With the English-speaking legacy media in a state of critical failure,
they can expect a new letter every 2 weeks, until they make some changes…

To the Editor-in-chiefs,

For the past 14 days the top-ten most-watched media organizations, serving nearly a billion English-speakers, have dedicated their front page coverage to the tit-for-tat bombing campaigns ordered by the geriatric political leaders of Israel, the U.S., and Iran.

While this unfolding horror is essential news, the spin from Government PR Offices, and professional opinionators is not..

The merging of news with entertainment is not new, but now it’s reached a breaking point—not just emotionally, but as a species.

We need: Perspective. Context. Ethics. Real expertise. Priorities. Fact-based solutions. 

And most of all we request the swift return of the main character - strangely always missing from nearly every story: us.

Also missing is the most important news item of all: That for nearly a century now, we’ve had all the technology, resources, and wealth required to feed, clothe, house, and care for everyone, If only we had the information. But for some reason, we do not.

It may be useful to remember your origin story.

In the UK and the U.S.—the former and current largest military and economic empires on earth—you were established as the fourth estate. 

In the U.S., as a balance against the power of the White House, Congress, and the courts. In the UK, equal in importance to the clergy, the House of Lords, and the Commons. And this role extends to the commonwealth nations, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. 

Your charge has always been to hold power to account. In the English-speaking world, that’s meant standing on the front lines to reform a brutal colonial empire, dethrone the robber barons of the gilded age, and usher in a new era of progress and justice – which crescendoed after WW2 when in partnership, a fearless press, an independent political establishment, and a more informed electorate created the first majority-middle class in human history. 

That has been our trajectory together, culminating in the late 1960s when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr called for a total revolution of human values. Putting humanity over greed – what Dr. King called the unholy trinity of militarism, classism, and racism.

Now, yielding unprecedented power, weapons-grade communications technologies, your role has never been more important: to put your super powers to good use: keeping us informed and engaged so we can be effective stewards over our lives, inward and outward.

This requires remembering your responsibility to be our voice, our fiercest representatives, exposing and rooting out corruption, conflicts of interest, and checking abuses of power in every arena – without bias. 

Unfortunately for all of us, you appear to have not only abandoned your post - but betrayed these sacred principles, not only ignoring the most obvious cases of corruption, but in bearing great responsibility for a middle-class which has shrunk back into a minority, and promoting a constant stream of chaos, suffering and instability in a world which has everything it needs to thrive.

In the last two weeks alone while focused on Iran vs Israel, you missed the following stories:

• The majority of people in Iran and the U.S. oppose war. SThe strikes were ordered by a small group of entrenched political elites, overwhelmingly targeting civilian areas. Over 900 killed in Iran (many civilians), 24 in Israel, with thousands more injured.

• 90% of modern war victims are civilians. This is not a conflict—it’s mass murder.

• All bombs are weapons of mass destruction. Their use should trigger international prosecution. Not praised as a strategy for accomplishing something.

• As with Iraq, the attacks were justified by PR lies about “nuclear threats.” And once again, major outlets parroted government spin over expert analysis. That’s criminal.

• Only Israel and the U.S. have nuclear weapons in this conflict. Israel refuses inspections to continue receiving illegal U.S. military aid.

• Israel's assault on Gaza never paused. Over 2 million bombed out of their homes. Over 377,000 reported missing. Hundreds executed seeking food and water. Aid centers turned into killing fields.

• Palestinian journalists and children are still being killed in record numbers. Every major human rights org calls it a genocide—enabled by Western governments.

• Peace deals for Israeli hostages have been available since October 7. They were ignored. In response, 5 million Palestinians were taken hostage in Gaza and the West Bank.

• The foundational truth: Palestinians are descendants of refugees expelled from their homeland. The ongoing colonial project has never stopped expanding by force.

• Meanwhile in the U.S.: ICE-style raids on Spanish-speaking communities by federal agents trained by the Israeli military are bringing apartheid practices back to the USA.

• Peaceful protests across the West are being violently suppressed and criminalized prioritizing the “terrorizing” effects of graffiti and slogans over actual mass bombing campaigns.

• Western foreign policy has been de facto anti-Arab and anti-Islam since WWII. A fact visible in every military and diplomatic action.

• The U.S. military industrial complex receives more public funds than any institution on Earth. It fails every audit. Drops 300 bombs a week. It And is the largest fossil fuel consumer. And one of the largest contributors to the climate crisis. It creates war, poverty, and climate chaos while solving nothing. A business model of destruction that threatens the entire planet.
  

And you bury all of this—next to celebrity gossip, football scores, and true crime.

It should be obvious to all why the world is experiencing a mental health crisis. And that the Reuters Institute report (2023) found 38% of people worldwide now actively avoid all news—due to emotional exhaustion, distrust, or perceived bias.

Don’t take this as a set of divorce papers – this is not goodbye. It’s a challenge. To remember the point. 

We’ll write again in 2 weeks. Call anytime.