Friday 18 November 2016

Media must share blame

As Helen Lewis says, there are "dark days ahead" with the election of Trump, and there will be "much soul-searching by the media" in America in the next few weeks (The politics of whitelash, 11th November,2016). Whether Trump was treated as a joke-candidate for too long, and whether his political beliefs were investigated in sufficient depth, are certainly questions many should be asking themselves, but the same can be said of the British media in relation to this country`s political dire situation.
   Farage, our own Trump-like "spectacle", certainly, has not only been given far too much airtime, especially by the BBC, but also far too easy a ride, being allowed to express views in general, but never interrogated on the details. As a result, we know more about his far-right, fascist views from speeches made in support of Trump, than from media interviews and appearances here. Like his fellow Brexiteers, and the president-elect, Farage`s view of the past is a mistaken one, based on a manipulated and mythological history, but he is never asked to substantiate it.

     As in America, the media here must take much of the blame for the left`s decline, and the apparent "unelectability" of the Labour leader. Corbyn`s speeches and policies are rarely given adequate coverage in the press or television, and, should an early election be called, as George Eaton intimates it will (Politics,11th November), the victory of a Tory party moving increasingly to the right should cause some soul-searching by many journalists writing in the few left-leaning publications remaining in this country!

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