We consume journalistic opinions on contemporary events almost without realizing it, or perhaps we wont to . We expect commentators to precise their view, which we then absorb. We accept as true with it or differ then advance , often to subsequent so-called analysis. in fact these views influence our thoughts, but we are critically aware, and accept that not everyone thinks as we do.
It is quite rare to seek out collections of such pieces, however, rarer to assemble them long after the events they describe and rarer still to supply , as a result, a book which is worth reading from cover to hide . Hidden Agendas by John Pilger is such a book. And reading Hidden Agendas with today's label "fake news" in mind is both and enlightening and rewarding.
First published in 1998, Hidden Agendas collects pieces by its author on various topics, their subjects spanning several decades. There are pieces on the conflict and, importantly, on the struggle for independence of the East Timorese, going right back to 1974 and therefore the collapse of what was left of the Portuguese Empire. John Pilger also describes his own country's, Australia's, relations with its own identity and its indigenous peoples. He travels to Burma to explain lifestyle also as its poisoned politics and offers analysis that from today's perspective is not any but fascinating. He describes the beginning of the UK's Blair era, with New Labour's leader declaring his intention to understand a Thatcherite dream. We revisit the miners' strike within the mid-1980s, already viewed from a distance of 15 years. He also touches on the Hillsborough tragedy during a piece on the Sun's journalism and reminds us that on Merseyside the newspaper remains vilified today due to its coverage of those events. Ironic isn't it that's a up to date reader can now reminisce at this analysis from 20 years ago, knowing that for the victims of Hillsborough an inquiry has finally delivered justice, whereas for those of vilified and imprisoned after Orgreave an inquiry remains denied. It seems perverse that justice seems to wish deaths.
But far and away the foremost interesting parts of Hidden Agendas are those the affect the author's autobiographical accounts of working as a journalist. He begins in Australia, where the media were owned by cartels whose interests they largely promoted. He moved to UK, where something similar was evolving. John Pilger's description of life within the Daily Mirror is thoroughly engaging, and impresses because there's a real feeling that the newspaper was curious about truth first and posturing second. He offers a convincing defence of the Mirror's campaigning style then laments that by 1998 the newspaper had already become only one of the remainder .
John Pilger's often biting criticisms of the medium are, if anything, even more poignant in today's online jungle. a minimum of the media owners he describes were largely self-declared in their allegiances, to such an extent that the posturing was often predictable. In today's Internet miasma, where populism seems to rule and where the origins of opinions are often hard to spot , it's useful to be reminded by John Pilger that the opinion presented as opinion can never be "fake news", whatever which may be. Opinion masquerading as "fact" is sort of simply a lie.
The political Right has never been impressed with John Pilger's work. But whatever one cares the content of his opinion pieces, Hidden Agendas illustrates that he doesn't hand over on causes. The long, hard and largely unnoticed battle on East Timor testifies to his commitment to justice on behalf of these denied it. And, on topics like the Hillsborough tragedy, mainstream media, at the time, may even have branded Pilger's position as extreme, or maybe as "fake news", since it contradicted the trumped-up story being peddled by the mainstream media. Reading these opinion pieces by John Pilger, one is presented with the contemporary reality that "fake news" is perhaps opinion that somebody doesn't like, opinion that's more easily dismissed with a label instead of by counter argument. Hidden Agendas also reminds it that the sole important opinions of these that are proven correct.
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