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#THREAD
So yesterday, I came across this petition to "Remove GB News' Broadcast Licence".
I & many others have legitimate concerns about this "news" channel (which I'll come on to), so without really thinking about it, I quickly signed & RTd it.
I now regret that.
Here's why:
So yesterday, I came across this petition to "Remove GB News' Broadcast Licence".
I & many others have legitimate concerns about this "news" channel (which I'll come on to), so without really thinking about it, I quickly signed & RTd it.
I now regret that.
Here's why:
The brief text accompanying the petition says "@Ofcom refuse to regulate this nonsense news channel that spreads lies, misinformation & conspiracy. Stop the damage to the UK's media by ending this station preying on the simple & scared."
Allow me address each of these claims:
Allow me address each of these claims:
CLAIM 1: "@Ofcom refuse to regulate this nonsense news channel".
This is patently untrue: GB News has been investigated on at least four separate occasions by Ofcom, two of which resulted in Ofcom ruling broadcast rules HAVE been breached by the channel.
pressgazette.co.uk/the-wire/newsp…
This is patently untrue: GB News has been investigated on at least four separate occasions by Ofcom, two of which resulted in Ofcom ruling broadcast rules HAVE been breached by the channel.
pressgazette.co.uk/the-wire/newsp…
Very brief #THREAD featuring four video clips that imho provide essential context for better understanding the Mirror Group Phone Hacking trial, which involves Harry & Piers Morgan.
#Leveson2
#Leveson2
'Power without responsibility'.
Unlike #Britain, many countries have strict controls over foreign & overseas-based funding & ownership of news media to help protect their citizens from misinformation & manipulation.
Britain urgently needs serious news media reform.
#Leveson2
Unlike #Britain, many countries have strict controls over foreign & overseas-based funding & ownership of news media to help protect their citizens from misinformation & manipulation.
Britain urgently needs serious news media reform.
#Leveson2
In 2021, just three companies dominated 90% of the UK national newspaper market, & today’s digital giants are some of the most powerful corporations on earth. Investment firms like Legatum invest in news media like GB "News" to further their self-interest.
mediareform.org.uk/key-issues/med…
mediareform.org.uk/key-issues/med…
The Daily Mail’s parent company has successfully invoked the Human Rights Act to stop other media outlets naming Mail journalists in a phone hacking court case - DESPITE using its editorials to campaign AGAINST the Human Rights Act for several decades!
theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/m…
theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/m…
The divisive toxic shit-spouting far-right little-Englander Mail has been a cancer on Britain for more than a century.
#EnoughIsEnough
For everyone's sake, it's time for the UK's opposition parties to stand up & collectively commit to #Leveson2
#EnoughIsEnough
For everyone's sake, it's time for the UK's opposition parties to stand up & collectively commit to #Leveson2
#Britain HAS been 'invaded' & 'taken over' by dangerous 'aliens' intent on destroying Britain. But not by asylum seekers, refugees, or migrants - by toxic billionaires Rupert Murdoch & Jonathan Harmsworth, & Tory extremists.🙋♂️🙋♂️🙋♂️🇬🇧
#EnoughIsEnough #StopThePressBarons #Leveson2
#EnoughIsEnough #StopThePressBarons #Leveson2
Since #Brexit, the UK Govt has been brazen about bringing in Koch-funded extremists from a global network of free-market 'think tanks' to shape Govt policy, generate divisive culture war headlines, & push Britain further to the right than ever before.
The Nazis' political strategy was to make alliances with the rich, & divide voters by using #propaganda to scapegoat minorities & vilify political opponents, thus securing just enough votes to become the Govt. Just 29% of the electorate voted Tory in 2019.
#THREAD
The editor-in-chief of the Independent newspaper (which is now online only), is the ex-editor of the tax-avoiding shit-stirring Tory-supporting right-wing anti-NHS anti-woke anti-EU anti-migrant anti-Left Brextremist non-dom billionaire-owned Daily Mail, Geordie Greig.
The editor-in-chief of the Independent newspaper (which is now online only), is the ex-editor of the tax-avoiding shit-stirring Tory-supporting right-wing anti-NHS anti-woke anti-EU anti-migrant anti-Left Brextremist non-dom billionaire-owned Daily Mail, Geordie Greig.
Concerningly, the Independent’s ownership structure is rather opaque: a 30% stake in the company was sold to a Saudi Arabian businessman Sultan Mohamed Abuljadayel, controlling his stake through an offshore company in the Cayman Islands.
theguardian.com/media/2023/jan…
theguardian.com/media/2023/jan…
In 2019, the UK believed a bank with close links to the Saudi state was a part-owner.
Ofcom insisted the newspaper had not changed their coverage of Saudi Arabia following the investment, but a regulatory investigation was blocked after the Govt missed deadlines to intervene.
Ofcom insisted the newspaper had not changed their coverage of Saudi Arabia following the investment, but a regulatory investigation was blocked after the Govt missed deadlines to intervene.
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp has NEVER been about news. It's about hate, division, manipulation, & doing whatever it takes to protect Murdoch's interests from democracy & prevent the countries in which it operates from dragging themselves into the twenty-first century.
#Leveson2
#Leveson2
Just three companies—Harmsworth's DMG Media, Murdoch's News UK, & Reach—dominate 90% of the national newspaper market. And just 3 tax-avoiding billionaires own the Mail, Sun, Telegraph, Times, Metro, i, Spectator, Talk Radio, Talk TV, & Times Radio.
#divideandrule #dontbuythesun
#divideandrule #dontbuythesun
#THREAD
Remember when British voters were told by non-dom billionaire Jonathan Harmsworth that voting to Remain in the EU would result in "lies" & "greedy elites", only to later live under a government of lying greedy elites, which Harmsworth backed?
Remember when British voters were told by non-dom billionaire Jonathan Harmsworth that voting to Remain in the EU would result in "lies" & "greedy elites", only to later live under a government of lying greedy elites, which Harmsworth backed?
Or that British voters were told by non-dom billionaire Frederick Barclay that voting Leave would see the triumph of 'hope over fear' & lead to "a new beginning for our country", only to later get a frightening regressive Barclay-backed Govt which has destroyed Britain's economy?
Or that British voters were told by foreign billionaire Rupert Murdoch to vote Leave because the EU was "greedy, wasteful, bullying & breathtakingly incompetent in a crisis", only later to live under the greedy, wasteful, bullying & breathtakingly incompetent Murdoch-backed Govt?
Imho, if @UKLabour, the @theSNP, @TheGreenParty & the @LibDems don't have a coordinated push on something similar in Britain, they are simply cowards, significantly contributing to the destruction of everything good & decent about Britain. 🇬🇧
We all know what the front pages would say had @UKLabour delivered a catastrophic mini-budget announcing more than £400 billion of extra borrowing & £45billion in tax-cuts, which sent the pound crashing to its lowest level against the dollar in 37 years.
Take this big fat 2017 LIE on the front page of the Mail, claiming the @UKLabour manifesto would "cost EVERY family £4,000". Four months later, on page two, they said: “We are happy to clarify that, as the article stated, the £4,000 was an average figure.”
pressgazette.co.uk/four-months-on…
pressgazette.co.uk/four-months-on…
#THREAD
By the end of her time as Secretary of State for Justice & Lord Chancellor, Liz Truss had lost the confidence of the entire legal profession & the judiciary. The Lord Chief Justice told the House of Lords Constitution Committee she was “constitutionally absolutely wrong”.
By the end of her time as Secretary of State for Justice & Lord Chancellor, Liz Truss had lost the confidence of the entire legal profession & the judiciary. The Lord Chief Justice told the House of Lords Constitution Committee she was “constitutionally absolutely wrong”.
In November 2016, Truss was criticised by the former Attorney General Dominic Grieve & the Criminal Bar Association, for failing to support more robustly the judiciary & the principle of judicial independence, after judges came under attack from politicians & from the Daily Mail.
Lord Falconer, the former Lord Chancellor, who had previously suggested that, like her immediate predecessors Chris Grayling & Michael Gove, Truss lacked the essential legal expertise that the constitution requires, called for her to be sacked.
#THREAD
We're back here are we? The tax-avoiding non-dom billionaire-owned Telegraph isn't a newspaper - it's a divisive #propaganda outlet, which has since 1945 supported the Tories & attempted to shape public opinion in whichever direction most benefits its tax-avoiding owner.
We're back here are we? The tax-avoiding non-dom billionaire-owned Telegraph isn't a newspaper - it's a divisive #propaganda outlet, which has since 1945 supported the Tories & attempted to shape public opinion in whichever direction most benefits its tax-avoiding owner.
The Telegraph has endorsed the Tories at every UK GE since 1945.
The personal links between the paper's owners & editors & the Tory leadership, along with the paper's right-wing stance & influence over Conservative activists, means it is commonly referred to as the
#Torygraph.
The personal links between the paper's owners & editors & the Tory leadership, along with the paper's right-wing stance & influence over Conservative activists, means it is commonly referred to as the
#Torygraph.
Even when Conservative support was shown to have slumped in the opinion polls and @UKLabour gained the ascendant, the newspaper remained loyal to the @Conservatives.
The tax-avoiding billionaire Barclay brothers purchased the Telegraph Group for around £665m in late June 2004.
The tax-avoiding billionaire Barclay brothers purchased the Telegraph Group for around £665m in late June 2004.
A #THREAD about Brexit, Britain, national identity, & the divisive role of the UK press.
It's a summary of the (paywalled) 2022 article: 'Humiliating & dividing the nation in the British pro-Brexit press: a corpus-assisted analysis', by Tamsin Parnell.
…w-tandfonline-com.hallam.idm.oclc.org/doi/full/10.10…
It's a summary of the (paywalled) 2022 article: 'Humiliating & dividing the nation in the British pro-Brexit press: a corpus-assisted analysis', by Tamsin Parnell.
…w-tandfonline-com.hallam.idm.oclc.org/doi/full/10.10…
The nation is an imagined community (Anderson), ‘a mental [& political] construct that is real only insofar as individuals believe in & identify with it’ (Wenzl, 2020). The imagined national community is constructed, negotiated, & renegotiated through discourse (Billig, 1995).
By discourse, Parnell means ‘linguistic & non-linguistic social practices & ideological assumptions’. National discourse is underpinned by a sense of timelessness, based on the collective memory of a shared history, elaboration of a shared present & vision of a collective future.
The evidence is crystal clear: the happiest countries are the most equal ones. People in countries like Britain, where there are high levels of #inequality, are easily manipulated by political & media elites, who fuel division by identifying & demonising scapegoats.🇬🇧
#RwandaPlan
#RwandaPlan
The "general recipe for creating highly satisfied citizens: ensure that state institutions are of high quality, non-corrupt, able to deliver what they promise, & generous in taking care of citizens in various adversities".
The opposite of Britain then.🇬🇧
The opposite of Britain then.🇬🇧
The UK's political & media elite conceal from Brexit supporters & "patriots" the truth about their hero Winston Churchill's role in both the European Convention on, & Court of, Human Rights - designed to protect people from Govts like ours. 🇬🇧
#RwandaPlan
#RwandaPlan
Another #THREAD about truth, the culture war, money, & our broken news media.
Following eerily similar stories in the Mail & the Express, Nick Robinson's apology is all over @Twitter, posted almost exclusively by culture war warriors - who hate the @BBC - as "proof" of #BBCbias.
Following eerily similar stories in the Mail & the Express, Nick Robinson's apology is all over @Twitter, posted almost exclusively by culture war warriors - who hate the @BBC - as "proof" of #BBCbias.
The 'outrage' is fuelled by a false claim made by Nick Robinson - a former Chairman of the National Young Conservatives & President of the Oxford University Conservative Association - that a Ministry of Justice cleaner, Mr Gomes, had died 'of Covid' while working in Downing St.
It transpires that Mr Gomes had not been working at Downing St at the time of his death, but at the nearby MoJ. And while colleagues had raised concerns he'd been suffering Covid-like symptoms in the lead up to his death, a coroner's report recorded it as heart hypertension.
#THREAD
According to the Sunday Times Rich List - which ranks the net wealth of Britain's richest 1,000 people - the 2008 financial crash meant that by April 2009, the number of billionaires fell for the first time since the Rich List started in 1989.
web.archive.org/web/2009050210…
According to the Sunday Times Rich List - which ranks the net wealth of Britain's richest 1,000 people - the 2008 financial crash meant that by April 2009, the number of billionaires fell for the first time since the Rich List started in 1989.
web.archive.org/web/2009050210…
In 2009, the number of billionaires in Britain fell from 75 to 43, the combined wealth of Britain's richest 1,000 people adding up to £258 billion.
Despite Lakshmi Mittal losing £16.9 billion, making his net worth £10.8 billion in 2009, he remained Britain's richest person.
Despite Lakshmi Mittal losing £16.9 billion, making his net worth £10.8 billion in 2009, he remained Britain's richest person.
Roman Abramovich was the second richest person in Britain in 2009, despite losing £4.7 billion, with a net worth of £7 billion.
The Duke of Westminster was the richest Briton & continued to occupy third position overall, with a fortune of £6.5 billion.
The Duke of Westminster was the richest Briton & continued to occupy third position overall, with a fortune of £6.5 billion.
#THREAD
In order to try to unite the country, & regain some pride in #Britain 🇬🇧, we urgently need either a Royal Commission - or a Public Inquiry - into news media funding & ownership by overseas-based, foreign, & non dom multi-millionaires & billionaires.
#RoyalCommission
In order to try to unite the country, & regain some pride in #Britain 🇬🇧, we urgently need either a Royal Commission - or a Public Inquiry - into news media funding & ownership by overseas-based, foreign, & non dom multi-millionaires & billionaires.
#RoyalCommission
Just a handful of overseas-based, foreign, or non dom multi-millionaires & billionaires own or fund swathes of our "news" media, including, but not limited to: the Sun; the Times; the Mail; the Telegraph; the Independent; the Spectator; Spiked; talkTV/Radio, & GB "News".
They all use harmful & divisive culture war rhetoric daily, demonising minorities, the public sector, migrants, the poor, young people & the Left, & they all use dangerous populist nationalist rhetoric, deliberately designed to divide, provoke, gaslight & outrage their audiences.
Update: ANL lost their appeal in the copyright lawsuit vs. #MeghanMarkle. The summary judgement that Justice Warby issued will stand. Meghan won both the copyright & privacy claims. ANL can still ask to appeal to the Supreme Court but success is unlikely.
“The publisher of the Mail on Sunday has lost a legal battle to overturn a High Court ruling on its publication of a letter written by #MeghanMarkle to her estranged father.” independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…
“Today,the courts ruled in my favor—again—cementing that The Mail on Sunday…has broken the law. The courts have held the defendants to acct,& my hope is that we all begin to do the same…These harmful practices don’t happen once in a blue moon—they’re a daily fail” #MeghanMarkle
#THREAD
The Government trick voters into believing they're all FOR free-speech & AGAINST "nanny-state" interventionism.
But the Right has a recurrent obsession with pro-censorship, anti-free-speech legislation, & make repeated attempts to control what people see & hear.
The Government trick voters into believing they're all FOR free-speech & AGAINST "nanny-state" interventionism.
But the Right has a recurrent obsession with pro-censorship, anti-free-speech legislation, & make repeated attempts to control what people see & hear.
I'm going to put to one side the BANNING of teaching of anti-capitalist views in schools, the concerning "free speech" measures introduced to CONTROL debate in Universities & the disproportionate obsession with antisemitism between 2015 & 2019, as I've written about these before.
Following the original video nasties moral panic in the mid-1980s, Mary Whitehouse & other right-wing reactionaries, supported by the frothing right-wing press, campaigned to ban some horror films available on video, & tough legislation was introduced restricting choice.
How we all laughed at the US QAnon conspiracy theorists, arrogantly assuming it could never happen here.
This is the result of the UK Govt & media adopting wholesale Steve Bannon's strategy of 'flooding the zone' with hard-right populist nationalist anti-woke culture war 'shit'.
This is the result of the UK Govt & media adopting wholesale Steve Bannon's strategy of 'flooding the zone' with hard-right populist nationalist anti-woke culture war 'shit'.
All decent people need to seriously reflect on how we counter Steve Bannon's simple but very effective political strategy, adopted by Govts across the world & developed from insights taken from a century of pure propaganda.
#Leveson2 might be a start.
#Leveson2 might be a start.
One small example: "a campaign to promote #COVID vaccine hesitancy among schoolchildren and parents is being coordinated on Telegram, with ambitions to spread its message across the UK".
logically.ai/articles/futur…
logically.ai/articles/futur…
You might just be saying to yourself, well I've got bigger things to worry about than Harry and Meghan. You would be wrong. It's about you. These papers will treat you like they treat them. Their mission is to divide and sow hate. If it takes royalty to stop them, so be it... 1/6
If the country is divided by Brexit, these papers did it. More than any other group – more even than politicians – they are responsible. They make perfectly normal people hate the poor, Muslims, foreigners, trans people, women, black people and, yes, a princess... 2/6
They lie, they distort, they fabricate. And they are normally totally unaccountable. They have bent the law their way. They regulate themselves. They cover up for each other. The Guardian, the BBC, ITV will never call them out. So if it takes a royal lawsuit... 3/6
BBC Business Editor Simon Jack investigates why the Government capitulated to rich press barons and closed down the Leveson inquiry in this fantastic documentary ‘The Press, the Police, the Politicians and Their Public’.
Listen and share here:
bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0… #Leveson2
Listen and share here:
bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0… #Leveson2
#Leveson2 would have investigated senior news executives and alleged corrupt relationships between the police, politicians and the press. We know extensive criminal activity occurred at some of our most powerful newspapers, yet NOT A SINGLE EXECUTIVE has been held accountable.
"An awful lot of dirty linen remains unwashed in public, and some newspaper owners have paid hundreds of millions of pounds to keep it that way" Hacked Off are committed to pursuing every avenue to obtain the justice victims were promised, and to see the completion of #Leveson2
Brief personal thread on the role of #Leveson2 and some rather offbeat observations on why it's so important.
1. I got involved in this saga about 7 years ago having written about monopoly problems on my home turf - TV drama. I had little antipathy or feelings about the British press at that point. I just accepted privacy intrusion and obvious bias as a 'state of nature'
2. At that point I thought phone hacking was something that affected a few celebs. As for 'press regulation' - the words struck me as an ideal cure for insomnia or prophylactic on a date. Then came Leveson, the phone hacking trial, Daniel Morgan and my eyes were opened.
1. What follows is a brief list, from memory, about what @BInvestigates and @Byline_Media has revealed in the last couple of years.
2. Star Murdoch journalist Mazher Mahmood perverted the course of justice, used phone hacking and was trained by the suspects in the Daniel Morgan Murder
3. News of the World admitted they used email hacking to target the undercover informants. They also targeted investigators working on the Daniel Morgan Murder
