Thus far, but no further 2

Plus les mois passent, plus je suis convaincu que MediaLens est une des meilleures choses qui soient arrivées à l'internet. Je considère que Noam Chomsky a entièrement raison de se concentrer sur la culture intellectuelle, contrairement à certaines critiques de notre camp:

A lot of what I have written and speak about has been devoted to particular atrocities in Vietnam, in Latin America, in the Middle East, in East Timor, things like that, and to the web of deceit that has been constructed about them. Now these are matters that have enormous human significance, but they're superficial in a sort of technical sense; that is, they are the end result of much deeper, central factors in our society and culture. The criticism is that I ought to pay more attention to the central factors and to ways of changing them, to revolutionary strategy, for example. Well, I've been resistant to that, rightly or wrongly, but I see the point, certainly. I mean, suppose that we could, say, induce the United States to stop supporting massacre and repression in East Timor. It would be very important for the Timorese, if they survive. But it would be like putting a Band-Aid on a cancer. It's just going to show up somewhere else.

To the extent that one can reach the general public on these issues -- it's very limited because the media and journals don't really permit it -- but to the extent that one can, well, East Timor or Vietnam are topics you can talk to people about in a way that is meaningful to them, whereas talking to them about institutional change and the possibility that they might play a role in changing the institutions is like talking to them about Mars. I don't know how you get to the point where those kinds of questions can be raised. Certainly not just by talk.

Entrevue avec Noam Chomsky, The Chomsky Reader, 1983

MediaLiens se consacre à la difficile mais nécessaire tâche de décortiquer les médias, et de démolir l'apparente différence entre médias dits de gauche et ceux dits de droite. Thus far, but no further était consacré au scandale de "l'entrevue" du Guardian (dit de gauche) avec Chomsky (lire Chomsky answers Guardian). Cette fois, MediaLens s'attaque à une critique du dernier livre de Chomsky, Failed States, parue dans l'Observer (dit de gauche), présentée par le rédac-en-chef comme une "superbe démolition de Chomsky". Un extrait de l'alerte média:

When it comes to smearing dissent, the difference between the Oxbridge 'liberalism' of the Guardian/Observer and the right-wing brutality of the Sun is essentially one of vocabulary. To be sure, generations of earlier journalists have done much of the spadework - the two words that hover between the lines, of course, are "loony left".

[...]

In truth, like most of his media peers, Beaumont is intellectually and ethically drowning in superficiality. It is the job of the 'liberal' press to ensure that readers who might otherwise be informed and empowered activists for progressive change do the same.

The Observer's Foreign Affairs Editor Peter Beaumont Reviews Noam Chomsky's Failed States, MediaLens, 22 juin 2006

Il faut une bonne dose de travail pour comprendre que l'ensemble des médias fait oeuvre commune de propagande, une idée qui éveille naturellement un cadre conceptuel de théorie du complot, ce qui est l'inverse de la réalité. MediaLens est un bon départ pour se faire une tête.