Two journos quit "transphobic" guardian

[puffyisgood]

Apologies if covered elsewhere, I didn't see it.

www.vice.com/en/article/g5vx8j/guardian-trans-journalists

As far as I can tell mostly triggered by a single article written about the 'cotton ceiling' in the light of its prominence in the Bailey v Stonewall etc tribunal - www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/29/if-lesbian-prefers-same-sex-dates-thats-not-bigotry-desire-personal-thing.

All seems a bit silly to me, regardless of which 'side' you're on. I don't know when things became so ludicrously tribal, I'm [sadly] old enough to remember the days when the Daily Mail gave a column to Roy Hattersley in the interests of balance. A very different time...

Nothing but complete & utter 100% capitulation is acceptable

maybe one day The Guardian will learn this & grow a pair

We will know the tide is truly turning when the Graun goes even moderately GC-they will b the very last to wake up.

I think my favourite bit is that the article in question wasn't even published by the Guardian but by the Observer.
I've got work to do today but this is so delicious I can't drag myself away.

It’s interesting that it’s two transmen, isn’t it. Just as at Allison’s tribunal, they are being used as human shields aren’t they?

"They want the Guardian to change its editorial approach to trans people, asking bosses to prioritise the lived experiences of trans people over “paying writers who are not trans to express uninformed opinions”. They also ask for a change in the newspaper’s editorial stance to reflect that trans women having rights does not disadvantage cis women."

So it seems they want the Guardian to report only what they want reported. What kind of a newspaper would that be?

A glorious own goal. I suppose it's the consequence of people self identifying as journalists rather than having the qualifications and experience of reporting news in a democratic society. I noted this tone deaf demand:
They also ask for a change in the newspaper’s editorial stance to reflect that trans women having rights does not disadvantage cis women
Imagine being a journalist of Russian heritage demanding that the Guardian only reports Ukraine from the perspective that Russian aggression does not disadvantage Ukrainian citizens?
Or being a Conservative voting journalist demanding that reporting of the cost of living crisis reflects that Labour voters are not disadvantaged in any way?

They're not journalists - they're lobbyists and even the sad old Guardian is well rid of them.

Snap WearyLady
It's actually quite sad to think that alleged "journalists" can present a piece of writing so bereft of insight and integrity.

David Blunkett and others from the left often write for the Mail.

I think my favourite bit is that the article in question wasn't even published by the Guardian but by the Observer.

LOL.

Oh, Freddy McConnell - didn't know Freddy was a journalist, thought they just wrote about themselves.

Vic Parsons seems to have written a grand total of 3 times for the Guardian according to their profile there - August 2015, April 2016, then this piece in May 2022.

One might almost think that they got the latest piece in purely so they could write something about "refusing to write for the Guardian" any more. LOL.

Ben Hunte seems to at least know the difference between the Observer and the Guardian, but neither Freddy nor Vic seem to, and I think Ben Hunte might have only figured it out afterwards while writing the piece, or he might have got them to offer more accurate quotes, rather than going on about the Guardian all the time. (They do complain about the "Guardian" being "inaccurate" though!)

Time for Owen Jones to step up though - if he's a proper trans ally, he should follow their lead. We know he's got some repenting to do.

yeah, regarding the ending quote,

“If you call yourself a trans ally, this is the moment for you to do something. Yes, it might come at a financial cost to not have a working relationship with The Guardian, as it does for me and Freddy, but sometimes you have to do what's right."

I wish them well and hope that their, “moral duty to stand in absolute solidarity” will pay the bills.

Imagine being a journalist and flouncing because a publication chooses to print a range of opinions. If the Guardian isn't trans positive enough for them then I wonder where they will accept commissions from, Pink News perhaps?

sorry, pressed send too quickly, regarding that quote I'd be more than a little surprised if OJ's trans allyship were to stretch quite that far.

Excuse me but vic parsons is non binary! Tsk

So two trans men are leaving because of “ingrained prejudice against trans women”.

Gotta put those trans women front, centre, back, left, right and everywhere in between!!

true re: DB, but no what I'd call 'proper lefties', though I'll admit to not reading the DM all that often.

There was a related piece that I haven't seen posted here from the Critic

Publish and be cancelled

...these individuals are advocates of the delegate theory of publication: publishers are, they think, mere empty vehicles for their own views, who can be ceremoniously dumped if they dare to depart from whatever the latest bit of groupthink is doing the rounds among the Paris sections this week.

Take, for example, trans-rights activist and sociologist Alison Phipps. Bravely shaking the foundations of the late capitalist status quo by means of viciously attacking feminists campaigning against domestic violence is her jam, and Alison is furious that Polity — my old publisher — is (to its credit) publishing a book called Defending Women’s Spaces by Karen Ingala Smith, a gender critical feminist. Alison’s fury is compounded by the fact that she has published with Polity before. How dare “her” publisher defy her views! Don’t they realise that they should be submitting to her political opinions on every issue without question? The confounded cheek of it!

the use of the term, "biologically male” (of course chosen to be an unemotive, factually inescapable, descriptor that leaves plenty of room for variations in gender identity and so on) seems to have been a particular sticking point.

as ever it's difficult to avoid the suspicion that the only acceptable language here would be one that denied that any even halfway meaningful differences between TW and their XY sisters exist at all.

Julie Bindel writes for the DM & MoS:

www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10700875/JULIE-BINDEL-week-Britain-finally-came-senses-trans-extremists-cried-ENOUGH.html

www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10249631/Women-sold-river-charities-terrified-trans-mob-writes-JULIE-BINDEL.html

Wowser to Freddie, talk about biting the hand that feeds you. Freddie has had nothing but sympathy and acres of column space from the Guardian since they started their parenthood journey ( which if I recall started barely two weeks after they swore at their GRC certification that they were going to live in their new gender for ever, but let that be). I hope their very indifferent journalistic skills manage to provide enough work in other publications to support them and the children.

Can this the same Guardian that was so bullying to Susannah Moore because she dared to express the opinion that there are two sexes?

Can this the same Guardian that was so bullying to Susannah Moore because she dared to express the opinion that there are two sexes?

No! It's the Observer! 😂

I do think Parsons is not doing themselves any favours as a journalist when they make statements saying “ it’s why I have had to stop reading the news for the past few months” Way to go Vic, nothing editors like more than a journalist who isn’t up to speed on local and world events, and is by their own admission too sensitive to even read other peoples opinions .

Oh , my mistake, at night all cats etc etc.

Posted this on the other thread about this, but IW's tweet in the article is revealing - says something along the lines of "there's none of this hysteria over lesbian pests"... which is exactly what the cotton ceiling article is about, unless IW is excluding certain types of lesbians when IW says "lesbians"?

Another transman is boycotting in support of Freddy & Vic. I wonder if Felix's dad is going to resign as The Guardian's architecture critic in solidarity?
Felix's tweet