At its best, British journalism is very good indeed. But when bad, it can be truly awful. Our tabloid newspapers, in particular, have long been the architects of their own brand of media warfare.
Trump is ramping up his attacks on the media, calling CNN and MSNBC ‘illegal.’ In a speech at the Department of Justice, he claimed these networks were corrupt, political tools of the Democratic Party, and that what they were doing was ‘illegal.’
He went on to compare them to paid political operatives, saying they influence judges and change laws.
“And it has to stop, it has to be illegal, it’s influencing judges and it’s really changing law, and it just cannot be legal. I don’t believe it’s legal, and they do it in total coordination with each other,” he said.
The President’s assault on journalism has seen government-employed journalists at Voice of America (VoA) put on administrative leave, a day after Trump signed an order eliminating the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), VoA’s parent company, along with six other federal agencies.
Contracts with the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse, have also been terminated, with VoA journalists told to stop using their material.
Kari Lake, a Trump ally and former broadcaster turned Republican politician who was selected by Trump to run VoA, estimated the move would save $53m.
“We should not be paying outside news organisations to tell us what the news is,” she said.
Trump has said he plans to keep the AP out of the White House “until such time as they agree that it’s the Gulf of America. We’re very proud of this country, and we want it to be the Gulf of America.”
Now, if we apply Trump’s logic of ‘illegal’ media to the UK, would some of the country’s own newspapers be deemed ‘illegal’ too?
As readers of Right-Wing Media Watch will know all too well, papers like Sun, Daily Mail, Daily Express, and Telegraph are not without their own issues with misleading, sensational and hate-driven reporting.
At its best, British journalism is very good indeed. From the BBC’s global reputation for accuracy and impartiality to the razor-sharp analysis of the FT and Economist, but when bad, it can be truly awful.
Ten years ago, the world looked on in shock at the phone-hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World. The Leveson Inquiry, which investigated the culture, practices, and ethics of the press, exposed the shocking depths to which some British tabloids had sunk.
Trump’s motives, of course, are different. His goal is to silence critics and stifle opposition. But in Britain, the tabloids have long been the architects of their own brand of media warfare. And while the likes of the Sun and Daily Mail may not be ‘illegal’ in the strictest sense or in any sense at all, apart from the odd libel, moment of perjury, or phone tap, they have undoubtedly blurred the lines between what is news and what is opinion, and hopelessly biased opinion at that.
Accountability at present rests with the independent press standards organisation, conventions like the right of reply, and ultimately the law courts, but the question remains though: is this sufficient?
Other impeccably liberal countries such as Canada, have addressed issues around newspaper ownership. It is certainly worth a debate.
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