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MAIL FACES PRIVACY LAWSUITS FROM MANY PUBLIC FIGURES BUT DENIES PHONE HACKING, PLANTING BUGS
Guardian OCT 2022. A December update lists what the Mail group is accused of, including planting bugs, and notes the hypocrisy of papers that campaign for transparency in the court system seeking to block publication of what they're accused of (Guardian)
BBC EDITORIAL SET BY "ACTIVE TORY" MAITLIS SAYS
Guardian. Aug 2022
AMAZON LIMITS LGBT SEARCHES IN YAE
HOW GOOGLE ETC SUCCESSFULLY LOBBIED TO BLOCK EU REGULATION OF SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM
This Guardian account is written by the former EU Commissioner overseeing EU policy in this area. He outlines how big tech are using the same playbook as the tobacco companies to slow, block and dilute regulation, including funding a network of pressure groups that are presented as independent.
OFCOM USE TIKTOKER TO REACH 13-24S TO REPORT HARMFUL CONTENT
67% in their poll say they've experienced harmful content but just 17% report it. Guardian:
The online safety bill is expected to become law by the end of the year. Ofcom will have the power to impose fines of £18m or 10% of a company’s global turnover for breaches of the act, which imposes a duty of care on tech firms to protect people from harmful user-generated content. One of the specific mandates in the bill is ensuring that children are not exposed to harmful or inappropriate content.
Andy Burrows, head of child safety online policy at the NSPCC, which has called for a strengthening of the bill, said: “This report lays bare how young people are at increased risk of coming across harmful content but feel unsupported on social media and either do not know how to report it or feel platforms simply won’t take action when they do.”
FOX NEWS FACES AD BOYCOTT CAMPAIGN
GuardianPARAMOUNT WONT CUT OLD MOVIES THAT BREACH MODERN VALUES
MURDOCH TIMES CENSORS OWN ARTICLE ON BORIS JOHNSON. STREISAND EFFECT
Huge question marks on why The Times dropped without any explanation a story that appeared in the first edition of its print run but not online, then disappeared from the later print run. It reported how Johnson, then married to someone else, was blocked from appointing Carrie Simmonds, now his wife, to the £100k chief of staff job when he was Foreign Secretary.
'Removing the article may be an example of the Streisand effect – where attempts to delete information from the internet make the public much more interested in it.'
Confirmation that the story is true, Times AND Mail both deleted the story. Guardian.
LBC REPORTS TIMES SPIKED STORY HAS LED TO DETAILS ABOUT JOHNSON ACTIVITY WITH MISTRESS
In turn this is based on a detailed account by Private Eye of how the Foreign Office discovered the woman he attempted to get the 6-figure job was his mistress, as someone witnessed the pair being physical in his government office.
SKY NEWS AUSTRALIA KEY SOURCE FOR GLOBAL CLIMATE CONSPIRACY MEDIA
GUARDIAN JOURNALIST WINS DEFAMATION CASE BROUGHT BY ARRAN BANKS, BREXIT FUNDER, WITH PUBLIC INTEREST DEFENCE
RELIGIOUS PROTESTS CREATE UK MOVIE BAN
AUSTRALIAN COURT HEAVILY FINES AND CRITICISES GOOGLE FOR ALLOWING RACIST CYBER BULLYING CAMPAIGN AGAINST POLITICIAN WHO RETIRED AS A RESULT
The judge called for new laws to police Google as it was failing to take action itself and was profiting from such videos as those which led the politician (together with the comments it sparked under the videos and his own social media) to feel suicidal and quit. The judge also noted that Google allowed new videos to stay up during the trial which were clearly intended to intimidate the politician into giving up. He awarded $715k to John Barilaro, which rise over $1m if he also awards costs. Guardian.
DB: The case is an example of increasing moves to end the wild wild web era. The UK and EU are set to put social media under regulatory control with possible fines of up to 10% of global turnover for non-compliance.
This case also shows that web 2.0's 'we media' (Dan Gillmor's term) isn't necessarily utopian. Indeed, if we think about the case of Trump in the USA we can see the two-step flow theory at play, with many 1000s of we media sites pushing his agenda and ideology, building an extensive "echo chamber" that US right-wingers and white nationalists (racists) can live in, alongside their mainstream dose of Fox News.
There is a further layer to this too. As Elon Musk pretends to have just 'discovered' on Twitter, there are now millions of bot-operated social media accounts. Someone has to pay to run these and what we're seeing is the powerful abusing the potentially powerful democratic tools of web 2.0 to reinforce their own hegemony, and effectively put what David Gauntlett called "the former audience" back in their place. If the active behaviour of an audience is to largely echo the message of the powerful, without realising they are being manipulated, can we really see this as an active audience even if they are creating their own media output?
BBC BULLIED BY BORIS APPOINTING CONSERVATIVE MICHAEL GRADE AS OFCOM CHAIR
So says Jean Seaton, co-author of the classic Power Without Responsibility which agrees with Chomsky on the role of ownership in ensuring the press is a hegemonic force. Guardian.
HOLLYWOOD STARTS REFUSING TO CENSOR FOR CHINA: TOP GUN JACKET HAS TAIWAN FLAG
See Guardian.
NETFLIX INSIST AUDIENCE WILL DECIDE, THEY WON'T CENSOR AS RICKY GERVAIS ADDS TO CHAPPELLE ANTI-TRANS ROW
Earlier this month, the streaming giant reportedly told staff it supports "the artistic expression of the creators we choose to work with", and they could leave if they did not like it.
According to Variety, the company said in an internal document: "We program for a diversity of audiences and tastes; and we let viewers decide what's appropriate for them, versus having Netflix censor specific artists or voices.
"As employees we support the principle that Netflix offers a diversity of stories, even if we find some titles counter to our own personal values.
"Depending on your role, you may need to work on titles you perceive to be harmful. If you'd find it hard to support our content breadth, Netflix may not be the best place for you." BBC.
CHANNEL 4 PRIVATISATION ANOTHER INDEPENDENT VOICE SILENCED?
See below for more on how the Conservative (Johnson) government is following the approach of leaders like Trump and Urban (Hungary) by seeking to compromise independent, potentially critical, media voices using its power to appoint leaders to the BBC (and set, slash, its budget), OfCom and C4.
The PSB C4 will, once privatised, serve shareholders and the profit margin over its current, non-profit approach where revenues are re-invested into programme-making, and ownership will most likely flip to a UK conglomerate or American streaming giant.
Guardian April 2022.
CHANNEL 4 LATEST MEDIA INSTITUTION TO HAVE TORY APPOINTED IN LEADERSHIP POSITION AFTER MICHAEL GRADE AT OFCOM
Boris Johnson failed to get the notorious former Daily Mail editor and hard-right ideologue Paul Dacre installed as OfCom chief … but arguably succeeded in the main strategic objective of inserting someone who would follow the government’s hostility towards a strong independent and license fee-funded BBC.
The ambition to force the privatisation of Channel 4, the other main PSB now that requirements on ITV and Channel 5 are greatly reduced, has now been boosted by installing a businessman seen as close to the government, sparking accusations of cronyism.
Criticism came from prominent Conservatives, not just opposition parties and media figures.
1959s TV REGULATION: AT HOME WITH MOTHER AND THE BEDTIME SHUTDOWN
Guardian, Feb 2022.
SIMPLE EG OF FAKE NEWS + HOW MASS MEDIA ARE GUIILTY: TELEGRAPH AND QUEEN PIC REMOVAL STORY
Guardian, Feb 2022. If IPSO was a purposeful, proactive regulator it (like the ASA or OfCom) would respond to stories like this by initiating an investigation and demanding action if they found a code breach - which it clearly is: Clause One: Accuracy. Moreover, it is a clearly politically motivated fake story which helps to fuel populist anger over 'wokeness' - you can see the link with the government advising schools that Black Lives Matter is a group that should always be noted as 'divisive' (among other curious terms for an anti-racism group).
'The current row in BEIS was sparked by a report in the Daily Telegraph on 1 January under the headline, “How a portrait of the Queen that is ‘the size of a stamp’ has ruffled feathers in Kwasi Kwarteng’s business department”.
An official was quoted telling the newspaper: “I think some of my colleagues forget we work for her majesty’s government.” A second added: “The new picture [of the Queen] is the size of a stamp. It’s laughable really.”
The article also claimed that a memorial plaque commemorating officials from the former Ministry of Power who died during the second world war had been consigned to the “basement” of the building. The report was based on anonymous quotes from sources.'
The Business Secretary (government minister) has simply refused to correct this despite an internal meeting clarifying that this was untrue, feeding the government agenda of stoking culture wars to boost their ratings and attacking the civil service (public sector) as lefty and lazy. Forget the politics - what do you think IPSO will do...?!
PRIVACY LAW TOUGHER FOR MEDIA AS BLOOMBERG LOSE SUPREME COURT CASE ON NAMING BUSINESS EXECUTIVE INVESTIGATED FOR CORRUPTION
Guardian, Feb 2022. Their story was based on a leak, crucially not a police briefing, and the court noted that police generally don't name suspects.
'The businessman in Wednesday’s ruling successfully argued that, under the European convention on human rights, he had a reasonable expectation that the details of the British regulator’s criminal investigation into him would not be made public unless he was charged with an offence.'
'British media outlets – at the tabloid end of the market and in high-end financial news – increasingly find that privacy law, rather than the risk of libel, is one of the biggest barriers to publication of stories. In 2018 Cliff Richard successfully won substantial damages from the BBC after the broadcaster revealed that he was the subject of a police investigation into alleged historical sexual offences, even though no charge was ever brought and the claims were later dismissed as false. Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, also won a privacy case against the publisher of the Mail on Sunday after it published details of her personal letter to her father.'
Guardian editorial followed warning of huge threat to press freedom. The famed investigative journalist adds warnings over police trying to seize a journalist's sources. Chris Mullin's work led to falsely jailed Birmingham 6 and Guildford 4 being released after he identified and interviewed the actual bombers - and now police insist his files are handed over. The Guardian did this in 1984, leading to the jailing of civil servant Sarah Tisdall.
Journalism doesn't function if sources dint think they can speak off the record, keeping their name off reports.
GEN Z AND MILLENNIALS DISS GEN X POSTFEMINISM AND PORN
Guardian, Feb 2022. Billie Eilish (Dec 2021: watching porn "destroyed my brain") leads the way on this. 'Much is made of the tension between older, third-wave feminists and millennial feminists (while I realise that it isn’t always useful to divide women into generations, when it comes to waves of feminism it can be elucidating), but this always lets the 1990s postfeminists off the hook. Something I share in common with my (boomer-aged) mother is that both of us wonder what on earth these women were on.
These were the women who said that feminism was over, who collaborated with the lads to bring about the heavily sexualised, objectifying, porn-influenced era we grew up in. They were the “cool girl” feminists, always one of the boys, who dismissed any attempt to critique the culture they had formed a part in creating. When we came of age and began to pull apart this hellscape, which included the women’s magazines they wrote for, they slapped us back down to protect their own interests. They could not tolerate us criticising their role in the problem.'
ASA BAN BOOHOO T-SHIRT AD USING SUGGESTIVE THONG SHOTS AS OBJECTIFYING
Guardian, Feb 2022. '“We noted that neither the partial nudity nor the bikini bottoms were relevant to the product and that the images did not show the product as it would usually be worn,” the ASA said in its ruling. “For those reasons, we concluded that the ad objectified and sexualised women. It was therefore irresponsible and likely to cause serious offence.”
Boohoo said that it understood the importance of the issues raised by the ASA and removed the images from its website before the publication of the ruling.'
Guardian, Feb 2022. A follow-up opinion piece pulls no punches:
'The revolving door between Downing Street and Fleet Street has already seen Johnson’s director of communications become deputy editor-in-chief of the Sun, a paper which failed to break any major “partygate” stories. Some publications featured extensive stories and headlines about the partying prime minister, while others – particularly on the Sun, the Express and the Mail – have struggled to get these stories on their own front pages.
When David Davis called for his leader to go, the Mail harangued Johnson’s critics by splashing with the headline “In the name of God, grow up”, while announcing that the latest Johnson baby was recovering from Covid.'
She notes the multiple private meetings Murdoch has had with this PM and his ministers - 'These encounters are not minuted, of course, which only leaves us to ponder what exactly was discussed.'
'Murdoch has always offered assurances that his titles will remain free of his influence, like when he appointed an independent board to oversee the Wall Street Journal. Someone described these arrangements to me as “eye candy for governments”. The six similarly independent directors of Times Newspapers Ltd, paid about £15,000 each a year, meet the editors of the daily and Sunday titles every three months and write a report to parliament. The only time in recent memory they disagreed with an appointment – when John Witherow moved from the Sunday to daily title – the objections were eased with further meetings and a six-month delay.'
WHY A RIGOROUS PRESS REGULATOR IS NEEDED ... SLAPPS: DEFAMATION LAW ABUSE BY RICH SILENCES MEDIA, SMASHES PUBLIC INTEREST
Guardian, Feb 2022.
'Caroline Kean, a partner at Wiggin, represented the journalist Catherine Belton when she was sued by multiple Russian billionaires including Roman Abramovich and the Russian state oil company Rosneft. Kean is also defending FT journalist Tom Burgis against a lawsuit brought by an arm of the Kazakh mining company ENRC.
Both libel actions have been criticised by free speech campaigners and were highlighted in a recent debate in the House of Commons about abusive legal actions known as strategic lawsuits against public participation, or “Slapps”.'
She argues that public interest journalism is under threat as media are put off investigating the powerful (politicians, business, rich) as they can bring vexatious lawsuits purely for the threat of ruinous legal costs regardless of winning or losing.
DON'T TEK DI VACCINE - SPOTIFY MUSIC JOINS ROGAN PODCAST IN MISINFORMATION SPOTLIGHT
Guardian, Feb 2022. It's not a new concern, or isolated to Spotify (or covid conspiracy): 'In December, following an investigation by Sky News, it removed almost 150 hours of content it said violated its hateful content policy, including antisemitic, racist and white supremacist material found in podcasts.
In 2020, a BBC investigation led Spotify and other platforms including Apple Music, YouTube Music and Deezer to remove racist, antisemitic and homophobic content.
An excerpt of a Hitler speech, calls for “Aryans” to make a brand new start, and references to white power were found in songs hosted by the streaming services.'
CHINA CENSORS GAY SCENES IN FRIENDS
Guardian, Feb 2022.
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