Did anyone see the ITV News piece about of water bills on customers?

[inkjet]

https://twitter.com/PaulEmbery/status/1674332639921045505

Yes this is the feminism board. Paul Embery clipped it but I wonder if anyone saw it in full? He says the piece was about the impact of soaring water bills on an everyday mother. The voiceover calls the person a customer but the customer calls themself a mum. On the Twitter thread someone points out that the customer works for the TUC and is an economist who has been published in the Guardian. I think it’s fair to say the customer is neither a mother nor an ‘everyday’ one.

So how about the actual mother - you know the biological woman who carried and gave birth to the child? Where is she is this ridiculous pantomime?

People are free to publicly call themselves what they like and everyone is as free to tell them what they think and whether or not they choose to play along.

Hmm, obviously not! Hence my deletion. I'll try again.

Not a mother, not a woman, can't breastfeed, doesn't understand the difference between a washing up bowl and a laundry basket.

And my opinion of this individual is the same as that of KJK.

Yes. I’d love to know this.

Out of technical interest, was this media piece fraudulent in any way? Under the Fraud Act 2006, this would seem like false representation was made. Presumably a ‘gain’ has to be made too? Does that have to be monetary? It all seems bizarre.

…because if anyone can say they are anything that has implications for fraud does it not?

@MrsOvertonsWindow thank you and the other women who said this.

I am an adoptive mum and I was so bloody furious when I read the comparisons being made. I am well aware of my biology believe me, and yes we have gone through complex legal procedures to become our children’s parents. Adopted children and their parents are always dragged into this argument; whether that be surrogacy (most adopters understand and live with the damage that is done when children are taken away from their biological mum), breastfeeding males (adopters in the UK would not breastfeed, because we understand that would not be to the benefit of the child), or being compared to transwomen. Just leave us alone, we have enough to deal with, we are not gotchas and anyone capitalising on the pain and loss caused by adoption for the sake of argument should be ashamed of themselves.

Also, the word Mother is taken.

According to Twitter the piece was set up by an activist journalist called Paul Brand.

I did think of Paul Brand earlier as he has form on this, but I had mistakenly thought he was political editor so this wasn’t his area, I didn’t realise he was news editor. It wouldn’t surprise me at all.

So, news editor doesn't = news, it = agenda.
News in 2023 is certainly different from the stuff I used to follow in the good old days.
What a quaint concept that is.

A not very hidden agenda?

https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/itv-news-reporter-paul-brand-24311267

That explains a lot @IwantToRetire - I expect more mother-hating and pro-surrogacy news on itv then. If you can buy a baby, you can let a man say he's a mum.

Its just shocking really isn't it.

I long ago realised the news was filtered through the politics of an organisation, and so take all stories with a pinch of salt.

Put this is a whole step further. Where you use your positions as a "news" reporter to actually distort the news to substantiate your personal politics / life choices.

Although of course Owen Jones has been doing this for years!

Owen Jones isn't comparable here. He's a f/t polemicist, another angry leftie who has an audience online, Novara Media etc.

In this respect he's just another voice.

Paul Brand on ITV is a totally different kettle of fish, he's effectively subverted a national news service to present his bias as part of a news article, in this case, water/water bills/women/paying them.

In no way can this story be allowed to be polemical.

ITV fail their remit.

Blog post including some of the vile insults and inaccurate tweets aimed at Rosie Duffield;

https://grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/you-aint-no-mum-bruv

Mika is tweeting including about breastfeeding.

https://twitter.com/mikaminio/status/1675473919065612288?t=GhAz4ooq3wFkoyC8DStYeg&s=19

This seems like a premeditated stunt by an activist editor.

This is the text from tweet for those who are having trouble with twitter. It includes a photo.

In the end, I only breastfed my child for a few weeks.
I then had to stop because I had a cancer relapse and didn't want to poison my child.
Here's me on the bus to hospital for the 1st chemo round, feeding my child for the last time

Just stop it. The gaslighting is off the scale. In any other situation you would get deserved sympathy for a serious health condition and stress on the family.

But it suits you to try and conflate tugging on heartstrings with a "woe is me" series of Tweets on transphobia and then, oh, the actual point of the original ITV piece, women's issues with water bills.

You should be ashamed of yourself, ITV not far behind. When is this demeaning if women going to end?

This makes me really upset and distressed, there is no protocol in the UK for adoptive mothers to breast feed, it absolutely isn’t a thing, it NEVER happens. It isn’t a thing because we understand it isn’t in the interests of the baby. Again, using adoption as a crutch makes me feel sick.

Typical self denial about how wrong their tactics are, blaming those who reacted to this "news" story as falling victim to distractions when the real story was about the price of water, never for one moment thinking we were in the wrong to push our personal agenda onto a news story, as it will detract from the real story.

The smug, self absordedness of this whole approach would be laughable if it wasnt so dangerous.

It's a purity test. Post a picture of a male body simulating breastfeeding. Conflate it with "a man can be a mother". And test the water.
Do this in 2007 when Twitter started and you'd be globally laughed off the platform. Even in 2013. In 2018? Sands shifting. 2023? There's a question.

Of course, who in (im)polite society will speak up against this? Taylor Swift? No. Sandi Toksvig? No chance. Elton John? Um. Angela Rayner? No way. Owen Jones? We already know. NHS chiefs? Not on your life. Heads of education? Don't hold your breath. All those journalists ignoring the genderwoo to only be high and mighty and principled over Bxt, migrants crisis, Partygate? Don't forget to switch off the lights and lock the door on the way out.

And so it's left to the rest of us. Women sick and tired of reheated misogyny, now from the #BeKind brigade, men like me pissed off the likes of Starmer won't be brave.

So, this photo gets Tweeted and it's so far beyond the pale, that you have to double check reality for a moment, and realise that swathes of those in charge see nothing wrong here, or if they do, they are scared witless to say anything skeptical.

That poor kid.

A.child is not a prop.

Before you click this contains the tweet AND the photo of him with baby attached.
You have been warned

I also hope Mika's partner, the baby's mother, is okay and has a good support network.

of course Mika's replies are all shut off, leading him to one of the worst echo chambers I've ever seen, conflating that men/can breastfeed, anyone objecting/is a transphobe/cares not a jot for the infinite range of issues affecting women, he's the butt of facist jibes/for being criticized over beyond the pale activities like males simulating breastfeeding/that we should all agree is perfectly sane if we were trans champions.

As I said, this is a purity test for those who purport to fully support TRA or at very least are agnostic/want to #BeKind, and a test of patience for the rest of us...that women and right thinking men can be gaslit to toxic levels, knowing there'll be something else, likely worse just around the corner.

I feel really sick