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In my view in the last 20 years or more the BBC and CNN have actively promoted western interest wars such as Kuwait/Iraq I and II, Libya etc. Their coverage can rarely be described as balanced and impartial. Sadly even in Germany ARD comes out pretty well in favour of the Libyan war. Austrias ORF seems a lot better.

The 2011 Libyan war really takes the biscuit in terms of propaganda in favour of Nato intervention to promote a return to European colonialism. Of the 28 nations of Nato not one objected to the war. Once a war has secured government approval and the troops are there in battle, occasionally the BBC or CNN show some humanitarian articles of people being blown to bits but not too much.

But don't take my word for it, do some media studies yourself. Take 10 column inches (25cm) from an internet lead article. Analyse each sentence, is each sentence, pro-war, anti-war, pro side-A, pro side-B, left wing, right wing, portraying a particular religion in a positive light or a negative light? Is each sentence editors/owners opinion? Are factual statements verified by more than one source? How many times are unverified reports run as news?

For tv do the same for 10 minutes broadcast with the aid of a video recorder. Analyse each sentence as above. Are the pictures shown unneccesarily emotive? Do the pictures correspond to the spoken sentence. Are the images opinion forming. Does the footage of crowds of protestors actually show more than 20 people? How much priority (ranking - 1st story, 2nd story, 3rd etc) has a particular news article got. How many minutes of valuable airtime has the news article had? Is it repeating/reinforcing a subject from yesterday? Is the item really relevent to everyones daily life? Has the news broadcaster attempted to balance the information shown with that of the opposite view? Was the source for any numbers or statistics given, were they guesses?

At the end of your analysis total up the number of sentences for or against a war and there you have a statistical analysis of your news provider.

Heres a handy translator:

No-fly zone - War of aerial bombardment.

Protecting civilians - bombing anything that moves.

Shock and Awe - Blitzkrieg .

(for some reason the americans have an aversion to using the original german word).

No alternative - a very poor option.

Liberation - occupation.

Installing Democracy - installing pro-western puppet governments.

Diplomatic Isolation - siege and starvation of a poorer country.

Advance intelligence methods - torture.

Rendition - kidnapping of a suspect without due respect of local laws but with tacit

approval of important government figures.

Dial-a-Death Drone Attack - summary ex-judicial killing and invasion of foreign airspace (quite often homes in on suspects mobile phone).