Boris

[mr6666]

 

CNN International

 

@cnni

 

JUST IN: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been referred to a police watchdog

 

over his alleged relationship with an American businesswoman when he was Mayor of London.

 

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/27/uk/boris-johnson-police-watchdog-intl-gbr/index.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twCNNi&utm_term=link&utm_content=2019-09-28T01%3A17%3A03

[mr6666]

British journalists have become part of Johnson’s fake news machine

It’s chilling. From the Mail, The Times to the BBC and ITN, everyone is peddling Downing Street’s lies and smears. They’re turning their readers into dupes.

 

"Number 10 probes Remain MPs’ ‘foreign collusion’.” This huge banner headline dominated the front page of The Mail on Sunday on 29 September.

Turn to page 2 and “a senior No 10 source” was quoted in bold type: “The government is working on extensive investigations into Dominic Grieve, Oliver Letwin and Hilary Benn [who tabled the Bill] and their involvement with foreign powers and the funding of their activities......

 

the Downing Street press office, and asked an official whether there was an investigation as stated in The Mail on Sunday.

He told me categorically: “No investigation.”

Yesterday a Cabinet Office spokesperson told openDemocracy: "There was never such an investigation."

In other words, the Mail on Sunday splash that Downing Street was investigating Grieve, Letwin and Benn was fabrication.

Fake News.

.......Of course this bogus story fitted like a glove with the dominant Downing Street narrative that the Benn Act – which ruled out a No Deal Brexit – was actually a ‘surrender act’ designed to thwart Brexit altogether.

There’s been a lot of this sort of thing over the past two months. Dodgy stories and commentary linked to Downing Street or government sources started to appear in the press and media after Johnson installed his own media team, which was largely drawn from the Vote Leave campaign that won the 2016 Brexit referendum.....

...story was a fabrication. Not Glen Owen’s fabrication. One made up by his Downing Street source.

But Owen is not the only prominent political journalist to publish whoppers told to him by a Downing Street or ‘government source’.......

This modus operandi, which allow pro-government narratives to enter the public domain unmediated by proper interrogation, has become routine among political reporters since Johnson and his Vote Leave media team entered Downing Street. .....

 

Boris Johnson’s Downing Street media machine had thus achieved a double success. It had distracted attention away from the real story, namely that No Deal Brexit carried real dangers of economic disruption and civil disorder.

And at the same time, it had smeared political opponents...

 

....the smearing of Philip Hammond is another example of how Boris Johnson’s media operation operates through deceit. How it relies on a compliant media to cooperate with that deceit – even when it knows the allegations are false.

There is an implicit deal. In return for access and information (much of it false) the political media spins a pro-government narrative.

This means that Johnson’s Downing Street can malign political opponents, lie about them and get away with it. But it can do this only because political journalists and editors allow it to....

BBC manipulated by Downing Street

It’s not just the print media which allow themselves to be manipulated by Boris Johnson’s Downing Street.....

 

That may be how Number 10 wants to operate: to allow the prime minister to look statesmanlike while the dodgier tactics emerge from an unnamed source.

“But this way of operating does the public a big disservice – it allows Downing Street to get its message out without having to take responsibility for it.

“These are not official words. The prime minister does not have to account for them. And there is no way to interrogate the source.”.....

The price of privileged access and favourable treatment is turning readers and viewers into dupes .......

 

there is now clear evidence that the prime minister has debauched Downing Street by using the power of his office to spread propaganda and fake news.

British political journalists have got chillingly close to providing the same service to Boris Johnson that Fox News delivers for Donald Trump.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/british-journalists-have-become-part-of-johnsons-fake-news-machine/

 

[mr6666]

2 minutes ago, mr6666 said:

British journalists have become part of Johnson’s fake news machine

It’s chilling. From the Mail, The Times to the BBC and ITN, everyone is peddling Downing Street’s lies and smears. They’re turning their readers into dupes.

 

"Number 10 probes Remain MPs’ ‘foreign collusion’.” This huge banner headline dominated the front page of The Mail on Sunday on 29 September.

Turn to page 2 and “a senior No 10 source” was quoted in bold type: “The government is working on extensive investigations into Dominic Grieve, Oliver Letwin and Hilary Benn [who tabled the Bill] and their involvement with foreign powers and the funding of their activities......

 

the Downing Street press office, and asked an official whether there was an investigation as stated in The Mail on Sunday.

He told me categorically: “No investigation.”

Yesterday a Cabinet Office spokesperson told openDemocracy: "There was never such an investigation."

In other words, the Mail on Sunday splash that Downing Street was investigating Grieve, Letwin and Benn was fabrication.

Fake News.

.......Of course this bogus story fitted like a glove with the dominant Downing Street narrative that the Benn Act – which ruled out a No Deal Brexit – was actually a ‘surrender act’ designed to thwart Brexit altogether.

There’s been a lot of this sort of thing over the past two months. Dodgy stories and commentary linked to Downing Street or government sources started to appear in the press and media after Johnson installed his own media team, which was largely drawn from the Vote Leave campaign that won the 2016 Brexit referendum.....

...story was a fabrication. Not Glen Owen’s fabrication. One made up by his Downing Street source.

But Owen is not the only prominent political journalist to publish whoppers told to him by a Downing Street or ‘government source’.......

This modus operandi, which allow pro-government narratives to enter the public domain unmediated by proper interrogation, has become routine among political reporters since Johnson and his Vote Leave media team entered Downing Street. .....

 

Boris Johnson’s Downing Street media machine had thus achieved a double success. It had distracted attention away from the real story, namely that No Deal Brexit carried real dangers of economic disruption and civil disorder.

And at the same time, it had smeared political opponents...

 

....the smearing of Philip Hammond is another example of how Boris Johnson’s media operation operates through deceit. How it relies on a compliant media to cooperate with that deceit – even when it knows the allegations are false.

There is an implicit deal. In return for access and information (much of it false) the political media spins a pro-government narrative.

This means that Johnson’s Downing Street can malign political opponents, lie about them and get away with it. But it can do this only because political journalists and editors allow it to....

BBC manipulated by Downing Street

It’s not just the print media which allow themselves to be manipulated by Boris Johnson’s Downing Street.....

 

That may be how Number 10 wants to operate: to allow the prime minister to look statesmanlike while the dodgier tactics emerge from an unnamed source.

“But this way of operating does the public a big disservice – it allows Downing Street to get its message out without having to take responsibility for it.

“These are not official words. The prime minister does not have to account for them. And there is no way to interrogate the source.”.....

The price of privileged access and favourable treatment is turning readers and viewers into dupes .......

 

there is now clear evidence that the prime minister has debauched Downing Street by using the power of his office to spread propaganda and fake news.

British political journalists have got chillingly close to providing the same service to Boris Johnson that Fox News delivers for Donald Trump.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/british-journalists-have-become-part-of-johnsons-fake-news-machine/

 

Carole Cadwalladr

 

@carolecadwalla

·

13h

 

And here’s the great @NickCohen4
making similar point.

It’s not just Cummings. It’s just a terrible system.

 

https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/10/meet-dominic-slack-oxley-the-biggest-source-of-fake-news-in-britain/

[mr6666]

@carolecadwalla

 

NEW:

@guardian

reveals Boris Johnson has now BLOCKED release of report into Russian interference ahead of election.

Chair of committee below explains he has done so on basis of a lie.

Just what exactly does he have to hide?

https://theguardian.com/politics/2019/

=============================================

 

David Rothkopf

 

@djrothkopf

·

3h

 

Same thing happening in UK and US--our leaders, propped up by the Russians, are protecting Russia at the expense of their own populations.

 

Why? Because they owe their jobs to the Kremlin.

[mr6666]

Carole Cadwalladr

@carolecadwalla

·

12h

NEW: Lord Puttnam giving evidence in Ireland says Lords learned y’day that decision to block Russia report ‘rests entirely’ on Boris Johnson.

Puttnam: report blocked because contains info that would call into question legitimacy of referendum.

‘Which Johnson won’t do’

[mr6666]

Twitter Reacts to Photos Revealing Boris Johnson Rally To Be Much Smaller Than Portrayed

 

https://www.newsweek.com/uk-prime-minister-boris-johnson-rally-photos-reveal-smaller-crowd-1470483?utm_campaign=NewsweekTwitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter

[mr6666]

 

PBS NewsHour

 

@NewsHour

·

37m

 

An exit poll in Britain’s election projects Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party will likely win a majority of seats in Parliament,

an outcome that would allow Johnson to fulfill his plan to take the U.K. out of the EU next month.

 

[mr6666]

Five Scenarios for the UK Elections

Scoping out what the results would mean for Britain—and Brexit.

 

https://prospect.org/world/five-scenarios-for-the-uk-elections-brexit/

[Vautrin]

U.S. and U.K., two countries separated by common dirtbags.

[Hibi]

9 hours ago, Vautrin said:

U.S. and U.K., two countries separated by common dirtbags.

ROFL!

[Vautrin]

#Scotexit.

[jamesjazzguitar]

19 hours ago, Vautrin said:

U.S. and U.K., two countries separated by common dirtbags.

Dirtbags that win elections.    

[Vautrin]

5 hours ago, jamesjazzguitar said:

Dirtbags that win elections.    

Very true. They are fortunate to live in countries that are chock full of their fellow dirtbags.

[Sepiatone]

On 12/13/2019 at 12:22 AM, Vautrin said:

U.S. and U.K., two countries separated by common dirtbags.

Heh....

A recent political cartoon in the Detroit Free Press had a woman with a microphone,  obviously a reporter, asking, "Mr. president, with all this impeachment business going on, will you  have any problem effectively running the United States government?"

And the next panel  showed she was actually talking to PUTIN, who answered "Nyet!"     He was riding bareback on a huge wild boar that looked curiously like Trump.   

Sepiatone

[jamesjazzguitar]

17 hours ago, Vautrin said:

Very true. They are fortunate to live in countries that are chock full of their fellow dirtbags.

Very true.   But like you,  those dirtbags VOTE!

 

[Vautrin]

13 hours ago, Sepiatone said:

Heh....

A recent political cartoon in the Detroit Free Press had a woman with a microphone,  obviously a reporter, asking, "Mr. president, with all this impeachment business going on, will you  have any problem effectively running the United States government?"

And the next panel  showed she was actually talking to PUTIN, who answered "Nyet!"     He was riding bareback on a huge wild boar that looked curiously like Trump.   

Sepiatone

That's a mental picture you don't want inside your head. I wish Putin would realize his age is catching up with

him and put on a shirt.

[Vautrin]

6 hours ago, jamesjazzguitar said:

Very true.   But like you,  those dirtbags VOTE!

 

I think you meant unlike me. To paraphrase the old joke, tomorrow I'll be sober but they'll still be dirtbags.