Blair Watched

Mama mia - where to begin?

Every time Tone spouts off in public now, he genuinely sounds like he`s reporting in from a different universe. There are several very important media issues which he touches on, but for each one his criticism is 180degrees away from where the real problem lies. Take the `feral beast`/`hunt in packs`/`momentum of the news cycle` point - well, when media outlets - papers or mags or tv or radio - are part of large corporate media combines and driven by a ruthless bottom-line ethos, then yes, you are going to get editors and managers striving to maximise audiences numbers by pitching content at the broadest common denominator, that low attention threshold, celeb, shrill, prurient, button-pushing crud journalism which dominates most of UK mainstream media.

It`s not journalists that are to blame, its the fact that they work in an industry where media ownership has been continually deregulated, where ad departments have inordinate influence, second only to the ideological creed of the owners. If we really wanted to have a free press in this country, we should legislate to forbid that the likes of Rupert Murdoch can own more than one TV station, 1 radio station and, say, 2 newspapers at the same time - yeah, just grabbing figures out of the air but you get my drift.

Then there`s the news-vs-comment angle, which I thought was almost baffling in its banality, until I meditated for roughly half a second and saw through to its dark and ultimate evil....er, right. So, Tone, me old mucker - having news (which I think you mean to be straight reportage of events) and comment (ie opinion, whether expert or informed or axe-grinding) together in the same, er, place is a BAD thing. Right....has the PM read the Sun/Mail/Mirror lately? These rags are the epitome of what he`s apparently banging on about, and yet the publication he takes aim at is - tadaaa! - the Independent! Hmm (strokes chin thoughtfully) dya think that mebbe, just mebbe, His Blairness is piqued by the Indie`s antiwar stance, and generally genuine centrist stance? (Must admit that its the only paper I can stand reading, and even it falls down on the job now and then)

Well, anyway, the Blairocious One`s swatting of the media really amounts to the whining of a spoilt princeling who didn`t get the full-on adulatory devotion he thought he deserved. Fact is, if the media - all of it - had been doing its job properly Blair might not have thrust us into the vile clutches of Washington and helped kick in the doors to Iraq, and caused 100s of thousands of deaths for no reason.

Makes you wonder about allegiances in the mainstream media, dont it?

The Independent, in particular Robert Fisk, has done a pretty good job countering Blair's extraordinary mountain of lies and bad foreign and domestic policy. Even the Guardian (especially Simon Tisdall's recent shameful pro-War with Iran misinformation using "official" sources) is amazingly lenient with the New Labour war criminals.  Blair's criticism is appalling and completely deluded. He really believes that he meant well, whatever the consequences. He has been a disasterous leader and ensured decades of war, terrorism and injustice with his stupidity. Doubtless he thinks shame on the media for trying to expose the New Labour/ BAE/ Al-Yamamah corruption scandal. I wish there were more journalists like Fisk and John Pilger getting front page space on British newspapers. Presumably Blair would prefer more Big Brother and Apprentice news to sedate the peasants. Wouldn't it be wonderful if, along with the Jon Stewart Daily Show, we could get Democracy Now! ( arguably the world's best news programme) each weekday on Channel 4. Now that would really upset Mr Tony. 

http://www.democracynow.org/index.shtml

If C4 threatened to show Democracy Now each day, you can bet C4 would be flogged off to the nearest Murdock-light asap.

Blair isn't anti-comment in the media, as long as it's his tamed media muppets doing the talking. And as previously mentioned, he loved all the comment surrounding his 45 minute lie....but of course nobody in government read the papers that week, (see Geff Hoon's utterly contemptible bollocks reply to the Select Committee) so were unable to correct the misleading (ahem) impression given by the shrill hyperventilating warmongering going on in the press at that time.

Ditto Dr David Kelly and Hutton/Butler whitewashes. We were told what happened by tamed M'Luds, so who gives the media the right to actually digest and disagree. Bloody lupin media bastards, drooling cynicism and dissent. As for De Menezes, why shouldn't our police be able to shoot unarmed civilians allighting the tube in the name of security? Pah!

Ask any person on the street why cynicism Is breeding towards politics and they say Iraq and lies, and then Cash for Honours and corruption.

In Blair's deluded eyes, media focus on the Nurenberg Trials would be to ignore the Nazi's ability to make the trains run on time and reduce crime.
Sooner we see Blair in the dock at the Hague, the better, but no doubt he'd get off on an insanity plea .

If C4 threatened to show Democracy Now each day, you can bet C4 would be flogged off to the nearest Murdock-light asap.

Blair isn't anti-comment in the media, as long as it's his tamed media muppets doing the talking. And as previously mentioned, he loved all the comment surrounding his 45 minute lie....but of course nobody in government read the papers that week, (see Geff Hoon's utterly contemptible bollocks reply to the Select Committee) so were unable to correct the misleading (ahem) impression given by the shrill hyperventilating warmongering going on in the press at that time.

Ditto Dr David Kelly and Hutton/Butler whitewashes. We were told what happened by tamed M'Luds, so who gives the media the right to actually digest and disagree. Bloody lupin media bastards, drooling cynicism and dissent. As for De Menezes, why shouldn't our police be able to shoot unarmed civilians allighting the tube in the name of security? Pah!

Ask any person on the street why cynicism Is breeding towards politics and they say Iraq and lies, and then Cash for Honours and corruption.

In Blair's deluded eyes, media focus on the Nurenberg Trials would be to ignore the Nazi's ability to make the trains run on time and reduce crime. Sooner we see him in the dock at the Hague, the better, but no doubt he'd get off on an insanity plea .

Just to show that our neo-con and poodalista betters can occasionally slip up, here's some video of Nicholas Sarkozy drunk after a meeting with Putin. Seems the devious slant-eyed Slav saved the polonium this time and just contented himself with slipping some vodka into Sarkozy's Evian:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd44XTlUQjQ

Speaking of Blair Watch. Is this site to turn into BrownWatch as the graphic suggests or remain BlairWatch, tracking Tony through his future speaking tours, mortgage arrears, warrant dodging, and so forth?

In a nutshell Mr Magic Thinker says:

he doesn't believe people should have strong opinions except himself and his buddies.
he wants to start a communist style internet censor who'd be defeated by a proxy server every time.
he believes we should all shut up like nice little slaves.

and finally

Mr Tony, Magic Thinker and Right-Man Complex sufferer believes he is right, even when he admits he's wrong.

No surprises there!

Well, more news that he won't like, here, outlining possible BAE criminal investigations in the US. BAE are saying that they haven't heard of anything but I think we shall have to wait and see. There are pros and cons for the US to run a criminal inquiry, I think it will be interesting to see if they start something that then gets closed down in the name of the War on Terror.

"I think it will be interesting to see if they start something that then gets closed down in the name of the War on Terror."

More likely to use it for "leverage" in the "Special relationship".

Today's Tony's Theory for Why We All Hate Him is that the British public always hate PMs after ten years and we'd all loathe the site of him the way we do irrespective of whether he'd invaded Iraq or not. [
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2659702.ece]

Jon Snow discussed this topic last night on This Week. Worth a watch

bb