John Pilger was born and educated in Sydney. he has been a
war correspondent, film-maker and playwright. Based in London, he has written
from many countries and has twice won British journalism's highest award, that
of 'Journalist of the Year', for his work in Vietnam and Cambodia. Among a
number of other awards he has been 'International Reporter of the Year' and
winner of the 'United Nations Association Media Prize'. For his broadcasting,
he has won an 'American Television Academy Award', an 'Emmy' and the 'Richard
Dimbleby Award', given by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. His
latest TV documentary, his 50th, Apartheid Did Not Die! - will be shown
in Australia by the ABC in June.
'Pilger's strength is his gift for finding the image, the instant that reveals
all: he is a photographer using words instead of a camera' ... Salman Rushdie
'John Pilger is fearless. He unearths, with steely attention to facts, the
filthy truth, and tells it as it is ... I salute him.' ... Harold Pinter
Hidden Agendas
HIDDEN AGENDAS shows a master commentator at the top of his powers. In the
book's 600+ pages, Australian-born John Pilger ranges over many key social
events of our times: unemployment and the arms industry in Britain; the
decline of social welfare and the collapse of unions in Australia and Britain;
the "triumphs" of the US military machine in the Gulf War, to name a few.
Based on his extensive travel in each country John Pilger reveals the impact
on the ordinary people of repression and exploitation in East Timor, Vietnam,
Burma and South Africa. In two substantial essays, "Anzac Day" and "Secret
Waters" he analyses contemporary Australia.
Central to the themes of HIDDEN AGENDAS is the power of the media in today's
"information age" - as Pilger describes it, "politics by media, war by media,
grief by media". The book includes chapters on 'The Rise and Fall of Popular
Journalism', and the influence of Rupert Murdoch and other media magnates.
With irony, passion and wit, John Pilger looks behind the facades of the media
age. He strips away the layers of deception, dissembling language and omission
that often prevent us from understanding how the world really works. From the
invisible corners of Tony Blair's New Britain to Australia, Burma, East Timor,
Indonesia, Vietnam, and South Africa, he unravels the secret histories of
contemporary events, arguing that media illusions cloud the true agendas of
power which unchallenged, operate to protect their interests with a cynical
disregard for people, shaping, and often devastating, millions of lives.
EXCERPT from Hidden Agendas -
Introduction
There is something in journalism called a slow news day. This usually
falls on a Sunday or during the holiday period when the authorised sources of
information are at rest. Nothing happens then, apart from acts of God and
disorder in far-away places. It is generally agreed that the media show cannot
go on while the cast is away.
This book is devoted to slow news. In each chapter, the setting changes, from
Iraq to the East End of London, from Burma to the docks of Liverpool and the
West of Ireland, from Vietnam to Australia and the 'new' South Africa. In all
these places, events have occurred that qualify as slow news. Some have been
reported, even glimpsed on the evening news, where they are unremembered as
part of a moving belt of images 'shot and edited to the rhythms of a Coca-Cola
advertisement', wrote one media onlooker, pointing out that the average length
of the TV news 'soundbite' in the United States had gone from 42.3 seconds in
1968 to 9.9 seconds.*
That is the trend. In American television, a one percentage point fall in the
ratings can represent a loss of $100 million a year in advertising. The result
is not just 'infotainment', but 'infoadvertising': programmes that 'flow
seamlessly into commercials'.** This is how commercial television works
in Australia, Japan, Italy and many other countries. Britain is not far behind
...
http://www.thei.aust.com/sydney/biographies/pilger.html