Nicholas Jones 17 April 2008

It was modestly put but heartfelt nonetheless: bloggers believe that crap journalists are finally feeling the heat.

When a trio of celebrated bloggers were brought together by the Adam Smith Institute (16.4.2008) they were united in their belief that the collective strength of the new media was helping to start to improve the quality and accuracy of the main stream providers of news and information.

Eveline Lubbers, 14 April 2008

The Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) is a well respected Quaker and Christian-based pacifist group, which believes in non-violent protest. In the mid 1990s the group was stepping up a campaign against the £500m sale of BAe jets to Indonesia. The campaigners protested that the aircraft would be used to crush resistance in East Timor, which was seeking independence. The Sunday Times revealed in September 2003 that British Aerospace used a private intelligence company to spy on CAAT, since that time. Evelyn Le Chêne, a woman with considerable intelligence connections, sent daily reports on activists’ whereabouts to Britain’s largest arms dealer. The intelligence company was called Threat Response International.

This article is based on a detailed analysis of these secret reports. The files show how the Campaign Against the Arms Trade was subverted by infiltrators passing on information and manipulating the activists.

14 April 2008

As the public-relations industry increasingly tries to dominate the media, it is not only contaminating journalism but is itself reverting to its lowly propaganda origins, say David Miller and William Dinan

A Century of Spin

One of those present at the first meeting had spelled this out back in 1911, when he had sponsored the creation of "business leagues" to defend big business. "If our league succeeds," he wrote, "politics would be done for. That is my object."

Tom Griffin, 9 April 2008

Is the Cold War the best guide to how Britain should deal with Islam? That is what Charles Moore suggested in a speech to the Centre for Policy Studies last month:

Think of the long debate about how best to deal with trade union militancy and with its relationship to Communist infiltration during the Cold War. It was not, in fact, the Conservatives who first tried to tackle this. It began as a conflict within the Labour movement in which a few brave souls, like Frank Chapple of the Electricians, would not bow to the extremist tactics.

As Moore admits, 'the analogies between British trade unions and an ancient world religion are inexact, to put it mildly.' Nevertheless, the anti-communist paradigm is becoming increasingly influential as a template for dealing with Islamist extremism.

Nicholas Jones, 14 April 2008 

Celebrity reporting has had a corrosive influence on British journalistic standards. Whether the stories are sycophantic or invented the effect has been the same: a showbiz style of story-telling has been replicated in sports reporting, politics and business. In a lecture at the University of East London (3.4.2008) Nicholas Jones pulled back the veil to expose the hidden influences that have besmirched celebrity reporting and damaged the reputation of British journalism.

Sam Gardiner, 8 April 2008

He, Cheney, wanted to explore the "reaction that society has toward people who want to create freedom and a better life…but have to do it in such a way that shocks people sometimes.”

Victor David Hanson describing a meeting with Vice President Cheney

We’ve heard talk of a military strike for the last two years.  Nothing happened.  Why now?

The answer has been in the press.  The first firebreak to the strike option came in the spring of 2006.  The White House made a great deal of what was to be the “summer of diplomacy.”  Secretary Rice announced that if Iran suspended enrichment the United States would open dialogue.  The summer ended with no diplomacy.

The second delay in the strike option was to give covert operations a chance to work.  From press reports, this seems to have involved covert operations inside Iran as well as the funding of groups to take on Hezbollah.

Finally, some argued sanctions had to be given a chance.  It took longer than expected to get approval by the UN Security Council, but now the Administration has the third sanctions package from the UN.

Nicholas Jones 7 April 2008 

Turkey's negotiations over possible membership of the European Union have triggered yet more scare stories in the British newspapers. In a speech at an EU seminar at Gaziantep in south-east Anatolia (1.4.2008), Nicholas Jones said the role played by the British press had important lessons for Turkish journalists at a time when much of their reporting was having to focus on divisive issues such as the debate over the wearing of head scarves and the lack of freedom of expression. Jones said he supported the demands by journalists in south-east Turkey for a greater awareness by the European Union of the news media's needs and more action to improve the flow of information about the potential implications of Turkey's possible accession. He gave his assessment of the hidden agendas of British media companies and the role of scare stories.

Nicholas Jones 4 April 2008 

If ever there was an example of how important it can be for politicians to understand how to exploit the news media it has to be Enoch Powell's calculated timing of his "Rivers of Blood" speech. Although Powell's apologists insist to this day that it was never his intention to deliver such a highly-inflammatory speech, the build-up had been prepared with great precision on the advice a close friend, Clem Jones, who had in effect become the MP's personal spin doctor. Jones, editor of the Wolverhampton Express and Star, had been advising Powell on how to maximise his coverage in the press and he followed to the letter the advice he was given on supplying the text in advance to a carefully-selected group of political editors, leader writers and columnists and the speech was under a strict Saturday afternoon embargo, in order to secure maximum exposure in the Sunday newspapers. Former BBC correspondent Nicholas Jones reveals a family drama which throws new light on what many political observers consider is the most controversial speech of the post-war years.

David Miller, 2 April 2008

The SNP government has played a bit of a blinder in its first ten months, consistently wrong footing Labour and the rest of the unionist opposition.  It is still too early to come to a definitive judgement on the SNP record in relation to business, although some early lines of development are pretty clear.  These can be divided into two main areas.  First is the area of economic policy and the general orientation towards business interests.  For the most part this is business as usual, little different from the policies pursued by the neo-liberal labour/Lib Dem administration.  Second is the area of social policy where the SNP has almost appeared to be a social democratic government.  Among the announcements was Nicola Sturgeon’s commitment that ‘We reject the very idea that markets in health care are the route to improvement’.¹  Other statements include ‘positive commitments’ as the STUC’s Grahame Smith put it, on prescription charges, prison estate, more free school meals and nursery places.²  Democrats will applaud the sentiments and make sure they examine the details.   

 31st March 2008

Industry lobbyists are dominating parts of the European law-making process, according to a new report launched this month by Alter-EU that analysed the membership of a number of Commission Expert Groups.

The report "Secrecy and corporate dominance - a study on the composition and transparency of European Commission Expert Groups" reveals that industry representatives have a disproportionate influence on a number of the Commission's most controversial Expert Groups, including advisory groups on issues such as biotechnology, clean coal and car emissions.

Expert Groups are established by the Commission to provide advice on the development of new laws and policies, giving group members considerable power over EU legislation, the report says.

The report author Yiorgos Vassalos of Corporate Europe Observatory said: "Expert Groups are responsible for shaping policies on some of the most controversial issues being dealt with by the European Commission. Information about who has access in this crucial initial stage of decision making is not made public, but our research shows that industry representatives are playing an important role. These groups should act in the public interest, but it appears that some are being allowed to further their own commercial interests."