Another excellent, unvarnished essay, exposing the deep rot of legacy media, the urgency for solidarity amongst journalists, and my personal hope that the UK learns the lessons of autocratic, oligarchical capture of the US before it's too late.
It's already much later than anyone wants to believe.
I'm having to read this article in small segments because I'm finding it utterly unbearable but absolutely necessary.
I had a shock of recognition early on in this article, not about its content, but about being in the presence of someone who has been doing a much ore more painful and extreme version of the work my colleagues and I were doing, and how isolating that was for both him and us. Many years ago, I participated in an intensive two-week criminal defence course, which was experiential not academic, and one of the trainers handled only post-conviction death penalty cases in a state which executed with great enthusiasm. Although he was an absolutely outstanding lawyer, most of his clients were put to death. Halfway through the course, there was a party which included all participants and trainers, and not one person went up to talk with him. None. I felt unworthy professionally - I was doing minor public defender work in a non-death row state - but also deeply guilty for feeling that way. I finally went up to speak with him, and he told me that his work was very lonely, but that gatherings like this one were lonelier still. We were isolating him for our own comfort, because we all knew we couldn't have coped with the work he did, year in, year out.
Thank you so much for being vulnerable about this incident. Many caring people have these moments but not too many are willing to talk about them. It’s encouraged me to remember to support someone even when I’m confused about how.
and the mealy mouthed apologist NYT (among so many others) grins and extols the 'let them eat cake' greedy rich elites at the Met as if democracy is not burning down all around and the people are being robbed, beaten, starved, forced out of housing and public spaces .... promoting reichwing propaganda, sane washing the orange fascst ... sickening.
'Look for the wound. That's where the light comes in.' Thank you, Carole, for speaking up yet again, and with such feeling and courage.
My journalist father received twice-daily threats, when i was a child, that I would be kidnaped, as a way to silence him from speaking the truth about the war crimes going on in our country. But it didn't stop him - even though it meant escaping for our lives in the night when I was 12: he just carried on speaking up about the gross injustices he saw in other countries in Asia, a continent constrained by an iron girdle of authoritarians holding power - Marcos, Soekarno, Mrs Gandhi...
I remember going with him to a jewellery shop once, and being puzzled as he bought a super-expensive watch. A Patek Philippe, i think. Why did he need another watch, when he already had one? And such an expensive one, when my mother was always worried sick about how we would pay our bills. He'd wear both watches, one on each wrist, bluff his way through airport customs, and sell the expensive watch in the country he'd landed in. The cash would support the families of journalists there gaoled without trial. I totted up one day that my parents must have been supporting 8 journalist families.
Wherever we went there was danger, as a result of his determination to get the truth out. I decided I wouldn't live like this when I grew up. I wasn't brave like my father. I would teach poetry, give my children a quiet life. My father laughed, saying, 'You have printer's ink in your veins.' He was right. I did become a writer/journalist, fighting for human rights, especially the rights of the most vulnerable. You have to speak up, do whatever you can.
Absolutely brilliant. Thank you for this. As a local newspaper journalist, this lack of freedom in reporting affects me too and I am far away from war zones and arguably in one of the safest places on Earth. So much so that I’m nervous to leave this comment. Thank you Carole for your work.
When I was being bullied as a child, I was often told to stand up for myself.
I didn't because I was scared.
It was only when I realised that it was not going to stop and when I came to understand that the price for not fighting back was actually higher than for standing my ground that I fought back.
Oddly, it didn't feel so much like courage as that I had no choice but to fight back.
My point is that people are frightened but don't yet understand that what will happen if they don't act will be far worse than if they take a stand.
Finding support from others who feel the same about what is happening to western democracy is so important because feeling frightened and alone is awful and is precisely what the broligarchy wants us to feel.
Thank you Carole - keep fighting the good fight! The 4th estate is now more than ever one of the best protections us citizens have against creeping illiberal state power
One thing that seems to have escaped everyone's attention is that the billionaire class was created by the political class using our taxes to do it, via outsourcing, government contracts, subsidies and tax breaks.
The question is, was it by design or a happy accident for the fascists among us?
Something that works so well every single time is deliberate, quiet and done over decades. It would not be so successful otherwise. They start with distraction, add lies, more distraction, then continue their fraudulent activities until they think they are invincible. They've forgotten this world is one of loss and decay and they, too, will eventually become totally unnoticed...
Thanks for continuing to post here, Carole. I know I'm not alone in greatly appreciating your voice. We all need each other more than ever.
"That’s what May 1 can teach us, that leadership will not come from editors-in-chiefs and publishers of mainstream western news orgs; they do not have this. But there are, I believe, thousands of journalists across the world who do. **Wael is not alone**. We are with him. But how do we make our voices heard?"
You're my hero. Your exposé of Cambridge Analytica and TED talks, combined with Christopher Wylie's Mindf*ck: Cambridge Analytica And The Plot To Break America, were mind-blowing. Knowledge is power, and independent, intrepid journalism is an invaluable source of information.
Thanks so much Carole. This has opened my eyes to something I hadn’t really been aware of. But, as a Labour supporter I continue to be shocked by the apparent support of the Labour Party for Netanyahu’s annihilation of Palestinian people including innocent children. When will the Government properly condemn it?
Labour are no longer a party for the working people. Like everything else they have been "bought" by controlling interests, similar to the media corporations mentioned in this essay. Read Owen Jones (on Substack) analysis of Labour and Starmer for more information about them and the new left. I don't know any Labour supporters who still vote Labour, that's why they are in such demise across the UK
It will. And it is. We must fight off Reform wherever we can, but not by letting Farage break up the Labour Party…….which is part of his plan. We mustn’t dance to his tune. He will be delighting in the chaos he’s causing.
I've just become a subscriber — long overdue. I've followed your work for years and wanted to say that your courage and resilience in pursuing the Russian money and Brexit story, at considerable personal cost, has been genuinely inspiring.
I also wanted you to know — not primarily to promote it, though I won't pretend that's entirely absent — that your reporting was part of what inspired me to write a novel about exactly this world. The superinjunction thread, the dark money, the gap between what is documented and what can be published. The Nerve's recent investigation into Palantir's penetration of UK government infrastructure maps territory the novel covers from a different angle — a surveillance company with access to the financial data of hundreds of millions of citizens, used to position trades before policy announcements move the markets. It's called The Sovereign Bet, just published, and it's free on Kindle this week. The story feels important enough that getting it read matters more than anything else.
Thank you for continuing to fight. The Nerve is exactly what independent journalism should be.
Waiting to see the interest but the intention is yes, somewhere before I publish the next volume of the Trilogy. That is only in outline so far and a month of work to do yet. So yes in due course
I’m so happy that Sanghita Myska has found a home with you. I met her a couple of years ago and she is one of the loveliest people you’ll ever meet.
I don’t trust the MSM at all. Look at the different coverage Nigel Farage gets to Zack Polanski. Apparently saying you were a spokesperson for the Red Cross on your CV, when what you were doing was championing their work, is a much greater crime than receiving millions in cryptocurrency, bribes from Russia and throwing dead cats on the table (like the thing about putting detention centres in Green led areas).
Thankyou Carole for your typical courage and fortitude. We don't have years, we barely have months to expose the rancid toxicity that leaches from Silicon Valley and is poisoning us all. May everybody on this thread copy it to everybody they know and more besides.
Brilliant, passionate, heartfelt call to arms Carole. I had read about Wael Al-Dahdouh’s tragedies in the genocide in Gaza, but this brought it so clearly into focus. And how it’s part of a tidal-wave of oppression more generally incl to international journalism that holds the powerful to account. Brilliant insight. The outcome is shocking
Another excellent, unvarnished essay, exposing the deep rot of legacy media, the urgency for solidarity amongst journalists, and my personal hope that the UK learns the lessons of autocratic, oligarchical capture of the US before it's too late.
It's already much later than anyone wants to believe.
Ain't That The Truth...
I'm having to read this article in small segments because I'm finding it utterly unbearable but absolutely necessary.
I had a shock of recognition early on in this article, not about its content, but about being in the presence of someone who has been doing a much ore more painful and extreme version of the work my colleagues and I were doing, and how isolating that was for both him and us. Many years ago, I participated in an intensive two-week criminal defence course, which was experiential not academic, and one of the trainers handled only post-conviction death penalty cases in a state which executed with great enthusiasm. Although he was an absolutely outstanding lawyer, most of his clients were put to death. Halfway through the course, there was a party which included all participants and trainers, and not one person went up to talk with him. None. I felt unworthy professionally - I was doing minor public defender work in a non-death row state - but also deeply guilty for feeling that way. I finally went up to speak with him, and he told me that his work was very lonely, but that gatherings like this one were lonelier still. We were isolating him for our own comfort, because we all knew we couldn't have coped with the work he did, year in, year out.
Thank you so much for being vulnerable about this incident. Many caring people have these moments but not too many are willing to talk about them. It’s encouraged me to remember to support someone even when I’m confused about how.
and the mealy mouthed apologist NYT (among so many others) grins and extols the 'let them eat cake' greedy rich elites at the Met as if democracy is not burning down all around and the people are being robbed, beaten, starved, forced out of housing and public spaces .... promoting reichwing propaganda, sane washing the orange fascst ... sickening.
'Look for the wound. That's where the light comes in.' Thank you, Carole, for speaking up yet again, and with such feeling and courage.
My journalist father received twice-daily threats, when i was a child, that I would be kidnaped, as a way to silence him from speaking the truth about the war crimes going on in our country. But it didn't stop him - even though it meant escaping for our lives in the night when I was 12: he just carried on speaking up about the gross injustices he saw in other countries in Asia, a continent constrained by an iron girdle of authoritarians holding power - Marcos, Soekarno, Mrs Gandhi...
I remember going with him to a jewellery shop once, and being puzzled as he bought a super-expensive watch. A Patek Philippe, i think. Why did he need another watch, when he already had one? And such an expensive one, when my mother was always worried sick about how we would pay our bills. He'd wear both watches, one on each wrist, bluff his way through airport customs, and sell the expensive watch in the country he'd landed in. The cash would support the families of journalists there gaoled without trial. I totted up one day that my parents must have been supporting 8 journalist families.
Wherever we went there was danger, as a result of his determination to get the truth out. I decided I wouldn't live like this when I grew up. I wasn't brave like my father. I would teach poetry, give my children a quiet life. My father laughed, saying, 'You have printer's ink in your veins.' He was right. I did become a writer/journalist, fighting for human rights, especially the rights of the most vulnerable. You have to speak up, do whatever you can.
This is a fantastic story of you and your father being true humans Anuradha.
Absolutely brilliant. Thank you for this. As a local newspaper journalist, this lack of freedom in reporting affects me too and I am far away from war zones and arguably in one of the safest places on Earth. So much so that I’m nervous to leave this comment. Thank you Carole for your work.
When I was being bullied as a child, I was often told to stand up for myself.
I didn't because I was scared.
It was only when I realised that it was not going to stop and when I came to understand that the price for not fighting back was actually higher than for standing my ground that I fought back.
Oddly, it didn't feel so much like courage as that I had no choice but to fight back.
My point is that people are frightened but don't yet understand that what will happen if they don't act will be far worse than if they take a stand.
Finding support from others who feel the same about what is happening to western democracy is so important because feeling frightened and alone is awful and is precisely what the broligarchy wants us to feel.
Thank you Carole - keep fighting the good fight! The 4th estate is now more than ever one of the best protections us citizens have against creeping illiberal state power
One thing that seems to have escaped everyone's attention is that the billionaire class was created by the political class using our taxes to do it, via outsourcing, government contracts, subsidies and tax breaks.
The question is, was it by design or a happy accident for the fascists among us?
Something that works so well every single time is deliberate, quiet and done over decades. It would not be so successful otherwise. They start with distraction, add lies, more distraction, then continue their fraudulent activities until they think they are invincible. They've forgotten this world is one of loss and decay and they, too, will eventually become totally unnoticed...
Thanks for continuing to post here, Carole. I know I'm not alone in greatly appreciating your voice. We all need each other more than ever.
"That’s what May 1 can teach us, that leadership will not come from editors-in-chiefs and publishers of mainstream western news orgs; they do not have this. But there are, I believe, thousands of journalists across the world who do. **Wael is not alone**. We are with him. But how do we make our voices heard?"
You're my hero. Your exposé of Cambridge Analytica and TED talks, combined with Christopher Wylie's Mindf*ck: Cambridge Analytica And The Plot To Break America, were mind-blowing. Knowledge is power, and independent, intrepid journalism is an invaluable source of information.
EAT THE TECHNOFASCISTS!
Thanks so much Carole. This has opened my eyes to something I hadn’t really been aware of. But, as a Labour supporter I continue to be shocked by the apparent support of the Labour Party for Netanyahu’s annihilation of Palestinian people including innocent children. When will the Government properly condemn it?
Labour are no longer a party for the working people. Like everything else they have been "bought" by controlling interests, similar to the media corporations mentioned in this essay. Read Owen Jones (on Substack) analysis of Labour and Starmer for more information about them and the new left. I don't know any Labour supporters who still vote Labour, that's why they are in such demise across the UK
I hope that doesn’t let farage& reform get in though, it seems a far worse option .
It will. And it is. We must fight off Reform wherever we can, but not by letting Farage break up the Labour Party…….which is part of his plan. We mustn’t dance to his tune. He will be delighting in the chaos he’s causing.
Paul Holden's book, The Fraud:
https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-fraud/paul-holden/9781682195987
I've just become a subscriber — long overdue. I've followed your work for years and wanted to say that your courage and resilience in pursuing the Russian money and Brexit story, at considerable personal cost, has been genuinely inspiring.
I also wanted you to know — not primarily to promote it, though I won't pretend that's entirely absent — that your reporting was part of what inspired me to write a novel about exactly this world. The superinjunction thread, the dark money, the gap between what is documented and what can be published. The Nerve's recent investigation into Palantir's penetration of UK government infrastructure maps territory the novel covers from a different angle — a surveillance company with access to the financial data of hundreds of millions of citizens, used to position trades before policy announcements move the markets. It's called The Sovereign Bet, just published, and it's free on Kindle this week. The story feels important enough that getting it read matters more than anything else.
Thank you for continuing to fight. The Nerve is exactly what independent journalism should be.
Heading over to Kindle now (holding nose as it smells a bit Amazony) thanks Geoffry.
I know. Shame about the Amszon ownership. Hope you enjoy it
Will you be publishing a physical edition?
Waiting to see the interest but the intention is yes, somewhere before I publish the next volume of the Trilogy. That is only in outline so far and a month of work to do yet. So yes in due course
Thanks G. Sounds like you’ve found a rich and prescient subject matter to mine. Good luck with it all.
I’m so happy that Sanghita Myska has found a home with you. I met her a couple of years ago and she is one of the loveliest people you’ll ever meet.
I don’t trust the MSM at all. Look at the different coverage Nigel Farage gets to Zack Polanski. Apparently saying you were a spokesperson for the Red Cross on your CV, when what you were doing was championing their work, is a much greater crime than receiving millions in cryptocurrency, bribes from Russia and throwing dead cats on the table (like the thing about putting detention centres in Green led areas).
Thank you Carol, and thank goodness for Substack.
Thankyou Carole for your typical courage and fortitude. We don't have years, we barely have months to expose the rancid toxicity that leaches from Silicon Valley and is poisoning us all. May everybody on this thread copy it to everybody they know and more besides.
@Carole Caldwaladr,
Thank you for speaking up once again.
I watched both of your Ted talks & continue to follow & admire your work.
Brilliant, passionate, heartfelt call to arms Carole. I had read about Wael Al-Dahdouh’s tragedies in the genocide in Gaza, but this brought it so clearly into focus. And how it’s part of a tidal-wave of oppression more generally incl to international journalism that holds the powerful to account. Brilliant insight. The outcome is shocking