Enough time has passed now, I think, that I can safely tell you about one of the stupidest things I have ever done. Almost a decade ago I decided to quit my well-paid job in advertising in order to pursue a precarious career in freelance journalism. The merits of that decision are up for debate but the real stupidity is in how I quit my job: I wrote a rather cringeworthy column for the Guardian about my “meaningless job in advertising” and publicly proclaimed that I’d decided to quit. My boss saw the piece and, well, he obviously wasn’t happy. (Sorry, Sean!)
I bring this embarrassing anecdote up because I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting recently on the reasons why I left advertising. Maybe this sounds twee, but I was sick of selling people things they didn’t need. I wanted to do something meaningful.
You know what, though? While selling underwear and vodka to the masses may not be entirely fulfilling, it’s better for the soul than selling people wars and genocide. Peddling cleaning products via 30 second TV ads is a far nobler calling than whitewashing authoritarian politicians via both-sides reporting that consists, to quote George Orwell, “of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness”.
Journalists should work without fear or favor. Whether writing about foreign policy or new technology, our focus should be on the truth, not cozying up to the powerful or making corporations look good.
And yet here we are, in a world where the lines between advertising, public relations and journalism are dangerously blurred; where once-respected media institutions have been hijacked by billionaires like Jeff Bezos, the Murdoch family, and Larry Ellison and turned into strategic megaphones. Where politicians are sold to the public with the same cynical strategies with which ad-people market alcohol. Guinness is good for you? Authoritarianism is even better!
Look, for example, at the Washington Post, where a Pulitzer-prize winning cartoonist resigned in January over the paper’s refusal to publish a cartoon showing Bezos kneeling in front of Donald Trump. In September the Post also dropped columnist Karen Attiah, reportedly after she posted on social media about the late Charlie Kirk making racist comments. There are, of course, still plenty of hardworking journalists doing great work at the Post. But the paper is now inextricably tied, via Bezos and his business interests, to the Trump administration.
This is not just about bowing to Trump; it’s about who the media chooses to protect and who to dehumanize. As a Palestinian-Brit, it has been difficult to work in the media over the last couple of years. Difficult to function while a genocide in Gaza – which is still ongoing – and accelerated ethnic-cleansing in the West Bank unfolds. And it has been difficult to wrestle with the ways in which the media is complicit in what is happening. More than 200 Palestinians journalists have been killed in Gaza by Israel since 7 October; far too many journalists in the West have been silent about this. The scale of carnage in Gaza simply wouldn’t have been able to take place without the media dehumanizing Palestinians and manufacturing consent for atrocities.
For example: one of the biggest and most inflammatory talking points after 7 October – one which helped convince people there wasn’t a single innocent Palestinian civilian – was that Hamas beheaded 40 babies. Hamas committed verified atrocities, but this was a lie. It was one, however, which plenty of journalists, including CBS news correspondent and a CNN anchor, spread without properly confirming. The CNN anchor later apologized; CBS did not.
Speaking of CBS: it’s now owned by billionaires (and father and son) David and Larry Ellison. And the news division is now run by Bari Weiss who was scouted by David Ellison, it was reported by the Financial Times, for her pro-Israel views. The Ellisons are also battling to acquire Warner Bros Discovery (which owns CNN), with the elder Ellison – a longtime Trump donor and ally – already having had discussions with the White House about axing of some of the CNN hosts whom the president is said to hate.
Look, I know it’s hard to keep track of which megacorp owned by which billionaire is acquiring the next media outlet and how much money they’ve all given to Trump. But here’s the bottom line: instead of holding power to account, the US media is increasingly getting into bed with it.
Before my current boss summons me into their office: I obviously wouldn’t be writing this if I thought the Guardian was part of the problem. Of course, the Guardian, like any institution, is not perfect. But there really isn’t anything else like it: independent, un-paywalled, unapologetically progressive. I don’t think there is any other media organization that can stand up to the growing global tide of authoritarianism like we can.
We can’t be bought by billionaires, for one thing. We are independent, and we act like it. If you want to read some both-sidesing of Trump, the Guardian is not for you. If you want a media outlet that sucks up to the sociopathic billionaires who increasingly own every facet of modern society, the Guardian is not for you.
But if you believe in free thinking, free speech and a free press, please do consider supporting us. Freedom of speech was never free. But increasingly it comes at a cost.
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