Independent journalism has the power to fight fake news – we need it now more than ever
Radical journalist Claud Cockburn fought propagandists and fascists during the darkest hours of the 20th century. With the politics of the 2020s likely to be as toxic and unstable, his son, Patrick Cockburn, looks at how we can channel his spirit today
Governments like to persuade dissenting journalists that their efforts are too puny and marginal to influence or otherwise affect the powers that be. Yet there is no doubting the huge impact of the media on public opinion: Donald Trump would not be in the White House if he was not an expert in making sure that his words and actions top the news agenda every day. The departure of Britain from the EU would surely not have happened without most of the print press urging millions of readers for decades to blame Brussels for their troubles. But how far is it possible for individual journalists to resist and contradict this tidal wave of information and misinformation pumped out on a daily basis?
The aim of good journalism should be to tell the public what they need to know in order for them to reach informed decisions and to judge intelligently the performance of those in authority. But what if those same journalists conclude that the news propagated by the rest of the media is dangerously mistaken? Is there anything they can do about it, or should they throw up their hands in despair as many do, convinced that in opposing conventional wisdom, they will only be battering their heads against a series of brick walls without making a serious dent in it?
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