Sometimes, even the soundest of pundits have a bad day, make a clumsy mistake, take one of those mis-steps that they come to regret. Their number has been joined by Suzanne Moore of the Guardian, normally the safest pair of journalistic hands, who has apparently engaged output device before activating CPU.
Suzanne Moore
Under the headline “Why is it so hard for Labour to find a woman to be leader?” and sub-heading “The Tory leadership is just men talking among themselves, and the opposition has no one to counter it” she tells “We all know Corbyn is very concerned about having more women in the Labour leadership. But not concerned enough to actually have many”.
Eh? She didn’t actually say that and get it through the Guardian’s editorial process, did she? It seems she did. And there was more. “Emily Thornberry couldn’t be called on to do PMQs as she made the terrible faux pas of telling the truth about the European elections. In the US, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden feel entitled enough to lead despite all the great Democrat women who are running against them”. Ri-i-i-ight.
Yes, Emily Thornberry did not deputise for Jezza at PMQs recently - but Rebecca Long Bailey did. Because there is a significant number of women at Labour’s top table. And Ms Moore needs to mug up on someone called Elizabeth Warren. Like very quickly. And after getting up to speed on Senator Warren, she needs to Google AOC.
But still Ms Moore digs that hole: “Labour has a shortage of women, not on its benches but in its inner circle”. Some Labour women have taken exception to that, not least Kate Osamor, who has fired back “As everyday sexism and racism manifests itself in black women’s lives creating intersecting forms of oppression. This faux pas toxic white feminist article comes as no surprise! When will white feminists stand in solidarity with black women & stop this targeted abuse?” When indeed. And there was more.
Faiza Shaheen, looking to defeat Iain Duncan Cough in Chingford and Woodford Green, recalled “This article reminds me of a conversation I had with an irate Labour member who said ‘I support women in the party - Stella Creasy, Yvette Copper and Jess Phillips’ I smiled & asked how about ‘Diane Abbott, Dawn Butler & erm, me?’ She turned red”.
That prompted Brent Central MP Dawn Butler to add “I just read it ... how offensive but not surprising is it? We spend our whole lives fighting for equality and we are still invisible. Unless they want to attack us. If only they realised they were part of the problem we might finally make progress”. Kerry Anne Mendoza of The Canary was also unimpressed.
“Suzanne Moore & her Grauniad pumpkin spice latté sisters only recognise women in their own clique. They’re anti-feminists”. Also, to her list of names which includes Diane Abbott, Angela Rayner and Ms Long Bailey as well as those noted above, she could usefully add Crewe and Nantwich’s representative Laura Smith.
Ms Moore has had a shocker with that article. Hopefully it’s only an isolated occurrence.
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7 comments:
"...the Guardian's editorial process..."?
Tim is to joke, yes?
The same editorial process fronted by rightie Viner? That one?
File under "Just another Grauniad attack on Jeremy Corbyn".
No wonder that rag is held in such contempt.
Moore literally tried to unseat Diane Abbott from parliament in 2010 so her 'forgetting' seems quite unlikely. The reason? Not sure, something to do with a local festival being closed down as a result of overcrowding, plus Abbott sending her son to private school:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/apr/30/suzanne-moore-independent-candidate
Some of her tweets from the Moore4Hackney account seem quite odd in retrospect:
https://twitter.com/moore4hackney
Sorry, but it's not a one off: there was the whole spat where she referred to Brazillian transsexuals' then doubled down on that when challenged, only for Julie Burchill to wade in with a can of petrol and a box of matches. There's her repeated sneering about sex workers. More recently, there was her dismissive attitude towards men with body image issues and potential eating disorders. In short: she has form, over and above her attitude to Corbyn/Labour (she also once stood as an independent in an election in Diane Abbott's constituency; she's now a supporter of the Women's Equality Party). Her argument is basically that Corbyn should quit and Labour get a woman in 'because gender' - but not any of the women serving in the shadow cabinet who are apparently Corbyn's 'pets'. 'Safe pair of hands'? Not so much.
If you look at the url for the article, you'll see the original header and premise of the article was "no women in Corbyn's inner circle" which was then changed to "... leader". That new header makes no sense, because the article is not about a woman leading the Labour party but about the supposed "inner circle" (which is still said within the text of the article). Suzanne Moore even tweeted that the header had been changed, as if that was the issue with the article, even though she didn't change the content or premise of the article itself.
So embarrassed was Suzanne Moore being called out by the women on the front bench of the Labour party for forgetting they existed (and saying they were "female pet[s]" that had been "... groomed" - oh boy!) that she actually went and did the meme in real life and - "deleted her account".
I'm sure her next article will be about how mean all the "wotten Corbyn lefties"(tm) were to her, and that she was totally innocent of all blame...
...as were the editor, the typesetter, the fact checker, and everyone else involved with the utter garbage she puked onto the page because she felt it was time to have a dig at Corbyn and Corbyn's Labour because no one had done so in all of twenty minutes.
The other odd thing is: what brought it on? The whole Thornberry/PMQs thing was well over a week ago, so why pick up on it now? Is there something going we don't know about (probably a 'beef' with someone Moore doesn't like)?
Let's face it, Bernie Sanders does clearly feel very entitled to talk over and take over from women. Waggling that finger in women's faces. Nearly hitting that journalist. He's just not got the skill to be a candidate when Warren and Harris and all the other candidates are around.
To compare him to someone like Corbyn who clearly has the utmost respect for women and women's rights is just plain wrong.
Also, AOC is not a shield from criticism. Bernie can't use her as a shield like that.
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