this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2025
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UK Politics

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General Discussion for politics in the UK.
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[–] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 81 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Journalism has become spineless

[–] Sturgist@lemmy.ca 24 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Not sure what the private media/journalism ownership is here, one of the many things I keep meaning to inform myself about. Obviously the BBC is meant to be an independent, unbiased source of information. In Canada the CBC fulfills the same niche. Neither are safe from outside pressure, or lazy reporting.
The vast majority of private journalism media in Canada is owned by Canadian media holding conglomerate Postmedia(bit too on the nose if you ask me). It's in turn 66% owned by American Media Conglomerate Chatham Asset Management. It's a bit of a piss take, as media in Canada is meant to be majority Canadian ownership. But there it is.

[–] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 12 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Excellent comment. I try to keep up with who owns what too, but it's kinda like keeping track of food brands. There only so many owners, but the huge amount of brands (news sources) can make it difficult.

[–] Sturgist@lemmy.ca 15 points 3 weeks ago

It's also a very real problem, especially in rural areas of Canada, and small communities. Small papers are being bought up en masse, and replaced by generic tat "news" with little if any relevance to the communities, and instruction about what is acceptable for print filtering down ultimately from Chatham Assets, which is owned by Anthony Melchiorre, and is closely associated with the GOP. Ergo a Republican vehicle for disseminating approved information. This situation, where local governments of small communities and rural areas that in the past would have a local paper, now are using Meta products and Twitter to communicate with residents and kinda don't have much in the way of options to change that.

It's not a great situation. And I think we'll see that like with food and alcohol, a very small group of almost entirely American companies owns basically everything if you follow the shells to the top.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 3 points 3 weeks ago

They dont expect my pedons to check beyond the first layer

And it fucking works

[–] alykanas@slrpnk.net 3 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Obviously the BBC is meant to be an independent, unbiased source of information

Where did you get that idea ?

The BBC is state apparatus.

[–] Sturgist@lemmy.ca 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Their website.

In a properly functioning Democratic society, a government funded but independent media corps with a mandate for impartiality and ethical journalism, which doesn't feel limited by potential repercussions for reporting unapproved information, is a really healthy, effective and important thing. I'm not saying that the UK is a properly functioning (Democratic) Constitutional Monarchy. One might argue that those words automatically dictate a lack of proper function and health. That's not what I'm saying, or what we're talking about. I bring it up to curb strawman whataboutist diversion.
What I am saying is that if a "state apparatus" like the BBC (/CBC) is set up properly, and isn't being actively subverted, it is an important part of maintaining a healthy and functional democracy. And not automatically a right-thought, public control, propaganda machine.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

That's like claiming that North Korea is a Democracy by pointing out that they're the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

You want to see how "impartial" and "ethical" the BBC is, go check out their coverage of Jeremy Corbyn during the campaign to oust him as leader of the Labour Party some years ago (curiously done with the help of Israel-linked Jewish groups accusing him of anti-semitism, which is very much consistent with what they did here and their vastly different reporting of what's happening in Palestine depending on the source being Israeli or Palestinian), most notably the news program were they had as background a picture of him doctored to show him wearing a Soviet hat or how they spread the slander that a Jewish Holocaust Survivor was an anti-semite for comparing the actions of Israel with those of the Nazis (specifically, they claimed Corbyn was an anti-semite for sitting in a panel in a conference when somebody compared some actions of Israel with those of the Nazis, said somebody being a Jewish Holocaust Survivor).

And don't get me started on how they use framing of everything as having only two-sides to silence non-mainstream voices.

The BBC is a Propaganda outfit same as, say, Fox News, they're just a posher version of it, all about "opinion making", controlling information and uneven presentation (just go check at how they present things differently in the Gaza genocide depending on the source), rather than in-your-face bullshitting.

[–] Sturgist@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

North Korea is a Democracy

I'm sorry. Did. Did you not read the thing? You're railing against something that I... Sorta, kinda, maybe had hinted at. Is the BBC Impartial? Fuck no. Is that the point that I was trying to make? Idfk.... Maybe take a bit of time to sober up? Read what I wrote again. Maybe interpret things a bit better?

Just like....idk....maybe reread what I wrote above if I was you, and was in the UK on a visa, maybe trying to not be deported. Cool. Glad you were being like....chill...and uh stuff. We aren't opposed. Not against each other.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah, you're right - you're saying that it's possible in a properly functioning Democracy to have an independent state funded media, not that the UK is a properly functioning Democracy.

I just reacted to you posting a link to the BBC's very own bullshit on their impartiality (a link which doesn't make sense in light of the rest).

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Not directly, although the ruling party can always threaten to strip their public funding. If anything, maybe it should go to the state (and I mean the state, not the government, the state is above the government) and be protected by the Crown, if anything.

[–] Venator@lemmy.nz 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Should be above the state 😅, the BBC is generally more useful than the crown.

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 3 points 3 weeks ago

Crown the BBC as Emperor

[–] sik0fewl@lemmy.ca 7 points 3 weeks ago

BBC in particular (who I would expect better from) are particularly anti-Palestinian and propping up Israel's narrative.

[–] Venator@lemmy.nz 22 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)
[–] Supernova1051@sh.itjust.works 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Anyone able to download & seed this? I'd like to download & help seed when I'm able to get to my PC.

[–] Venator@lemmy.nz 4 points 3 weeks ago

It's not a torrent, daily motion is like a youtube or vimeo competitor. There's torrents of it too though, but I dunno what public trackers are good these days.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 21 points 3 weeks ago

Israel lobby is a security risk but here we be

[–] skaarl@feddit.nl 8 points 3 weeks ago

The documentary can be see here: kalamullah.com/gaza-how-to-survive-a-warzone DOT html

Reason for the film's removal TLDR narrator is son of a civil servant in Gaza Department of Agriculture. Racist genocide enthusiasts call this son of Hamas official. Aka genocide coverup

[–] IndustryStandard@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

It was slightly surprising to see the BBC make such a good documentary about Gaza. The BBC quickly corrected themselves. Palestinians are not allowed to be humanized.

[–] JokeDeity@lemm.ee 2 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Even ignoring the subject matter, it must feel great to work on a documentary only to have some shitty country have your work taken down.

[–] ohulancutash@feddit.uk 0 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Great to have the producers breach their contract with the BBC by failing to disclose a major contributor’s background when covering a contentious issue. The egg is firmly on the face of Hoyo Films, which is a fairly new outfit.

[–] skaarl@feddit.nl 2 points 3 weeks ago
  1. The narrator is a child that has lived his whole life under siege

  2. The narrators father's position in the department of agriculture is literally within the first 5 seconds of the film

To believe Zionist propaganda it is very important that people know nothing, but parrot well. Thank you for your service.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org -2 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

That's how censorship works... Westoid normies just thinks it is fine when they do it to the bad people.

This line of reasoning is getting increasingly hard to maintain when the "good" guys are doing a genocide but the regime will keep doing it.

[–] skaarl@feddit.nl 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 1 points 3 weeks ago

Nice... Generations of soft power gone just like that lol

[–] JokeDeity@lemm.ee 0 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Sunzu with another classic.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 1 points 3 weeks ago

It ain't much but it is honest work

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Fuck you, BBC.

[–] IndustryStandard@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

It was slightly surprising to see the BBC make such a good documentary about Gaza. The BBC quickly corrected themselves. Palestinians are not allowed to be humanized.