When Rupert Murdoch aligned The Sun towards the Conservatives for the upcoming general election, it was claimed that the result was already decided: the Tories have won, end of. In a true democracy, it surely isn’t right that corporations can be the ones that ultimately decide who will win elections. But what about free will I hear you cry; just how much can media corporations like Sky, the BBC and News Corp actually do to influence the result? The answer is quite a bit. And it’s time for students and young people to relinquish the controlling influence of the media.

So, you may ask why I’m so blooming angry. Well it’s simple really; the only party that has received major media coverage, other than the big three, has been the BNP. That should be enough to explain it all. The BNP stands for nothing but racism, bigotry and the sort of protectionist measures that would completely ruin Britain as a country, because our economy relies so much on the outside world. Freedom of speech comes with responsibility; in broadcasting these views to the nation, the BNP has likely gained support, rather than lose it. The media is broadcasting views in order to gain viewers first and foremost. Is it any wonder that the parties that at least stand for sensible ideas aren’t allowed a similar amount of airtime?

Look at UKIP for example. They won a large number of seats in the EU elections and yet our abiding memory of them is Robert Kilroy-Silk, because the media don’t report what they actually stand for: removing Britain from the European Union, but maintaining the free trade agreement that Switzerland and Norway enjoy (They also have policies on pensions, the environment and education, but the media won’t tell you that). That’s simple enough; it’s a decent idea, and one that should be actively debated by the general public. But the media institutions instead had the debate about racism and ‘Broken Britain’ because everyone was suddenly voting for the BNP. And thus they created a vicious circle: by only reporting the BNP as an alternative to the big three, they ensured that a large amount of people, dissatisfied with mainstream politics, defected to the BNP.

What about the Greens? In an age that is likely to be dominated by massive environmental change, shouldn’t we elect, or at least hear about, a party that wants to try and combat this (They also stand for social justice, but the media won’t tell you that). And what of the SNP and Plaid Cymru? They both stand for independence from England,which will surely affect us all in some way. So why is there no proper debate on this?

There are a plethora of potential explanations. The first, and the one most likely to be used by the media, is “we haven’t got the time to talk about every single party”. What they mean by that is “my life as an animal” and “generic celebrity tv show” are what this country really needs; politics and making the country a better place are just too ‘dull’ for us all. The second is likely to be “well, if we show one party we’d have to show all the small parties”. But why? They already shun a vast number of parties: allowing a few more to step up to the microphone isn’t going to redress the balance is it? The third, and final answer, is very likely to be “we do it on votes and representation”. So why was the BNP all over the papers before it had even won a European seat, yet the Greens and UKIP are established, to an extent, in the political system?

It’s time to relinquish the media. They are informing the politics of the lazy – those who can’t be bothered to think about their political stance – which is helping to vote down the voices of reason. If the Conservatives or Labour or the Liberal Democrats actually had a decent idea between them I wouldn’t mind being told about it. Instead, we get tittling and tattling and moaning and whining and, above all else, empty statements. It’s time to take the power back from the media and spread the word about real politics, where a different message – one of real change – is broadcast, instead of the nauseating re-hashing of the same old politics that the media provides us.

Tags: BNP, david cameron, election, general election, murdoch, the Sun

This entry was posted on Monday, January 25th, 2010 at 11:56 pm and is filed under In The News, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.