Schools: anyone else utterly sick of being manipulated by the press?

[Incogweeto]

Just that really. I’m so sick and tired of logging onto the BBC and finding articles every day promoting whatever viewpoint the government currently wants us to believe. At the moment it’s the onslaught of schools are safe/teachers are safe/tests are a game changer. When they were about to close the schools, the narrative was completely different with kids more likely to be index case/variants will kill is all/out of control vectors.

I’m not saying I agree or disagree with any particular viewpoint in any particular article just that I’m SO SICK of being manipulated. It enrages me that they think we are such pathetic sheep that we can’t see what they are doing.

It’s not just schools, it’s every course of action they want us to take or not take. I hate the PR and the manipulation.

@BustopherPonsonbyJones

I am sick of it too. I hadn’t realised how bad it had become but as a teacher I guess I have paid more attention this time as it affects me. I am surprised the media are so willing to cooperate.

Totally agree with this.

Had no idea before the pandemic how utterly terrified the BBC are of the government changing things for them that they have become the government's mouthpiece.

@MuddyWalks

I love the ONS survey where they looked at a 9 month period from March to December (6 months of which schools were closed) to declare that schools infections amongst teachers weren't high!

Lies, damn lies and statistics...

But we are constantly told they weren't closed?

Not just the BBC though, the way this government releases important policies via leaks and articles in the Telegraph and Sunday Times (behind a paywall too) is undemocratic.

I seriously laugh that people are surprised the media have an agenda & are designed to manipulate .. have you all been hiding under a rock for the past 25 years?! Tabloids literally blow blue or red smoke out of a roof to declare alliance with a particular political party. Then twist everything against the party they don’t support. The vast vast majority of the press is right wing & owned by multimillionaires who don’t want to pay higher taxes or to use their money to fund the NHS etc. The BBC is often very govmt aligned although it really shouldn’t be.

When was the last time we had a Prime Minister who very recently worked for them?

Yeah I'm sick of it. They are clearly trying to combat everyone jumping ahead to lockdown with loads of negative articles about covid lasting 3 days on clothes, new variants, vaccine might not work, covid might get more deadly etc.

I vowed a while ago not to read anything that says 'covid might/may/could' etc cos it is just panic mongering click bait really.

But I still see the titles and it stresses me out.

I agree. I read The Times daily and I saw an article about how teachers are no more likely to catch covid etc today and the article was strewn with anecdotes about how this must be due to the amazing mitigation's and measures the government has implemented in schools. I'm sceptical about this to say the least!

It isn't even news a lot of the time, it is more predictions and opinions.

""is it too much to ask for this to have been properly explained and people left to make their own choice?" it quickly became clear that instead of an informed and sensible population they were dealing with large numbers of people who let facebook/youtube do their thinking for them."

There's a difference between giving people a choice in whether or not to expose OTHERS to risk and giving them a choice in whether or not to expose themselves to a risk.

People need to be TOLD to stay home/wear masks/social distance etc As you say, too many idiots would throw caution to the wind, exposing not just themselves, but the whole of society to increased risk.

But we also have a government telling people to stop shielding when the risk level was still high and threatening to fine shielding parents if they DON'T send their kids back to school.... That should be THEIR choice.

That’s why I don’t watch / read the news.

Absolutely sick of it.

Totally agree OP- it's infuriating.

Absolutely. So sick of it.

Completely agree-there doesn’t seem to be any news any more, it’s all a very carefully controlled narrative telling us all what we should be thinking.

I stopped reading all news in the run up to the Brexit ref. Haven't missed it, still know everything I need to know.

Watch a bbc news programme and check the language used - individual words. It's so emotive. They are telling you what feelings you should have. Itv the same, channel 4 slightly better. I also have no interest in hearing what any of the public has to say about stuff, invariably the person they pick is stupid.

Sick to death of it.

It's so obvious. Our local news has had a headline feature tonight about 3 local people who died of covid. Nothing notable about it, in the saddest possible sense. I'm very sorry for their families but this is not news. So what's it's purpose?

The BBC have been compliant for two reasons- one that a dissenting view gets less airtime in any time of crisis (usually war), and secondly because the Tories will decriminalise the licence fee if they see the BBC as too left-wing (or not towing their line).

The Tories also seek to dodge scrutiny of any kind, be it in Parliament or for any journalist who challenges them. Channel 4 were not invited to the daily press briefings for months, the government would not appear on Good Morning Britain for a long time, and there was the boycott of Radio 4 Today programme.

[quote motherrunner]@middleager I remember you from past threads. I hope your DS has recovered. Here’s hoping for a better term than last.[/quote]
Thank you. He's doing well thanks and hoping for a better term.

You're not being manipulated by the BBC. Schools are safe for children. Teachers are not at greater risk than anybody else of working age. Schools are not driving the pandemic and never have been, anywhere in the world.

This is supported by the evidence. Anybody who says schools are safe, and teachers are safe, are accurately reporting the situation.

There isn't an agenda. There is no conspiracy.

Agree
How anyone believes their bullshit is beyond me!

I agree too, I don't believe much that I read on the BBC any more.

Thankyou for posting this. I am a 49 year old teacher with 3 steroid medication driven asthma us an autoimmune condition. I was in group 6, now I am not. I am due in my class of 35 on Monday.

Nothing has changed except my priority has been downgraded. It's still just me, 35 11 year olds who are the same height as me as a 5ft year 6 teacher. With my window. That magic fucking window

For example: I live in an area thatis currently 4th in infection in the Uk. The rate is almost 5 times the rate in September.
I've been in with my bubble through thos lockdown. We've had 3 bubble shutdowns in the school.

All the people saying "but where I live", lucky you.

It is utterly despicable; sadly it's nothing new. Blair's government was a master of spin. One difference was that he and his men were much more subtle and skillful with it than Boris Johnson's government, with whom it is so painfully obvious that we are being fed spin and fear to keep us in line, and his ongoing oh-so-obvious strategy of leaking everything to the press before a big decision, to test the water of how the plebs will react to it. The spin machine is well-oiled, and we are being gaslighted and told what to think every day. At the moment they're trying to turn the tide to prepare the people for the eventual big reopening, having spent the last three months terrifying everybody, and trying to fill them with conscience with that "look them in the eyes" bullshit. (I suppose it provided work for a few actors, whose industry has been destroyed by lockdown.)

There is a limerick about Tony Blair's government (not my writing):
There once was a man called Byers
Who decided to join the high fliers.
But his cardinal sin
To use doctors of spin
Showed them all to be nothing but liars!

I'm sick of the slogan that schools are safe when they are clearly not.

Exactly - it's a joke. One minute covid is running rampant through schools, wiping out teachers, students and parents... and the next, they're totally safe again 🤦‍♀️