Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

marmar

(76,991 posts)
Mon Jan 26, 2015, 11:19 AM Jan 2015

Media Demonization of Syriza: Pretending that Neoliberalism is Popular and Mainstream


Media Demonization of Syriza: Pretending that Neoliberalism is Popular and Mainstream
Posted on January 26, 2015 by Yves Smith


We’re having two posts on the Greek elections tonight, since the media accounts are so slanted as to merit discussion. The notion that a democratically elected government would put broad social interest over continued, self-destructive sacrifices to financiers and their allies in European governments is so threatening that a large swathe of media outlets seem almost to take visceral offense at the idea. Editors and writers are thus serving as vocal enforcers of keeping the Overton Window locked in its present, far right position.

As Christopher D. Rogers said in comments yesterday:

What the “fuck” does the BBC coverage of the Greek election think it is doing and what bloody Orwellian-double speak western world am I living in?

Before you think one’s language inappropriate please consider this. In its coverage of the momentous events presently taking place in Greece, our bloody wonderful, alleged impartial, BCC reporters are calling Syriza “the radical left Party”. You heard it here folks, Syriza, that 40 years ago would have been to the right of the then UK’s Labour Party, is now a “radical left” organisation, with all the undertones that go with the word “radical.”

Having read quite a lot of Yanis Varoufakis’s output over the past 12 months, I’d hardly call Yanis a radical, nor for that matter would I call Mr. Tsipras radical for those of you who would like to contrast the Syriza election promises with the 1983 Labour Party manifesto that Michael Foot went to the country with, and which Roy Hattersley, who with Neil Kinnock, started the rot to infect that once proud leftwing organisation, referred too as the “longest suicide note ever written. By the way, in 1983 the actual left of the Labour Party wanted our country outside of the then EEC, they wanted to rid our nation of nuclear weapons and turn back the clock on four years of huge social upheaval caused by Thatcher and her monetarist economic prescriptions, what we call today “neoliberalism”.

Whilst I’ve yet to reach 50, in my humble opinion as someone who embodies many principles of the actual left, Syriza is not hot bed of radicalism, and yet the Uk media, much of the European media and obviously your US media are making out that Syriza are a threat not only to Europe, but no doubt the world – which I actually only hope is right, for at long last it seems people are awakening and coming out of the shadows to see the world for what it is and those legacy parties, be they left or right, for what they are. Corporate whores no less.


Needless to say, the BBC is not alone in trying to depict Syriza as extremist: .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/01/media-demonization-syriza-pretending-neoliberalism-popular-mainstream.html



14 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Media Demonization of Syriza: Pretending that Neoliberalism is Popular and Mainstream (Original Post) marmar Jan 2015 OP
We control the horizontal and the vertical... Fred Sanders Jan 2015 #1
No Syriza is NOT a "...hot bed of radicalism..."....... socialist_n_TN Jan 2015 #2
I think BBC did change their title to "anti-austerity" from "radical". Too late, asshats. Fred Sanders Jan 2015 #3
Well, being that Syriza is a coalition, I wouldn't be too quick..... socialist_n_TN Jan 2015 #5
Glad to see this. enlightenment Jan 2015 #4
Meanwhile the pictures of common folk Greeks dancing in the streets is censored. Fred Sanders Jan 2015 #6
'Syriza' = "Coalition of the Radical Left" muriel_volestrangler Jan 2015 #7
Bingo. Syriza labelled themselves radical! nt Lucky Luciano Jan 2015 #10
I'm familiar with that problem. Jackpine Radical Jan 2015 #13
And so it begins malaise Jan 2015 #8
Syriza is going to have the same problem that all minority parties that gain majority status have. MohRokTah Jan 2015 #9
K & R !!! WillyT Jan 2015 #11
I'm just curious to see how they will raise funds. Dreamer Tatum Jan 2015 #12
Their name means "radical left." geek tragedy Jan 2015 #14

Fred Sanders

(23,946 posts)
1. We control the horizontal and the vertical...
Mon Jan 26, 2015, 11:38 AM
Jan 2015

And now in a final act of irony the GOP and the rich are claiming it is the poor folks fault for letting them get rich and powerful, so they and their middle class enablers just deserve what they are getting.

socialist_n_TN

(11,481 posts)
2. No Syriza is NOT a "...hot bed of radicalism...".......
Mon Jan 26, 2015, 11:40 AM
Jan 2015

They are actually pretty moderate. They do seem to have a sincere wish to help the average Greek and they do have an internationalist perspective, but radical they are not. I would consider them radical if they issued an overt call for the overthrow of capitalism. They don't. Their actions show them to be class collaborationists. And unless that changes, they are actually doomed to failure as far as their wishes to help regular people. It ain't gonna happen under capitalism.

Fred Sanders

(23,946 posts)
3. I think BBC did change their title to "anti-austerity" from "radical". Too late, asshats.
Mon Jan 26, 2015, 11:42 AM
Jan 2015

They are socialists in the vein of Warren and Sanders, not Marx and Engels, but that is the intent of the media, to get labels attached quickly to the new power in Greece.

socialist_n_TN

(11,481 posts)
5. Well, being that Syriza is a coalition, I wouldn't be too quick.....
Mon Jan 26, 2015, 11:59 AM
Jan 2015

to characterize them as social democrats just yet. Now they ARE class collaborationists and there is a danger that they COULD become like PASOK or the French Socialist Party, but that chapter hasn't been written quite yet. There are tendencies in Syriza that ARE Marxist and even Trotskyist, which is why the next couple of years are so important. IF those farther left tendencies gain influence, they could turn the entirety of Syriza to a revolutionary socialist and classic Bolshevik-Leninist group. But as I said, that chapter has yet to be written.

enlightenment

(8,830 posts)
4. Glad to see this.
Mon Jan 26, 2015, 11:55 AM
Jan 2015

I spent a good bit of yesterday wondering if I'd dropped down some sort of rabbit-hole. Couldn't find a single "big" media report that wasn't trying to paint this election as some sort of financial Armageddon for Greece - for Europe - for the world (cue hysteria).

muriel_volestrangler

(101,166 posts)
7. 'Syriza' = "Coalition of the Radical Left"
Mon Jan 26, 2015, 12:49 PM
Jan 2015
Following a decision taken at the party’s congress in July, Greece’s main leftist opposition is as of January 1 officially called Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA).

The new name embodies the results of the July congress, which sealed the transition from an alliance of leftist groupings into a single political party.

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_01/01/2014_534314

Why the fuck are people running away from the word 'radical'?

Jackpine Radical

(45,274 posts)
13. I'm familiar with that problem.
Mon Jan 26, 2015, 02:12 PM
Jan 2015

On the other hand, who doesn't think we need social changes beginning from the root?

 

MohRokTah

(15,429 posts)
9. Syriza is going to have the same problem that all minority parties that gain majority status have.
Mon Jan 26, 2015, 12:56 PM
Jan 2015

They now must govern, and that's far more difficult that putting out rhetoric.

My guess, there's no way they can drop out of the EU. By the same token, they'll be successful at ending most of the austerity programs, invest in their nation, and actually increase government revenues in order to be able to pay back the loans on a faster schedule without the austerity bullshit they've been forced into under the former government.

Dreamer Tatum

(10,926 posts)
12. I'm just curious to see how they will raise funds.
Mon Jan 26, 2015, 02:09 PM
Jan 2015

Telling the EU to go fuck itself and getting aggressive with creditors won't exactly help their liquidity.

 

geek tragedy

(68,868 posts)
14. Their name means "radical left."
Mon Jan 26, 2015, 02:14 PM
Jan 2015

This is like calling members of the GOP "Republicans."

What an odd notion of a smear campaign.

Latest Discussions»General Discussion»Media Demonization of Syr...