Is It Fake News Or A Matter of Perception?

by Neil Bamforth

If I had heard the term ‘fake news’ before Donald Trump came on the scene, I certainly don’t remember it. Since the arrival of Trump, ‘fake news’ seems to have become something of a mantra in many quarters. It seems to have become the latest craze since ‘Waaaaaaasup’ had it’s brief moment of fame. If somebody powerful doesn’t like what they hear, it is ‘fake news’.

Obviously, it might actually be. In these days of social media, I’ve lost count of the amount of utter bullshit that I read. More alarmingly, for me, tends to be the number of people commenting their clear belief in what is equally clearly total garbage.

Still, stupid is as stupid does – or something like that.

Anyway. Given the number of conspiracy theories out there, by the law of averages, there just might, possibly, be at least some grain of truth wandering around in them somewhere. Improbable but, I suppose, not impossible.

I have to say that, after listening on ‘catch up’ TV to the Andrew Neal interviews with Conservative party leadership rivals, Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson, I’m wondering whether the ‘fake news’ conspiracy theory is one that does, occasionally, have some grain of truth to it.

We didn’t watch it ‘live’, mainly because I was watering the garden, feeding the cats and any number of far more important things.

Indeed, we weren’t going to bother with it at all until my wife, wandering around on social media, announced that, according to what she was reading, Boris Johnson had endured a ‘car crash’ of an interview and, quite simply, had ‘blown it’ in terms of becoming the next Prime Minister.

Now Boris is, it has to be said, something of a ‘character’. He is like Marmite – that awful meat substitute you get in a jar. (Do you have that stuff in America?).

You either love him or hate him, as people love or hate Marmite seemingly. There is no ‘middle ground’ with Boris.

I checked what my wife was looking at. They were newspaper sites. The Daily Mirror and The Guardian, along with The Spectator magazine.

Knowing that The Daily Mirror and The Guardian, not to mention The Spectator, are not Boris fans by any stretch of the imagination, I decided to watch the interviews on ‘catch up’ out of curiosity.

Jeremy Hunt wasn’t great. He wasn’t completely terrible but, frankly, he reminded me far too much of Tony Blair. Lots of blinking when he spoke and, to be honest, not a lot of substance. His only serious commitment to anything seemed to be not to seriously commit to anything.

Par for the course, I suppose, with most politicians.

Then, on we went to Boris and his ‘car crash’.

I watched and listened and waited. And waited. And waited.

Andrew Neal tried to outflank him. He tried to bully him. Neal was certainly more vocal and forceful than he had been with Hunt.

I have no idea what Andrew Neal actually thinks of Boris but, on this showing, I would be surprised if he remotely likes him.

Anyway. Surely the ‘car crash’ was imminent. I waited and waited.

No ‘car crash’.

Boris fended Neal off with aplomb. On one occasion telling Neal to ‘check his facts’ with Neal quickly moving on from the subject. On another Boris picked Neal up for using a nonexistent word, asking him to explain the word to viewers before reminding him what the actual word was.

Neal quickly carried on in an attempt to avoid his embarrassment.

Neal almost caught Boris out on a particular paragraph relating to the European Union. Boris fired back, in typical Boris fashion and, instead of being caught out, made Neal look more and more flustered and frustrated.

Now look. Yes, I am something of a fan of Boris. I am not what you might call a disciple. He does worry me sometimes and, he is certainly capable of being unpredictable.

On the other hand, when I read in some of the media that Boris has suffered a ‘car crash’ interview, watch said interview and see with my own eyes, and hear with my own ears, that, whatever it was, it certainly wasn’t a ‘car crash’ for Boris, I have to wonder about ‘fake news’.

Haters of Boris will, no doubt, view things differently. I get that.

In fact, that, I believe, is the problem.

Not only are we, as a nation, becoming increasingly polarized politically between Brexit and Remain, between right and left, between far left and far right, we are even becoming polarized in the media.

Newspapers and television news are increasingly taking sides.

Rather than report the news, they are reporting their perception of the news.

People reading and listening are believing these perceptions. That, to me, is very dangerous.

Propaganda is very dangerous.

Boris, even if you hate him, did not suffer a ‘car crash’ interview. You may easily say he isn’t your choice for the next Prime Minister. You can say you hate him if you like. Those are ‘safe’ perceptions.

The Chinese often don’t believe the Tiananmen Square business actually happened, because their media say it didn’t happen. That isn’t perception, that is propaganda.

Boris may well be human Marmite, but love him or hate him, if he has a ‘car crash’ interview, we, the viewing public, will see it, hear it and know it.

We also know when he hasn’t.

Possibly even more alarming in many ways.

I have friends who are left wing. Some are even far left – and yes, I know. How can I have friends like that given my views? – Well, I put friendship ahead of politics and, as it happens, so do they.

What is possibly even more alarming to me is that they watched it too, and they actually believe they witnessed a ‘car crash’ interview.

Now I know I like my beer, but, seriously, I was stone cold sober when I watched it. It was not, in any way, shape, or form, a ‘car crash’

Just compare it to Labours Dianne Abbott for a start. The ‘Shadow Home Secretary’ who had no idea what anything would cost in one interview, despite insisting she did and getting every possible financial figure wrong.

I know I can’t stand Abbott, but she really does do ‘car crash’ interviews on a regular basis. The Boris interview wasn’t remotely in Abbott’s league, so how could anybody consider it ‘car crash’?

Very very weird and, very very worrying.

The danger of some of the media actually spreading ‘fake news’ is that more and more of us will realize they are. Then, when Trump or Boris or Corbyn or the EU or somebody actually does something terrible that is true and they did it –

We won’t believe a word of it.

By all means media, love or hate or somewhere in between. Be it a politician or a celebrity or an immigrant or a stray dog or a dictator or the latest fashion in mankinis –

But tell us the truth!

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