CAN THIS BE TRUE? GEORGE MONBIOT CHALLENGES MEDIA LENS ON HYPOCRISY

The Guardian columnist, George Monbiot, posted the following on our website message board yesterday:

"Can this be true?

http://dissident93.wordpress.com/2008/ 11/28/medialens-monbiot-wilby-milne/

"If so, I think I have reason to feel aggrieved."

The link was to a blog by Bob Shone. Shone has, himself, long felt aggrieved by our criticism of Iraq Body Count (IBC), of which he is a passionate supporter. In response, he has smeared us whenever and wherever he can across the web. Perhaps because we have written less about IBC over the last couple of years, Shone has branched out by, for example, misrepresenting our criticism of Nick Davies's book Flat Earth News. See: http://www.medialens.org/ forum/viewtopic.php?t=2732

In his latest blog, Shone writes:

"Medialens stress that journalists should 'subject their host media to serious and sustained criticism' (Alert, 3/5/03). They've attacked Guardian columnist George Monbiot for not being more critical of the Guardian.* Yet, in a single Guardian article (The Lies of the Press), Monbiot wrote more words criticising the Guardian than Medialens wrote criticising the New Statesman (NS) in their entire run of NS columns." (http://dissident93.wordpress.com/ 2008/11/28/medialens-monbiot-wilby-milne/)

Monbiot comments on our message board:

"Now I discover that, if the posting I link to is correct, the editors justified their decision not to attack one of their employers - the New Statesman - with the very arguments they have lambasted me for using. I discover that the standards they have so volubly demanded of me somehow do not apply to them. In fact, they appear to be less prepared to do as they say than I am. Who would not, under these circumstances, feel annoyed?" (Monbiot, December 4)

How casually Monbiot has chosen to confront us with this damning public criticism. This, of course, is how internet-based media with essentially no resources are often treated by corporate journalism. If Monbiot had been targeting a powerful think tank or political party, he would perhaps have checked if the posting was "correct". And he would perhaps have taken a few seconds to look at the blog from which it came to examine the mindset of the blogger. Incidentally, our "employers" at the New Statesman paid us £60 per monthly column (if it appeared) - rather less, we suspect, than Monbiot's employers pay him.

The casualness of Monbiot's approach is even more depressing given that he has strongly supported our work, describing it as "a major service to democracy". (Monbiot, email to Media Lens, February 2, 2005)

It seems that, on this occasion, feelings of personal offence weigh more heavily with Monbiot than concern for any service we might be rendering.

This is our response to Monbiot:

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