O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us; To see oursels as ithers see us!
Robert Burns might have wished to acquire the power to see himself as others saw him, but for many in the right-leaning part of our free and fearless press, being able to see what the rest of the world sees when they look towards the UK is streng verboten. It is another example of their asymmetric relationship with that world: they are fine to see other countries and put them to rights, but woe betide anyone who even mildly criticises We British.
The article that caused the pearl-clutching outburst was Tweeted out with the comment “Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, which will involve elaborate processions, vigils and rituals, will be paid for by British taxpayers as they deal with soaring energy prices and high inflation. The British government has not yet said how much it will cost”. Factual statements - dontcha hate them?!?
Typical of the knee-jerk frothing was LBC host Iain Dale, who responded “Oh do shut. The. Actual. Fuck. Up. The [New York Times] hates this country for reasons best known to itself. Countless articles full of errors and bile [no citation]. A once great newspaper has rendered itself a joke. Did something dark happen to the editor in London or something?” There was more.
Alastair Stewart (he’s got an OBE, dontcha know?) went off the deep end in no style at all: “It is worth remembering that the [New York Times] is not worthy of chip & chip duty; even when the toilet tissue runs out, it has little or no purpose”. Arabin Patson reminded him “The New York Times has 132 Pulitzer Prizes and has been a newspaper [of] record for over a century. GB News has lower production quality than a Youtube make-up tutorial channel”.
Meanwhile, Mike Graham, of Murdoch noise floor occupant TalkTV, sneered “The [New York Times] was never much good at European news - now it is positively toxic and anti-British. Shame on a once decent media business”. A Murdoch droid slags off something Murdoch hates. Film at 11.
What a coincidence. But not taking the biscuit quite as much as Doug Murray The K, who ranted “The New York Times is on a 'jihad' against the UK and Queen Elizabeth”. And he said it in the New York Post. A Murdoch property.
The increasingly alt-right rag moaned “That the New York Times has a near-pathological loathing for Britain is nothing new at this point; but it seems that the motivating factor for the ‘Gray Lady’s' Anglophobia has switched in recent days to the passing of our beloved monarch”. Thank you Tedious Maximus.
But that was mild compared to the word salad puked up by Nile “Chauncey” Gardiner. “The sneering attacks on Britain and the Monarchy from The New York Times and America's hate-filled woke Left are tedious, nasty and unpleasant. They may appeal to a small audience of elite Socialists, but the vast majority of Americans, who love the Queen, will not be impressed”. They’ll be giving him a regular column at Spiked if he carries on like that.
Looking on from outside the media bubble, Matt Carr observed “Wherever I look on Twitter I see rightwing ‘journalists’ who have built their careers on smears, lies and disinformation ranting that the New York Times isn’t a serious newspaper because it hasn’t joined in our patriotic self-love fest. Shameless doesn’t begin to describe them”. Also, the NYT has not been forgiven for rekindling investigation of the phone hacking scandal.
One Tweeter, responding to former Murdoch editor Andrew Neil, who had also whined at the NYT, reminded him “The royals, who aren't paying for the funeral, are billionaires who don't have to pay inheritance tax. Many of their 'subjects', who will be paying for it, are hungry and will go cold this winter. NY Times highlighted this fact, but I realise that you'd rather they didn’t”.
Whatever happened to all that championing of free speech? That campaign against cancel culture? The talk of grown up debate and dispensing with the name calling? All blown away by the explosion of asymmetric righteousness. We can slag off the forrins, but they aren’t allowed to say boo about us. We’re British, dontcha know, and we’re better than everyone else, so there.
All those hacks and pundits saw how Britain looks to outsiders, and lost their collective shit as a result. But they can all score even more dosh telling others that anyone who calls us out is wrong and useless. So that’s all right, then.
https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton
Never had much time for The Old Grey Lady. It has been in retreat for years, like what remains of US "liberalism".
ReplyDeleteOne of its few surviving functions is to flush out the worst of the old imperial deadbeat enemy. A cynical nod to history since Britain is now a willing client state of Washington.
I hope this idiotic episode leads the NYT and it's hysterical enemies to beat each other into a satisfying pulp.
Meanwhile, cough up Britain. It's all you deserve if you're mug enough to fall for this ludicrous ritualised circus.
Some of them monarchist cultists on twatter are sooo much fun.
ReplyDelete"IT's ONLY costing £9m to bury the queen - would only fund the NHS for 20 minutes...."
I'm just surprised nobody's replied that the £12m brenda (we) paid out because of her wrong'un of an offspring would keep the NHS going for just over 25 minutes. And therefore save 25% more lives in that space of time.
Lives that the royals have never saved. Puke, blood, snot, shit and other bodily fluids that they've neve been knee-deep in.
Royalist wackos - answer me this....The last time they had to pawn their family heirlooms/jewellery to pay for Christmas?
The last time ANY of them changed their entitled sprog's shitty nappies, or got up in the small hours to bring them a bottle?
The last time ANY of them went to lidl (fortnum's) to buy their tea for that evening - AND cooked it themselves?
The last time they hung their bill grundy's out on the line, brought them back in and then ironed them?
Answer: NEVER.
One of them won't even squeeze their own toothpaste for fuck's sake.
Spot on
DeleteClive Lewis said it as it is. Meanwhile starmer tells Labour MPs to show the same level of support as to striking workers …. “Keep yers gobs shut if yers want to keep yers jobs”;… embarrassing and ultimately tragic.
ReplyDeleteTalking of Jocks....get a beneficial load of this:
ReplyDeleteCraigMurray.org.uk
Makes Tim look like a bystander at a vicarage tea party.