I really ought not to be shocked by the ‘reporting’ in our MSM, especially when it comes to covid, but there still are instances when I ask myself why we let this monstrous, bloated, self-promoted ‘power’ get away with their dereliction of duty, with their biased ‘reports’. This bias isn’t so much along the ancient lines of ‘here be Labour – here be Tories’. That line has long since been obliterated. It’s not even along the more modern lines of “we’re progressive – they are hidebound conservatives”. This distinction has gone because they are all ‘progressives’ now, regardless of which paper they write for. 

The MSM in general deem themselves to be intrepid fighters for ‘truth’, against the horrid ‘Tory government’ while they depend at the same time on that same government to receive the gossip on which they base their reports and opinion pieces. No, this doesn’t mean they are incorruptible by government powers! It means they’ve become instruments of factions in government and Whitehall, promoting whichever ‘opinion’ those gossip-providers want to push on us, the public.

In case this needed mentioning: those who work for the BC are naturally sacrosanct as this latest example shows. According to the DT, two ‘famous’ BC breakfast show presenters ‘sneered’ at Mr Jendricks, a Tory minister, who displayed a Union Jack in his office:

“Charlie Stayt and Naga Munchetty laughed as they pointed out that large flags have begun appearing regularly in the background of ministerial interviews. Ms Munchetty later received a “reminder” from bosses about inappropriate social media use after she liked a tweet which praised their comments and said: “The flag shaggers will be up in arms.” The BBC said the on-air exchange was “light-hearted” and not meant to offend.” (paywalled link)

Compare and contrast this with the hounding of non-BC people for ‘offending’ someone on antisocial media by ‘liking’ a tweet in questionable taste! Compare and contrast with the daily reprimands from the BC and indeed the MSM should us plebs dare to use ‘offensive’ language, with their demand to deal strongly – i.e. best by sacking – with all those who have transgressed. “Not meant to offend” is only an acceptable excuse, it seems, when defending BC personnel. One might also call this ‘selective Freedom of Speech’: the sacrosanct BC personnel, permitted more freedom than the rest of us, is dealt with leniently while we peasants had better shut up.

I’ve gone to some lengths writing about this instance because it illustrates the mindset of those who provide us with “news”. Below their various headlines meant to nudge us into accepting their ‘findings’ there are always hints showing that the various writers haven’t done due diligence but go for click-bait. Take for example the reports about ‘GPS signals’ for RAF transporter planes jammed at the Cyprus base. The Times’ headline shouts “Russia ‘jamming signals’ at RAF Cyprus base”, stepping back from this headline in the very first sentence:

“Russia is understood to have repeatedly tried to jam signals in an act of electronic warfare against RAF aircraft taking off from Cyprus. Military intelligence sources said a “hostile state” had regularly attempted to interfere with satellite communications of the A400M transport aircraft leaving RAF Akrotiri while troops were on board. The attacks could have prevented the pilot from knowing where the aircraft was or the direction it was flying in and potentially resulted in casualties.” (link, paywalled)

Russia is only ‘understood’ to’ve done this – there’s no actual proof. The DT, also reporting on this incident, is a bit more cautious, mentioning that Syria could have ‘learned’ from Russia and could even have trained Hezbollah in Lebanon to do this – and that it could even have originated from Cyprus (paywalled link). Let’s not ask if RAF pilots aren’t trained to fly their craft without GPS – let’s look at the reason why “we” are told about this now – by ‘military intelligence sources’. At least The Times provides a clue:

“On Monday the “defence command” paper is due to be published, setting out cuts and investments to the military. […] It is widely expected that all 14 C-130J Hercules aircraft, favoured by the SAS, will be grounded and the larger Airbus A400M will be used to convey troops.” (link, paywalled)

It looks like a carefully orchestrated piece of news ‘leaked’ by vested military interests, to ensure that their role and their demands for money are justified when the whole Defence set-up is going to be debated in the HoC. Why this has to come under ‘The Russians did it’ – well, you decide!

And then there’s the ongoing ‘vaccine war’ – the reports on the production and delivery bottlenecks. Nobody is guilty of anything, you understand – but it’s difficult for our MSM to balance between ‘we are the vaccine champions’ while sneering – rightly so – at the EU where most member states are now resuming their mass vaccinations with the Oxford vaccine (link) when we have to delay mass vaccination because of vaccine production bottlenecks. For obvious reasons “we” also can’t point the finger at India from which we expected five million doses:

“But Downing Street did not deny a suggestion from the head of the Serum Institute of India (SII) that the Indian government was temporarily blocking exports of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab. Its chief executive Adar Poonawalla said no further doses would be sent to Britain until the Indian government gave the go-ahead.” (link)

Clearly ‘Our MSM’ cannot blame India’s government for delaying the export of the AZ vaccine when it’s needed in their own country where there seems to be a ‘wave’ going on. That would be, ahem, racist, wouldn’t it. There was however one tricky little piece of information which actually made the headline in the DT’s report:

“Vaccine manufacturer claims Biden and India at fault for UK delays – Boss alleged hold-up was ‘solely dependent’ on India’ and has also accused Joe Biden of derailing global rollout” (paywalled link) 

Even as our intrepid MSM ‘reporters’ were trying to rattle BJ’s cage by blaming him for all of this and as others called the Indian PM “a nationalist”, they dutifully quoted the Indian boss of the Indian firm producing the vaccine – but that’s as far as this went. Here’s Mr Poonwalla’s statement:

“In interviews Mr Poonawalla also accused Mr Biden of “raw materials nationalism” after the president last month signed the Defence Production Act, a Korean War-era piece of legislation allowing exports to be blocked from leaving the US in national emergencies. The law blocks the export of specific items needed to make vaccines, such as specialised bags and filters. […] The Serum Institute has already reported difficulties importing single-use tubing and specialised chemicals from the US.” (paywalled link)

This gives an interesting insight into the vaccine production process, showing the global interdependency of international producers, especially in regard to medical and pharmaceutical supplies. This ain’t news though: we recall how a year ago, at the start of the outbreak, there were similar reports which pointed out the dependency of international pharmaceutical producers on Chinese ingredients. 

There is however one fly – or rather: elephant – in this ointment. While our MSM are busy blaming either BJ or the Indian PM for this situation, even unto criticising Mr Modi for being “a nationalist” there’s not one hint of censure applied to Pres Biden. Isn’t he also a nationalist because he blocks exports of vital items needed to make vaccines? 

Moreover – and this is where I really bounced off the walls in fury yet again – there’s nothing to be found in our dear MSM about this decision taken by the US President last month. The DT produced a graph today, to show how this Biden decision had an impact on India’s vaccine production, but that was all. Shouldn’t there have been at least a mention on this Biden decision at the time it was taken?

I’m not a paid reporter or researcher with unlimited time and resources on my hands to do an in-depth chase-up of that Biden decision. A check on yon infamous browser produced nothing: it seems that ‘our MSM’ didn’t think it necessary to report on this rather important Executive Order. In his Diary this morning Sir John Redwood seems to point obliquely to it (link), but he relates it to a drive to make the USA more self-reliant – a drive started by Pres Trump, rather than to the global vaccine production crisis.

So why is it that there was no report, never mind criticism, of that Executive Order in our MSM? Why is it that so far there’s been no follow-up on the statement by Mr Poonwalla? Are we again seeing that for ‘Our MSM’ some animals are more equal when it comes to ‘nationalism’? Or is this again about ‘Our MSM’ only delving into antisocial media for their reporting, disregarding statements coming from India, because they don’t fit their ‘narrative’ of “everything covid is the government’s fault”?

A MSM which isn’t carrying out due diligence, which has deteriorated into a general propaganda instrument for one side or the other of government and Whitehall factions, sucking up their ‘gossip’,  is not worthy of being read or listened to. No wonder the MSM are in decline as more and more of us discard them unread. Perhaps that’s not such a bad thing after all though when you reflect on this quote by Thomas Jefferson:

“… the man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them, inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.”

Amen to that!

KBO!