Mainstream media vs Jeremy Corbyn, Labour – and us
JVL Introduction
One of the Guardian’s saving graces is the occasional column by Gary Younge…
“We have all become so inured to the naked rightwing partisanship of the British press that it barely registers beyond a knowing shrug,” he writes
The mainstream media is part of the corporate world and will protect its own. Recall how Michael Foot, Neil Kinnock, Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband were savaged. But never quite like Corbyn today, feared as no other Labour leader before.
Yes, bemoan the power of the right-wing press, but circumnavigate it as well, says Younge. Social media has created new spaces for our voices and grassroots campaigning gives us the capacity to challenge preconceptions on the doorstep through canvassing.
The system is stacked against us – but we can still win!
This article was originally published by Guardian on Fri 15 Nov 2019. Read the original here.
The Tories can’t win without the press. This isn’t how democracy works
The power of the rightwing press has corroded public debate. But we can do more than just complain about it
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I have great respect for Gary Younge as a journalist.
But have you noticed the one specific glaring omission in this article on press fabrication? Even Guardian journalists of otherwise impeccable credentials will pay obeisance to the Labour ‘antisemitism’ myth – either by silence, as here, or by casual mention of it as a given founded in truth.
In many ways, it has become the most astounding illustration of an unfree press in this country, even amongst the so-called ‘liberal’ organs like The Guardian and the New Statesman who operate an implicit censorship worthy of any tin-pot dictatorship.
How many reviews of ‘Bad News for Labour’ have you read?
Absolutely agree with Richard Hayward. Gary Younge stands out for his consistency, his honesty, his meticulously researched material – except when it comes to antisemitism and the British Labour Party, where he too takes it as a given that a/s is a serious problem within the Party. He doesn’t explain, he doesnt justify, doesnt evidence, just assumes. I have written to him about this but have been ignored.
I agree . I was dismayed when Younge joined the witch-hunt, or at least refused to condemn it.
He’s leaving The Guardian, by the way.
Your description of the antisemitism myth as something that comes up by “casual mention of it as a given founded in truth” is absolutely spot on. Not only does this occur in liberal journalism (Gary Younge, Owen Jones, George Monbiot (inconsistently) and many other Guardian journalists) , but in mainstream comedy on television and radio.
This routine acceptance of a lie is one of the things I find most disturbing and presumably Jewish people who are taken in by it will perhaps understandably freak out if Labour manages to get elected. On the other hand, if Labour fails and these smears are perceived to have played a role in that failure (viz, the Campaign Against Antisemitsm demo “against antisemitsm” on December 8th), then there could definitely be a real rise in antisemitism amongst the more ignorant and prejudiced of Labour’s supporters. That would be a disaster and is an indication of the damage several pro-Zionist organisations in Britain are causing.
It would be interesting to find out from such people as Hugh Dennis and Nish Kumar, to give two examples amongst many, how they have picked up the “meme”, whether they have actually done any research into the issue and what they think has been and will be the effect of propagating these lies over the airwaves.
Richard Hayward is spot on. The row about anti-Semitism is brilliantly analysed by the “Bad News for Labour” book, yet is has received virtually no exposure in the media. The whole episode is a brilliant example of Gary Young’s excellent argument about media bias. Check out the JVL website for an alternative view!
This excellent piece by Kitty Jones is well worth reading:
Media misrepresentations of the Labour party are being used strategically to create left wing folk devils and moral panic
https://politicsandinsights.org/2019/11/17/letter-endorsing-jeremy-corbyn-signed-by-key-public-figures-and-credible-jewish-academics/
Excellent article from Gary Younge.