LONDON (Labour Buzz) - Jeremy Corbyn launched his peace project at the weekend vowing to fight for a free, accountable media. It’s a fight in which we all have an interest because never before has media accountability been in such danger. Corporate interests and right-wing extremism are joining forces to take us down a very dark path.
To see how dark, we just need to look at Fox News in the US. Since its launch, it has been a megaphone for climate deniers, right-wing extremism and fake news.
American Horror Story
Fox has been central to the Trump project from the very beginning. It amplified the birther conspiracies which fuelled his rise, it spread his lies, spread his hate and coordinated attacks against his enemies.
A recent case it settled with the family of a murdered DNC staffer shows there are no depths to which it will not sink.
When DNC staffer Seth Richards, was murdered just a few feet from his door, Fox, Breitbart and other right-wing outlets spread false claims that it was he who leaked official emails rather than Russian intelligence agents seeking to tip the election in favour of Donald Trump.
Not only did they cynically exploit a man’s death to spread their lies, but they also worked with the Trump campaign while doing it. Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer and Trump were given heads up about the story before it appeared.
Last year in the final straight of the campaign, Fox effectively admitted it had lied and reached a settlement with his family. However, even then they worked to protect Trump. A clause insisted news of the case be kept secret until after the election.
Since the election, it has continued to promote the Trump project, falsely supporting claims that November’s election was rigged.
Make no mistake Fox served as a radicalisation tool for white supremacists every bit as much as hate preachers serve to radicalise their own followers. The inevitable result arrived in the attack on the Capitol as a white mob descended intent on killing elected officials. It was nothing short of an attempted coup and, while its commentators may feign innocence, Fox played a central role.
It’s even more remarkable that having seen those scenes, the UK wants to bring the poison of Fox to our shores.
The British Fox
That’s what two new right-wing networks are attempting to do. The first from Rupert Murdoch recently received the go-ahead from Ofcom and aims to be on the air for four or five hours every night.
Another project GB News headed up by the former BBC interviewer Andrew Neil is racing to beat it onto the air.
Both channels should worry us. Murdoch has been a cancer at the heart of global media for decades. Andre Neil, meanwhile, recently left the BBC in a fit of pique over what he sees as left-wing bias. Neil chairs the Spectator which serves as the respectable face of right-wing extremism. The magazine supported Donald Trump in his fight against election reality, regularly pumps out Islamophobia and has been the UK’s most vocal cheerleader for Donald Trump.
Even more disturbing are the people funding his new channel. It comes with more than £60 million in capital from wealthy donors whose connections are questionable, to say the least. One of their major shareholders is the Dubai Based investment group Legatum which funds the right-wing think tank the Legatum Institute. Known for pushing hard Brexit, the charity was set up by Christopher Chandler, a New Zealand born tycoon who was accused in 2018 by a cross-party group of MPs of working for Russian Intelligence.
Fuelling hate
These two new channels represent the latest assault on a free, accountable and responsible media.
Over the course of the last decade, the right’s domination of the media has become almost total. The government has repeatedly attacked the BBC and called its future into question.
The top ranks of the Beeb are now being filled with Tory supporters. The new chairman Richard Sharp donated more than £400,000 to the Conservative Party.
He also donates to the controversial Quilliam group which in 2017 produced a much-debunked report which linking child grooming gangs to Islam. The report was criticised by academics and the Home Office’s most recent report which found no over-representation of Muslims among child sex offenders.
The new director-general of the BBC Tim Davie was a former Conservative candidate. He clamped down on BBC staff expressing political opinions even going so far as to advise gay members of staff not to attend Pride marches.
Mysteriously though, he seemed comfortable with the Twitter output of Andrew Neil.
Ofcom, meanwhile, is now headed by the former editor of the Daily Mail Paul Dacre which is a bit like putting Fred ‘the shred’ Goodwin in charge of the FCA.
This is taking us in an extremely dangerous direction. For all its problems, the British political landscape is nowhere near as toxic as America. Boris Johnson has not told people to drink bleach to get rid of COVID 19, and he hasn’t told his supporters to deny the results of an election.
However, he has moved us along that path. Already his government has helped its friends profiteer from the crisis and stoked anger against lawyers, something which has led to at least one attack.
What’s happening in the USA should be a warning to us all. Johnson and his cronies have pushed us in the same direction. Andrew Neil and Rupert Murdoch’s new ventures aim to accelerate that move.
Stopping them is crucial to the future of democracy in the UK, but it’s a daunting task. The right-wing media juggernaut is powered by million-pound donations. To counter that power, Corbyn has in the past suggested a taxpayer-funded digital corporation to counter corporate power. At Bywire we’re also doing our bit bringing independent media together to stand against corporate interests.
Doing so represents the brightest hope. Corporate interests have leapt eagerly into bed with right-wing extremism. Andrew Neil, Rupert Murdoch and their corporate backers are happy to unleash all sorts of toxic forces to further their interests. The fight against them will be a fight for the future of the country.
(Written by Tom Cropper, edited by Klaudia Fior)