As mainstream media started a smear campaign against the BNP, nationalists can take comfort in the fact that newspapers are in a dire financial situation.
Guardian Media Group (GMG), the holding company that controls The Guardian, The Observer, GMG Radio and many local papers overall reported a pre-tax loss of £89.8m compared with a profit last year of £306.4m. Interestingly, of that £89.8m loss, £24m was due to botched currency trading aimed to protect hedge-fund investments.
So it’s not surprising if The Guardian is considering charging for some of its online content even if they are aware that many people, rather than start paying, will look for news elsewhere.
The GMG is desperate to cut costs and so it’s considering closing down The Observer, the oldest Sunday newspaper. Other options being considered are reducing its size or turning it into a mid-week supplement.
Its losses are not bigger than The Guardian’s but the Scott Trust, the charity that controls the GMG, is obliged to maintain The Guardian at any cost, even if this means closing down or downsizing other businesses in the group.
This explains why the brunt of those cost-cutting measures have been borne by local papers like the Manchester Evening News.
Of course a campaign was started to save The Observer, supported by many celebrities and by the Labour MP Denis MacShane who declared:
“As a former NUJ president and an occasional contributor to the Observer I don’t want it to disappear and another tranche of our best journalists scurrying to find work in PR or learning about Job Seekers Allowance.
“The Observer is part of the very fabric of our parliamentary democracy. No European country, nor the US, has a paper like it. I hope MPs of all shades of opinion do write and say the Observer should not die.”
Indeed Mr MacShane has a point.
No other country has a newspaper that prints stories based on lies to smear a perfectly legitimate party, or who condones and often supports physical attacks against BNP activists and distorts stories to promote its multicultural agenda.
To be fair The Observer is not alone but given that the press in this country has now become a tool used by the political elite to stop anyone who dare to challenge its plans, its closure is not a bad news at all.
GIUSEPPE DE SANTIS
