Adam James Pollock has a very interesting Critic piece on the latest UK government attempt to establish a Ministry of Truth, recently announced by Andy Burnham (real name Andrew Murray Burnham).
A Ministry of Truth is coming
BBC Verify shows why Burnham’s Ministry of Truth won’t work
This week, the Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, told the United Nations that his Government would create a new National Centre for Information Defence to counter the threat of disinformation online. Burnham argued that this new body would allow “stem the poisonous tide” of disinformation that arose largely from Russia, claiming that the United Kingdom’s government could act as an “honest broker” of such arrangements, protecting the truth.
This new Ministry of Truth — as it may as well be named — would do no such thing, which has already been proven by numerous prior failed attempts at regulating information. To achieve similar ends, the Government already runs the National Security Online Information Team; the Government Communication Service; the Cabinet Office’s Media Monitoring Unit; the Home Office’s Research, Information and Communications Unit; the Foreign Office’s Hybrid Threats Directorate; and the Joint Election Security and Preparedness Unit. Not to mention whatever goes on within the intelligence services, the British Army’s intelligence units, and the National Cyber Force.
The whole piece is well worth reading as Pollock offers repeated failures as an interesting angle on the issue, particularly the ludicrous BBC Verify.
The limitations of such a vehicle’s aims can be summarised most coherently by none other than the most famous of all failed attempts at countering “misinformation”: BBC Verify.
Launched in 2023 with a team of sixty taxpayer-funded zealots, BBC Verify sought to bring “radical transparency” to, er, the news, by “pulling back the curtain” on its own staff’s journalism. What it revealed, more than dedicated and documentable disinformation campaigns, was a failure of both the BBC and BBC Verify to accurately report the truth.
6 comments:
Every social problem can be improved by throwing more and more bureaucrats at it. The problem isn't resolved but the extra bodies (committees and working parties) distance the senior people in the Government from any whiff of blame when it all goes pear-shaped.
DJ - yes it's the government blame spreader in action. Censorship, but nobody is required to identify as a censor.
Perhaps if Government itself told the truth,it would not be necessary for bloggers to have to put the record straight.
Jacinda Ardern in New Zealand tried the" we are the truth" nonsense during Covid and it did not go down well when the real facts emerged.
John - and if governments were truthful voters might trust them. Even from thousands of miles away Jacinda Ardern's "we are the truth" came across as bonkers but revealing as the underlying attitude of governments.
As Jacinda Ardern has already been mentioned, there is also the revelation that BBC Verify's Marianna Spring was caught lying on her CV...
Anon - such casual lying too, but it told us all we need to know about BBC Verify.
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