It was Bob Dylan who made the words the times they are a-changin’ world famous. Now it is a conceptual reality across the world, and everyone is wondering what is about to happen next.
Artificial intelligence is dominating the headlines across the globe and social media is coming under unprecedented attack. As someone who visited Aushwitz Birkenau in the early 1970’s and has never forgotten the experience I was struck on Monday by a comment made at the Holocaust memorial ceremony there that “…history must not be allowed to repeat itself”.
The blame for continuing and increasing anti—semitism is being heavily blamed on social media.
Sadly yesterday I was present at the funeral of one of Fleet Street’s greatest journalists. Brian Freemantle was a distinguished foreign editor in the days when, as stated in his daughters’ eulogies, there were no computers or social media and journalists had to do their own investigating.
Brian was celebrated as a good friend, but one who could get tough on anyone who got their facts wrong, or who made something up.
Journalistic standards should be a fundamental issue in today’s world, as social media is changing public attitudes, and politicians seem unable (or unwilling? – ed.) to stop people with outlandish ideas or propagandists for causes, or even potential enemies publishing material that is completely fabricated.
This phenomenon is constantly, and correctly, being described as a threat to democracy.
Brian Freemantle, based on conversations I had with him, would certainly be in agreement.
As I made my way to St Bride’s Church, historically known as the journalists’ church, off Fleet Street, I found myself embroiled in a multiple demonstration in front of the law courts where many hundreds of people were protesting about “corruption in the justice system”.
Journalists are not doing their jobs properly and and the courts and judges seem to have forgotten the principles of equality before the law.
The protesters complain that the rules of law are causing miscarriages of justice. Neither journalists nor lawyers are doing their jobs in terms of protecting democracy. Whatever the truth of each individual case both the media as a whole and the judicial system have clearly crossed the line.
When Brian Freemantle sent me on assignment to the Middle East he presented me with a clear written memorandum on reporting standards, and he stated that I would be dismissed if I broke any of the rules.
The political events in the USA have over the past few days led the BBC to interview leading figures in Washington. They have broadly blamed much on social media spreading disinformation. A typical viewpoint, also in the UK and Europe, is that freedom of speech is being used to distort information for various purposes. Also, that education is being used to indoctrinate particularly younger generations.
There is a commercial viewpoint that newspapers, radio and television need to consider carefully. Printed papers are, almost without question, dying out due to poor sales in particular. People say they have stopped buying them because all the stories are about issues seen on television, or online, or have heard on radio the day before.
As news organisations increasingly go online there is a growing sense among the public that it is not worth subscribing because the reporting and political opinion is not worth the cost. Poor reporting is not yet universal but is fast becoming so.
Journalists who rely on social media are coming up against artificial intelligence that they use for information. As we have seen in recent days China, in particular, is dominating the market in software that can actually write articles.
So where is all this actually leading? As Bob Dylan also told us a long time ago: “The answer is blowing in the wind”.
*Brian Freemantle was born in Southampton, England on June 10th, 1936. He became a journalist and worked for four national newspapers. While the foreign editor of the Daily Mail in 1975, he organised the rescue mission to airlift 100 orphans from Saigon days before it fell to the communist north.
Soon afterward, he left journalism to become a full-time author. He wrote over 80 books including the Charlie Muffin series, the Cowley and Danilov Thriller series, and 5 non-fiction books. He has also written under the pen names of John Maxwell, Jonathan Evans, Jack Winchester and Harry Asher.
