You know I’m so stressed out every day purely because I have to acknowledge the depravity this country has sunk to
I keep getting told that’s the way it’s always been(in regards to people and politics etc), and to not get so worked up
But god damn it I am furious, if as a collective people were as passionately fuming as I am, then perhaps some change could occur
Journalism is broken, our politics is broken, we are nationally depressed to the point of widespread apathy in regards to issues like this
I don’t understand what is so fucking difficult about trying to do the right thing, it isn’t hard to be a decent human being and despite us declaring humans are so cruel etc
We have become the most successful species on this planet because of mutual empathy, co-operation and communication
Of which none seems to be occurring, absolutely sick of the government and their shills in media, education, transport blah blah etc etc
PMQs:
1. Is the BBC impartial – yes or no
2. no? interesting because these whatsapp messages clearly say otherwise – would the (dis) honerable gentleman like to correct the record?
3. Given that the prime minister agrees with me that the BBC should be impartial will he work with cross parties to put in place politically impartial governance at the BBC?
I would say that at the start of the pandemic, public protection was more important than party politics.
It makes sense for any government to seek media assistance in spreading the appropriate advice if there was some basis behind not using the word which would assist in stopping the spread of Covid.
If not….
It’s funny because I saw someone here blame the journalists more than the politicians for bringing us into a lockdown because they pressured no. 10.
The lockdown wording I can maybe sympathise with, but this is just egregious:
>The message reads: “D St complaining that we’re not reflecting Labour’s mess of plan b online. ie Ashworth said it earlier this week, then reversed. Can we turn up the scepticism a bit on this?”
And the literal silencing of Jonathan’s corruption as Mayor of London:
>In an email, a senior editor congratulated correspondents for staying away from the subject of Jennifer Arcuri after the American tech entrepreneur gave an interview to a newspaper in October 2020 appearing to confirm an affair with Johnson, following allegations that he used his position as London mayor to secure favourable treatment for her.
>The message to political correspondents from 17 October 2020 said: “[XXX] did a wonderful job last night keeping us away from this story. I’d like to continue that distance. It’s not a story we should be doing at this stage. Please call me if you’re asked to.”
The BBC has clearly been a puppet of the far right Tories for a decade.
The story here isn’t about the use of the word **Lockdown** but rather the Tory government directly instructing the BBC what they can and can not say.
With the recent controversy surrounding *impartiality* this exposes the lie about the Tories not interfering in the editorial independence of the BBC.
I was thinking about this the other day. The BBC surely has a role to play in crises as the public broadcaster, but what level of crisis warrants heavier government involvement in messaging?
If this country were under threat of invasion and it was looking grim, the BBC being completely objective and factual could cause the collapse of British morale. The Dunkirk evacuation was communicated as a victory, not a defeat – for example. The BBC even describe themselves as a “morale booster and a propaganda weapon” on their webpage describing their role in WW2.
I’d say using the right comms in a pandemic are just as important as in a war. The enemy is much more ambiguous and hard to ‘see’, and people are isolated from one another, so the role of the media in maintaing morale and order is heightened. The narrative needs more work to maintain.
It’s an interesting subject. Personally I’m leaning towards being lenient with the government giving such a directive, considering this was on the first day of lockdown. It was an unprecedented situation and a huge thing to ask the British people to do, so approaching it with an abundance of caution seems sensible.
We need a revolution or something. Our political system is no different than Russia now. We need to weed out all of the parties and start again
Media “too cowed” by government in recent years?
So let me get this right, suddenly there’s outrage that the government was trying to enforce language around Lockdown? Something most of the people whinging about this now were fully in support of and rallied against “lockdown skeptics”?
Nearly every outlet and media entity was pushing the same gov approved narrative r.e. Covid/lockdown. This is a very poor example of the BBC being government controlled.
13 comments
You know I’m so stressed out every day purely because I have to acknowledge the depravity this country has sunk to
I keep getting told that’s the way it’s always been(in regards to people and politics etc), and to not get so worked up
But god damn it I am furious, if as a collective people were as passionately fuming as I am, then perhaps some change could occur
Journalism is broken, our politics is broken, we are nationally depressed to the point of widespread apathy in regards to issues like this
I don’t understand what is so fucking difficult about trying to do the right thing, it isn’t hard to be a decent human being and despite us declaring humans are so cruel etc
We have become the most successful species on this planet because of mutual empathy, co-operation and communication
Of which none seems to be occurring, absolutely sick of the government and their shills in media, education, transport blah blah etc etc
PMQs:
1. Is the BBC impartial – yes or no
2. no? interesting because these whatsapp messages clearly say otherwise – would the (dis) honerable gentleman like to correct the record?
3. Given that the prime minister agrees with me that the BBC should be impartial will he work with cross parties to put in place politically impartial governance at the BBC?
I would say that at the start of the pandemic, public protection was more important than party politics.
It makes sense for any government to seek media assistance in spreading the appropriate advice if there was some basis behind not using the word which would assist in stopping the spread of Covid.
If not….
It’s funny because I saw someone here blame the journalists more than the politicians for bringing us into a lockdown because they pressured no. 10.
The lockdown wording I can maybe sympathise with, but this is just egregious:
>The message reads: “D St complaining that we’re not reflecting Labour’s mess of plan b online. ie Ashworth said it earlier this week, then reversed. Can we turn up the scepticism a bit on this?”
And the literal silencing of Jonathan’s corruption as Mayor of London:
>In an email, a senior editor congratulated correspondents for staying away from the subject of Jennifer Arcuri after the American tech entrepreneur gave an interview to a newspaper in October 2020 appearing to confirm an affair with Johnson, following allegations that he used his position as London mayor to secure favourable treatment for her.
>The message to political correspondents from 17 October 2020 said: “[XXX] did a wonderful job last night keeping us away from this story. I’d like to continue that distance. It’s not a story we should be doing at this stage. Please call me if you’re asked to.”
The BBC has clearly been a puppet of the far right Tories for a decade.
The story here isn’t about the use of the word **Lockdown** but rather the Tory government directly instructing the BBC what they can and can not say.
With the recent controversy surrounding *impartiality* this exposes the lie about the Tories not interfering in the editorial independence of the BBC.
I was thinking about this the other day. The BBC surely has a role to play in crises as the public broadcaster, but what level of crisis warrants heavier government involvement in messaging?
If this country were under threat of invasion and it was looking grim, the BBC being completely objective and factual could cause the collapse of British morale. The Dunkirk evacuation was communicated as a victory, not a defeat – for example. The BBC even describe themselves as a “morale booster and a propaganda weapon” on their webpage describing their role in WW2.
I’d say using the right comms in a pandemic are just as important as in a war. The enemy is much more ambiguous and hard to ‘see’, and people are isolated from one another, so the role of the media in maintaing morale and order is heightened. The narrative needs more work to maintain.
It’s an interesting subject. Personally I’m leaning towards being lenient with the government giving such a directive, considering this was on the first day of lockdown. It was an unprecedented situation and a huge thing to ask the British people to do, so approaching it with an abundance of caution seems sensible.
We need a revolution or something. Our political system is no different than Russia now. We need to weed out all of the parties and start again
Media “too cowed” by government in recent years?
So let me get this right, suddenly there’s outrage that the government was trying to enforce language around Lockdown? Something most of the people whinging about this now were fully in support of and rallied against “lockdown skeptics”?
Nearly every outlet and media entity was pushing the same gov approved narrative r.e. Covid/lockdown. This is a very poor example of the BBC being government controlled.
Worth adding at the time the government was also [giving money to private media companies](https://bylineinvestigates.com/2020/06/03/exclusive-35m-covid-cash-fund-dominated-by-big-media-while-small-publishers-struggle/) presumably in return for favourable coverage.
seriously, how are viewers meant to think of the BBC as anything other than a Tory mouth piece?
BBC articles really need to come with a “this article was funded by the UK government” warning.