Media Bias with Reference to Jeremy Corbyn

The media creates a landscape that structures and greatly influences how we view the world. 

Individuals and groups can come up with notions and ideas that have no basis in reality, that are unfounded and invalid. When such notions and ideas circulate widely enough in our media-landscape many, many people start believing them.

It is important that we all properly reflect on how we've come to our views and whether we can back them up. 

With ideas there can be degrees of validity; some ideas may be more valid than others depending on how much evidence one has to support them. 

We need to think about these things if we want to relinquish the control that media has on us.

British national newspapers - The Sun, The Daily Mail, The Daily Express, The Daily Mirror, The Telegraph, The Times, etc. - have a tremendous influence on the thoughts and lives of the British public. They create a landscape in which many ideas and views circulate. 

Now one idea I am thinking of that has been very widely circulated is that Jeremy Corbyn is a weak leader. Admittedly a minority of our journalists and national newspapers may dispute this. But this is, by and large, the general consensus. It is a view that the conservative campaign actually rests on, for the alternative to Corbyn is Theresa May’s “strong and stable leadership”. 

The view that Corbyn is a weak leader always seemed completely unfounded to me. I couldn’t find a scrap of evidence to back it up.

Looking at Corbyn’s past, thoroughly, will show you that he is an individual of unique consistency and integrity. He has taken anti-inequality and anti-establishment stances throughout his career. Despite pressures even from within his own party he has never wavered on his principles. He is one of the few politicians to properly stand up to corporate greed and war and the most elite members of society. In this respect he is not remotely weak.

Many of our national newspapers, which, to iterate, circulate ideas and influence thoughts, are owned by billionaires with deeply vested interests. It is thus safe to say our media-landscape is intensely skewed and uneven, mirroring the dominant interests of those with money and power and the unfair neoliberal system in which we live.

Recently, Corbyn has been accused of being a “terrorist sympathiser” in reference to the IRA. This is because, about 30 years ago, he was present at a number of peace negotiations with members of Sinn Féin. This has become a major issue in the media-landscape, reaching front pages and headlines across the national papers. 

However, what has not become nearly as major an issue in the this landscape is the fact that May, a few months ago, met the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. The British government has sold and continues to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia who, as of 2015 to the present, is bombing Yemen. As Mark Curtis has pointed out, "the Saudis have been funding terrorism for decades". 

Yet we do not hear, across our national newspapers, that May is a “terrorist sympathiser” doing “dodgy deals” with the Saudis, or that there is “blood on her hands”. 

Why was May not grilled by Andrew Neil in reference to Saudi Arabia and the horrific killings in Yemen? Neil spent much of his interview with Corbyn grilling him about the IRA, because this is what the media has deemed an important issue. 

Our establishment media (which includes the BBC as well as the billionaire-owned rags), so deeply ingrained in the minds of the public, is thus fundamentally rigged from the very start. This is why independent bloggers and online news sites are so inspiring, significant and commendable.

We all need to realise how the popular press operates and we all need to fully reflect on and understand the things we say and the views we hold. There will always be differing opinions and this is okay, but views must always be analysed. 

The Vilification of Jeremy Corbyn

In politics, clear understanding of a party's policies is most significant. What does the party currently stand for? What are it's enduring principles? This should be blatantly obvious and I shouldn't have to make this point. But, judging by the mainstream media, the point, clearly, has to be made.

Recently, I have found it fascinating how a certain British political figure has been so vehemently attacked and undermined by so many people and whose views have either been ignored or distorted by the popular press. The ongoing situation is a symbol or template of much that is unjust, insidious and detrimental in politics and our society, which is why I am so powerfully drawn to it. This situation regards the leader of the opposition, Jeremy Corbyn.

The backlash and vitriol directed at Corbyn from so many angles - David Cameron, Tony Blair, Richard Branson, Neil Kinnock, various other members of his own party (see below for sources 1, 2, 3, 4), the popular press in general (see below for sources 5, 6, 7) - is extremely indicative of how our society operates. Corbyn undoubtedly poses a threat to New Labour, the Establishment and Neoliberalism, bearing in mind that these systems have led to the Iraq War, the 2008 Financial Crash and Austerity. There is certainly something going on here. No other recent British political figure has received such unwarranted negative attention and vilification.

Some of the things often said of Corbyn are that he is radical, unrealistic, impractical, a threat to national security. Such reactions exist solely because his views go against the prevailing and underlying values and fictitious stories of our war-mongering (also see this) and neoliberal society. His views are not radical, far from it. They are wholly sensible and pragmatic. Some of the primary things Corbyn wants are a minor redistribution of wealth, a robust NHS and a well-funded Welfare State, and the pledges of his party reflect this. It is the dominant values of our neoliberal society, underpinned and enforced by many of the stories found in our "impartial" news sources, which are radical, in a very detrimental way.

Establishment and billionaire-owned media construct powerful narratives that have little to no basis in reality. Such narratives are often motivated by self-interest and greed and seem to toxify the minds of many people. Sadly, people hurt by such narratives also, often, repeat them. I feel if any person, from any background, can do one thing, it is to accurately understand the nature of media narratives, whether they be from the BBC, the Sun or the Guardian. In this sense, I am talking about perceiving truth or having an accurate awareness of the very world in which we live. Before we can grow and develop as a society, we need to perceive beyond the dominant media cloud of misinformation and find a place of clarity and fairness.

Another insult levelled at Corbyn is that he is not a good leader. I have not heard this insult used against the leader of a party nearly as much as it is used against Corbyn and the people who use it don't elaborate on what they mean or don't back it up with valid points. It is vital to unpack what one means when one says or repeats phrases like good leader.

As far as I'm concerned, a good leader is clear, calm and communicative. A good leader is someone who has a stable set of views and who has demonstrated that they will hold to those views no matter what, in other words a good leader is principled and has integrity. A good leader has a coherent vision of what they wish to achieve. A good leader is someone who can make difficult decisions; decisions that, for example, go against the status quo or familiar. A good leader is someone who will stand up for and give a voice to minority groups and those less fortunate. A good leader is sincere and honest. It is hard to tell whether someone is sincere and honest, but one can get a good idea by looking at their past and seeing whether they genuinely and consistently act on what they believe and espouse. Also a person's public image might point to sincerity and honesty, in that they may not dress and act exactly as they are expected to, they may not give in to such pressures. A good leader is passionate and may not necessarily convey that passion through rhetoric and energetic speeches but by tirelessly acting on what they believe in and never giving in to pressure. I can't think of a better demonstration of passion.

During his interviews and public appearances, I have never seen Corbyn lose his temper and he has always expressed his point clearly. Corbyn and his party have a strong and coherent vision, as shown in their 10 pledges. Corbyn has views, on foreign policy for example, that go against the grain and yet are a necessary step toward worldwide diplomacy and peace, showing he is very much capable of making difficult decisions. Corbyn has been a committed activist throughout his career, fully dedicating himself to helping minority groups and fighting for equality. Corbyn isn't interested in rhetoric, spin, personal attacks and facades and has always acted on what he believes. If one feels compelled to address the concept of leadership, it is necessary to go into more detail.

Corbyn "called on the government to use the money it was spending on the 1986 wedding of Prince Andrew to Sarah Ferguson to improve department of social security advice services, called for hereditary peers to be ejected from the House of Lords, and spoke out against Britain's independent nuclear deterrent" (Rosa Prince, 2016: 99). Corbyn voted against section 28, the 1988 clause of the local government act, that banned the promotion of homosexuality by local authorities (Prince, 2016: 99), unlike Theresa May who voted the opposite. In 1990, Corbyn "helped Tony Benn install a plaque in the crypt of the House of Commons to mark the spot where the suffragette Emily Wilding Davison (who later died by throwing herself in the path of the king's racehorse) hid on the night of the 1911 census to record her residence as Parliament" (Prince, 2016: 99). "While Thatcher declared Nelson Mandela a terrorist and opposed sanctions, Corbyn joined the executive of the Anti-Apartheid Movement and protested outside the South African embassy in Trafalgar Square" (Prince, 2016: 102) and among 100 protesters was arrested for doing so. Corbyn was vice-chairman of the All-Parliamentary Group on Human Rights and chairman of the Parliamentary CND Group.

In 2001, Corbyn helped create the Stop the War Coalition and in 2003 voted, with 149 MPs, against the Iraq war, while 412 MPs voted for it. In 2011, 557 MPs voted in favour of bombing Libya, 13 against; Corbyn and John McDonnell were among those 13. The Iraq war and the bombing of Libya have now been widely shown to be great mistakes, across the political spectrum, as the Chilcot report and the report on David Cameron's Libya intervention have emphatically confirmed.

Corbyn has been committed to anti-war and anti-inequality causes throughout his life, in spite of various pressures, largely from within his own party (for more info see Prince, 2016: 89-106 and 139-153), to do otherwise. I think it is safe to say he is not a careerist and is a consistent and trustworthy individual who doesn't give in to pressure. Some might say he is strong or indefatigable and is undoubtedly capable of making difficult decisions.

In the popular press, which greatly influences peoples lives, it is rare that I have come across sustained, balanced and intelligently argued analyses of situations. Instead I have mostly found dishonest, highly opinionated and unsubstantiated claims. These points are sharply and frequently illustrated in the popular media's portrayal of Corbyn.

A study at the London School of Economics found that three-quarters of newspaper stories about Corbyn either twisted or failed to accurately represent his views. The content of 8 national newspapers were analysed between 1 September and 1 November 2015. While it is true that each newspaper and writer have their own agendas (though some writers achieve more objectivity than others) and that many politicians are ignored or distorted by the media, the degree to which such distortion and ignorance takes place with Corbyn is particularly high. There is a statement signed by 100 intellectuals, the well-informed Noam Chomsky among them, that sums this up:

"The leadership of Jeremy Corbyn has been subject to the most savage campaign of falsehood and misrepresentation in some of our most popular media outlets. He has, at different times, been derided, ignored, vilified and condemned. Few journalists attempted to fathom the reason for his overwhelming victory in the Labour leadership contest in 2015 and few have sought systematically and impartially to explore the policies he has promoted as leader. We do not expect journalists to give any elected leader an easy ride but Corbyn has been treated from the start as a problem to be solved rather than as a politician to be taken seriously. The reason is that he has never been part of the Westminster village or the media bubble and that he has never hidden his commitment to socialistic politics. At a time when austerity, insecurity and racism remain real threats to the lives of many people in the UK, we believe that Jeremy Corbyn can help to provide a way out of the mess we are in. We condemn the unwarranted attacks on his leadership by an unelected media and call on those who want to see meaningful and progressive social change to stand behind Jeremy Corbyn" (see below for source 8)

"Corbyn is electable. Corbyn, the fair and unpretentious leader of the labour party, is one of the very few high-profile politicians capable of leading the country at this time and alleviating many of our societal problems. He is calm, clear and communicative and throughout his career and life has been committed to creating a fairer and more equal society. His past activism and willingness to stand up for what he believes in shows us that he is a man of integrity, someone we can all trust. Obviously, the views and policies he stands behind are of utmost importance. But as an individual I believe one glance at his past tells us that he will steadfastly hold to and fight for those views and in this respect he is a rare and particularly competent leader". Because we are constantly told with such "authority" and conviction that Corbyn is unelectable, unorganised and unrealistic, this is simply what many people think. But if you can reverse such statements on a large enough scale, you can dramatically shift how people think. This is media. This is conditioning.

In light of what's been happening in recent time - continual war, racism, rising poverty, the environmental destruction, austerity, etc. - Corbyn or someone with his track record ought to be embraced by our country. But it is quite the opposite case. We are living in a particularly pivotal period of history. In years to come, with the benefit of hindsight, our period will be analysed, light will be shed, and more people will be able to see more accurately. It is about taking a step back, or forward, and assessing a situation from some degree of distance. Neoliberalism, the Iraq war, the environmental crisis, the 2008 financial crash, austerity, Brexit, Donald Trump, Corbyn. These characters, events and processes are all inextricably woven in a complex drama. The question remains, will enough people understand before its too late?

Bibliography

Prince, R (2016). Comrade Corbyn. Biteback Publishing Ltd: London

Websites

1 - https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/aug/19/corbyns-leadership-unprofessional-and-shoddy-says-heidi-alexander

2 - https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/aug/22/ex-shadow-minister-accuses-jeremy-corbyn-of-discrimination

3 - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-corbyn-tended-to-read-from-prepared-script-at-cabinet-meetings-says-former-frontbencher-a7220836.html

4 - http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2016/07/lilian-greenwood-mp-jeremy-corbyn-continually-undermined-me-job-i-loved

5- https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3499995/the-labour-party-is-not-even-fit-enough-to-be-the-opposition-let-alone-the-government/

6- http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/jk-rowling-jeremy-corbyn-labour-leadership-dumbledore-hogwarts-wizard-politics-a7221981.html

7- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/11749043/Andrew-Gilligan-Jeremy-Corbyn-friend-to-Hamas-Iran-and-extremists.html

8- https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/08/labour-jeremy-corbyn-and-the-search-for-the-partys-henry-vii