https://znetwork.org/author/davidcromwell/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Thu, 25 Dec 2025 02:53:34 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-Z_logo_512-32x32.png https://znetwork.org/author/davidcromwell/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/blanked-a-tale-of-two-books/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/blanked-a-tale-of-two-books/#respond Thu, 25 Dec 2025 16:49:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292755 A significant feature of the propaganda system is the suppression of clearly important, credible books which are nevertheless deemed unfit for review in the ‘respectable mainstream’. In 2025, two important – indeed, groundbreaking – bestselling books about British politics were published which were almost entirely ignored by the state-corporate media. These were ‘The Fraud: Keir Starmer, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/blanked-a-tale-of-two-books/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/inversion-of-reality/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/inversion-of-reality/#respond Thu, 13 Nov 2025 16:51:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291193 The BBC: A ‘Leftist Propaganda Machine’? The resignations of Tim Davie, BBC director general, and Deborah Turness, BBC head of news, after an intense, right-wing campaign led by the Daily Telegraph reveal much about the state of British ‘mainstream’ media. Before we discuss the latest scandal, consider first some relevant facts about BBC coverage of [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/inversion-of-reality/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israel-says-is-not-journalism/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israel-says-is-not-journalism/#respond Thu, 14 Aug 2025 15:57:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1287305 Late last Sunday, a targeted Israeli attack killed prominent Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif alongside several colleagues. They were in a tent outside the main gate of Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital. Also killed were Al Jazeera correspondent Mohammed Qreiqeh and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal, together with freelance cameraman Momen Aliwa and freelance [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israel-says-is-not-journalism/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/burying-genocide-the-bbc-gaza-and-the-role-of-the-uk/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/burying-genocide-the-bbc-gaza-and-the-role-of-the-uk/#respond Thu, 17 Jul 2025 15:57:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1286293 One might naively think that a national public-service broadcaster would inform the public about matters of national interest. Surely no reasonable person would deny that the public has a right to know what the government is doing in our name. But, over and above this basic requirement, a responsible public-service broadcaster should also scrutinise the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/burying-genocide-the-bbc-gaza-and-the-role-of-the-uk/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/genocide-in-gaza-the-bbcs-self-inflicted-trust-crisis/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/genocide-in-gaza-the-bbcs-self-inflicted-trust-crisis/#respond Thu, 22 May 2025 15:56:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1284056 BBC News regularly proclaims its supposed editorial principles of fearless, independent, impartial, fair and accurate journalism. In a January 2023 speech to the Whitehall & Industry Group in London, then BBC Chairman Richard Sharp boasted that BBC journalism is the ‘global gold standard’ of credible news reporting. Two years previously, in 2021, the public broadcaster had proudly published a focused, 10-point plan to [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/genocide-in-gaza-the-bbcs-self-inflicted-trust-crisis/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/global-charade-israel-palestine-and-the-rules-based-order/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/global-charade-israel-palestine-and-the-rules-based-order/#respond Thu, 17 Apr 2025 15:57:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1282591 The post-WW2 ‘international rules-based order’ that supposedly underpins global affairs in the interests of peace, democracy and prosperity has always been largely a charade. But Israel’s continuing Gaza genocide, carried out with seeming impunity and with the complicity and even active participation of the US and its allies, has exposed the charade like never before. Twenty years [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/global-charade-israel-palestine-and-the-rules-based-order/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-dagger-to-the-heart-bbc-credibility-nosedives-even-further/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-dagger-to-the-heart-bbc-credibility-nosedives-even-further/#respond Thu, 13 Mar 2025 15:56:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1280988 The BBC’s withdrawal of the powerful documentary, ‘Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone’, epitomises how much the UK’s national broadcaster is beholden to the Israel lobby. The corporation’s longstanding systematic protection of Israel, considered an ‘apartheid regime’ by major human rights organisations, has been particularly glaring since the country launched its genocidal attacks on Gaza in October 2023. We have all seen the repetition and amplification of the Israeli [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-dagger-to-the-heart-bbc-credibility-nosedives-even-further/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/media-silent-over-israels-use-of-the-hannibal-directive-on-7-october-2023/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/media-silent-over-israels-use-of-the-hannibal-directive-on-7-october-2023/#respond Thu, 13 Feb 2025 16:58:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1279659 In an interview with Israeli television last Thursday, Yoav Gallant, the former Israeli defence minister, confirmed that the so-called ‘Hannibal Directive’ was implemented by Israeli military forces on 7 October 2023, the day of attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian fighters. There had already been strong evidence, including reports by Israeli news media, that Israeli forces killed many [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/media-silent-over-israels-use-of-the-hannibal-directive-on-7-october-2023/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/disappearing-genocide-bbc-balance-between-perpetrator-israel-and-palestinian-victims-after-damning-amnesty-report/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/disappearing-genocide-bbc-balance-between-perpetrator-israel-and-palestinian-victims-after-damning-amnesty-report/#respond Thu, 12 Dec 2024 16:57:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1277003 Imagine that the world’s largest and most respected human rights group issued a report detailing Russian war crimes in Ukraine and concluding that Russia was committing genocide. Western news media would devote massive coverage to the report. Newspaper and website headlines, together with television and radio broadcasts, would highlight Russia’s genocide and the bitter denunciations [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/disappearing-genocide-bbc-balance-between-perpetrator-israel-and-palestinian-victims-after-damning-amnesty-report/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/buried-out-of-sight-deliberate-israeli-targeting-of-palestinian-children-becomes-local-news-on-the-bbc/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/buried-out-of-sight-deliberate-israeli-targeting-of-palestinian-children-becomes-local-news-on-the-bbc/#respond Thu, 21 Nov 2024 16:53:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1275688 Imagine an experienced British surgeon, recently returned from Ukraine, breaking down in front of a committee of British MPs as he related how Russian forces had been deliberately targeting Ukrainian children. Imagine the surgeon had had to operate in desperate conditions on young children who had been lying injured after a Russian bombing attack and [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/buried-out-of-sight-deliberate-israeli-targeting-of-palestinian-children-becomes-local-news-on-the-bbc/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/part-of-the-mechanism-of-genocide-in-palestine-the-complicity-of-mainstream-media/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/part-of-the-mechanism-of-genocide-in-palestine-the-complicity-of-mainstream-media/#respond Thu, 10 Oct 2024 15:58:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1273488 Propaganda often works in subtle ways. Consider a BBC News headline on its website on 3 October: ‘Israeli air strike kills 18 people in occupied West Bank’ This was noteworthy in that, for once, the BBC had made it clear that Israel was responsible for killing people, rather than using a contorted form of wording that obscured [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/part-of-the-mechanism-of-genocide-in-palestine-the-complicity-of-mainstream-media/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/aligned-with-israels-propaganda-strategy-bbc-correspondent-challenges-the-bbc-director-general/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/aligned-with-israels-propaganda-strategy-bbc-correspondent-challenges-the-bbc-director-general/#respond Thu, 25 Jul 2024 15:59:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1269788 Last November, we reported on an incisive and courageous email that had been sent on 24 October 2023 to Tim Davie, the BBC’s Director General, by Rami Ruhayem, a Beirut-based BBC correspondent. Basing his arguments on considerable evidence and rational analysis, Ruhayem was highly critical of the BBC’s pro-Israel coverage of Gaza since the Hamas attacks on [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/aligned-with-israels-propaganda-strategy-bbc-correspondent-challenges-the-bbc-director-general/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/extremely-harrowing-british-surgeons-gaza-testimony-buried-by-the-msm/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/extremely-harrowing-british-surgeons-gaza-testimony-buried-by-the-msm/#respond Thu, 23 May 2024 15:54:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1266797 Propaganda by omission is a dominant feature of the ‘mainstream’ news media. Indeed, it is a requirement. Rather than serving the public interest by fully exposing the brutal machinations of power, state-corporate media shield Western governments and their allies from scrutiny and focus the public’s attention on the crimes of Official Enemies.  Israel’s genocidal attack on Gaza [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/extremely-harrowing-british-surgeons-gaza-testimony-buried-by-the-msm/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/genocide-enablers-gaza-and-the-corporate-media/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/genocide-enablers-gaza-and-the-corporate-media/#respond Fri, 05 Apr 2024 16:11:16 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1264656 A key function of the state-corporate media is to deny reality. They do supply news. But it is no accident that they supply news of a type that covers up the crimes of elite power. However, the appalling violence and destruction being inflicted in Gaza by Israel are simply too great to conceal.  We may well be [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/genocide-enablers-gaza-and-the-corporate-media/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/elite-fear-of-the-public-ukraine-gaza-and-assange/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/elite-fear-of-the-public-ukraine-gaza-and-assange/#respond Thu, 22 Feb 2024 16:59:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1262567 It is a historical fact that powerful elites do not wish to be diverted from pursuing their selfish interests by the public. Minimal, unthreatening expressions of dissent may be tolerated in ostensible ‘democracies’. But public opinion needs to be managed, manipulated or, if necessary, simply ignored. After all, as Noam Chomsky has said, real ‘democracy is [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/elite-fear-of-the-public-ukraine-gaza-and-assange/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/gaza-a-brutal-demonstration-of-western-values/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/gaza-a-brutal-demonstration-of-western-values/#comments Thu, 18 Jan 2024 16:57:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1260938 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/gaza-a-brutal-demonstration-of-western-values/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/is-that-orwellian-or-kafkaesque-enough-for-you-the-guardian-removes-bin-ladens-letter-to-america/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/is-that-orwellian-or-kafkaesque-enough-for-you-the-guardian-removes-bin-ladens-letter-to-america/#respond Sat, 25 Nov 2023 16:57:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1257982 The Guardian has long promoted itself as a valiant publisher of news and analysis that holds the powerful to account. It is a thing of wonder that the Guardian appends the following comment beneath news pieces: ‘Our quality, investigative journalism is a scrutinising force at a time when the rich and powerful are getting away [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/is-that-orwellian-or-kafkaesque-enough-for-you-the-guardian-removes-bin-ladens-letter-to-america/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-absolute-right-to-commit-war-crimes-gaza-israel-and-labour-opposition/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-absolute-right-to-commit-war-crimes-gaza-israel-and-labour-opposition/#respond Thu, 19 Oct 2023 15:59:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1255961 The attacks by Hamas fighters in southern Israel on 7 October, and the Israeli air attacks on Gaza that have followed, and now the unfolding humanitarian disaster there, once again expose fundamental bias in the state-corporate news media. Does news coverage really convey the impression that all lives – Palestinian and Israeli – are of [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-absolute-right-to-commit-war-crimes-gaza-israel-and-labour-opposition/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-mass-media-memory-hole-blair-ukraine-and-libya/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-mass-media-memory-hole-blair-ukraine-and-libya/#respond Thu, 21 Sep 2023 15:58:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1254498 A key function of state-corporate media is to keep the public pacified, ignorant and ill-equipped to disrupt establishment power. Knowledge that sheds light on how the world operates politically and economically is kept to a minimum by the ‘mainstream’ media. George Orwell’s famous ‘memory hole’ from ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ signifies the phenomenon brilliantly. Winston Smith’s work [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-mass-media-memory-hole-blair-ukraine-and-libya/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-death-sentence-for-people-and-ecosystems-the-climate-emergency-governments-and-the-public-enemy/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-death-sentence-for-people-and-ecosystems-the-climate-emergency-governments-and-the-public-enemy/#respond Thu, 20 Jul 2023 15:59:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1249691 On a trip to Japan in 2014, approaching the third anniversary of the Fukishima nuclear disaster, Noam Chomsky told an audience that: ‘Governments regard their own citizens as their main enemy.’ What he meant was that states do not wish their own populations to know and understand the details of government policies, for fear of provoking an adverse [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-death-sentence-for-people-and-ecosystems-the-climate-emergency-governments-and-the-public-enemy/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/when-truth-becomes-silence-glastonburys-cancelling-of-a-powerful-film-about-jeremy-corbyn/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/when-truth-becomes-silence-glastonburys-cancelling-of-a-powerful-film-about-jeremy-corbyn/#respond Thu, 29 Jun 2023 15:57:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1248624 The Soviet dissident Yevgeny Yevtushenko famously said that: ‘When truth is replaced by silence, the silence is a lie.’ In this country, as in other western ‘democracies’, important truths are effectively being silenced. As we have written on many occasions, antisemitism was used as a weapon to destroy the chances of Jeremy Corbyn becoming the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/when-truth-becomes-silence-glastonburys-cancelling-of-a-powerful-film-about-jeremy-corbyn/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/climate-breakdown-extinction-and-the-most-stupid-boast/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/climate-breakdown-extinction-and-the-most-stupid-boast/#respond Thu, 18 May 2023 15:58:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1246198 In a recent Guardian advert pleading for readers to hand over money to the paper, leading columnist Marina Hyde declared: ‘My absolute favourite thing about the Guardian is not being told what to write.’ Hyde – or Marina Elizabeth Catherine Dudley-Williams, as she prefers not to be known – was, in fact, making ‘the most stupid [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/climate-breakdown-extinction-and-the-most-stupid-boast/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/it-may-be-in-no-ones-interest-to-reveal-more-cancelling-facts-that-challenge-establishment-power/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/it-may-be-in-no-ones-interest-to-reveal-more-cancelling-facts-that-challenge-establishment-power/#respond Thu, 20 Apr 2023 15:59:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1243907 As we have noted before, a systemic feature of state-corporate media is propaganda by omission. Missing out salient facts, informed commentary and context about the machinations of government and big business means that the public is less able to: Current examples are legion, as we will see in the selection that follows. 1. Journalists Pushing [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/it-may-be-in-no-ones-interest-to-reveal-more-cancelling-facts-that-challenge-establishment-power/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-dwindling-band-of-iraq-obsessives-endless-war-and-media-complicity/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-dwindling-band-of-iraq-obsessives-endless-war-and-media-complicity/#respond Thu, 30 Mar 2023 15:49:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1242438 The 20th anniversary of the illegal US/UK-led invasion of Iraq has demonstrated once again the subservience of state and corporate media to Western power. Jeremy Bowen, the BBC’s international editor, veered as close to the truth as BBC News allows in an online piece as well as a segment of its flagship News at Ten [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-dwindling-band-of-iraq-obsessives-endless-war-and-media-complicity/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/that-paper-is-dead-the-power-of-propaganda/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/that-paper-is-dead-the-power-of-propaganda/#respond Thu, 02 Mar 2023 11:43:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1240440 On 21 February 2023, climate scientist Professor Bill McGuire issued a stark warning: ‘Remember this date. First rationing of food in UK due to extreme weather. Things will only get worse as climate breakdown bites ever harder.’ This was in response to the news that British supermarkets are rationing fresh produce, including tomatoes, cucumbers and [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/that-paper-is-dead-the-power-of-propaganda/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/end-stage-capitalism-collapsing-britain-and-the-climate-crisis/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/end-stage-capitalism-collapsing-britain-and-the-climate-crisis/#respond Thu, 02 Feb 2023 13:29:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1238494 People in power get nervous when the population’s trust in national institutions plummets. It has often been a precursor of significant social unrest, even revolutions. This is an underlying reason why UK prime minister Rishi Sunak proclaimed, in the face of mounting pressure over the tax affairs of Nadhim Zahawi, chairman of the Conservative Party [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/end-stage-capitalism-collapsing-britain-and-the-climate-crisis/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/nearly-every-war-has-been-the-result-of-media-lies-julian-assange-state-corporate-media-and-ukraine/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/nearly-every-war-has-been-the-result-of-media-lies-julian-assange-state-corporate-media-and-ukraine/#respond Thu, 15 Dec 2022 15:24:50 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1234599 Julian Assange once observed that, ‘Nearly every war has been the result of media lies.’For daring to publish evidence of US war crimes, Assange now sits in the high-security Belmarsh prison in London, at risk of being extradited to the US within the next few weeks. The prospects for a fair trial range from miniscule [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/nearly-every-war-has-been-the-result-of-media-lies-julian-assange-state-corporate-media-and-ukraine/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/on-the-highway-to-climate-hell-the-climate-crisis-activism-and-broken-politics/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/on-the-highway-to-climate-hell-the-climate-crisis-activism-and-broken-politics/#respond Thu, 17 Nov 2022 14:46:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1232027 Last month, the United Nations environment agency issued arguably its starkest warning yet about the climate crisis. The failure by governments around the world to cut carbon emissions means there is ‘no credible pathway to 1.5C in place’. Limiting the rise of global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels was the international agreement at COP21, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/on-the-highway-to-climate-hell-the-climate-crisis-activism-and-broken-politics/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mass-media-omerta-burying-al-jazeeras-the-labour-files/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mass-media-omerta-burying-al-jazeeras-the-labour-files/#respond Thu, 06 Oct 2022 13:17:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1222274 The damaging revelations about the Labour Party in the recent four-part Al Jazeera series, ‘The Labour Files’, and the almost totalitarian silence in response by British news media, should ram home the illusory nature of ‘democracy’ in the UK. Based on the largest leak in British political history, Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit has exposed how [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mass-media-omerta-burying-al-jazeeras-the-labour-files/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/dont-extradite-assange/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/dont-extradite-assange/#respond Sun, 26 Jun 2022 09:24:36 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1059615 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/dont-extradite-assange/feed/ 0