After the welter of adverse comment directed at BBC Newsnight in the wake of the programme giving yet more airtime to Tom Harwood, replacement teaboy to the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines at the Guido Fawkes blog, the dam has cracked, and Harwood, along with at least one friend - it is possible that he has another somewhere - has begun to counter-attack. The campaign has not begun well, though.
Tom Harwood. Still a dishonest propagandist
Following Jennifer Cassidy, who you can tell as she’s a doctor, responding to teaboy Tom’s latest tirade “BBC Newsnight; I respect you & I was genuinely honoured to be a guest on your show a few months ago. But seriously, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Get this biased, uninformed, boy off our screens. It’s an insult to every watcher; Remain or Leave”, Charlotte Gill (who she?) has taken grave offence.
“8.3k people have liked this. I think that's disgusting. [Tom Harwood] is a friend & he's also brilliant & articulate. He's also 23. People say they want more young people in politics, but when it comes down to it they treat them vilely. [Jennifer Cassidy] you are NO diplomat, but a bigot”. And, as Jon Stewart might have said, two things here.
One, a Twitter “like” is merely a sign that someone saw Dr Cassidy’s comments - although there were 2k Retweets, so a lot of people appear to have agreed with her. And Two, it matters not a jot how “brilliant and articulate” she thinks Harwood is. He is a congenital liar and shameless propagandist. There are many articulate and well-informed younger people out there who are not dishonest and not propagandists. They don’t get a look-in.
People like, oh I dunno, Tom Pride, who has put Harwood’s Newsnight presence into perspective. “Dear [BBC Newsnight], Your guest last night is not an expert, he's just a right-wing blogger. I'm a left-wing blogger and like Tom Harwood I'm not an expert on lots of things too. So next time can you have me on? Just for balance you understand”.
Well, quite. But off goes Ms Gill: “I know Tom will not even need my defence as he can stand up for himself. But I just wanted it to be known that LOTS of people think he is great. And think Dr Oxford Wannabe Diplomat is a hysterical bully”. Abuse, much?
Sadly, Ms Gill’s brave defence of teaboy Tom was in vain, undone by himself: “Honestly it's heartening to so severely rattle some of the nastier and loopier corners of this website. It'll be even more heartening when we leave the EU and their sanctimonious attitude gets the wake up call it deserves. Freedom hating politics will be crushed in the next GE”. I cleared up your lack of capitalisation, Tom. Must try harder. Also, nobody is rattled.
So let’s have the inventory. Mental health smear - check! Nastiness projection - check! “Sanctimonious” projection - check! “Freedom” claim from right-wingers who are backing Bozo The Clown’s retreat from democracy - check! And then comes the language of violence - “crushed”. Poor Charlotte Gill, rushing to champion such a nasty piece of work.
Strange how so many of those in journalism are prepared to defend the shameless, unprincipled and dishonest, while claiming that their profession maintains the highest standards, and try shooing away critics with a welter of abuse.
The BBC should not be giving airtime to dishonest propagandists. Full stop, end of story.
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"The BBC should not be giving airtime to dishonest propagandists."
ReplyDeleteWhy ever not?......All of their "News and politics" broadcasts are riddled with right wing propaganda. The precedents were set years ago.
Harwood is merely the latest example. There will be others in the race to the bottom of the barrel.