But always— do not forget this, Winston— always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face— forever.

George Orwell – Nineteen Eighty-four

Yesterday, two Iranian nationals who had previously arrived in the UK on small boats were charged with plotting attacks on the UK’s Jewish community. One would think that the reporting of this extremely worrying development would feature prominently on any UK-based news outlet’s website. I’ve just taken a look at the BBC’s news website and I see that it is item seventeen, buried in the subsection ‘More Top Stories’. Amongst the items considered more newsworthy were:

“Woman deceived ex-partner that she had given birth to his babies, judge rules”

“Traitors claim their first victim as Richard E Grant tries to save his skin”

“EV drivers love their cars, but some passengers feel sick – this could be why”

“Spoiler alert! Is social media ruining big gig surprises?”

“Women given shorts at Oktoberfest to prevent upskirting”

“Why thousands of couples are choosing Scotland to say ‘I do’”

Only two ‘top stories’ were considered less deserving of its readers’ attention.

Such burying of items looks highly suspicious to those of us who accuse the BBC of being institutionally biased when it comes to reporting upon matters of Jewish and Arabic politics. Despite such suspicions, the BBC seeks to present itself as an impartial and trustworthy outlet, and it ‘invests’ a great deal of the license-payers’ money in promoting this image. It is an image that suits the government of the day.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has recently issued a consultation paper titled ‘Watch this space: a new strategic direction for UK media – green paper and public consultation’. Amongst the more notorious proposals up for discussion is the following:

Prominence for trustworthy news: We will explore legislative options to require social media to make news content from PSM providers – and potentially also national and local news publishers – prominent and easily discoverable. This is crucial for countering misinformation, especially during times of social unrest or crisis.

The document has a glossary, but there is no entry for ‘misinformation’. This is not surprising, however, since it is a document that has been largely guided by the Government Office for Science and their paper, ‘False and Misleading Information:  An Evidence Summary and Map for Policy and Practice’. As I have previously discussed, this paper was guided by ‘experts’ who felt that when it comes to discussing matters of mis- and disinformation, defining one’s terms would be a huge distraction. It also happens to be a paper that promotes so-called prebunking – again, an unsurprising move given that the majority of the consulted experts were behavioural scientists schooled in the dark arts of nudging.

Should these individuals ever get around to defining what it is that they are willing to go to such great lengths to suppress, might I suggest that it should include the avoidance of editorial decision-making that places greater importance upon the perils of sex pests at a piss-up than it does the UK’s growing anti-Semitism and the importation of terrorism to these shores.

Rant over.