It’s a development prompting countless articles about the death of press freedom and allied issues. And, of course, the pattern reaches much closer to home as the assorted essays in a new book called Brexit, Trump and the Media (published by Abramis on 6 July) amply demonstrate. Everything connects.
Trump is a phenomenon who still, almost nine months on, retains the basic allegiance of those who made him commander-in-chief. But don’t inane tweets, Russian scandals and foul bluster drag him down? On the east coast and west coast, maybe. But still base-camp middle America stays loyal. Millions there don’t join the hubbub of distress because, simply, they don’t much read or watch the nation’s media; and, when they do, they don’t trust it. They exist in their bubble of belief.
You can find exactly the same fractured dialogue in Britain, too. What did the surprise of the Brexit vote show? Here’s another tidal wave of articles talking about the non-metropolitan forgotten masses. That, briefly, seemed a national call for understanding and change, one inchoately confirmed in the June election. But see how deafness and disdain soon set in.
Let’s blame something – Boris, Rupert Murdoch, Paul Dacre, the BBC – for Brexit. Let’s contemplate the rise of Jeremy Corbyn and press a panic button. The Mail talks about “fake news, the fascist left and the REAL purveyors of hate”. Guardian columnists denounce the “open sewer” of Dacre coverage. Terms like “Tory scum” float from protesters’ posters into the new mass media. Jon Snow, amongst others, gets pasted for his supposed views about modern Conservatism. Irate Leave MPs stomp on the BBC welcome mat.
There is a feeling that Trumpworld, with its normalised contempt, is infecting areas far beyond National Enquirer land.
And every new day seems to bring fresh ingredients. Kensington council seeks to shut journalists out of its crucial meeting. Andrea Leadsom extols a “patriotic” press. There’s a raw edge to the debate now, sharpened after Grenfell Tower by outbreaks of pure and, sometimes, simulated rage. But: “Sit up, though, and look around. You may notice that, amid almost no public outrage whatsoever, we are quite a lot closer than once we were” to losing press freedom, says Hugo Rifkind in the Times.
This is politics, and journalism, from the trenches as trust in the media plummets both here and in the US: American trust in the media down to just 38% in the latest Reuters Institute findings, the UK seven points down to 43%. Blame “deep-rooted political polarisation and perceived mainstream media bias”, says Reuters. In short, blame the frenzied state we’re in
