for the fact they’re still arming Israel

Up to 10,000 jobs to go in a sector with over £5 billion surplus since 21/22 acc to HESA. Where did all this money go? Not on staff pay for sure. How many shiny buildings and perks for vice-chancellors? A national scandal that @ucu.org.uk & NUS have to fight www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Quarter of leading UK universities cutting staff due to budget shortfalls

Up to 10,000 redundancies or job losses feared as institutes undergo restructuring

theguardian.com

“Take in Palestinians from Gaza”?? This is a truly shocking headline from the BBC in that it doesn’t highlight Trump’s explicit call for ethnic cleansing on a massive scale. Imagine the reaction if he called for another country to “take in Israelis” www.bbc.com/news/article...

Gaza war: Trump wants Egypt and Jordan to take in Palestinians

The comments will outrage Palestinians in Gaza, who see the territory as their ancestral home.

bbc.com

The BBC are twitchy about being challenged on their coverage of #Gaza. They should be. And it’s clear they have supporters in high places given the ridiculous restrictions being placed on democratic protest by the police

Just had a very interesting meeting with Al-Jazeera journalists in Doha and came across this on the wall next to the main studio which demonstrates a much better take on how to report #Gaza than anything in the UK

Astonishing that the BBC is still carrying headlines like this that reduce climate change events to Hollywood spectacles www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

What it's like inside LA's real-life apocalypse movie

BBC reporter David Willis says he has never witnessed a disaster in Los Angeles so widespread and so unpredictable.

bbc.co.uk