Fawkes Teaboy Admits Press Links

If your blog, or group blog, was accused of being part of the press establishment, and the accusations had been made ever since you had a tenth anniversary celebration and rather a lot of that press establishment just happened to be invited, how would you dispel those accusations? What would a sensible person have done to show that their group blog was still an independent free spirit? What would Nietzsche have done?

What time is it Eccles?

Well, Nietzsche would not have been so totally intercoursing stupid as to not only admit being part of the press establishment, but brag about it openly. But the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog are not Nietzsche. And their replacement teaboy Tom Harwood probably hasn’t even heard of him.

It was Harwood who penned the highly unfortunate giveaway post titled “Thornberry Complains To Government Over Guido”, going on to describe “Thornberry’s Anti-Press Complaint”. Was this one and the same complaint being described? Apparently it was.

Readers not yet asleep are told “The ongoing spat between Emily Thornberry and Liz Truss has turned up a notch as Guido can reveal the Shadow Trade Secretary complained to the Government over the airing earlier in the month of a letter sent to her office from Whitehall highlighting the hypocrisy of Thornberry’s one-sided transparency drive”.

There was more. “Guido now learns Emily actively complained about the leak, despite her own correspondence having mysteriously ended up in the press before”. And The Great Guido has Ms Truss’ response, although it was probably written by someone more in touch with reality. This is the relevant passage from that reply.

Independent. But not of reality

“You complain that the Guido Fawkes website published the letter from Graham Stuart. It is entirely appropriate that such debates on transparency issues are able to be reported by the independent free press - not least given you have previously had no hesitation in unilaterally releasing your correspondence to me to the press”. Self own city!

The Fawkes blog is not a press outlet - or is it? From Harwood’s brain-unplugged self-own, it seems he thinks it is. Moreover, Ms Truss, a Government minister, thinks it is, too. That’s a long way from Staines claiming that his people were independent, and they had the freedom to kick a few chairs over, metaphorically speaking, from time to time.

New boss same as the old boss, eh Paul?

Small wonder there was no complaint, no legal threat, when I pitched the idea that Staines’ real boss was Rebekah Brooks. It’s taken six years from that 10th anniversary bash for one of his gofers to admit what everyone else knew all along.

Independent group blog lets the world know it isn’t. Another fine mess, once again.

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