John Burns-Murdoch is an FT journalist who does brilliant data analysis.
He has a data comparison of the UK and USA today, suggesting as a result that the National Conservatives have seriously misread UK politics because the UK's Conservative Party supporters are considerably more aligned with Democrat opinion in the USA than they are with Republican thought. There is some comfort in that.
I also found this significant:
The UK might have one common news source that many people trust. But they can also still question news sources and think them unreliable. In the USA that is very much less likely: it appears that news consumers there are very unlikely to question their media sources.
It is also odd that US followers of the BBC are much more trusting of it than people in the UK are.
The lack of confidence in Murdoch's Sun is, however, most especially gratifying.
What do I take from all this? The good news is that for all the crap the media feeds them in this country, people are still able to identify those who might politely be described as the purveyors of prejudice. That ability appears to have been lost in the USA.
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Interesting that itv deemed more trustworthy than BBC, shame c4 not shown, as they’re possibly the least untrustworthy in UK.
Not surprised the trustworthiness is no higher than 30% approx.
Who were in the sample though, this is what always intrigues me. Is it all middle class, or biased to a particular socioeconomic group? Always more Q than A.
My worry though is that over time, we could lose this difference and end up like the U.S. if things go on as they are.
BTW – thank you for editing my comment about a certain politician the other day before it was posted given that you are so busy. I was quite annoyed at the time and will calm down before I comment again in the future.
Sometimes I salvage a comment I might otherwise delete
I do actually read everything that goes on here – even if I do not agree with it all
Richard, I would be very interested to see a Uk geographical breakdown of that view of the BBC as a trusted news source. That’s very much not the case in Scotland where it’s viewed as a staunchly unionist propaganda machine, taking every opportunity to talk down Scotland and its government
Agreed
Whilst this analysis might be slightly encouraging it doesn’t really get to the heart of the matter which is to describe the nature of the “prejudice” in a society and promulgated by most of the media. That “prejudice” I would argue is predominantly “neo-mythic” at the moment in both American and British societies because of a relentless pressure from free market fundamentalists over the last fifty years at least which refuses to recognise that there has to be a genuine public-private partnership to optimise their economies.
A good example of the need for this partnership is made by Hyman Minsky when talking of private sector banks he says the following:-
“Banks that receive government protection in the form of liquidity and (partial) solvency guarantees are essentially public-private partnerships.”
He goes on to say that through their underwriting of loans work private sector banks do the following:-
“They promote the public purpose specialising in activities that they can perform more competently than government can do.”
(Pages 182 and 183, Chapter 7, “Why Minsky Matters” by L. Randall Wray)
To successfully underwrite Minsky argues central banks need to carefully monitor the risks private sector banks are taking and they can do this through a policy of making private sector banks come to the central bank’s discount window for payments liquidity rather than permitting open market liquidity operations.
Of course as a further example arguing that “stability is de-stabilising” means Minsky is extending Keynes’s argument that “animal spirits” will frequently go wrong or be inadequate and require government to engage in additional spending to make an economy good. (Note, however, Minsky is not an advocate of traditional Keynesian pump priming since he sees this as merely a temporary fix and continues moral hazard in regard to private sector bank activity.)
The issue therefore becomes how do you stop a society engaging in self-harming “neomythical” thinking. The answer certainly involves holding the media to account over facts and ensuring a right of reply and certainly getting rid of the FPTP electoral system to make everybody’s vote count and allow fresh thinking by new and existing political parties.
It would be interesting to see where C4 News stands. It would also be interesting to see the Daily Telegraph results; I consider it as an equivalent source, on the measure of reliability, as the Daily Express. The BBC rating does not surprise me, but I do not take any comfort from that. The BBC allows the toxic British press (see ‘below the line’ on the graph) to establish the news agenda narrative to which it conforms; which is the only reason the press titles still attract investment from the funders of neoliberalism.
The BBC finally lost my confidence with the Saville, Harris et al. scandals. How its Charter could be renewed or sustained after that catastrophe, still completely eludes me. I cannot understand it. Tell me what other institution would survive that; in a decent world?
Fascinating that even in the US, Public Services Broadcasting is by a very large margin the most trusted News source and one of the most viewed.
Equally, when the BBC is being attacked by right wing newspapers and Tory politicians why does it never point out the huge disparity in trust and consumption between its right wing critics and itself?
As it is these right-wing newspapers have created an alternative reality where anybody following their version of news would believe that it is they who are trusted and that the BBC are a bunch of distrusted, unpatriotic communists.
As Murdoch has explained with Fox News, it is vital to the company profits that Fox never allows its audience to know that their fellow citizens think they are gullible morons.
Think what might happen in the UK if the BBC actually fought back.
Yes Paul, how I wish that those in charge of the Beeb would fight back and support it against the rabid right who hate it so much. Davie needs to grow a pair and relentlessly promote the idea of the BBC being one of the (few) world class things left in Britain. Unlike worthless junk like the Telegraph, Scum etc.
Of course, the wretched tories have spent the last 13 years running down the Beeb by their ilcence fee freezes and trying to dump the requirement for free TV licences for it to pay instead of as a Social Security benefit. And putting their placemen like Sharp as Chairman and the oh so not biased Robbie Gibb on the BBC Board. And constantly attacking it at every opportunity. At least Sharp has gone.
And why is this? Because (a) their media accomplices like Murdoch and Rothermere demand it, (b) the Beeb’s commerical rivals have whined for years about how unfair the licence fee income is, and, linking very neatly with this, (c), the tories cannot stand the popularity and success of great public institutions like the BBC and NHS because of thieir own blind ideological love for the private sector.
The tories. A bunch of ***** who wrap themselves in the union flag to proclaim their ‘patriotism’ (whilst accusing others of being anti British) while all the time they are destroying Britian’s institutions, reputation, economy and public services.
Ok , but how many people are now drinking up GB News ? They are scary
That’s right, GB News is scary – and there he is – Jacob Rees Mogg about to be a host it isn’t he? And he is still an MP?
What would we be being told if Corbyn or even Stymied did that? Could you imagine the right wing attack dogs reaction to that? All hell would break loose. The Right have utilised the idea of ‘cultural Marxism’ to justify going too far themselves.
Yes – purveyors of prejudice are also purveyors of division, negative politics – activating the worst aspects of society – partiality, prejudice, perceived injustices in the ‘century of the self’, those who like authoritarianism – that has only one aim – to disaggregate and break up a putative larger movement for real change and sustain the status quo.
The sort of politics we need is that which does what Gramsci spoke of perhaps – that accepts the kernel of truth of your opponent’s proposition. Do traditional Left & Right politics do this? I don’t think they do – blame Thatcher’s ‘not one of us’ attitudes by all means, but the Left can be just as guilty. If accepting a kernel of truth was what New Labour did, did they go too far and swallow the market pill? What about Callaghan and Healey in 70’s – did they accept a kernel of truth? Or were the kernels of their times rotten?
What ‘kernels of truth’ have the Thatcherite Tories ever accepted from the Left? The thing is, Thatcher never told the British public that she worshipped monetarism but had abandoned it to the point where Heseltine was then put in charge of inner city investment through SRB funding in places where there had riots. So a myth was created that Cameron and Osbourne swallowed whole in 2010 and came in to finish the ‘great lady’s’ work. But Thatcherism didn’t work then, and it does not work now. It never did. Look at the ‘markets’ for utilities now. Look at what ‘great car economy’ has to our air. Myths, myths, myths.
So for me politics is a system that just does not work. The exchange of the ‘kernels of truth’ is just a one way street coming from the Right.
And why is that?
Simple: Money. Lots of money. We can sit here reading about the purveyance of prejudice, but this prejudice is still going to be well funded. And that’s the problem that no one seems to want to deal with – host excepted.
Because of money, politics is not working – instead of being accommodated like for like, certain ‘kernels of truth’ and not others are being rammed down our throats on a daily basis. Do you keep seeing the SUV adverts devoid of traffic jams? Of course we do!
It seems to me that politics has failed. And when politics fails, there is only one thing left: War. This will however be a very sophisticated war using ‘information’, lots of money and its modern outlets and very fast distribution networks. And it will not disrupt capitalism and none of its means of production will sequestered by that nasty State. Perfect!
It is perverse for me to say this but I sort of long for a real war? Telling the opposition what I think through the barrel of a gun? Let’s just take up arms and try to wipe each other out and get it over with eh? There’s an honesty about that missing at the moment. And it might be a lot shorter than the slow dive into whatever environmental punishment is coming our way anyway. Kershon? Get used to the way it looks I say. The ‘Kershon look’ will be closer to the place you live than you think.
And yet……………..Stymied says that a Laboured government is considering giving the vote to 16 year olds. God I hope so. He’d better. Credit where credit is due. The wisdom of youth in the face of the problems Thatcher’s generation have created is sorely needed right now.
JRM is already a regular host
I declined the opportunity to be interviewed by him