Jim Naughtie reveals in response to Corbyn question why he and other mainstream journalists don't get it

James Naughtie has revealed just why he and fellow establishment journalists just don’t get the changing political landscape.

Delivering the annual British Journalism Review lecture, the former BBC Radio Four Today programme presenter outlined how things had changed with the coming of Trump, Brexit and Corbyn’s Labour Party.

Naughtie put himself and the media on the side of the mass of people, who need to have their voices heard, standing up to government.

However, he revealed himself in responding to a question about the European elections, declaring it would help if we had a leader of the opposition. He then went on to attack Jeremy Corbyn for not having undertaken a full interview on Today for two years.

There was further criticism of the Labour Party for adopting the attritional attitude that the mainstream media are all against them.

The reality is that the mainstream media has together with many other institutions in the UK been found wanting, as far as the mass of people are concerned. All journalists should be seeking to tell truth to power. The aim being to have transparency and accountability in the democratic system.

However, the reality is that many journalists, often restrained by owners, singularly fail to perform this role.

Many, especially in the mainstream, are virtual PRs for the powerful and what they seek to do.

This has helped lead to much of the media simply not being trusted anymore (and that includes the Today programme) - making it so easy for the likes of Trump to make his ludicrous fake news claims.

The demonization of Corbyn is further evidence of the failure of so many in the mainstream media to catch up. The litany of ridiculous accusations levied at the man. The heralding of an incoming Labour government as Marxist amounts to scare tactics that many of the disempowered public don’t believe.

The popular manifesto put forward at the last general election would not be out of place in many left of centre European countries – it was certainly nothing like as radical, left wing or Marxist as previous offerings from Labour Parties of the 1960s and 70s.

No, if mainstream journalism wants to get back credibility with the mass of the population, it really does need to start doing the job. The present ongoing process of self-denial can lead only to the extinction queue.