Red-Toryism exposed by study reflected in rag’s initial headline and article body, but soon softened
The Guardian has been accused of changing a damning article to protect Keir Starmer, after it amended the wording to avoid calling Starmer right-wing.
Eagle-eyed observers spotted that the paper’s headline originally said that a Royal Holloway University study had found Starmer to be ‘one of Labour’s most rightwing MPs’ – and that it had been changed to say that he was one of the ‘least leftwing’, but the paper had not changed its link wording so the original was still showing on social media link summaries:
But it wasn’t just the headline that had been changed. Up to 1.25pm today, according to an archive of the article on archive.li, the article body read:
Keir Starmer is one of Labour’s most rightwing members of parliament, according to a study of the political positions of the MPs from every major party.
However, by 2pm today – as saved on the ‘Wayback Machine’ archive just thirty-five minutes later – the first paragraph had been softened to say Starmer is ‘towards the rightwing’:
Both versions of the article then, laughably, go on to claim that ‘Parliament has moved decisively to the left’ because of the election of Starmeroid MPs, who like their boss are comfortably to right of old Tories on many issues and lean police-state if not outright neo-fascist, as the government’s current war on journalists and activists who expose Israel’s crimes and his eager participation in Israel’s genocide and war crimes demonstrate. The headline change led to accusations that the Guardian had been pressured by Starmer’s office to change the headline to protect his (already rightly trashed) image.
This is hardly the Guardian’s first outing in terms of protecting the Labour right or colluding with government. In 2018, as Starmer and co intensified their campaign to sabotage Corbyn’s Labour electorally by pushing for the party to announce a second EU referendum, the paper published claims that ‘92% of [Momentum] members want Labour to back second vote’. The claim was entirely untrue – 92% had said they didn’t want the party to back Theresa May’s poor Brexit deal. The paper also joined voraciously in the state’s and right-wing press’s attacks on Corbyn, indeed it was regarded by many as one of the worst offenders because of its posturing as a left-liberal rag.
And in 2013, the paper’s editors infamously destroyed drives containing files leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden at the behest of the UK government and security services.
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Aha, I’ve achieved a low level of fame! I always screenshot stuff [rather than providing a link] as it allows spotting this sort of duplicity.
Well deserved Jan, your evidence proves it.
“The Guardian didn’t get it “wrong”. It is the mouthpiece of a liberal elite that is financially endangered by a socialist program.” — Matt Kennard, investigative journalist (@KennardMatt)
“As we’ve said, if change begins anywhere, it begins with challenging, unmasking, and exposing corporate media, and developing alternatives. — Media Lens, media analysts ?(@medialens)
“Very significant that 25% of *all* adults (12.8m) defied near-total elite media onslaught and voted for Corbyn. Propaganda must become key issue.” — Mark Curtis, British historian (@markcurtis30)
Would Corbyn have done even better without the Guardian spreading its bile? We think so.
Dump the Guardian!
Dump the Guardian!
“Dump” seems too mild an imperative somehow!
Thanks for that link; been looking for that list for ages. pdf’d it, as couldn’t save as images [I”ll sort that later!]
The original headline wouldve been even more accurate, had it omitted the word “labour’s” and replaced it with “The”.
The Trilateral Commission’s Man in the UK?
Right Wing Labour will be wiped out in 4.5 years time unless capital & its media + apologists still finds it useful for it to police diverse working class & grassroots trade union militancy.
Or it may go for the Neo-Liberal Capitalist 1st X1 Tory/Reform Coalition with the Tories sweeping up the South/South East & Reform the Red Wall.
Heads capital wins, tail capital wins.
Memo to Left Wing Democratic Socialists:
In 4.5 years we WILL have the most extreme Right Wing Government ever unless.
Left wing democratic socialists with vision & strategic thinking form a new party using the Corbyn brand name recognition & NOT 6 weeks before a GE & just 12 MPs but AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!
“I have seen the future, and it sucks, unless!”
“Interesting” that the Guardian and the BBC warn people from social media on the internet, claiming that only they tell the facts as they are. I have lost count of the times I have read the truth on various sites (including this one of course), only for the BBC and Guardian to announce 3, 4, 5 days later what has been on the web for days. If the Guardian and BBC wish to retrieve their shattered reputation, they need to start telling the truth about Labour, the USA, Israel, the Royals and stop simply following the approved line put out by the elite, the rich, and the London-centric movers and shakers.
It is not only misinformation (lies) of commission but also lies of omission which is at the core of the corporate media model.
“On many matters our ‘quality’ media serve us passably well but this enables a greater lie. Media must show themselves trustworthy even if this embarrasses high office. (Not only does long term capacity to manufacture consent depend on this. So too, on pain of losing market share, do their business models.) But the trust so gained helps them mislead us, more by omission than commission, on matters critical – above all the vilifying of states and leaders in the way of empire designs – to the power they ultimately serve.
We need not suppose dishonest practitioners. The corruption is systemic. Media are, as Chomsky observed, “corporations selling privileged audiences to other corporations”. (“Public service” broadcasters like America’s PBS, Britain’s BBC or Australia’s ABC are not only headed up by appointees from ruling elites, but subject to market pressures at one stage removed, via politicians who fear and/or are in bed with Citizen Kane figures like Murdoch and Rothermere.) At a more personal level, I speak less of outright mendacity than a well honed human capacity to see the world in ways that best suit our perceived interests. Journalists who know what’s good for them please editors. Editors who know what’s good for them please proprietors. Proprietors not only crave seats at the high table but need advertisers and/or wealthy sponsors. Last but not least, all are as much influenced as influencers…”
– Phil Roddis: Steel City Scribbler
One such glaring omission concerns the unfolding energy crisis across geographical Europe – UK as well as the EU – as identified in this piece from a year ago:
https://thehonestsorcerer.substack.com/p/europes-downward-spiral-accelerates
“Deeply indebted, cash stricken and burdened with overcapacity European companies have no other choice left than to start dismissing their workforce….
…..What started as a “failure” to meet the energy demands of a post-COVID rebound, has now turned into a full blown energy crisis unwilling to recede…..
…..Europe lacks an adequate domestic supply of hydrocarbons, even as its economy remains heavily reliant on natural gas and diesel oil.”
A crisis which will see further de-industrialisation and collapsing institutions across a Collective West – starting with Europe/UK – whose almost total dependence on their lumpen elite created fantasy reality and reliance on their own bullshit makes those States and what little remains of their societies – now modelled entirely on atomisation – ll-equipped to deal with the objective reality about to deliver the coup de grace that will systematically finish those States off as functioning entities.
Years ago, the late Fred Hoyle wrote an entire book based on the premise of “Energy or Extinction.” If he were still around today, the sight of a Europe and wider Collective West deliberately, and repeatedly, shooting itself and its populations in the head with its current irrational policies – energy being only one – would doubtless send him back to the grave.
The bottom line is that the corporate media outlets identified here are beyond redemption. Relying on anything they produce is counter productive.