Jonathan Cook, journalist writes, Its probably too far outside my Middle East remit to seek to influence how any of my Scottish readers vote tomorrow on the question of independence from the rest of the UK. But what has been useful about the recent weeks of the campaign, especially since polls showed the vote would be a close-run thing, is the degree to which the coverage has exposed just how tied the media is to an establishment agenda. The BBC, of course, has been the most egregious offender, but the Guardian has been mostly appalling too (with columnist George Monbiot bucking the tide). If you thought the role of the media was to represent a plurality of views, youd have had a serious wake-up call watching the British medias performance on the referendum. Instead, there has been mostly wall-to-wall scare-mongering and a series of leaks showing that independence would be disastrous for Scotland. The media, rather than challenging these scare-stories promoted jointly by all the major parties, the government, the financial sector, and – very gently – the royal family, have simply regurgitated them. This campaign of intimidation may work - thats clearly the assessment of the London elites. But there must also be a danger that the people of Scotland – and the rest of the UK – have started to sense that this was not a fair fight. Anyway, here are three excellent reports giving an idea of the misinformation blitz unleashed on Scotland of late. theguardian/commentisfree/2014/sep/16/media-shafted-people-scotland-journalists medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2014/774-dark-omens-and-horror-shows-scottish-independence-power-and-propaganda.html craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2014/09/wisdom-from-poland/
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 20:38:08 +0000
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