This Site has reported on a large number of issues with mainstream news reporting lately, leading me to ask: As reporting standards plummet, is it time to resurrect the Leveson press corruption inquiry?
If you want a couple of recent examples of the kind of bad reporting I mean, visit this article – or this one.
This Writer is old enough to remember a time when news reports had to be fair and accurate (and in some cases, published within certain time limits), in order to be considered legitimate.
You’ll notice that the requirement for accuracy contradicts claims by, for example, the BBC that fairness requires a range of viewpoints to be published on particular subjects; if some of the views expressed by people quoted in an article are wrong, then it isn’t accurate unless it says they are wrong.
You may well ask: why do inaccurate or selective reports get published? The implication has always been that it happened for corrupt reasons.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
The second part of the Leveson Inquiry into criminality in the UK press was intended to examine corrupt relationships between parts of the press and police – but was scrapped by the last Tory government under pressure from the press. Corrupt?
Labour had pledged to resurrect the inquiry if elected into government, but Keir Starmer then performed one of his famous u-turns amid claims that he had struck a secret deal with executives of Rupert Murdock’s News UK, to secure his papers’ endorsement in the general election. Corrupt?
And both before and since, we’ve seen reports in our papers and on our TV screens that simply aren’t telling their stories straight – like the two listed at the top of this article.
Public trust in the media has collapsed; a YouGov poll showed that 52 per cent of people wanted the Leveson inquiry resurrected. Only 13 per cent of voters opposed it.
Once those voters without an opinion were excluded, 80% backed relaunching the inquiry.
The poll also found a plurality of support for placing the press under the oversight of an independent regulator. Asked whether they believed it mattered that the “largest national newspapers are not members of a regulator that meets the criteria recommended by the Leveson Inquiry”, 50% agreed that it did, as opposed to 19% who disagreed.
Overall almost half of those surveyed (47%) said the press should be brought under an independent regulator, compared to just 12% who wanted to keep the status quo.
Among those demanding change, 50% said that newspapers should be compelled to join an independent regulator, with a further 27% saying that those who refused to join should be penalised.
The Byline Times piece quoted above also mentions an Edelman Trust survey earlier in 2024 that found only 31 per cent of British people said they trusted UK media outlets – down six points on the previous year.
As the writer of a politics site on the social media, I should add that those of us who try to present accurate information to the public are stifled by the social media platforms on which we rely to publicise our existence, let alone our individual articles.
As has been revealed this year (2024), social media moguls like Elon Musk actively rig the algorithms that control what you see, in order to minimise any chance that you will read any reports that contradict what they want you to believe by actually trying to feed you the facts.
I have been trying to get the government – or indeed any MP – to respond to my own concerns about this.
First I contacted the responsible government organisation – the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. Secretary of State Peter Kyle has yet to respond to the message I sent him in July.
Then I tried the prime minister’s office – but nobody connected with Keir Starmer seems to have had any interest in even acknowledging that I had sent a message there.
Finally, I asked my own MP for help. More than a month later, David Chadwick hasn’t deigned to reply.
Why the silence?
Could it be that these powerful politicians are perfectly happy with the biased and misleading reporting of current events that now passes itself off as the news?
Could it be that they will not consider reviving Leveson because it might ask serious questions about their own connections with – and influence on – the press?
If you’ve read this far, you’re probably incandescent with rage about the corruption surrounding the media – and the fact that hardly anything you’re likely to read, hear or watch in the newspapers, radio or TV is likely to be entirely accurate.
But if you don’t do anything about it, there will never be an end to it. I’ve been trying to get action for at least six months; what are you willing to do?
Source: Public demands Starmer Resurrects Leveson Press Corruption Inquiry Amid Collapse in Trust in UK Media – Byline Times
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The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
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As reporting standards plummet, is it time to resurrect the Leveson press inquiry?
This Site has reported on a large number of issues with mainstream news reporting lately, leading me to ask: As reporting standards plummet, is it time to resurrect the Leveson press corruption inquiry?
If you want a couple of recent examples of the kind of bad reporting I mean, visit this article – or this one.
This Writer is old enough to remember a time when news reports had to be fair and accurate (and in some cases, published within certain time limits), in order to be considered legitimate.
You’ll notice that the requirement for accuracy contradicts claims by, for example, the BBC that fairness requires a range of viewpoints to be published on particular subjects; if some of the views expressed by people quoted in an article are wrong, then it isn’t accurate unless it says they are wrong.
You may well ask: why do inaccurate or selective reports get published? The implication has always been that it happened for corrupt reasons.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
The second part of the Leveson Inquiry into criminality in the UK press was intended to examine corrupt relationships between parts of the press and police – but was scrapped by the last Tory government under pressure from the press. Corrupt?
Labour had pledged to resurrect the inquiry if elected into government, but Keir Starmer then performed one of his famous u-turns amid claims that he had struck a secret deal with executives of Rupert Murdock’s News UK, to secure his papers’ endorsement in the general election. Corrupt?
And both before and since, we’ve seen reports in our papers and on our TV screens that simply aren’t telling their stories straight – like the two listed at the top of this article.
Public trust in the media has collapsed; a YouGov poll showed that 52 per cent of people wanted the Leveson inquiry resurrected. Only 13 per cent of voters opposed it.
The Byline Times piece quoted above also mentions an Edelman Trust survey earlier in 2024 that found only 31 per cent of British people said they trusted UK media outlets – down six points on the previous year.
As the writer of a politics site on the social media, I should add that those of us who try to present accurate information to the public are stifled by the social media platforms on which we rely to publicise our existence, let alone our individual articles.
As has been revealed this year (2024), social media moguls like Elon Musk actively rig the algorithms that control what you see, in order to minimise any chance that you will read any reports that contradict what they want you to believe by actually trying to feed you the facts.
I have been trying to get the government – or indeed any MP – to respond to my own concerns about this.
First I contacted the responsible government organisation – the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. Secretary of State Peter Kyle has yet to respond to the message I sent him in July.
Then I tried the prime minister’s office – but nobody connected with Keir Starmer seems to have had any interest in even acknowledging that I had sent a message there.
Finally, I asked my own MP for help. More than a month later, David Chadwick hasn’t deigned to reply.
Why the silence?
Could it be that these powerful politicians are perfectly happy with the biased and misleading reporting of current events that now passes itself off as the news?
Could it be that they will not consider reviving Leveson because it might ask serious questions about their own connections with – and influence on – the press?
If you’ve read this far, you’re probably incandescent with rage about the corruption surrounding the media – and the fact that hardly anything you’re likely to read, hear or watch in the newspapers, radio or TV is likely to be entirely accurate.
But if you don’t do anything about it, there will never be an end to it. I’ve been trying to get action for at least six months; what are you willing to do?
Source: Public demands Starmer Resurrects Leveson Press Corruption Inquiry Amid Collapse in Trust in UK Media – Byline Times
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Follow Vox Political writer Mike Sivier on BlueSky
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
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