Earlier this week, Tony Blair attacked the British media as a bunch a “feral beasts” that needed taming. He argued that the division between fact and opinion had become blurred – and this was a very, very bad thing.

What a load of old tripe…

Forgive me… I was under the impression that Phoney Tony is, in part, responsible for shaping modern media into its current feral form following New Labour’s focus on spin and media management. They have created the press they deserve. His two-faced sanctimony left me stunned.

So, here’s a question for you Tony; was the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq a matter of a fact or was it a matter of opinion? I’d like to hear your answer.

Unfortunately, Tony’s confusion of fact and opinion when it came to weapons of mass destruction has resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Indeed, more than 9,000 Iraqi citizens were killed in the first five months of this year alone.

That’s a lot of blood for someone to have on their hands – and it represents the tip of the iceberg. A few "feral" columnists are nothing serious compared with that, Mr Blair. Not in my opinion.

It appears to me that Tony is irked that the media’s “confusion” of comment and fact has resulted in criticism of his actions. The poor thing.

There no such thing as Independent

Although I also find some of the more extreme excesses of the British media a little distasteful, I think Blair’s attack was outrageous. Particularly galling was his attack on the Independent. Personally, I am not a huge fan of the Indie – I rarely actually read the thing. I find it a little too “worthy” and – dare I say it – boring. However, I thought Blair’s accusation was utterly astonishing. He said:

“The metaphor for this genre of modern journalism is The Independent newspaper… Let me state at the outset it is a well-edited, lively paper and is absolutely entitled to print what it wants, how it wants, on the Middle East or anything else. But it was started as an antidote to the idea of journalism as views, not news. That was why it was called The Independent. Today it is avowedly a viewspaper, not merely a newspaper. The final consequence of all this is that it is rare today to find balance in the media.”

This is utterly outrageous. Not once did he mention any of the newspapers edited by Rupert Murdoch. Why? Because Tony is cosy with him and the “viewspaper” articles in the Dirty Digger’s press have been generally supportive of his forays in global warfare.

You know, I actually voted for this man – albeit only once. I really feel that he has betrayed my trust – and the fact he has the gall to launch an attack on any newspaper that isn’t a member of his “yes man” club is, frankly, vile.

There is another reason why this is nauseating. In July, Blair flew to California to address executives of News Corp, including the great tax avoider himself. Is a nice job in the News Corp empire being prepared for him to slip into in the not-too-distant future?

Maybe, maybe not… but it looks like the friendship between Blair and Murdoch will endure.

In short, Mr Blair, you are a self-righteous, sanctimonious hypocrite. You appall me.

A right good read

The reason why I have written about this incident is that I have just read Thursday’s front-page story in the Independent – as I said earlier, something I do not do on a regular basis. It was, in part, a so-called viewspaper article – and it was very, very good. So good, in fact it was one of the lead stories on the US internet news site the Drudge Report.

“World oil supplies are set to run out faster than expected, warn scientists”, ran the headline. It tackled head on one of the major issues that the world faces today, while most mainstream media outlets are pushing it under the carpet or are more focused on the sexual antics of the latest z-grade celebrity. Most of the vested interests wish the story would go away, I’m sure – but it will not. This story will get bigger and bigger, so well done the Indie for leading with this splash.

In a way, the article was manna from heaven to me – because finally the mainstream media is dealing with one of the biggest crises we face in the 21st Century. We need more articles like this to push the UK government into doing something about it and not signing our future over to oil and gas oligarchs in the Middle East and Russia.

I don’t have to tell you that oil is running out – it’s one of the core pillars of my investment strategy, as I am sure you are fully aware. Indeed, readers of my Outstanding Investments newsletter continue to position themselves for this energy crunch – a crunch from which the wise few are positioning themselves to make some truly stunning profits.

The article said that some scientists had challenged a major review of global oil reserves, warning that supplies would start to run out in just four years' time. The report the scientists are referring was published on Wednesday. It is called the Statistical Review of World Energy, and it was published by, erm, impartial sector observer BP.

I don’t want to be accused of being churlish, but the fact that the report is published by BP doesn’t exactly make it independent and unquestionable, does it? Isn’t it in the company’s interests to allay fears that oil is running out and delay the switch to alternative uses of power?

The main problem is that the report is widely used in the industry as fact, not opinion. It is concerning because I believe that the base data is so political that it is utterly, utterly unreliable.

There was an interesting quote on this matter in the article from the Head of the Oil Depletion Centre in London Dr Colin Campbell. He’s a former chief geologist and vice-president at a string of oil majors including BP, Shell, Fina, Exxon and ChevronTexaco. He said:

"When I was the boss of an oil company I would never tell the truth. It's not part of the game."

I find that last comment very telling, don’t you? P.S. If you enjoyed this article then sign up for Smart Commodities UK. It’s dedicated to searching out the investment trends that could provide our biggest profit opportunities for the next decade…

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