Election 2017: MEDIA WATCH.

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Headline on The Sun's website, half an hour before the Manchester bombing:



Headline on the same article, a couple of hours after the bombing:



Fucking shameless.

"Might not have planted a bomb"??

Blimey are we sure he's not TFM?



Roughly the same amount of hair.

[Dr Rock]

Having read the article, Corbyn apparently 'made it easier' by supporting the armed struggle. Whether it's a fact or not that he supported the armed struggle, I fail to see how this alleged support made any acts of terrorism easier.

[Zetetic]

I would've gone with the more direct CORBYN MADE ME KILL AGAIN AND AGAIN.

[Dr Rock]

[greencalx]

Being Gerry Adams = OK.
Talking to Gerry Adams = NOT OK.

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WAIT A MINUTE.


WAIT A COTTON-PICKING MINUTE.....

[olliebean]

Having read the article, Corbyn apparently 'made it easier' by supporting the armed struggle. Whether it's a fact or not that he supported the armed struggle, I fail to see how this alleged support made any acts of terrorism easier.

The point I was making was more about the cynical use of the bombing by The Sun, you can imagine them after it happened saying "Quick, stick that quote about bombs in the headline, people are more likely to associate it with the current tragedy then." The fact it was a Corbyn-bashing piece is incidental; the headline switch would have been a vile move whatever the subject.

A more sensitive paper would have been checking to make sure they didn't have any such triggering headlines, not looking to create one.

[Dr Rock]

The point I was making was more about the cynical use of the bombing by The Sun, you can imagine them after it happened saying "Quick, stick that quote about bombs in the headline, people are more likely to associate it with the current tragedy then." The fact it was a Corbyn-bashing piece is incidental; the headline switch would have been a vile move whatever the subject.

Oh yes, I totally understood that. Getting the word 'bombs' in there was no accident, vile behaviour.

[Replies From View]

The point I was making

SEAN O'CALLAGHAN IS IT YOU???


It's definitely one of us here.  If it's me I'm not going to tell you whether I will tell you or not, as I don't want to dissuade you from telling me yourself.

[Dr Rock]

Daily Mail

[Quincey]

Media desperate to use the Manchester murders to smear Labour by reporting on everyone with a connection to Labour, no matter how tenounous, who has said anything that could be seen as a bit silly.

They've even focused on the son of one of Labour's staff. Which journalists are looking at the Facebooks of family members of Labour staff?

[Dr Rock]

Tim Farron is being grilled by Mr Brillo tonight - does that mean Nuttal missed his slot? It's possible in the wake of the terrorist attack if he went full mental about kicking out muslims or something, that UKIP could claw back some of those Tory voters. Still possible I guess.

[olliebean]

Tim Farron is being grilled by Mr Brillo tonight - does that mean Nuttal missed his slot? It's possible in the wake of the terrorist attack if he went full mental about kicking out muslims or something, that UKIP could claw back some of those Tory voters. Still possible I guess.

Nuttall's wasn't on, nor was Farron's. I'm guessing they'll all be shown next week now (apart from May who was on Monday). Possibly we'll get Corbyn's as scheduled on Friday. Presumably they all still have to be shown, now that May's one has been, to satisfy the Beeb's impartiality rules.

<edit> Just checked the schedules online - currently they're showing Sturgeon tomorrow and Corbyn on Friday, as originally scheduled, with no rescheduled dates as yet for Nuttall and Farron.

[Quincey]

In the Guardian article about campaigning resuming on a Friday they have the following para:

All parties have been anxious to balance the desire to respect the victims of the attack with a determination not to let terrorism derail the democratic process. But Labour were keen to return to the campaign trail.

Before the three-day break imposed by the events in Manchester, Corbyn's party had appeared to be eating into the Conservatives' commanding poll lead, and May had suffered a grilling over changes to her controversial policy for funding social care.

which almost gives the impression that Labour is forcing the other parties to restart their campaign on Friday.

[greencalx]

I don't know if I'm being overly cynical but I feel that May would much rather appear Strong and Stable about an important matter of national security than defend her hopeless manifesto. The longer the hiatus goes on, the more people might forget about that.

I suppose there's also a worry that if a second attack were to take place while she's out knocking on people's doors, this would look like taking the eye off the ball. Although she might get to blame it on the Corbyns.

[greenman]

BBC business news really is awful isn't it? companies could be getting employees to sign over rights to harvest there organs for profit should they die and work and they'd claim "it works for some people".

[BlodwynPig]

You what? Is this a Thomas Ligotti novella?

[biggytitbo]

Media desperate to use the Manchester murders to smear Labour by reporting on everyone with a connection to Labour, no matter how tenounous, who has said anything that could be seen as a bit silly.

They've even focused on the son of one of Labour's staff. Which journalists are looking at the Facebooks of family members of Labour staff?

Again the prominent members of May's team that supported apartheid got a free pass.

[TheFalconMalteser]

Media desperate to use the Manchester murders to smear Labour by reporting on everyone with a connection to Labour, no matter how tenounous, who has said anything that could be seen as a bit silly.

They've even focused on the son of one of Labour's staff. Which journalists are looking at the Facebooks of family members of Labour staff?

Not just any staff, come on, is it?

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Not just any staff, come on, is it?

Labour staff, he said.

[Quincey]

I see none of the Tory press are reporting on May's school breakfasts undercosting.

[olliebean]

I see none of the Tory press are reporting on May's school breakfasts undercosting.

No, an interesting comparison to Diane Abbott when the official figures were sound but she just got them wrong - in this case, the actual official figures were hopelessly wrong. Figures that ought to have been properly worked out and double checked rather than just coming out of one muddled person's head. Deserves at least as much coverage as the Abbott gaffe, but I don't see it getting it.

[colacentral]

Outrageous article from The Guardian previewing Corbyn's speech tomorrow:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/may/25/jeremy-corbyn-links-foreign-policy-to-growing-terror-threat

Andrew Murray, another former Stop the War chair and former communist, who was recently drafted in to Labour HQ to help with the campaign, shares many of Corbyn's views, regarding Britain's involvement in Middle East conflicts, including in Syria, as "western imperialism".

Have a look at the context of that paragraph and tell me what purpose it serves? Why is it relevant to bring up Andrew Murray at all? Why is communism relevant? Why is Andrew Murray having the same views specifically (as do millions of others in the UK) relevant?

The prime minister executed an abrupt U-turn on Monday, announcing that she would consult on introducing a cap on total costs, so that older people did not face unlimited liability. At an awkward press conference in Wrexham, she repeatedly insisted "nothing has changed" and played down accusations that the Tories would impose a "dementia tax".

But May halted the campaign to take direct control of the aftermath of Monday night's attack, chairing meetings of the Cobra emergency committee and delivering a defiant speech in Downing Street insisting British values would prevail over terrorism. She will go to Taormina, in Italy, on Friday, to attend a summit of the G7 industrialised nations, but other ministers will return to campaigning.

May "halted" the campaign to "take direct control." What the fuck are they playing at?

[Paul Calf]

Theresa May takes direct control by exploiting a terrorist atrocity to fuck off to Italy and let someone who isn't shockingly incompetent handle the campaign.

"No, that's fine Theresa. You go off to Italy to do all your important terrorism stuff. We'll just have to muddle on as best we can here. "

[Eis Nein]

Why is it relevant to bring up Andrew Murray at all? Why is communism relevant?

Corbyn sends Labour candidates over the top for another trudge towards the machione gun nests.

[MoonDust]

Everyone's favourite Tory MP, Michael Fallon talking to the media regarding Corbyn's speech today:

This is a very badly timed speech, showing some very muddled and dangerous thinking.

He seems to be implying that a terorrist attack in Manchester is somehow our fault, it's somehow Britain's fault.

No he wasn't, he was saying our foreign policy decisions have been a factor in the growing terror threat, something which security officials and experts were warning Blair about before he invaded Iraq. But we don't listen to experts anymore, do we?

Jeremy Corbyn is far to ready to ready to find excuses and far to slow to support the police and the security services.

Except when he appeared at the vigil in Manchester one day after the attack and has then and since praised the emergency and security services on many occasions.

This is a man, by the way, who has opposed every piece of terrorist legislations, who thinks we should talk to terrorists, and who's even questioned should be right to shoot to kill.

He makes it sound like "talk to terrorists" means "have a cup of tea", rather than getting round a table and negotiating, like what Tony Blair did in Northern Ireland and actually succeeded in securing peace. Plus, with regards to ISIS, it was Owen Smith who suggested we talk to them, not Corbyn.

You see the contrast today between Theresa May acting in the national interest and Jeremy Corbyn confirming that he's simply not up to the job.

If by "acting in the national interest" you mean attending the cobra meetings, G7 summit and NATO summit, that's because she's the Prime Minister. Of course she's going to be doing that and not Corbyn.

Basically, he's talking balls as usual.

[biggytitbo]

Don't give the man the oxygen of publicity, or indeed the oxygen of oxygen.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Don't give the man the oxygen of publicity, or indeed the oxygen of oxygen.

I wouldn't read it.

That he managed to get slapped down by someone as flaky as Emily Thornberry shows he can give it out but he can't take it.

I hope he is dismembered by some excellently located farming equipment.

[biggytitbo]

I hope Michael Fallon has to suffer decades of discrimination and brutal subjugation under a regime that sees him as a second class citizen. Is that hate speech? yes, I hate Michael Fallon.

[MoonDust]

And from BoJo:

"absolutely extraordinary and inexplicable in this week of all weeks that there should be any attempt to justify or to legitimate the actions of terrorists in this way".

I didn't see any justification or legitimisation of terrorism from Corbyn's speech, merely a contributing factor to what causes it.

If anything it's the Tories that are giving the wrong reasons why ISIS exists. Their line of thought purely seems to be "they do it because they're evil." Yes, but why have they turned evil? A terrorist act is always politically motivated, and anything politically motivated has political reasons. ISIS didn't appear out of thin air. It's not as if jihadists didn't exist and then suddenly one day someone thought "I might come up with a new ideology called jihadism which espouses killing innocent people." "Why?" "I dunno. No reason. I'm just bored."

Even terrorist groups of different ideologies - ETA, IRA, etc - have one thing in common in that there are political reasons for their existence and motivations. Again, these groups didn't just drop out of thin air because someone simply felt like being a cunt.