The Socialist 21 January 2009 No more bailouts for bosses! Fast news: My Lords, Ladies and cash dispenser Gaza war paves way for further conflict Protesting against Gaza attacks Egypt: Gaza conflict fuels anti-Mubarak opposition Readers' comment: media reporting on Gaza Fighting the cuts in Greenwich Shop workers need a fighting trade union leadership Hoover workers march in protest at job losses Obama takes power: What change will the Democrats bring? Refugees and repression in war ravaged Sri Lanka Exiled Zimbabweans demand Brown acts Capitalism kills, concludes study of privatisation era Opposing the expansion of Heathrow Waltham Forest anti-incinerator campaign: Residents get results Campaigners fight attacks on education and the environment What's going on? The meanderings of a comic mind in confusion, by Mark Steel |
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Home | The Socialist 21 January 2009 | Join the Socialist Party Readers' commentWhen it comes to reporting on Gaza the conservative and liberal news media and the United Nations seemed to be lapping up the sour milk offered to the world by Egyptian president Mubarak and France's Nicolas Sarkozy, as if it were the only viable opinion on offer. Richard Bell, Bristol ISR and Socialist PartyIf views such as those of the Socialist Party were given equal levels of exposure and treated as seriously as those of the imperialists you wonder whether the world would be in as deep a quagmire as it is in now. In the UK, even the more 'liberal' news outlets, such as The Independent and The Guardian sought to defuse the situation by calling for a truce in Gaza rather than a solution that could meet the actual needs of the ordinary people of Israel, Palestine and the rest of the Middle East. What sickens me is the fact that 'celebrity' and 'entertainment' stories, in some news broadcasts, got a higher billing than the Gaza conflict. Many of today's younger generation would find it difficult to even locate Israel-Palestine on a map of the world. This is not down to stupidity, but rather ignorance due to the failings of the Thatcherite-Blairite education system, a system which has been deliberately fostering apathy in politics as a means of preventing dissent. Many young people have the desire to become active against capitalism's crimes but become worn down and understandably cynical towards politicians and the media, feeling nothing can be done. I have consistently been demanding better coverage for serious world news stories and a reduction in the coverage given to trivial matters from the supposed champion of public service broadcasting, the BBC. For instance, the Congo wars have cost the world millions of lives and continue to result in the loss of literally thousands a day. Yet you will find it hard to find many Britons who know that this continuous series of conflicts only lags behind the two world wars in terms of numbers of casualties or participating nations. Only the other day the BBC reported the demise of Wedgwood, but attempted to comfort the viewer by stating that Wedgwood 'only' employed 600 of their workforce within the UK. For one thing the word 'only' must make those UK employees feel insignificant, and for another, why is the loss of work to the more than 1,000 Indonesian staff not a matter for serious concern? The BBC's responses to my complaints on these occasions were dismissive, stating that at all times it concentrated its efforts on reporting stories that met with public interest. How do they judge what the public interest is? If the public are not given the information in the first instance by the media, then they will never have the opportunity to develop an interest and, in the case of the Wedgwood story, what was said of the interests of the 600 UK workers? Role of the mediaThe news media is determined to pacify the British public. By concentrating the public imagination on celebrities and providing a false comfort blanket of untrue-to-life soap operas and talent competitions where the dream of fame and fortune is the prize. One thing that ties the plight of the workers of the world together is the level of control that is placed upon their lives by the news and media corporations. Whether it is Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, Viscount Rothmere's Daily Mail & General Trust or the Barclay Brothers' (who even attempted to use their financial power to rig elections in their favour on their island home of Sark) Telegraph Group, they are all determined to crush dissenters under news print or drown them out with televised drivel in order to further their undemocratic hold over the supposedly democratic governments of the capitalist 'west'. In this issue
War and occupation
Socialist Party campaigns
Socialist Party feature
International socialist news and analysis
Environment and socialism
Socialist Students Socialist Party review
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