Corbyn & The Self-Defeating Media

Today in your media black is white. Up is down. Left is right. Emotionally loaded. Devoid of debate. Incapable of balance. It's a sad thing to watch.

It's also sad because it's so pathetically self-defeating. The issues surrounding Jeremy Corbyn are a prime example. Now personally, as is probably apparent to anyone that has been reading this blog, I'm not a big fan of Labour or Corbyn at the moment. I think they've been completely irresponsible in their handling of Brexit, their response to Trump arriving in the UK was pitiful, and I certainly won't be voting for them anytime soon. Perhaps ever.

However, the constant allegations of anti-Semitism levelled at Corbyn are making it more likely that he'll win any future election. I say this because people can see that it simply isn't true, and it makes him look like a victim of smears. Which in turn makes him look like the honest and heroic alternative. People can see through this stuff. Everyone knows that Corbyn once dated his colleague Diane Abbott. So it's a very odd type of racist that sleeps with a big, black woman. Likewise his attitude towards immigration is so far to the left that it's essentially an open border policy. So it just doesn't wash with people.

Again, as per my previous posts, these things are subjective. So if you're reading this and you genuinely believe in your heart of hearts that Corbyn is a racist and a threat to Jewish people then I have genuine sympathy for you. That's not a nice feeling. From watching many pundits and politicians in the media though it's clear that they themselves don't really believe it when they say it. I watched Nigel Farage repeatedly make the accusation yesterday on LBC and this was very apparent.

I like Farage. More often than not I agree with him, and even when I don't I still like the guy, but yesterday he just looked bad. Again, it just looked like smear tactics. It also looked highly hypocritical, as Farage himself has also been subject to similar accusations in the media. The guilt by association. The cherry-picking and twisting of words and comments. The accusation that when he speaks of immigration "what he really means" is that he doesn't like different races and minorities. Guilt by implication, guilt by smear, not by evidence.

So he should know it when he sees it, and again people can see this. The public aren't dumb.

Of course, Labour are equally guilty of throwing such accusations the other way. Not only is Farage a racist, but Boris, with his Muslim women "look like letter boxes" comment, is likewise a racist. For simply commenting upon the headscarf issue in an offhand way he's deemed fully and completely racist. In fact, according to Labour, the whole government are racist for their handling of the Wind Rush scandal. Not incompetent, not heartless or careless ..but driven by full blown racism.

It's all a bit depressing. It's not people calling out racism. It's people pointing the finger at others, so that the finger doesn't get pointed at themselves. It's quite cowardly in many ways. It would be nice to see just one figure step up, put aside the political points scoring and say "come on, Britain is a truly great country. For all our faults our leaders are certainly not racist." Then, with a more balanced sense of judgement, it would be much easier to deal with genuine racism when it appears.

If this continues the big winners will be Labour though. In spite of their own hypocrisy on the issue. Again, the accusations of racism levelled against Corbyn just won't stick with the majority of the public. However, they're much more likely to stick with the Conservatives or the Brexit Party. After all, they are on the right of the political spectrum. Corbyn is so far to the left it just seems completely baseless.