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March 28, 2024, 03:44:09 PM

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anyone still read Private Eye?

Started by madhair60, July 27, 2022, 12:49:08 AM

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madhair60

used to read loads, quit after it was notably transphobic a couple of times. it still transphobic?

ishantbekeepingit

I buy every issue to check for transphobia to get upset about because I'm an idiot, and they've not mentioned it at all in the past couple of ishes, not even a cartoon.  Last I saw was taking an anti-Owen Jones stance during the recent Julie Bindel spat.

gilbertharding

Quote from: ishantbekeepingit on July 27, 2022, 02:30:30 AMLast I saw was taking an anti-Owen Jones stance during the recent Julie Bindel spat.

Ah yes - because their main politics hack turns out to be Nick 'The Beast' Cohen. Funny that their own conflicts of interest and hypocrisy is never mentioned.

greencalx

I continue to subscribe. I gave up reading the "funnies" years ago, basically the same jokes every fortnight.

I am not keen on their stance on trans rights nor their willingness to buy uncritically into the anti-Semitism crisis narrative around Corbyn. Given that the editorial line is generally one of supporting David vs Goliath, there is a curious blind spot here, and must reflect the editor's and writers' prejudices. It's one of the few publications that cuts through the bullshit on other issues and it's disappointing they find themselves unable to take a dispassionate stance here. However, there's still enough good stuff that I can't seem myself cancelling my subscription yet.

peteprodge

CELEB
"I'm loving this outdoor summer party, but did you bring the rolls?"
[next panel reveals a Rolls Royce, that kind of Rolls! Ha.]

SNIPCOCK & TWEED
"This book by [celebrity] is useful"
[propping up table]

SUPERMODELS
"We're really thin, aren't we?"
"Nearly as thin as the laughs this strip generates!"

IT'S GRIM UP NORTH LONDON
"Something something avocados"

Jumblegraws

Quote from: greencalx on July 27, 2022, 09:29:40 AMI continue to subscribe. I gave up reading the "funnies" years ago, basically the same jokes every fortnight.

I am not keen on their stance on trans rights nor their willingness to buy uncritically into the anti-Semitism crisis narrative around Corbyn. Given that the editorial line is generally one of supporting David vs Goliath, there is a curious blind spot here, and must reflect the editor's and writers' prejudices. It's one of the few publications that cuts through the bullshit on other issues and it's disappointing they find themselves unable to take a dispassionate stance here. However, there's still enough good stuff that I can't seem myself cancelling my subscription yet.
This, pretty much. Phil Hammond (aka M.D.) was tasked with penning a self-flagellating article back when their support for Andrew Wakefield became untenable, and I know from hearing him in interviews that he has an affirmative approach to issues of gender identity, so it's a shame he doesn't seem to have much influence when their other hacks get on the wrong side of these issues.

Their literary reviewer did give a positive review to Shon Faye's The Transgender Issue (albeit after bigging up Abigail Shrier a few months previously), and a distaste for the most gratuitously "Gender Critical" press has popped up in "Street of Shame", so I'm not completely without hope they'll get their act together on their transphobia.

sevendaughters

their investigative journalism is excellent and shames all the papers but their comedy is woeful boys' club bullshit. the long piece they wrote about the Post Office sub-postmaster scandal was the essential article on it. Might have it somewhere.

greencalx

I was going to mention the PO scandal as a shining example of when they get it right - although they themselves are keen to point out that the story originally came from Computer Weekly, but kudos to the Eye for their relentless campaigning, without which I doubt it would ever have come to trial. And also they are continuing to campaign for financial redress, in the light of the lion's share of the damages going on legal fees. There are many other much smaller examples (most of which I have now forgotten) where a story in the Eye got picked up by a major newspaper later - usually, much later with the Eye never being being credited. It's kind of weird, given that clearly every Fleet Street hack will be reading the damn thing.

Stonefish


The Ombudsman

I still buy the Eye. Enough good stuff in there every issue to outweigh the bad.

They also did good work a while back on the off-shore company structure stuff around tax avoidance.

dissolute ocelot

I've not read it for a while after getting fed up with transphobia and other issues (it can still be quite Islamophobic and sexist). It does have some good reportage when it's bothered to go in-depth, but so much of the "news" is dubiously-sourced gossip. I do occasionally consider reading it again.

Byline Times seems a lot better if you want to know what's going on in newspapers and want more than just trivia. They've been brutal about the Jewish Chronicle, for instance, as well as covering systematic flaws in journalism rather than just "some journalist got drunk". Byline is tediously centrist but that's no worse than the Eye's generally centre-right leanings.

FalknerHinton

I got tired of their sneering, peaked at public school and never got over it humour a while ago. Stuff like Dumb Britain and Psueds Corner really rub me up the wrong way.

Even the investigative journalism stuff is, for me, tainted by how long and how loudly they supported Andrew Wakefield.

That being said, I don't begrudge anyone getting enjoyment from it, it just isn't for me.

Stonefish

I appreciate the investigative stuff and generally seems like a good source of information compared to what else is out there (damned by feint praise!). Always looking for other sources though, anything else people would recommend that can compete with the Eye's journalism?

Icehaven

I read it religiously for ages, got sick of how repetitive it was and ended up just reading some of the investigative stuff and doing the crossword, then stopped buying it when I realised you can get the crossword online. Haven't even done that for years now.
I remember when the MP expenses and the phone hacking scandals broke and thinking PE had been on about both long, long before anywhere else was. It was an education in the disingenuousness of the press in general. But it doesn't excuse the continued existence of Celeb.