Yesterday, I made the mistake of reading the News section of the BBC website. I can’t explain why – I’m old enough to know better, and past experience has shown that the chance of them offering accurate and unflinching reporting on the major political issues of the day is so slim as to be non-existent. Still, there’s no fool like an old fool, and I clicked on an item about why it seems the ceasefire in Gaza – which was so painstakingly negotiated, and which has offered the prospect of a fragile peace which all parties can build on – is about to collapse. Reader, that click was a mistake.
It wasn’t the first time I’ve read a news article and chuntered pointlessly to myself for the next several hours about one-sided reporting, ommissions, and inaccuracies. The difference yesterday was that I decided to write down exactly why I was so incensed by the BBC article – for my own benefit, if no-one else’s. It felt important to do that, to draw a line in the sand, to do something more than grumble (as old men are wont to do) and leave the misinformation unchallenged.
By the time I’d finished writing a response to the original article, it occurred to me I might have something which deserved a bigger audience. So I sent it off to Yorkshire Bylines, and they were good enough to publish it. If you’ve five minutes to spare, and you want to know what I’ve been talking about, you’ll find the article here. If you enjoy it, or you know folk who might want to read it, feel free to share.
There’s a lot of misinformation out there right now. And the prospect of more on the way. Pushing back is important. It reminds us there are alternatives, that we have agency, that change for the better is still an option, and – above all – that we are stronger together.
Look after yourselves, fellow chunterers. The world needs us.
note: this should have gone up several days ago, but had remained, stubbornly, in my drafts folder. Apologies.