If we are going to have a discussion about the role of the media in this election, then we absolutely need to have an honest and frank discussion about how pitiful the new left media was as a result. It dropped scrutiny and scepticism in favour of sectarianism and scorn.
It left the Labour supporters who relied on it and shunned the “MSM” utterly incapable of understanding the political mood of the country, and suspended all the critical functions needed to hold truth to power.
The writing was on the wall following WreathGate. When news emerged of Corbyn laying a wreath on the graves of Black September’s founders, instead of confronting that issue head on, they collectively built a firewall and chose to deny and lie about his actions.
Photos were published that proved he did it, and they still doubled down and lied. Then they proceeded to attack everyone that had eyes in their head and called it out as a lie. How could a project fuelled by this kind of lunacy succeed?
Yes, the media establishment needs reforming. Yes, newsrooms need more diversity. But the Left’s version of media reform, if based on the Novara model, is to recreate Pravda, not to organically grow a more trustworthy independent media in its place.
The British media can and should be scrutinised. But that scrutiny either comes from a place of valuing honesty, credibility and integrity, or it serves no purpose other than to further disfigure public discourse.
Before the election, I asked if Novara would ever have published a damning leak that would have called into question the suitability of their chosen leader. The answer of course was no, because what they do isn’t journalism, it’s PR and activism.
The consequences of this were clear too. When Putin used chemical weapons on British soil and Corbyn’s response was to seemingly repeatedly give Putin the benefit of the doubt, Bastani’s new media enterprise descended into conspiracism and crankery politics.co.uk/comment-analys…
No harm, no foul while Labour was in opposition. But if Labour had become the government, what would Novara’s role become if a similar scenario happened again? Truth no longer mattered to many of them, and any scenario could be generously interpreted in the dear leader’s favour
No failure could be more clear than the new left media’s coverage of insistutional antisemitism in Labour. The leaked JLM submission to the EHRC lays bare the accusations against the party, and shames all those who actively denied the problem.
They weren’t just denying the problem to their friends, they were denying the problem to thousands upon thousands of young, mobilised voters. They were actively misleading people that trusted them to cover up their chosen leader’s personal failures.
Lots of journalists need to ask themselves questions about the last few years, myself included. But the difference between those that publish the truth and occasionally get things wrong and those that wilfully publish bullshit to deceive people could not be more stark.
The media needs change, and it needs trust, and it absolutely needs to rid itself of the grifters who fed off public mistrust for the last few years only to build yet another house of cards built on a pack of lies. It needs to end now.
Anyway, for all those that made it to the end, here is the precise moment Aaron Bastani realised that every dirty he lie ever told still wasn't enough to prevent Labour's most humiliating electoral defeat in 84 years as the exit poll came in.
