Crazy Jamie

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5,583
I've never really thought that a career in politics would be worth the trade off for the publicity you get, but in recent years the thought of having a political career is actively horrifying.
The UK tabloid press seems to be especially excruciating to deal with
 

Crazy Jamie

Active Member
GW Elder
Messages
243
does the UK have an issue where people actually believe what tabloids post?
Yes. And the two biggest tabloids in the UK, the Daily Mail and the Sun, are absolutely unashamedly right wing to the point where they will quite willingly distort and misrepresent positions politically. It doesn't apply to al journalists and stories in those papers, of course, but the editorial direction of them is pretty obvious.

To give an example, at the moment the Conservative Party, who have been in power for 14 years, are suffering in the polls to the point where it looks like they'll suffer a pretty comprehensive defeat in the election later this year. It's difficult for anyone who is even vaguely objective to find redeeming qualities in the government as it currently operates. It's very much a government that is out of ideas. Kier Starmer, the leader of the Labour Party, looks like the new PM in waiting. He's a former barrister and was Director of Public Prosecutions for a while. Last week, the Sun published this article about him:


The title "Sir Keir Starmer worked for free as a lawyer to save baby killers and axe murderers" is about as inflammatory as it gets. The article starts by stating that he helped some of those individuals "walk free". Except that impression is extremely misleading. All of these people were going to executed because their countries had the death penalty. He "saved" them only insofar as he successfully saved them from the death penalty, in some cases reversing the country's policy entirely. In some cases he didn't, and they were executed.

Now, putting aside the obvious point that even very bad people are entitled to legal representation, and a barrister representing someone doesn't mean they support their views or actions, the Sun's official stance on the death penalty is that it opposes it. So the Sun put together an article criticising Kier Starmer for attempting to abolish something that the Sun itself thinks should be abolished.

It's just so brazenly dishonest, and a lot of the Sun's readers will look at that article and think Kier Starmer in some way supports murderers, or is in some way a soft touch on crime. This wouldn't be a problem save for the tiny point that the Sun, the Mail, and partisan news stations like GB News (our Fox News equivalent) and Talk TV do not declare their obvious allegiances. This is all presented as actual news, when in reality most of it is propaganda. Unfortunately, the regulator is almost entirely toothless, and this nonsense influences a large number of people in this country.

So yeah, it's a problem.
 
Yes. And the two biggest tabloids in the UK, the Daily Mail and the Sun, are absolutely unashamedly right wing to the point where they will quite willingly distort and misrepresent positions politically. It doesn't apply to al journalists and stories in those papers, of course, but the editorial direction of them is pretty obvious.

To give an example, at the moment the Conservative Party, who have been in power for 14 years, are suffering in the polls to the point where it looks like they'll suffer a pretty comprehensive defeat in the election later this year. It's difficult for anyone who is even vaguely objective to find redeeming qualities in the government as it currently operates. It's very much a government that is out of ideas. Kier Starmer, the leader of the Labour Party, looks like the new PM in waiting. He's a former barrister and was Director of Public Prosecutions for a while. Last week, the Sun published this article about him:


The title "Sir Keir Starmer worked for free as a lawyer to save baby killers and axe murderers" is about as inflammatory as it gets. The article starts by stating that he helped some of those individuals "walk free". Except that impression is extremely misleading. All of these people were going to executed because their countries had the death penalty. He "saved" them only insofar as he successfully saved them from the death penalty, in some cases reversing the country's policy entirely. In some cases he didn't, and they were executed.

Now, putting aside the obvious point that even very bad people are entitled to legal representation, and a barrister representing someone doesn't mean they support their views or actions, the Sun's official stance on the death penalty is that it opposes it. So the Sun put together an article criticising Kier Starmer for attempting to abolish something that the Sun itself thinks should be abolished.

It's just so brazenly dishonest, and a lot of the Sun's readers will look at that article and think Kier Starmer in some way supports murderers, or is in some way a soft touch on crime. This wouldn't be a problem save for the tiny point that the Sun, the Mail, and partisan news stations like GB News (our Fox News equivalent) and Talk TV do not declare their obvious allegiances. This is all presented as actual news, when in reality most of it is propaganda. Unfortunately, the regulator is almost entirely toothless, and this nonsense influences a large number of people in this country.

So yeah, it's a problem.
I ran across a meme involving an article from the Daily Mail about how a Japanese man stopped talking to his wife for ~50 years over something minor and saw people acting like it was real. I go in and I'm like "This stuff is obviously fake", and people reply "How do you know, where's your proof, oh you have none". And I'm like, "Daily Mail". It's a friggin' tabloid. It's all literal fake news.

I'm baffled that people still get suckered into believing tabloids. Makes you wonder how many people actually believe stories from the Onion or any of the Onion copycats.
 
World cup sell bear.

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