The News We Want To Tell You About

Read Time:4 Minute, 26 Second

I don’t know about over there in America or, come to that, most other places. I can, I suspect, safely assume the news the people of North Korea or Iran or other unfortunate nations get is, shall we say, bullshit on the whole but, in western liberal democracies, you assume that your news channels are giving you, well, the news as it is around the globe.

I do understand that news programs only last a finite amount of time – unless it’s one of those 24 hour news channels anyway – but, I do think, particularly the BBC News really needs to take a long hard look at itself.

Brexit, not surprisingly, has dominated the news for a long time but, the thing is, for days on end it is merely repeating itself as, therefore, is the BBC News.

It’s like a weird ‘Groundhog Day’ of news.

When something huge happens, it makes the news and gives us some relief from Brexit. At least, that is what we have always assumed.

If its something huge in the UK then, clearly, the BBC can’t ignore it but, if it’s something huge elsewhere, the BBC seem to be determined that we only receive the ‘news’ as they see fit to relay it to us – alarmingly North Korean like if you ask me.

The far right terrorist murder of Muslims in New Zealand hit the headlines – and rightly so – but the mass slaughter of Christians by Islamic terrorists in Africa didn’t.

The devastation of Mozambique is headline news, but the terrible devastation of the floods in America, leaving large swathes of Nebraska, Missouri and other places under water hasn’t even merited a quick mention on Britain’s mainstream news channels.

I noticed, or rather heard, on BBC Breakfast TV this morning, that an online petition to revoke Article 50 and stop Brexit has hit over 4 million signatures.

Impressive eh? Still a way to go before they hit the 17.4 million that voted for it but, it is impressive and has been reported as such.

What the BBC failed to acknowledge, as the reporter cooed with awe at the numbers voting for the petition, is that anybody can vote on it. You, in America, can vote on it. All you have to do is make up an e-mail address, put in a British post code as your location and away you go.

In fact, you could vote multiple times by merely repeating a new email address and a different British post code.

So yes, BBC, 4 million signatories on this petition does sound impressive but, by merely reporting the fact without mentioning the obvious flaw that anybody on the planet Earth, with internet access and a modicum of ability to use it can vote, all you have done is give us ‘the bit of the news that you wanted us to hear’.

I do understand that, apart from the 24 hour news channels, the ‘ordinary’ news programs may only have a fairly short time to give us the headlines.

I do understand that six fire engines being called out to rescue a cat up a tree is only newsworthy if it’s a particularly quiet day.

I do understand that, in the nature of time constraints, everything can’t be included but, constantly repeating the same story for days about Brexit? Really?

If ‘Brexit’ is in precisely the same place it was in the day before or, come to that, several days before, is it really necessary to give it priority over 20 people dying in flash floods in Afghanistan?

What about good news then? Do we have to hear the same repetitive story we heard a week last Tuesday on Brexit rather than hear about a new documentary following the worlds service dogs, for example? Oh dear no. A good news item instead of a repeated Brexit item? What am I thinking about?

British news, on the BBC in particular, is spoon feeding us what they think we should hear about. BBC news, in particular, is not actually telling us ‘the news’, it is telling us what it believes we must hear, or even worse, what it wants us to know about.

Frankly, it is also, on occasion, implicitly avoiding telling the whole truth.

All we need now is Kim Jong-un standing in our next elections and, given the state of our political parties at the moment, probably winning, and I’m off to life imprisonment for having the audacity to point out that our primary news channel is now more like a propaganda mouthpiece.

You don’t think so? Well, clearly, living in Britain is a damn sight better than living in North Korea. Perhaps that is the problem.

We are so used to our freedoms that we assume ‘the establishment’, including the supposedly independent BBC, are protecting those freedoms.

We assume, because we are clearly so much better off than so many people on the planet, that we are civilized and democratic and, indeed, in comparison to so many, we are.

It’s called ‘resting on your laurels’. It’s called ‘sleepwalking into believing what you are told and doing what you are told’.

It’s called another small step towards the death of democracy.

God! (or the deity of your choice), I’m in a melodramatic mood aren’t I?

About Post Author

Neil Bamforth

I am English first, British second and never ever European. I have supported Oldham Athletic FC for 50 years which has made me immune from depression. My taste buds have died due to too many red hot curries so I drink Kronenburg beer and milk - sometimes in the same glass. I have a wife, daughter, 9 cats and I like toast.

fourdinners14223647@aol.com