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UK media fails to disclose defence sector links in nearly 60% of cases

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Re: UK media fails to disclose defence sector links in nearly 60% of cases

#31

Post by foldr »

specproc wrote: post #24
foldr wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What land did Tony Blair grab? You can disagree with the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq without making the exaggerated claim that this was part of some kind of long-term imperialist occupation. The UK currently has fewer military personnel in Iraq than it has in, say, Germany. And Britain doesn’t control the Iraqi government.

I think something Brits don't fully understand is the extent of our vassalage under the US. We do, as you rightly note have quite the history of a policy of imperialist land grabs, now we just play a support function to somebody else's empire.

Ok, but you can say the same for the US. It also has vastly more troops in Germany than Iraq, and it also does not control the Iraqi government. And the less said about Afghanistan the better. So where is the land grab?

Re: UK media fails to disclose defence sector links in nearly 60% of cases

#32

Post by foldr »

coldtea wrote: post #21
foldr wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What land did Tony Blair grab? You can disagree with the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq without making the exaggerated claim that this was part of some kind of long-term imperialist occupation. The UK currently has fewer military personnel in Iraq than it has in, say, Germany. And Britain doesn’t control the Iraqi government.

> What land did Tony Blair grab? You can disagree with the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq without making the exaggerated claim that this was part of some kind of long-term imperialist occupation. Yeah, just a few decades years, to secure oil deals and/or keep control of the region. No biggie. That this can be said with a straight face about invasions to two countries that created civil war, suffering, hundreds of t…

My post wasn’t defending the Iraq war. It was just pointing out that the war was not a land grab. Iraq is not now a part of the UK or US (in contrast to the situation with Russia and Crimea, for example).

Re: UK media fails to disclose defence sector links in nearly 60% of cases

#34

Post by znort_ »

thrownthatway wrote: post #20
coldtea wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The UK doesn't have some imperialist policy of land grabs It has centuries of exactly that at a global scale, and continued post-war neo-colonial land grabbing and pressuring, plus eager participation in all the imperialist games of its larger brother. I mean, just mentioning "Tony Blair" is enough...

[flagged]

[flagged]

Re: UK media fails to disclose defence sector links in nearly 60% of cases

#35

Post by matsemann »

defrost wrote: post #16
alansaber wrote: post #6

"Ex UK military members discover the private sector pays 10-20x more" underlines the title, but yes, media should disclose it. But even if they were "just" retired ex-military, their bias would be the same (being a member of the UK military).

Media in general is poor on declaring any and all bias of their various interviewed "experts". Quack doctors spruiking amazing new treatments (that they hold shares in). Automotive experts promoting car brands (that they receive advertising and influencer dollars for). etc.

One thing I've seen a bit in Norway, and which is relevant this month, is opinion pieces by "concerned parents" that get their writing into national news, but a quick search show that they're often head of some bigoted organization. Of course they should be entitled to their opinion and be able to express it as any other, but the news papers not disclosing this is unethical imo.

Re: UK media fails to disclose defence sector links in nearly 60% of cases

#36

Post by happymellon »

coldtea wrote: post #12
flumpcakes wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UK doesn't have some imperialist policy of land grabs like Russia, or diplomacy through violence. In the current Iranian war the UK is only allowing it's bases to launch defensive missions, i.e. strike offensive capability or incoming missiles. So no, it is in fact the defense sector. What countries have a defense sector, if the UK doesn't?

> The UK doesn't have some imperialist policy of land grabs It has centuries of exactly that at a global scale, and continued post-war neo-colonial land grabbing and pressuring, plus eager participation in all the imperialist games of its larger brother. I mean, just mentioning "Tony Blair" is enough...

20 years since he was in power...

Re: UK media fails to disclose defence sector links in nearly 60% of cases

#38

Post by defrost »

buran77 wrote: post #30
defrost wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Media in general is poor on declaring any and all bias of their various interviewed "experts". Quack doctors spruiking amazing new treatments (that they hold shares in). Automotive experts promoting car brands (that they receive advertising and influencer dollars for). etc.

> Quack doctors spruiking amazing new treatments (that they hold shares in). Doctors commonly have kickback arrangements to prescribe specific medication. Sometimes it's the correct course of action they just always go for the particular brand, other times it's the wrong course of action but they prescribe it anyway for the kickback (the OxyContin scandal comes to mind).

Pharma reps "bribing" doctors prescribing habits is a thing, for sure, and varies in degree by country.

This is a separate issue for media reporting on (say) new tanning treatments that are endorsed on screen during traditional "news hours" in undeclared infomercial segments that feature "independant" medical experts gushing over benefits of perineum UV treatments.

Frequently both the company that paid for the faux news segment and the guest experts that also benefit fail to have fiscal interests disclosed.

Re: UK media fails to disclose defence sector links in nearly 60% of cases

#39

Post by tempfile »

philipallstar wrote: post #7
tempfile wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"war industry" is still very charitable! If you have any standards that distinguish a war from indiscriminate killing, they probably violate those standards in a large proportion of their business.

What informs your "probably"?

When I said "If you have standards" I did not specify what those standards are. So I said "probably", because I have to guess you have similar standards to me. If you do, then you can drop the "probably".

As the other commenter correctly guesses, you only have to open the news to find examples. Iran, Palestine, Iraq (way back when). Most "wars" are not really wars these days, they're just exercises in western aggression.

Re: UK media fails to disclose defence sector links in nearly 60% of cases

#40

Post by CrzyLngPwd »

flumpcakes wrote: post #9
einpoklum wrote: post #3

1. Calling it the "defense sector" is already quite biased. Almost all of that sector's activity involves offensive activity. Or just call it the "arms industry" etc. If we were less charitable, we could well call it the "war industry". 2. Reading the article we note there's quite some overlap between arms industry links and links to Israel's fundraising and lobbying circles. I wonder whether UK media discloses those…

The UK doesn't have some imperialist policy of land grabs like Russia, or diplomacy through violence. In the current Iranian war the UK is only allowing it's bases to launch defensive missions, i.e. strike offensive capability or incoming missiles. So no, it is in fact the defense sector. What countries have a defense sector, if the UK doesn't?

Iran.

It didn't attack anyone until it was attacked.

It has been defending itself.

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