I listen to, watch or read the news now, and always have the same questions.
- How much of this is right?
- What are the biases on display?
- Why are we being taken for mugs?
- Do they think we believe them?
Am I alone in thinking all this?
I am aware that truth is a victim of war, but this has become very apparent over the last week and I am fed up with being kept in the dark whilst being fed bullshit.
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Wholly agree with you, especially this past few weeks with what’s happening in Iran and the region! I watched a great interview with Alastair Crook on the Chris Hedges YouTube channel. This is a fabulous example of Chris debunking the traditional media reporting/obfuscations that we need to suffer.
Thank you, both.
Crook is a former UK and EU official. Please ask yourself why he’s not on the MSM.
I find myself constantly cross checking with other sources to try to work out the full story. It’s not just you.
You’re right. We ain’t mushrooms (although they are quite clever in their own way) – we are people. I was listening to R4 this morning by accident and it was like tsunami of tosh. I had to turn it off. No analysis, so therefore nothing to talk about. Zilch.
No wonder sensible, more considerate people flock to blogs like this. But the ‘failure demand’ is too much because there is too much not being discussed and too much not being done as a result.
Welcome to Oceania.
Sites like Media Lens and FAIR focus exactly on this replacement of actual news with propaganda.
The fragmentation of the internet, algorithmic control of news feeds, the development of alt news channels of varying levels of toxicity, regulatory capture, and either conscious or unconscious bias in MSM, plus the sewage outflow of fake news, all means we don’t actually KNOW what news our neighbours are exposed to.
As a former BBC R4 addict, I haven’t watched or listened to BBC News or CA for several years, nor to ITV or Ch4 (Yet the last time someone shouted at me for being antisemitic I was told I was watching too much BBC News!)
My occasional forays into YouTube when I HAVE to login (using one of several different signins acc to device) absolutely horrifies me when I see what toxic garbage the algorithm offers me within 2 or 3 videos down the feed.
We have become disconnected tribes, all fed different versions of reality, which makes rational debate across any cultural, class, gender, racial, age, political or religious divide, very challenging – and often, bruisingly painful (personal experience).
A major success of evil people is that they have discredited the truth. “Thats fake news” says Trump. “We won’t report that” says Guardian/BBC editor.
You are NOT alone in thinking all this.
No wonder we see a rise of extremism and conspiracy theories! If you can no longer trust the traditional sources for honest reporting and holding power to account, then you start to go fishing for any old rubbish.
Journalism is dead.
Some thoughts about things we see and don’t see in the media. Some big, some small.
Why does Iran have a “regime” but the US and Israel have a “government”? We may not like it, but like North Korea and Afghanistan and most other countries, Iran has a constitution of some sort and a government in charge.
What are we not seeing, while everyone has shifted focus to Iran (and at a push other Gulf states, and Lebanon)? How are people in Gaza and the West Bank or Syria doing, for example?
How much is the US spending on this war of choice? And how much is it costing their economy and the wider world?
Do we really live in a world where powerful states think they can invade their neighbours with impunity? And assassinate political leaders in other countries? You’d have to be an idiot (or wilfully blind) to fail to see that this is not a one-way street. Russia and China and others are watching.
Why is the price of electricity in the UK still based on the most expensive component, which has been gas for many years? Who has made this choice and who does it suit? How much revenue is the government receiving from taxpayers through contracts for difference, paying generators a fixed price and pocketing the upside?
A great deal to agree with
Social media is full for so much media, both print and visual, which has been generated by AI or by bots that it is impossible to trust or believe anything one reads or sees.
For me about the only thing which would restore some of that trust would be if all AI generated content had to be identified as such; and with regards to AI Generated text the original questions and/or prompts should also be included.
I take the view that lies are built into the neoliberal system.
When it comes to war, the West has always been clever at how they justify their conflicts. I mean, they came up with terms like “collateral damage” and “friendly fire” to justify killing innocents or those that got in the way.
Our media also will not criticise, or allow debate on the rights and wrongs when “our boys”, or I’m tempted to say our “national interests” are involved.
Here are the 66 songs that the BBC banned from the airways during the Gulf War. It included Rod Stewart’s Sailing, and ABBA’s Waterloo!
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/songs-bbc-banned-during-gulf-war/
You are not alone. This video highlights a lot of your concerns and observations.
https://youtu.be/4BlXzB8E8h4?si=Q2xjUjleN1WRdAui
We live in a media ecosystem that is bought and paid for by the rich. Even the BBC is not to be trusted, as they are captured.
You are certainly not alone, the news we all read seems to be subject to so many biases and filters. You believe some event and its consequences to be fixed, to provide a particular future. Then “Events” happen. It seems we must be prepared for any change that comes along – nothing is off the table.
I would recommend everyone checks out the films of the late John Pilger, especially ‘the war we don’t see.’
Media Lens book ‘Propaganda Blitz’
The propaganda via what is generally regarded mainstream media is so sophisticated that people with busy lives are utterly spellbound by it.
You only have to think back a week when Richard was on JV and the angle is ‘we can’t afford it’ and Richard gets no chance of breaking that particular line down. The discourse is set, blank faces to deeper questions – things treated as absolute fact.
I have for a long time now only visited here for news and commentary.
No you’re not alone Richard. I stopped trusting the media during the referendum in 2014 when I saw how the supposedly impartial BBC under reported huge gatherings I could see with my own eyes.
Sometimes I have found a non-mainstream site which seems to have a similar view of the world to me and there is a temptation to go along with all they say. When I first came across Consortium news i felt this was a site which put a view we don’t hear from mainstream media. It also hosted the admirable Chris Hedges but old habits reasserted themselves. What is the source for information they put up? Is it supported elsewhere? Sort fact and opinion. I made a few comments politely where I thought there was an error of fact. After a few posts I found I wasn’t being posted and only comments which agreed with the site were being published. Some were rants and some obviously factually wrong. No or few alternative views.There is some good stuff sometimes but I now go elsewhere.
A couple of commentators I find useful also tend to see everything in terms of their main thesis e.g. US financial domination of the world. But leaders and nations do not live by bread alone. There are other motivations and certainly other bad actors in the world.
I quite liked Craig Murray when i first read him. But I grew to be more cautious about his views.
I reminded myself that I couldn’t relieve myself of the burden of thinking.
When teaching I would set a question so the students could work out an answer. It meant I might challenge their thinking and ask them to explain.
Sometimes I got ‘Sir, can’t you just tell us. It would be so much easier.’
So much to agree with.
I have been doing it for almost 50 years! However, now with so called “AI” (a misnomer if there ever was one) one has to question what is real with respect to the written word and imagery. Surely it should be made obligatory to state work is man-made of “artificial”. (NRN)
Actually Richard, I half expected you to have a poll on this.
The ONLY reason I watch / listen to the BBC news is to monitor it.
Often it is so morally vacuous it is repugnant. True journalism is about the pursuit of truth NOT: ‘he said / she said’ reportage. US Pres. ‘Obscenity against civilisation’ is the greatest liar in modern history. Yet his comments are still presented unmediated. The entire current affairs BBC is in the game of ‘manufacturing consent’, whether through the slant of the news or the wheeling onto Newsnight, etc., of establishment talking heads.
Regards the Middle East & Ukraine, I find & check out the more aged professionals: ex-intelligence officers, long studied academics, ex-ambassadors. Here’s a recommended short list. Only once I compiled it did I recognise the common denominator. None appear on the BBC. Even the NY-based, on-a-shoestring, Democracy Now! has interviewed a fair proportion. Altogether this list represents about a 1000 years of studied experience.
Francesca Albanese (48); Alistair W Crooke (75); Prof. Glenn Diesen (46); Pepe Escobar (70); Norman Finkelstein (71); Chas W. Freeman (82); Chris Hedges (68); John Helmer (69); Prof. Michael Hudson (86); Matt Kennard (41); Rami Khouri (75); John Kiriakou(61); Gideon Levy (71); Ray McGovern (86); Prof. John Mearsheimer (77); John L Menadue (90); Prof. Ilan Pappé (70); Avraham ‘Miko’ Pelod (63); Prof. Nurit Peled-Elhanan (76); Prof. Ted Postal (78); Jeffrey Sachs (70); Scott Ritter (63); Prof. Prof. Raz Segal (50); Prof.Avi Shlaim(80); Col. Lawrence Wilkerson (79); Richard D Wolff (82).
Regards the illegal, perfidious US/Israeli attack on Iran (which prior to, Iran had offered to concede civilian nuclear constraints no other country ever has). In response, Iran systematically took out all the US radar and intelligence infrastructure in the Gulf crucial to enabling the US/Israeli attacks, and in the 2nd week Iran is now seriously ramping up its missile onslaught over Israel, which eventually will escape Israeli censors.
That Iran has the upper hand and the serious risk of Israel resorting to a tactical nuclear response, a listener to BBC would have no clue of. Likewise, the strictures on the straits of Hormuz means Saudi & Kuwait are starting to close-down oil production because of storage constraints. The shallow analysis of mainstream media is not explaining major global risks. If in doubt, Yves Smith’s post here:
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2026/03/iran-war-administration-succeeds-in-talking-down-oil-price-to-below-100-as-trump-seeks-off-ramp-to-opposition-of-pentagon-and-hawks-iran-continues-to-reject-talks-announces-increase-in-strikes-po.html
Many people now say they watch the BBC largely to monitor it rather than rely on it. Too often its journalism slips into “he said / she said” reporting instead of interrogating claims and providing deeper context. That can mean important voices and long-experienced analysts are missing from debate.
As a result, many viewers now look more widely — including independent outlets and specialist commentators — to get a fuller understanding of complex international issues.
Indeed!
On BBC news at 6 Clive Myrie mentioned the “Irianian drone” that hit the U.K. base in Cyprus. According to The National that drone wasn’t launched from Iran. Apparently we are expected to believe that Hezbollah have a supply of Iranian drones and instead of targeting Israel they sent it to Cyprus!!
For US and world news I’d certainly recommend “Democracy Now!”, especially the 10-15 “headlines” podcast, which is compiled every weekday (except for US holidays).
I’ve never detected an inaccuracy and it often covers stories ignored by the mainstream, especially in the UK.
Admittedly I only discovered “Democracy Now!” in the first place because it was once sampled by Chumbawamba…