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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

#51

Post by defrost »

dgroshev wrote: post #47
JdeBP wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 17 of the 19 detailed instances, it is stated that they are promoting increases in budgets and spending. The two others are reported as speaking with different conflicts of interest.

"People who have seen the state of the military first hand are saying that we need to fund the military" is not really shocking or sinister.

It's not the message spoken that is at issue here, it is the lack of disclosure of the connection of "the expert" to those that benefit (or suffer) from the message.

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

#53

Post by cryo32 »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #26
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?

Iraq and Afghanistan might disagree with your first point. Last time I looked Iran and the UK are quite some distance from each other, and Iran has inexplicably neither been launching missiles at the UK, nor threatening to, and is apparently not even capable of it. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crm120x4lzxo So the justification for these "defensive" bombing runs on Iranian mountain sites from Fairford remains mys…

Iran has been funding terrorist networks who are active in the UK and has taken direct action against UK citizens before on numerous occasions.

They are also allied with Russia who are doing the same.

They aren't some innocent party here. Geopolitics is complicated and not some black and white good guy bad guy mechanics.

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

#54

Post by specproc »

foldr wrote: post #31
specproc wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

One does not need to dictate every item of policy to control a country, one just needs to ensure that there's alignment on strategic issues. I think this was America's key point of learning when it took over the reins of the European empires after WW2.

In Germany, historically the strategic issue was anti-communism, but now it serves as a military logistics hub; in Iraq, it's about trade in oil in dollars and access to Iraqi oil fields for US companies.

The UK is more complex and more total, ranging from support in the security council, to access to markets for US goods and services, to stationing of US troops and hardware. Most of our economy is geared up for the benefit of US investment funds.

Any government, whether it be Germany, Iraq or the UK, which tries to alter any of these fundamentals will quickly find out the extent to which their land has been grabbed.

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

#55

Post by throawayonthe »

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?

war is peace etc etc

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

#56

Post by SturgeonsLaw »

dgroshev wrote: post #47
JdeBP wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 17 of the 19 detailed instances, it is stated that they are promoting increases in budgets and spending. The two others are reported as speaking with different conflicts of interest.

"People who have seen the state of the military first hand are saying that we need to fund the military" is not really shocking or sinister.

It absolutely is sinister. Everything about the military is, when you decouple the rhetoric from the actions and consider what it is that those organisations actually do.

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

#57

Post by dgroshev »

defrost wrote: post #51
dgroshev wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"People who have seen the state of the military first hand are saying that we need to fund the military" is not really shocking or sinister.

It's not the message spoken that is at issue here, it is the lack of disclosure of the connection of "the expert" to those that benefit (or suffer) from the message.

Do you expect the same standard to be applied to the NHS? "The expert claiming that cancer is bad was employed by the NHS five years ago"

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

#58

Post by dgroshev »

SturgeonsLaw wrote: post #56
dgroshev wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"People who have seen the state of the military first hand are saying that we need to fund the military" is not really shocking or sinister.

It absolutely is sinister. Everything about the military is, when you decouple the rhetoric from the actions and consider what it is that those organisations actually do.

This is a luxury belief that requires the privilege of being unbombed. I invite you to explain this to Ukrainians.

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

#59

Post by cryo32 »

echelon_musk wrote: post #50

> How the UK Security Services neutralised ‘The Guardian’ newspaper (2019) (dailymaverick.co.za) > 3 points by indigodaddy on June 2, 2023 | past | 1 comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36170406 https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-09-11-how-the-u...

I'm not sure that the Grauniad has a particularly good global reputation for independent and critical journalism. It publishes the same mix of disguised opinion pieces and rather biased junk articles as the other side of the political spectrum.

There isn't a single news source that you can trust as such. You have to compile a lot of them, remove the unverified information and see what is left. Usually not a lot.

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

#60

Post by defrost »

dgroshev wrote: post #57
defrost wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not the message spoken that is at issue here, it is the lack of disclosure of the connection of "the expert" to those that benefit (or suffer) from the message.

Do you expect the same standard to be applied to the NHS? "The expert claiming that cancer is bad was employed by the NHS five years ago"

I expect this:

> "The expert claiming that cancer is bad was employed by the NHS five years ago"

from any media outlet quoting that "expert", yes. I'd also like the circumstances of their departure to be mentioned, should that be relevant to the claims.

I expect it as such things are also expected by the press council of the country I'm in, even though it can be an uphill battle getting such compliance.

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