Tagged with Media Bias

Elections – a right-wing fairy tale

spectatoronlansmanThe lowest form of political exchange is one in which arguments are raised to knock down views allegedly held by a political adversary even though there is no evidence the he/she has ever held such views. This  tactic can gain traction with constant repetition through various media (“repeat a lie a thousand times …”). It needs to be countered at every opportunity. An example is provided by the absurd claim that the Labour left is not interested in winning elections. Owen Smith turned his hand to exploiting this particular theme in a recent Observer article. He wrote

… our popularity with the electorate is in steep decline and Jeremy’s complacency about this is unforgivable. His supporters, such as Diane Abbott, might feel it’s “Westminster-centric” to worry about winning, but securing democratic power is what Labour was set up to do.

This is a reference to comments made by Diane Abbott in a Radio 4 interview with Sarah Montague for the Today programme. The claim that she dismissed elections as unimportant has been relayed through the press and social media. The Spectator blog reported it under the headline “Diane Abbott says it’s ‘Westminster-centric’ to ask if Corbyn can win an election”. In fact she said no such thing. Continue reading →

The Left needs to unpack what “Electability” really means

Blair-ClintonThe candidacy of Jeremy Corbyn for the Labour Party leadership has stimulated the party’s old debate surrounding the Left and “electability”: supporters of the Islington North MP claim that elections are won by a clear and confident statement of one’s ideas, whilst opponents universally claim that elections are won, always and in any circumstance, by limitless and feral Right-wingery, which is referred to as occupying the “centre ground”.

The version of history used to support the latter claim is often selective and disingenuous: New Labour is portrayed as Labour’s first attempt at a “centre-ground” strategy, rather than a third attempt after two instances of abject failure under Neil Kinnock, the original “moderniser”. Forgotten, too, is the way in which Labour’s long-term demographic base and its reservoir of public good will were steady and disastrously eroded by the same Blairite/Brownite political machine that had successfully delivered the goods in 1997. Continue reading →

The BBC needs defending as well as attacking

BBC NewsCongrats to the TUC’s Duncan Weldon on his appointment as Newsnight’s economics editor. But not everyone is wishing him well. The Tories have made their displeasure known. The Daily Mail aren’t happy either. They’re carrying on as if Yevgeni Preobrazhensky has been appointed. This is Buggers Broadcasting Communism, after all. Replying, Owen Jones has highlighted some evidence that shows far from being a hive of socialist counter-hegemony, the BBC is pro-establishment and mainly rightwing. The response from The Speccie is “yeah, but the BBC is suffused with liberal bias” – characteristically producing no back it up as per usual. Then Tom Chivers has a stab at being reasonable, noting that the left moan about rightwing bias and the right gripe about lefty bias. Continue reading →

The Daily Mail – a vile product

Could this be the most disgusting headline to have hit news stands since The Sun‘s coverage of Hillsborough? The dehumanising of the children (“bred 17 babies”), the welfare-baiting headline, the sideswipe at social workers; seldom has a tragedy been exploited so brazenly and cynically to score political points. And for the judgement to land at the very moment the government are actively impoverishing hundreds of thousands of low paid workers, unemployed people, and the disabled, it’s enough to give those of us who aren’t of a conspiratorial turn of mind pause. Continue reading →

Mail on Sunday in smear attempt on John O’Farrell

The Mail on Sunday, in a disgraceful smear on Labour’s candidate in the Eastleigh by-election, John O’Farrell, have grossly distorted words used in Things can only get better, his comic account of “eighteen miserable years in the life of a Labour supporter” under Thatcher and Major to claim that “he wished Margaret Thatcher had been murdered in the IRA attack on Brighton’s Grand Hotel.” Andrew Neill has since joined the attack.

O’Farrell’s book is in any case a piece of comedy, though it deals with serious issues – “the heartbreaking and hilarious confessions of someone who has been actively involved in helping the Labour Party lose elections at every level“. However, his words were not only taken out of that context but their meaning was also seriously distorted. Continue reading →