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The sentencing of two conspiracy theorists who planned to destroy 5G masts because it was believed they could be used as a weapon against people who had been vaccinated to protect them from Covid-19, highlights the importance of securing EVIDENCE, which has always been fundamental in the journalism of our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry.
Earlier he described how he was assisted in breaking into the South Wales Echo office car when he was a cub reporter, recalled his early career as a journalist, the importance of experience in the job, and made clear that the ‘calls’ to emergency services as well as court cases are central to any media operation.
He has also explored how poorly paid most journalism is when trainee reporters had to live in squalid flats, the vital role of expenses, and about one of his most important stories on the now-scrapped 53 year-old BBC Wales TV Current Affairs series, Week In Week Out (WIWO), which won an award even after it was axed, long after his career really took off.
Phil has explained too how crucial it is actually to speak to people, the virtue of speed as well as accuracy, why knowledge of ‘history’ is vital, how certain material was removed from TV Current Affairs programmes when secret cameras had to be used, and some of those he has interviewed.
He has disclosed as well why investigative journalism is needed now more than ever although others have different opinions, how the coronavirus (Covid-19) lockdown played havoc with media schedules, and the importance of the hugely lower average age of some political leaders compared with when he started reporting.
Gaining the FACTS is absolutely central.
Many times I have been sent material from a website by people urging me to do a story about the case.
However there are invariably two problems, meaning journalists like me won’t touch it with a bargepole: 1. It has been published before. 2. There is no EVIDENCE to freshen it up.
The second of these has been put centre stage by the end of a case against two anti-vax conspiracy theorists at Leeds Crown Court, Darren Reynolds and Christine Grayson, who were found guilty of planning to destroy 5G masts, as well as encouraging attacks on MPs.
The court had heard how they discussed armed uprisings and advocated violence towards those they called “traitors”. Mr Reynolds “went further” apparently, and posted extreme right-wing, anti-Semitic as well as racist views.
But these are just examples of other recent worrying events that we have witnessed.
The absurd myths about the virus that they had bought into, have included in the past, the ridiculous notion that Covid-19 could be cured by drinking methanol, which led to more than 700 deaths in Iran.
There is no evidence whatsoever for any of these risible conspiracy theories (of which the methanol business is just one), but individuals believed them, thinking, too that the disease was actually SPREAD by 5G transmitters, so it convinced arsonists in the UK to carry out more than 90 attacks on phone towers.
Just as the virus lodges in people’s lungs, dangerous ideas were infecting their minds. A key ingredient of these conspiracy theories is the rapid worldwide transmission of this nonsense by the internet.
A poll by Gallup of people in 28 countries on four continents found that in all of them, at least 16 per cent (and as many as 58 per cent) thought Covid-19 was deliberately spread.
A clip of a nonsensical film called ‘Plandemic’, which claimed that a shadowy elite started the outbreak for profit, had been seen eight million times within a week of it first being uploaded, and its star, Judy Mikovits, topped Amazon’s bestseller list.
A study published in Nature found that, although pro-vaccine Facebook (FB) users outnumbered anti-vaccine ones, the anti-vaxxers were better at forging links with non-aligned groups like school parents’ associations, so their numbers grew faster. Among Americans, exposure to social media was associated with a greater likelihood of believing that the US Government created Covid-19, or that officials exaggerated its seriousness.
The broadcasting regulator, OFCOM, censured a tiny TV station called London Live for airing part of an interview with David Icke, a conspiracy theorist who believed the pandemic was a hoax.
At the time of OFCOM’s ruling six million people had viewed the full interview on YouTube, which is outside their jurisdiction.
Sadly this kind of laughable stuff is being aired more than ever now.
Just hours after the notorious financier Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his cell, wild and unsubstantiated theories about the death began to circulate on the internet. Many rumours centred on what politicians allegedly may have known about Epstein’s crimes and whether some could have wanted him dead. Once again, there is absolutely no proof to suggest this was the case, and yet, the hashtag #EpsteinMurder trended worldwide.
Perhaps the most far-fetched conspiracy theories were pegged to the hashtags #ClintonBodyCount and #TrumpBodyCount, which both trended on Twitter. The first was primarily used by Conservatives to suggest that former ‘first couple’ Bill and Hillary Clinton were linked to Epstein’s death. The latter, perhaps predictably, was used by liberals who speculated that Donald Trump was somehow involved, but neither side had any evidence. The baseless theory of the Clinton’s involvement harks back to a long-running conspiracy theory that originated in the 1990s and claims the couple secretly killed their enemies.
The appalling case of the fantasist Carl Beech, is another one where wild conspiracy theories were central, and which were, unfortunately, believed by the police. Beech had ‘told’ the authorities of a high-ranking paedophile ring in which children were murdered.
He came to public notice several years ago on the BBC’s Six O’Clock News, and was being ‘questioned’ by the reporter Tom Symonds. But the ‘questions’ were unbelievable. This is an extract of what Beech (who used the pseudonym ‘Nick’) was asked: “They were sexually abusing you? (Yes) And they seem to have been powerful enough to keep this hidden? (Yes) It’s amazing. There seems to have been quite an organised network to allow this to happen? (Yes)”.
The former Labour MP, and one time deputy leader of his party, Tom Watson warned about “a powerful paedophile network linked to Parliament and No 10″. The same day, on ITV’s This Morning, the disgraced former presenter Phillip Schofield brandished a sheet of paper in front of David Cameron, claiming it was a list of Tory paedophiles that he had “found on the internet”.
For 18 months between 2014 and 2016, Beech was the star witness in a high-profile police investigation into allegations of sexual abuse and murder, involving MPs, generals and senior figures in the intelligence service. He was even helped by detectives to get a claim processed that he had previously made to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA), following the ridiculous allegations he had made. What Beech said was all a complete fabrication and he is now serving a jail term of 18 years–sentenced for 12 counts of perverting the course of justice, one of fraud, and for several child sexual offences.
But this is not the first time that the police and news organisations covering their antics have been in the dock. The BBC too is culpable (and may also be in relation to this unnamed presenter business). After being in the corporation for 23 years I know this only too well.
Over a picture of an alleged crook the awful words were used: “Is it by any chance the same man?”. Of course it wasn’t the same man, who then sued and won. In investigations you NEVER use the words “Is it by any chance the same man?”. It either IS or it ISN”T!
It also ISN’T true that Covid-19 was spread by 5G masts, although regrettably many believed it.
They probably included the two people who have been sentenced for planning to destroy them, and who were talking about an armed insurrection…
The memories of Phil’s astonishing 39-year award-winning career in journalism (when stories always had to have EVIDENCE) as he was gripped by Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order the book now!
Tomorrow – how new technology has changed everything for journalists like him, and the launch of an alternative to Twitter has only served to underline this.
