So it begins – with a large pinch of salt

Armando Iannucci’s description of politicians as, “Crap little people, really bad at their jobs, trying not to be found out,” has been less true recently following the Daily Telegraph’s exposure of their expenses racket. Unfortunately the mass media mainly collude with them. The dodgy doings of the ‘scoundrels, vagabonds, thieves, and fleecers,’ of the Westminster/City of London bubble went largely unreported for years. Their paymasters expect nothing less.

Noam Chomsky writing in ‘Media Control’ defined two versions of democracy. One would figure in most dictionaries, “The public has the means to participate in some meaningful way in the management of their own affairs and the means of information are open and free. The other sounds extreme, “The public must be barred from managing their own affairs and the means of information must be kept narrowly and rigidly controlled.” This is the definition Chomsky believes is accurate.

On the web this week was a leaked video showing gung-ho US military personnel using a helicopter gunship to blast at least 12 civilians to death in Bagdhad back in 2007. Unfortunately for the military, there were 2 Reuters journalists among the killed. What is appalling is how the affair was covered up. Reading the statements from senior officers alongside the images is a sobering and provocative experience. These people are our allies in Afghanistan. How many similar incidents remain unreported in the western media because no journalists died?

There are also many issues where transparency from our own government would be welcome. These range from the obvious e.g. the decision to go to war in Iraq; Torture; Rendition; Baling out the Banks; dropping the BAE bribery case etc etc; to others less obvious e.g. the use of offshore tax havens; why PFI is kept off the public balance sheets; the death of Dr Kelly and the influence of lobbyists.

And what daily diet does the great majority of the great British electorate get? Celebs, gossip, X-Factor, sex and football. Makes you proud to have a ‘free’ press.

Wikileaks, the estimable organisation that obtained the video from a whistleblower is under attack from the government machinery in the US. They also are under attack from many other governments of all persuasions for exposing truths they would rather see buried. This implies they are doing things right. They need supporting to help us keep informed. Go to Wikileaks.org