Thursday 23 August 2018

Guido Fawkes' interpretation of Jeremy Corbyn's media strategy is blatant 'fake news'


When Jeremy Corbyn announced his plan to empower independent media sources, fund the BBC through a social media tax, democratise the BBC Board of Directors, and give investigative journalists more Freedom of Information powers it was obvious that defenders of the hard-right neoliberal orthodoxy would react with fits of outrage.

Nowhere was that blind right-wing fury more evident than in the Guido Fawkes hate-chamber.

By offering to strip away government control over who sits on the BBC Board of Directors, and to significantly increase Freedom of Information powers for investigative journalists, Corbyn's proposals actually represent a loosening of state control over the media - but you certainly wouldn't know that from the breathless fear-mongering diatribe on the Guido Fawkes blog.

As things stand now the government of the day gets to choose four members of the BBC Board, who then go on to pick the other ten members between them.

What Corbyn is proposing is that licence fee payers and BBC staff should get representation on the BBC Board, which means that if he becomes Prime Minister he'll be giving away his government's ability to hand-pick the BBC Board.

But somehow the deranged hard-right liars at the Guido Fawkes blog have turned this power-giveaway into a terrifying Corbyn power-grab that would see "left-wing activist cranks would get editorial control of the BBC and Laura Kuenssberg would be burnt at the stake".

So the Guido Fawkes analysis is that if the public are allowed to choose who sits on the BBC Board they'd pick more left-wing representatives than Corbyn would pick himself?

And people are thick enough to fall for this drivel?


As for Kuennsberg. The fact that she's still in her job at the BBC after being found guilty of inventing "fake news" is a sign of how dysfunctional the BBC has become.

Perhaps if BBC journalists knew that the BBC Board is made up of elected officials and their fellow BBC staff members with an interest in protecting their own reputations, they'd be a little bit more afraid of the consequences of inventing highly partisan fake news items?

Then consider Corbyn's proposal to scrap the process of BBC Charter renewal. That would remove his own ability to use the threat of cutbacks to demand loyalty from the BBC (as previous governments have done).

How on earth, other than by lying through your teeth, is it possible to present such an obvious removal of government influence over BBC output as a terrifying power-grab.


Then there's this absolute drivel "Profitable news outlets are fearless because they know they don’t have to bend the knee to survive".

We've all seen how mainstream media outlets bend their coverage to suit the interests of their billionaire-owners, and how politicians from Thatcher through to May have gone grovelling before the right-wing media moguls like Murdoch, Harmsworth, and the Barclay brothers in return for partisan political support.

We've also seen how wealthy advertisers have pressurised these "profitable" mainstream media organisations into dropping critical coverage (like HSBC did with the Telegraph, and how the despicable Saudi tyrants do with swathes of the mainstream media).

So not only do the hard-right Guido hacks try to present Corbyn's power-giveaway as a power-grab, they also sing from the corporate mainstream media hymn sheet that mainstream media outlets never "bend their knee" to the political ideology of their owners, or the whims of their advertisers!

In conclusion the Guido hack writes that "The hard-left and their opponents agree on one thing, a free press stands in their way of transforming society…". 

In a way this part is actually true, except the terms they use are loaded as hell.

It's beyond obvious that the shockingly right-wing biased mainstream media would do absolutely everything in their power to stop Jeremy Corbyn from transforming society.

  • They'll oppose his new proposal to democratise the BBC.
  • They'll oppose his proposal to support and encourage more independent journalism.
  • And they'll definitely oppose his proposal to allow investigative journalists to submit freedom of information requests to find out what's going on with all the dodgy private sector outsourcing companies making £billions from the public purse.
But in regards to all of this hostility from the right-wing press barons Corbyn isn't actually proposing a crackdown on the corporate mainstream media at all, he's actually offering to give up his own power to pick the BBC Board of Directors should he become Prime Minister, and to give investigative journalists more powers to investigate what his government is up to!

But somehow the fake news merchants at the Guido Fawkes blog have reversed reality in order to present Corbyn's power-giveaway as a power-grab, and his policy of empowering independent and investigative journalists as an attack on the free press!


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