Among the big winners of the general election are the wave of new blogs collectively dubbed the “alt-left”. You know who I’m talking about. The Canary, Skwawkbox, Novara, Evolve Politics and Another Angry Voice have been singled out by the mainstream as the authentic voices of the new socialism that has seized hold of the […]
Posts under ‘Media’
The Corbyn effect isn’t going away
Jun 13th, 2017 by Mark Seddon.This article first appeared in the Boston Globe in October 2016, reflecting Jeremy’s second leadership victory. We are republishing it in the wake of the General Election as a prescient analysis of the mistakes that his critics made in underestimating ‘the Corbyn effect’. The election of Jeremy Corbyn last month as leader of the Labour Party — […]
Who has eaten their humble pie?
Jun 12th, 2017 by James Elliott.Before this election, Jeremy Corbyn was subjected to such incredible levels of hostility from sections of the media that even David Dimbleby, along with a former chair of the BBC Trust, former BBC politics editor Nick Robinson and a BBC investigation into Laura Kuennsberg began to criticise his treatment by some journalists. The offices of […]
Explaining Laura Kuenssberg’s Bias
May 18th, 2017 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.There’s a headline. It’s from the BBC, written by no less a figure than the corporation’s chief political editor. Not something up to the standards expected, you might say. As readers know, I tend not to moan much about the recipient of the licence fee. As a general rule, its news coverage is much better […]
Cohen versus Corbyn: The fucking praise of fucking folly
Mar 20th, 2017 by David Osland.It has been a while since I last read How to Win Friends and Influence People, but I do not recollect Dale Carnegie advising Sunday newspaper columnists to win over readers by branding them “fucking fools” who need to change their “fucking minds”. But such is now the level of debate in the Observer, which yesterday carried […]
The Audacity of Osborne
Mar 20th, 2017 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.I hear tell of George Osborne applying for the Evening Standard vacancy only after other people came to him for advice on their applications. What a charmer. Still, his landing the editorship of London’s biggest free sheet is as shocking as it is audacious. How is it someone barely able to string a sentence together, […]
Statement on my BBC Radio 4 interview
Jun 21st, 2016 by Jon Lansman.Yesterday, the BBC aired an interview with me as part of its occasional “At lunch with…” series. The full episode was 18 minutes long and a shorter version appeared on the PM program on Radio 4. In the interview, I said that under the New Labour project, we alienated millions of our core voters, who have […]
‘Genius of the modern world’ or hackery at the BBC?
Jun 21st, 2016 by David Pavett.A new BBC Channel Four series on Genius of the modern world was launched on Thursday 16th June. The series is to deal with Marx, Nietzsche and Freud – one 60 minute programme for each. The presenter of the programmes is historian Bettany Hughes (BH). In the opening passages BH says that her three […]
Labour would have done better without a campaign to undermine Jeremy
May 15th, 2016 by Christine Shawcroft.How many successful elections has Jeremy Corbyn got to preside over before his critics concede he may have something going for him? And when are they going to run out of excuses to explain away his results? Last summer, as people flocked to join his campaign in their tens of thousands, packing out his meetings […]
The ridiculous red-baiting of Sadiq Khan
Apr 14th, 2016 by David Osland.The news that London Labour activists are working their butts off to secure a victory for Labour’s candidate in the London mayoral elections, on the grounds that Labour electoral success is good news for the leader of the Labour Party, is hardly the stuff of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism. Yet such is the substance of a […]