As the SKWAWKBOX covered earlier today, GQ editor Dylan Jones was allowed several minutes of prime radio time to disparage Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on Radio 4’s Today programme this morning.
Radio 4 failed to mention to listeners that Jones has close links to the Tory party and paid David Cameron almost £20,000 to be able to write the former Conservative PM’s biography.
Nor did the interviewer challenge or probe his assertions in any meaningful way. BBC ‘impartiality’.
It was the BBC’s third Corbyn-related ‘mistake’ in ten days.
Jones also claimed in the interview that he had sent a staff member to interview Corbyn who was one of several younger staffers of a similar mindset. But GQ has published a ‘behind the scenes’ video of its preparation for the interview – and there’s no sign of any ardent Corbyn fans involved in the process.
For example, the ‘Features Editor’:
“The cultish masses”; “a very divisive character”.
Does that sound like he ever idolised the Labour leader? His Twitter feed, tellingly, appears devoid of any mention of Corbyn before he publicised the new interview, while a Google search for the two names returns almost as sparse results.
Not what you might expect from someone who “want[ed] to believe so much in Jeremy Corbyn“.
The staff member who interviewed Corbyn was also said by Jones to be an enthusiast, but Private Eye journalist Solomon Hughes spotted a similar disconnect:
The two images Hughes uploaded with his tweet showed the GQ staffer enthusing – seriously enthusing – about anti-Corbyn posts:
Dylan Jones and his staff are entitled to their opinion. But it’s beyond dispute that the BBC, to fulfil its impartiality remit as well as to perform basic journalistic competence – should have made clear where Jones stands politically – and asked probing questions about the assertions he made.
It did neither.
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Pretending to be an admirer disillusioned by contact with the object of one’s admiration is a well-trodden path.
Convince the reader you weren’t just open-minded on the subject but a fan of the devious clay-footed monster’s public facade and they’re far likelier to believe your hatchet job – with knobs on if it tallies with their own prejudices.
Never thought about it before but readers of pap like fashion magazines might as well hang signs saying, “easy mark” around their, presumably, perfectly-groomed necks.
Seriously, magazines with the aim of selling expensive shit might not be our best friends.
Can Corbyn turn water into wine? No But can he turn May and this corrupt neoliberal system into dust Yes and it is already happening internally and those that complain the loudest fall the hardest #GoJezza
First mistake Ive seen Corbyn make .Just dont bother with any of the establishment
shite rags .They are just as good at faking the truth as they are with faking the cover photos on thier shite mags.
yeh but its like the Merrill Lynch debacle. They try to denigrate him and he comes back with a retort that breaks all the rules. They expected him to defend himself – instead he said “ML – you’re so right we are coming to get you!” Here GQ try to slur him but all they’ve done is exposed GQ as yet another Tory propaganda machine.
I wish all the anti-Corbyn commenters would stop posting here. Maybe these comments should only be for people who have signed up?
Reblogged this on MAL's MURMURINGS and commented:
seems to be normal that BBC never challenges assertions of Tory supporters!
Dylan Jones seems to have caught himself in his own self regarding trap, in the same way as the self – deluding centrist Labour MPs underestimated Corbyn when they challenged him last year.
He imagined he would facilitate a hatchet job on Corbyn, probably thinking to himself “he will insist on only wearing a high street suit and so will look shit in the cover. Everyone will laugh”.
To his horror he realises he has unintentionally provided the platform for Corbyn’s charisma and honesty to shine and appeal across the mainstream.
(By now Jones and the Progress crew are having to silently contemplate that the “Corbyn cult” membership is very numerous and varied indeed).
So he has to go and fight a rearguard action with unsubstantiated insults on BBC News
The BBC is FAKE NEWS.
So, Corbyn: ‘Turns water into wine’…
…Which the toerags turn into piss & vinegar just as quick.
Seriously, who gives a flying f*** about these poncey hipster twat magazines’ and their poncey hipster twat views anyway? Gobshites.
DYLAN JONES, THE EPITOME OF HOLIER THAN THOW!
MY VOICE AND BREADING ARE SECOND TO NONE!
DYLAN, PLEASE TAKE YOUR HEAD, FROM UP YOUR JACKSIE YOU’RE LIKE THE REST OF YOUR RIGHT WING ILK!
SELF-CENTERED AND EGOTISTICAL!