To have sustainable honest journalism in uk you have to first have honest journalists

in #life6 years ago

When I first joined steemit, I read a posting where people were saying they no longer read or watched main stream media and the reasons why abound, Vested interest by Corporate owned media, the BBC which so often just seems to speak for the government, political bias, every day bias, lies, misreporting whitewashing and ommission. .... and so on and so on .
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport has a consultation about HONEST JOURNALISM open so anyone with anything to say can speak up. The consultation is open until 11.45 pm Thursday 14th September 2018.

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/call-for-evidence-on-sustainable-high-quality-journalism-in-the-uk

who knows if we can make a difference?

While it is totally Understandable to ignore and disregard most of our media, I do the opposite and read and watch all sorts. Firstly, I want to know what is being said so I can argue with it and secondly there are sometimes absolute gems among the rubbish, for example if I hadn't watched a particular media channel I wouldn't know about the Hummus cafe in Jerusalem. It's a cafe I love the idea of even though I've never been there.
Take a look at websites below.

http://imaginepeace.com/archives/21517
Israeli hummus cafe gives Jewish-Arab tables half off . Owner offers free refill to Jews and Palestinian guests dining together, to show that "we're all human beings". by Cajsa Wikstrom, Al Jazeera
even a Uk paper
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/11942295/israeli-hummus-cafe-discount-arabs-jews.html

There is not a single paper that writes for me and not a TV news channel I trust or don't have questions about but I read and watch them all when I can because like I said I want to find out whats being said and whose saying it. There are decent journalists but they're not often seen on the main stream media. Now and again the BBC comes out of it's one sided bubble and gets the occasional guest with a different point of view but it doesn't happen often. Peter Ford, a former diplomat from Syria appeared on BBC breakfast, twice, and reported a totally opposite view from theirs.
The surprise on their faces and the questions. It never seemed to occur to them that someone could think differently from their narrative. At one point the presenter actually said lets pretend our narrative is true but Peter Ford said "lets not" The presenter never considered the consequences of the truth of Peter Fords understanding. They never actually considered the other side of the story

I saw Jon Snow once ask an Israeli spokesman harsh question after question, holding them to account for the horrific bombardment of Gaza a welcome change, compared to the BBC who I have seen previously just leave Israeli spokesmen to make unqestioned, unreal statements. Then again I also saw him rant at Alex Salmond about his new show on RT. He asked questions but each time Alex Salmond opened his mouth to answer he couldn't get a word out for Snow ranting. Jon Snow at one point rattled some papers and said "Do you want to see the propaganda RT is spouting?" but rather than enlightening viewers with the evidence he then carried on ranting. I, personally, would have welcomed the examples of propaganda he was offering to show.

Time is running out for the consultation so please add your pennyworth.

My daughter told me a quote someone told her.

"But what if I fall?" " Yes, You might, but what if you fly?"