Modern Media:
Society watchdogs…
…or
poodles of power?
The Leveson InquiryOngoing since July 2011
Oops - that’s us
Rally for Media Reform Westminster, London
17th May 2012
The news so far… Leveson about more than phone hacking.
Evidence points to:• corruption of police• corruption of public officials• intimidation of elected politicians• emasculation of five successive British
governments• corruption of democracy here in Britain
Who the beneficiaries?
• media owners • all those who profit from emasculated
government, such as wealthy elites and under-regulated global financial markets and corporations
In a nutshell… it’s not us
Deeper problem concerns governance
• Media misdemeanours unquestionable
• Impacts on individuals’ lives have been devastating
• Far worse for society is this complicity between successive governments and powerful media groups and their clients
Modern governments more like what the Ancient Greeks called:
Oligarchy(or rule by the few)
Brian Haw (7 January 1949 – 18 June 2011)
Multi-layered governance failures
• Local government (Rotten boroughs…)
• UK national government (Iraq…)
• EU (Lisbon Treaty process…)
• Global (Kyoto, financial markets…)
Where is the journalism that describes these multiple
failures?
We have to do it ourselves
Real journalism focused on real democracy
• Regular, free local film screenings
• Make on local media for screenings
• Focus on local governance
• Train local journalists
• Share output
• Collaborate with like-minded reporters
How Bad Journalism Supports Our Bogus Democracies
www.fraudcastnews.net
@patrickchalmers
