Responsible journalism on the wane

"It's not just Boris Johnson's lying. It's that the media let him get away with it,"
writes Peter Oborne in The Guardian

Peter Oborne writes in The Guardian, "The Prime Minister's falsehoods are mostly left unchallenged. If this goes on, the integrity of our politics faces collapse," substantiating that statement with:

It’s Friday lunchtime and Boris Johnson is in Oldham. He’s live on Sky News, speaking to supporters in front of his Tory battle bus. During a speech lasting no more than 10 minutes, viewers learn that he is building 40 new hospitals. Sounds good. But it’s a lie that has already been exposed by fact-checkers, including the website Full Fact.

The prime minister tells Sky viewers that “20,000 more police are operating on our streets to fight crime and bring crime down”. This assertion is misleading in a number of ways. Recruitment will take place over three years and do no more than replace the drop in officer numbers seen since the Conservatives came to power in 2010.

Sky viewers are then informed by Johnson that Jeremy Corbyn “plans to wreck the economy with a £1.2 trillion spending plan”. Labour’s manifesto hasn’t been published, let alone fully costed. Johnson’s £1.2tn is a palpable fabrication. As Full Fact concluded: “Many of the figures behind this estimate are uncertain or based on flawed assumptions.”

 Sadly, I note, The Guardian itself has assisted in false reporting leading to the demonisation of Jeremy Corbyn as 'antisemitic' when what he is 'anti' is Zionism, the human rights abuses of the state of Israel.

The National Union of Journalism's ethics or 'Code of Conduct' can be found at https://www.nuj.org.uk/about/nuj-code/

I would argue, however, that the increased polarisation of UK politics ties in with the unfairness of the First Past the Post electoral system that Jeremy Corbyn seems to collude with as he enters a mere two-party televised 'leaders debate' tonight that excludes other parties such as the Green Party of which I am a member.

Every political party, I would argue, is a coalition, and Corbyn's problem is not that he is "a bad leader" but that the Parliamentary Labour Party is an unsuitable crew for him to be leader of. By way of just one example, I cite the fact that Labour under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown as prime ministers helped lay the foundations for the corporate homicide system of 'welfare reform' that the Tories have built upon. See, eg, https://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/topic/223854-even-harsher-new-esa-medical-approvedwarning-very-bad-news-inc/ from April 13, 2010 — before the Tory/Lib Dem coalition government!

And if we had a more equal voting system, and fairer funding of political parties, more disadvantaged people would feel they had something to vote for, I believe.