How the media protects the establishment from change
by Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp
(22/06/2015)
"Knowledge is power" said Francis Bacon, and several hundred years later that observation holds true. The ability of a nation’s population to access knowledge, or at least unbiased opinion on matters political, social and economic, is a true measure of the democratic progress of that nation. Politics has become a battle to define versions of the truth and so dominate the population’s thinking. It helps, therefore, if you are able to control, or at least heavily influence, the flow of information to the people. Which is where media control and spin come in. In my lifetime, if you didn’t have the media on side then winning an election required your opponent to make a catastrophic mistake, like running away from cuts protesters and hiding in a sandwich shop when they should be asking them for a selfie.
Over the last few generations mainstream media ownership has been a source of great power and, given its past profitability, its ownership has become dominated by those who seek power, influence and fortune, those most unsuited to own the press. Those who wish to exercise power also prioritise the maintenance of power and so become the enemy of change. They create institutions to protect the ideas that brought power and now the UK’s press and TV news media have merged with the Westminster institution.
The BBC has lost the balance [...] especially on Scottish politics.
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