Terf war embroils Guardian HQ | article from The Spectator

[NonnyMouse1337]

www.spectator.co.uk/article/terf-war-embroils-guardian-hq

Mr S hears word that the editorial floors of the Guardian and its Sunday sister the Observer have become riven with tensions over the perennial problem of trans rights. WhatsApp groups are ablaze with talk that Observer commentator Sonia Sodha could become the next feminist hounded out of the group, following Suzanne Moore’s purging in November.

As a PP said, it's not that they disagree with my views, it's the fact that they are throwing good journalistic practices out of the window in service of an illogical and fundamentally dishonest ideology

Yes.

@PurpleHoodie

Is it a time-zone thing?

Do they blather from across the water?

Or are they up late n drunk?

Given some of their verbiage I suspect them's from across the Pond.

But, again from their blather, it's hard to tell. I think it was Steph(something) that poster utterly incoherent sentences.

Yes. Bit of both Curious.

The former will most likely have not met real life UK women, so will have psychic/mental trauma coming up against women who tell them

"womenwontwheest"

"Sit down son"

"Get tae fuck"

"Ye' what? Shut up"

"Oh, no. No, no"

They have a mis-guided view women. Let alone women living 3000-5000+ miles away.

Hilarious comment on the Spectator article.

They're desperate to keep hold of little Owen?

Well, he does resemble a greased piglet, so good luck to them.

Are they calling him a Lefty Gammon?!

Lefty gammon is a very accurate description!

Misogynistic champagne Socialist.

Lefty Gammon.

Such a shockingly, perfect fit.

OJ the greased piglet. That is uncanny

Hadley Freeman tweeted this morning that she's taking a sabbatical from the Guardian. She also said a few months ago that she's writing another book so it's probably wise not to read too much into the timing of this but hey I'm going to anyway...
I'm certainly going to miss her and those fab interviews.

Greased piglet? 😁

One of us maybe?

I'll certainly be using it whenever appropriate.

Good luck Sonia, and thank you.

Absolutely disgraceful that the Guardian/Observer are going after their top female writers, particularly women of colour.

It really stinks. Why are they allowing white men to attack and try to silence women of colour with impunity?

Forcing out Suzanne was bad enough. If they were to force out Sonia as well, that would be clearly waging war against women.

Shameful.

I just clicked on a link to read the latest Hadley Freeman column and was told I've "read 50 articles in the last year. Congratulations on being one of our top readers globally". I used to buy the paper every day but haven't done for a long time now. It doesn't say much for them that reading one article a week makes you one of their top readers.

Absolutely disgraceful that the Guardian/Observer are going after their top female writers, particularly women of colour.

It really stinks. Why are they allowing white men to attack and try to silence women of colour with impunity?

Because they are institutionally racist?

I used to go out in the rain to buy the Guardian on Saturdays, even after I stopped buying it often during the week. It was painful letting go altogether. But I do feel as if I’m breathing more freely. Still miss the long-ago feeling that the Guardian was a friend, on our side.

I'll buy the Observer still. If their figures are kept separate it should help to see the difference in sales.

@MrsOvertonsWindow

Same. I freely read whatever I want, and they can whistle if they think they'll get a penny out of me again.

I used to work for them. I loved the paper and really believed in the job I had but hate how it’s going. I now subscribe to both the telegraph and the Times but not the G. I hope their fawning over the vile narcissistic OJ brings them down. Good journalism has its roots in integrity and theirs has been lacking ever since K Vine took over.

@lovesToRunWithScissors

I used to work for them. I loved the paper and really believed in the job I had but hate how it’s going. I now subscribe to both the telegraph and the Times but not the G. I hope their fawning over the vile narcissistic OJ brings them down. Good journalism has its roots in integrity and theirs has been lacking ever since K Vine took over.

That's so sad lovesToRunWithScissors. I've been reading the G since the 70s. What would eg Jill Tweedie make of this slide into quasi fascism? Wish I had a subscription so I could cancel it tbh. I was toying with a Torygraph sub so I can read Suzanne Moore.

@PurpleHoodie

C109k paid circulation.

That's pretty dire, yes?

Hard to say. All print newspapers are having a hard time. The future is in online, and in many ways whether they are making money online (from whatever combination of paid online subscriptions and adverts) is arguably more significant?

In the last year the Guardian has fallen from 132,000 to 109,000. But in the same period, the FT has gone from 157,000 to 97,000, and the Express from 296,000 to 238,000. The Mail has a lot more print readers than the Guardian (and always has had) but its drop from 1,169,241 to 960,000 seems a comparable level and speed of decline in percentage terms to that of the Guardian. (Up-to-date print circulation figures for the Times, Sun, and Telegraph are not available.)

Either way. I will write to the Observer to let them know that their stance and Sonia Sodha's writing are appreciated! As is Hadley Freeman's at the Guardian!

I wish newspapers would team up to support a shared subscription platform, where readers could pay a single regular fee in exchange for x articles weekly from the Guardian, y articles weekly from the Times, z articles from the New York Times, etc. Each subscriber could craft their own custom spilt between articles published by participating papers.

I want to support journalism by paying for what I read, but I don't want to throw all my eggs in one basket by supporting one paper and consuming its interpretations only. Neither do I want to pay per click, which would encourage clickbait journalism and outrage-confection.

I want to pay them all, in proportion to how much I use them, for doing their job properly, reporting the facts, providing analysis and not fawning at tribes and echo-chambers.

@Random789

I wish newspapers would team up to support a shared subscription platform, where readers could pay a single regular fee in exchange for x articles weekly from the Guardian, y articles weekly from the Times, z articles from the New York Times, etc. Each subscriber could craft their own custom spilt between articles published by participating papers.

I want to support journalism by paying for what I read, but I don't want to throw all my eggs in one basket by supporting one paper and consuming its interpretations only. Neither do I want to pay per click, which would encourage clickbait journalism and outrage-confection.

I want to pay them all, in proportion to how much I use them, for doing their job properly, reporting the facts, providing analysis and not fawning at tribes and echo-chambers.

I would pay for content if I could mix and match in this manner. In print I could vary my outlook by buying a Telegraph on Wednesday, Daily Sport on Thursday, Guardian on Friday and Racing Post on Saturday. I don't want to commit to having to read just one of them every day indefinitely.

That's a really great idea and I would also be interested in this model.

Just a point on circulation (I don't think it's been mentioned) that a big earner for the press is sales at airports and with travel restrictions (covid) around the world, newspaper sales have gone down across the board.

Yes, the calendar-based purchase idea is a good one. Instead of pre-purchasing a specified number of articles, you could specify days on which you wanted access to each paper. Then it would be exactly like going to the newsagent ieach day and choosing to buy the Guardian one and and the Times another day, etc.

All that is standing between me and becoming a pro-social multi-millionaire world-changing innovator is my complete lack of entrepreneurial, technical and design skills. Details, details.

Bit like Spotify, but for news rather than music