Mainstream Media and Official Bullsh*t - Covid-19

[patman post]

Um, none of that has any relevance to media trust whatever. Why are you harping on about Starmer and Vallance? I quoted relevant lines to our discussion only. And I'm on a phone.

Just illustrating that 95% of your offered link had nothing to do with "media trust", and nothing to do with government advertising spend...

[Borg Refinery]

Um, none of that has any relevance to media trust whatever. Why are you harping on about Starmer and Vallance? I quoted relevant lines to our discussion only. And I'm on a phone.

[patman post]

Another yougov poll {ironically} for sky news



"Journalists fare very badly in the poll. Some 24% say they trust TV journalists while 64% say they do not, giving a net score of minus 40.



Meanwhile, 17% say they trust newspaper journalists, while 72% say they do not, giving an overall net score of minus 55."



https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-britons-still-support-lockdown-despite-being-sadder-and-more-anxious-poll-11977655">https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus- ... l-11977655">https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-britons-still-support-lockdown-despite-being-sadder-and-more-anxious-poll-11977655

There must be smoke coming from your keyboard. This could account for you quoting just the last four lines of a largish report and missing the headline — Coronavirus: Britons still support lockdown despite being sadder and more anxious - poll.

The rest of the report detailed the sentiments in the headline such as:

Noticeably, 24% of voters who supported Labour in the 2019 general election say they do not trust Sir Keir, while a further 36% of this group say they don't know whether they trust him.

The chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty is held in the highest esteem, with 42% saying they trust him and 17% saying they do not, giving him a higher net overall score than the prime minister, at 25.

Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific officer, is trusted by 25% and not trusted by 17%, giving him an overall net score of eight. etc, etc, etc.

Why is government buying advertising space to publicise announcements a problem..?

[Borg Refinery]

Another yougov poll {ironically} for sky news



"Journalists fare very badly in the poll. Some 24% say they trust TV journalists while 64% say they do not, giving a net score of minus 40.



Meanwhile, 17% say they trust newspaper journalists, while 72% say they do not, giving an overall net score of minus 55."



https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-britons-still-support-lockdown-despite-being-sadder-and-more-anxious-poll-11977655">https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus- ... l-11977655">https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-britons-still-support-lockdown-despite-being-sadder-and-more-anxious-poll-11977655

[Borg Refinery]

Let's try yougov instead, see if they're ranting bs too..?



https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2019/12/16/do-britons-trust-press">https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/ar ... rust-press">https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2019/12/16/do-britons-trust-press



https://ibb.co/gvmh5wQ">

[Borg Refinery]

So this is ranting trolling bullshit by your reckoning then?



"First, a £35 million state advertising bonus — from taxpayers' funds – that was exclusive to the NMA. Some of this largesse has gone to the Sun and the Daily Mail. So far, it has paid for wrap-around advertisements about COVID-19 precautions and advertisement features about 'community heroes'. All very worthy, no doubt. But make no mistake – this is a subsidy or a 'partnership'. The NMA and the Society of Editors have been open, even triumphant, about that. It follows desperate lobbying by these bodies about the plight of their industry, so no wonder they boast of it as a victory.



What they don't say, is that hundreds of other news publications that are no less affected by the COVID-19 crisis lobbied ministers alongside them at a succession of meetings but, when the deal was made, they were ruthlessly cut out of it. Of the £35 million, only a few hundred pounds have so far been handed to non-NMA members."



I guess local news outlets are just not that worthy. And weird news outlets like the speccy, where they spend plenty of time each day raving about those crazy black folk doing daft stuff deserve a good top up with cash..

[patman post]

Perhaps a little further information might help the debate:



The Government and the newspaper industry have formed a three-month advertising partnership to help keep the public safe and the nation united throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

The "All in, all together" campaign idea was developed by the newspaper industry as a way of delivering government communications in an intimate, human and compassionate tone that readers can relate to.

http://www.newsmediauk.org/Latest/government-partners-with-newspaper-industry-on-covid-19-ad-campaign">http://www.newsmediauk.org/Latest/gover ... d-campaign">http://www.newsmediauk.org/Latest/government-partners-with-newspaper-industry-on-covid-19-ad-campaign



The survey by the EBU (European Broadcasting Union — possibly best known for promoting the Eurovision Song Contest) appears to be aimed at bigging up radio and TV over written press. But its findings still show written press is more trusted than rants and trolling on the internet and in social networks where,  let's face it, most bullshit is spread:



RADIO AND TV REMAIN MOST TRUSTED SOURCES OVER TIME

RADIO BY FAR THE MOST TRUSTED MEDIUM ACROSS EUROPE**

At EU level, radio and TV top the Net Trust Index*, with more citizens trusting them than the written press, the Internet, or online social networks

https://www.ebu.ch/files/live/sites/ebu/files/embed/MIS-infographic/trust-in-media/index.html">https://www.ebu.ch/files/live/sites/ebu ... index.html">https://www.ebu.ch/files/live/sites/ebu/files/embed/MIS-infographic/trust-in-media/index.html



** I guess Talk Sport would be an exception...

[Borg Refinery]

Well, the govt are paying them to keep the govt in power.

Wed 13 May 2020



STRANGLING DEMOCRACY

Millions Paid to Corporate Press

At the Expense of Journalism

Brian Cathcart

13 May 2020



With Boris Johnson handing out millions of pounds of public money to subsidise a cheerleading press, Brian Cathcart says that the corruption is so brazen it takes your breath away.

Share this article



So many dreadful things are happening at the moment that no one can keep track, but please take a moment to consider some developments in the UK press, the consequences of which may be truly appalling.



We know that the Government is providing many millions of pounds of taxpayers' money to help the corporate press through the COVID-19 crisis. Less obvious is that, by denying similar help to independent news publications, ministers and their press friends are conducting a kind of cull.



Seats on the subsidy life-raft are reserved for the News Media Association (NMA), the corporate press club in which most members have turnovers exceeding £100 million. The rest are being told to swim for it or sink.



This approach privileges the corrupt past over the innovative future; it helps lumbering, legacy brands while allowing the COVID-19-induced crises of circulation and advertising to sweep away smaller outfits that are far more innovative and free-thinking.  



The Government is Giving Away YOUR Money to the Mail and the Sun

Brian Cathcart

The winners here are the Sun, the Mail, The Times, the Telegraph, the Mirror, the Express, The Guardian – and the big asset-strippers that have so devastated the regional press: Reach, Newsquest and JPMedia.



The chief losers are hundreds of local and hyper-local titles with turnovers below £1 million — many of them staffed by cast-off journalists from Reach, Newsquest etc. and many of them lean, fit, creative and closer to their readers than any of the corporate papers could dream of. Some are more than local titles and they may well contain the seeds of future quality journalism to rival or replace legacy titles in the future — assuming they are not killed off now.



And what have these outfits been denied — by a Government that is led by a former employee of the Telegraph and The Times, and which is kept afloat by dishonest propaganda gushing from most of the NMA titles every day?  



A single political party, in Government, is exploiting its executive power to channel large amounts of public money to a legacy press industry which overwhelmingly supports it.



First, a £35 million state advertising bonus — from taxpayers' funds – that was exclusive to the NMA. Some of this largesse has gone to the Sun and the Daily Mail. So far, it has paid for wrap-around advertisements about COVID-19 precautions and advertisement features about 'community heroes'. All very worthy, no doubt. But make no mistake – this is a subsidy or a 'partnership'. The NMA and the Society of Editors have been open, even triumphant, about that. It follows desperate lobbying by these bodies about the plight of their industry, so no wonder they boast of it as a victory.



What they don't say, is that hundreds of other news publications that are no less affected by the COVID-19 crisis lobbied ministers alongside them at a succession of meetings but, when the deal was made, they were ruthlessly cut out of it. Of the £35 million, only a few hundred pounds have so far been handed to non-NMA members.



Neil Ferguson: The Difference between Public Interest Journalism and a Politically Motivated Smear

Brian Cathcart

And the ad money is only a stop-gap. The real bonus for the corporate press is the zero-rating for VAT of online publications, brought forward by seven months especially because of the COVID-19 crisis. It is worth hundreds of millions of pounds for the corporate press and delivers almost no benefits for smaller-scale, independent publications.



The corruption involved here is so brazen it takes the breath away. A single political party, in Government, is exploiting its executive power to channel large amounts of public money to a legacy press industry which overwhelmingly supports it. At the same time, that party is denying help to smaller newcomers to the business which, if saved, could represent the future of quality journalism, but which may well not survive without help. If Vladimir Putin did this in Russia, we would not be surprised.



Of course, there is window-dressing to make it look like something it is not. So some of the money goes to The Guardian, a critic of the Government, and some is spent on public health advertisements, which might do some good. Putin would have done that too, because he is no fool.



But nothing can hide the corruption. This is, as the latest research tells us, the least trusted written press in Europe, by a country mile. Much of it is owned by billionaires of dubious tax status and the rest is large corporations, almost all of which have disgraceful records.



Exploiting a Pandemic: Billionaire Press Owners Want Your Tax Money

Brian Cathcart

In the Sun and the Mirror, for example, taxpayers' money is now supporting newspapers that spend tens of millions of pounds every year fighting off and buying off claims from the victims of their phone-hacking past. In Reach, Newsquest and JPMedia, it is helping companies that have closed more titles and sacked more journalists than the Coronavirus crisis could achieve if it lasted all year.



These are also organisations which strained every muscle to ensure the election of Boris Johnson's Government, often publishing propaganda of astonishing dishonesty. And now, while they promote a cult of personality worthy of an Idi Amin, a Mobutu or a Mugabe ('Boris Bounces Back To Get UK Moving' declared the Sun, and 'He's Got Daddy's Hair' announced the Mail on Sunday), they are also working overtime to gaslight the country into believing that the pandemic has been brilliantly handled and that any hitches were the fault of the Health Secretary Matt Hancock and his philandering scientists.



In other words, by throwing your PAYE money and mine at these companies, the Government is investing in its own future – helping the only organisations capable of rescuing it from the consequences of its deadly COVID-19 bungling.



It is strangling democracy.

https://bylinetimes.com/2020/05/13/strangling-democracy-millions-paid-to-corporate-press-at-the-expense-of-journalism/">https://bylinetimes.com/2020/05/13/stra ... ournalism/">https://bylinetimes.com/2020/05/13/strangling-democracy-millions-paid-to-corporate-press-at-the-expense-of-journalism/

When people say that "nobody trusts The Sun" they don't just mean north of the M25 – it seems that nobody in Britain really does.



According to new figures by the Published Audience Measurement Company (PAMCO, formerly the National Readership Survey), The Sun may well be the most read paper in Britain, but it's the least trusted newspaper in the country.



A survey by PAMCO with Ipso Mori including 35,000 face-to-face interviews showed that only 48% trusted what they read in The Sun publications, but only 39% trusted its news website.



At the bottom of the trust list with the 70p tabloid were fellow right-wing publications the Mail Online (46%) and the Daily Record (52%), with the Daily Star not much ahead (56%).



The so-called liberal media faired the highest, with the Guardian being the most trusted national daily at 84%, the i following right behind with 83% of readers trusting what they saw on it. The Independent and The Times were not far behind (82% and 81% respectively). But the Conservatives-friendly Telegraph ranked behind regional papers such as the Scotsman and the Yorkshire Post, with only 73% of readers trusting its content.



Yet The Observer ranked the most trusted newspaper of all, with a staggering 89% of readers putting their faith in the Sunday paper.



Last year, a study by Prof Brian Cathcart from Kingston University London found that in Britain few people trust in newspaper journalism compared to other countries. And the Edelman Trust Barometer points to an all-time low in 2017 at 32%, while this year only 23% of young people said they trusted British media.



And according to the submission made by the Media Reform Coalition to the Cairncross Review:



"Until journalists are willing to recognise that freedom of the press must be balanced by freedom of the public to assess and challenge the nature of that communication: freedom shared not power abused, trust in journalism is unlikely to be rebuilt. Until journalism is able to hold its own institutions of power to account; to expose its own malpractices, and is willing to challenge some of the most obvious abuses of media power, distrust in news journalism is likely to grow."

https://ibb.co/X4rgpxk">

[Forum admin]

Just moved some posts about letters and categories to a more appropriate thread:

https://politicalforums.uk/pol/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=884">//https://politicalforums.uk/pol/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=884

 :hattip

[Scott777]

Many thousands of people died in Philidelphia  because the authorities authorised a large parade which had a lot of spectators when the "Spanish flu" was rife.

Because of that coming out of lock-down too early would be the government committing mass murder.

I see your point, although I would not suggest a complete end to lockdown, but a gradual end, asap.  I have said before - a lockdown for high-risk only.  My parents literally cannot get shopping delivered BECAUSE of the lockdown (the supermarkets have no capacity for delivery).  That puts them in more danger, having to go to a busy supermarket.  And you obviously didn't know the Hitchens position, which is similar.

[papasmurf]

Then explain what that warning is and why?  You can't just post an article and call that your argument.  This is a forum for discussion and debate, not just for posting links.

Many thousands of people died in Philidelphia  because the authorities authorised a large parade which had a lot of spectators when the "Spanish flu" was rife.

Because of that coming out of lock-down too early would be the government committing mass murder.

[Barry]

He doesn't have an argument.

I suggest you read this, bearing in mind there is no innoculation against Covid 19 yet.

Do you really wand death on this scale in Britain?



https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/influenza-spanish-flu-pandemic-1918-19/">https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/ar ... c-1918-19/">https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/influenza-spanish-flu-pandemic-1918-19/

Ah, the old papasmurf tactic of providing a loosely relevant article which is said to prove his point. Diverting us to read 10 minutes article about the flu in Philly, when it does nothing to prove anything about lock-downs or otherwise.

[Scott777]

Remain in igorance then. (Seriously.) It is a stark warning from history that every member of government should be made aware of.

Then explain what that warning is and why?  You can't just post an article and call that your argument.  This is a forum for discussion and debate, not just for posting links.

[papasmurf]

I'm not going to take your word that it's self explanatory.

Remain in igorance then. (Seriously.) It is a stark warning from history that every member of government should be made aware of.

[Scott777]

The article is self emplanatory. I do expect you to read it all as it is a lesson from history no-one can ignore and especially not the government.

I'm not going to take your word that it's self explanatory.