Opinion: How British media control the public narrative and have very little regard for the truth.
As mentioned in an earlier post, today (Wednesday 27 July 2022) the verdict was published in the employment tribunal of Allison Bailey vs Stonewall Equality Ltd and Garden Court Chambers Ltd. As predicted, the outcome mattered little because fully in line with the current reporting climate here in the UK, news outlets chose to report the verdict in a manner in which they preferred. The messaging that was chosen - inclusive that of the BBC - was that Allison Bailey had won. A resounding victory according to some.
The truth however, shows a very different story: Let's get the facts straight!
When Allison Bailey decided to go to court over what she believed was a case of discrimination and as a result loss of revenue, she did so by crowdfunding her case. For that she picked the very headline-attracting line saying "I am suing Stonewall!"
Under that header, Allison managed to grift a whopping £ 550,000 in donations to help support her court case. A case that was fought in the employment tribunal and which even my wildest imagination would have cost her a fraction of the money she collected in terms of legal fees. Because under normal practice each party is responsible for their own costs and rarely is a claimant ordered to pay the opposing council when losing.
Now, as far as the case itself is concerned, the verdict was in fact a resounding loss. All 5 of her claims versus Stonewall were dismissed and only 2 claims out of 5 against Garden Court Chambers were ruled in her favour. To me, that is a pretty resounding loss, especially if the claimant made Stonewall the primary target as she did when crowdfunding her case.
Enter the British media: Within hours of the verdict, the majority of British media including the BBC had their articles ready. All of them - without exception - choosing to report in some form or other that she had won her case:
Daily Mail:
The Independent:
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The Telegraph:
The Spectator:
And The Times:
This last one in particular (Joanna Cherry reporting for The Times) is very disturbing. Why? For those less informed, Joanna Cherry was less than a week ago appointed as Chair of the Joint Committee on Human Rights. Joanna, a very firm supporter of Gender Critical beliefs who actively campaigned AGAINST the reform of gender recognition laws in Scotland and who as well supports LGB Alliance and who spoke out in favour of applying conversion therapy to transgenders. This is the person who in the UK is appointed to discuss human rights.
On LGB Alliance itself, that's probably for the LGBTQIA+ community the best news to come from this court case: In the judgement it has been made quite clear that the group - who against massive protest were granted charity status - is in fact a hate group (anti trans) and not only that, but during the trial, Allison Bailey was forced to disclose the actual membership of the group. The membership disclosure showed that a whopping 90% of its members are in fact heterosexuals, which really begs the question why it is called LGB Alliance if there are barely any Lesbian, Gays and Bisexuals that are members?
The above summary of how the outcome of this court case has been reported is meant to provide the silent majority who are as yet perhaps not aware of how the media in this country are being orchestrated by the moguls: Rupert Murdoch, although mostly his sons now running the empire and the Rothermeres here in the UK who combined forces control over 70% of printed media. Sadly it shows that in some aspects the UK has drifted into a state where it isn't all that different from Russia: A very orchestrated media landscape which is supportive of the government for as long as it pushes its agenda. Government officials who bend the laws to suit their needs, who blatantly ignore the will of the people in order to push the agendas of those that fund their election.
The UK is a great place to live in, I stand by that because the majority of its people are kind, caring and compassionate. But unfortunately the direction it is taking on a political level, is dictated by greed of the happy few who always want more. And those are the ones in control of the narrative and have been for a long time. That has resulted in a constant erosion of the truth in favour of their personal agendas. They have no issue with pushing the working class into poverty, because over people in poverty they can exercise total control. And through the use of the media they can mobilise those that are easily targeted and wound up with stories that barely have any resemblance of truth. Whipping them up into a frenzy, making them believe an alternate reality. A tactic which has proven successful on plenty of occasions: the hostile stance against immigrants, Brexit to name but a few of the most obvious examples.
The attack on transgender rights and how the wider LGBTQIA+ community has been targeted is a well coordinated attack which now has been going on for many year (since before 2015). What we notice today is that the way in which these attacks are increasing in frequency and how they are used to fuel an agenda to suppress rights for the wider community. The pace at which this is now happening is quite frankly very alarming. I would warn anyone against underestimating the danger that comes with these targeted attacks. Because they may start with transgenders, but although we may be the first victims, we will surely not be the last. Anything that is being done to us today, could easily apply to any other minority group tomorrow. And let's not forget that as things stand, the threat to women's rights now, is not coming from a possible reform of the gender recognition act. The real attack on women's rights targets the same bodily autonomy as was stripped away in the USA. And those thinking it is a long way before the UK might reach that point: think again. Liz Truss is supporter of the Heritage Foundation, and consistently she has put people who are anti abortion in key positions within government (EHRC, Joint Committee of Human Rights)...as a reminder: the majority of the Tory MPs have a long list of voting against LGBTQIA+ rights and the right to abortion. If the Tories push their agenda on the revised Bill of Rights (and I see very little possibility to stop them as they still have a majority for the next two years) which is proposed to replace the ECHR it will mean that with almost immediate effect a lot of human rights which are enshrined in the ECHR will cease to be protected. It will lead to the UK down the same path as has happened in the USA, where politicians decide on matters that should be protected by law and decided in court.
As for Allison Bailey: of course she decided to report her case as a massive win. But at the end of the day, I doubt very much that she actually even cares about the outcome. Because when all the legal fees are paid, I am certain that Allison Bailey will have a very good laugh at the expense of all the Gender Critical supporters who immediately flocked to her aid financially. Of course, as with crowdfunding for matters like these, there is no obligation to report on what happens to all that cash. My guess is, the GC crowd have just paid for her retirement fund and she can start to look forward to sipping cocktails on the sandy beaches of Hawai. (sorry Blackpool, but you simply lack the climate to be a retirement destination...although mankind appears to work hard to try to right that wrong.)
Emilia Beckers