modern media - society watchdogs or poodles to power?

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