Can a representative from the BBC and Guardian be called to do a webchat to discuss events in Cologne on NYE?

[carlajean]

Given the unprecedented volume of posts expressing anger/frustration with how the media (especially the Guardian and the BBC) covered events in Cologne on New Years Eve, would you please ask for a representative for those organisations to come and do a web chat? I think it would be useful.

Is this the piece you mentioned, baby?

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/10/after-cologne-attacks-british-politicians-show-share-merkel-values

I did not think it too bad, overall.

Reporting has, in the English speaking press, been almost uniformly abysmal.

The Tekegraph did an excellent piece.

Hilariously, at one point the only media outlet accepting comments on the story was the Daily Mail.

The Guardian has been a disgrace.

Undeuxtrois, no it was this one:
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/09/the-left-must-admit-the-truth-about-the-assaults-on-women-in-cologne

It started of ok, until you get to the paragraph saying: "men who have been raised to believe...etc"

The Will Hutton piece is quite good, it has honesty.

Of course the DM was accepting comments. It plays right into their knee jerk "coming over here and raping our women" rhetoric.

I don't even want to read the DM comments on this one, my god. I'd like to retain a little shred of hope for humanity.....

Which of course is all why the guardian and the BBC's utterly wet response simply plays into the hands of the far right. You may as well present them with the keys to the city. They'll be the ones with the hearts and minds after this, it's an absolute gift for them.

what I can't bear is the Guardian's constantly repeated mantra that anyone who questions their point of view is in the far right. They really don't engage in discussion at all. that's why I want a representative to talk to us. They haven't merely been biased, they've minimised and obscured the issue.

Why would they want to come on mumsnet? It's just a forum. What would it achieve?

I know what you mean, but, given that the Cologne thread is so long, and contains so much anger about the Guardian's coverage, I think MN should at least ask and I think the paper has to answer what many of us feel.

They are way too arrogant to come to this place and explain themselves.

I'm still reeling from the shock that their feminist writers hate women. I honestly had no idea that this is how feminism works

I always suspected there was something going on under the surface when they began hating Germaine Greer, but it's a real disappointment tbh.

so - Mumsnet - come on...

Cologne thread is now on its fourth incarnation. I think a web chat would be great.

And when did a topic last run to >3000 posts and not make it into Discussions of the Day?

Hi MN, yes, I support a web chat very much, thank you.

This is a great idea. But for the sake of being non partisan can we get a right wing view too?

Ain't gonna happen people.

This is way too big and dirty for anyone to want to engage in. Nobody knows what to say because to admit the truth is like opening Pandora's box.

Yeah, Nigel will come on here Flinging

Yes to a web chat

well - at very least I want someone from MN to come on and say SOMETHING -

We can certainly ask them on for chats for sure - if anyone would like to summarise the complaint - we'd be very happy to pass it on?

if anyone would like to summarise the complaint

That will be key. There is a very slim chance of them coming on at all, but the right complaint could, in their eyes, present an opportunity to win over a large number of readers. If it's phrased too much like an attack, their PR department will veto it out of fear that it'll spiral.

Anyone with politician-style spinning skills?

I've asked LumelaMMe if she could do something - the letter to her MP, that many of us used, was very good IMO.

I've done summat.
My spinning-skills are not far above zero.
If someone else wants to have a go, please do!

If you could put it on LumelaMme and perhaps MN could send it on. We need some kind of a response.

Here it is. Feel free to send it on. Sorry it took me a while - I was out part of the evening.
We are concerned that there have been press cover-ups about mass assaults on women carried out large groups of men, groups which seem to consist almost entirely of migrants. The BBC (less so R4, but certainly the website and Women's Hour) and the Guardian in particular seem to have dodged this issue, and when they began to tackle it they minimised its impact and significance. This is troubling because it looks as if women's rights - including the rights of migrant women who apparently, we understand, suffer a high level of violence in refugee hostels - are being ignored by exactly the middle-of-the-road left-wing press where we would normally expect to find our supporters. This is a difficult and painful discussion, given the terrible suffering from which many migrants are fleeing, but we feel that if it not debated openly it will only empower extreme political groups, who will seek to dominate the debate for their own ends. Sexual violence already exists in western society, but these attacks take it to a new level.'

summoned to mumsnet?

I bet they'll be queuing up for that gig