Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Corbyn reporting could be a tipping point for Guardian

There is some balance but in general the Guardian seems pretty much with the PLP and worried about the bullying from social media, Twitter and Facebook etc. There was a sort of counter last week, David Graeber on why the elites hate Momentum. But this is rare and not written by the staff regulars. Graeber sees the Corbyn social media as a threat both to Westminster politics and the normal role of journalists.

Since the leadership election has been clearly going to happen there has been increased coverage of the supposed bullying nature of tweets from Corbyn supporters. I am not a member of the Labour Party but I have been struck by the misleading reporting of Corbyn during the referendum. I am concerned that the views he represents continue to be fairly represented.

The Guardian is losing print circulation and hopes to find a business model online. See previous posts for facts and comment about Guardian Unlimited Talk. Briefly, they scrapped the original social media and then Comment is Free seems increasingly intended for a smaller group of writers with comments not much welcomed. Now the rude nature of Twitter land is a frequent theme for the columnists. this is getting a bit out of proportion.

I still read the print version of the Guardian, but mostly just to see how things are spun and which bits of online will turn up. If Twitter is the most reliable way to find the content that interests me then I suppose print will be less compelling in normal times.

If the Guardian continues online I really do hope there is some thought about how the people that tweet are represented. they may be the same people who are supposed to check the website.

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