The mainstream media is decaying terribly. If they ever were the public guardians who hold the powerful to account they imagine themselves to be, they are no longer.
Vast swathes of the print media are nothing more than smear-mongering pro-establishment Tory propaganda sheets.
The BBC is an absolute joke with their transparently fake "impartiality" that sees monstoring Diane Abbott for getting her numbers mixed up as worthy being lead item on the TV news for an entire day, but Theresa May's deliberate calculated lie about Labour's immigration policies as nothing more than a tiny footnote in their coverage.
Once respected publications of the left (Guardian, New Internationalist) and right (Telegraph, Economist) have been sliding inexorably towards the political gutter as they pursue website clicks with absolute clickbait tat, rather than pursuing the powerful establishment elites (that most of their journalists went to the same private schools and Oxbridge colleges as).
Thus the onus has fallen ever more onto a small band of independent media sites and citizen journalists to hold the powerful to account.
The following Twitter thread is from the comedian and script writer Jack Bernhardt. He openly admits to being "no expert" but in one Twitter thread he's given a clearer description of the absolute mess in Northern Irish politics than anything I've seen in the mainstream media (before or after Theresa May's vanity election).
I'm sure that you'll agree that that's far a more informative and engaging description of the absolute mess that is brewing in Northern Ireland under Theresa May's negligent and self-serving leadership than most of the gubbins in the mainstream press.
The only significant correction to make is the fact that Sinn Féin demanded that Arlene Foster resign as First Minister of Northern Ireland, not as head of her own party. But then the guy openly admits to not being an expert, so he's perfectly entitled to a relatively insignificant error in a tide of the kind of factual information and cogent analysis the mainstream media has failed to deliver.
I'd love to see what percentage of the mainstream media of Northern Ireland during Theresa May's vanity election was Corbyn-smearing, and what percentage was on the chaotic politician situation there. May guess would be well above 90% smearmongering & counter-smearmongering, and lstt than 10% proper political analysis.
In subsequent Twitter comments Jack Bernhardt said that it was "seriously scary" that English politicians and journalists were quote Tweeting his thread saying they didn't know about the details of the situation in Northern Ireland.
It's not his job to explain this stuff, but somehow he's done it so much better than the people whose job it actually is (journalists and politicians) that they're quote Tweeting him!
You can follow Jack Bernhardt on Twitter here: Jack Bernhardt
You can follow the Northern Ireland expert he suggests here: Siobhan Fenton
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