Is the Guardian worse than it used to be?

also being celebrated on the quiddities thread.

'This story originally appeared on the digital storytelling platform Narratively.'

yeah this article is total dogshit - there was a bit of chat about it on the quiddities & agonies of the nyt thread earlier today

just incredible that a sob story about this rich asshole who abused the most environmentally-destructive form of travel is appearing on the same day the grauniad is giving blanket coverage to the climate protests

lol i read quite a lot of that thinking wtf is this. a rambling plea for a stratospherically privileged father who, even on the basis of the article, via the special pleading of his journalist daughter, has clearly fraudulently abused the terms of his ticket. what an utter shitshow.

Outrage is lucrative.

Ty I will look in the quiddities thread!

It’s so tone deaf! Like when she talks about how there’s no difference between economy and first class, or how she was “socialised to fly first class”.

That's exactly why it was published. Not quite clickbait, technically speaking, but…

Same underlying logic as this in some ways:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/sep/20/monogamous-man-in-a-three-way-relationship

There’s even a photo of him in a rickshaw being pulled by another man :-/

Not to defend the piece - not least because it really was a ramble but it was interesting how the abuse of the ticket came this justification via depression and death. It was what kept me for a lot longer than I should have.

"For 20 years, he was one of American’s top fliers, accumulating more than 30 million miles, which he acquired every time he flew, even with the AAirpass."

Does this refer to an AirMiles loyalty reward system kind of thing? Otherwise I don't understand 'which he acquired every time he flew'.

I think so because he was giving the miles to other people.

It's just sad on every level, that poor airline, that poor stockbroker, so many broken lives

That was confusing. Because now if you fly for free you don't accrue miles. They have a thing now where it's based on segments, dollars spent and/or qualifying miles.

meh... I once managed to acquire a 12 month free travel Metro Card when I was working on a contract to fit LED lighting to all the bus stops in w yorkshire #kingofbusmiles

Still reading but "They claimed that his “fraudulent usage” included booking empty seats for his companion feature under “Bag Rothstein” or “Steven Rothstein Jr” (which they had for years condoned, and Mom says was not Dad’s idea), as well as “booking speculative reservations” – ie, flight reservations he was allegedly never planning to actually take."

FFS!

I won't finish reading that, but does it explain anywhere why this retired stockbroker can't just use his fucking money to fly everywhere all the time now?

I couldn't finish it either. It's off the chain.

It's the obvious question, isn't it.

guardian literally ripping off youtuber content now are they

i.e. there was a wendover productions/half as interesting video on this very topic...yesterday? maybe a total coincidence idk

I think the piece was initially published on Narratively in July.

I finally finished this. The guy seems to always have had massive problems that money could hide. So cringey that he would call the reservations number to chat for an hour and then feel compelled to make a reservation to hide it. His entire life was so delusional, thinking you are having authentic experiences while traveling first class, staying first class and buying peoples' gratitude and adulation.

curious as to why they are doing 21st century arts roundups in september of 2019. why now?

I thought the same!

They know something about the Mayans that we don't.

well, most of us

*knowing postapocalyptic nod*

unacceptable that airlines are limiting my right to all the gold tophats tickets i might want

It would've been cheaper for American to just have hired a therapist the reservation number could've routed his calls to.

how many gold tophats does it take to exceed your baggage allowance?

Have you booked a free seat under the name of your fictitious son or not?

it's not hand luggage if it's on yr head tappingtemple.gif

Matt D’Ancona sacked by The Guardian, reportedly for not being sufficiently right-wing.

announce guido

They'll call him back when Ruth Davidson becomes PM

No really, I'd do the gig, for my usual rates.

— Guido Fawkes (@GuidoFawkes) September 22, 2019

He’s like those never trumper columnists in the US. Constituencies of, at most, dozens of people but massively over represented in the op ed section of liberal papers. They allow centrists to feel warm and fuzzy about there being adults in the room on “both sides” and nothing changes. 100% fine with him being fired and replaced with someone whose views are consistent with modern mainstream conservatism (I a headbanger).

A week late, but the tale of the man with his unlimited air pass reminded me a bit of this:
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/sep/14/starting-a-business-has-made-me-a-lot-more-frugal

It's a piece on lawyer and campaigner Steve Wardlaw.

"I might be what some might call “wealthy” but bizarrely I’ve become a lot more frugal since starting my own business a few years ago. I’m more conscious that money has to last. I’m also trying to make sure other people are provided for. I want my nieces to go to university and the cost of that will fall to me.
...
Our Kent property is a converted oast house, which has three chimneys and looks like a cross between a hobbit house and a Disney princess’s castle. It’s lovely, you open the back door and you see nothing but fields. I bought it for £610,000 and it’s probably worth north of £1m now. We spent about £200,000 renovating it, which involved moving a few walls, adding a dog-friendly shower room, and a new staircase.
...
(My partner) also collects Doctor Who memorabilia and Egyptian artefacts. For our wedding we each bought a picture for the other – two of a set of 50 by the artists Jake and Dinos Chapman, who took a series of original Goya etchings and over-painted them to look like grotesque cartoons. My mother hates them!"

If this was the internet I would arrange the text into one of those 4Chan "Mr Bones' Wild Ride" montages with DOG-FRIENDLY SHOWER ROOM repeated several times.

"100% fine with him being fired and replaced with someone whose views are consistent with modern mainstream conservatism (I a headbanger)."

How is this a good thing?

I’m also fine with him fired and not being replaced.

I believe caek’s point is that replacing “moderate conservatives” who have no audience other than hate-readers with actual frothing bigots is at least honest.

Right. If the token conservative is there to “represent the other side” they should at least hold the other side’s views. And the particular views dacona holds are not only representative of almost no one (and wrong), they are also especially comforting and unchallenging to centrists who don’t themselves hold these views.

Fair enough. I think the other side is so deranged on some issues that to even see it argued in respectable pages is to see it normalised. Ancona at least pretended to be socially liberal.

Otm. Guardian is a fucking mess for even caring about publishing more right wing opinions tbh, when most right wing publications will never publish anyone left of Hugo Rifkind.

the "comforting carbon monoxide leak" vibe that center right commentators give off to center left people is a huge practical problem in the US (where i live now). it's perhaps a bit less of a problem in the UK, and the danger of platforming the further right opinions might be more salient in that context.

"comforting carbon monoxide leak"

^ this is in quotes because i said it. sorry i can't write.

the "comforting carbon monoxide leak" vibe that center right commentators give off to center left people is a huge practical problem in the US (where i live now). it's perhaps a bit less of a problem in the UK, and the danger of platforming the further right opinions might be more salient in that context.

― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek),

Its a big problem in UK and a major contributory factor in fracture between public and media. Over-representation of "Tory Remainers", or socially liberal / economically conservative, or whatever you call them - inverse of actual centre ground. Illusion of this group being larger than is actually the case, and having to cater to it, this

Its like the creation of a 'palatable opponent' that you can have polite disagreement with, but to what end? what is the point of this? Give us the real deal or don't bother

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EHzWolWXUAIEtbp?format=jpg&name=large

oh lord

I'm never more aware of my working-class origins than when I remember my mother doing a cleaning job whilst heavily pregnant and then getting very ill and having a miscarriage that nearly killed her.