A partisan media is fuelling far-right extremism — we need to wake up

An arrangement of newspapers pictured in London on June 14, 2016 shows the front page of the Sun daily newspaper with a headline urging readers to vote 'Leave' in the June 23 EU referendum. Britain's most-read newspaper The Sun urged readers to vote to leave the European Union in an editorial splashed across its front page in the colours of the Union Jack. The Sun, part of the media empire of US-Australian mogul Rupert Murdoch, is credited with generally backing the winning side and famously claimed to have swung a general election in 1992. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel SORABJI (Photo credit should read DANIEL SORABJI/AFP via Getty Images)

Treason used to be a word associated with spies or assassins, one reserved for crimes against the state of the utmost severity. Yet to take just two recent examples, here is an article in the Sun describing how “Treacherous Theresa” has surrendered our freedom. “May’s name will rank alongside those of the worst eels in Western history — and she deserves it”. Cross the Atlantic, and here is a presenter at Fox News calling for “the traitorous, treasonous group that accused Donald Trump” to be locked up. “True justice” she calls it.

It seems that the word treason is now being used to describe the actions of a prime minister the writer disagrees with, or to describe a legal inquiry that successfully prosecuted a number of individuals once close to the US president. How did this escalation of language happen, and does it matter? To understand both questions we need to start with what links these two examples: they are both from media outlets owned by Rupert Murdoch.