Comment
Last Friday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn received an award – jointly with world-famous author and activist Noam Chomsky – from the International Peace Bureau (IPB) for his “sustained and powerful political work for disarmament and peace”.
It was ignored completely by the mainstream media (MSM) – even days later.
However, the SKWAWKBOX’s article on it went viral.
The Establishment was forced to react. Right-wing bots, trolls and sockpuppets came out in force to defend the MSM – by attacking the article, the messenger, even the importance of the award and of the international organisation that made it – but made their agenda all too obvious.
Channel 4’s FactCheck decided it was fair for the MSM to ignore the award because they usually ignore it – which itself ignored the pertinent question: would they have ignored it if Theresa May had (impossibly) won it?
The answer is, of course, straightforward: it’s unimaginable that it wouldn’t have been a half-hourly item on rolling news stations, as well as all over the print media and in flagship news programmes. That in itself became part of the story.
Right-wing MPs and some mainstream journalists also defended the silence and attacked the SKWAWKBOX for daring to suggest – even in passing, as in this case – that the MSM was behaving in an uneven way by its silence when the leader of the UK’s official opposition party wins a peace prize from one of the world’s most venerable peace federations.
Attempts by the Establishment to defend itself are nothing new. But one striking aspect of ‘the case of the unmentioned award’ is how clearly it exemplifies and illustrates the impact and importance now of the ‘new left media’ (NLM) to the UK’s political landscape and narrative.
Before Saturday tea-time, almost nobody in the UK knew Jeremy Corbyn had won the IPB award – nor had any idea that the MSM were not telling them.
A single, very short – only 266 words – article, picked up later by NLM outlets Evolve Politics, the Canary and others, changed the narrative dramatically. By the end of the weekend, based on reads, shares, impressions of the NLM articles and social media trends, the information had reached millions of people.
And people were talking not only about the fact of the award, but about the MSM’s failure – or decision not – to provide them with that information and the significance of that fact.
Small wonder, then, that this morning’s press front pages are full of scare-mongering and smears about the dangers of social media. As well-known activist ‘The Artist Taxi-Driver’ and others observed, the Establishment really, really doesn’t want UK people getting their information via social media and the NLM:
https://twitter.com/brownd861/status/940541558817984513
Once again Chunky Mark hits the nail on the head. MSM running scared of social media so they organise an attack on Twitter & Facebook Skwawkbox etc etc. They don’t like you finding altv sources of news cos they lose influence. Yay!! https://t.co/n4v44hgRdv
— POP (@samcro1882) December 12, 2017
The Tories and their Ratbag Right Wing Corporate Fascist Media are scared of Social Media because for the first time in history people’s voices are being heard louder than their dark propaganda of hate pic.twitter.com/ZSMqacJOws
— ARTIST TAXI DRIVER (@chunkymark) December 12, 2017
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Listening to the BBC radio news summary this morning one could be forgiven for thinking that item 2 (immediately after the confirmation by the US ambassador of Trump’s UK visit) that “nearly all the possible trading relationships between Britain and the European Union following Brexit would be less favourable than staying in the European Union, according to an influential US think tank,” was “news.” NO IT IS NOT: It is the opinion of one of the most deeply anti-socialist organisations in the world – The Rand Corporation.
https://www.alternet.org/story/83910/the_rand_corporation%3A_america%27s_university_of_imperialism
An utterly disgraceful reply from the BBC that completely missed the points I raised with them. I guess from their reply they are struggling to find any justification not to cover it.
“Thank you for contacting us regarding our recent news coverage.
We understand that you feel there has been insufficient coverage of Jeremy Corbyn’s speech at the UN on Friday 8th December and insufficient coverage of him being awarded the Séan MacBride Peace Prize.
Many speeches and award ceremonies take place around the world every week. We decide which ones to cover on a case by case basis, taking into account their strength as a news story relative to the day’s other events. There will sometimes be disagreements about whether we should have covered certain stories, and the prominence we give to others, but we’re sorry you were disappointed that we did not report on this particular event.
Please be assured that your comments have been passed to the News team and we appreciate the time you’ve taken to get in touch.
Kind Regards
BBC Complaints Team
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints“
People are waking up to the real facts that the Establishment are continuing austerity for mo other reason that to transfer wealth from the masses to the few.
Since Jeremy has taken on the Establishment, they’ve taken fright. They’ll be even more scared when he’s in No10.
I fully expect the Intelligence services to be involved in trying to keep the Tories om power mo matter the cost.
Who checks the liars, right wing spinners and the ‘fact checkers’? Answer – the NLM
I wish Chunky Mark would do e-mail bulletins like this site. He only seems to do them via Twitter and it’ll be a cold day in hell before I sign up for that malarky!
Meanwhile in the real world – councils in Hereford and Gloucester and midlands take days off and cancel services, close schools, leaving communities with no access antwhere due to snow – no roads gritted, no electricity supplies, no postman, no deliveries – many households left cut off whilst councils have fun – third rate britain in 2017 doesn’t care about the population just wants to make money – local councils are the enemy of the people
Sorry but I disagree the real enemy of the people are the TORIES , their policies are what is now being felt by people at local level via their local councils with many Labour councils trying very hard to protect its local populace but failing due to the deliberate cuts imposed by this Tory Govt known as Austerity.
As for people who voted for local Tory Councils then fxxkem the get what they deserve and no sympathy should be extended to the likes of them idiots other than to point out again and again the effects of their stupid vote ,,,, long may the suffer till they see sense and vote Labour .
Tory cuts are the enemy of the people. Blairite councillors are a problem, but govt policies are the most toxic issue
jazza: Are you implying that the Establishment’s/Tories austerity measures are having no effect on the poor and the sick and the elderly and disabled. Everything is just hunky-dory is it. What a pile of claptrap nonsence your post is.
And I assume you have evidence which you can provide us with regards ‘councils having fun’. No, of course you can’t because it’s all complete codswallop. Try The Sun, or the Mail or the Express, you might have a bit more luck there with such unadulterated propaganda piffle.
And talking of the Mail, a few weeks ago I was checking out something on their website – I’m pretty sure it was in relation to Clive Lewis and the (false and concocted) allegation made against him about grabbing a woman’s butt when they hugged (or maybe Kelvin Hopkins) – and after reading the article, I started reading through some of the comments – ie the highest rated – and was taken aback to see that the people defending him were getting thousands of likes (up arrows), and those that were spewing forth vitriol were not, and then I got so far, and it suddenly reversed, and of course I then realised that The Mail wangles it, and that whoever was doing it that day initially got it the wrong way round. I’m sure I saved it, but I haven’t been able to find it yet. If I do, I’ll post a link. And someone who had obviously posted a comment, and then come back a couple of hours later, posted another comment to say – in disbelief – that in those couple of hours lots of posts had received several thousand up-votes each.
It’s an obvious ploy once you realise they’re doing it, and they’re doing it for the obvious reason. And no doubt many of the ‘negative’ comments are written and posted by the DM’s trolls, as they are on the Daily Express, and The Sun, no doubt (although there’s rarely many comments posted in The Sun in relation to political matters).
How very odd! I thought I would just do a quick search on the DM website re Clive Lewis, and see if I could find the article I referred to above, and lo and behold it’s just been announced today that the NEC have cleared him of any wrong-doing. The article itself is factual, but their shills are putting the boot in, in the Comments section. Surprise, surprise!
The Daily Express is much the same, with their shills doing the dirty work:
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/891186/Clive-Lewis-MP-Labour-sexual-harassment-wife-jeremy-corbyn
It’s interesting to note that in the DE article it says the following (which I don’t recall coming across at the time):
‘The woman said she did not make a complaint initially because she didn’t initially feel upset by what happened but later decided to report the incident.’
Yeah, yeah, of course. And in the Mail she’s a ‘Party delegate’ and in the Express she’s a ‘Party member’. I’m just gonna check The Sun……..
Not much to report:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5119204/labour-mp-clive-lewis-cleared-of-sexual-harassment-claim-that-he-grabbed-a-womans-bottom/
Reblogged this on sdbast.
Who do we blame THE RIGHT, THE FASCISTS, THE TORIES!
THAT’S WHO WE BLAME!
OUR MONEY, FUNDS THEIR TAX, REFUNDS, THAT THEY GIVE DIRECTLY TO THEIR RICH FRIENDS AND RELATIVES!
WE, THE LABOUR LEFT, ALONG WITH OUR LEADER, JC, PLUS HIS COMRADES AND FRIENDS ON THE FRONT BENCH, NEED A CONCERTED PUSH AGAINST ALL THOSE WHO ARE DOING THERE LYING BEST TO BRING US TO OUR KNEES!
WE TRIED NEOLIBERALISM UNDER TORY BLAIR (THATCHERS BASTARD SON) HE DIDN’T WORK FOR US THE ORDINARY PEOPLE WHO PUT HIM IN PARLIAMENT!
HE GOT VERY CHUMMY WITH MURDOCK AND HIS EMPIRE!
EVERYTHING WENT DOWNHILL AT THE END OF HIS LEADERSHIP! HE AND THOSE POLITICIANS WHO VOTED FOR WAR WITH IRAQ ALONG WITH THE LIES AND SPIN, BEING THE SAME AS, THE TORIES!
NOT FORGETTING THE EXPENSES SCANDAL!
RIGHT NOW, IT’S WORSE THAN IT’S EVER BEEN!
I see the BBC is rather arrogantly replying to complaints with the corporate equivalent of – Who on do you think you are to have the temerity to question our editorial policy.
“Complaint
We received complaints from people who felt there was insufficient coverage of Jeremy Corbyn’s speech at the UN and insufficient coverage of him being awarded the Séan MacBride Peace Prize.
Response
Many speeches and award ceremonies take place around the world every week. We decide which ones to cover on a case by case basis, taking into account their strength as a news story relative to the day’s other events. There will sometimes be disagreements about whether we should have covered certain stories, and the prominence we give to others.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/complaint/lackofcoveragejcspeechaward/
Reblogged this on domestic empire.