EYE ON THE MEDIA
Below, an instance in the battle of communications against the US-led neoliberal corporatist Leviathan, as waged by British colleagues at SODIUM HAZE , whom we salute for their critical skill and dedication. American readers should know the Guardian is a major player in the UK’s media constellation, supposedly representing the “left/liberal” viewpoint, close buyt not quite the same as The New York Times in terms of “liberal” establishment credentials. Sodium Haze’s analysis of this media organization’s board composition —as the Guardian sharply drifts to the right—is extremely useful, insightful, and sociologically compelling. We need more of this stuff on this side of the Atlantic. —PG
Instead of presenting even a semblance of fair coverage of Russia and Pres. Putin, the Guardian has simply joined the lynching mob, albeit while pretending to criticise from a left perspective.
The Guardian has become a liberal frosted version of The Daily Mail. You think not? Read on…
Like the BBC – The Guardian is not independent, the old Scott Trust was wound up in 2008 and replaced by a limited company using the same moniker.
The new Scott Trust Ltd appoints a board to run the show – the composition of which might startle those who still regard The Guardian as a left leaning newspaper.
Neil Berkitt – a former banker (Lloyds, St George Bank) who then helped vulture capitalist Richard Branson with Virgin Media.
David Pemsel – Former head of marketing at ITV.
Nick Backhouse – On the board of the bank of Queensland, formerly with Barings Bank.
Ronan Dunne – On the Telefónica Europe plc board, Chairman of Tesco Mobile. He has also worked at Banque Nationale de Paris plc.
Judy Gibbons – Judy is currently a non-executive director of retail property kings Hammerson, previously with O2, Microsoft, Accel Partners (venture capital), Apple and Hewlett Packard.
Jennifer Duvalier – Previously in management consultancy and banking.
Brent Hoberman – Old Etonian with fingers in various venture capital pies including car rental firm EasyCar.
Nigel Morris – chairman of network digital marketing giants Aegis Media.
John Paton – CEO of Digital First Media – a very large media conglomerate which was sued successfully in the U.S. for rigging advertising rates.
Katherine Viner – Startlingly not a banker, in marketing or venture capital. She is I gather (gulp) a journalist.
Darren Singer – formerly with BSkyB, the BBC and Price Waterhouse Coopers.
the only remaining guy is the secretary Philip Tranter – but don’t worry, he is a proper sort from some posh law firms in London.
If any of the members of the Guardian Media Group get bored they can surely get a slot with the BBC Trust which is also stuffed full of bankers and establishment big wigs.
Note the total absence of any trade unionists, social workers, activists or erm journalists (save for Editor in chief Ms Viner).
The Guardian is run by people predominantly from banking, venture capital and marketing – with all manner of connections to companies like Virgin Media, Tesco, O2, Microsoft, HP etc.
Perhaps this explains its well documented expertise in off shore tax avoidance schemes…
http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/06/28/the-insufferable-hypocrisy-of-the-guardian-on-corporation-tax/
https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/05/16/has-the-guardian-exploited-tax-loopholes-to-save-millions/
…the abrupt dismissal of dissenting voices,
http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2014/782-grievous-censorship-by-the-guardian-israel-gaza-and-the-termination-of-nafeez-ahmed-s-blog.html
its hysterical reaction to the notion of Scottish Independence…
http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2014/774-dark-omens-and-horror-shows-scottish-independence-power-and-propaganda.html
(I could post hundreds of other links on this topic!)
and the patronising smear campaign now being waged 24/7 against Jeremy Corbyn.
Since it has emerged that Jeremy is popular with the kind of ordinary people whose concerns are beneath the lofty machinations of the Guardian Media Group – their determination to rubbish the Corbyn campaign for leadership of The Labour Party and support his rivals has reached a farcical fever pitch.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/22/labour-party-members-jeremy-corbyn
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/19/corbyn-communist-labour-leader
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jul/15/daily-telegraph-labour-party-jeremy-corbyn
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/19/observer-view-labour-leadership-election-jeremy-corbyn
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/23/labour-back-from-brink-unity
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/24/corbyn-tribe-identity-politics-labour
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jul/24/yvette-cooper-interview-labour-leadership-protest
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/24/soft-left-labour-splinter-party
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/23/labour-leadership-contest-jeremy-corbyn
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/21/labour-tory-voters
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2015/jul/26/labour-fiddles-while-rome-burns
and this is but a FRACTION of the smug patronising abuse that Corbyn and his supporters have been treated to over the last few days.
The intention is to create a climate of opinion in which any deviation from the terms and conditions The Guardian has placed on political debate remain unchallenged.
The Guardian has spent years defining the ‘centre ground’ so that it takes place within a neoliberal fantasy land, one which facilitates a cosy relationship with wealth and power.
The Guardian is a right wing newspaper now.
The few dissenting voices it allows space for are merely fig leaves for a right wing bias disguised as ‘balanced’ journalism.
The heavy lifting of foisting its fictional credibility onto the public is left to its churnalist live blogs, stories fed to them by PR agencies and political spin doctors , stories copied straight from the wire agencies like AP and worst of all, its tiresome clutch of factory hen hacks like Andrew Rawnsley & Martin Kettle <shudder>
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and shall we mention its commitment to…
Lavish consumerism – a bench for from Selfridges for £1,495 anyone?
Luxury travel – B&B from £149 pppn?
Homes for sale with Moorings? – one with a nice sloping lawn for £1.75 million?
Homes for sale with Tennis Courts? – a nice castle for £1.5 million?
to name but a few…
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and best of all, just what has The Guardian done about Climate Change?
Eagle eyed readers might have already spotted that with The Guardian running full steam ahead on expensive consumerism, foreign travel and reviews of expensive new motors a position on climate change might prove difficult.
The Guardian could never put forward alternatives to consumerism, endless growth or advocate banking reform or strong state intervention, so instead they wrote to a billionaire friend (Bill Gates) and asked if he wouldn’t mind rearranging the investment portfolio of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (and drop its shares in Shell etc)
Sadly Bill was not minded to listen to pious waffle from The Guardian on climate change and so that was pretty much the end of the campaign which has softly faded from view…
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What can do we about this?
We can accept the truth – and this is very important – there is no liberal media in this country anymore, capital has bought it all.
Since no one in the media and very few in the political establishment will support any progressive change whatsoever, we shall have to simply ignore the media and the political establishment and force their hand anyway.
Politicians will always gracefully accept what they cannot prevent – any change will have to come from grassroots activism supporting the concerns of ordinary people.
and we can tell The Guardian to fuck off – that we’re tired of being patronised, insulted, stereotyped and demeaned.
#fuckoffguardian
and we can ignore the panic of the corporate media and elect Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party.
They are frightened of Jeremy and they are frightened of us – its time to realise their worst nightmares and reclaim the space for political debate and action for ourselves.
see also: Corbyn leadership rivals issue statement – vote for us and we’ll make you pay!
see also: Follow Sodium Haze on Facebook
NOTE: article amended on 29/07/15 to correct the ownership of the GMG. Apax Partners become the sole shareholders in the Auto Trader Group not GMG.
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