[Media-watch]

[YvonneMarshall]

Dear List-Members,

You may be surprised to get this communication from me, but I don't want you to feel sad, because everyone gets hacked-off at times, and that is why I have to report, in all seriousness, that I do not have £67.8 billion to deposit in your account. I wish I did have, because you are trustworthy and - I've already checked - your credit history is impeccable.

WHAT FOLLOWS IS A PERSONAL RANT !

THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS OUTRAGEOUS OPINIONS. THE WRITER MAY HAVE BEEN UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF 100% LEGAL DRUGS AT THE TIME OF WRITING AND HAS THEREFORE ABSOLVED HIMSELF AND ANY READER OF ANY BLAME REGARDING ANYTHING WHATEVER. THIS IS A POLITE NOTICE ! YOU HAVE BEEN KINDLY WARMED... OKAY, WARNED  !...

Alright, now that's over with, if you're still here. Did you just see Newsnight ? David Kay has chucked it in Iraq, he was the man responsible for...let's see now, he was in charge of the ISG (Iraq Survey Group) and he's scunnered, he's offksy, because he's fed-up, wants to go back to his family, he's been there six months in charge of people looking for weapons of mass destruction. He knows they're not there.  The people working for him know they're not there. The guy who's succeeding him in the post has already said there's next-to-zero chance of finding anything at all.  Is this all meant to be a surprise ? Gavin Esler asked Donald Anderson (the guy who chaired the Select Committee which grilled David Kelly) if it isn't about time that Blair said 'game's a bogey' but, astonishingly, Anderson managed to get off with implying that the whole damm mess is Bill Clinton's fault. Eh ? Esler inquired no further...

Channel Four (UK) tonight broadcast a  Dispatches 'documentary' which was provocatively titled 'What Hutton Won't Tell You.' It was presented by some photogenic goon who, a year ago, was responsible for an appalling piece of pre-war propaganda (also masquerading as a 'documentary') which featured alleged members of Saddam's 'Fedayeen' tearing a live dog apart as part of their 'graduation' from Uday/Qusay's training camps.  Anyone remember that one ?

Tonight's CH4 programme also featured Robin Cook and Clare Short getting their final digs in before next week's release of Hutton's report. Throughout the programme, viewers were treated to shots of the handsome journalist (sorry, but his name has slipped, and even if I could remember it I'd be loathe to give the w****r any publicity) rubbing his brow as he pondered pieces of paper in a dark room, the faint glow of the computer screen illuminating his chiselled features as he wrestled with the enormity of what was unfolding before him. Throughout this piece of serious journalism (was 'Dispatches' not once regarded as 'serious' ?) there was a constant, if occasionally-faded drum-beat, 'the drum-beat of impending war' etc etc. The presence of the presenter as 'sleuth', 'investigator', was prominent throughout.

The CH4 'Dispatches' programme replaced the sheduled show, and the Newsnight feature regarding David Kay etc lasted no more than four, five minutes. Between both of these programmes there was not one shred of news or evidence which was was not already known by anyone who took more than a cursory interest in the'news' as it unfolded during 2002/2003. None of it was 'new'.

List-members, I write this tonight as a real plea, an honest-to-God from-the-heart plea to ask if any of you who are witnessing this so-called 'journalism' find it acceptable, and if not, why not, and what the f**k are you going to do about it ? I'm not a journalist - I've written wee tiny bits and pieces for the SSP Voice, some art-related criticism etc, but I'm not a 'player'. Some of you must- surely!!! - some of you must know folk who work in 'media', who socialise with some of these folk who end up directing, producing, informing or otherwise participating in the inane rubbish we are expected to swallow as 'serious' journalism - right now, as we face a week when anyone with any clout will be paying their spin-people whatever they ask, and the 'journalism' which is produced will affect the future government of this country (as well as the fate of many others), the mass-media recording of late Jan 2004 might well determine the fate of thousands of UK troops currently in Iraq, as well as that of those 'lightly-pencilled in' for involvement in Syria, Iran etc etc.

I have always presumed that anyone involved with this list has an interest in seeking some truth, perhaps even, in the long-term, some justice for wrongs that have already been committed 'in our name', but, by it's very nature, any kind of 'allegiance' to this forum would necessitate a willingness to accept unpleasant truths and a readiness to debate them.

If any proof was needed that mainstream mass-media in the UK is fundamentally corrupt and/or complicit in the misrepresentation of historical/current 'reality', then tonight's listings should be useful - the CH4 'Dispatches' episode and Newsnight - taken together - provided a snapshot of what British journalism is up to when times are tough and serious. These programmes are held up as 'flagships' by their respective producers. On tonight's evidence, they're not up to much at all, and we should perhaps all be thinking very seriously about that in the days ahead.

Yours, as always, in love and peace,

Ian Brotherhood 




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