Graeme Tuckett is a contributing writer for Things to watch.
OPINION: When Boris Johnson stumbled upon his own sword last week, the British commentary came alive.
The first to come out of the gate was James O’Brien. O’Brien hosts a talkback program on LBC station. Just hours after Johnson’s announcement, O’Brien was on air with a 14-minute, unscripted monologue that was ferocious, laser-focused, and delivered in the tightly controlled monotone of someone who knows if they have any emotion in their voices. , then they’ll be yelling obscenities at the camera in seconds.
It’s a beautiful piece of broadcasting. O’Brien makes no pretense to “give the other side of the argument”. As far as he’s concerned, Johnson’s three years as prime minister and the few years before that when he advocated Brexit have damaged the country almost beyond repair.
If you want to see what an angry passionate journalist looks like in full flight, when they no longer want to hide what they really think, go to YouTube and search “James O’Brien’s Farewell Message to Boris Johnson”.
Delivered
In Brexit: The Uncivil War, Benedict Cumberbatch delivers a stunning piece as Dominic Cummings, the chief strategist of the Leave campaign.
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The O’Brien clip sent me back to watch Brexit: The Uncivil War (currently available to stream on ThreeNow) to marvel at the work film is doing to make the Brexit debacle understandable. Benedict Cumberbatch, taking a break from superhero duties and the relentless nighttime saddle polishing in The power of the dogdelivers a stunning piece as Dominic Cummings, the chief strategist for the Leave campaign.
Brexit was a huge shock. No one really believed that the British people would vote to undo the relationship with Europe. But Leave had a secret weapon. Cummings employed companies that knew how to microtarget a population.
Using data mined by Facebook, it was possible to track down the people who normally didn’t bother to vote, or weren’t sure which side they preferred — and bombard them with Facebook posts. and videos that pushed the Leave agenda. It didn’t matter that most of this content was made up — or grossly misleading. Very little of it was attributed to a political party, so it was not covered by the electoral laws. And anyway, targeting only the vulnerable meant that no one else knew the messages even existed, until it was too late.
NETFLIX
The Great Hack is now streaming on Netflix.
For an even clearer picture of how Brexit happened — and how players in Leave moved on to the Trump campaign in 2016 — the Netflix documentary The Great Hack is crucial to watch. The film brings us to Cambridge Analytica and The SCL Group through the story of Brittany Kaiser – who worked for the Obama campaign in 2008 before switching sides – and how a company used data in a way lawmakers didn’t understand, to control elections. around the world, before we focus on 2016 prices.
In the end, it was journalists who shone light on what was going on. Old-fashioned digging – and a safe platform for whistleblowers – led to interrogations and prosecutions. Journalist Carole Cadwalladr emerges as one of the few heroes here.
The Great Hack is a warning about the dangers of private data in unscrupulous hands. But it also reminds us that without a free, responsible press, everything just keeps going – and then democracy dies.