Media and truth going separate ways

Based on a Twitter/X thread

Since the election, right wing media in the UK has parted company from reality much as it has in the US. We now have nonsense articles about how everything has gone wrong for Keir Starmer to try and create a narrative about how the government is on the point of disintegrating, whilst in reality it is quietly and pretty effectively getting on with its job of governing.

I feel I should start by saying I'm not unconditionally defending Labour, by the way. I disagree with their policies on Brexit, Israel/Palestine, and carbon capture. I think the Winter Fuel Allowance and their accepting gifts (even though they were properly declared) were daft hills for them to die on. However, the right wing talking points about chaos and incompetence, and their flattering of the previous Conservative administration, are just rubbish.

In the US, the polarisation and counter-narrative in the media is helping to shore up the Republican vote. Depending on whether you are red or blue there, you simply end up with a completely different picture of the world. Right wing media there aren't aiming to reveal truth, but to create a narrative. For example, most GOP voters don’t realise how well the economy has done under Biden.

The media are pretty cynical about this - they know they are being dishonest. They knew Trump had lost in 2020, despite what their pundits say in their programmes. They knew that there was no problem with the voting machines. They know Trump is not a suitable candidate for this election (I suspect they don't care - either Vance will take over from him or Musk will whisper in his ear, Wormtongue-like). They know Democrats don't control hurricanes. But they are willing to systematically allow the population to be misled, in support of the political goals of their paymasters. And Republican voters, who've grown up trusting the media, aren’t necessarily in an intellectual position to critically analyse messages, and who are being told things which fits their underlying beliefs (red is good, blue is bad), accept what they are told.

The same things are now happening in the UK. The media is largely right wing - despite protestations within its columns about being Leftie. BBC, and particularly BBC News is run by people closely associated with the Conservative Party (Robbie Gibb, for example). The Times and The Sun are ultimately under the Murdoch family’s control. Jonathan Harmsworth, 4th Viscount Rothermere, controls the Daily Mail, a very popular tabloid, which has been banned by Wikipedia from being cited as a reliable source. The Daily Telegraph is run by the Barclay family. All these media organisations are run by billionaires who take steps to limit their tax payments in the UK. And Twitter/X - run by another famously sensible billionaire - is also increasingly influential.

Oh, and GB News, I suppose.

These media know that there's no equivalence between what Labour do and what the Tories did. But they make the same noise about it - or even more - to give the impression that Labour are no more reputable. They know that the Tories utterly failed in governance, and Labour are actually trying to fix the mess and chaos left - but they'll talk down anything Labour tries to do, and talk up any division and dissent (as though the whole of the last eight years or more in this country weren’t dealing with incapacitating tribal wars in the Conservative Party).

They also know that the EU isn't collapsing, that migration is beneficial for the country, that privatisation and profiteering have destroyed public services, that the super-rich have continued to get vastly richer whilst everyone else has struggled with "austerity". But they don't tell the truth about any of this.

They also know that the actual opposition to Labour isn't coming from the Tories. Many Labour policies have been aligned with Conservative ones in the hope of getting an easier ride from the media. The real opposition is coming from the progressive left, which had to help Labour into power to displace the Tories, but is already frustrated with their weakness, especially given their big parliamentary majority. But the political voices of Liberal Democrats, Greens, Corbyn and other independent MPs are pretty ruthlessly stifled by the media. Instead, we have endless pieces about the Conservative leadership campaign, and the continued foregrounding of Reform and shady Tufton Street-based libertarian groups like the Institute of Economic Affairs. The media want their followers to behold Jenrick, Badenoch and Farage. "These are the future", the country is smoothly told; "which one do you like?" And whichever it is, they will then be portrayed as the natural successor to the (actually non-existent) “Labour chaos” that the media will continue to talk about - and will be given a smooth ride towards the next election, with plenty of opportunity to speak.

We’re not even being allowed to scrape Truss, or Johnson and his lies, off our shoes.

In the US, there is simply no comparison between the weird GOP candidates, the corruption and manipulation that's going on on the right, and the Democrat candidates and party, who have spent most of Biden’s term trying to run an administration whilst opposed by the Republicans not for the good of the country, but simply to try and make the Democrats look bad and Trump look better.

With the crisis of the hurricanes, it's just possible that this is coming to a head. It looks as though Republicans in the Carolinas have reached the point where they can't sustain the lies (see this story). It's possible that Hurricane Milton will demonstrate the same consequences in Florida.

But in the absence of basically that sort of crisis, a powerful media is quite capable of sustaining an alternative narrative, where they help you deny the evidence of your ears and eyes and - Orwell-style - just trust the Party.

So what can be done?

We are unlikely to see significant legal reform, as Labour are still trying to appease the right wing media. A second Leveson Enquiry would help, but is not on the cards. Various bodies - the Press Complaints Commission, Ofcom - could do with reform, but it’s not prioritised. The political appointees at the head of the BBC could be replaced, but that’s also not apparently on the cards. Legislation could be introduced to require mass media to be owned and “domiciled” in Britain - but none is planned.

But there are things that we can do.

• We can support more independent media. Byline Times is now being sold in supermarkets. The Guardian and Private Eye are free of billionaire influence. Channel 4 News is more independent. We are seeing the rise of journalistic podcasts such as The News Agents and The Rest is Politics, largely autonomous. (Incidentally, Newscast, hosted by Chris Mason and Laura Kuenssberg amongst others, is NOT the same sort of independent podcast - it’s the BBC trying to occupy the same space.)

• We can fact check everything - and support other fact checkers.

• We need to work out how to use energy effectively. Don’t waste energy on bots and trolls. Don’t spend hours in long arguments where only three people are debating when you can be engaging 30 or 300.

• Don’t waste energy online nit-picking with people who are basically allies. I no longer really know if I’m Green or LD or Labour any more - but I do know that I am more concerned than ever to stop the Conservatives and Reform, and the power structures of which they are the relatively friendly face.

The shift of media, particularly on the right wing, from any attempt to tell the truth to being propaganda mouthpieces is pretty sinister. An important first step from our point of view is to understand that it’s happening. The tools they have are very powerful - but on the other hand, there are a lot of us. Don’t give up hope!