How Culpable are the Media?
How have the mainstream media behaved since 2020 and the ‘Covid Times’?
Have they tried to keep up our morale, or have they striven to frighten and demoralise us? Did they report truthfully on things, or did they withhold vital facts? Did they print balanced, unbiased information or did they deliberately seek to be inflammatory?
As an example, I would draw your attention to an article, in the Daily Mail online on the 23rd of October 2021, written by former Health Minister David Mellor. He described people who did not wish to be injected with the Covid jabs as ‘anti-vaxxers’ and said “Forcing the anti-vaxxers to stay at home, it can be argued, is necessary for public protection.” “What the anti-vaxxers are doing is, in its way, as harmful to society as if they ran along a street stabbing passers-by at random.”
Surely this could be classed as incitement to violence from the jabbed towards the un-jabbed? On what does he base these claims? In a sane society, this piece of writing would have been looked upon in abject horror and disgust, but the Daily Mail would probably have a get-out clause by describing it as an ‘opinion piece’.
It should be remembered that, well before this dreadful item was published, it was known that the Covid jabs did NOT prevent people from catching Covid, or from infecting others - so not only were his words callous, they were senseless too.
Has the media ever been any different? We have been subjected to scare story after scare story over the years. In 1939, shortly before the outbreak of World War 2, a government leaflet, named ‘Advice to Animal Owners’ urged that pets should be taken into the country in advance of an emergency and if unable, it really was kindest to have them destroyed.
This was printed in many newspapers and was announced on the BBC. In the early days of the war, many pet owners had their pets euthanised, due to panic.
The media has a real responsibility, surely, to avoid knee-jerk reactions and to keep us on an even keel? But then, fear sells and outrage sells too, so the few companies who own all the global media are probably just maximising their profits.
Despite the fact that clickbait makes money, wouldn’t it be heartening if more positive and uplifting stories made the news?
At this point in time, after the imposition of lockdowns and restrictions in 2020-2022 when the economy has been adversely effected, numerous small businesses have collapsed and the well-being of many has taken a nosedive - why don’t the mainstream media want to imbue us all with a sense of hope and positivity?
That is the question. Answers on a postcard, please…