A Blue-Collar Worker’s view of today’s mainstream media by Denis Podany

(By a working man, who’s had enough of being treated like he can’t see what’s right in front of him.)

There was a time in Britain when the press behaved like an independent court for the people. You didn’t need a degree in politics or media studies to understand it. Papers dug for truth, not applause. Reporters asked questions that made the powerful sweat. And the whole point – the entire reason we trusted them – was that they were supposed to be on our side, not on the side of one political tribe or another.

But somewhere along the line, the mainstream media stopped holding power to account and instead joined hands with it. It drifted so far into one political lane that it now behaves less like journalism and more like the activist arm of a left-leaning establishment. Ordinary people can see it plainly. The tone, the slanted questions, the identical headlines across every broadcaster, the way some stories are shouted from rooftops while others – inconvenient ones – are buried so deep you’d need a mining licence to find them.

Blue-collar folk like me don’t sit around with political theory books, but we do have a lifetime of common sense, and we know when we’re being managed rather than informed. We can tell when someone is reporting news – and when someone is pushing a line.

And that, really, is how we got here. The collapse of trust didn’t come from conspiracy theorists or the internet. It came from the behaviour of the mainstream media itself. If you spend long enough lecturing, filtering, and talking down to the public, don’t be surprised when the public turns elsewhere.

Citizen Journalists: Filling the Void the Media Created

What’s happened since is almost historic in itself. Because every time the press refused to ask the obvious question, a citizen journalist did it instead. Every time a broadcaster softened a story to avoid upsetting the approved narrative, an independent reporter on a phone camera told the truth plainly. And every time the mainstream downplayed something that ordinary Britons could see with their own eyes – on the streets, at the borders, in their own towns – the public turned to people who weren’t afraid to speak straight.

This wasn’t rebellion; it was necessity. The establishment media abandoned its post, so the people moved in and took over the job.

And now we’re supposed to pretend that citizen journalists are the problem? No. They’re the consequence. You don’t get independent reporters rising by the thousands unless something’s gone badly wrong with the old guard.

If You Want the Title “Journalist”, You Should Accept Its Duties

Here’s a simple bit of British common sense: If you claim the authority of journalism, you should accept the responsibility of journalism.

Not censorship. Not state control. Just honesty, clarity, and accountability – the same basic virtues every working man and woman has to live by in their own job.

Imagine if the media had something like an old-fashioned oath – not some modern corporate fluff, but a solid British standard:

• Verify before you publish.
• Correct openly when you get it wrong.
• Serve the public, not political fashion.
• Don’t twist facts to steer the audience.
• And don’t hide behind your title when you’re caught out.

It’s not complicated. It’s exactly how most trades operate. If a plumber botches a job, he fixes it. If a bricklayer cuts corners, you see it right away. And if someone keeps lying about their work, their reputation collapses.

Why should journalism – a trade that deals in truth – be any different?

Free speech is one thing, being an activist with a narrative is another

What if we could make every “journalist” tell the truth, and allow their opinion to be the free speech beyond that?

A Charter for Honest Media – Not Government Control, but Public Expectation

A voluntary register, an oath, clear ethical standards – these aren’t chains on free speech. They’re safeguards for honest speech. And yes, anyone could still publish freely outside such a framework. But if you want the badge, if you want the public trust, then you prove you deserve it.

That’s how we used to run things in this country. Not by gagging people, but by expecting standards from anyone who wished to claim professional honour.

Because at the end of the day, journalism is supposed to be a public trust – not a political weapon and not a prestige title for the metropolitan set.

Where We Are Now

Millions of Britons no longer trust the mainstream press because they can feel the difference between reporting and campaigning. They can tell when a story is being shaped rather than reported. And they know full well that many so-called journalists have stopped speaking to the country and started speaking at it.

The rise of independent media isn’t the death of journalism. It’s the revival of it.

It’s Britain rediscovering something we always believed: Truth belongs to the people, not the establishment.

Until the mainstream remembers that, they will continue to lose the confidence of the very public they claim to stand for.

And in the meantime, ordinary workers with camera phones, sharp eyes, and a bit of courage will keep doing the job the professionals abandoned.

Because at the end of the day, truth doesn’t come from a studio.

It comes from people who still care enough to look for it.

Image credit on main page: vectorjuice on freepik