ZB ZB
Live now
Start time
Playing for
End time
Listen live
Listen to NAME OF STATION
Up next
Listen live on
ZB

Mike's Minute: Banning Trump a symptom of something worse

Author
Mike Hosking,
Publish Date
Tue, 19 Jan 2021, 10:08AM

Mike's Minute: Banning Trump a symptom of something worse

Author
Mike Hosking,
Publish Date
Tue, 19 Jan 2021, 10:08AM

James Murdoch, son of Rupert, has decided he is on a slightly more woke pathway than his Dad, and has spat the dummy to the Financial Times about the media and its role in the Trump years.

The trouble with such pronouncements these days is nuance and subtlety have been lost.

On one hand he's right, the media has a lot to answer for. Not just around Trump but around honesty, integrity, balance ,experience, and professionalism. On the other hand, he's late to the party with the “come to Damascus” moment. It's not like he's an intern, and hasn’t been donkey deep for years.

Of course, given it’s a Murdoch, it's leapt on because Murdoch is Fox. And Fox, if you're woke, is the devil. Choosing to forget that places like CNN benefited from Trump as much as Fox over did.

Last year, CNN's audience in election year was up significantly, more than Fox. Fox remains number one by a reasonable margin, but the idea Trump is Fox and Fox is the only beneficiary is not only wrong, it's not even mentioned because mentioning it undermines the luvvies agenda.

Thus, reminding us of the original Murdoch complaint around the media, too much of it is fundamentally dishonest.

The other problem is it's all focused around Trump. He is the problem, the cause, and the result of everything apparently. Almost as though life didn’t start till 2016.

An article the other day asked whether Fox can survive when Trump goes. "Where now for Fox?", screamed the headline.  

Fox was here before Trump, as was CNN, jet aircraft, and electricity. The Trump years', lest we forget have actually only been four of them, not 50. Fox will be fine.

But the madness we currently see, whether it’s the banning of voices, groups, or activity online, the cancelling of certain people if they don’t meet greet and spout your world view, is exceedingly dangerous, for much broader reasons than Trump.

It's just Trump is being used as the excuse. Those who worked for Trump will never get work again. Any company associated with Trump loses business. Trump's businesses lose business.

The message is you say and do what we say and like, or you say nothing at all.

Does that not ring exceedingly large alarm bells?

And in part, the window into this world is the media. We see the world through the media. We hear the voices, the calls, and the ideas.

But if Trump is to blame for everything and Fox therefore is to blame too, and Facebook and Twitter ban the ones they don’t like, and certain sections of the media acquiesce if not embrace all this, where do we hear the voices as opposed to the voice?

And where in history have we seen all this before? And given that why aren't we deeply worried?  

Take your Radio, Podcasts and Music with you