MSM are Government cheerleaders and let the country down

Former ITV and Sky director opens up over industry failings

MAINSTREAM media became Government cheerleaders spreading panic and fear and let the country down during the pandemic.

That is the view of News Uncut journalist Mark Sharman, who appeared on the Lockdown Inquiry with Dan Wootton on GB News last night.

Mr Sharman, a former ITV and Sky News director, also called out media regulator Ofcom, after they issued a warning to all publications and broadcasters at the start of the pandemic not to question the official Government line.

“I definitely think it impacted,” he said. “It’s not so much an Ofcom regulation, it was advice or a warning actually. It was a warning to basically say do not question the official Government line.

“Now, to be fair to them, they said you can have opposition voices on but your presenters must intervene if there’s any danger or harmful misinformation.

“That warning affected all broadcasters. Most of the major broadcasters followed it. It’s created an environment which will lead to the biggest assault on freedom of speech and democracy that I’ve known in my lifetime. I have never seen a warning from Ofcom like that, I’ve never seen the broadcasters toe the line.

“Rather than question the Government, they became cheerleaders for the Government.”

When asked why journalists would do such a thing when the first rule is to question everything, Mr Sharman said: “We’ve been trying to give both sides of the story and let the viewer decide. Clearly, all the way through the pandemic, only one side of the story was given.

“The media, broadcasters, and newspapers picked up the torch that had been created by these behavioural psychologists and created this fear. The broadcasters picked it up with relish and they really were spreaders of panic and fear.

“They absolutely bought into the propaganda and it was very dangerous.”

Mr Sharman also expressed his grave concerns over the role of Big Tech, which censored many sides of the argument, meaning only the Government’s line was ever allowed.

He said: “You have to look beyond Ofcom and probably beyond this country, because this was a worldwide lockstep occurrence and in parallel with media you had Big Tech, new media who were censoring everything.

“And it wasn’t just the media [who were being censored] it applied to individuals. This banning, blocking and warnings go across the board and there are certain triggers as you know, certain words, that will get you banned. And there appears to be a worldwide narrative and the Big Tech and media worldwide have followed it and anybody who spoke out against it was censored. Now in Big Tech it was by blocking and censoring and in our media it tended to be by ignoring the other side of the story.”

Mr Sharman went on to outline his experience of working alongside and speaking to journalists who had first-hand experience of that happening to them in their daily work.

He said: “I know from my personal experience that freelance journalists were pitching stories and ideas to newspapers and people within the newspapers and within television were going in with ideas to balance and the ideas were not accepted.

“Scientists, doctors, any journalists and individuals – anyone that questioned and spoke out – and some of these people are eminent, they were branded as false information, misinformation, conspiracy theorists. It’s so easy if you disagree to say, you’re a ‘conspiracy theorist’.”

The impossible question to answer continues to be, why? Why would established media organisations with reputations to uphold in a dying market suddenly discard all journalistic values upon which they were built.

Mr Sharman said: “To begin with, I think we all believed that this pandemic was worse than it’s turned out to be. And there was an honest feeling that they were doing right by the country, to begin with. But later – and particularly over vaccines – that the media let the country down.

“Why would you not ask questions about the Government doing a secret deal with Pfizer that took away any responsibility for anything going wrong? They have given them indemnity. Why would the FDA and Pfizer hide their documents for their trials – or try to – for 75 years?

“These are suspicious things and the question should have been asked.”

Not only were they not asked but even now questions remain off the table.

Mr Sharman said: “What we now see if that some of the documents have been released and some of the trials were anything but safe and effective. At best it’s faulty and at worst it’s fraud.

“I don’t think you can ignore the fact that the Government spent £500million on advertising, which for newspapers in particular was a lifeline.

“But I’m afraid you also have to look at the ownership – and this is where the phrase conspiracy theorist gets put all over us. Most of the world’s biggest companies are owned by Blackrock and Vanguard and that includes a  lot of the media. The Bill Gates Foundation puts a fortune into the media, including the BBC’s charity.

“The BBC’s own trusted news initiative is a partnership between the BBC and the Big Tech and of course that’s also funded by Blackrock and Vanguard and Bill Gates.

“And given the fact that Vanguard and Blackrock also have about £35billion of stock in Pfizer, that ownership connection is there. It’s not for me to say that is a connection but it’s unhealthy that so much of the media is owned by the same people that are driving the science, is owned by the same people that are making the drugs.”

This is, perhaps, one reason why the thousands of injuries and deaths subsequent to people having a Covid jab were ignored by the media.

Mr Sharman added: “Vaccine damage and the efficacy of vaccines is my biggest bugbear because still now people are not accepting how many injuries and deaths there are. I know because I’ve had a lot of emails from people and I’ve interviewed a lot of people and it’s heartbreaking. 

“And you know what’s also heartbreaking? The doctors they get to see will not accept it is a vaccine injury. So lots of these people are suffering – twice.”