John Rentoul of the Independent is surprised that the figure of 1 million Iraqi deaths ‘arouses such little interest’. Medialens takes him to task.

Medialens looks at the competing claims to count the dead in Iraq – and at the media’s role in misleading the public.

All too often, write Media Lens, the underlying conviction remains that there are no credible alternatives to the current, ad-based system of media funding. The point being that a problem without a solution is not a problem; it is a fact of life. But is it true?

With the world teetering on the brink of an environmental abyss – and, perhaps, already sinking into that abyss – industry’s hall of crazy mirrors with their “balancing information” is bigger and more active than ever, write Media Lens.

The approved framework of the Iraqi oil law as revenue ‘sharing’, underpinning Washington’s ‘reconciliation’ among Iraqis, was decreed by the US president, write Media Lens – precisely the line followed in the bulk of corporate news reporting.

Media Lens examine the media’s downplaying of the true extent of civilian deaths in Iraq, and the role Iraq Body Count continue to play in assisting them.

Media Lens consider the BBC’s Gavin Esler’s latest litany of abuse against correspondents, the media’s pervasive hostility to rational challenge, and Esler’s own record says about the lack of independent thought in the mainstream media.

Media Lens on the media’s failure to adequately cover a recent, credible poll of Iraqi deaths, or to seriously address Alan Greenspan’s recent admission on the oil motive behind the Iraq war.

The media continue to report very little about the role of the surge in the violent suppression of the Iraqi resistance and in the deaths of innocent civilians, write Media Lens.

Last week’s outbreak of sanity at Heathrow has provoked an extended huff from certain sections of the press, write Media Lens.

The furore over the BBC’s ‘mistreatment’ of the Queen is symptomatic of the critical stance the media will take on trivial affairs, whilst reporting uncritically vastly more significant events like alarming occurrences of military spending.

If the media’s reaction is possible in response to a crime and a catastrophe on the scale of Iraq right now, ask Media Lens, what are the potential limits for our liberal democracy? We have to assume that there are in fact no limits, that our governments are free to kill on any conceivable scale – our media would simply continue turning away from, obfuscating, marginalising and burying the truth.

Media Lens comment on the media’s heralding of a “new dawn” under Gordon Brown, and the continuing concealment of the US and UK’s real foreign policy goals.

An exchange between Medialens and George Monbiot about the failings of corporate media and possible alternatives.

The perennial media focus on the claim that the media is “left-leaning”, write Media Lens, is itself symptomatic of the reality that the media is anything but.

As usual, write Medialens, in the handling of Chavez’s decision not to renew the licence of RCTV, the media’s alleged concerns for democracy and human rights mask deeper priorities: protecting governments that toe the line dictated by Western power, and undermining those that do not.

All of the articulate and serious observations that readers have made on the Guardian‘s recent use of Pentagon propaganda on its front page have yet to be adequately addressed, write Media Lens.

Medialens on an important and courageous email sent to Newsnight’s Mark Urban by a serving British Army officer.

Medialens‘ exchange with Newsnight’s Mark Urban on his uncritical acceptance of US official claims regarding Iraq.

Following its recent front-page article repeating the claims of anonymous “US officials”, many readers feel the Guardian has simply been used as a booster for crude US propaganda, write Medialens.