MAINSTREAM media rarely engage in outright media lies, but it does happen. Just think of the mass grave in Timisoara, the incubator babies in Kuwait, or the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. (For a more detailed explanation of these blatant lies, see the annex at the end of the article.)

More often, the distortion of reality happens more subtly, through framing, omitting or under-reporting events, leaving out context, selecting experts, exaggerating facts, using misleading headlines, suggestive photos and so on.

In most cases, this distortion of reality does not originate with individual journalists but is initiated and driven by their editors. These editors, in turn, are under pressure from commercial media tycoons. In the case of public broadcasters, they are under political tutelage and control.