“When the Trump era is over, incumbent Democrats are going to have to repair US institutions that this administration has damaged. If they want to do something about the polarisation of US politics, they may also need to restore the fairness doctrine.”
Media
The plot to kill the BBC
“What we have is smoke in mirrors designed to weaken the BBC’s independence, cow its journalists, and ripen it up for dismemberment and eventual sale to the highest bidder. It’s short-term electoral politics and strategic long-term weakening of a once great British institution.”
Poor Things movie: Alasdair Gray revisited – and revised
“Lanthimos’s film and Gray’s text are independent but related works. It is worth remembering that adaptations are under no obligation to be faithful to source materials. There is no governing body adjudicating and no code of laws to apply. Traces remain, however. Look out for the interrogation of authority, the imagination of an alternative future, and the indomitable spirit of Bella Baxter. Then read some Alasdair Gray.”
Israel and Hamas: the debasement of discourse
“To portray the Islamist fanaticism of Hamas—its radical-conservative ‘purity’ laws, its Manichean world of friend and foe—and its consequent war crimes as somehow comparable to the national liberation movements of past times is, apart from everything else, an insult to the vast majority of those liberation movements.”
ChatGPT, you’re fired!
“The quotes were generally ideal, exactly what I was looking for, so I searched a little harder. But after fouterin for literary hours, I realised that it just makes the damn things up.”
Impartiality and public service media
“It (BBC) also bends with the political wind, especially where—as on refugees—Labour is too cowed to offer any challenge to the dominant discourse (that the desperate journeys by raft across the channel, often ending in tragedy, are all got up by traffickers of the ‘migrants’), which the BBC then faithfully echoes.” It should “speak truth to power” instead…
Sceptical Scot shuts up shop
The co-editors announce the closure of Sceptical Scot on its seventh anniversary….
Covid, conspiracy theories and ‘truthpapers’
“These calls to action are taking place in the context of an increasingly dangerous atmosphere. We already know that conspiracy theories have the potential to promote political polarisation, extremism and violence. Recent months have seen numerous examples of COVID-19 conspiracy theories influencing real-world activism.”
‘Strategic lies’ in Downing St
“The quality of our democracy depends on the quality of the political debate within the public sphere. New campaigning techniques represent a real threat to both the debate and our democracy and something needs to be done urgently to address this problem.”
Is the BBC helping British democracy?
The BBC was once among the UK’s most respected institutions but no more – and it faces fresh competition from new upstarts like Andrew Neil’s GB News and Murdoch’s UK News. Break-up or renewal ahead?