Sometimes comments made, articles written and headlines splashed are overtaken by events in such a way that they seem callous and insensitive, when that may not have been the intention, however pointed the gesture. Those who then hold their hands up and admit they got it wrong at least recover some credit from the ruins of their reputations.
Not sure what I mean? Consider the ill-timed remark made by pro-am motormouth Katie Hopkins after a Police helicopter crashed into the Clutha Bar in Glasgow. She had not known about the crash. She apologised. Yes, not even Hatey Katie would go that far. But the Murdoch goons at the Super Soaraway Currant Bun, who have their orders for the General Election campaign, most certainly would. And they have done.
Today’s front page Sun splash, which would have been decided upon and green-lighted well before the Manchester attack, is a predictable escalation of their demonisation of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn over past contacts with Sinn Féin leaders. So it was never going to be subtle: “Labour Exclusive … BLOOD ON HIS HANDS … Ex-IRA killer’s Corbyn verdict” screamed the headline. “Ex-IRA killer”?
You read that right: “Jeremy Corbyn boosted morale of IRA killers with his support and prolonged the violence leading to more deaths, IRA killer reveals … Sean O’Callaghan claims Corbyn's solidarity encouraged the IRA to 'prolong the violence’”. The Sun is now so desperate that it’s prepared to take a double murderer who turned Police informer at his word - so long as that word fits their Labour-bashing agenda.
That much was bad enough, and suitably shaming for the paper’s non-bullying political editor Tom Newton Dunn, under whose byline this appears. But all those hours after news emerged that there had been a bombing in Manchester, with more than 20 dead as a result, one might have expected that even the Murdoch goons would stop and think. They did not. Instead, they doubled down for maximum effect.
Today’s Sun Says editorial, which rants “The harm done by Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell sucking up to the IRA … Labour pair were snivelling IRA fanboys as it unleashed slaughter on Britain … FOR Labour it does not get more damning. Innocent people were murdered specifically because Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell sucked up to the IRA”, was not committed to their website until 0235 hours today. It was revised at 0950 hours. Still it remained live. It’s still there now (1100 hours).
You read that right, and this post includes a screen shot to prove it. The Sun could, and should, have pulled that front page splash as soon as it became clear that they could have been accused of trying to use the Manchester attack to denigrate Labour. Instead, they deliberately doubled down on their Labour bashing MORE THAN FOUR HOURS after the bombing - when they would have known the full extent of the horror.
The Murdoch goons claim that someone else is a disgrace. They are wrong. The real disgrace is their vicious and premeditated attempt to use the Manchester bombing to reinforce their crude and dubiously sourced copy. Once again - don’t buy the Sun.
And, once again, the fact that the Tories have an actual former IRA member currently serving as a councillor in Croydon goes unreported. They're on VERY thin ice with this approach.
ReplyDeleteDo you need any more evidence that mainstream media would attack and lie about ANY Labour Party leader? That a "radical" like Corbyn would attract even worse?
ReplyDeleteWhat this shows, yet again, is that "personality" has virtually nothing to do with it. This is just one more illustration of what Umberto Eco dubbed "ur-Fascism". Murdoch's thugs are a disgrace to human civilisation. Always have been, always will be. Had they been alive in the 1930s they would happily have donned brown shirts, jackboots, and kicked prone street casualties. Later, they would have happily discharged gas into "showers". Later still, they would have protested at Nuremberg that "We were only following orders".
As if the Manchester attack is not horrible enough, this kind of media thuggery makes it even worse. Murdoch and his employees are rotten to the core evil people. And cowards too.
They've trebled down on their hateful bile - today at 11:27am:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3627791/manchester-ira-arndale-bombing-how-many-injured-shopping-centre-targeted/
"TARGET OF TERROR When was the Manchester IRA Arndale bombing, how many were injured and why was the shopping centre targeted?"
Manchester boycott overdue?
ReplyDeleteWhat did they publish which is not true? Any of it? Because if not, what you are advocating is censorship of things you don't like, rather than the much more laudable aim of promoting accuracy.
ReplyDeleteClearly, all of it is untrue. Corbyn did not "suck up" to the IRA. He did help to negotiate peace in Ireland. Corbyn is a hero.
DeleteAs for Murdoch - he part-owns an oil company, Genie Oil, which is drilling in the Golan Heights in Israeli-occupied Syria.
He can only do that because of ISIS attacking the Syrian govt., so it is no surprise if Murdoch supports ISIS and Saudi Arabia, like his good friend Trump.
Why did ISIS choose Manchester for this bombing, of all cities, just at the same time Murdoch was trying to resurrect the conflict with the long-disarmed IRA? Very helpful choice of target politically for the Tories, friends of Trump, friend of Saudi Arabian princes, friends and funders of ISIS.
It looks to me like Murdoch or one of his good buddies may well have had a hand in choosing that target. Just too much of a coincidence.
SLANDER SLANDER SLANDER LEAVE JEREMY ALONE HE IS THE MOST HONEST SINCERE POLOTICIAN IVE SEEN IN MY 67 years on earth ...
ReplyDeleteThe fact is Corbyn called Hamas suicide bombers his friends
DeleteThe Tories supported the racist terrorist apartheid regime in South Africa, you people have no moral high ground.
DeleteIt didn't take long for Theresa May to visit Saudi Arabia, despite their human rights record and despite evidence suggesting not only funding for ISIS but also for 9/11. I've worked in a Palestinian refugee camp and spent many evenings having dinner with families who support both Fatah and Hamas. I'd also call them my friends. Does that make me a terrorist sympathizer? Of course not, that would be ridiculous, just like the headlines about Corbyn.
DeleteThe only surprise to me is that Putin didn't get blamed.
ReplyDeleteThis blogpost is bonkers. The Sun does not blame Corbyn for Manchester. It did not "double down" its efforts hours after the bombing. It's normal practice for the content of the print edition to be uploaded to the website through the night. The fact that the leader went up at 2.35am means that was the moment the clerical functionary pushing the buttons put it up. It is exactly the same as the first edition print edition editorial that would have gone to press at about 8pm. Manchester is not mentioned in the IRA splash or the leader, either in later print editions or on the website.
ReplyDeleteAs to the original splash, yes, that was tripe of the lowest order: double killer disses Corbyn about events four decades ago? Who cares? Who is going to take notice of an IRA thug? How about "Peter Sutcliffe says May made it easier for serial killers when she was Home Sec"? About as credible or relevant.
But to suggest that there was or is connection between the IRA story and last night's bombing, intentional or otherwise, or that the paper should dump what it believes (wrongly) to be a legitimate story and editorial because of a completely unrelated terrorist attack is crazy. There's plenty of ammunition if you want to bash the Sun, you don't need to invent it.
Liz Gerard:
ReplyDeleteExcuse the language but that's utter bollocks.
Newton Dunn, Gallagher, Kavanagh and the rest of those goons have form in this kind of thing. I wouldn't believe anything they claimed or even implied. What was it Mackenzie said again? The headline about Corbyn being knifed by an asylum seeker? And you think that kind of twisted mentality would think twice if they could smear Corby despite this horror.
As Tim has shown, they had plenty of time to pull this heap of garbage and they didn't. By leaving it in place despite the tragedy in Manchester the attempted implication is clear.
The Sun is slime and always will be.
Yes, they have form. But this piece is based on that form, not on the facts. It seems particularly odd to attack what it believes is an innuendo with an outright lie of a headline. I spend a lot of time criticising papers and Tim Fenton is even more assiduous in keeping watch on the Murdoch papers. If you're doing that I think you should make sure your own material is above reproach.
DeleteThe Sun does not blame Corbyn for Manchester either explicitly or by implication. The 'blood on his hands' splash went with the bombing and the headline did not appear inside at any time. It does not and did not appear on the leader, whose online heading, as we can see from the screen grab, refers explicitly to the IRA.
When a new story breaks and a splash has to be moved, the headline almost always goes with it. After all, it was once intended to sell the paper. In this case, the story was reduced to a puff with a new heading "IRA brute raps Corb" and the page 2 story jigged to accommodate the first couple of pars from the old front. The inside headline was not changed from the original "Corbyn's lies". This may have been for speed or decency. You can make that call. But that "blood on his hands" line disappeared at the earliest opportunity after the bombing.
As I say, the IRA story is a disgrace, but that's a completely different argument.
Enemy of the people - mouthpiece for billionaires
ReplyDelete@ Anonymous 4
ReplyDeleteBullshit. Every word is a lie and you know it.
Who mentioned censorship anyway? Tim certainly didn't. Free speech doesn't mean a platform to spread filth lies or not be criticised for doing so.
Once more, bullshit. Not a word I often use if at all.
I suppose you're likely to be an employed Murdoch goon.
I wouldn't be at all surprised to see May and the tories use this tragedy for political advantage. They're not exactly the milk of human kindness are they? You know, "strong and stable" and all the rest of their modular bullshit delivered by a woman who looks more and more like a caramelised douche bag. And sound ds like a leaking whoopee cushion.
ReplyDeleteThe most important element in this, as it was at Hillsborough, is the families and how they are cared for. This time round they can't be subject to a quarter century of establishment lies and corruption. Take care of THEM first. Fuck the politicians and their propaganda. Show them there IS such a thing as society.
Of course they do.
ReplyDeleteThey'll threaten anything that poses a concern to their future existence.
Old habits die hard and all that.
Lizard Gerard:
ReplyDeleteI'm quite sure you mean no harm. But your response is mere sophist nonsense which in the end excuses the scum - it's the only word - who produce this daily drip of hatred.
I can't be bothered unpicking your tortuous "reasoning". The time is long past for making allowances for the unspeakable. Sooner or later the current propaganda will collapse of its own absurdity. Meantime, we shouldn't hesitate to give it continuous dull blows. Its demise can't come soon enough.
I'm bloody terrified of Jeremy Corbyn becoming PM.
ReplyDeleteHe is the change I do not wish to see.
Got to go. Jerry has just ran a bath.
Sean "Walter Mitty" O'Callaghan is schizophrenic. His whole life is a lie. He's so pitiful the IRA took care of him in crumlin road jail, instead of banishing this complete lunatic.
ReplyDelete