This seems to formalise a rarely discussed social element to political coverage: the inequality of arms between left and right on money/professional opportunity. - ThreadSky

iandunt.bsky.social • 3 days ago

This seems to formalise a rarely discussed social element to political coverage: the inequality of arms between left and right on money/professional opportunity.

Reposted from Michael Savage

SCOOP: The wealthy owner of the Spectator gathered together some of the most senior figures from the right-leaning media.

He raised a plan to fund a new generation of journalists.

It would be a “non-partisan” programme - but some worry it risks politicising journalistic training.

Story:

Comments

dclickman.bsky.social•3 days ago

So he's training Nazis to practice fair and balanced journalism. Good luck with that.

ferrickbrick.bsky.social•2 days ago

Setting up the propaganda machines to stifle all socialist ideologies. Dystopia deranged.

sandypalma.bsky.social•2 days ago

Good old "Henry Ford' style journalism, any view you like as long as its mine

casporleder.bsky.social•3 days ago

Look at podcasting

Especially if you bring in the Russians with your billionaires

simonwells.bsky.social•2 days ago

It's just a daft idea. How many people do you think have the same politics at 20 as at 30, 40 or 50? The idea you can have lifetime agents of the right - or any other political persuasion - is silly.

ferrickbrick.bsky.social•2 days ago

And thinking that way is why we get to the situation described above.

lesleymcdowell.bsky.social•3 days ago

Isn't that because traditionally, the right is the voice of the establishment, and the left of the protest? What's remarkable to me is how the right has somehow switched this round in public perception, so we're surprised that there are more rightwing papers, etc

justlee.bsky.social•3 days ago

A competitor to the Guido school for quisling contrarians? Delightful, just what we need...

anonymousvc.bsky.social•3 days ago

In the US you can draw a short straight line from Koch Bros sponsored fellowships to the opinion pages of WaPo or from wackadoo right wing publications to the anchor desks of CNN.

openpolicy.bsky.social•3 days ago

Yes. It’s why I’ll keep tapping the sign that says a Labour government that wants to last must quickly get on with overhauling media ownership, forcing adoption of distributed ownership, and setting quality standards. Media are the upstream regulators of our political discourse & must be regulated.

marionjones100.bsky.social•2 days ago

Sadly, the last thing this Labour government wants is a bigger platform of progressive voices.

nicolekidmansnose.bsky.social•3 days ago

Another reason to tax the hell out of these billionaires, if they have money to create a generation of brownshirt ideologues who want to destroy our liberal democracies, surely they have money stashed away to pay more tax.

phillip-rees.bsky.social•2 days ago

They're certainly not shy about their rhetoric.

https://youtu.be/JbOEY8WXYmc?si=hF0NdWVC1YcdGYxE

nicolekidmansnose.bsky.social•2 days ago

Palantir is a shady, evil org run by evil people. Why do we keep handing out sensitive goverment contracts to these people is beyond me.

phillip-rees.bsky.social•2 days ago

It's Mandelson.

"Global Counsel does not publish a full list of its clients but is currently working for Shell, the Premier League, mining giant Anglo American and Trump-backer Peter Thiel’s controversial tech firm Palantir, amongst others."

https://democracyforsale.substack.com/p/scoop-peter-mandelsons-lobbying-firm

nicolekidmansnose.bsky.social•2 days ago

Why on earth Starmer chose to dig up this monstrosity to serve as ambassador? A relic of a bygone time who's arrogant enough to think that he can whisper the Americans into being nice to the UK 🤢

phillip-rees.bsky.social•2 days ago

He should have appointed Leila Deen, have someone someone direct and forceful in the role. Pandering to narcissists never works out.

https://youtu.be/g4l5aXP1rac?si=0hHuA6QLoQLN4b9G

educhazan.bsky.social•3 days ago

I think it reflects each group’s priorities. The Right tends to be goal-oriented while the Left tends to focus on virtue signalling their moral superiority. Rightwing voters and leaders are pragmatic enough to vote Trump to advance their goals, leftwing ones called Biden genocide Joe.

richardharrison.bsky.social•2 days ago

So we should accept genocide incase Trump?

That kind of thinking just gets you Trump and a genocide.

How about Joe doesn't do the genocide and then we don't have Trump?

educhazan.bsky.social•2 days ago

Proving my point: virtue signalling over better outcomes for Palestinians. The active sabotage of Biden with this kind of rhetoric not only has helped bring about Trump but also made it difficult to differentiate between their policies, putting Palestinians in an even more dangerous position.

revbluessusie.bsky.social•2 days ago

Biden helped bring about Trump. Biden did. He could have always just stopped funding and supporting a genocide.

richardharrison.bsky.social•2 days ago

It's really not virtue signalling to be against genocide mate. It's good manners.

If the Genocide Joe name lost Biden the election, then he and his supporters really should look hard at their support for a genocide.

educhazan.bsky.social•2 days ago

Do you actually believe that Trump’s and Biden’s policy towards Gaza are the same? That it makes no tangible difference to the lives of Palestinians living in Gaza?

revbluessusie.bsky.social•2 days ago

Trump can do nothing in Gaza that the Israelis don’t want to do and would do no matter who is president. They got away with a genocide under Biden si pretty damn sure the Dems would have done nothing about ethnic cleansing.

richardharrison.bsky.social•2 days ago

Well, and let's be honest here, Israel was killing and maiming thousands a day under Biden.

There's a ceasefire under Trump.

So no, Trump is not good for Palestinians. But objectively he's done better for them than Joe

bigfez.bsky.social•2 days ago

No, it's because extremely rich guys always want lower taxes on the rich.

There might be other things going on as well but they are not material.

educhazan.bsky.social•2 days ago

Trump is actually a great example of how grassroots right-wingers were able to pragmatically organise around a candidate shunned by “the rich”. “the rich” have progressively swung towards Trump as he beat their successive candidate choices - Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris.

bigfez.bsky.social•2 days ago

Bezos literally vetoed his newspaper from endorsing Harris. And I must have missed the phase where Musk backed Harris as well.

Really not sure how you think there is *any* read-across here, but apologies if I'm missing something of course.

educhazan.bsky.social•2 days ago

Brief history of Musk’s political donations

https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2022/11/27/elon-musks-political-shift-how-the-billionaire-moved-from-backing-obama-to-endorsing-desantis/

A refresher on the overwhelming support for Hilary from businesses and the rich

https://fortune.com/2016/06/23/56-hillary-clinton-ceos-endorsements/

bigfez.bsky.social•2 days ago

Okay, I genuinely think I have missed what you are arguing here.

(Or, I can see the analogy, but it's where the main alternative was Bernie Sanders)

aeb1.bsky.social•3 days ago

Since when has the Spectator been credible or journalism

angelmsattya.bsky.social•3 days ago

Hedge fund managers have a lot to answer for.

newsupdates.bsky.social•3 days ago

Trump and Musk and Vance

What they are really about….

https://youtu.be/xAcppizUztw?si=HEbJ03RPSKpYMfbZ

gnickod.bsky.social•3 days ago

Indeed and has the consequence, unintended or otherwise, of diminishing trust in the concept of journalism.

mattsawyer.bsky.social•3 days ago

Grim amusement that anyone thinks there NEEDS to be a new generation of right wing journalists. The same machine that prints money for billionaries seems to spit them out in sufficient quantity for anyone. Maybe when were "radical" and had free higher ed we got them from across the politcal spectrum

dannypalmer.bsky.social•3 days ago

Reminds me of when I was just starting out in the late 00s. I was offered a potentially really good opportunity but it was an unpaid internship. I couldn't afford that - especially when you added the commute into London - and ended up doing a temp office job that year instead 'cos needed the money.

theprofrog.bsky.social•3 days ago

Thinking recently that the best thing liberal celebs like George Clooney etc. could do is support media and training quietly and get out of the limelight, as that clearly annoys loads of people. Media infrastructure support vital. It will shortly be the same for research funding in hums in unis too

nes-tor.bsky.social•3 days ago

I mean the progressive billionaires need to act up. We need many more like @deborahmeaden.bsky.social ... Perhaps there are and I don't know them. We're in a huge crisis.

tomlinson.id•2 days ago

1/ The future of journalism is to be a YouTuber/Podcaster. The problem is getting eyeballs without clickbait. @philmoorhouse.bsky.social does very well researched videos. But he recently showed what the left are up against. TLDR are fair and The newsagents and The rest is politics are good.

caroline-too.bsky.social•2 days ago

But the problem with podcasts are that they tend to be commentary rather than investigation

tomlinson.id•2 days ago

Private eye does great investigations

caroline-too.bsky.social•2 days ago

Agreed, but (a) that’s one outlet )there others but…) and (b) I was talking about podcasts and the move from news papers and bulletins to podcasts

tomlinson.id•2 days ago

2/ The truth is Labour need to do media reform. Make sure that online and offline is regulated and disinformation has to be corrected in the same prominence. Progressive parties need to have their own broadcasting of some sort. GB News should be taken off the air. The BBC need to be trusted.

smkali.bsky.social•2 days ago

I’d be happy if GB News just stops calling themselves “News”. Especially since they keep breaching impartiality rules

tomlinson.id•2 days ago

3/ People don’t know who to trust. Smart people need to take this seriously and factions on the left need to stop arguing with each other and worry about their real opponents.

vijaychopra.uk•3 days ago

Journalists need a proper professional body with cpd that can issue postnonomials, qualification like eg the CMI or @cilip.bsky.social etc. a chartered institute for journalism or similar

unicorntastic1.bsky.social•3 days ago

How does the right train journalists? Is it just a nazi school? Rebute every fact with a lie and every lie with doubling down on trying to make a lie true? 🤷🏼‍♀️

nickgilbert.bsky.social•3 days ago

What is wrong with these people?

iandunt.bsky.social•3 days ago

If you're on the right, there's a whole eco-system to welcome you: countless well-funded think tanks, most of the papers, various magazines from Spectator to the Critic, TV & radio, from GB News to Talk Radio. If you're a young person that wants to chat anti-woke stuff, there are many opportunities.

someoneontwitter.bsky.social•2 days ago

where is the billionaire willing to offer the leftist counterpoint ? it's almost as if being one rules out the possibility of doing the other.

roterote.bsky.social•3 days ago

Sadly the small leftie influencers constantly talk about the asymmetrical war we are fighting online with zero institutional support. @sneakcret.bsky.social and I discussed as much as week https://youtu.be/c0PWQmM3RLs?si=W7_evMpUIBRAdyTs

equiton.net•2 days ago

It's a direct result of the class system that this country hasn't managed to be rid of.

cathiew.bsky.social•3 days ago

Agree & what seems to happen is this eco-system & funding encourages young journalists to become even more right wing to get work.

philmoura.bsky.social•2 days ago

Regardless of what you say or write? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp8y9j7j953o

mcdaragh.bsky.social•3 days ago

Hell they made a TV presenter out of Darren Grimes.

philmoura.bsky.social•2 days ago

In the same way Blue Peter made a TV presenter out of Shep the dog!

eaterofsun.bsky.social•2 days ago

Don't you be dissing on Shep

philmoura.bsky.social•2 days ago

Shep was a wrong ‘un

18thcenturyboy.bsky.social•3 days ago

ALL of that corrosive poison needs to be shut down.
Together with the Rashists, w*nkers like Murdoch, Koch etc are directly responsible for the rise of fascism in the US and in Europe.
If this sewer is not drained, fascism will win even in Europe.

craigare.bsky.social•3 days ago

Which you can then squander by pretending to be Christian and pulling Nazi salutes.

davea79.bsky.social•3 days ago

Accentuated by the fact that such people are probably a small minority of those wanting to work in the media.

gpollara.bsky.social•3 days ago

Have always noticed this, and this money buys soft power & influence, getting your issues into mainstream discussion.

But how does one counter this to offer balance, short of creating a comparable, well-financed eco-system?

Perhaps horrors of what *may* happen next may drive its development?

pheasant.bsky.social•3 days ago

Well there are millions of us versus a few millionaires. Each of us needs to subscribe to something... Anything.

andrewcrompton.bsky.social•3 days ago

Too late. Once you have a small cabal of billionaires who have bought the politicians, the ‘think tanks’ and the media, there is nowhere left to go.

pheasant.bsky.social•3 days ago

The increasing concentration of wealth makes it difficult, but it's no worse than in the 19th century.

andrewcrompton.bsky.social•3 days ago

I don’t know: I don’t think they had quite the reach to brainwash and gaslight in those days. They can now deliver very effective, huge scale, targeted propaganda supported by data harvesting and AI delivering a very demoralised, confused and angry society blaming all the wrong groups.

enceladusty.bsky.social•3 days ago

"wingnut welfare" https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Wingnut_welfare

joeykins82.bsky.social•3 days ago

There's also far less competition because the neo-right have abandoned impartiality, integrity, and reality itself. I grew up in a right-leaning environment but went out in to the world and discovered that the evidence didn't match my beliefs, so I reassessed those beliefs.

joeykins82.bsky.social•3 days ago

Even if I'd wanted to join the right-wing ecosystem, the collision with reality would be an insurmountable hurdle. It's only the people who can sacrifice their integrity for their paycheque who are left on that side of the fence.

iandunt.bsky.social•3 days ago

If you're a young progressive, the opportunities are considerably more limited. Who will you write for? Guardian & Mirror. And then? Harder to find outlets. Fewer magazines, no dedicated TV and radio.

roterote.bsky.social•3 days ago

Who will pay you period? What income is there outside the small money from TikTok or YouTube or begging for subscribers. And everyone of them works a full time job on top of that. It is so impossible and it is why we are losing the culture war. They have a forest. We are fighting over one tree.

paul2626.bsky.social•3 days ago

I've heard quite a bit of discussion around this theme. Politics youtubers talking about how there's not "leftie billionaires" funding progressive talking points. And Lewis Goodall and his experience at the BBC being called out for bias while people like Andrew Neil can happily write columns for..

paul2626.bsky.social•3 days ago

the Spectator while still being in charge of a major chunk of politics coverage at the Beeb.

milominder.bsky.social•3 days ago

It's almost as if wealthy media owners like to give voice to people who aren't going to suggest they are taxed more, push for greater business transparency or support a green agenda which threatens to disrupt their pension pots.

bobjim.bsky.social•3 days ago

Why should the word "progressive" only apply to the left?

diaminedave.bsky.social•3 days ago

Well how would you define the word "progressive" in its political sense?

bobjim.bsky.social•3 days ago

I'd rather not, other than having a understanding of the dictionary definition. As such, the word could apply to any political party.

diaminedave.bsky.social•2 days ago

that seems evasive, to say the least, as again if you are purely talking about the word in its decriptive sense, (then could be true as we progress towards the future),
or if you are talking about the word in its historic (and generally current) political sense, where it is associated with the left

owlbeard.bsky.social•2 days ago

The right seem to want to conserve things as they are or these days set things back to how they were, they dont want progress. So it seems fitting that progressive only applies to people that want progress, no?

overall24.bsky.social•3 days ago

When child was at Oxbridge , was offered jobs at the DM and then News of the World - turned both down. After a Masters in Journalism, gave it all up and became a lawyer . Still a socialist

oddbinsfuruhashi.bsky.social•2 days ago

The left probably turn on their own much more quickly too. So it’s a tough shift maintaining coherent purity, whereas the right accept total in the moment incoherence, full 180s and downright lies.

neverheardofher.bsky.social•3 days ago

Is it partly because the left are not united?

apoorplayer.bsky.social•2 days ago

Not disagreeing at all but if people are looking for places my understanding is that @theleaduk.bsky.social are trying to do that.

And @manchestermill.bsky.social and their linked outlets.

iandunt.bsky.social•3 days ago

It's still possible to succeed, obviously. Plenty of people do. But in general, there are financially beneficial open arms for young conservatives which simply do not exist for their progressive counterparts.

robo85.bsky.social•3 days ago

He sees what’s happening in the us and wants it.

pjdenyer.bsky.social•3 days ago

Not to mention the practice of internships, making the ability to work unpaid for months, often in London, a huge advantage in getting jobs in the media limits the pool of applicants to those from a very well off background, with the biases that brings.

iouwon.bsky.social•3 days ago

Maybe it's because drama sells; the truth is boring

While the profit motive persists for such things it will continue to blossom

Time to mandate the high taxation of the dissemination/proliferation of disinformation

davidallengreen.bsky.social•3 days ago

Or you double up as a lawyer.

But it is otherwise not an easy path.

markreckons.bsky.social•3 days ago

Yes. Or in my case a software engineer. And eventually in my case having to focus on that most of the time. Whereas if I was a right-leaning pundit I'd likely have been offered something properly paid from one of the outlets Ian mentioned rather than having to stay amateur and largely unpaid.

nearlytoolate.bsky.social•3 days ago

Training as a lawyer is also expensive these days

bi99le5.bsky.social•3 days ago

Ah but just like doctors they all get to earn crazy amounts of money...

Don't they?

Oh.

davidallengreen.bsky.social•3 days ago

Really? I never noticed.

iandunt.bsky.social•3 days ago

I mean, no-one wants that.

davidallengreen.bsky.social•3 days ago

Well quite.

Scraping below the barrel.

helenebismarck.bsky.social•3 days ago

Quiet Voice: Isn‘t another large problem here that it is considered normal for Media Outlets to have one very pronounced political direction, and for them to recruit people who already agree with it? So readers get more and more partisan commentary and less and less actual reporting?

heliant.bsky.social•2 days ago

This is sad. But how oligarchy works.

thesmall001.bsky.social•3 days ago

Eh, the strife makes 'em better: craftier, more critical (even cynical), and less complicit; they have to innovate and develop more and newer, diverse skills to survive.

Individual contributions to creation divvy down as possibilities scale to infinity; while destruction consolidates power per win.

thesmall001.bsky.social•3 days ago

This is the never-ending cycle: Single-minded obscure opposition to progression gains momentum gradually with each win, while progression decelerates as equality propagates authority, leading the discontented to opposition, which becomes uniform, driving those who fight back to have to innovate.

thesmall001.bsky.social•3 days ago

So the Right will always trend to power, and that's fine, because they're doomed to always lose as they're intrinsically lesser. They exist only through consolidation, they can only reduce the net sum , it's their one play. We just make anything out of nothing and they lose. We can divide by zero.

steveparks.bsky.social•3 days ago

Even more than it being about opportunities for those who want to write about anti-woke etc...

There are lots of young people who dream about working in journalism, aren't yet experienced enough on issues/policies/implications... would be more liberal if they thought about it... but want a job

steveparks.bsky.social•3 days ago

So the limited career options, and to get any kind of decent pay, act as a radicalising factor in themselves.

People do what's needed to get and keep the job and, over time, what they are exposed to slants their view of the world.

So this becomes a production line of Tufton St young meat.

robreed101.bsky.social•3 days ago

A colleague of mine years ago was interviewed by Ian Hislop for a role at the eye. He thought the interview was not going well, until hislop asked him if he had ever upset anyone. He said Harold Pinter once called him a CxxT for a,review he wrote..Hislop laughed and gave him the job on the spot.

yiannisbab.bsky.social•3 days ago

Starting to think that the left's strategy of calling progressive-leaning rich people basically fascists for a decade because they don't agree 100% on everything might not have been a winning one after all.

okwonga.bsky.social•3 days ago

Ah man. The thing is - I used to work with some wealthy progressive donors. And it was impossible to get them to give to journalism. Impossible. No matter how nice people were to them, they were just too afraid of the spotlight. I tried for years. It was so frustrating.

yiannisbab.bsky.social•3 days ago

Also true. I work with foundations that put a lot into journalism at the moment, but I don't think it was a thing in the tens so much

valoisdubins.bsky.social•3 days ago

And because it’s based not on merit but ideological and increasingly straightforward personal loyalty, being a talented journalist is not a requirement. It can be a hindrance.

valoisdubins.bsky.social•3 days ago

(I mean, in the right wing sphere)

leemeade.bsky.social•3 days ago

It’s 100x worse in America. A lot more money. I mean a shit ton more. And much deeper networks.

marverde.bsky.social•3 days ago

And we can all see the results.

leemeade.bsky.social•3 days ago

Yup. The poisoned fruit of all their efforts are all around us now.

coolidgeeffect.bsky.social•3 days ago

This is also true of rentagobs. Him off Coast who went full David Icke, the weird priest, that headmistress. Where are the lefty foghorns?

stevieinselby.bsky.social•3 days ago

There are a few individuals, like Dale Vince, Ash Sarkar, Aaron Bastani and Owen Jones – but they don't get a huge amount of traction outside their echo chamber because there is no platform that has the same funding and reach. And they are often as lunatic fringe as their counterparts on the right.

stevieinselby.bsky.social•3 days ago

Getting a foghorn for sensible politics, honesty and decency, is a lot harder than getting a foghorn for an extremist viewpoint!

somesheep.bsky.social•2 days ago

Isn’t there a general propensity for better opportunities by going with capitalism? Could one possibly suggest it being the main reasons why many journalists and politicians sway that way? Would labelling it as corruption be too strong? Or just greed?

amhoward.bsky.social•3 days ago

Marshall has been on quite a journey. He left the LDs over their EU position in 2015. Now he's funding the rabid Reform house TV channel and magazine. That's some shift.

andymacdee.bsky.social•2 days ago

As local newspapers shrivel, getting into journalism is increasingly (like acting and other creative industries) the preserve of the already rich. Internships in London don't come cheap. So, while not all hard RW assholes, entrants will come from an upper middle (at least) class perspective.

andymacdee.bsky.social•2 days ago

And that will inevitably skew the intake and their output. Also, personal connections will outweigh skill - when did you last see Spectator Journalist advertised down the Jobcentre? But if you wrote for the college magazine and you're a friend of the editor's son, a quiet word and you're in.

vambomarbleeye.bsky.social•2 days ago

How to lower opinions about the already least-trusted profession around.

The client media training up new presstitutes, stenographers, Churnalists and fascist propagandists.

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