Carole Cadwalladr and Channel
4’s exposure of the Cambridge Analytica scandal reminded me of the legendary
Washington Post editor, Ben Bradlee. Commenting on his role in exposing Watergate, he said,
“The
more complicated the issues and the more sophisticated the ways to
disguise the truth, the more aggressive our search for truth must be”.
When I advised the
broadcast media on editorial ethics, I used this quote – a lot, but never before
has the role of the media as honest broker been more crucial to the wellbeing
of democracy, than now.
Listening to Cambridge
Analytica’s recently sacked boss, Etonian old boy Alexander Nix, boasting about
propagating the digital landscape with lies, fear and hate, to win elections,
was chilling. To mitigate against these fake news propagandists, actual
journalism must be underpinned by facts and unfettered by favour.
While Channel 4 conducted a
masterclass in broadcast journalism this week, the BBC’s flagship current
affairs programme, Newsnight,
became mired in an unedifying controversy over its handling of Labour’s
response to Theresa May’s Russia ultimatum. The choice of backdrop (a red
infused picture of Jeremy Corbyn in a hat, as opposed to a suit, in front of
the Kremlin) betrayed a crisis in editorial judgement. Irrespective of whether
the BBC intended to frame Jeremy Corbyn as a “Russian Stooge”, the risks of
that perception should have been apparent and intercepted.
When dealing with a highly
charged and politically sensitive incident, such as a chemical attack, licence
fee payers expect probity and integrity in the BBC’s handling of it.
Two days before Theresa May
issued her ultimatum to Russia, a Survation poll put Labour 7 points ahead of the Tories and showed that 60% of those
polled had had enough of austerity, including almost half of Tory voters. The
same week, Philip Hammond scrapped free school meals for 1 million children in
poverty, Unilever announced it was moving its HQ out of the UK and the Brexit
impact assessment was finally published. Summary: Whatever Brexit we get, we’ll be worse
off.
Instead of holding the
governments’ feet to the flames over any of the above, Newsnight went after the leader of the opposition for daring to do
his job. If the Russia ultimatum was a dead cat, it worked. A lot of bad news got buried beneath the bluster.
Analysing media failings in the lead up to the Iraq
war in 2016, Ian
Birrell wrote, “The initial reporting showed how a supposedly
free and fearless press was powerless, vulnerable and gullible in a moment of
national crisis concluding”, “…it meekly fell into line with Government
propagandists”.
The Economist’s
analysis
of the Chilcot inquiry revealed: “That lack of caution, combined with a disregard for process bordered on
the feckless…The intelligence was not questioned or challenged in the way it
should have been, given how much was resting on it”.
MPs should have spoken out and demanded
more and better evidence. Instead they put self-interest ahead of the national
interest. Many of the same right wing Labour MPs who backed Blair’s reckless
war, put self-interests before national interest again this week. Instead of
backing Jeremy Corbyn’s sober call for calm and evidence, they were signing a
letter blaming Moscow, ‘unequivocally” for the attacks.
Jeremy
Corbyn is right to challenge Theresa May. There are few things as perilous as a
weak leader trying to appear strong. If
she sees this as her Falklands moment – an opportunity to deflect from her huge
unpopularity and domestic failures – she could take us into dangerous territory.
This is a time for quelling - not fanning - the flames of hysteria.
The framing of Jeremy Corbyn as a “Russian stooge” by
some media outlets is an obvious red herring. He robustly condemned the
Salisbury attack but his track record is equally strong. Eight years ago, he
signed a Parliamentary Motion accusing Putin’s Russia of corruption and human
rights abuses and has called on the government for a UK version of the Magnitsky
Act, which allows for financial sanctions. Something the Tories had
previously resisted.
It is the Conservative party that has
received £3m worth of donations from Russian donors and it was Boris Johnson
who accepted £160,000 in exchange for a game of tennis with Lubov Chernukhin,
the wife of a former Putin minister. The same woman bid £30,000 to
have dinner with Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson. Chernukhin’s husband was
Putin’s deputy finance minister. Meanwhile, Jacob Rees-Mogg’s fund management’s
firm has profited from a £60m investment in a Russian bank, despite being under
EU sanctions since 2014.
He who pays the piper calls the tune.
Our democracy has been hijacked and apostles
of hate have stolen our privacy and exploited our vulnerabilities. Now is not the time to be deflected by dead cats
and red herrings. The wellbeing of democracy
depends on the media pursuing truth with the same
determination as those in power seek to obscure and distort it.
Other articles Tess has written on the media and Jeremy Corbyn:
On the BBCs crisis of governance:
On the right wing of the Labour party:
