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Guardian admits it distorted Corbyn 'Traingate' story

The Guardian has publicly apologised for distorting the Traingate story.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/07/fast-train-to-publication-too-fast

It ran the headline “Corbyn joins seatless commuters on floor for three-hour train journey” even though it knew that the original reporters of the story had clearly stated that Corbyn got a seat 45 mins into the journey.

Although they are apologising now, it seems like this was probably a cheap attack on Corbyn, they knew it would rebound and staged it. The Grauniad has long been in love with the Right of Labour or with the LibDems and constantly finds little and large ways to attack Jeremy. Like he hasn't got enough enemies in the tax-evading offshored oligarchs who run the Mail, the Sun, the Telegraph, etc. :rolleyes:

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Corbyn is far from perfect, but the media attacks on him are pathetic. Cameron may be gone, but the establishment is still running the media and the country.
Reply 2
Avatar for viffer
viffer
16
Does it really matter whether they exaggerated the time? The fact Corbyn did it at all is the main issue. You seem to be taking issue with the Graudian's spinning when that is what he and his entourage did. Hypocrisy?
Original post by viffer
Does it really matter whether they exaggerated the time? The fact Corbyn did it at all is the main issue. You seem to be taking issue with the Graudian's spinning when that is what he and his entourage did. Hypocrisy?


Hypocrisy is piddling. Let's get things done instead. Is there a problem with the trains or isn't there? No other political party gives a ****, so good on Corbyn for highlighting the issue, and shame on those who care more about denigrating him for being a socialist than about improving the daily lives of working people.
Reply 4
Avatar for viffer
viffer
16
Original post by scrotgrot
Hypocrisy is piddling. Let's get things done instead. Is there a problem with the trains or isn't there? No other political party gives a ****, so good on Corbyn for highlighting the issue, and shame on those who care more about denigrating him for being a socialist than about improving the daily lives of working people.


One question....

Would you have been as tolerant of hypocrisy if it was Tory MP?
Reply 5
Avatar for bj_945
bj_945
18
Original post by Fullofsurprises
The Guardian has publicly apologised for distorting the Traingate story.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/07/fast-train-to-publication-too-fast

It ran the headline “Corbyn joins seatless commuters on floor for three-hour train journey” even though it knew that the original reporters of the story had clearly stated that Corbyn got a seat 45 mins into the journey.

Although they are apologising now, it seems like this was probably a cheap attack on Corbyn, they knew it would rebound and staged it. The Grauniad has long been in love with the Right of Labour or with the LibDems and constantly finds little and large ways to attack Jeremy. Like he hasn't got enough enemies in the tax-evading offshored oligarchs who run the Mail, the Sun, the Telegraph, etc. :rolleyes:


Mate, this is as convoluted a conspiracy theory as half the stuff I used to hear in the Middle East.

Isn't the more simple explanation that the Guardian just ****ed up?

Seems the more likely explanation to me.

Not denying that the Guardian are anti-Corbyn - they definitely are, it is possible to pick up that angle from a lot of their pieces. But let's not get carried away now...I am really increasingly worried about Corbyn supporters as there seems to be a real cult mentality around the man. He is just a bloke. He does PR/spin like other politicians/everyone, he is fallible like any other man. He is a socialist, sure. I'm sure for many it's nice to see "true" socialism back on the main-stage after a long absence. But that doesn't mean you should idolise him, or make excuses for everything he does. That leads to dangerous places.

All this *******s about "MSM" is getting me down. As if "The Canary" is a more reliable source of objective news...
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by viffer
One question....

Would you have been as tolerant of hypocrisy if it was Tory MP?


Of course not, but only because the Tories would never be so civic-minded as to highlight the problems on the trains in the first place. The idea that a Tory would ever do something which outweighed their hypocrisy is too out there for me to really imagine the situation.
Original post by Foo.mp3
Just another reason I can't take this 'newspaper', or its fans, seriously :rolleyes:

Surprised to see you, of all people, madame Guardianista, attacking the Guardian e.g. on the basis of being detached from reality, let alone attempting to assert that it's some kind of right-leaning publication! Now I really have seen it all :laugh:


I :heart: the guardian and Al Jazeera
So the Guardian taking part in Corbyn's lie was actually an anti-Corbyn conspiracy? I can't tell if this is satire or if Corbyn's supporters really are this delusional.
Original post by viffer
Does it really matter whether they exaggerated the time? The fact Corbyn did it at all is the main issue. You seem to be taking issue with the Graudian's spinning when that is what he and his entourage did. Hypocrisy?


It's not what he or his supporters who were with him at the time did, that's the whole point - it was the Guardian who did it with their headline, which they continued to run despite being repeatedly corrected as to the facts.
Original post by Foo.mp3
Just another reason I can't take this 'newspaper', or its fans, seriously :rolleyes:

Surprised to see you, of all people, madame Guardianista, attacking the Guardian e.g. on the basis of being detached from reality, let alone attempting to assert that it's some kind of right-leaning publication! Now I really have seen it all :laugh:


You don't really have a very clear picture of the progressive Left, if you think we are all in love with the Guardian. The paper has long had a distinctly LibDem feel to it - they do have a few genuinely left people on the staff, but that doesn't stop their editors throwing mud at the true Left whenever they get the chance, as they did in this case. I still support it overall, as it's the only source of public news in the UK that isn't government controlled or foreign oligarch-controlled, but that support isn't completely uncritical.
Reply 11
Avatar for Aliccam
Aliccam
9
Original post by viffer
Does it really matter whether they exaggerated the time? The fact Corbyn did it at all is the main issue. You seem to be taking issue with the Graudian's spinning when that is what he and his entourage did. Hypocrisy?
This wasn't Corbyn spinning this was the media. Not a single journalist bothered to find out how many passengers were on the train at the time, and Virgin didn't put that in their version either. The fact that a few individual seats may have been available as he walked up the train didn't mean they stayed that way.
It's as if the whole of the UK believes that trains are never full, when the reality is that the train companies just keep selling tickets regardless of capacity.
Reply 12
Avatar for Aliccam
Aliccam
9
Original post by MemeworksStudios
So the Guardian taking part in Corbyn's lie was actually an anti-Corbyn conspiracy? I can't tell if this is satire or if Corbyn's supporters really are this delusional.
I think you are missing that the retraction was about the 'three hours' not the floor sitting.
Reply 13
Avatar for Aliccam
Aliccam
9
Original post by Foo.mp3
Just another reason I can't take this 'newspaper', or its fans, seriously :rolleyes:

Surprised to see you, of all people, madame Guardianista, attacking the Guardian e.g. on the basis of being detached from reality, let alone attempting to assert that it's some kind of right-leaning publication! Now I really have seen it all :laugh:
Considering the Guardian and the Mirror were the two remaining 'left' mainstream media, it does seem rather naff that they have both fallen in behind the old guard of the Labour right, leaving the Labour party without a mainstream voice.
Original post by Aliccam
I think you are missing that the retraction was about the 'three hours' not the floor sitting.


Corbyn lied, the Guardian was complicit in the lie.

A rational mind would conclude that the Guardian poorly researched the event or lied and has been forced to apologise after being found out. A paranoid, hysterical mind would conclude that the Guardian lied and intentionally got caught to tarnish the fine reputation of the upstanding working class folk hero Comrade Jezbollah Corbyn.
Reply 15
Avatar for viffer
viffer
16
Original post by Aliccam
This wasn't Corbyn spinning this was the media. Not a single journalist bothered to find out how many passengers were on the train at the time, and Virgin didn't put that in their version either. The fact that a few individual seats may have been available as he walked up the train didn't mean they stayed that way.
It's as if the whole of the UK believes that trains are never full, when the reality is that the train companies just keep selling tickets regardless of capacity.
I don't doubt the anti-Corbyn media hyped it to ridicule him but the fact is he and his entourage sought to make a point by exaggerating the problem on THAT particular journey. The fact trains are frequently overcrowded is irrelevant in that context. Corbyn supporters are conveniently overlooking that very important point. One which casts doubt on the so-called man of the people's integrity.
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by Aliccam
Considering the Guardian and the Mirror were the two remaining 'left' mainstream media, it does seem rather naff that they have both fallen in behind the old guard of the Labour right, leaving the Labour party without a mainstream voice.


I laugh at your left-wing victimhood. The modern Conservative Party is left of centre and it's only since the rise of Mother Theresa that they have just moved right of centre, but we're taking this **** back and it's only gonna get better once the wall goes up in Calais and we trigger cucks when we trigger article 50.
This public apology seems to have been prompted by an internal inquiry. I posted this link in another thread yesterday, but will do so again as it seems apposite here.

From Guido:

An internal Guardian investigation has blasted the paper’s editors for publishing the original Traingate story by a freelance journalist who turned out to be a Trot. TheGuardian readers’ editor rubbishes the article as “a kind of gonzo news release by two Corbyn supporters”, concluding that the paper “misled” its readers and that editors’ “pre-publication checks and balances failed”. Turns out the freelance filmmaker who shot the pictures of the Labour leader sitting on the floor was being paid by the Jeremy For Leader campaign. The Trotskyite freelance journalist who wrote the story wasn’t even on the train. The authors first pitched their pro-Jez propaganda to BuzzFeed, who embarrassingly for the Guardian smelled a rat and turned it down. Standards at Kings Place were alas significantly lower…
If only the media was impartial. Still it is great to see a media outlet at least own up and apologize rather than try to sweep it under the rug.
Original post by Foo.mp3
Just another reason I can't take this 'newspaper', or its fans, seriously :rolleyes:

Surprised to see you, of all people, madame Guardianista, attacking the Guardian e.g. on the basis of being detached from reality, let alone attempting to assert that it's some kind of right-leaning publication! Now I really have seen it all :laugh:


It's not right leaning (although on some issues like academies and PFI it leaned right) but it's certainly not the far left communist manifesto people try to make it out to be. It attacks Corbyn far more than it supports him, it has a deep disdain for the hard left.

It's in the main a centre left paper, broadly where Miliband stood.

It's main strength is not in its stories but in it's investigative jorunalism - eg Sports Direct and Panama Papers, bringing corrupt and deeply unpleasant practices to light.

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