The petition to sack Tory propagandist Laura Kuenssberg from her role as BBC Political Editor has been scrapped by 38 Degrees after it gained over 35,000 signatures. The reason given is sexist comments and tweets.
Having both signed and endorsed the petition myself, I was taken aback by this. I had personally read through every single one of the comments on the 38 Degrees site, when 26,000 people had signed the petition. I was intending to publish a selection of comments on this blog, as many of them were really quite elegant, and some moving in expressing the loss some people felt in their disillusion with the BBC.
Of the many scores, possibly hundreds (there is no counter) of comments I read through, only one was sexist. That one was very unpleasant, but totally unrepresentative. I can see no reason why they could not just delete any such stupid comments. Everywhere on the internet gets them, including this blog.
It seems to me astonishing that a tiny and unrepresentative number of people can get a petition scrapped which had been signed by many thousands of genuine people. I therefore today phoned 38 Degrees to uncover both the policy and the sequence of events.
What happened first was an article in the Guardian alleging the petition was linked to sexist abuse. Needless to say, the Guardian referred to alleged sexist abuse, by Jeremy Corbyn supporters, of Stella Creasy and Jess Phillips (in the case of Stella Creasy this was proven to be almost complete fabrication. I have not looked into the Phillips case). I have both phoned and emailed the Guardian to ask them on what evidence their story of sexist abuse of Kuenssberg was based, but they have not responded.
I asked the 38 Degrees spokesman whether they had personally seen the evidence of this sexist abuse. Their spokesman Adam said that they had seen it. I asked whether they would send me the evidence so I could check it. He said they would consider this. They have not done so. I asked him how many sexist comments there were? 2, 3, 10, 100? He said they had not looked through everything and would not give even a ballpark figure. I asked what impact their junking of the petition would have on the tens of thousands of non sexist people who had signed it, and why they felt able to slander those people as sexist. He replied this was not intended and they were still thinking about it. I asked why people opposed to a petition could not get anything taken down by adding a few nasty comments pretending to support. He said this had occurred to them as a problem too.
38 Degrees said that the petition originator had agreed to it being taken down, but I clarified they had contacted him to ask for his agreement. Whether he was shown the “evidence” or browbeaten I do not know.
So there we are. The petition has been binned and the people who supported it have all been libelled in the media as sexists. It is not apparently concern about a rampantly biased political editor, it is obvious sexism. Yet the only people who claim to have the actual evidence of this sexism – 38 Degrees and the Guardian – have not produced the evidence and refuse to produce the evidence when I ask.
Laura Kuenssberg is I think the most openly biased journalist I have ever seen on the BBC, particularly in her very obvious vindictive hatred of Jeremy Corbyn and of Scottish Independence. She does not in the least pretend impartiality. But she is by no means alone. Of course by targeting her we are only drawing attention to a particularly egregious symptom of the terrible disease of a rampantly right wing corporate and state media. Nobody believes that removing her would solve the problem. Nobody seriously believes the BBC actually would remove her even if the petition reached a million. It is purely a campaigning tool to highlight the injustice of media control, access and bias.
The fact we are denied even this tool of protest is deeply troubling. The continued process of stigmatisation of decent dissidents as “anti-Semitic” or “misogynist” is characteristic of a society in which deviating from the political line is rewarded with social stigma and exclusion. This poisonous climate should be seen as a reaction to the challenge the elite is currently facing to its neo-liberal certainties.
Where do we stand then regarding 38 Degrees, should we still see them as credible? Even though they haven’t produced sufficient evidence of sexism in their comments section.
They don’t want their other projects damaged by smears – I’m pretty sure that’s what drive this from their side
They’d probably have done themselves a lot more good in the long run by saying: “F–k off. The petition stays and we’ll get rid of the nasty comments.”
Makes me think that there is more leverage behind this.
JSM,
Don’t think it, know it. Here’s Joe Haydon’s take on the matter posted to his friends on his FaceBook Page at 6:00PM this evening:
From JOE HAYDON, FACEBOOK:
Joe Haydon
4 hrs ·
So.
It’s been a mad few days.
As some of you may be aware I have been at the centre of a small national media shitstorm.
I started a petition in January to sack Laura Kuenssberg, the BBC’s political editor, over her attack on Labour and Corbyn at the time, exemplifying her inability to abide by the BBC’s requirement of impartiality and balanced reporting. Over the past few days it attracted a lot of attention on the back of her behaviour over the local election coverage.
It reached 35000 signatures in a 2 days. I found this pretty exciting, it was attracting media attention from both sides of the political spectrum, and just felt pretty mad to suddenly be on the crest of a wave of opinion like that.
However, unbeknownst to me it soon attracted the wrong kind of attention. The petition was being shared across social media accompanied by sexist and misogynistic abuse of varying levels of unpleasentness.
http://www.theguardian.com/…/bbc-laura-kuenssberg-jeremy-co…
I was horrified by this, and though I share none of those sentiments and tried to disassociate myself and the petition from it all, I was already being branded a sexist and misogynist by MPs and journalists, which I admit I felt quite hurt by. Not only do I not hold any of those views, it was utterly undermining the petition itself (which I worded as carefully as I could to avoid any suggestion that her job should be terminated for any other reason than her unprofessionalism).
Too late. It was no longer about the petition but the bigots that poisoned it.
After a few chats with mates and a couple with the guys at 38 Degrees I came to the decision that the petition had to be pulled to prevent any more of the abuse. Though I don’t agree with Kuenssberg and there is no excuse for her unprofessionalism, there is also no excuse for sexist and misogynistic attacks on anybody.
38 Degrees and I replaced the petition with this statement:
https://speakout.38degrees.org.uk/campaigns/907
I understand why you took it down and I have to respect your feelings and position. However I believe it was wrong to do so. The way the media have behaved over Jeremy Corbyn since his election as leader, over Shah and her miscalculation of how American humour would be deliberately misinterpreted and over Livingstone and his bumbling references to an event in history that most of us had to look up was mirrored by JC crumbling under the pressure from without and within and suspending them both. I believe he is out of integrity. Just because something is blown up and vilified in the media does not make the impression they wish to make true. It was out-and-out anti-Corbyn propaganda. There is plenty of evidence out here on the internet about the origins of the map and the acceptance in the USA of a long-standing joke about the relationship between Israel and the USA to defuse the opprobrium hurled at Naz Shah, and if Corbyn had acted cooly and intelligently, instead of listening to his colleagues who were more concerned with PR than with truthfulness, the whole thing might have been scotched. If you are going to be a politician who wishes to bring that stranger to politics, integrity, back into the fold, then don’t just play fair with others, make sure they play fair with you.
I’m glad you have written a statement, but as a signatory who is serious and angered by the bias in BBC news coverage I appeal to you to have it reinstated. I am even considering starting a petition to that end, but as yet undecided.
Sorry Chris, I read the extract as if posted by Joe Haydon – I missed your name at the top.
So who are Thirty-Eight Degrees? Their obvious complicity in yet another smear campaign by the Right, led, naturally by the ‘Guardian’ sewer, is pretty plain.
Exactly
“They don’t want their other projects damaged by smears …”
… but haven’t they just show to opponents of their other projects the perfect method to get those other projects scrapped?
eg: the opponents sign the petition with a (sex/anti-sem/whatever)ist message then scream to the media that the petition is (sex/anti-sem/whatever)ist
Yes, bleb-as easy as shelling peas. The cleverness is in not using the ‘antisemitism’ smear. too. It’s getting a bit over-used.
Yep, but this poor Joe guy doesn’t have the means to fight the whole establishment on his own and I doubt 38 degrees have either. Don’t forget that 38 degrees was set up initially to fight for the nhs.
Please don’t let this one thing colour your views on them, politicians have been trying to discredit them for 6 years now
Unfortunately, like the BBC itself, all it has succeeded in doing is to cause the very people who would be its most staunch defenders against any such attacks to question and doubt whether there is anything there worth defending.
Craig – I wonder if your readers might enjoy my comments from now on on my own self-developed blog:
http://jeremystocks.github.io/grasshopper/opening/general/2016/05/10/welcome.html
38 Degrees have got another thing going about “Save our BBC”, and maybe somebody sees this as a conflict of interest.
Removing the bias in the news is one of the best ways to save the BBC so the two are not mutually exclusive.
Just need to look at raising concerns another way
Perhaps self-immolation will catch their attention.
There’s another petition running here:
https://www.change.org/p/james-harding-director-of-news-and-current-affairs-we-ask-that-the-bbc-review-the-current-political-editor-laura-kuenssberg-s-position
I have signed a number of Change.Org petitions and to be blunt, they seem more organised and professional than 38 Degrees – for what my two bobs worth is anyway!
Two bobs worth – you must be very, very old. I only heard that on my Grandad’s knee.
Blimey, the “bob” only went out in 1971. I was three.
scouts were still doing bob a job until the 90s
the 10p pieces were in curculation for 20 years after 1971
2 bob
I knew them as “florins”.
The difference is that Change.org is a profit-making company which uses its petition site to build a huge list of contacts which it can then use to sell services to campaigning organisations. 38 Degrees is just a digital campaigning organisation.
Signed. I think this is a better petition, actually.
“I asked why people opposed to a petition could not get anything taken down by adding a few nasty comments pretending to support. He said this had occurred to them as a problem too”.
Surely, after all their campaigners, they would have encountered this before? I also asked them about this today, and they could only say the petition was “derailed by sexists” and that the petition was “taken down with the agreement of the petitioner”. I get the feeling the role of 38 degrees is to manufacture consensus.
Exactly. The same thing happened with Avaaz.
Careful, Craig, you’re starting to sound like a ‘non-violent extremist’ in this wonderfully open and democratic country of ours.
I believe Queeny-poos is going to announce forthcoming legislation to deal with the likes of you, my pretty one…
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/may/03/new-anti-extremism-powers-to-be-included-in-queens-speech
Little Johnny asks: “What were you doing Daddy when they rolled out the police state?”
Daddy: “I was hating Muslims and watching Britain’s Got Talent.”
Oh yes, Beth. Avaaz is pure ‘Astroturf’ as they say. A fraud designed to lead the disgruntled along paths approved of by the elite, Mr. Soros, I believe, in Avaaz’s case.
The people who organised this petition need to have a good look at themselves,what moral and craven cowards they must be if this collapses.What did they think the reaction would be ,if they don,t have the hutspa ! stay out of the arena.
Craig Sir,
As ever, you have out done yourself in seeking answers from those who seek to deceive and destroy, deceive Joe public and destroy any hope.
Although not too sure about the actual sequence of events, its clear that pressure, I’d say of a legal kind, was applied to who ever is running 38 Degrees, and knowing how small business works within media, I’m confident the owners had no ‘legal indemnity insurance’ to actually fight off frivolous claims from rather large corporations – hence, only the threat of a legal action cause the owners to panic and withdraw the petition signed by many honest persons expressing serious concerns. It’s actually called bullying and a well known legal ploy at little cost to the accusers to close a story or article or offending matter down.
This type of behaviour needs challenging if we are to maintain any notion of free speech, particularly if we look at it for what it signifies, namely we are actually living is quite a fascistic society – a term not utilised lightly – whereby within the London bubble the Elite/establishment, the Fifth Estate and large corporations are all conjoined at the hip, an issue made worse by the fact that most of these Elite types actually attended similar Public schools, or two of the Uk’s most elitist universities, namely Oxford and Cambridge – so ties run deep.
Of course many will say I’m hyperbolic or talking conspiracy theory, whilst the fact remains these networks and relationships have been well documented and well researched. Indeed, C Wright Mills in the 1950s was warning the USA about the dangers of such a pernicious system in his book ‘The Power Elite’, which has stood the test of time given the fact the Bush clan were mentioned in that, well before Bush the Elder came to everyones attention.
Not too sure what more to add, but the oligarchy with its dark fascistic undertones is now clearly on display, particularly given all events in the political sphere since Corbyn was able to seize control of the Labour Party democratically from the Masters of the Universe – in their own opinion at least.
If the Power elite felt its authority was that strong, it would not need to revert to such measures that actually bring they themselves into disrepute, which demonstrates a fear of the Demos if they are unable to control the dominating narrative, one challenged daily by hundreds of thousands on social media – Scared they are I tell, bloody scared!
Petitions like these are useful in identifying the ‘enemies within’, too. The retribution will be in not getting some job you thought was yours, for reasons you are never informed of and other ways I’ll leave to your imagination. They are compiling mountains of information on everyone, as future ‘evidence’ of Thought Crime. ‘Friendly fascism’ is beginning to turn nasty. Corbyn has produced an immune reaction of startling and still growing virulence.
It’s so unfair. The Beeb has tried ever so hard to find upper-crust British presenters who don’t rape children – and now that they’ve managed to find one, you’re still not satisfied. You don’t want vindictive hatred, for heaven’s sake! Are we now to erase British culture itself?
Is it possible to have a petition on 38 Degrees with the comments facility de-activated…… Good init.
Is it possible to have a petition on 38 Degrees petitioning that they actually re-instate this petition as censorship and attacks on freedom of speech really must be dealt with head on, hence whats good for the goose is certainly good for the gander.
Indeed, they could have suspended it, removed the offensive content and continued with comments disabled.
And then no one would ever have known how many people signed the petition because they were sexist.
The originator of the petition took it down himself.
Joe Haydon, who initially set up the petition calling for the presenter to be removed after her “focussed tirade against the Labour party”, said he had decided to pull the petition because it had been hijacked by sexist signatories.
In a statement he said: “When I started my campaign I was trying to raise a serious issue about what I saw as a reporter not being balanced and fair in the way that the news was covered. My petition has since been hijacked by a group of people who absolutely do not share my views.
“I would like to reassure everyone that I am a passionate advocate for equality in all areas, not just gender equality. This petition has precisely zero to do with gender.
“As a result of the sexist trolls who have attempted to derail my petition, I have decided to take it down. “
As far as I understand it, the original petition against BBC bias was started by a lady called Anna Harwich…
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/remove-the-bbc-journalists-who-manipulated-the-news
… and was reported by the MSM. However, these reports seem to have now disapeared into an Orwellian hole.
If you feel so inclined you can still sign the original petition via the link above.
Question: why was Anna’s petition totally steam-rollered by someone called ‘Joe’?
Anon1,
Given this statement was posted after The Guardian ran with its attack, or had undertaken the dirty deed, the statement reads flat and is a mere distraction. As CM clearly indicates, when i signed the petition at 16,000 signatories and read through at least 500 of the Comments for reasons why persons signed, no sexist messages were perceived by myself. As such, and without any evidence, we are left to conjecture and what efforts CM himself has undertaken, but if would be interesting to actually discuss firsthand with Mr. Haydon why the Petition was removed and why the grounds for removal are so spurious.
Of course, persons like you seem to like censorship when the narrative does not support your personal opinion, hence, no effort has been undertaken on your behalf apart from reiterating what many of us were already aware of. But CM’s interjections came after the Petition was removed, and that story does not quite fit in with the official statement. As stated, pressure has been applied, be it legal, or basically some shit may exist on Haydon, which The Guardian threatened to expose, never mind a quick letter from a lawyer threatening legal sanction, which if applied would bankrupt most.
Obviously I know bugger all, but having myself been involved with frivolous actions brought against publications by the Singapore Authorities, I actually do understand how it works, which is why many publishing groups have legal indemnity insurance, which don’t come cheap – it’s my opinion 38 Degrees does not have indemnity, nor does the Petitioner himself, hence the utilisation of Sexism claims, which again is spurious until the actual Petition and all comments attached are qualified by an independent third party in order to qualify the veracity of all claims made.
Anon1 I established this version is not true. 38 Degrees called him and asked him to agree to take down the petition. He agreed to do so. There is a quite deliberate false attempt to portray this as his initiative. If you can’t be bothered to read the post thoroughly, do not comment.
What he was shown or told to convince him I do not know.
You haven’t established any such thing. Haydon decided to take down the petition and gave his reasons for doing so. He discussed his decision with 38 Degrees.
Why in your post do you not make any mention of Haydon’s statement?
Anon1,
As a reporter mate, you’d not get far in life I’m afraid, never mind an ‘investigative reporter’, so unlike many here, I’ve gone out of my way to do a little research some 6,000 miles away from all the action – using those tools i actually know how to use, so, and in the interests of impartiality and factual reportage, rather than making it up, here’s what’s gone down from the horses mouth, and do not the Petitioner, Mr. Joe Haydon had attacks made upon him by media attack dogs and bloody MP’s no less – strange that.
HERES JOE HAYDEN”S PERSONAL ACCOUNT OF THIS SHIT FOUND ON HIS FACEBOOK PAGE AND POSTED AT APPROX. 6.00 PM
”
Joe Haydon
4 hrs ·
So.
It’s been a mad few days.
As some of you may be aware I have been at the centre of a small national media shitstorm.
I started a petition in January to sack Laura Kuenssberg, the BBC’s political editor, over her attack on Labour and Corbyn at the time, exemplifying her inability to abide by the BBC’s requirement of impartiality and balanced reporting. Over the past few days it attracted a lot of attention on the back of her behaviour over the local election coverage.
It reached 35000 signatures in a 2 days. I found this pretty exciting, it was attracting media attention from both sides of the political spectrum, and just felt pretty mad to suddenly be on the crest of a wave of opinion like that.
However, unbeknownst to me it soon attracted the wrong kind of attention. The petition was being shared across social media accompanied by sexist and misogynistic abuse of varying levels of unpleasentness.
http://www.theguardian.com/…/bbc-laura-kuenssberg-jeremy-co…
I was horrified by this, and though I share none of those sentiments and tried to disassociate myself and the petition from it all, I was already being branded a sexist and misogynist by MPs and journalists, which I admit I felt quite hurt by. Not only do I not hold any of those views, it was utterly undermining the petition itself (which I worded as carefully as I could to avoid any suggestion that her job should be terminated for any other reason than her unprofessionalism).
Too late. It was no longer about the petition but the bigots that poisoned it.
After a few chats with mates and a couple with the guys at 38 Degrees I came to the decision that the petition had to be pulled to prevent any more of the abuse. Though I don’t agree with Kuenssberg and there is no excuse for her unprofessionalism, there is also no excuse for sexist and misogynistic attacks on anybody.
38 Degrees and I replaced the petition with this statement:
https://speakout.38degrees.org.uk/campaigns/907
Sounds awfully like ‘Haydon’ did a pre-emptive, possibly planned, roll-over at the FIRST sign of sabotage.
No, Haydon claims in his FB post he was pressurised by MP’s and Journalist and was accused of being a misogynist for orchestrating the petition, a petition no one cared about until it surpassed 25,000 people, at which time it appears unusual comments began being posted in conjunction with complaints from MP’s and feminist social justice warriors concerned one of their own was being called out for being a propagandist, given all SJW’s are well paid propagandists – none actually ever up for a fight, but they say the right words to impress their peer group or those forces they are in the pay of, or owe loyalty too.
Chris, I hate to sound cynical, but Haydon still seems, to my eyes, to have capitulated at the first whiff of elite grape-shot. Perhaps his future progress will reveal whether he merely lacks the ticker for a fight, or otherwise.
Disappointing behaviour by 38 Degrees. The organisation needs to stand up to the political establishment and its media allies better than this. To rescue its reputation it should reinstate the petition without delay, after excising any unambiguously sexist comments, and apologise to previous signatories. These should be told exactly how many objectionable posts there were, and that in future any sexist abuse or the like will be deleted in short order by 38 Degrees to protect the integrity of its petitions.
It would be a good idea to email 38 Degrees along these lines, at [email protected]
Makes me feel disenfranchised.
Unless you are one of the 24% of the electorate who voted Tory last year, you ARE disenfranchised.
Last I saw of the petition, it was over 30,000 and targeting 35,000. It’s at least possible that the site was hit by sexist trolls after Craig checked the comments – I can confirm that around 25,000 there was nothing untoward going on there that I could see. Just sayin’. Haydon might be invited to clarify?
38 Degrees no longer stands for anything other than its own survival. Too many examples of obsequious behaviour: it was once a tool of and for the people but now it’s just a site run by total tools.
They all sell-out in the end. Indeed many sell-out before the end, or even the beginning. No ticker. Or a Trojan Horse, perhaps.
I rather think this is going to backfire…people who have signed the petition are going to be mighty upset that it has gone.
Stand by for more and better petitions…
Too right! I just cancelled my Direct Debit to 38 Degrees and signed the Change.org petition.
Then petitioning will be added to BDS and ANY criticism of Israel as Thought Crime, and banned. Of course what they really want is for some frustrated, albeit peaceful, person, to act in some way violently. That’s the excuse they want to really crack down on the ‘enemy within’. If no-one does so, they’ll eventually provide their own provocateurs, as the police have long done with environmental protestors, and the FBI are expert at with ‘Moslem terrorists’ in the USA.
All the makings of a police state. I am a grandmother and 70 years old,no way am I any of the things quoted I signed because I was angry I could no longer watch BBC news with this woman and her reporting, I expect my opinion to be respected not rubbished or falsely proported to be something sinister.
The truth is that the Corbynistas, in common with the Scots nats, can’t take criticism without resorting to online harassment and witch hunts.
Everyone has been on the receiving end of Kuenssberg – the Tories, UKIP included. She’s good at her job.
No, the truth is that you’re an establishment troll who doesn’t have the guardian mods supporting you here. Bugger off.
I made one comment on KMF in 2010 and was banned for life.
Which is fair enough if she was a reporter, but she’s not, she’s an editor.
An editor in the press can be as one sided as they like in favour of the “house” position ; in the BBC the “house” position is determined by their charter and it’s one of impartiality and balance.
My auntie is 85 and every time laura kuenssberg comes on she wants to throw something at the tv. Nobody likes her patronising way of speaking.
Extremely disappointed with 38 degrees. Sounds like they have given in to being leaned on to me!
I wonder if it will happen to this one too….
https://www.change.org/p/bbc-we-demand-producer-of-daily-politics-along-with-andrew-neil-laura-kuenssberg-be-sacked
That’s ok – here’s a gender non-specific one. Don’t give up the fight.
Surely you didn’t expect “fair play”, Craig? Not in this day and age and given all you have seen. For the millionth time, let me refer you to the Melian Dialogue, as quoted by Thucydides 2500 years ago:
“…we hope that you… will aim at what is feasible, holding in view the real sentiments of us both; since you know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must”.
That’s ok – here’s a gender non-specific one. Don’t give up the fight.
https://www.change.org/p/bbc-we-demand-producer-of-daily-politics-along-with-andrew-neil-laura-kuenssberg-be-sacked
It’s a bit old but it’ll do
I did the same. I couldn’t even get 33 to comment. I also tried to comment on the Guardian website but there’s no facility to leave comments. ( Four hours ago not looked since) stitch up!
Boycot the guardian. Don’t go there.
How poignant, the state’s hope that popular revulsion against the British regime will abate if its expression is suppressed.
It’s all been suppressed, but there’s much going on that’s never reported.
The biggest scandal in British history is going to break sometime soon.
That is, if they don’t murder those who are trying to expose them, and march the nation off to yet another idiotic war.
Don’t forget to wave your flag.
Well presumably the same principle means that if the Guardian finds sexist, racist or whatever comments under one of their articles, the article, no matter how politically correct, will immediately be pulled from their website. Funny I haven’t noticed that.
Actually that does give rise to a practical suggestion for 38 Degrees, which is that the promoter of the petition and 38 Degrees themselves should have a mechanism to delete any comments they find offensive, libellous, spam or whatever. It surprising that they can’t do so already (and if they can why didn’t they and tell the Guardian they’re doing the same as them).
Yep, if you enable comments you have to take responsibility for removing offensive content.
Craig,
Thanks for your work on this (and your efforts in general)! I’m a long time lurker, first time commenter. That’s how angry I am.
I sent this to [email protected] :
Hi,
I’m very disturbed that my support for this petition has turned out to be useless now that it has been scrapped because your organisation claims “mysogynism” in comments by some supporters.
I, like all those whose comments I read on your website, very clearly understood that this petition was aimed at BBC corporate bias. My own comment referred to the BBC not Ms Kuenssberg.
Please can you let me know
1. How many of the 35000 supporters of this petition provided comments?
2. How many of those comments included alleged “mysogynistic abuse”?
3. When can we supporters and the general public see examples of the alleged abuse to judge for ourselves whether it was so serious as to justify the cancellation of a well supported petition?
4. How many times in the past has your organisation cancelled a well supported petition on the grounds that some supporters made nasty comments?
5. How will your organisation protect itself in future from the sabotage of valid and well supported petitions by opponents who, it seems, need only submit a comment perceived by you as nasty to achieve cancellation of a petition they do not like?
6. How does your organisation expect to maintain the trust and respect of the public if a well supported petition can simply be “disappeared” on grounds which (in this case) appear both flimsy and politically motivated?
These queries are directed at your organisation, not the originator of the petition.
I look forward to your reply.
Yours in disappointment
Chris G
“I’m very disturbed that my support for this petition has turned out to be useless”
Sorry to have to break it to you, Chris, but it was useless anyway.
Anon1,
Whilst I understand you tow an establishment line, the Petition in question rallied 35,000 signatures rapidly and was gaining a large momentum due to be hosted by many on Social Media, myself included.
Does not anything week your attention, or ring ominous alarms bells in your mind, when a rather naïve persons, unused to the machinations of the media or feminist MP’s and social progressive warriors, starts being accused by the establishment, namely members of the media and Parliamentarians, as effectively promoting hate?
This statement taken from his own words, and not BS issued by 38 Degrees says more than anything else:
“I was already being branded a sexist and misogynist by MPs and journalists.” – Joe Haydon comment
I’ll leave it there mate.
Welcome: and very well put. Thank you.
Chris Rogers has now given us a bit more background on the story from the originator of the petition. Whoever originated the decision to scrap the petition, it seems that he did take a conscious decision to do it. I’m astonished to read that he was “being branded a sexist and misogynist by MPs and journalists”. Which MPs? Which journalists? It would be interesting to know and to see if his perceptions are accurate.
“It was no longer about the petition but the bigots that poisoned it”, says Mr Haydon. Indeed. He may speak more truly than he knows there.
Appreciate your contribution and I hope you get a straight reply without delay.
John Sir,
The fun and games I could have running with this story are endless, but more importantly, and material I gathered would pass through the hands of at least two highly trained Journalists, one an Oxbridge grad and the other a journeyman who learned his trade the hard way straight after school, both persons sat in the Editor’s chair of a weekly news magazine called the Far eastern Economic Review, and my actual Editor was versed in his art, namely Tabloid Journalism by Derek Jameson – highly respected on Fleet Street and an utter bastard to work for, but his output was good, and in real Journalism, believe me that’s what matters.
Suffice to say, I smell a rat here, and years ago many a good hack would have loved to roll with this and give it to the Establishment, now they are the bloody establishment.
Seems utterly bizarre that the petition originator and 38 Degrees would even know that the petition was being shared around by ugly people on social media. Why would they know that? Because somebody made it their business to tell them. And so what? It’s not the fault of the petition that nutcases get hold of it and use it for twisted purposes – if that’s what in fact happened.
Yet again, the media using every avenue they can to shut down dissent.
So the Guardian didn’t think to contact 38Degrees and tell them they had a problem, they just published.
Thank you Guardian. You are the people’s friend. We’ll give up our Internet and go back to papers and news on telly.
Boycot the guardian. As angry as I am about this, I’m much less irritated by constantly being trolled by the guardian on matters Corbyn. Once you get over the addiction it’s actually easier than quitting smoking and fills you with the same “why didn’t I do this years ago” vibe
When I avoid treading in dog shit, I don’t say I am boycotting dog poo.
Curious. I wonder, if we had online petitions during Thatcher’s era, would they all have been taken down due to ‘sexism’?
I read The Guardian article, and noted the name of Jess Phillips, the new hero of The Guardian. Soon as I saw her name, I knew the gender card was in play. I’m afraid Jess Phillips is just not MP material, and never will be. Is this observation sexist? Of course it isn’t, as it is also not sexist to call Thatcher an empathy-free fraud. However, calling someone sexist is a fantastic smear, which leaves the victim immediately on the defensive; job done. And like most smears, it was cowardly: they refused to open comments.
The sequence of events hasn’t been explained, but it’s fairly easy for a few paid troll-bots to add a few nasty comments. I wonder though, are there that many of such comments? Or was it simply the case that the act of criticising a female journalist was deemed sexist in itself? I can’t seriously imagine it’s the latter, that would be just too strange.
I see that a conspiracy theory has taken hold that the abusive comments were “put there” by agents of the establishment in order to provide a pretext for 38 Degrees (who secretly work for the establishment, and were popular here until about 70 minutes ago), to take the petition down. Not long now before 38 Degrees is denounced as a CIA-funded psy-op.
Probably not long now before Anon1 is denounced as a CIA-funded psy-op.
No! Anon1 is simply useless anyway.
Much like the CIA.
Anon1 you’re priceless!
If you didn’t exist we’d have to invent you!
I’m everything you love to hate.
You’re everything we try to avoid stepping in when walking throw a meadow and absolutely nothing more.
Just for interest’s sake what do you think I hate?
I know I’m not a major player on here but I really would appreciate you taking a minute or two.
Spot on, Anon.
Jess Phillips on Twitter said that critics of Kuenssberg were displaying ‘institutionalised sexism’. I’m not sure how that’s meant to work in this case – the only institution involved is the BBC, where Kuenssberg works, and they can hardly be accused of sexism for employing her.
As a woman, Pam, I’m sure you’re glad that Ms Phillips has elected herself the spokesperson for all Women everywhere.
Sorry I meant to put a wink there ;-). I’m insulted by Jess Philips she is utterly transparent.