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Leamington Letters #107: Idiot Wind

13/1/2016

13 Comments

 
Picture
photo credit: bbc.co.uk
“Someone’s got it in for me,
they’re planting stories in the press
Whoever it is I wish they’d cut it out quick
but when they will I can only guess.”
 
I doubt whether Jeremy Corbyn sings this, but one can easily imagine that he might. The first two statements are statements of the bleeding obvious: no leader of any party, no politician even, has been the subject of such abuse, such deliberate misdirection, misinformation and misquotation as Corbyn. And those planting stories in the press and on the BBC are actually the journalists themselves, and there is no sign that they will cut it out any time soon. They are still at it as I write.
 
No wonder, as we now discover, Nick Robinson himself, an ex-President of the OU Conservative Association, was moved to write to his colleagues warning them of the obvious bias against Corbyn on the BBC. It is both blatant and biased, overt and oblique.
 
For all my adult life, I have earned my living as a writer of sorts: a jobbing wordsmith engaged in (primarily) ads and commercials, brochures and the like, but also speeches, journalism, reviews, even an unacclaimed biography.

I mention this up-front to provide a context for my reading of the press, particularly the political press, in recent months. You see, as someone who was trained to hone his advertising copy with care and precision, I understand how one can use tonality to provoke a particular response in the reader, how one can create a fiction from facts and how the fiction itself becomes fact.
 
For example, a recent BBC News post referred to the decisions of Corbyn (on Syria) and Cameron (on Europe) granting free votes to ministers and shadow ministers. It’s true, they did. But note the subtlety of the wording: Cameron ‘agreed’ to do this; Corbyn ‘was forced’. Same process. Same decision. Different terminology. Different insidious inference. (One newspaper went further, its front page headline claiming that ‘Corbyn decision means war!’)
 
For example, the press and the BBC flagged the shadow cabinet reshuffle before Christmas with pieces quoting un-named sources as ‘fearing’ so-called revenge sackings. The story then becomes to what extent this is or is not happening. In fact, it hardly happens at all so the story is now that Corbyn ‘delays’ or ‘chickens out’. But just in case we miss the point, The Times – once a newspaper of record – tells us that anonymous ‘moderates’ have accused Corbyn of conducting ‘a vindictive and stupid reshuffle’.
 
For example, the BBC Today programme has twice been reprimanded by the BBC itself for misleading listeners over the disputes between Israel and Palestine. Of the 50 or more fatalities under discussion on one programme, not once was it mentioned that these were not all Israeli but also included a significant proportion of Palestinian victims. And the man responsible for the (lack of) questioning? John Humphreys.
 
Just a one-off misunderstanding? No. Because the BBC Complaints Unit had also found against Sarah Montague a few weeks earlier for a similar item of misinformation on a similar subject.
 
Did you hear the apologies broadcast live on the programme? No, nor me. Even though I listen most days from 6am onwards. I read about them on the Off-Guardian website.
 
The BBC is massively influential. It is the source of most people’s news and most people’s take on the news. But it is now in the hands of those who wish to promote a right wing agenda, without any impartiality or balance. On Newsnight, there is Evan Davis, part of the team which dreamed up the poll tax; on Today, Nick Robinson, former president of the Conservative Association; and on the BBC News, following Andrew Marr and Robinson, is Laura Kuenssberg, whose comments recently, and especially during the reshuffle, have been disgraceful and partial by any standards.
 
The epitome of idiot wind.

Today from the everysmith vaults: Prompted by the new Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling) novel, I have quickly listened to some old Blue Oyster Cult and equally quickly removed it from the turntable. Some Bowie for the sake of it. But primarily Desire, a favourite Bob album of some of my children when they were young, and the home of a couple of my favourite songs. (Isis and One More Cup of Coffee, since you ask. But Sara is about as perfectly achieved as anything he's ever done.)
13 Comments
Davidl
13/1/2016 16:42:03

A good piece and follow-up to the Graunisd post a few weeks back. There are scores, even hundreds of examples you could have quoted but the agreed/was forced is telling. The sneaky, peevish, insidious denigration is appalling and is worse when it emanates from media which we once respected for its impartiality and balance.

Reply
JohnD
13/1/2016 16:53:39

I understand and appreciate your 'desire' to preface a post with a Bob quote. But they are not planting stories. They are interpreting stories, deliberately confusing fact and comment. I agree - the Guardian and the Beeb are principal players in this at the moment. So too, not noted by you, is the New statesman. What a horrible rag it is now! Xx

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Clare
13/1/2016 17:27:37

Love the new picture. Red wine and Bob! Is that your wine bar?

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Stephen
13/1/2016 19:32:56

So there's you on one side and Osborne et al on the other, both accusing the Beeb of bias. Maybe they have it right.

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Allan
13/1/2016 19:52:00

Yes. But in addition to what is reported, and the way in which it is reported, pay particular attention to what is not reported at all. That's where you can identify the agenda and where they are afraid.

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Don
14/1/2016 07:34:23

As an ex-Guardian reader, you may not have seen Steve Bell's take. Go to voxpolticalonline.com.

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DavidW
14/1/2016 11:47:55

But if you stop listening to Today, what do you listen to? The fact is Today sets the agenda for the chattering classes, of which I suspect you are a member. Just listen with scepticism. Read with the same attitude. As I do with your stuff. It's very biased you know!

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Charlotte Ford
16/1/2016 18:18:57

In BBC news there is now a lack of real unbiased investigative reporting ; I am frequently moved to turn off the radio in dismay. I sense the news media has become media manipulation. And in a very destructive way. In the case of Jeremy Corbyn , part of my annoyance ( verging on anger) is that there seems to be no acknowledgement of the fact that he is in the process of redefining the Labour Party away from the 'Tory values' policies of New Labour . He is offering the electorate a real choice. I would have thought a supposedly impartial news service would be applauding that yet instead he is vilified relentlessly. Apologies for my characteristic typos and grammatical errors etc... and thank-you for an eminently readable piece of writing Max

Reply
Mark
18/1/2016 07:20:27

You are right. There is a clear move - lurch - to the right, and when someone like Nick Robinson is embarrassed by it, then there is serious cause for concern. You are also right to focus on the BBC. We can expect newspapers to adopt a particular political line. We can also expect the BBC to steer a more impartial course, to provide the balance that newsprint does not and does not claim to. We live in interesting times.

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Parn
19/1/2016 08:57:47

Imagine if France were in danger of becoming a Muslim state. The professional wine journos and sommeliers would not mince their words.
In the case of the UK media and the BBC, it's only to be expected that they would be worried about any drift in public opinion to the "far left". For once in power the first priority of a so-called far-left state would be to attempt to control and censor the media. Of course this applies to all authoritarian/totalitarian governments whether of the left or the right. Topical examples are Russia and now Poland, not to mention Cuba etc.
The millennials and later generations are already pissed off with free speech (UK universities) so we are already on the slippery slope!

Reply
Doctor Dark
29/1/2016 13:05:45

Blows Against The Empire, Max, Blows Against The Empire...
Another Proustian moment from 1970...
RIP Paul Cantina

Reply
Doctor Dark
29/1/2016 13:08:16

Huh?! That should read Paul Kantner

Reply
Max
29/1/2016 16:10:17

Been listening all day. Watch this space! Xx




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     Max Smith

    European writer, radical, restaurateur and Red Sox fan. 70-something husband, father, step-father. and grandfather. Resident in Warwick, England.

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