Beware of media selection and influence!

The World and people in the UK need to know about the horrendous suffering and war crimes being perpetrated in Ukraine. But it is not the only news which we need to be aware of.  Rather than all the broadcasters and media outlets concentrating almost solely on the crisis in Ukraine, and in neighbouring countries, we also need to know about matters such as…

• The plight, and progress of releasing, of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe;

• The Iran nuclear ‘crisis’;

• The slaughter of innocents in Yemen and Palestine;

• The US airstrikes in Syria (e.g. 26 February this year)

• The police investigation into partygate and the law breaking that has taken place there;

• The corruption and Russian sponsorship of the Tory party;

• The Russian involvement in the Brexit referendum and UK and US general elections;

• The Russian involvement in UK domestic politics (the ‘Russia report’);

• The Russian connections and influence of Banks, Wigmore and the Vote Leave organisation;

• Progress made or not by the UK and other nations, on their COP actions and funding;

• The granting of oil and gas extraction licences in North Sea by the UK government;

• Climate change mitigations and pollution control;

• Politicians and ‘celebrities’ climate change hypocrisy;

• The use and damage of the polar regions and sites of global sensitivity such as the Galapogas islands by hedonistic tourist companies;

• The insider dealing and Panama papers expose of senior politicians;

• The UK cost of living crisis;

• The NI assembly and elections;

• The NI border with the EU and the now fragility of the good Friday peace agreement

• The refugee crisis affecting northern France and southern England;

• The French elections;

• The NHS staffing and funding and how we can deal with the backlog;

• The WHO and ONS monitoring of the Covid disease and the timing of new variants;

• The parliamentary bills affecting the NHS, the Police and Crime bills, Education, etc etc

• The immoral detention of asylum seekers and refugees (eg Hassockfield, Yarls Wood);

• The criminalisation of refugees;

• The difficulties being experienced by EU citizens living in the UK, and those of UK citizens living within the EU;

• The shortage of people to fill vacancies within the UK labour market;

• Market closures and business failures due to political decisions;

• The difficulties faced by importers and exporters; the costs, delays and queues at Dover and Calais;

• Flood defences;

• How the UK power, water, gas and telecoms infrastructures are-being /need-to-be made more resilient;

• Energy strategy including funding of ‘green’ developments; especially tidal and Fusion development;

• The levelling up strategy (pah!!!);

• Etc etc etc etc… I’m sure I could add more but I think the point is made!

Yes, reporting on the war in Ukraine is essential broadcasting, but so are ALL the above (whatever our individual ‘takes’ on these are) and many more I’ve missed off.  How aware of the above topics are you?

The media can and does greatly influence what people think of a topic. Reflect upon feelings towards Michael Jackson compared to the vilification of Gary Glitter (both are/were paedophiles), the mass hysteria upon Diana’s death, the commentary about the EU, the baseless attacks of anti-semitism on Jeremy Corbyn, the complete silence on the anti-muslim sentiment endemic in the Tory party; the views of Russia etc etc.  

Some may remember the front page from April 1992 of the Sun newspaper: ”It’s the Sun wot won it” after the Conservative party 1992 general election win. They had campaigned vociferously and relentlessly against the Labour party leader Neil Kinnock (…and they did the same against Jeremy Corbyn – e.g. the fake pictures of him wearing Russian hats).

Thinking for ourselves

We all like to think we think for ourselves. But how often do we? How often do we allow ourselves to just accept, without question, what the media want to tell us? How much do we miss?

Be aware and wary of the filtering, censoring and agendas of all media outputs.  We all depend upon balanced, comprehensive and unbiased reporting.  But we must use our own critical thinking skills because despite what they claim, all outlets are biased. None are unbiased. 

Let’s not allow our media, and especially the vacillating and deliberately misleading words from our so-called politicians, sweep these very important matters under the carpet.

BBC, SKY,  ITV, CHANNEL 4 are you listening?