Friday 23 March 2018

Irrespective of whether the BBC intended to frame Jeremy Corbyn as a “Russian Stooge”, the risks of that perception should have been apparent and intercepted.


Carole Cadwalladr and Channel 4’s exposure of the Cambridge Analytica scandal reminded me of the legendary Washington Post editor, Ben Bradlee. Commenting on his role in exposing Watergate, he said,

The more complicated the issues and the more sophisticated the ways to disguise the truth, the more aggressive our search for truth must be”.

When I advised the broadcast media on editorial ethics, I used this quote – a lot, but never before has the role of the media as honest broker been more crucial to the wellbeing of democracy, than now.

Listening to Cambridge Analytica’s recently sacked boss, Etonian old boy Alexander Nix, boasting about propagating the digital landscape with lies, fear and hate, to win elections, was chilling. To mitigate against these fake news propagandists, actual journalism must be underpinned by facts and unfettered by favour.

While Channel 4 conducted a masterclass in broadcast journalism this week, the BBC’s flagship current affairs programme, Newsnight, became mired in an unedifying controversy over its handling of Labour’s response to Theresa May’s Russia ultimatum. The choice of backdrop (a red infused picture of Jeremy Corbyn in a hat, as opposed to a suit, in front of the Kremlin) betrayed a crisis in editorial judgement. Irrespective of whether the BBC intended to frame Jeremy Corbyn as a “Russian Stooge”, the risks of that perception should have been apparent and intercepted.

When dealing with a highly charged and politically sensitive incident, such as a chemical attack, licence fee payers expect probity and integrity in the BBC’s handling of it.

Two days before Theresa May issued her ultimatum to Russia, a Survation poll put Labour 7 points ahead of the Tories and showed that 60% of those polled had had enough of austerity, including almost half of Tory voters. The same week, Philip Hammond scrapped free school meals for 1 million children in poverty, Unilever announced it was moving its HQ out of the UK and the Brexit impact assessment was finally published. Summary: Whatever Brexit we get, we’ll be worse off.

Instead of holding the governments’ feet to the flames over any of the above, Newsnight went after the leader of the opposition for daring to do his job. If the Russia ultimatum was a dead cat, it worked. A lot of bad news got buried beneath the bluster.

Analysing media failings in the lead up to the Iraq war in 2016, Ian Birrell wrote, “The initial reporting showed how a supposedly free and fearless press was powerless, vulnerable and gullible in a moment of national crisis concluding”, “…it meekly fell into line with Government propagandists”.

The Economist’s analysis of the Chilcot inquiry revealed: That lack of caution, combined with a disregard for process bordered on the feckless…The intelligence was not questioned or challenged in the way it should have been, given how much was resting on it”.

MPs should have spoken out and demanded more and better evidence. Instead they put self-interest ahead of the national interest. Many of the same right wing Labour MPs who backed Blair’s reckless war, put self-interests before national interest again this week. Instead of backing Jeremy Corbyn’s sober call for calm and evidence, they were signing a letter blaming Moscow, ‘unequivocally” for the attacks.

Jeremy Corbyn is right to challenge Theresa May. There are few things as perilous as a weak leader trying to appear strong.  If she sees this as her Falklands moment – an opportunity to deflect from her huge unpopularity and domestic failures – she could take us into dangerous territory. This is a time for quelling - not fanning - the flames of hysteria.

The framing of Jeremy Corbyn as a “Russian stooge” by some media outlets is an obvious red herring. He robustly condemned the Salisbury attack but his track record is equally strong. Eight years ago, he signed a Parliamentary Motion accusing Putin’s Russia of corruption and human rights abuses and has called on the government for a UK version of the Magnitsky Act, which allows for financial sanctions. Something the Tories had previously resisted.

It is the Conservative party that has received £3m worth of donations from Russian donors and it was Boris Johnson who accepted £160,000 in exchange for a game of tennis with Lubov Chernukhin, the wife of a former Putin minister. The same woman bid £30,000 to have dinner with Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson. Chernukhin’s husband was Putin’s deputy finance minister. Meanwhile, Jacob Rees-Mogg’s fund management’s firm has profited from a £60m investment in a Russian bank, despite being under EU sanctions since 2014. 

He who pays the piper calls the tune.

Our democracy has been hijacked and apostles of hate have stolen our privacy and exploited our vulnerabilities. Now is not the time to be deflected by dead cats and red herrings. The wellbeing of democracy depends on the media pursuing truth with the same determination as those in power seek to obscure and distort it. 

Other articles Tess has written on the media and Jeremy Corbyn:


On the BBCs crisis of governance:


On the right wing of the Labour party: 


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