by Sophie McAdam at trueactivist.com
“I am ashamed to be a journalist,” says grieving BBC radio host.
John Darvall is a BBC radio host who recently had an epiphany over the state of journalism, after realizing the industry he’d served so well wouldn’t think twice about screwing him over for a good story.
Darvall, who hosts a show on BBC radio Bristol, has just lost his daughter. Polly was 22, and died in a tragic car accident on Halloween. Since he works for the BBC, Darvall’s grief became public, and he agreed to give an interview. The report was full of inaccuracies and mistakes which compounded his loss, and caused huge problems in the family.
‘This poor piece of journalism made Tuesday probably the worst day of this whole episode so far. This includes seeing our dead daughter in a hospital mortuary just 12 hours after she was killed,’ Darvall wrote in a moving blog post.
‘Newspapers have contacted me and provided appallingly written articles, which I have had to change, ‘polish’ or make actual sense of. Other papers have published articles using my personal relationship as ‘the in line’, when this is NOT the story but, at best, just a very small part of the story.’
Darvall goes on: ‘Those who know me well will know that I never, ever wanted to be the story, just to tell or share the story, as a journalist, correctly. I have never wanted to be on TV, I don’t want to be known, perhaps just be known of, to do my job well and to help people if I can and to get to the truth for others.’
However, he’s now seen the light: ‘truth’ and the mainstream media don’t go together, after all. Darvall suggests there’s no future for his industry, suggesting that the internet will eventually take over as the primary source of finding out about current affairs:
‘The way we all consume news is changing,’ he writes. ‘The way we share news has changed and will continue to change at a faster pace. This week TV and newspapers have proven to me why they are not the future of news. If they can’t even get their facts right, be trusted with clear information and then report it accurately is it any wonder that we are all turning to Facebook, Twitter and other internet sources for our news and information? The internet allows us to come to our own conclusions by checking our own facts. We really can’t trust the traditional outlets to do it right or properly. I write this as a father who has lost a daughter. I write this as a journalist who loved his work but can now clearly see why so many have lost faith in his profession and traditional media. They, we and I have brought this on ourselves.’
Finally, Darvall leaves us with two pieces of advice:
‘Trust nothing you read or watch,’ he tells us, and possibly the most important thing of all: ‘Love your children and loved ones. Properly love them. Tell them every day, make sure they know that you love them regardless of what might be happening. Nothing is more important than that.’
Well said, sir.
Darvall’s blog post comes in the wake of two (much bigger) ‘shock-horror’ admissions by insiders that the mainstream media is entirely fake: a German journalist recently spilled the beans on how media professionals are nothing more than propaganda writers who deliberately lie to the people and help intelligence agencies push for war.
In another story that went viral around the world, a model who built her career on making herself look beautiful for Instagram photos had what can only be described as a total breakdown, quitting the ‘business’ of social media and blowing the whistle on how shallow and fake the entire industry is in her final YouTube video ever (Note: embedded video now fixed). Both of these are well worth watching and sharing with everyone you know!
Could 2015 be the year that the masses wake up and see that the Emperor is wearing no clothes? We certainly hope so…
This article (BBC Journalist Comes Clean: “Believe Nothing You Read Or Watch”) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and TrueActivist.com.
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Last sentence, I think u meant “could 2016 be the year…..”
Bloody pedant
It’s not pedantry. In an article with the entire function of questioning the veracity of mainstream media outlets the inclusion of glaring typos make one instead wonder about the reliability of this very article. People fall for the propaganda of the mainstream because it looks and sounds authoritative. It looks and sounds true.
Thank you. This does not surprise me at all.
he is a radio host, not a journalist :s
Definitions of journalist include people who writes for newspapers or magazines, or prepare news to be broadcast on radio and TV. I would presume he prepared what news he presented. By definition, he is a journalist.
He “thought” he can work in the media and spread “truth?” What planet was that guy on? Second, why would he act like the news on social media is correct? It comes from the same companies that are on TV. Yea I hope this is the year The Force Awakens. The year the world finds out that NASA is a joke! A hoax! Not ONE real pic of Earth or ANY planet. Not 1 video of a rocket leaving the dark inner orbit and flying through space. BS deception for money, power and to discredit the 1 sure proof of God. The Firmananent!
Twat!
I am starting to think that reading news on the Internet is probably the most reliable way to get to the truth. The mainstream have had the monopoly since the dawn of the newspaper, and all big newspaper owners have used their power to influence people for a political or financial agenda – and that never changed – all the while it took very big capital to start and run a newspaper, the rich were manipulating the rest of us.
But now, with the Internet, anyone can start a news site with very little capital – sonews is now being reported by ordinary people like you and me.
I know who I would rather trust to deliver the most truthful reports.
it had to happen some day…others should learn
“Believe NOTHING you read or watch”, equally applies to this site and others like it. Everyone puts forward the views that agree with their agendas. This applied long before newspapers, TV and other mass media. It applies and will continue to apply on the Internet too. The Internet and social media allow ill-informed idiots to tout their nonsense too. It’s up to adults to think their way through the mire. Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.
I worked as a news sound recordist during the miners strike – Channel 4 were the only crews the miners in South Wales ended up even remotely trusting – with good reason – the pro-Thatcher bias ran through BBC, HTV, all the press, everyone – the way footage was shot and edited was a disgraceful peace of anti miner Bullshit.
What I saw made me angry and I got out of the business altogether some 3 years after.
I raised the facts with many people – but no one apparently wanted to know.
I was a despatch rider moving film from the field to the studios. The cameras recorded masses of state misbehaviour, but none of it was shown…
Beleieve nothing. even this.