Is the Guardian worse than it used to be?

"battle crimes" indeed.

there was a program about the menace of US big pharma/the opioid epidemic on R4 last night and guess who ran one of them pseudo-articles with dangerous advertising bluster disguised as an opinion piece for Purdue Pharma. much much worse than they used to be.

tbh I'm presuming it was for Purdue Pharma cos that's mainly who they were talking about, but if it was some other US big pharma -quelle difference.

I also note that the piece says NI would be exempted - so the Guardian just casually betting that its readers won’t care about war crimes committed against Iraqis and Afghans then. Cool!

surely they can come up with some better euphemism than ‘battle crimes’ ffs, they’re getting a much lower class of spin doctor in whitehall nowadays

Lol battle crimes

Combat... mischief

Armed Unpleasantness

collateral comeuppances

The BBC uses the phrase "actions on the battlefield abroad" which seems even more mealy-mouthed if anything, feels like the Guardian has at least taken care to put the word 'crimes' in there. I assume that war crimes committed in prisons, among civilian populations etc are excluded here, let me consult my Ladybird Book of Atrocities.

"shooting non-christians" would appear clean enough

i dunno, our brave boys have some form in extrajudicially executing christians too tbf

"extracurricular tomfoolery" = killing Iraqi civilians 'fer the lark.

xp yes but NI is to be exempt from

wait a sec

non-voters, thats it.

Pretty sure that, for the Johnny Mercers of this world, this is mostly about NI. After all, Iraqis Afghans, the Irish, what's the difference?

... as if on cue,

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/may/15/northern-ireland-troubles-soldiers-should-be-given-amnesty-says-mordaunt

Don't know if it's just me, but when I read a front page banner article called "Peterborough prepares for byelection that could elect first Brexit party MP" I want to know something about this fuck who is about to be elected, not yet another Brexitland safari. They don't even mention his name.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jun/02/peterborough-prepares-for-byelection-that-could-see-first-brexit-party-mp

Guardian's deputy editor @paul__johnson joined state censorship D-Notice committee (run by MOD) after Snowden revelations in sop to British spooks. In board minutes, they thank him for being "instrumental in re-establishing links" between UK mil/intel and Guardian. Explains a lot pic.twitter.com/kN27T0QoMm

— Matt Kennard (@DCKennard) June 11, 2019

when they become subservient bootlickers to the secret services it can't be called the 4th estate anymore, it smells like the turd estate if anything.

Look I know the title of this thread is rhetorical. But still. Still!

Absolutely unbelievable pic.twitter.com/WKHtcPkuao

— Running Dog (@benton_dan) June 15, 2019

god bless our traditionally unbiased gutter press... grrr.. well until the last few weeks damn them!

The article itself isn't as egregiously bad as that tweet makes it out to be:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/15/tory-leadership-boris-johnson-westminster-media

Ha. Wrote this Guardian preview in a kind of blind fury before emailing it off; thoroughly expecting them to ask me to tone it down. They didn't change a word. Good on 'em. pic.twitter.com/IF0g1FVJl9

— Ali Catterall (@AliCatterall) June 15, 2019

There's a columnist for Guardian Australia, Brigid Delaney, whose every fucking column is "I don't understand how basic human interaction works and also I did something massively stupid with obvious catastrophic consequences and wah poor me", and even just seeing the titles of her pieces are enough to drive my up the fucking wall.

Brigid Delaney was the 'Tiny Train World' woman also

The article itself isn't as egregiously bad as that tweet makes it out to be:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/15/tory-leadership-boris-johnson-westminster-media

― pomenitul, Saturday, 15 June 2019 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol

You may (rightly) take issue with her ridiculous vision of the past, but the whole point of her piece is that it is absurd to assume the UK is utterly foreign to the kinds of abuses we routinely attribute to 'other', less 'civilised' countries, so it is less awful than what its title implies, yes.

we they routinely attribute to 'other', less 'civilised' countries...

It also has rhetorical value: the average reader is likelier to accept this argument than if the article started with a sentence such as 'Britain has always been a racist, genocidal empire'.

I think that's exactly what the subtitle implies ?

also there is no average reader

Everything is awful and immoral, sorry.

but the whole point of her piece is that it is absurd to assume the UK is utterly foreign to the kinds of abuses we routinely attribute to 'other', less 'civilised' countries, so it is less awful than what its title implies, yes.

Who is she disabusing of this assumption? Even Guardian readers are aware of how much the media is owned by the oligarchy and publish points that are in their interest. People saying 'we aren;t as bad as Italy' isn't as much of a thing.

well there is the small matter of Murdoch picking our PM's for the last 4 decades as well!

afaik there is no morality just a screaming mass of pure being

You forgot nothingness.

I am a parmenidean on this point

There's nothing quite like something.

As ever, yes.

Why is it so hard for Labour to find a woman for its inner circle? | Suzanne Moore https://t.co/zz0n725qMg

— Guardian politics (@GdnPolitics) June 17, 2019

Emily Thornberry couldn’t be called on to do PMQs as she made the terrible faux pas of telling the truth about the European elections

erm yeah whatever.. wasn't her stand in Rebecca Long-Bailey you fucking weapon!

She’s done a massive flounce after being ratioed to Hell and back by annoyed women of colour, some of whom are pointing out that she mustered 258 votes when she tried to challenge Diane Abbott as an independent PPC in 2010.

This whole thing is shameful:

Disgusting to see @Haroon_Siddique and @jimwaterson laundering a flagrantly dishonest right wing hit job on Aman here. The actual story is "professional smear merchant attacks left winger", but Guido doesn't even get a mentionhttps://t.co/tZHZMpK1YD

— Sam 🌹 (@samfoster99) June 19, 2019

Labour activist asks question in the BBC Tory leadership debate

Guido Fawkes screenshots a tweet of his making fun of Candice Owen’s position on Hitler, misrepresenting it as his own view by cropping the context

Guardian, Independent and BBC report ‘controversy ensuing over tweets’ and ‘claims the tweet was a parody’, presenting his as contested, while removing any mention of Fawkes

Labour activist is suspended from job.

Solomon Hughes has a good thread on this clusterfuck

(1) For some years , UK Liberal media have warned reckless, bullying authoritarian politicians and their supporter mob will attack the press ,using smear stories. Now it is actually happening, with the BBC and Aman Thakar, and much of the same media are.....joining in

— Solomon Hughes (@SolHughesWriter) June 20, 2019

a new low for the graun. I wasn't shocked that they were GCHQ bootlickers, but they seem to be breaking new ground here.

I’m really surprised that Leigh Day gave into the narrative and suspended this guy (for those who don’t know, they’re a reliable lefty practice of the sort that activists write on their arms in case they get caught in a kettle at demos).

Hopefully he will be reinstated and be able pursue legal action.

Guido is fully integrated into the UK media ecosystem. Fully collaborating with the right-wing media as well as the liberal media that doesn't give a shit if a Corbynite is rinsed.

is the times worse than it used to be? genuine question - I have no sense of whether or has always been this utterly deranged. it is fully a rag at this point, yet despite this is still read by Serious People

Yes, it’s much, much worse than it was. Yes, it’s still widely read by Serious People.

Going back six or seven years, the Sunday Times had the stronger hard-right edge to it and The Times was still fairly centre-right Cameronite on most stuff. Today they’re both as nuts as the Mail.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jul/03/labour-mp-faces-deselection-threat-over-chris-williamson-criticism-ellie-reeves

A pregnant Labour MP is facing the threat of deselection after she signed a statement criticising her party’s decision to readmit Chris Williamson.

Shocking! Shameful! Etc.

Now, the constituency Labour party chairman in her Lewisham West and Penge constituency, John Clark, has reportedly received an email from a member who has requested a motion of no confidence in Reeves, who has been MP for the south-east London seat since 2017.

Such a motion would not be able to begin the re-selection process, given that a trigger ballot can only be forced if the move has the support of a third of local party branches or affiliated trade union branches.

It is understood the move would not take place in any case while an MP is on maternity leave.

So, in short, one person is reported to have sent an e-mail that couldn't be acted upon even if it had the support of a third of the local party, which it doesn't.

I should stop getting annoyed about this stuff but there has to be a better way to cover / follow politics.

Doesn't bother me as much as who is sharing it:

A small group of members are trying to bully another pregnant MP out of the Party. This reprehensible behaviour cannot be tolerated. We will not accept bullying and threats in our ranks. The entire shadow cabinet will want to publicly condemn this too. https://t.co/7imry32iOP

— Tom Watson (@tom_watson) July 3, 2019

Jess Philips as well, inevitably.