In January of this year, Whitehouse spokesman Sean Spicer puzzled many with his “alternative facts” and greatly overshadowed an arguably greater issue with President Trump’s Executive Order against Obamacare. This happens more than you think. The constant media surveillance that politicians have gives them an ability to manipulate the attention and opinion that is fed to the public.
Occasionally, British politics itself devolves into needless drama and sometimes a sitcom, the personal politics at play is particularly evident when a low blow by a politician ends up transpiring and transforming itself onto mainstream headlines, shrouding issues that the public may be uninformed about, and even creating situations where governmental decisions get overshadowed completely.
The former chancellor of the exchequer and current MP George Osborne knows how important media portrayal is, which is why he planned a double dip, working as both an MP and also as then new editor for the Evening Standard, London’s main newspaper. The parliamentary ethics committee questioned this, perhaps due to Mr Osborne being a parliamentary member, formerly the chancellor for government and someone with a lot to gain from deciding what the people of London get to read.
The pressure put onto Mr Osborne has resulted in him quitting his parliamentary role “for now”, but since the call by Theresa May to hold a snap election for June 8, it begs the question, should we trust the coverage of the election by the Evening Standard, now that Mr Osborne is at the helm?
We have to continually remind ourselves that major news outlets provide attention to the most attractive stories, so when something is trending, focus is put there to capitalise. When kinds of diversionary tactics are used, coverage is taken away from more important topics, keeping the public largely uninformed. Maybe there are some stories you can think of that have taken the limelight away from more important issues, if so post them down below!
This was such an important article and I completely agree that the media is an industry that can make and break political events and politicians. The upcoming General Election can certainly be seen to be a tactical move by the conservatives. During that time a scandal concerning certain conservative MPs and their finances was unravelling however there was virtually no media coverage due to the announcement and subsequent campaigning for the General Election. Another topic I believe is generally ignored by the media is the animal industry and the effects of the industry. In my opinion, particularly UK media is owned by Right wingers such as Rupert Murdoch and George Osbourne as well as the BBC and often there is a strong relationship between these people and the animal industry. Therefore the harmful effects of the animal industry on our environment is hardly ever covered and only now being realised through vegan youtubers etc. I really hope we will be able to see a time when the media is not monopolised by certain politicians or political stances however in this world it doesn’t seem likely.
Thanks for reading this, its definitely important to educate ourselves more so we can exercise our choices better, rather than being manipulated into things