This week the news has been full of hundreds of migrants crossing the channel, COVID19 and race relations. The BBC has interviewed champions of migrants and dismissed all proposals for stopping the flow, in the case of COVID19 the journalistic coverage was peculiarly tardy and combative and in the case of Black Lives Matter it seems dedicated to polarisation. Are the journalists likely to cause deaths through their reporting?
What the journalists have not done is to look at the recent migrant crisis in the Mediterranean. The EU is taking harsh measures that have dramatically reduced migrant deaths at sea:
In 2014 the UK journalists were at the forefront of those demanding that migrants crossing the Mediterranean should be "rescued" and brought to the UK. Conservatively they indirectly killed 18,000 people by encouraging migrants to risk their lives.
In the current Channel crisis the BBC in particular is repeating its "encourage and kill the migrants" stance. They are making little or no reference to what was done to stop the Mediterranean "slaughter by journalist". (See Note 1 for what was done to stop the flow of migrants).
When the weather changes we will have "slaughter by journalist" in the Channel.
UK Journalists are also adamantly refusing to cover the appalling racism in the EU that brings the migrants to Calais. See EU Racism is far worse than UK. In a recent interview an Afghan migrant detailed how he had been arrested, imprisoned and hounded from country to country across the EU until finally discovering that the UK was a soft touch and eventually being given residence in the UK after illegally entering stowed away on a lorry. The interviewer summarised what he had said as "so migrants come to the UK in the hope of finding a better and more fulfilling future". The truthful summary was that migrants come to the UK from the EU because the EU is unrelentingly racist, they are driven out. Instead of turning their anti-racist ire on the EU the journalists attack the UK for immigration policies and racism.
There is ample evidence that French warships are escorting migrants to British waters but this is not being covered at all by mainstream media.
On COVID19 the behaviour of journalists has been equally as questionable. The pandemic (A public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC)) was declared by the WHO on 30th January 2020. If we look at the scientific press it was clear in early February that COVID19 was perhaps 20 or even 40 times more deadly than seasonal flu. Anyone looking at the Chinese data in December and January would have been seriously concerned. What did the popular press and BBC say? Even as late as the 29th of February the Spectator was saying its all just panic and the Broadcasters were hosting people saying it would be no worse than seasonal flu. The UK needed quarantine of international arrivals and a pre-emptive lockdown before the end of February but the media created an environment of disbelief that caused government "behavioural" advisors to recommend delay until 23rd March. Chris Whitty told a press conference on 12 March “an important part of the science on this is actually the behavioural science, and what that shows is probably common sense to everybody in this audience, which is that people start off with the best of intentions, but enthusiasm at a certain point starts to flag”. Despite the lockdown etc. COVID19 has now killed 30,000 people more in the UK than seasonal flu does in a normal year. Journalists cannot be absolved of responsibility for most of these deaths. They were shockingly irresponsible.
Black Lives Matter is another example of journalistic recklessness. It is well established that Black Lives Matter in the USA is a symptom of the US establishment being at war with itself. Soft power organisations such as the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations that are used to de-stabilise foreign governments have been unleashed on the US homeland. Soros has poured in millions to create unrest. It is also well known that between one and two black people die in UK custody in the UK every year out of 900,000 arrests and the US and EU are far, far more racist than the UK. BBC and Guardian journalists ignored all of this context and reported Black Lives Matter in the UK as if the UK were the USA. They have even plundered British history out of context and presented events from centuries ago as the responsibility of current white British people and labelled all black British people as the descendants of slaves when only 30% could have been in this category. This coverage was deliberately inflammatory and led to mass demonstrations in the UK during the COVID19 lockdown.
The BBC has special responsibility because it is supposed, by Charter, to provide in depth and balanced coverage that is not available elsewhere. Having seen top BBC journalists at "dos" I can assure you that they are the snootiest bunch of people that you could hope to meet. They are the absolute image of 18th century aristocrats surrounded by the common scum. Most of them are rich and privileged but the air of condescension and superiority goes beyond mere wealth, they think they are famous. On migration they have no idea that poor English people have nothing but their country and the journalists can see no reason why they should not share this with others. The journalists believe that they are the font of morality so equate the little English person's reluctance to share with immorality. On health matters they prefer to use punch and judy show presentations rather than engaging with the truth. On Black Lives matter they seem to be in bed with the Extreme Internationalists who they meet at various events for their exalted class of people.
Journalists, and the BBC in particular, have a responsibility not to create death and spurious civil unrest.
Note 1: What did the EU do? According to Jean-Claude Juncker's State of the European Union Address 13/9/17: "We have reduced irregular arrivals in the Eastern Mediterranean by 97%
thanks to our agreement with Turkey. And this summer, we managed to get
more control over the Central Mediterranean route with arrivals in
August down by 81% compared to the same month last year."
How did they get Central Mediterranean arrivals down by 81%? The EU has beefed up its previous Return Directive with immediate issue of return decisions, minimum periods of 3 months detention, a five day limit for appeals against return decisions, only one layer of appeal for asylum seekers etc. There are now 10,000+ EU border control (Frontex) staff equipped with boats and planes to stop migration. Agreements have been signed with most of the North African States to receive returnees.
How would UK journalists have covered the above had they not simply suppressed any mention of it?
11/8/2020
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