A ‘news editor’- hard at work …?

 

 

I have to hand it to the news editors creating the headlines for the Westminster MSM. They’re doing their utmost to produce something to attract readers about what are patently ‘non-news’. That applies to both online editions and print editions. You can check those out at the usual place (link). Today, the left-leaning papers are in an outcry about ‘oil bosses raking it in’ – boo-hiss. So will La Truss mention next that she’ll go for windfall profits?

The ‘quality press’ on the other hand is in full ‘support Truss’ mode. The DM even went so far as to print their ‘endorsement’ at the to of their dead-tree edition. Dear DM news editors: why would Tory members follow your endorsement? The rest of us plebs hasn’t got a vote in this contest!

Meanwhile the DT reports in their top spot that the “Tory leadership vote delayed after GCHQ hacking alert – Exclusive: Delivery of ballot papers to members on hold after cyber fraud risk identified” (paywalled link) while The Times writes that “60% of Tory membership prefer Truss for next PM Foreign secretary’s lead grows over Sunak” (link, paywalled). The subliminal message is that the Tories are inept and split, therefore the next PM must be Starmer …

If you want more  proof for the Westminster MSM’s campaign for Liz T let me offer you an example. Yesterday afternoon the Speccie sent out their ‘news email’, linking to a piece by their ‘gossip columnist’ Steerpike who penned the following:

“The sound of screeching gears could be heard across Westminster this morning [i.e. yesterday] as Team Truss executed a dramatic U-turn […] A midday press statement confirmed that the Foreign Secretary has now dropped her policy adopted, er, just last night, to introduce regional pay boards. The move would have seen salary reductions for public sector workers – including teachers and nurses –  outside of London and the South East on future contracts. Naturally this went down like a cup of cold sick in every area except London and the South East, with MPs queuing up from Cornwall to County Durham to lambast the move.’ (paywalled link)

Ah. And the Sunakist were of course:

“[…] delighted at their first break in this leadership race and certainly made the most of it, sending a smorgasbord of MPs over the top to castigate the Truss campaign for abandoning ‘levelling up.’ […] In a jibe at her supposed Thatcherite credentials, one pro-Sunak source said of Truss: ‘the lady is for turning.’ Or, to borrow a line from another female Tory premier ‘nothing has changed, nothing has changed.’ (paywalled link)

One would have expected that this U-Turn would’ve been known to the DM editors ‘endorsing’ Miz Liz.  One might have expected the broadsheets to write about this U-Turn, at least in secondary articles. It didn’t feature on the Guardian’s online front page this morning either, which is quite amazing. The Times picked this up but their article is well hidden. Only those who looked for such a report were ‘rewarded’, finding it well hidden in the bowels of the online edition, after dedicated scrolling.

Still let’s applaud their headline: “Liz Truss U-turn on wages raises questions about judgment – Tory critics say £8.8bn bonfire would have hit teachers, nurses and police” (link, paywalled) but if you wonder why this U-Turn didn’t feature at the top of the page, here’s your answer, right in the very first paragraph:

“Rishi Sunak accused Liz Truss of a “serious” lack of judgment after the foreign secretary was forced to backtrack on plans to cut the pay of more than five million teachers, nurses and other public sector workers.” (link, paywalled)

Of course, when all Westminster chief editors are in secret agreement that the next PM must be Miz T, anything smacking of support for Sunak, be it ever so newsworthy, must be hidden. Here’s one other aspect to this U-Turn which does not bode well for a Truss PM-ship:

“But critics, including a Whitehall think tank and public sector unions, pointed out the savings were possible only if all public sector workers were included, potentially cutting the pay of 5.7 million public sector workers in the poorest parts of the country by £1,500 a year.” (link, paywalled)

Think Tanks, Unions representing ‘Teh Poor’: their ‘concerns’ drive politics, not those of us, the electorate. Labour’s ‘strategists’ will have rubbed their hands in glee about this U-Turn which will surely feature in a coming GE.

There’s one other ‘home news’ item not to be disregarded. It’s about another hosepipe ban. The DM writes(my emphasis): “Two million more households are set to be hit by latest hosepipe ban today as Britain’s dry spell continues” (link). I’d expect that MSM headline writers might be able to check the weather forecasts before writing, even if they seem to be unaccustomed to looking out of their windows, but apparently not.

The BBC – and we know that what’s in the BBC is the truth – has a forecast for the whole of the UK, ‘Britain’ in other words, and a lovely gloomy forecast it is. Look at it here. No sun, no raging killer heatwaves, but clouds and rain. Clearly, the water companies are following the Whitehall playbooks of making life uncomfortable for their customers rather than addressing their own mistakes such as fixing their leaking pipes which have been leaking for years.

And so to the pearl I promised yesterday when I pointed out that most of us have given up on the MSM, shunning both print and TV ‘news’, going instead for the excellent articles published either in personal blogs or in online ‘magazines’. Yes, this means we spend far more time scouring the internet because those employed to bring us proper news and proper opinion pieces aren’t doing their job.

On Monday another outstanding analysis by the Swiss expert Jacques Baud about the Ukraine was published (link). It’s a long piece, demanding one’s full attention. M Baud brings historical background information regarding certain ‘talking points’ obscured by the international promoters of Mr ‘e.

There’s a segment on the limits of NATO’s eastern expansion which is an eye-opener. There’s another one regarding the 1994 Budapest Memorandum – here’s the wiki to refresh your memories. This is, for me, the most important segment. M Baud writes that Mr ‘e:

“is not using this memorandum to get nuclear weapons, but to get Crimea back, since the Ukrainians see Russia’s annexation of Crimea as a violation of this treaty. Basically, Zelensky is trying to hold Western countries hostage. To understand that we must go back to events and facts that are opportunistically “forgotten” by our historians.” (link)

M Baud next provides chapter-and-verse of this forgotten history which is absolutely stunning. I confess that I simply had no idea of this modern Crimean history. Do read at least this segment to understand the malicious duplicity of the Ukrainian governments and their NATO supporters.

That segment and indeed the whole essay is another eye-opener, illustrating how we’ve been herded into accepting not just this war but the consequences, imposing energy poverty and economic disaster on us, the USA and the EU. Let me reiterate my recommendation to read the whole thing!

Never forget that they tried to herd us into ‘moar fear’, this time of nuclear war. Now that Ms Pelosi has gone to Taiwan, regardless, the next ‘nuclear war’ fear is raising its ugly head. Are our MSM and the Whitehall spin serpents, a.k.a. ‘sources’, addicted to instilling fear in us, as a permanent condition? Why is that? Answers on a postcard!

 

 

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