Media Amnesia Media Amnesia Rewriting the Economic Crisis Laura Basu First published 2018 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA www.plutobooks.com Copyright © Laura Basu 2018 The right of Laura Basu to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 7453 3790 Hardback ISBN 978 7453 3789 Paperback ISBN 978 7868 0275 PDF eBook ISBN 978 7868 0277 Kindle eBook ISBN 978 7868 0276 EPUB eBook This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin Typeset by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England Simultaneously printed in the United Kingdom and United States of America Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Crash Deficit Slump Eurocrisis Inequality Curing Media Amnesia Glossary References Index Acknowledgements This project was funded by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie research fellowship supported by Justin Lewis at Cardiff University My thanks to Justin and to all my colleagues at Cardiff, especially my office mate Joe Cable I’m also grateful for the institutional support I’ve received from the Institute for Cultural Inquiry, Utrecht University, the Department of Media and Communications, Goldsmiths, University of London and the Media, Economics, and Entrepreneurship program at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism I want to thank all those who have contributed to this project, by reading chapters or proposals, giving important advice or helping me develop my ideas, especially: Ann Rigney, Astrid Erll, Nello Cristianini, Natalie Fenton, Des Freedman, James Curran, Danielle Rhodes, Fiona May, Christopher H Smith, Chris Smith, Steve Schifferes, Christian Fuchs, Jonathan Hardy and Marko Ampuja A huge thank you to all the journalists who agreed to be interviewed and so generously gave of their time to share their insights and experiences Likewise the economists, political scientists and activists who helped answer my difficult questions And to my publisher, Pluto Press, especially my editor Anne Beech Thanks to my friends, either for letting me talk endlessly about my work or for providing much needed distraction – both types of support have been essential As always, my wonderful family has been with me every step of the way – the LA crew: Jay, Tamara, Alita and Asha, and my unstoppable parents, Ann and Dipak Basu Most of all, I want to thank the amazing giant, Erik Ros, who has been my partner on this adventure, and whose contribution to this book is incalculable Introduction On 15 September 2007, the UK experienced its first run on a bank since 1866 Exactly a year later, Lehman Brothers filed the biggest bankruptcy in history Over the course of 2008, global stock markets plunged nearly 50 per cent, wiping out $35 trillion in financial assets (McNally 2011: 13) Eight major US banks collapsed, as did more than twenty across Europe, many of which were taken over by governments The entire edifice of the market system seemed to be crumbling before our eyes Even the Financial Times ran a series on ‘The Future of Capitalism’, declaring that ‘The world of the three past decades is gone’ (quoted in McNally 2011: 14) A decade later, we are still feeling the effects of the banking meltdown, which has cost an estimated $13 trillion in bank bailouts (Blyth 2013: 5), and $50 trillion in asset values worldwide (Harvey 2011: 6) The economic crisis has now morphed into a political crisis, as authoritarian populist figures marshal people’s anger and fear over their precarious finances into nationalist projects It is perhaps difficult to remember the sense of sheer panic and confusion in the initial stages of the crisis, swiftly followed by fury at a set of people who had styled themselves as ‘masters of the universe’ and reaped untold rewards creating what had turned out to be ‘financial weapons of mass destruction’ (in the words of master of the universe, Warren Buffett) We seem to have grown accustomed to a pervading sense of economic and now political turmoil Not only that, we seem to have gotten used to the idea that it is we, the ordinary people, who will pay for it, via cuts to public services and lower incomes Many now even believe that it was public spending that caused the crisis in the first place It is widely thought that Labour lost the 2015 UK election partly because voters believed it had crashed the economy by spending too much public money, and was not committed enough to tackling the deficit through austerity Some blame the poor or immigrants for the problems We seem to have forgotten the origins of the banking meltdown, and its roots in the wider economic system This is remarkable, not only because of the historical reality of the financial crisis, but because that crisis was all over the news at the time How has history been so quickly rewritten, what role has the media played in rewriting it, and what effects might this have had for thinking about solutions to the economic problems? These are the kinds of questions this book will address It follows the UK news coverage of the crisis from the run on Northern Rock in 2007 until the present day, encompassing the global financial meltdown, the Great Recession, the UK deficit, the eurozone crisis, and falling living standards and rising inequality It traces the twists and turns by which the media have taken us from a crisis produced by a form of capitalism that has created untold riches for those at the top to a situation in which the majority of people are struggling while those responsible have actually increased their share of global wealth In particular, it explores the phenomenon of media amnesia, which has been created purposely by politicians and sections of the press, and is often reproduced passively by the ‘impartial’ broadcasters and ‘liberal’ press As the crisis has mutated over time, it has been continually reframed in the media With each reframing, certain information is forgotten and other information is added, so that the crisis narrative is fluid, malleable and difficult to grasp in its entirety It will be shown that this amnesia, which entails the media forgetting its own very recent coverage, has helped trap us in a neoliberal groundhog day It has legitimised the implementation of the same kinds of policies that helped cause the crisis in the first place These policies not only hit the poorest hardest but actually transfer resources upwards, from the 99 per cent to the per cent The ‘strange non-death of neoliberalism’ (Crouch 2011) since the 2008 crash has been widely observed (Mirowski 2013; Sum and Jessop 2013) This book explores the role of the media in this non-death There are three primary characteristics of the media coverage that contribute to media amnesia: a lack of historical explanation; an overly narrow range of perspectives privileging elite views; and a lack of global context Each of these threads will be teased out through the following chapters Media amnesia is not limited to the coverage of the economic crisis – it can be found in all kinds of reporting (the reporting of the Iraq War springs to mind), and is a defining condition of today’s media The economic crisis provides a rare opportunity to examine media amnesia over a time frame of several years continuously – it is one of the only phenomena that has stayed in the media eye constantly for that long a period The workings of media amnesia in relation to a crisis that has become the backdrop of life for millions is thus the subject of this book MEDIA AMNESIA AND THE CRISIS For some critical theorists, forgetting is a key feature of capitalism Fredric Jameson, in his reading of Karl Marx, describes capital as a ‘machine constantly breaking down, repairing itself not by solving its local problems, but by mutation onto larger and larger scales, its past always punctually forgotten .’ (quoted in de Cock et al 2012: 87) Prichard and Mir point out that this forgetfulness, a ‘collective absent mindedness’, lies at the heart of the economic regime that creates the conditions for ever more frequent and intensive crises De Cock et al argue that it is this forgetfulness that has allowed us to return to ‘business as usual’ after 2008 (de Cock et al 2012: 87) Henry A Giroux (2014) writes of ‘the violence of organized forgetting’, which has been perpetrated in the US by a range of institutions and sustains an increasingly destructive form of capitalism by short-circuiting critical thought Part of the reason capitalism creates amnesia is that the search for profit – capitalism’s driving force – leads to the constant speeding up of our experience of time: what David Harvey (1989) has called ‘time-space compression’ Companies are always searching for ways to produce more and faster The current era has taken this acceleration to new levels, with finance capital’s real-time transactions on the one hand and the just-in-time supply chains of transnational corporations on the other (Hope 2011) For social theorist Hartmut Rosa (2015), we are experiencing acceleration in multiple spheres of life, and this affects the ways we relate to each other and the world For many, the speeding up of time under capitalism has wrought havoc on our ability to remember It is media, in the sense of information and communication technologies (ICTs), that have enabled the instantaneous transactions of finance and the transnational supply chains that are behind this acceleration (Hope 2011) In turn, media, including news media, have been profoundly affected by this phenomenon In the age of 24/7 multi-platform news, journalists are having to operate at ‘warp speed’, constantly churning out stories while looking over their shoulders at what the competition are doing (Le Masurier 2015) This has led to problems with inaccuracy, cannibalisation of each others’ stories and lack of contextualisation, as will be explored later on The acceleration of news production has created a ‘media torrent’ and ‘information overload’ (Gitlin 2001) Though there is now an abundance of information, that does not necessarily mean we can process and remember it – quite the reverse In their book No Time to Think, journalists Howard Rosenberg and Charles S Feldman (2008) argue that ‘today’s media blitz scrambles the public’s perspective in ways that potentially shape how we think, act and react as a global society’ When it comes to news, acceleration has meant ultra fast-moving news agendas As will be seen, new news doesn’t only build on what came before it, but can actually serve to erase or write over past coverage In the age of ‘warp speed’ this amounts to more than rewriting history: history is being constantly rewritten as it is happening This book will show how, when it comes to the economic crisis, this media forgetting and rewriting has had ideological outcomes, coming to serve certain interests The acceleration of time within capitalism and information overload are not in themselves the focus of this book Rather, they form the backdrop to the ongoing coverage of the crisis, with its amnesiac tendencies The next part of this introduction gives an overview of the crisis itself It is followed by an introduction to the key media issues that will be explored throughout It ends with a description of the media study on which the book is based THE CRISIS This section journeys into the economic processes resulting in the 2008 disaster As mentioned above, the three major factors contributing to media amnesia are a lack of historical explanation, the dominance of elite perspectives and a lack of global context, so it is crucial that we avoid falling into the same trap by beginning with an understanding of the crisis that takes hold of its historical and global dimensions Having said that, it is impossible to grasp fully in one introductory chapter the dynamics of global capitalism resulting in the crash, about which endless books have been written In a sense, this section can be seen as a taster, and the issues raised here will be revisited in later chapters We will start with a brief treatment of the immediate causes of the crash in the shape of toxic financial products, before moving to the deeper roots in the wider economy The 2007 run on Northern Rock was one consequence of a credit crunch which catastrophically went on to block the flow of money through the financial system The problem was that banks relied not on deposits from their savers but short-term loans from each other to support their activities When these money markets dried up, the banks did not have enough liquidity – cash and assets that can be quickly turned into cash – to continue functioning Many also did not have enough capital – shareholders’ equity and operating profits – to keep them going and so were actually insolvent The big US banks had leverage ratios of around 30:1, meaning they borrowed $30 for every dollar they held in bank capital The leverage of many European banks was even worse (McNally 2011: 106) Banking had become more indebted than any other sector of the economy (Harvey 2011: 30) The banks stopped lending to each other because it had become clear that they had no way of valuing the more exotic assets on their books These included types of mortgage-backed securities called collateralised debt obligations (CDOs) CDOs are a form of tradable debt made out of lots of other, particularly risky, bits of debt Robert Peston (2012: 13) describes them as ‘investments manufactured out of the offcuts and offal of other investments’ Banks had been creating and trading billions upon billions worth of these securities They wreaked havoc in combination with a type of derivative called credit default swaps (CDSs) Derivatives are products that derive their value from the value of an underlying asset The financial sector had been busy concocting more and more elaborate derivatives, eschewing what regulation existed by creating a shadow banking sector where much of this ‘over the counter’ trading took place These markets were circulating up to $600 trillion by 2008 – compared with global output of $61 trillion (Harvey 2011: 21) If we think back to the questions of acceleration and time, it is the speed of financial transactions that means they are so voluminous, and therefore cumulatively so profitable – and so dangerous CDSs are a kind of insurance against debt default If you make a loan and are worried that it might not be repaid, you can buy a CDS on the loan The issuer of the CDS will, for a fee, refund you the amount of the loan in case of default Only you don’t have to be the holder of the debt to buy a CDS on that loan – anyone can buy the CDS, allowing them to be used for the purposes of pure speculation Up to 80 per cent of the CDS market involved clients who were not themselves exposed to the relevant credit risks (Sayer 2015: 201) CDOs could be sold as very safe, AAA rated bonds by attaching CDSs to them Together, CDOs and CDSs allowed risky loans to be repurposed into instruments billed as ‘sound as a pound’ (Peston 2012: 90) What is more, CDSs could also be used to bet against the risky loans contained in CDOs The hedge fund Paulson & Co made $15 billion from betting against the CDO market in 2007 (Peston 2012: 91) The speculators were right not to trust the CDOs’ ratings The credit rating agencies whose job it was to assess them – and who had given them AAA ratings – were paid by the same institutions they were supposed to rate Through CDOs and other securities – instruments supposedly designed to manage risk – the risk of loan default was diffused through the entire financial system When people, particularly in the US, began defaulting on their mortgages, nobody knew where this bad debt was located, which is why the credit markets froze But why was there so much bad debt in the first place? Banks had been conjuring enormous sums out of thin air to lend to businesses and households – at interest, of course They then packaged up that debt into all kinds of different products and traded it back and forth to make vastly more profit out of it The banks didn’t care if those they were lending to could not afford to pay the money back, because the nifty securities spread (or at least hid) the risk And in any case, it wasn’t the loan issuer’s problem as it had passed the debt on to who-knows-where Predatory lending to those who couldn’t afford it – in the form of subprime loans – was the order of the day As may have become apparent, for all this to happen, financial sector regulation had to have been somewhat lax Regulation had been increasingly ‘light touch’ for the preceding thirty-odd years and especially from the 1990s Many accounts of the crisis stop at around this point (as we’ll see in chapter 1), with the recklessness of the financial sector, the building up of systemic problems in that sector and with the lack of adequate regulation of banks However, to understand the crisis, we need to go deeper than that, and look at why finance had become so big and how it relates to movements in the wider economy Marxian economic analysis helps grasp those deeper roots FINANCIALISATION European Commission 139, 154, 170, 228 eurozone crisis 139–77 austerity and 139–40, 142, 171–4 bailouts 139–40, 143–5, 154–7 decoupling of from financial crisis 140, 141, 175, 176 media coverage 64–5, 174–7; amnesia 140–2, 145, 160–1, 162–3, 174–7; euroscepticism 152–4, 176; explanations for crisis: (lazy citizens) 140, 147–9, 158–9, 172, 176; (profligacy and corruption) 140, 142–147, 176; (structure of union) 149–52; on response to crisis 154–71 monetary policy and 64, 89, 149–52, 156 scope of 139–40 exchange rates 15, 149–50 executive pay and bonuses 33, 42, 51, 69, 182 exploitation 102 Facebook 18–19, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 225, 226 ‘fake news’ 18, 218, 224–5 far-right politics 177 Farnsworth, Kevin 95 Federal Reserve Bank (US) 12, 43, 69 Feldman, Charles S Feldner, Heiko 125 Fenton, Natalie 223–4, 234 filter bubbles 222 financial crisis (2008) actual causes of 6–15 amnesia over 1–2, 33, 68–9, 72–8, 88, 103, 107, 114–15; bank bailouts 49, 74, 160–1; budget deficit 72–8, 91, 107, 140–2; constraints on coverage 95–101; decoupling of crisis from consequences 115, 140, 141, 175, 176, 179, 181, 182; legitimisation of policies contributing to 2, 108–9, 114–15, 118, 138, 162–3, 183–4, 210; regulation 51, 54 failure to foresee 26–8 media coverage: explanations for crisis 32–42, 68–9, 72–8; global perspectives 64–8, 103–7, 130, 133–6, 210–11; on response to crisis 42–59 redistribution upwards after 2, 16–17, 113–14, 121–2, 178–84, 210 scope of 1, 16, 32 see also austerity; bank bailouts financial repression 94 financial sector bonuses 33, 42, 51, 69, 182 corruption in 146–7 as direct beneficiaries of crisis 16, 53, 145, 155–6 dominance of in UK economy 37–8 nationalisation of banks 32, 42, 47, 56–9, 69 punishment of, demands for 32, 33, 45–6 as source for media 25–6, 36, 61, 62, 88, 118 see also bank bailouts; ‘business-friendly’ policies Financial Times 1, 21, 67, 116–17, 130–1, 212 financial transactions tax 52, 55, 93, 102, 193 financialisation definition 38 reversal of 55 rise of 6–8, 13, 37–8, 68, 153 social media and 219–20 fiscal deficits see budget deficits fiscal policy 240glos in eurozone 151, 157 government investment 17, 79, 80, 109, 110, 122–5 in Keynesianism 11–12 in macroeconomic theory 70–1 stimulus packages 69, 70 see also austerity flak 61, 180, 208, 209 Flanders, Stephanie 87–8, 104 ‘flexible’ employment 12, 13, 161, 185, 187–8 Focus on the Global South 137 Ford, Henry 36 Forkert, Kirsten 205 framing, concept of 23–5 France 12, 52, 56, 93, 147, 155, 177 free trade 130–3, 136–7 Freedland, Jonathan 43 Freedman, Des 212, 219, 234 Freedom House 175 Friedman, Milton 10 Fuchs, Christian 217, 220, 225, 226–7, 234 Galloway, George 42 Gannett Co Inc 134, 135 Garcia-Blanco, Inaki 174 GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services) 131 GDP (Gross Domestic Product) 126, 129, 240glos Geithner-Summers plan 53–4, 69 Geithner, Tim 53 Germany bond yields in 65 current account of 67 debt-to-GDP ratio in 142 democratic deficit in 153 eurozone as benefit to 149–50 far-right in 177 financial crash, response to 56, 64, 69, 70, 141 green policies in 123 labour deregulation in 12 media marketisation in 134 narratives in 148–9, 159 narratives on 147–8, 150–1 postwar growth in redistribution in 151–2 taxes in 93 trade surplus of 106, 150, 151 Ghosh, Jayati 88 Gimson, Andrew 43–4 Giroux, Henry A Gitlin, Todd 212 Glasgow Media Group 118 Glass-Steagall laws similar to 51, 52 repeal of Global Financial Integrity (GTI) programme 194–5 global imbalances 15, 67, 129, 178 Global Investigative Journalism Network 214 globalisation financial crash and 39, 67–8, 129–30 inequality and 13–15, 67, 102, 131–3, 188–90 reactions against 130–1, 132–3, 136–7, 188 TNCs and 67, 102, 130–3, 131, 136 wages and 14–15, 67, 102, 132–3, 188–90 Golding, Peter 204–5, 206–7 Goldman Sachs 33, 43, 146 Goldsmiths College 214 Goodwin, Fred 33, 46 Google 18, 219, 220–1, 222, 225, 226 government investment 17, 79, 80, 109, 110, 122–5 Graeber, David 105–6, 125, 202 Gramsci, Antonio 22–3 ‘granny tax’ 113 Great Recession see financial crisis (2008) Greece austerity in 161–2, 169, 171–3 democratic deficit in 153–4 eurozone, impact of on 139–40, 149–50 financial crash and 139–40, 142 IMF and 105, 139, 155, 170 left resurgence in 123, 169, 173–4 narratives on 103, 142, 148–9, 154, 156, 158–9, 161, 164, 168, 174–5; coverage of protests 171–3; Syriza and 161, 169, 173–5 press suppression in 174–5 sovereign debt of 64–5, 70, 139–40, 142, 154–6, 168–70 green growth 127 Greenberg, Susan 214 Grexit 163–4 growth inequality and 179 questioning of 17, 45, 109, 125, 126–9, 200 Guardian affiliations and ownership 28, 29, 98–9 as alternative to media corporations 20, 64 on austerity 78, 79, 81, 84, 85, 86–7, 88, 90–1, 100, 109, 198; in eurozone 140, 158, 159–61, 176–7; ‘for the rich’ 78, 80, 92–3, 95, 110, 182–93 on bank bailouts 42–3, 46, 48, 49–50, 79 on bankers’ punishment 45–6 on ‘business-friendly’ measures 78–80, 109, 111, 113–14, 115–16, 162 capitalism references 43, 44 on causes of financial crash 37, 38, 39, 40 on Corbyn 208 on deficit (UK) 75, 76, 78–81 on eurozone crisis 140, 141, 143, 145, 147, 149, 150–1, 152; on response to crisis 140, 158, 159–61, 162, 163–4, 166–7, 167–9, 171, 176–7; on resistance to response 172, 173, 174 global coverage 65 on government investment 79, 80, 110, 122–3 ‘grown-up politics’ and 63 on growth 128 on inequality and poverty 180–1, 185, 186–8, 198, 203, 204, 205, 207 on neoliberal policies (in general) 183, 184, 198 on public ownership 56–7, 59 on quantitative easing 121 on regulation and reform 51, 197 on socialism 44 on tax avoidance/evasion 79, 193–4, 196 on tax cuts for population 80, 110 Guardian Media Group 21 Guido Fawkes 213 Gurria, Angel 192–3 Ha-Joon Chang 36 Hague, William 164 Haldane, Andrew 49, 52, 129, 190–1 Hall, Stuart 23, 61, 96, 186, 209 Hallin, Daniel 175 Hammond, Phillip 198 Harkins, H 204 Harvey, David 3, 14, 152 Hastings, Max 36, 44 Hayek, Friedrich von 10 hegemony 22–3 Herman, E.S 22, 61, 63, 98, 208 Hind, Dan 237–9 H&M 102 Hobsbawm, Eric 59 house prices 34, 142–3, 183 HSBC 98 Huffington Post 213, 217 hyper-neoliberalism 28, 114 Iceland 16, 46, 56, 64 ideological capture 26 ideology 22 IFS (Institute of Fiscal Studies) 75, 83-84, 85, 94 179, 198 ILO (International Labour Organization) 185, 189 IMF (International Monetary Fund) 1976 UK loans 11, 75, 97 alternatives to 137 on Brexit 136 Cameron on 74, 82–3 on causes of eurozone crisis 149–50 conditionality and 14, 16, 104, 105, 132, 139–40, 170–1 on debt relief 169, 171 on global debt 108, 124 inequality and 178, 189, 193 media reporting issues 105, 154–5 neoliberalism, support for 9, 106 on public spending 125 immigrants and immigration 177, 189, 205–6 impartiality 60, 95–101, 117–20 see also sources imperialism 67–8, 103, 105–6, 131, 137, 202 income household 179, 180 inequality of 181, 182, 185, 189 see also inequality and poverty; redistribution; wages income taxes see taxes Independent 21 Independent Commission on Banking 52–3 Independent Press Standards Organisation 229 India 16, 136, 227 Indymedia 216 inequality and poverty 178–91 blaming of poor 25, 35, 97–8, 179, 203–7 as class issue 184–6 globalisation and 13–15, 67, 102, 131–3, 188–90 in-work poverty 179, 181, 187, 198, 203 increase in since financial crash 2, 16–17, 113–14, 121–2, 178–84, 210 internet usage and 226 labour market deregulation and 16–17, 183–4 media coverage: amnesia 179, 181–2, 183; explanations for 179–91, 203–5; on response to 192–9 neoliberalism and: rise in under 181–90; as goal of 12–13, 16–17, 111, 181, 194–7 possible solutions 199–202 privatisation as contributor to 112–13 productivity and 191 QE as contributor to 121–2, 182–3 tax havens as contributor to 194–7 see also redistribution inflation 11–12, 181 asset inflation 15, 34, 122, 142–3, 183 ‘infotainment’ 22, 134, 209, 222 infrastructure spending 122–3 Institute of Directors 112 intellectual property 131–2 interest rates 12, 50–1, 64, 69, 70, 139, 156 International Consortium of Investigative Journalism 214 internet media see online news; social media internet service providers (ISPs) 230 internet usage 226 investigative journalism 26–7, 213–14 Investigative Reporting Workshop 213 investment by business 115, 116–17, 123–4, 133, 187–8 government 17, 79, 80, 109, 110, 122–5 IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) 127 Iraq War fact-checking media Ireland 56, 69, 139, 142–3, 147–8, 149, 161 Italy 12, 65, 142, 148 ITV 18, 228 Jackson, Tim 126, 128–9 Jameson, Fredric JAMs (‘just about managing’) 198 Japan 7, 11, 16, 67, 106, 134 Jenkins, Simon 152, 168 Johnson, Boris 69, 180 Jones, Owen 60, 96, 97, 205 journalists dominance of elite views and 59–61, 63–4, 97 pressures on 20–2, 97, 100–1, 117–18 from private sector 119 self-censorship and conformity 61, 63, 97, 100–1, 134 trust in 19 Jubilee Debt Campaign 155–6 Kavanagh, Trevor 44, 72, 147, 165 Kay, Jilly Boyce 87 Keynes, John Maynard 11, 103, 123, 150 Keynesianism as alternative to austerity 17, 83, 109, 122–5, 138 in combination with austerity 125, 160 after financial crash 70–1, 83 Graeber on 202 inflation and 11–12, 123 shifts away from 41, 83, 123–4, 152 summary of tenets 11, 71 varieties of 124–5 King, Mervyn 47 Kissinger, Henry 106 Klein, Naomi 50, 126-127, 159, 189 Knowles, Sophie 27, 33 Krauss-Maffei Wegmann 146 Krugman, Paul 84, 108, 136, 171 Kyriakidou, Maria 174 labour deregulation and 12–14, 16–17, 108, 161–2, 183–4; reversal of 179, 197–8 ‘flexible’ employment 12, 13, 161, 185, 187–8 redistribution away from 12–15, 16–17, 151–2, 178, 184–6, 188–9, 191, 199 share of national income 185, 188–90, 191 see also productivity; unemployment; wages Labour Party (UK) 2010 election: 83–4, 85, 90, 91, 96–7, 99–100 2015 election: 1, 91, 99, 207 2017 election: 18, 91–2 media supporting 28–9, 96, 118 narratives on, over economy 39, 44, 47–8, 57, 72–8, 92, 107, 197–8 pro-business orientation of 42, 118, 179 see also Blair; Brown; Corbyn labour productivity see productivity Lagarde, Christine 125 Lamont, Norman 115 land-value tax 93 Lapavitsas, Costas on eurozone crisis 88, 145, 150–1, 159–60, 164, 168, 169 on financial controls 55 on financialisation 38 on public ownership 57–9 social vision of Europe 166–7 Laskaridis, Christina 146 Le Masurier, Megan 214–15 Lea, Ruth 72 Leckie, Bill 124 Lehman Brothers 1, 8, 35 Leveson Inquiry 19, 228–9, 231 Lewis, Charles 213 Lewis, Justin 127-128 Lewis, Michael Liberal Democrats 99, 165, 198 liberal pluralist model 22 Lievrouw, L.A 216 living standards 10, 179–82, 184, 186–7, 197, 198 see also inequality and poverty living wage 179, 197–8 Lloyd, Tony 42 Lloyds TSB 49, 56 Long Play (LP) 215 Lugo-Ocando, J 204 Luyendijk, Joris 36 Maastricht Treaty 153 Maguire, Kevin 42, 59, 183, 184, 185–6 Major, John 75, 76, 231 Mandelson, Peter 179 Manning, Paul 99–100 Market Access clause 131 marketization ‘the markets’ 71, 87–9, 145, 153 Marwick, Alice 223 Marx, Karl 11, 14, 102, 191 Mason, Paul 55, 100, 157, 191 May, Theresa 91, 198, 206 Mazzucato, Mariana 122–3, 127 McChesney, R 218–19, 233, 238 McDonnell, John 57, 208 McNally, David 12, 17 media amnesia alternative media to counter 216–19 on austerity 71, 104–5, 107, 162–3 on bank bailouts 49, 74, 160–1 on budget deficit 72–8, 91, 107, 140–2 on ‘business-friendly’ measures 108, 109, 114–20, 183 constraints on debate 95–101, 117–20, 134–6 elements of 2–3, 40–2, 59–64, 68–9, 175; lack of global context 134–6, 162, 210–11; lack of historical context 40–2, 77, 120; lack of pluralism 59–64, 77 elite views, dominance of 22, 25–8, 59–64, 77, 96–8, 117–20, 134–6, 175; business and finance interests 25–8, 61–2, 98, 118–20, 134; journalists’ interests and 59–61, 63–4, 97; ownership and 96–7, 98, 117–18, 134, 212 on eurozone crisis 140–2, 145, 160–1, 162–3, 174–7 on financial crisis 1–2, 33, 68–9, 72–8, 88, 103, 107, 114–15 framing, concept of 23–5 on inequality and poverty 179, 181–2, 183 neoliberal restructuring and 19–22, 25–8, 63, 118–20, 174–6 neoliberal views, ‘common sensification’ of 23, 26, 27, 118 reform, proposals for 227–39 on regulation 51, 54 speed of news production and 3–4, 63 on tax avoidance/evasion 196 see also media providers Media General 212 media providers 18–19, 20–9 media reform, proposals for 227–39 Meek, James 195 Merkel, Angela 64, 147, 166 methodology of study 28–31 Mexico 14, 16, 20, 132, 134 Microsoft 225 Middleton, Sue 204–5, 206, 207 Milanovic, Branko 133 Miliband, Ed 90, 91, 99, 180, 197, 231 Mills, Tom 60, 119 Milne, Seumas 40, 86, 90, 115, 185, 187–8 Mir, R Mirror affiliations and ownership 28–9, 98–9, 118, 176 on austerity 78, 79, 81, 82, 84, 90, 100, 109, 113, 158, 180, 192; ‘for the rich’ 78, 80, 92, 110, 192 on bank bailouts 42, 46, 79, 155 on bankers’ punishment 45 on ‘business-friendly’ measures 78–80, 109, 112–13, 117–18 capitalism references 43 on causes of financial crash 33, 38, 39, 40, 42 on deficit (UK) 76, 78–81 on eurozone crisis 141, 147–8, 155, 158, 163, 176 on government investment 79, 80, 110, 122 on inequality and poverty 180, 185–6 on neoliberal policies (in general) 183–4, 185 on public ownership 56, 57, 59 on regulation and reform 51, 197 on tax avoidance/evasion 79, 193 on tax cuts for population 80, 110 Monbiot, George 45, 60, 128 monetary policy 241glos after financial crisis 17, 50–1, 69, 70, 120–2, 124 during Asian crisis 15 in eurozone 64, 89, 149–52, 156 in Keynesianism 11 money supply, control of 58 quantitative easing (QE) 50–1, 120–2, 156, 182–3 Moore, Charles 44, 165–6 Morgan Stanley 219–20 mortgages, securitisation of 6, 8, 34–7, 46, 145 multinational corporations see TNCs Murdoch, Rupert 20, 28, 96–7, 194, 231 Mylonas, Yiannis 148, 156, 159 NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) 132 Narratively 215 National Treatment clause 131 nationalisation of banks 32, 42, 47, 56–9, 69 Nelson, Fraser 120–2, 197–8 neoliberalism 9–10, 12 ‘common sensification’ of 23, 26, 27, 118 crises as opportunities for 159, 189–90 escalation of after financial crisis 16–17, 178 as explanation for financial crisis 38–40 globalisation and 13–15, 67–8 inequality and: rise in under 181–90; as goal of 12–13, 16–17, 111, 181, 194–7 media amnesia and 114–15 media restructuring under 19–22, 25–8, 63, 118–20, 174–6 ‘non-death’ of postdemocracy and 62–3 tax havens and 194–7 New York Times 21, 134 News Corp 20, 28, 134, 194, 231 News of the World 19 news values 23–4, 77–8, 174–5, 206 Nichols, J 218–19, 233, 238 Nield, Robert 83 Nixon, Richard Norfield, Tony 37, 67–8, 102 Northern Rock 4–5, 41, 47, 49, 56 Obama administration 52, 53–4, 69 OECD 136, 148, 178, 192–3, 241glos Ofcom 228 Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) 116, 181 offshore tax havens 194–7 online news 18–19, 21, 206–7, 212–19, 230, 232 oppositional media 215–19 ordoliberalism 159 Osborne, George blames eurozone crisis 130 blames Labour 73 blames the poor 204 criticises BBC 232 living wage policy of 197 media coverage of 73, 90, 111–12, 113, 116, 121–2, 184, 185–6 plans and policies 73, 90, 111–12, 113, 116, 121–2, 195 Osborne, Peter 98, 149 Oxfam 93, 178, 181, 183, 193–4, 197, 199–200 Panama Papers 196 Papademos, Lukas 153 Paradise Papers 196 paradox of thrift 103–4 Pariser, Eli 222 patents 131–2 Paulson & Co Paulson, Henry 35, 43, 46 People’s Assembly 90 personalisation (in social media) 222 Peru 12, 14 Peston, Robert 5–6, 43 Pew Research Centre 213 Phillips, Angela 62 phone-hacking scandal 19, 228–9 Picard, R.G 212 PIIGS 142–4 Piketty, Thomas 93, 103, 178, 193, 208–9 Pinochet, Augusto 10 pluralism 59–64, 210–11, 231, 235 plutocracy 89, 200 Pocantio Declaration 214 Podemos 123, 174, 175 Poland 14, 166, 177 Polanyi, Karl 137 Politico 213 Portugal 70, 139, 142, 148, 149, 161 Positive Money 58 postdemocracy 62–3, 89, 134, 200 poverty see inequality and poverty precarious employment 12, 13, 161, 185, 187–8 Prichard, C primary definers 24, 61–2 privatisation conditionality and 14 ‘private taxes’ and 195 of public resources 40, 108, 112 reversal of 58 as tenet of neoliberalism 9, 12, 115 productivity 240glos increases in 10, 126–7, 190–1 low 186–8 rethinking of 128 wages and 13, 191 profits failure to invest with 116–17, 187–8 in media industry 20, 21, 134, 135, 136, 212 paradox of 11 as policy priority 12–13, 16–17, 40, 114 propaganda model 22 property and wealth taxes 93, 193 ProPublica 213 protectionism 130–3, 136–7 psychographics 224 public commissioning 237–9 public debt see debt: government public ownership of banks 32, 42, 47, 56–9, 69 public relations (PR) as news source 21–2, 62, 212 public service media 233, 235 see also BBC public spending corporate welfare 95, 125 IMF support of 125 in macroeconomic theory 70–1 media coverage 40, 82, 97 reduction of under neoliberalism 9, 12–13, 14, 182 see also austerity; bank bailouts quantitative easing (QE) 50–1, 120–2, 156, 182–3 radical media 215–19 Rajoy, Mariano 160, 162 ratings agencies 122, 145 RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) 46, 49, 56 Reagan, Ronald 10, 106, 111 recessions in 1970s 11 Asian crisis (1997) 15 deliberately induced 12 post-financial crisis, response to: globalization and 129–37; Keynesian policies 122–5; more austerity 90–2, 106–22, 108; quantitative easing 120–2, 182–3; supply-side policies 108–22 see also financial crisis (2008) Redden, Joanna 205, 207, 216 redistribution from global south to north 14–15, 105–6 from labor to capital 12–15, 16–17, 151–2, 178, 184–6, 188–9 media amnesia and 2, 179, 181–2 policies aimed at 2, 111, 184–6, 199; in 1970s and 1980s 12–13; after financial crisis 16–17, 113–14, 121–2, 178–84; in Germany 151–2; tax havens 194–5 reform of media, proposals for 227–39 regulation amnesia over 51, 54 banking reform 51–5, 157 re-regulation 196–9 regulatory failure 34–5, 38–9 see also deregulation Reinhart, C 94 Reith, John 60 relative decoupling 127 Republicans (US) 106–7 research methodology 28–31 Resolution Foundation 178, 179, 196 retirement age 147–8 Reuters 136 Roberts, Michael 123–4 Robinson, Nicholas 46 robotics 190–1, 201 Rosa, Hartmut Rosenberg, Howard Rothermere, Jonathan, Viscount 96 Routledge, Paul 57 Royal Charter 229, 232 ‘safe ideas’ 61, 63 Salter, Lee 87 Sayer, Andrew 46, 89, 93, 182, 184, 193, 200–1 Sbrancia, M.B 94 Schifferes, Steve 33 Schiller, D 25 Schlosberg, Justin 220–1, 222, 229, 230 Scott Trust 29 Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) 91, 207 Screpanti, Ernesto 14, 132, 150, 151 Seager, Ashley 37, 84 Seaton, J 227–8 secrecy jurisdictions 194–7 securitisation (of mortgages) 6, 8, 34–7, 46, 145 self-censorship and conformity 61, 63, 97, 100–1, 134 shadow banking sector 5, 36–7, 54–5 share buybacks/repurchases 116–17, 188, 241glos Shaxson, Nicolas 115–16, 194–5 shock doctrine 159, 189–90 Siemens 146 Sky takeover bid 20, 231 slow news 214–15 Smith, John 67, 102, 117, 133, 184–5, 188–9 Snowden, Edward 225 social fragmentation 222 social media 18, 206–7, 217, 219–27 socialism 43–4, 49–50 see also corporate welfare; nationalisation sources and experts business sector 113, 118, 120 financial sector 25–6, 36, 61, 62, 88, 118 politicians and officials 61–2, 101, 118, 175 public relations (PR) 21–2, 62, 212 South Korea 11, 15, 16, 65 sovereign debt 241glos Spain bond spreads in 65 financial crash, response to 70, 155 labour deregulation in 12, 162 left resurgence in 123, 174 narratives on 146–7, 148, 160, 162 property bubble in 142–3 retirement age in 148 youth unemployment in 140 speculation and eurozone crisis 139, 145, 159 Srnicek, Nick 191, 201–2, 239 stagflation 11–12, 123 Stalker, Peter 58 Standard & Poor (S&P) 122 Stewart, Heather 186–7 Stiglitz, Joseph 150, 166, 167 structural adjustment programs after financial crisis 16–17, 132 in eurozone 139–40, 157–61 Third World loans and 14, 104–6 study methodology 28–31 subprime lending 6, Summers, Larry 53 Sun affiliations and ownership 28, 29, 96–7, 134 on austerity 78, 79, 81, 109, 158; ‘for the rich’ 78, 80, 92, 110, 192 on bank bailouts 79, 124 on bankers’ punishment 45 on Brexit 165 on ‘business-friendly’ measures 78–80, 109, 111–12 capitalism references 43 on causes of financial crash 38, 39, 42 on deficit (UK) 72, 73, 76, 78–81 on EU 153 on eurozone crisis 141, 142, 147, 152–3, 156, 158, 163 on government investment 79, 80, 110 on inequality and poverty 180 on Labour 208 on public ownership 56–7 on quantitative easing 121 on regulation and reform 51, 197 on socialism 44 on tax cuts for population 80, 110 Sunday Times 205 ‘super exploitation’ 102 supply-side policies 108–22 see also ‘business-friendly’ policies surplus value 241glos Sutton Trust 60 Sweden 50, 226, 231 Syriza as alternative to austerity 123, 161, 169, 173 approach to debt 154, 168–9 media coverage and 145, 161, 168–9, 173–4, 175 rise of 123, 173 Talking Points 216 Tambini, Damien 26 taxes on businesses/the wealthy: cuts to 12, 16, 40, 108, 115–16, 194–5; for corporations 40, 108, 111–12, 113, 115, 116, 125, 198; to top income tax rate 111, 112, 113, 114; rises in 71–2, 78, 80, 81, 85, 92–4, 101–3, 192–3 evasion/avoidance 79, 94, 193–6 on financial transactions 52, 55, 93, 102, 193 on general population, cuts to 80, 116, 192, 195–6 increasing regressiveness of on pensioners 113 for public service media 233–4 VAT 102, 195, 196 technology 190–1, 201 Telegraph affiliations and ownership 28, 96, 194 on austerity 78, 79, 81, 82, 86, 97, 109; in eurozone 140, 158–9; ‘for the rich’ 78, 80, 92, 110, 192 on bank bailouts 42, 46, 79 on bank regulation 51 on bankers’ punishment 45 blaming of the public by 147–8 on Brexit 165 on ‘business-friendly’ measures 78–80, 109, 111, 112, 116, 120–2, 162 capitalism references 43 on causes of financial crash 34–5, 38–9, 41 on deficit (UK) 72, 73, 76, 78–81 on EU 153 on eurozone crisis 140, 141, 143, 146, 147–8, 149, 176; on response to crisis 140, 158–9, 162, 163, 164, 165–6; on resistance to response 171–2, 173 global coverage 65 on government investment 79, 80, 110 impartiality and 98 on inequality and poverty 180, 181, 186, 203 on public ownership 56, 57 on quantitative easing 120–2 on socialism 43–4 on tax avoidance/evasion 79 on tax cuts for population 80, 110 Thatcher, Margaret 10, 12, 38–9, 44, 76, 183, 184, 223 Thatcherism 40, 119, 183, 184 Third World debt 14, 104–6 Thomas, Richard 127–8 time-space compression 3–4 The Times 96, 97 TNCs (transnational corporations) 241glos alternatives to 137 globalisation and 67, 102, 130–3, 131, 136 media and 133–6 tax avoidance/evasion 194–5 tax revenue from 102–3 Toynbee, Polly on austerity 87 on deregulation 38 on inequality 183, 184 on ‘middle class’ label 186 on scapegoating of poor 203–4 on tax allowance 195–6 on top tax rate 92, 192–3 TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) 130 Tracy, James F 148 trade deficits/surpluses 7, 15, 67, 106, 139, 149–51, 240glos train fares 195 transfer pricing 195 transnational corporations see TNCs Treanor, J 43 ‘trickle-down’ policies see ‘business-friendly’ policies; supply-side policies TRIMs (Trade-Related Investment Measures) 131 Trinity Mirror 28–9 TRIPs (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) 131–2 Troika 139, 153–4, 156, 157, 159–60, 170 Trump, Donald Cambridge Analytica and 224 on climate change 127 deregulation and 54 economic policies of 125 globalisation and 130–1, 132, 136 Tsipras, Alexis 154, 169, 173 TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) 130, 133 Tulloch, John 40–1, 44, 59, 74–5 21st Century Fox 20, 28, 134 Twitter 18, 207, 220, 221 UK Uncut 90 UNCTAD (UN Conference on Trade and Development) 133 unemployment during Asian crisis 15 deliberately induced 12 downsizing 11, 13 in eurozone 140, 151–2, 160 globalisation and 133 productivity and 191 tax revenues and 70 UNICEF 105 unions 13, 14, 20, 61, 90, 184 United States in 1970s-1980s 11–13 current account deficits of 15 financial crash and 6, 8, 69, 70, 106–7 financial sector in 52, 53–4 household debt in 13 interest rates in 50 media in 19, 134, 135 subprime lending in 6, top tax rate in 93 trade agreements and 130–3 trade deficits of 7, 15 wages in 12, 13 see also Bush; Obama; Trump universal basic income (UBI) 200–2 Universal Credit 196, 203 van Reenen, John 122 Varoufakis, Yanis on deliberate deficits 106 on financial crash 37, 41, 49, 53–4, 105 on financialisation 37 resignation of 154 on responses to eurozone crisis 169 Venezuela 14, 16 Vighi, Fabio 125 Virgin Money 49 Vodafone 225 Volcker, Paul 12, 106 Volcker Rule 52, 54 Volcker Shock 12, 14, 104 wage share 185, 188–90, 191 wages debt and 35, 114 globalisation and 14–15, 67, 102, 132–3, 188–90 inequality in 181, 185, 189 living wage 179, 197–8 narratives on 118 productivity and 13, 191 reduction of 12–13, 114, 151–2, 161, 179, 187, 190 share of national income 185, 188–90, 191, 241glos Warner, Jeremy 112, 116, 198 Washington Consensus 9–10, 99, 106 see also neoliberalism Washington Post 212 water bills 195 Watt, N 43 wealth and property taxes 93, 193 wealth transfers see redistribution Williams, Alex 191, 201–2, 239 Williams, Raymond 236, 239 Williams, Zoe 113–14, 185 Wolf, Martin 67 workers see labour working hours 148, 201 World Bank 131 alternatives to 137 conditionality and 14 on financial crisis 65–6 on negative growth 108 neoliberalism, support for on poverty 108, 132, 190 World Economic Forum (WEF) 178 World Trade Organisation (WTO) 131–2 Wren-Lewis, Simon 88–9, 91 XXI magazine 215 zero-hours contracts 185 ... that the book is about both the media and the economic crisis, which are intimately linked: the media frames the crisis and the crisis impacts the media It weaves together discussions of the news... focus of this book Rather, they form the backdrop to the ongoing coverage of the crisis, with its amnesiac tendencies The next part of this introduction gives an overview of the crisis itself It... of them throughout the course of the book, as they are key to understanding the coverage of the crisis as it continues to unfold To sum up, the media industries have played a major role in the