Just who do these people think the media is?

The specific complainant here is George Monbiot but it’s a more general whine that can be heard from points left:

The media are allowing this government’s cronyism and dishonesty to flourish

George Monbiot

OK, that’s actually The Guardian’s subeditor giving a precis of Monbiot’s views in the headline but still, it’s an accurate enough one.

The interesting question is who is this media? Monbiot’s column has been running over 20 years now. If we’ve managed to manipulate The Guardian’s search engine properly that’s 1,357 pieces that have been presented to us. We can’t even bear to calculate how many decades Polly Toynbee has been occupying that pulpit from which she sermonises on how the country should be.

Add the BBC to the newspapers, as we must (not least because both named there worked for the BBC as an indication of that internal culture) and “the media” is in fact that very group that so continually complains about what the media does.

This is not, just for the avoidance of doubt, a complaint about how they get their views out there and we do not. Rather, this story that’s retailed that the media is some group over there that’s misbehaving is wearing more than a little thin to us. For the people doing this complaining are the media panjandrums of our time. Whatever “the media” is it most certainly includes George and Polly. Time to take a certain responsibility for what has been created rather than continue with the rebellious outsider complaint.

Face it folks, you are now the media establishment.