Ash Sarkar - twitter really is grim

[Xanthangum]

The story is in the papers now: www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/reading-stabbings-muslim-journalist-death-22227933

I'm diametrically opposed to Ash's views on some issues. But this is quite clearly a) racist bullying, b) misogynistic bullying and c) people using a very horrible incident to unleash their own prejudiced vile viewpoints.

Fuck knows. None of the explanations so far have been remotely convincing.

The picture of Michael Gove wearing shorts wouldn't load up for me.

That's a good thing, right?

People like Sarkar and Jones are activist-journalists and they don't discriminate between personal life and work life in the ways we're used to with journalists. It more like Gonzo journalism than Reithian.

As part of that, it's about followers and likes so naturally they'll use Instagram type tactics.

Vacuous is exactly the right word. I could understand it (just) if posted on a private friends and family account but on what is her work account?

I don't agree with her politics, and I'm not completely sure what her job is, but plenty of politicians and journalists post this kind of picture on twitter and instagram. They post pictures of their pets, their gardens, a nice view, something they watched on TV, a puzzle they completed. It's just normal behaviour in 2020. You don't have to like it, but she didn't do anything unusual.

I wholly support Ash in this. she does get treated unfairly in a way that male journo/ agitators don't - racism and sexism are the obvious explanations.
I do feel though that they should all get off twitter - all journo's / commentators.
It does them all no good at all - it sends them all mad and they even argue with colleagues - look at the divide in the guardian where 5 years ago I bet they all got on ok.

I might be wrong but I think quite a lot of twitter "users" are bots aren't they. You can buy fake twitter users and bots are quite sophiscated.
Which makes my argument to come of twitter even more relevant as you are just arguing with mostly bots anyway - what a waste of time.

@nauticant

People like Sarkar and Jones are activist-journalists and they don't discriminate between personal life and work life in the ways we're used to with journalists. It more like Gonzo journalism than Reithian.

As part of that, it's about followers and likes so naturally they'll use Instagram type tactics.

yes I agree it is their life , the boundaries are totally mixed- but they need to take a step back. It is not good for them in the long run to mix up real life with twitter life.

The sort of niche Ash is trying to carve out pretty much requires extensive social media presence. It's not like someone who's in a more traditional journalistic role who has a regular byline to fall back on. She needs to keep her name and face out there or she doesn't get any work. For that reason, she's not likely to come off twitter unless she goes and does something else.

She posted it before the news of the murders. It really was just a standard issue selfie of a person having fun in the park.

No she didn't.

twitter.com/ripx4nutmeg/status/1274449979160084486

Note the reply is 8 minutes after her post, which was made at 10:04pm

It had already been reported by that time that 3 people had died in a park in Reading. There is no chance that she was not aware of the attack.

The symbolism of the oranges is widely discussed from The Godfather, she previously stated Godfather part 2 is her favourite film.

I'm not familiar enough with her output to say if she does this sort of thing deliberately but lots of people male and female immediately felt that she was

The sexist abuse is of course because she's a woman but hmm the original post?

@PrincessConsuelaVaginaHammock

The sort of niche Ash is trying to carve out pretty much requires extensive social media presence. It's not like someone who's in a more traditional journalistic role who has a regular byline to fall back on. She needs to keep her name and face out there or she doesn't get any work. For that reason, she's not likely to come off twitter unless she goes and does something else.

I think you are right, in which case she is stuck in some dystopian nightmare that she and other journos can never every leave. I would hate to live that life but then I am middle age so maybe don't understand it and maybe it is ultimately all part of the game for likes, followers etc

I would genuinely rather do almost any other job than that

@ShootsFruitAndLeaves

>She posted it before the news of the murders. It really was just a standard issue selfie of a person having fun in the park.

No she didn't.

twitter.com/ripx4nutmeg/status/1274449979160084486

Note the reply is 8 minutes after her post, which was made at 10:04pm

It had already been reported by that time that 3 people had died in a park in Reading. There is no chance that she was not aware of the attack.

The symbolism of the oranges is widely discussed from The Godfather, she previously stated Godfather part 2 is her favourite film.

I'm not familiar enough with her output to say if she does this sort of thing deliberately but lots of people male and female immediately felt that she was

The sexist abuse is of course because she's a woman but hmm the original post?

i was not aware of the attack until the next morning though - granted I do not live my life in twitter but 8 mins is not a long time to know everything about everything all the time.

I would rather we lived in a world where people don;'t assume bad motives for every little thing adn gave the benefit of the doubt (which I am sure Ash is as guilty of as everyone else)

And I love the godfather but do not get the oranges references at all - that sounds like nonsense to me

There are alternative explanations:

• She knew about the attacks on people sitting in the sunshine in the park and decided to post a picture of herself sitting in the sunshine in the park, anticipating abuse, and planning to be all 'what are you talking about mate?'
• She knew about the attacks on the people sitting in the sunshine in the park and decided to post a picture of herself sitting in the sunshine in the park but didn't see any possible connection.

My money is on 'she knew what would happen, it did, and it's feeding her brand very nicely'.

The men who posted the abuse are still pigshit thick scum.

It had already been reported by that time that 3 people had died in a park in Reading. There is no chance that she was not aware of the attack.

No other journalist I follow (and they tend to be 'centrists' in their fifties) adjusted their twitter posts on Saturday.

Or she didn't know at all because the news broke only 8 minutes earlier.

Jeez, I'm not a fan of Ash but this is conspiracy theory territory. It's no different to what TRAs try to do to us.

i was not aware of the attack until the next morning though - granted I do not live my life in twitter but 8 mins is not a long time to know everything about everything all the time.

No. The attacks were at 7pm. She posted at 10pm.

My reference to 8 minutes was that people had observed within 8 minutes of her post that it appeared to reference Reading.

So it wasn't something that happened the next day by coincidence.

The attack video was circulating and very heavily trending on Twitter. This is the MN thread which was clear by that point about the three dead.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/in_the_news/3944877-Forbury-Gardens-incident

I'm not convinced that the three oranges was necessarily a Godfather reference, but there is really no chance someone active on Twitter was unaware of this attack

There is no chance that she was not aware of the attack.

This is bullshitting. You have absolutely no idea whether she was aware or not, and can't possibly unless you are Ash or someone who was with her when she found out. Presuming you're not, why on earth would you imagine you're in a position to state this with such certainty? There are any number of people who hadn't seen the news that evening. I didn't know by then myself.

The conspiracy theory assumes that she spent those 8 minutes either buying an orange ice lolly or searching through her phone to find a picture of an orange ice lolly, all so that she could send a strange message that most people wouldn't understand.

Indeed, and this is frankly starting to sound like some of the JK Rowling apologism. We condemn violence against women, of course we do, and some of the comments crossed the line but well, she was behaving rather badly wasn't she? Some of these women they just make it up for attention. And they bring it on themselves.

So it wasn't something that happened the next day by coincidence.

I mean it wasn't observed in retrospect. People said, right away, 'hey we see you'.

No. The attacks were at 7pm. She posted at 10pm.

So maybe her post had nothing to do with the attacks? Again, people weren't changing their posting style in light of the attacks.

The conspiracy theory assumes that she spent those 8 minutes either buying an orange ice lolly or searching through her phone to find a picture of an orange ice lolly, all so that she could send a strange message that most people wouldn't understand.

Read properly! It was 3 hours later. Not 8 minutes later.

So maybe her post had nothing to do with the attacks? Again, people weren't changing their posting style in light of the attacks.

That's quite possible, yes. To be clear I was correcting the incorrect post earlier that this was posted before the attack.

Rather it was posted at a time when it was heavily trending on Twitter.

And the very first person to call her out was a gender-critical woman.

@PrincessConsuelaVaginaHammock

Indeed, and this is frankly starting to sound like some of the JK Rowling apologism. We condemn violence against women, of course we do, and some of the comments crossed the line but well, she was behaving rather badly wasn't she? Some of these women they just make it up for attention. And they bring it on themselves.

exactly. I support JKR and on this issue I also support AS

That's quite possible, yes. To be clear I was correcting the incorrect post earlier that this was posted before the attack.

Well actually, you did rather more than just say it was posted at a time when it was heavily trending. You asserted that there was no chance of her being unaware of the attack, with absolutely nothing to back that up. You then also said you reckon she knew what would happen and did it to promote her brand. Which was grotesque.

You then also said you reckon she knew what would happen and did it to promote her brand. Which was grotesque.

No I didn't. I said that was one possibility.

You asserted that there was no chance of her being unaware of the attack, with absolutely nothing to back that up.

As a journalist very active on social media the chance was exceedingly small. Put it that way.

@ShootsFruitAndLeaves

> The conspiracy theory assumes that she spent those 8 minutes either buying an orange ice lolly or searching through her phone to find a picture of an orange ice lolly, all so that she could send a strange message that most people wouldn't understand.

Read properly! It was 3 hours later. Not 8 minutes later.

Attached is a picture show when the photo of Ash was taken.

The first call to police according to the BBC website was around 7pm.