In the Telegraph, David Frost skewers the establishment, particularly the BBC, for their preoccupation with misinformation, and blasts fact-checking bodies like BBC Verify for blurring the line between opinion and fact. Here’s an excerpt:
If you spend any time with members of our new establishment – academics, quangocrats, the BBC – and especially if you conceal your identity as a Telegraph reader so they speak freely, you will learn something rather strange. They are obsessed with misinformation and disinformation.
I assure you, people like this genuinely believe that in the new social media world the ill-informed populace is easy prey to false beliefs, conspiracies and malign state interference. They believe that you are too stupid to make your own mind up about things or distinguish between the true and the false. And they think it’s the government’s job – or perhaps theirs – to do it for you instead.
One obvious problem with this thesis is that in recent years an awful lot of misinformation has come from governments themselves: Trump’s supposed collusion with Russia, the view that an economic crash was inevitable if we voted to leave the EU, the refusal to countenance the lab leak theory about Covid and the reluctance for a long time, in the teeth of obvious evidence, to drop the belief that the Covid vaccine stopped transmission of the virus.
Perhaps sensing this, the authorities have smiled instead on the growth of so-called “fact checking” outfits, the best known of which is BBC Verify, ubiquitous on the BBC nowadays. Their self-regarding takes on the news may seem merely comic, but they are actually dangerous, and especially so during an election campaign – for in trying to convey an authoritative view they are more often, as Orwell once put it, giving “an appearance of solidity to pure wind”. …
The whole BBC Verify programme is based on a fallacy. On most political issues not only is there simply no authoritative interpretation of the facts, but what a fact tells you depends on the interpretation you bring to it. The only way to reach an outcome is to have free debate, allow all to make their case, and see who wins the argument.
Worth reading in full.
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The BBC is the largest, best funded political party in the country.
Probably in the top few globally, alongside Chinese and North Korean state broadcasting.
“in recent years an awful lot of misinformation has come from governments themselves”
There was always a lot of government misinformation, which can partly explain why we are where we are now.
Or as Marianna Spring of BBC Verify comments in her book “Amongst the trolls”:
“While disinformation has always plagued our society, it was spread in a different way – via the front pages of specific newspapers, and the mouths of certain politicians…it is true that politicians and powerful people lie and have always done so”
I’m sure that is intended to exclude the BBC, which has powerful people, and politicians and newspapers that align with the BBC, but I agree with the general sentiment.
Off-T
In case anyone is interested.
Body found in search for Michael Mosley after going missing on Greek island of Symi
BBC and This Morning star Dr Michael Mosley went missing on Wednesday – rescuers have now found a body.
A body has been found in the search for Dr Michael Mosley after he went missing on the Greek island of Symi.
It has been reported that the body was found with an umbrella close to caves known as The Abyss, it has not yet been identified.
The news of the unidentified body comes after a massive search and rescue effort to find the BBC and ITV This Morning star was launched on Thursday morning. Dr Mosley was last seen on St Nicholas Beach, Symi, with another couple when he decided to leave at around 1.30pm on Wednesday.
Daily Express
Body now confirmed as Mosley’s.
Courtesy of Lickyalips at TCW.
There should be an investigation about how celebrity authors are funded to promote pharmaceutical products by ‘informing’ their readership.
“Is Becoming” 🤣
And what do these giant intellects think is the way to persuade people there isn’t malign state interference? To engage in more and more malign state interference. You’ve got to laugh. Did you know there’s still gallows at Stamford? Just saying.
Some do have false beliefs, like “Global boiling”.
Listening to the radio earlier they were talking about the Online “Harms” Bill and ‘government needs to more to keep people safe’, the usual mantra. What is disturbing is they use the death of Molly Russell to further their agenda in pushing for more control. The real reason is not protecting the young (rape gangs) but to shut down people like Russell Brand. Or when the state commits crimes against you (forced injections, Prison for stickers) you can’t tell anyone about it.
BBC Verify should not exist. Nor should the BBC for that matter. The state has no business running, regulating or collecting taxes to pay for a huge media empire.
Truth used to be in the eye of the beholder, but now it is in the eye of the Government and it’s bought and paid for media.
‘in the recent Module 4 preliminary hearing on May 22nd… there was an update …. clarifying that there would be no investigation into the efficacy of the Covid vaccines and that a detailed investigation of safety concerns… was not within the scope of the inquiry.’
Er, nothing about efficacy or safety? Well, what are they going to do then?
‘The new Module 4 dates are January 14th-30th 2025…’
Seems like they are planning to take 13 working days off.