‘The media is an industry in very deep crisis’

Farage was invited to speak in Copenhagen, Denmark, recently at the international NewsXchange conference where most media heavyweights were present. Ahead of delivering the keynote address at the conference, he was interviewed by Breitbart.

“This has been a year of political revolution and there’s been a total disaster for the poll industry and the media broadcast industry,” Farage said during an interview published by Breitbart News. “If they got Brexit wrong, they got Trump doubly wrong,” said Farage.

He singled out the current crisis in Swedish media, which he called the “worst” in the world. “I think the number one worst broadcasting organization in all the world is in Sweden. Sweden is completely gone, where there is no coverage.

“They’re not even allowed to report the nationality of those who commit a crime. That’s now effectively been banned by mutual agreement between the broadcasters and the newspapers.

“You have the rise of a political party – they can’t cope with it. I was in Stockholm three weeks ago. Myself and the former Czech president Vaclav Klaus, we did a big conference – hundreds of people – I did not do one Swedish news interview. They won’t [talk about it]. It’s unbelievable.”

Since 1999 Farage has supported a group called News-watch, which analyses thousands of hours of BBC primetime news coverage for bias and now open fearmongering. He explained that the BBC even uses food programmes to talk about the “disaster” for Britain outside the EU, and in Farming Today the state broadcaster refers to the “catastrophe” about to hit farming.

Trump’s victory, Brexit and now Italy’s referendum rejecting the globalist agenda, has the mainstream outlets worried, but they continue to disregard the narrative of the election and censor public commentary about these major political shifts.

“What I’m going to say is this is an industry in very deep crisis,” Farage continued. “It’s so detached from the way ordinary people are increasingly thinking that it has left a huge gaping hole in the market which the Internet is filling.”

Farage noted that the urban elites working in their newsrooms contributed to the problem of how they present news. “One of the things I’m going to say today is that their recruitment policies need to change completely,” Farage said. “In the BBC, there’s a very narrow section of society—very urban, very much metropolitan, financially very elite, obsessed about ethnic mix and gender balance.

“I certainly would never have gotten UKIP to where it is without YouTube and the new sites that came along,” he said.

“But how many non-graduates work at the BBC? Well, none. And similarly you have the lifestyle choices of the people that work at the BBC in terms of how they live their lives—and this is a reference to orientation, shall we say, and again it’s just not representative of what you see outside of London. So, again, the industry has to change its recruiting policies completely.”

He said the European media needs to take a closer look at reporting on the EU, radical Islam, and totally change the way they present immigration. And he singled out the Western media’s most consistent and blatant bias as its reports on climate change as well its as massive support for wind energy.

“It’s as if the big businesses don’t just own the political class, they own the media class as well. Unless they get real on these four issues, then a conference like this in five years’ time will have far fewer people.”

During his speech at the News Xchange annual conference, Farage repeated his comments about the media’s shortcomings: “There are some big issues that you guys need to think very hard about.

“The European question is one of them – we’ve shown with Brexit what is possible, and there are now many countries across the European Union seriously questioning their future in this project. I think the coverage of radical Islam is another area where you are completely losing touch.

“I think in terms of immigration, I still think many of you are covering this subject in a way that anyone who dares to raise the issue, somehow has malevolent intentions underneath – which in the vast majority of cases simply isn’t true.

“I think the coverage of radical Islam is another area where you are completely losing touch with vast swathes of your own population. In fact, it happens in politics too. Dear Hillary [Clinton] couldn’t even bring herself to say radical Islam – she couldn’t even use the term.

“And lastly, where I believe where you’re really getting completely out of touch is on your coverage of the issue of climate change,” The London daily, The Express reported.

He agreed with Trump who recently tweeted that CNN had gone downhill since Clinton’s defeat. “They all revert after a quick mea culpa and then they turn to type,” Farage said and added that he did not think they would overcome the current crisis with which they are faced. “I’m just not convinced that this group of people are capable.”

Farage observed that especially in America the media industry is facing huge challenges with regard to the corporate conglomeration of control of newsrooms. The media oligopolies are on a bigger scale in the US, but essentially all countries face a similar problem, he said.

Combatting media bias was easy to do, Farage explained. All people have to do is turn off the news and get their information from alternative sources that are not as biased in favor of the establishment or status quo. “Stop watching. This is about consumer choice,” Farage said.

He also spoke to McClatchy News at the conference where he urged citizens to make their own choices. “If the ordinary people who have completely given up … if you can inspire those people to go out and vote you can change the world,” he said.

“The only way you can take control of your country is to leave the EU and take control of your borders,” Farage said in an interview with Steve “Buzz” Thomma, McClatchy political editor.