Is something going on at The Guardian?

[Doobigetta]

Four articles in the last few days:

• Praising Obama for denouncing cancel culture- and we all know he said “verbs” but he meant “pronouns”. The article says “you can make people change the words they use, but you can’t make them change what they think”.
• One about a support group in Australia for women whose husbands come out as gay in later life, highlighting the particular unfairness of having to watch your husband being praised for his bravery in ripping your life out from under you. No mention of trans widows but the parallel is very obvious.
• A review of “Who are you calling fat” asks “what are the limits on matters of self-identification? Where do we end up if there are no such things as facts?”
• And then finally Catherine Bennett in her column about the abuse of MPs specifically included the treatment of TERFs as evidence of misogyny in public debate.

This seems quite a shift from a year ago, when only Hadley Freeman even came close to voicing GC thoughts. Is the tide turning?

Too little too late. The guardian can get lost for all I care - they have egged this nonsense on and now are potentially back pedalling because they realise it’s actually damaging?

Catherine Bennett has made GC noises before I think.

The paper is capable of some excellent journalism but it's constant slew of click bait articles and quite frankly disgraceful coverage of the Rotherham abuse scandal and Cologne attacks made me move elsewhere.

I don’t think it is. I have read some real nonsense in there (I won’t buy it but sometimes it makes its way home when someone else does the shopping and it’s free) where they have spectacularly missed the point or ignored an important angle to keep their ‘credentials’.

The contrast between how Owen Jones treats women & transwomen makes it screamingly obvious that he knows transwomen are men.

Catherine Bennett has made GC noises before I think.
Yes she has. I remember her coming off Twitter after getting a pile on so she's probably writing from experience.

Really can't agree that it's too late for them. I think it would be fucking awesome - worth it for Owen Jones' face alone.

The Observer, though owned by the Guardian, has always been more GC than the Guardian itself.

I learnt so much about feminism from the Guardian in the 90s. Now the women's pages are more like Cosmo and the paper's stance on self-ID has been to ignore women's concerns and label us bigots. Jill Tweedie must be turning in her grave

www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2019/10/remembering-my-friend-deborah-orr-who-would-only-accept-favour-if-she-really

Read the paragraph "My favourite story about her...", smile and raise a glass to the late great Deborah...I wonder which editor and newspaper he can possibly talking about

possibly be talking about

the brilliant Hadley Freeman is openly gender critical, but apart from her, I can't think of many good reasons to read that rag...

That’s a great story, pachyderm, and clearly about Viner.

I didn’t realise she’d been sacked, I thought she’d stopped writing because of her illness. I’m not surprised though, I cannot imagine a smart, thoughtful, independent, outspoken woman would go down well at the Guardian theses days.

The contrast between how Owen Jones treats women & transwomen makes it screamingly obvious that he knows transwomen are men

Also emphasises how little many gay men really have sympathy for women or their situation. And how little they really understand about women's oppression.

How little sympathy many gay men have for women

Isn’t the Guardian being sued by 2 former employees, both of which are trans?

That may have made them hit peak trans...

I have many beefs with the Guardian. It's not the paper it was. But I remember a front page soon after Cologne when I was looking at the paper and thinking about who to believe and I suddenly realised that every picture on the front page was of a person of colour making news. I liked that and I think that's more Viner's focus. I don't see why that would cause her to ignore facts though.

the brilliant Hadley Freeman is openly gender critical, but apart from her, I can't think of many good reasons to read that rag

And last I heard was considering extending her maternity leave in order to finish watching the whole of ER on All4. Just made me love her more

I wouldn't dream of buying the Guardian. I'm a long term Times reader, and as long as they have journalists of the calibre of Janice Turner, I will remain one. She has been stalwart in holding the line against the TRAs.

I would only read the Guardian for years but now refuse to buy it. It does seem bizarre that a female editor has so little empathy or appreciation for women and issues affecting them. Middle aged women like me are also the people who buy newspapers. My son age 23 has never bought one or subscribed to one.

"My son age 23 has never bought one or subscribed to one."
That's something I hadn't considered 2Rebecca. The Guardian is trying to appeal to people who don't buy newspapers - their very own version of 'Get woke, go broke'. Those woke youngsters will not step in to the shoes of the paying customers they've driven away.

As an aside - how did they cover Cologne? I'd already stopped taking them before that happened.

how did they cover Cologne?

They didn’t. That was the problem.

Fuuuuuck!

Oh well - fuck 'em. Irredeemable.

how did they cover Cologne?

I can't remember who it was who actually wrote the article, but it was one of the Guardian's regular women writers at the time.

A notable feature of the article was that those women victims possessed smartphones and the male assaulters didn't; so who could blame those poor men for committing sexual assault on those women who possessed smartphones.

Guardian lost me right there. And I'd spent a couple of decades actually buying the paper version every day.

@Justhadathought. Totally agree.

Ironically there’s an ad on the Tube that suggests if news is giving you the rage, try the Guardian.....

Oh, and the Guardian article about Cologne was written several days after all other news and media had covered it. The Guardian originally just blanked it for a few days, said nothing at all, until it became common knowledge because all other news outlet had covered it,