@desfreedman.bsky.social
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
November 21, 2025 at 6:26 PM
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…
November 17, 2025 at 6:04 PM
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…
Reposted
‘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...
@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...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 14, 2025 at 5:50 PM
‘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...
@desfreedman.bsky.social on the blog.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/no...
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).
www.gold.ac.uk
November 13, 2025 at 10:15 AM
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...
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...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 12, 2025 at 7:02 PM
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...
Did The Times call it for Cuomo or did ChatGPT get it right this time?
November 5, 2025 at 4:09 PM
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...
www.counterfire.org
October 22, 2025 at 9:06 AM
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-...
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.
www.declassifieduk.org
May 27, 2025 at 8:40 AM
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...
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...
www.counterfire.org
May 1, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Wrote this about the manufactured & hypocritical outrage concerning the pro Palestine hip hop outfit Kneecap www.counterfire.org/article/knee...
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?
www.declassifieduk.org
March 3, 2025 at 5:17 PM
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...
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
February 26, 2025 at 3:13 PM
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/...
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
www.middleeasteye.net
February 23, 2025 at 4:31 PM
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...
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...
Revolution Won't be Reported: Student Protests in Serbia
Panel discussion about the current, anti-government, student-led protest in Serbia and why the UK media are not reporting the event
www.eventbrite.com
February 4, 2025 at 2:48 PM
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
February 1, 2025 at 7:09 PM
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
www.theguardian.com
February 1, 2025 at 12:37 PM
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...
“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.
www.bbc.com
January 26, 2025 at 12:57 PM
“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...
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
January 18, 2025 at 11:12 AM
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
January 15, 2025 at 11:55 AM
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.
www.bbc.co.uk
January 8, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Astonishing that the BBC is still carrying headlines like this that reduce climate change events to Hollywood spectacles www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
This is an image you won't find in any mainstream media outlet. Hind Rajab is one of the approximately 15,000 children killed by Israeli forces in Gaza in 2024. See you all on the streets in 2025 to fight for justice for Hind and everyone in #Gaza.
December 31, 2024 at 9:59 AM
This is an image you won't find in any mainstream media outlet. Hind Rajab is one of the approximately 15,000 children killed by Israeli forces in Gaza in 2024. See you all on the streets in 2025 to fight for justice for Hind and everyone in #Gaza.
To say that the UK media have failed to convey the sheer relentless daily almost “routine” massacre of Palestinians in #Gaza is an understatement worthy of a headline that will never come www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblo...
World ignores us as Israeli shelling, blasts rock Gaza hospital: Director
Dozens killed in across Gaza as Kamal Adwan Hospital heads warns medical staff are ‘slaughtered before eyes of world’.
www.aljazeera.com
December 22, 2024 at 7:23 PM
To say that the UK media have failed to convey the sheer relentless daily almost “routine” massacre of Palestinians in #Gaza is an understatement worthy of a headline that will never come www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblo...
“At a time when the far right is trying to whip up anti-immigrant sentiment and action – currently checked by anti-racist mobilisations and the weakness of far-right movements – the impact of GB News shouldn’t be exaggerated but neither should it be ignored”. www.counterfire.org/article/call...
Calling out GB News’ Islamophobia
The Islamophobic bile spewed out by GB News is an extension of the vitriol unleashed by other more mainstream media, but must be held to account, argues Des Freedman
That GB News is obsessed with M...
www.counterfire.org
December 11, 2024 at 6:07 PM
“At a time when the far right is trying to whip up anti-immigrant sentiment and action – currently checked by anti-racist mobilisations and the weakness of far-right movements – the impact of GB News shouldn’t be exaggerated but neither should it be ignored”. www.counterfire.org/article/call...
GB News’ response to the CfMM report showing that the channel is obsessed with Muslims singularly fails to rebut the evidence & instead calls it an affront to free speech. This,3 days after its latest attack on fighting Islamophobia. Over to you @ofcom.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/media/2024/d...
December 10, 2024 at 10:24 AM
GB News’ response to the CfMM report showing that the channel is obsessed with Muslims singularly fails to rebut the evidence & instead calls it an affront to free speech. This,3 days after its latest attack on fighting Islamophobia. Over to you @ofcom.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/media/2024/d...
No mainstream UK news outlet reported on the visit this week of IDF chief Herzi Halevi, days after the ICC issued a warrant for Netanhayu & Gallant for 'crimes against humanity'. The Israeli press covered it noting how 'unusual' it was to come at this time www.declassifieduk.org/israeli-army...
Israeli army chief visited Britain this week, UK confirms
Exclusive: Days after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli leaders, its top general flew to London.
www.declassifieduk.org
November 27, 2024 at 6:38 PM
No mainstream UK news outlet reported on the visit this week of IDF chief Herzi Halevi, days after the ICC issued a warrant for Netanhayu & Gallant for 'crimes against humanity'. The Israeli press covered it noting how 'unusual' it was to come at this time www.declassifieduk.org/israeli-army...
Very sad to hear about the death of Jim McGuigan who in my opinion wrote one of the very best book reviews ever journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...
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November 22, 2024 at 2:58 PM
Very sad to hear about the death of Jim McGuigan who in my opinion wrote one of the very best book reviews ever journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...