• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Useful Ideas Project

A website about examining the stories we're supposed to believe

Why the ‘media is left-wing’ is one of the Conservatives’ most important lies

September 12, 2022 By Useful Ideas Project

Blanket coverage of the Queen's death in 2022, plus David Cameron telling simplistic stories
Pictured: Blanket coverage of the Queen’s death in 2022, plus David Cameron telling simplistic stories

I’m writing this a few days after Queen Elizabeth II’s death. Her image is on the front of every UK newspaper, on many electronic billboards and she’s the subject of numerous TV and radio programmes. It’s enough to make one seek out the Wikipedia page for cultural hegemony.

On Twitter, the usual arguments are still raging. Then Twitter user Paul Gray chips in with a Tweet about economics:

“Last time they left a note saying there is nothing left in the kitty. Even after 12 years, people remember that.”

Paul is referring to an event that happened in 2010: “Ex-Treasury secretary Liam Byrne’s note to his successor: there’s no money left”.

Byrne’s note was weaponised by the Conservatives. The Conservatives pretended that the joke message was a serious statement. They distorted the truth and told an over-simplified story.

The Conservative storytelling around Byrne’s note is a case study in how right-wing political parties get people to vote against their own interests.

They tell memorable simple stories, lies, myths and half-truths. These stories are then repeated and amplified by much of the billionaire-funded media. It’s effective (multiple studies confirm the illusory truth effect). Twitter’s Paul is referring to the Treasury note story 12 years after it happened.

Simple right-wing stories

Other misleading simplistic stories that the Conservatives tell are:

  • Trickle-down economics
  • The majority of people are fundamentally bad
  • Prison should punish, not rehabilitate
  • The economy is like a household budget
  • …
  • The media is mostly left-wing

Why is the ‘media is left-wing’ one of the Conservative’s most important lies?

With the treasury note story, the Labour party barely attempted to challenge the simple Conservative narrative. Probably because it feared expending political capital on a cynical distraction in a hostile media environment.

The ‘media is mostly left-wing’ is one of the Conservative’s most important lies because it shuts down the space needed to debate and challenge the other Conservative lies and stories. It ensures that the hostile media environment remains hostile to non right-wing messages.

See also

List of useful ideas

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: media, Monarchy

Primary Sidebar

Subscribe for more useful ideas

Enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new ideas by email.

Follow on social media

MASTODON

TWITTER

Pages

  • About
  • All posts
  • Contact
  • Home
  • List of useful ideas

Search this website

Recent Posts

  • False equivalence; one of the true reasons why Musk bought Twitter
  • The ‘it’s incompetence, not a conspiracy’ argument
  • The conditions that were needed for an alternative political story to reach voters
  • Why the ‘media is left-wing’ is one of the Conservatives’ most important lies
  • Fundamental attribution error in political media

Footer

Categories

  • Arts
  • Culture
  • Features
  • Film
  • Health
  • History
  • Politics
  • Technology
  • UIP
  • Uncategorized
  • Visual arts
  • Watch

Tags

a brief history of neoliberalism Adam Curtis Adam Curtis consumerism Advertising Ann Pettifor Audio BBC BBC Radio 4 BBC The Men Who Made Us Spend Bertrand Russell Bertrand Russell consumerism Boris Johnson Brexit Capitalism Capitalist Realism Carillion Chamath Palihapitiya Charles F. Kettering Charles F. Kettering industrialist competition Conservatism Consumerism Corbyn corbyn media reception corruption Danial Hannan Danny Dorling Disinformation Donald Trump Edward Bernays consumerism Electric vehicles in the UK EU facebook Fascism Frances Ha history Home inequality Koch brothers media Monarchy nationalism neoliberal economics neoliberalism Russell Brand

Follow us on Twitter

The Useful Ideas Project on Twitter

Copyright © 2023 Useful Ideas Project