‘I’m here for all the witches’

[JNicholson]

Watched some of the Emma Watson/Jay Shetty podcast the other day including what she said about how she feels about JK Rowling post their disagreement and rift about trans issues. Have also read JK Rowling’s recent response on Twitter, which she posted above a retweeted clip from GB News in which, among other things, a male newsreader claims that EW was ‘snidey’ at the BAFTAs a few years ago when she made her comment about ‘I’m here for all the witches’ (interpreted as a statement of support for trans rights). He claims that she said ‘I’m here for all the witches bar one’, and thus by implication that it was a clear attack against JKR.

Irrespective of what you think about trans issues or EW and JKR in general, AIBU to find it really frustrating that the GB newsreader makes this false claim? IMO if you watch the clip of EW at the BAFTAs, it’s pretty clear that she says ‘I’m here for all the witches BY THE WAY’ and not ‘BAR ONE’. Some of the news outlets at the time seem to have reported it one way, some the other. But it makes such a big difference, because ‘bar one’ would be a really horrible personal attack, whereas ‘by the way’, whatever you feel about the content of EW’s views, is clearly just saying that she has different views to JKR. JKR makes it clear in her post that she viewed that speech by EW as a turning point, which is her prerogative. She may just feel offended that EW made such a public point of disagreeing with hers which is also her prerogative. But I think it’s a real shame if she incorrectly believes that EW said ‘bar one’ and therefore believes it’s more of an attack than it was. IMO for anyone familiar with EW, whatever you think of her otherwise, making a spiteful remark about ‘bar one’ would be really out of character.

AIBU for thinking the media has a responsibility to report on this correctly, as it really changes the meaning of EW’s statement if you claim she said ‘bar one’?

Not looking for a discussion on the rights and wrongs of trans issues, as there are already lots of these on MN - this is a thread about media responsibility to report the news responsibly and not in a false inflammatory way.

I think if EW had said "by the way" instead of "bar one" the TRAs would have pilloried her over that then, instead of waiting till now when she's said something even mildly nice about Rowling.

No because she has a right to speak!

The most straight to the point yet on the four is it? threads on EW now but completely agree! 🤣

It just makes me glad I have no media presence, where every phrase is disected and meaning given to it, when sometimes there is none. It just sounds like a glib retort to me.

Just looked again. EW definitely said ‘I’m here for all the witches’. ‘Bar one’. A definite snipe at jkr… EW is not a witch she is a bitch.

She wants the kudos of being the ‘kindest’.

Social context over the prior years
Eg
Back in 2020 JKR wore a "This witch wont burn" Tshirt to support a small business that TRA were trying to drive out of business

J.K. Rowling
@jk_rowling
‘Feminazi’, ‘TERF’, ‘bitch’, ‘witch’.
Times change. Woman-hate is eternal.
11:53 PM · Jun 6, 2020

Then the whole witch trial / witch hunt imagery.

And the clip
And people can turn the sound off and watch her mouth during her opening remark

She did say "bar one" and it wasn't something that GB News started saying.

EW has had years to clear it up if she wanted to, which she hasn't. The fact that she sent that mealy mouthed note at the same time looks like she knew very well it would be a dig.

It's clearly BAR ONE.

Is that you Emma? 👀

I've watched it several times. There is absolutely no doubt she mouths only 2 syllables - Bar One.

Not brave enough to say it aloud, so a cow AND a coward.

Actually I've just watched that clip and I think it does look like she says "by the way".

Going against the grain, I think she says "by the way". Yes, her mouth/lips only make two different shapes, but it looks to me as though the first shape includes "by" and "the" but pronounced more colloquially, as "batha" as people often do when speaking quickly. I can see her tongue flick forward to make the "th" sound. At the end of the second sound, her mouth goes slightly wider, to make the "ay" sound. So two mouth shapes don't necessarily definitely equal two syllables only.

I also think her almost mouthing it was just a thing people often do, when they add a sort of afterthought to a sentence.

I am no Emma Watson fan and I do think the "ALL the witches" was a dig at JKR (whose views on trans rights vs women's right I fully support) and was meant to convey that she includes transwomen in her definition of "women". But I think attributing "bar one" to her is untrue and harsh.

I genuinely think you should watch it again, maybe with the sound off. Her tongue goes between her teeth for "the".

Not that I really understand what that comment is supposed to mean tbh.

Definitely bar one.

Many lip reading experts have confirmed it.

If people want to think differently, then crack on. Doesn't change the fact she said 'bar one.'

How can you hear anything? There’s no noise, she mouths it!

If you go into Settings on the YouTube video, you can slow it right down and clearly see her tongue pronounce "the" in the middle of "by the way".

Why do you think that the mike fail to pick up her voice?

She went from clear individual sounding words to nothing?

If it was by the way she’d have continued saying it out loud all at the same volume. There would be no need to mouth it. It wouldn’t make sense to mouth “by the way”.

I'd be very dubious about the qualifications and motivations of these lip reading experts..... who was paying them for their opinion? It's in the newspapers' interests to whip up the animosity beyween the two women.

Yeah, defo ‘bar one’. And it matches her facial expression.

During natural speech, people's voices often rise and fall like this. I think it was just a chuckaway add-on to what she was saying, which is why she didn't bother pronouncing it loudly 🤷🏻‍♀️

My dd2 has moderate severe sensorineural deafness & is a good lipreader.

She's 99.999999% confident it's 'bar one'.

Aged like milk, that nasty snide little dig did.

What I find horrifying is the crappy way this is being reported. JK is accused of ‘tearing into’, ‘slamming’ EW, not of writing a perfectly calm response to EW’s last interview!

Some ‘journalists’ are just really shit.

OMG so she does mouth bar one … never noticed that
agree then that she was having a dig at JKR