{"id":186305,"date":"2019-04-06T07:16:05","date_gmt":"2019-04-06T07:16:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=186305"},"modified":"2019-04-08T06:46:05","modified_gmt":"2019-04-08T06:46:05","slug":"media-smoothed-way-to-corbyn-target-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=186305","title":{"rendered":"Media Smoothed Way to Corbyn Target Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jonathan Cook \u2013 Dissident Voice April 4, 2019<\/h1>\n
\"Related

Above: from BBC Newsnight<\/p><\/div>\n

It is time to stop believing these infantile narratives the political and media establishment have crafted for us. Like the one in which they tell us they care deeply about the state of British political life, that they lie awake at night worrying about the threat posed by populism to our democratic institutions.<\/span><\/p>\n

How do they persuade us of the depth of their concern? They express their horror at the murder of an MP, Jo Cox, and their outrage at the abuse of another, Anna Soubry.<\/span><\/p>\n

But they don\u2019t really care whether politicians are assaulted, vilified or threatened \u2013 at least, not if it is the kind of politician who threatens their power. These political and media elites don\u2019t seriously care about attacks on democracy, or about political violence, or about the rottenness at the core of state institutions. Their outrage is selective. It is rooted not in principle, but in self-interest.<\/span><\/p>\n

Is that too cynical? Ponder this.<\/span><\/p>\n

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn hasn\u2019t faced just shouted insults from afar, like Soubry. He was recently physically assaulted, hit on the head by a man holding an egg in his fist. But unlike Soubry, our media expressed no real concern. In fact, they could barely conceal their sniggers at his \u201cegging<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u201d, an attack they presented as little more than a prank. They even hinted that Corbyn deserved it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shown as Kremlin stooge<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The media have been only happy too to vilify<\/strong><\/span><\/a> Corbyn as a Kremlin stooge and a former Soviet spy. Senior Tory Iain Duncan Smith today called<\/a><\/strong><\/span> Corbyn \u201ca Marxist whose sole purpose in life is to do real damage to the country\u201d \u2013 a remark that, as ever, went entirely unchallenged by the BBC giving him a platform. Just imagine a Labour MP being allowed to accuse Theresa May of being a fascist whose only goal is to destroy the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the BBC has never bothered to conceal its intense dislike of Corbyn. Its news shows have even photoshopped the Labour leader to make him look \u201cRussian\u201d \u2013 or \u201cmore Russian\u201d, as the BBC and the rest of the media mischievously phrased it. Those who protested were told they were reading too much into it. They needed to lighten up and not take themselves so seriously.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Conservative party, including the former defence secretary Michael Fallon, has regularly portrayed<\/strong><\/span><\/a> Corbyn as a threat to national security, especially over concerns about the Trident nuclear missile system. Many senior members of Corbyn\u2019s own party have echoed such smears \u2013 all amplified, of course, by the media.<\/span><\/p>\n

Those who suggested that the government and media needed to engage with Corbyn\u2019s well-grounded doubts about the safety of nuclear weapons, or the economics and practicalities of the Trident programme, were derided \u2013 like Corbyn \u2013 as \u201cpacifists\u201d and \u201ctraitors\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then Corbyn became the target of another sustained demonisation campaign. It was claimed that this lifelong, very public anti-racism activist \u2013 who over decades had forged strong ties to sections of the British Jewish community, despite being a steadfast critic of Israel \u2013 was, at worst, a secret anti-semite and, at best, providing succour to anti-semites as they overran the Labour party.<\/span><\/p>\n

Was there any factual basis or evidence for these claims? No. But the British public was assured by right wing Jews like the Board of Deputies and by \u201cleftwing\u201d Jewish supporters of Israel like Jonathan Freedland that evidence wasn\u2019t necessary, that they had a sixth sense for these things.<\/span><\/p>\n

Corbyn\u2019s supporters were told that they should not question the wildly inflammatory and evidence-free denunciations of Corbyn and the wider Labour membership for a supposed \u201cinstitutional anti-semitism\u201d \u2013 and, with a satisfyingly circular logic, that to do so was itself proof of anti-semitism.<\/span><\/p>\n

Too toxic to lead Labour<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The weaponisation of anti-semitism through political spin by Corbyn\u2019s political enemies, including the Blairite faction of the parliamentary Labour party, was and is a dangerous assault on public life, one that has very obviously degraded Britain\u2019s political culture.<\/span><\/p>\n

The smear was meant to override the membership\u2019s wishes and make Corbyn too toxic to lead Labour.<\/span><\/p>\n

It has also politicised the anti-semitism allegation, weakening it for a section of the population, and irresponsibly inflaming fears among other sections. It has deflected attention from the very real threat of a rising tide of right wing racism, both Islamophobia and the kind of anti-semitism that relates to Jews, not Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then, there was the serving British general who was given a platform by the Sunday Times<\/em> \u2013 anonymously, of course \u2013 to accuse<\/strong><\/span><\/a> Corbyn of being a threat to British national security. The general warned that the army\u2019s senior command would never allow Corbyn near Number 10. They would launch a coup first.<\/span><\/p>\n

But no one in the corporate media or the political establishment thought the interview worthy of much attention, or demanded an investigation to find out which general had threatened to overturn the democratic will of the people. The story was quickly dropped down the memory hole. Those who sought to draw attention to it were told to move on, that there was nothing to see.<\/span><\/p>\n

And now, this week, footage<\/a><\/strong><\/span> has emerged showing British soldiers \u2013 apparently taking their commanders\u2019 expressed wishes more seriously than the media \u2013 using a poster of Corbyn as target practice out in Afghanistan.<\/span><\/p>\n

Questioning \u2018security credentials\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Do the media and politicians really care about any of this? Are they concerned, let alone as outraged as they were at Soubry\u2019s earlier discomfort at the verbal abuse she faced? Do they understand the seriousness of this threat to British political life, to the safety of the leader of the opposition?<\/span><\/p>\n

The signs are still far from reassuring. Theresa May did not think it worth using prime minister\u2019s questions to condemn the video, to send an unequivocal message that Britain\u2019s political choices would never be decided by violence. No one else in the chamber apparently thought to raise the matter either.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sky News even used the footage to question<\/strong><\/span><\/a> yet again Corbyn\u2019s \u201csecurity credentials\u201d, as though the soldiers might thereby have grounds for treating him as a legitimate target.<\/span><\/p>\n

The clues as to where all this is leading are not hard to fathom. The white nationalist who drove into a crowd at Finsbury Park mosque in London, killing a worshipper, admitted<\/strong><\/span><\/a> at his trial that the real target had been Corbyn. An unexpected roadblock foiled his plans.<\/span><\/p>\n

The fact is that no one in the political or media class cares much whether their constant trivialising of Corbyn\u2019s political programme degrades British political life, or whether their smears could lead to political violence, or whether four years of their incitement might encourage someone to use more than an egg and a fist against Corbyn.<\/span><\/p>\n

So let\u2019s stop indulging the media and politicians as they cite Jo Cox\u2019s murder and Anna Soubry\u2019s intimidation as evidence of their democratic sensibilities and their commitment to political principle.<\/span><\/p>\n

The truth is they are charlatans. They will use anything \u2013 from the murder of an MP to confections of anti-semitism and smears about treason \u2013 to incite against a democratic politician who threatens their domination of the political system.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is their refusal to engage with a political argument they know they will lose, and to allow a democratic process to take place that they fear will produce the wrong result, that is setting the scene for greater polarisation and frustration, and ultimately for violence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jonathan Cook<\/a>, based in Nazareth, Israel is a winner of the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His latest books are Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/em> (Pluto Press) and Disappearing Palestine: Israel’s Experiments in Human Despair<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/em> (Zed Books). Read other articles by Jonathan<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, or visit Jonathan’s website<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This website DOES NOT support Corbyn. However, as Jonathan Cook explains, the media has launched a subtle campaign to portray him as an agent of the Kremlin <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-186305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Commentary"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=186305"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186313,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186305\/revisions\/186313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=186305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=186305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=186305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}