Some might argue that the question posed in this title is simply academic. “Whether they have one or not isn’t the point,” they might say. “The point is that they are perceived to have one, and therefore they must act on antisemitism as if they have an antisemitism crisis.” This…

Corporate protectionism through disproportionate news coverage — Most of the news media is either corporate owned or heavily tied to corporatism. This is a big problem because they have a huge influence over what society ends up thinking is important. And media coverage tends to be generally favourable to corporatism. The relentless focus on Brexit in news…

We are living at a time, at least in my lifetime, when we most need to engage with those whose views differ from ours, even — perhaps especially — when those views seem drastically and fundamentally opposed. This creates a rather unnerving paradox if you also accept a harsh but…

“Now, you listen here. He’s not the Messiah; he’s a very naughty boy. Now, go away!” Life of Brian, 1979 Jean Pierre Meersseman is the founder and former head of the Milan Lab — an institution given near legendary status by many football journalists. Throughout the years, Meersseman and his…

Part Four— Fake News in The Guardian, Improved Journalism in General and What That Could Lead To — This is the fourth and final part of my essay on journalism with particular focus on The Guardian. Part One looked at · the dangers of exaggerating the impact of Big Data and Fake News on those recent elections And explained: · how and why The Guardian are exaggerating the…

Part Three — What Should Journalism Be and How Does The Guardian Fit? — This third part of a four part essay looks at principles of journalism and how The Guardian frequently fails to meet them. Part One, examined and explained: · the dangers of exaggerating the impact of Big Data and Fake News on those recent elections · how and why The Guardian…

Part Two — Complicity in Propaganda — This second part of a four part essay examines and explains The Guardian’s complicity in state-corporate propaganda through an introduction of Herman and Chomsky’s Propaganda Model. It then examines The Guardian’s output in relation to the model’s five filters. Part One, examined and explained: · the dangers of exaggerating the…

Part One — Big Data and Fake News: How and Why Their Impact is Being Exaggerated, and Why This is Dangerous — Over the last twelve months, if you’ve been a regular newspaper reader, particularly of The Guardian, you could easily be forgiven for thinking that Big Data and Fake News were the pivotal tools used by the Right and by Russia to decide the outcome of the EU Referendum and the…

The EU Referendum was just over a year ago, but the political fall-out from the result will reverberate for decades. There is plenty that has already been said and there is plenty still left to say about the position we are in and the further damage to expect when we…