Do you agree with David Puttnam that “the media have a duty to inform and not inflame”?

 
On 7 September, Rupert Murdoch chose the new Australian government, just as he put Cameron in Downing Street in May 2010 (with a little help from Nick Clegg).
 
David Donovan writes: “Tony Abbott is one of the poorest quality candidates to be elected Prime Minister in Australia’s political history. You need to go back to Billy McMahon to find a leader with anywhere near the same sort of lowbrow politics, lazy disposition and fundamentally dishonest nature. A well informed populace, not one brainwashed by ceaseless and increasingly hysterical Murdoch spin, and then brainscrubbed by commercial TV and radio toadies, would have re-elected the previous government.”
 
Despite the Murdoch media's daily attacks on Gordon Brown, the UK voters were reluctant to give Cameron an outright victory in 2010. Without Murdoch's poison, they may have stuck with the government which kept the ship afloat during a global meltdown and had the country out of recession. Instead we had George Osborne talk down the UK economy and immediately snuff out that recovery. Does anyone seriously believe that Osborne is a better handler of the nation’s finances than Alistair Darling?
 
Murdoch’s corrupt and criminal organisation controls close to 70% of the metropolitan newspapers’ readership in Australia and has press monopolies in the one-newspaper capital cities of Brisbane, Adelaide and Hobart.  Murdoch gifted Abbott the election; I wonder what Abbott will gift to Murdoch in return? We know what Murdoch was promised by Cameron - control of the rest of BSkyB, the emasculation of the BBC, “a second chance” for Andy Coulson and jobs for his stooges Gove and Hunt. Expect Murdoch to start an incessant campaign against Ed Miliband any time soon. Then see how many fools allow themselves to be brainwashed by the crap that his gutter media outlets excrete.
 
You can read more about the lies and non-stories which Murdoch pumped out in Australia in David Donovan’s article:-
http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/tony-abbott-and-our-new-murdochracy/

Normal people in the Real World have to devise a counter to the current reality, which can be summed up as "Money talks". Otherwise nothing will ever change.

There’s a nice piece of ‘inflammation’ in ‘The Daily Telegraph’ today (which, I hasten to add, I would never buy; when my neighbours are away and I feed their cat, they don’t bother to cancel their papers). Under the very misleading sub-heading "Ed Miliband dabbles in a little witchcraft", Damian Thompson informs us that the newly-promoted shadow minister for health, Luciana Berger, believes in the value of homeopathy. There’s nothing to suggest that Ed Miliband has anything to do with homeopathy (Charles Windsor is a great fan of it), but why let the truth get in the way of a good story?
 
I used to think that ‘The Daily Telegraph’, despite being right-wing, was quite a reasonable newspaper, but not any more. It seems that nowadays it wants to compete with the tabloid trash for the distinction of who can post the most stupid and malevolent stories.

It's encouraging to see how frightened the entire Right-Wing apparatus is of Ed Miliband.

Yesterday, a friend told me about the US television series The Newsroom.  Yes, I know that I'm late to the party.  He showed me the first scene of the pilot episode and I was hooked.  I bought the season one blu-ray set, went home and watched the first three episodes back-to-back.  I didn't mean to watch for that long, but it is very good.  The premise of the series is exactly what David Puttnam is talking about in his video; that the media, particularly the news media has a duty to the truth and to inform.  It has a duty of care to its viewers.  This is now the second time in two days that I've thought the same thing, which is that we don't have the media that we need and deserve.  I know that The Newsroom is fictional, but I really wish that we had a news channel that would live up to the ideal of just telling the truth, one that wouldn't pander to politicians and businesses and the rich.  We need a news source that isn't biased (as much as that's possible) and can be trusted.  And we need a population that's not only informed but engaged in society, with politics being a part of that society.

I don't think that we'll get it.

We live in a culture that encourages the profit-motive, to the exclusion of morals or mutual respect.

Everything we read or listen to has been through the brain of a reporter, an editor and a sub-editor beforehand. Then checked by a lawyer.

What chance does the truth have?

Makes slightly different picture to what you hear does it not Ivan?

Journos too have a view:

http://www.mediawise.org.uk/who-pays-the-piper-2/

Not judges interpreting the law, these are the real enemies of the people:-


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The really worrying aspect of these inflammatory newspaper headlines is that although the rightwing Press is part of "The Establishment" they appear to mistrust the Law which was designed to support it.

Think about the implications of a Britain without universal acknowledgment of The Rule of Law. Survival of the fittest.

There's been an appetite in the country for what I would call 'summary justice' at least since around the time the Cameron government was voted in with the assistance of the LibDems.
I think it's the fact that many British citizens don't in fact have a very clear idea of the constitution or why it's important to us all that we live under the rule of law and are treated according to proper legal process.
This could be argued to be a fault of the education they have received, usually in the State sector and we could all be forgiven for wondering if there was something intentional about that.
The result, for us today, is that the likes of Farage (spits) have noticed this information and knowledge gap and rushed to fill it with his own particular brand of sound and fury.
I imagine something like this happened in Germany in the '30's

I imagine something like this happened in Germany in the '30's

"Fellow Germans, my measures will not be crippled by any judicial thinking.... my mission is only to destroy." (Hermann Göring, 3 March 1933)

Farage is playing on the fact that the vast majority of Brexit supporters are as ignorant of how the law operates as they are about the EU. He's pretty ignorant himself. He's been talking about "going to the White House next Wednesday" to work for his friend Donald Trump, seemingly unaware that if the nightmare happens and Trump becomes president, he won't assume office until 20 January.

A Twitter user called Carol Hedges (@carolJhedges) posted this today: “My grandparents died at Auschwitz. My parents told me how Hitler's publicity machine slowly made it possible - constant repetition.”


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Publishing a newspaper would be beyond the reach of even the deepest-pocketed billionaire without revenue from advertising. A tiny handful of Advertisers, notably Walkers' Crisps (Pepsico) and Lego among others, have expressed their disapproval of the hate-mongering shown above.

Money doesn't have a conscience, but it can be applied usefully by people who do have a moral compass.

No to the Sky deal. The Murdochs can’t be trusted

From an article by Ed Miliband and Vince Cable:-

"Five years ago, after the phone-hacking revelations, the House of Commons unanimously rejected Rupert Murdoch’s bid for 100% of Sky. A year later, Sky was only passed by Ofcom as being fit and proper to hold a communications licence on the basis that there was not full Murdoch ownership and control. Four years on, and a number of senior employees from News International have been convicted of phone hacking or perverting the course of justice. Police and other public officials have been convicted of taking payments from employees of News International. There are numerous civil claims pending, including fresh allegations against ‘The Sun’, in which the role of James Murdoch in the alleged deletion of incriminating emails has been raised in evidence.

The bid by 21st Century Fox on behalf of the Murdochs to take over the 61% of Sky that they do not own goes to the heart of who wields influence in our media and who is fit to do so. The public interest centres on plurality and fitness. These concerns are arguably stronger after what emerged from the Leveson inquiry and subsequent action in the courts. The Murdochs have the largest circulation share of any newspaper group (just under 30% weekday and over a third on Sunday), and with full control of Sky, just under 20% of the TV news market.

Is 100% ownership acceptable now when it was not four years ago? No. James Murdoch is back as chairman of Sky and is chief executive of 21st Century Fox. Concentrations of power – and whether we stand up to them – decide the kind of country we are."

For the whole article:-
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/18/no-to-sky-deal-murdochs-cant-be-trusted

"Money talks. Power corrupts." Clichés abound, but the principle governing politicians' compliance is probably the same as in the curious habit of working-class electors voting for a right-wing government, against their own interests.

That tradition of bending the knee to tyrants is older than Christianity.

Who decides on Britain's Leadership and agenda?

Well that's the people listed on the Electoral Register, isn't it?

Or have I missed the point again?

Fifty Shades author EL James trolls Piers Morgan following Twitter spat with JK Rowling  (Independent)

OMG - is that her? speechless !!!

What on earth could have inspired the horrible violence meted out to a young lad in Croydon waiting for his bus?


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Merely a variation on Queer-bashing which was popular about forty years ago in the same location. When it comes to bullying minorities, we British have a lot to teach the Donald.

'The Sun' say "up yours" to Spain, while giving away tokens for holidays there on the same front page. You even get a free poster for sheer stupidity:-


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Isn't it comforting to know that some things never change?

Another computer-generated "story" wasting space in the national press.

One to match "Freddie Starr ate my hamster". I think this was written during the 2017 general election campaign. The salient points are in the last column.  


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Corbyn wants to lead the Nation .... but what's worse, he doesn't mind talking to poor people!

A lot of poor people don't think they will always be poor.

"This time next year, Rodney, we could be millionaires."