Who’s Behind The Core?

After yet another pile-on from the far right and ardent Brexiteers, over the claim that someone admitting they made up a sighting of chief Downing Street polecat Dominic Cummings in Durham invalidated her copy, Pippa Crerar of the Mirror told her followers “Sigh. Once again, this guy was *not* one of our sources. We’ve done our journalistic due diligence”. The pile-on came courtesy of a Twitter account called The Core.

This feed had cobbled together Ms Crerar’s original Tweet on an alleged second visit to the town by Cummings with yesterday’s Mail on Sunday claim, added the comment “More high quality reporting from our media”, and left its 47,000 or so followers to do the rest. But does it matter who is behind it? Well, yes it does, as it’s spreading malicious falsehood. A lot of it.

The account displays the Government’s own Covid-19 advice, and smears anyone and everyone who dares to criticise alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, usually by maliciously lying about them (while often calling its targets liars).

Here’s a few samples. “WARNING … Emily Maitlis, BBC, Sky News, Guardian, Mirror, FT writers. NATIONAL UNION OF JOURNALISTS CODE OF CONDUCT … Given your recent quality of work please accept this friendly warning ref clauses below: 1. [?] 2. serious breach 3. serious breach 4. serious breach”. Circular argument, as it assumes guilt, and this is merely a taster. Then comes the Cummings Barnard Castle story.

“A story carried by every TV station and newspaper. BASED ON A TOTAL FABRICATION BY A SINGLE LUNATIC ANTI-GOVERNMENT BREXIT HATER … A pure invention, a lie, presented to the nation as FACT by much of the media. 70% of us don't trust the media, that number just went up … Thanks to the MoS, we now know that the Cummings snitch, 70yr old teacher Robin Lees, himself made a lockdown car trip, of about the same distance, but with far less reason - to collect daughter from another household. Standard low-morality, lefty hypocrisy - ugly on the inside”. Lees did not break any rules.

But there’s more. “THE MEDIA MOUNTED A WHOLE ANTI-GOVERNMENT, ‘DOMINiC CUMMINGS WITCH HUNT’ BASED ON WITNESSES WHO LIED AND CHEATED … Draw your own conclusions #mediascum”. It likes that hashtag. And, for anyone not yet up to speed, the “media” despised by The Core is any media not grovelling to Bozo.

Here’s another flat-out lie. “BLM protesters chanting ‘F**k The Police’ under the ANTIFA flag outside Downing Street today. Heads Up chaps: ANTIFA has today been declared a terrorist organisation in the USA, UK soon”. Antifa has experienced no such sanction.

Next, encouraging more pile-ons: “Maitlis is back on NewsNight tonight” is followed by an attack on ITV Good Morning Britain. “Haw Haw's back. The sun just went in as Beelzebub cast his dark shadow of doom and gloom, blame and bile across the nation. GMB - ‘Great Morning Bringdown’”. And then a particularly malicious lie about Ian Blackford.

“Many believe that Blackford took Covid19 to Sky with him. Many also believe that Sturgeon was, in part, responsible for the original outbreak in Scotland, the NIKE scandal. You won't hear this on the BBC”. Bullshit. Blackford is the MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber. Claiming he broke lockdown is more malicious lying. And “Many” means “I just made that up”.

Then a attack on Greta Thunberg, supported by, you guessed it, more lying. “ANTIFA IS NOW A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION IN THE USA 1. Daddy Terrorist 2. Mummy Terrorist 3. Greta Terrorist”. Antifa is still not a terrorist organisation in the USA. Do go on.

And just to wrap up this selection of falsehood and shameless misinformation, here’s The Core taking a claim from Westmonster that London Mayor Sadiq Khan is urging an extension to the transition period (no evidence is provided - no surprise there) and adding “Sadiq Khan betrays Britain on Brexit”. Always the simple statement, and usually untrue.

Repeating direct falsehoods, encouraging pile-ons: The Core came to Twitter in June 2017, at the time Theresa May nearly dropped the ball for the Tories. Now it’s making noises like parts of the US alt-right. So who’s behind it?

Investigations continue. As, no doubt, will The Core’s tenuous grip on reality.

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