Is the Guardian worse than it used to be?

Emailed almost the exact second I was released from hospital

— Dawn Foster (@DawnHFoster) August 23, 2019

lovely stuff

love too have a very plural media landscape - 40% of GBP voting public now has voice in mainstream media publications through.... what? one political commentator?

Is this at all legal? surely no-pay-no-fee twitter QCs are DM-ing her right now! Anyway, yes the guardian is terrible and Dawn Foster always seems like the only high profile commentator I can imagine hanging out. Maybe Aditya, but I suspect he has a very earnest sense of humour which makes for very PLEASANT conversation.

He's sarky and childish

Not earnest I mean

I'm basing my assumption on very little.

you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise (given who gets uselessly to hang on eternally) but i'm p sure editors have the right to decide at any time to no longer commission someone as a columnist, which is i think what happened here? (unless anyone knows different: DF's own tweet abt the reason is surely her sarcastic reading and not what they told her)

(i mean it's a bullshit decision and spiteful timing, but again i think these are decisions that editors legally get to make)

All I know is around this time last year she renewed her yearly contract (there’s a salary for this but effectively it is a retainer for x amount of work). My guess is that they decided not to give her one again, and unfortunately there’s not any opportunity to take them to an employment tribunal because of the way contributor contracts work. It sucks because she’s been in and out of hospital A LOT over the past month and I think it’s not exactly the most sensitive thing they’ve done recently.

Came here to post this:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/23/prince-andrew-appalled-epstein-royal-wedding?CMP=share_btn_tw

"I’m slightly sorry for the royal flunkies who had to issue this line"

my red hot take is that andrew's letter (which is insanely badly written) slipped straight past the royal flunkies: the jefferey epstein memorial poll and conspiracy-mongering thread

Guardian obsession with Fleabag now so out of control they're using Fleabag to have a pop at Fleabag for not being as good as Fleabag: https://t.co/JVebAED6r8

— David Quantick (@quantick) August 29, 2019

I say this as an ex-colleague and someone who once had time for him, but seriously fuck David Quantick sideways with farm implements. His thoughts on Fleabag are, I’m sure, duplicated by others who don’t homophobically abuse people who have been beaten up by right-wing thugs.

he's a horrible bloke, always reminds of the archetypal dickhead where your intro to them is some idiot saying : you've got to meet this guy, he's really funny/a veritable "character" etc.. and invariably they are just horribly tiresome and ugly people.

Gardening Is Good For Mental Health articles are starting to approach Fleabag frequency.

I carry no torch for Quantick, who may be horrible, but his comment on FLEABAG in and of itself looks inoffensive?

I think FLEABAG was a very good programme.

It is true, as Madchen also indicates, that there are certain Guardian go-to motifs (in current digital era). Morrissey used to be one, Taylor Swift might be also. Probably Jess Phillips?

I recently saw a book of 'inspiring women, by Chelsea Clinton', which included J.K. Rowling. And a week later I saw, in the Guardian, that Hillary Clinton was writing what sounded a very similar book but with more words and fewer pictures. I feel that these are quite Guardian-friendly.

Another example relevant to Madchen's comment: recent column by someone who said a gadget had changed his life and it was an alarm clock.

no more slugabed misery!

Nicola Sturgeon and Ruth Davidson - both, I think, quite suited for Guardian Weekend treatment.

Seems to me a key is people who can be quoted and presented as radicals, part of a 'resistance' to a dangerous world of populism, but who actually do not support radical things or do much to resist bad things.

Possibly this is unfair to Sturgeon as her flagship policy is a big geopolitical change.

Actually Anna Soubry would be a simpler example.

Glad that's settled.

In 1994, Basic Channel put out Quadrant Dub, Phylyps II, Octagon and Radiance, any one of which changed music more than a bunch of throwbacks in parkas. Looking forward to them getting a BBC feature.https://t.co/A1l5QoqyAf

— Aditya Chakrabortty (@chakrabortty) August 30, 2019

I like him a bit more

omg

"Adidas trainers became a must and I had my own little Liam strut"

it "changed everything" for impressionable youngsters like Neil Warnock.

No Cyrus, no credibility

Lol yes mon yersel aditya

wow the Graun is good now

what was the name of that basic channel album where the cd was in a cool looking metal box, it might have been a comp of their eps. fuck knows - it was one of them artefacts that disappeared between house moves. aditya otm as ever.

https://www.discogs.com/Basic-Channel-BCD/release/3545

iirc the packaging sometimes led to the CD ending up broken at some point

Chain Reaction? It was a cool metal box except for the fact that it was prone to damaging the CD inside. Opened mine after the last house move to find it snapped in two. Can't find my rip anywhere.

xp

Ah, right - BCD was the Basic C comp ('97), CRD was the Chain R comp ('00?).

yep I think it was chain reaction, lol cd probably got knackered as well.

Why must there be a brexitland safari article every fucking week? It's like they've heard of this mythical thing called "journalism" and are clumsily trying to recreate it from the vastly inadequate materials they possess. Also john harris's fault of course.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/sep/03/disaster-wigan-voters-little-appetite-election

that lisa nandy often sounds just as muddle-headed as her inarticulate constituents that inevitably get quoted in these bullshit pieces is bad imo.

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-09-11-how-the-uk-security-services-neutralised-the-countrys-leading-liberal-newspaper/amp/

some interesting stuff in this overview of one of the main reasons why the guardian is worse than it used to be

An excellent piece. Good to see particular attention on Luke Harding.

Publishing stuff directly provided by the security services without scrutiny is bad enough when it’s true, appalling when it’s not.

You have to say this "Despite this, since January 2016, The Guardian has published 1,215 stories mentioning Labour and anti-Semitism, an average of around one per day" is incredible

jesus that is some really damning stats. at least that radical Toynbee can't be got to by GCHQ spooks or Graun editors in their pockets!

Very good piece, and damning for Viner.

ian cobain, one of the former guardian reporters mentioned in the article who has done great work on e.g. systematic torture carried about by british security services, was recently told he could not attend the "Defence and Security Equipment International" in london which I believe is the biggest arms fair in the world. "After reviewing your application we are unable to establish that you are a journalist/editor/production team member in a relevant field."

that's a helluva (depressing) read

The Guardian finally responds to the original Q https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/08/guardian-coverage-britain-europe-1971
A: we have podcasts, liveblogs and Twitter now!

What am I supposed to do with this tote bag now

use it to throw spooks off the scent

Further proof of the Graun's steep decline:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/sep/13/100-best-albums-of-the-21st-century

the GCHQ/ILM approved top 100 albums!

It'd be worth a Venn diagram if I wasn't so lazy…

eh this just seems like a list of broadsheet newspaper music column music. not sure that I want like midtown 120 blues or something being dragged through this kindof indignity anyway.

^^^^^

lol, it is bad when they mix some token good stuff into the usual run of the mill garbage!

I've not even hate-read Petridis in years and my life feels much better.

they still repping for The Strokes? what the fuck is right with these people?

The least they could've done was name the 45 polled music writers (and add their individual lists). This is as useless as an old shopping list.