Nicholas Jones, 13 February 2008 

In a devastating critique of the ills of British journalism, Nick Davies exposes the alarming degree to which reporters are being exploited by the public relations industry, spin doctors, assorted publicists and the like but rather disappointingly he skates over the full impact of the failings which he identifies so clearly in Flat Earth News.

Declining editorial standards have made it all the easier for successive governments to collude with proprietors in manipulating the news media, never more so than during the build-up to the war against Iraq and the blatant misreporting of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction.

While Davies deserves to be congratulated for his diligence and courage in identifying the many falsehoods and distortions of the intelligence services -- and also the gullibility of the media in accepting them -- he makes only one passing reference to Rupert Murdoch’s role as cheerleader for George Bush and Tony Blair, preferring instead to focus an entire chapter on unseemly and incestuous infighting between Guardian journalists like himself and those on their pro-war sister paper, the Observer.

8 February 2008 

Representatives of the main trade bodies for the lobbying industry failed to inspire trust in self-regulation yesterday as they gave evidence to MPs as part of the current inquiry into lobbying.

In their opening statements to the Public Administration Select Committee, Gill Morris chair of the APPC, Rod Cartwright, head of the PRCA’s Public Affairs Committee and Lionel Zetter, immediate past president of the CIPR outlined the various systems of self-regulation operated by each group.

Questioning began in earnest with the return of Labour MP Paul Flynn. Having cited a number of cases of illegitimate or misleading behaviour by lobbyists – including paying Lords to “pimp for certain causes” and buying access to Ministers - he put a key question to the witnesses: How do we control the behviour of lobbyists that refuse to become members of your organisations and therefore opt out of self-regulation? Both Morris and Cartwright agreed that it was “unfortunate” that there are still major players that have chosen to stay outside the system.

Twice over the last month we have received emails from people who say they just happened to be surfing the web searching their name and found something that we had written that they disagree with.

 Now I don’t know if this is a new phenomenon where there are millions of people at work and home happily “googling” their name to see what happens. If this is true I hope your name is not something like “John Smith”, otherwise you are going to get repetitive strain injury. 

Anyway one of the emails was from Richard D North who, in an “idle egocentric moment,” had been trawling on line and found a letter I had written to the Evening Standard concerning one of his articles. 

Now for those of you who do not know Richard, he has become something of a bete noir of the British environmental movement, a bit like the Canadian corporate lackey, Patrick Moore. Patrick Moore still labels himself a founder of Greenpeace, as he sells his services to various polluting industries, over twenty years after he left the organisation.

North may not be able to claim such kudos on his CV, but does rake up being an ex-environmental correspondent for the Independent to beef up his credentials. But that was a long time ago too and he is now a fellow at two right-wing think tanks the Social Affairs Unit, and Institute of Economic Affairs.

David Morrison, 6 February 2008

On 26 November 2007, President Bush and Prime Minister Maliki put their names to a "Declaration of Principles for a Long-Term Relationship of Cooperation and Friendship Between the Republic of Iraq and the United States of America" [1]. The declaration states:

"… the Governments of Iraq and the United States are committed to developing a long-term relationship of cooperation and friendship as two fully sovereign and independent states with common interests.

"… bilateral negotiations between the Republic of Iraq and the United States shall begin as soon as possible, with the aim to achieve, before July 31, 2008, agreements between the two governments with respect to the political, cultural, economic, and security spheres."

So, by 31 July 2008, the Bush administration expects to have imposed a bilateral "agreement" on Iraq allowing US troops to be based there indefinitely. South Korea is frequently mentioned as the example to be followed, and the US has had troops there for over 50 years. And it is by no means certain that a Democratic administration (if one is returned in a year’s time, which is by no means certain) will have a markedly different intention.

Nicholas Jones, 1 February 2008 

After a cynical betrayal of the idealism which every journalist should strive for, Alastair Campbell finally tripped himself up in the mire of his own double-speak.

His utter contempt for the journalists of tomorrow and the challenges they face was underlined by his choice of title for the annual Hugh Cudlipp lecture, "The media: a case of growth in scale, alas, not in stature". (28.1.2008).

At the heart of Campbell’s reheated diatribe was his assertion that he and Tony Blair went the extra mile to improve the reporting of politics but it was rebuffed by the "relentless negativity" of political journalists who "culturally and collectively present an utterly one side view of political debate".

Andy Rowell, 28 January 2008 

Early last year, a 22 year old American soldier, Guardsman Michael Gwinn, fatally shot his wife, Patricia and then himself. The murder-suicide was witnessed by the couple's children, aged two and six months, who were left with their dead parents for hours before being found.  

Gwinn had come back from the Iraq war traumatized, telling his father how he could still see headless bodies and feel the shock-waves of bombs. “I think that the military experience had a lot to do with it,” his father said. “Mike was not like that.”

Gwinn’s story is just another tragic case of a growing mental health epidemic in America, caused by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  It is a tragic story and one that the US authorities, still in a state of denial, are struggling to admit, let alone cope with.

25 January 2008 

The second session of the Public Administration Select Committee Inquiry into Lobbying saw three members of the new Alliance for Lobbying Transparency underline the urgent need to reform the rules governing lobbyists.

Giving evidence were Prof. David Miller and Dr William Dinan of Spinwatch and the University of Strathclyde, and Peter Facey, director of Unlock Democracy.

“This inquiry is part of a wider discussion about the disconnection from politics and the political process,” said Peter Facey opening the session. “What’s particularly worrying,” he said, “is the public perception that in politics powerful interest groups have a great deal more influence than ordinary voters.”

24 January, 2008 

A major new campaign aiming to open up the opaque world of lobbying launches today.

The latest abuse by lobbyists concerns an obesity charity financed by the weight loss industry, which misled MPs over its funding - uncovered just days before the Government is due to launch its obesity strategy.

ALT, the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency , a coalition of civil society groups, is calling on the Government to introduce rules that require the disclosure of lobbying activities, allowing greater public scrutiny and improving the accountability of Parliament.

Members of ALT have been called to give evidence today to the Public Administration Select Committee Inquiry into lobbying. David Miller and William Dinan from Spinwatch will argue that industry self-regulation is incapable of providing adequate transparency in lobbying and is unlikely to command widespread public confidence.

They will draw the Committee’s attention to recent examples of lobbying malpractice, including the charity TOAST (The Obesity Awareness & Solutions Trust) , a lobbying group funded by the weight loss industry, which misled MP’s over its sources of funding.