Why Rupert Murdoch considers it worth his while to pay David Aaronovitch a large six figure sum for such puerile antics as tweeting that I am insane, is a conjecture I find difficult to resolve. Today this exchange occurred on twitter:
David Aaronovitch: This suggestion that if elected Corbyn could be quickly ousted is utter bollocks. Democracy allows Labour to commit Hara Kiri.
Mark Doran: @DAaronovitch I hope everyone is watching how these servants of the micro-elite try to paint “attracting popular support” as “committing suicide.”
Mark Doran: @DAaronovitch Craig finds the elite-serving contortions every bit as funny as I do
David Aaronovitch: @MarkJDoran I tend to find Craig Murray unpersuasive on the grounds of him being unhinged. I can see why you like him, though.
Mark Doran: Says the man who managed to find Bush and Blair credible. I can see why you liked them, though.
It is remarkably ironic that on being referred to an article which argues that views outside a very narrow neoliberal establishment narrative are marginalised and ridiculed by the media, the Murdoch hack’s response is that the author is unhinged. Aaronovitch could not have more neatly proved my point.
But something else struck me about the twitter record. Aaronovitch’ twitter account claims to have 78,000 followers. Yet of the 78,000 people who allegedly received his tweet about my insanity, only 1 retweeted and 2 favourited. That is an astonishingly low proportion – 1 in 26,000 reacted. To give context, Mark Doran has only 582 followers and yet had more retweets and favourites for his riposte. 1 in 146 to be precise, a 200 times greater response rate.
Please keep reading, I promise you this gets a great deal less boring.
Eighteen months ago I wrote an article about Aaronovitch’s confession that he solicits fake reviews of his books to boost their score on Amazon. In response a reader emailed me with an analysis of Aaronovitch’s twitter followers. He argued with the aid of graphs that the way they accrued indicated that they were not arising naturally, but being purchased in blocks. He claimed this was common practice in the Murdoch organisation to promote their hacks through false apparent popularity.
I studied his graphs at some length, and engaged in email correspondence on them. I concluded that the evidence was not absolutely conclusive, and in fairness to Aaronovitch I declined to publish, to the annoyance of my correspondent.
Naturally this came to mind again today when I noted that Aaronovitch’ tweets to his alleged legion of followers in fact tumble into a well of silence. I do not even tweet. The entire limit of my tweeting is that this blog automatically tweets the titles of articles I write. They are not aphorisms so not geared to retweet. Yet even the simple tweet “Going Mainstream” which marked the article Aaronovitch derided, obtained 20 times the reactions of Aaronovitch’s snappy denunciation of my mental health. This despite the fact he has apparently 10 times more followers than me. An initial survey seems to show this is not atypical.
In logic, I can only see two possible explanations. The first is that my correspondent was right and Aaronovitch fakes twitter followers like he does book reviews. The second is that he has a vast army of followers, nearly all of whom find him dull and uninspiring, and who heartily disapproved en masse of his slur on my sanity. I opt for the second explanation, that he is just extremely dull, on the grounds that Mr Aaronovitch’s honesty and probity were never questioned, m’Lud.
Labour Pangs, no, I didn’t see it, but it’s entirely predictable that those humans who have power via media promote other humans to have power via politics. They have received protection in the past so they give protection in the present, and they expect protection to be returned to them in due course. This is what we do; we form alliances, we give favours in the expectation that they will be returned. Our devils are within – where else could they be?
What do you mean by “a nigerian ibo “woostershire sauce” puppet”? I understand “Nigerian” and “puppet”; please explain the other terms.
“Fred, I sympathise, I really do, for I often feel the same. In fact, that feeling is part of the depression you criticised me for a couple of days ago. I wish you well, Fred.”
Clark, the events you described happened nowhere except in your imagination.
Look back on the thread, tell me where before RoS made a personal attack against me I had said anything personal against anyone.
What do you mean by “a nigerian ibo “woostershire sauce” puppet”? I understand “Nigerian” and “puppet”; please explain the other terms.
It’s dear old English Knight again, Clark. So English he can’t spell “Worcestershire”. The opaque language is intended to convey his EDL symmpathies without, er, conveying them.
damn, damn, damn. “sympathies”. Typo.
David Cameron ‘mesmerised’ by Kids Company boss
The high-profile charity has regularly hosted leading politicians
Prime Minister David Cameron was “mesmerised” by the Kids Company boss Camila Batmanghelidjh and over-ruled concerns raised, it has been claimed.
A senior figure involved in funding talks with the high-profile charity told the BBC’s Norman Smith: “We were all over-ridden by Number 10.”
Kids Company, which faces accusations of financial mismanagement, is expected to close its services at 17:00 BST.
It was given a £3m government grant a week ago.
/..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-33787201
Another YCNMIU
Miles Goslett, the investigative journalist, who did a lot of work on Savile at the BBC and also on the Dr Kelly case for an inquest, wrote about Kids Company and their finances a way back.
What if we could take the great Five Eyes and all the other spying systems, national and commercial, and free all their output to all the public? There are things about myself that I do not reveal here that would be revealed – some would be shocked, and some would disapprove, and I expect that the same applies to everyone.
“God sees all” – but you don’t need to believe in God. The two-slits experiment shows that every tiny piece of reality knows when you’re looking at it – Bell and Aspect proved that.
“Look back on the thread, tell me where before RoS made a personal attack against me I had said anything personal against anyone.”
Absolutely. Wouldn’t “Saint Fred” be a more appropriate handle?
The trouble with Kids Company
It’s a favourite charity of David Cameron and many celebrities. But does it do what it claims to do?
Miles Goslett 14 February 2015
http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9437932/the-trouble-with-kids-company/
Cameron’s judgement is called into question yet again.
Fred, when you write that people who wish to break from Westminster rule are “Nazis”, that’s personal abuse.
Yes, I remembered that incident a bit wrong. I’m only human. You did grin, but I exaggerated how much. Sorry. And you said something more like “oh some of my comments may be intended that way” or something. But I didn’t make it up; it happened shortly after you introduced me to your friends who, as you said, don’t read at this site and whom you’d rather I didn’t mention. One of them is a global warming denier whom you may have mentioned yourself a couple of days ago, and whom you seem keen to stay on good terms with. Again, sorry. But that is my honest impression.
Look back on the thread, tell me where before RoS made a personal attack against me I had said anything personal against anyone.
There was this – historically –
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/07/something-to-read-in-the-meantime/comment-page-1/#comment-540958
– as the latest instance of many in which you have described the SNP as a nazi or neonazi organisation.
And RoS is clear that he takes this, as he is an SNP member, as a personal insult:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/07/aaronovitch-blusters-to-a-well-of-silence/comment-page-1/#comment-541559
(Even then he doesn’t tell you to FOAD.)
Your response is that you are referring to the organisation, not the individual members. Personally, I have difficulty in separating the two. The organisation includes its members: it’s a democratic one. Perhaps you could now answer the question I put to you some time ago:
Craig is a fully-paid-up member of the SNP and an active worker on its behalf. He supports its objectives. Is he a Nazi? Or can you bring yourself to admit that the SNP contains non-Nazis and hence cannot be comprehensively smeared as Nazi? Can you go even that far?
Fred
4 Aug, 2015 – 4:50 pm
“What is worrying is that any criticism of the government north of the border seems to be ruled out by the Nationalists.”
…………………………………………………………………….
So you admit Fred, that you posted the Guardian piece, not for its criticism of the police but because the author was having a go, unjustifiably, at Nicola Sturgeon; Michael Matheson the justice minister and the SNP in general as if they could have prevented the tragedy that happened due to neglect of duty of junior police officers.
PS, no-one seems to have spotted a deficiency in Fred’s favourite argument, that because the NSDAP (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei called itself ‘national’ and ‘socialist’, either at Fred’s whim, can be characterised as Nazi. But what of Germans generally? What about the workers Arbeiter?
Bad news for hardworking families, that.
I think this is unfair having observed what is happening in the queues.
Calais Migrants Crisis: Haulier Fines Up 300%
Drivers face an on-the-spot penalty of £2,000 for every person found hidden in their vehicle at any UK port and the Eurotunnel.
http://news.sky.com/story/1530676/calais-migrants-crisis-haulier-fines-up-300-percent
Haulage firms will be packing it in and then where will we be for imports.
” Are US sanctions working? According to this report they are not. Mitsubisi is transferring its factory in Illinois to Russia and targeting the markets of South East Asia and the Phillipines. ”
Not quite, Mitsubishi already has a factory in Russia and is looking to sell the one in Illinois because of declining US sales, down from 200,000 to just 82,000 last year. Obviously not enough to sustain a large scale production facility.
Meanwhile things have not exactly been plain sailing in Russia.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/27/russia-crisis-autos-idUSL6N0WT0E720150327
“Fred, when you write that people who wish to break from Westminster rule are “Nazis”, that’s personal abuse.”
No it isn’t. Any more than saying politicians are liars or lawyers are crooks.
“Yes, I remembered that incident a bit wrong. I’m only human. You did grin, but I exaggerated how much. Sorry.”
You don’t know what I was smiling at because it didn’t involve you. It concerned a young child who was present and something I had said to her several days before and my reply was meant for her rather than you.
@Clark
“God sees all” – but you don’t need to believe in God. The two-slits experiment shows that every tiny piece of reality knows when you’re looking at it – Bell and Aspect proved that.”
Also we are part of a holographic universe everything is connected.
David Bohm.
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/ciencia_holouniverse04.htm
And this is the song Hologram Girl. Which is worth a listen.
https://soundcloud.com/rapunzelmap/hologram-girl
Fred: “Look back on the thread, tell me where before RoS made a personal attack against me I had said anything personal against anyone.”
I don’t know about this thread, but I did once explain how calling anyone a “retard” was unnecessarily hurtful to people who had never done you any harm, and that it is personally offensive.
Your response to my request, and bear in mind I had no personal dispute with you at all prior to this? It was, and I quote, “Fuck off and die, retard cunt.”
That’s when I realised what a deeply unpleasant bully you are.
The two-slits experiment shows that every tiny piece of reality knows when you’re looking at it – Bell and Aspect proved that.
Hmmm. For me it shows that the probability of localising a quantum of energy is described by a wave function.
And see Colbeck and Renner.
Fred, 2:40 pm:
Ah, so you admit that the incident happened, and wasn’t a product of the “mental illness” you recently imputed to me. I still dispute your account. My opinion is that you reacted to my question, which I delivered in a friendly, joking manner. And there was your spoken reply, too.
Ba’al, come on, you know how it goes. We make the experiment more and more complicated, tricky, and still the system seems to know whether we’re looking or not. We need to face this. “God sees all”.
“Ah, so you admit that the incident happened, and wasn’t a product of the “mental illness” you recently imputed to me. I still dispute your account. My opinion is that you reacted to my question, which I delivered in a friendly, joking manner. And there was your spoken reply, too.”
I can’t defend myself against delusions and I see no reason why I should.
Fred, oh, so you’re back to calling me delusional. But not quite as delusional as I was before, eh?
Don’t expect an apology from St. Fred, Clark. That would mean there was something to apologise for, and as any fule no, St. Fred is this (or any other) blog’s finest product which cannot be equaled nor bettered – perfection itself.
Ba’al, come on, you know how it goes. We make the experiment more and more complicated, tricky, and still the system seems to know whether we’re looking or not. We need to face this. “God sees all”.
Sorry, Clark, I don’t do mysticism. All I can offer is, ‘if it knows, does it care?’ Which is maybe a deeper question than it seems. First define ‘know’, I think.
(Or, if you’re going all holistic on me, with a dash of Chinese Buddhism, ‘of course it bloody knows. There is no it and no us’).
This may be science’s current version of the angels-on-a-pin debate, anyway.
Glenn,Dougie Scrogie and Baal, good rhetorical comments, about the SNP equalling Nazi’s in the eyes if Fred.
I think the heart of the matter is, Fred doesn’t want Scotland to become independent he I suppose has his reasons, of which he’s entitled too, and maybe one day he’ll tell us them.
Meanwhile NHS pen pushers sanctioned a £51,000 pound plaque, for a new hospital that opened in Glasgow recently, did the plaque carry a famous Scot name in the field of medicine such as Lister.
Did it heck, as per usual and to the disappointment of 12,000 people who signed a petition asking it not be named anything with Queen Elizabeth II in it, the pen pushing pr*cks went ahead in a private meeting and named it after her anyway.
To rub salt into the wound Old Queen Lizzie picked up a cool £29 grand for her attendance, in total the fiasco, cost £100 grand, words escape me.
While we’re on tbe subject of HRH, some news rags are carry the story that Old Lizzy will soon surpass her sponging predecessor Queen Victoria, as the longest reigning parasite in British history.
No doubt the taxpayer will again pick up the tab for a bumper celebration, of HRH, as the longest ever recipient of benefits since the welfare state came about.
http://www.thenational.scot/news/hospital-chiefs-spent-100k-on-royal-re-brand.5987
Raymond Smullyan.
Re my last comment I mean’t Fleming not Lister….duh!
Ba’al, as in: “
Trust me.”“Fred, oh, so you’re back to calling me delusional.”
Exactly, it’s a kind way of saying what you said was not true.
Heath was Chief Whip for the (governing) Tories from 1955 to 1959, when he entered MacMillan’s cabinet. Anybody else reminded of House of Cards?