Thursday
Jan282016
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Behind the scenes at the Guardian
Jan 28, 2016 Media Many thanks to reader Stewgreen for pointing me to this fascinating look behind the scenes at the Guardian...
Jan 28, 2016 Media
Reader Comments (28)
There are those of us who remember when it was the Manchester Guardian - and a damn good paper it was too. Sadly - and unlike the Yorkshire Post which stayed true to its roots - and whilst old Mrs Scott was out of the country - they decided to get very self important and move to London.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/12120006/Guardian-to-slash-costs-by-a-fifth-as-losses-mount.html
"The Guardian is seeking to slash £54m in costs after a review of its finances found that at its current rate of spending it could burn though its £758m trust fund in less than a decade. "
I think their merry tune has gone a little flat.
"The newspaper will also seek to replace print advertising sales by increasing its efforts on ‘branded content’, whereby advertisers sponsor online articles and videos. "
So we can expect a lot of WWF and Greepeace content... well more than before.
You know al Guardian could be killed off IF the BBC was forced to stop advertising jobs with them?!?
Mailman
This is a genuine behind the scenes look at a recent, fundamental coup d'etat at The Guardian. It's obvious that a faction believed the Snowden (Greenwald) story was somewhat less than solid.
"The Snowden story was owned by a small circle at the paper: primarily, Rusbridger, who became its most public face; Janine Gibson, the Rusbridger acolyte with a reputation for sharp elbows imported from London to run the New York office; and Glenn Greenwald, the freelancer who had brought the story to the Guardian (and who discontinued his relationship with the paper shortly after the story broke). What's more, the story, which Guardian management believed would be a financial boon, attracted little advertising revenue and instead became a cost center and other parts of the paper had to absorb the hit.
There developed, too, a sense of journalistic queasiness around Snowden, difficult to express at the party-line Guardian. Questioning Snowden's retreat to Russia and his protection by Vladimir Putin was internally verboten. There were Gibson's efforts to carefully monitor staff tweets, making sure Guardian journalists toed the line in support of Snowden and Greenwald. Then there was Rusbridger's interview with Snowden in July, which made Rusbridger seem, to many, like something of a fawning groupie and left a sense of embarrassment among many staffers.
What's more, causing organizational tremors, Gibson, who'd worked with The New York Times on shared aspects of the Snowden story, hoped to jump to a job there, it emerged in the aftermath of Times executive editor Jill Abramson's dismissal. (CurrentTimes executive editor Dean Baquet's dislike of Gibson, and her handling of the Times-Guardian Snowden relationship, was so intense he threatened to quit if she were hired.)
###
But in a small and shocking revolution something like a North London Spring the vote went resoundingly against Gibson and, by inference, the Rusbridger legacy. Viner came in first and Bell second, each in their own way promising a softer, gentler, less doctrinaire Guardian.
In the final weeks, Ian Katz once the heir apparent who, in a dispute with Rusbridger, left in 2013 to head the BBC's Newsnight show (and who, holding an outside job, sat out the election) also reemerged as something of an anti-organization candidate.
The Guardian remains an insular place with much more left unsaid than said. But it's hard not to understand, that a profound backlash had taken place in Guardian culture, and that the Scott Trust, which Rusbridger will now chair and which has final say over the appointment, had no choice but to accept a quiet rejection of Rusbridger and, as well, the ultimate Snowden effect.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/columnist/wolff/2015/03/20/new-editor-for-guardian-newspaper/25094233/
Yes, the Snowden story went down very badly in the US, where The Guardian hoped to ditch paper sales and go internet only. As it was peeing on its advertiser chips, the HuffPo snuggled down into the spaces the Guardian hoped to acquire and set up in London too.
TinyCO2: "So we can expect a lot of WWF and Greepeace content... well more than before."
Best thing that ever happened to me was getting banned from commenting at the Guardian because I was bored silly reading the same pathetic articles time and time and time again written by idiots with no idea of the real world. I was glad to be free from the "obligation" to comment.
It is in short a paper dedicated to those detached from economic or financial reality - and I suspect like quicksand, the harder it struggles to stay afloat the faster it will sink. So, no doubt they have some hugely expensive great masterplan to stop them going bust - which will just bring the ending that bit closer!
And, likewise I really do hope WWF and Greenpeace sink as much money as possible into the Guardian.
From today's “Guardian sustainable business” under the heading “Rethinking prosperity”: an article with the headline “The best thing a business could do for the environment is shut down.”
After you, Graun.
I think this thread may cause some lentil soup to be spilled out of organic raffia bowls.
Greenpeace and WWF will have to do more campaigning to raise more money to save drowning pandas, and buy air tickets for flightless penguins, in order to 'big up' failed Guardian Economic policy.
But the Guardian is the wurst....it thinks it has fooled you into being non-capitalist....but it is not so.
Have you not seen or worked it out?
It too is just beholden to the exportation of capital.
All for no good.
Capital which is one way ticket to oblivion, when the whole system will collapse.
Look people, and you'll see.
I know I'm off topic, but:
@esmiff (very good report)
North London Spring [NLS]
Because of the context, I think the intent of NLS is clear enough.
However, this is the first time I have seen it.
That's not surprising because there is quite a chasm between British idioms and the backwoods of western North America. I'll guess the real thing, a NLS, is something to be enjoyed.
it was good fun getting removed as a commenter, the fastest.
my top was just 2 words, and i was not just "barred" but entirely removed, lol
and it wasnt anything like "eat shit" or something, not at all.
forgot now but it WAS regarding a feminist post, andthats right in their tender parts of course.
feminism the free nhs fraud and greenery delusions, the 3 pillars.
the bbc pays for A THIRD the daily rollout of this rag btw.
i wonder how they justify this to "dave"?
The Gaurdian the Newspaper that hates other Newspapers
TinyCO2
The Huffpost has really stolen a march on the Groaniad with this story. Trans - species. It was inevitable.
"A 20-year-old Norwegian woman claims she is a cat stuck in a human body.
Nano, from Oslo, claims she suffers from the bizarre affliction because of a genetic defect, and first realised she was a cat when she was 16. Speaking to NRK P3 Verdens Rikeste Land, Nano said she hates water and exhibits various other cat-like beaviours such as enhanced reflexes.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2016/01/28/woman-thinks-cat-trapped-in-human-body-nano-norway-oslo_n_9100678.html?1454002096
John F. Hultquist
Apparently the North London Spring arrived 3 months early thanks to climate change.
If the Grauniad makes some of their unemployable science correspondents unemployed, they will expect money off the BBC for sitting around, and doing nothing useful.
esmiff, it was only a matter of time once it became standard to allow people to choose their sex rather than go through the fiddly details of being born one way or having major surgery to prove your declaration wasn't just a whim. I'm thinking of being declared tall, gorgeous and rich - it won't be true but people will legally have to treat me as if it is. It turns out I was born into the wrong body...
Reading the article, it seems their editor and CEO said the paper's financial position is "fragile". I don't understand how they can say this. Don't they believe in the Money Fairy anymore? Can't they just borrow money, or pay staff money they don't have, or something?
Bit of a lame parody, though.
Dork
You should know better, that’s one too many lines for a limerick, and that's not the only problem. Fair play, the first, second lines are clearly anapaestic, and your fourth line is of the correct length, but overall the rhyme scheme isn’t consistent. The line “Look people, and you’ll see” is cliched and pretentious, as I’m sure you’ll agree, so let’s drop it. How about the following improvements as a starter?
The Guardian is really right-leaning
To all but the fools still believing
In left-wing agendas
And distrust of lenders
But to Hades it soon will be leaving.
I’m sure you can improve on my amateurish efforts.
Apparently Leonardo de Caprio some brain dead delusional luvvie who thinks his opinion is of any value met with the Pope to discuss Global Warming today.
I feel safer already.
I got banned for saying that what will follow Assad will be far worse than Assad just as the "civil war" kicked off there.
How dare I impugn the Arab spring.....
Stu, I hope Leonardo didn't waste too much jet fuel on his trip to see the Pope.
Bet it wasn't as funny as "Michaelangelo to see the Pope" by Monty Python.
What's Snowden done to put smiff in a snit ?
Threatened to take the NSA archive of snipped WUWT comments public ?
How many people has the NEW Guardian killed* ? How many freedoms suppressed ?
The Guardian of the video a bunch of veg eating hippies wearing floral shirts, ha ha !
Unfortunately the real world is not that funny it's more complex and sad.
As readers above said there are two Guardians : The OLD Guardian of truth and integrity that BHers would have been proud to work for, but at some point that turned into the NEW Guardian which incredibly often demonstrates sinister and fascist elements, a tool of evil.
Good media can do a good job, expose corruption, save public money, SAVE LIVES and make a more just world : that was the OLD Guardian.
The flipside of that is that if you become something which suppresses information, manipulates debate then you are the opposite and achieve the opposite results.
* It should not be the case that people in the UK are dying in the UK cos they can't afford winter fuel, but I think it's a real possibility.
Is it like when hippy parents are soft on their children and they grow up to spoilt evil brats; are today's Guardian staff the metaphorical children of the old Guardian hippies ?
These children that snarl, snipe, act with entitlement and try to shout down challenging views.
(Could be connected with Graham Strout's studies of how political left became rightwing in behaviour)
Do you know why DIVERSITY is important ? say on a company board
..because otherwise your org is prone to GROUPTHINK meaning that views that may well expose errors are forced out.
The NEW Guardian :
1. Groupthink and intolernace of challenging views- "You are not one of us so we aren't going to listen"
2. Downright fascist patrolling of comment sections by Mods, which leave in offensive posts but ban/censor out people who are "not like us".
3. Unbalanced : On green energy etc. The old Guardian would have brought in people to challenge Green energy dreams and would have prevented todays energy crisis.
The old Guardian would not have considered the lower pay of women, without mentioning the terrible death rate of men in the workplace.
The old Guardian would not have provided unbalanced platform to people pushing political correctness.
3a. More hate than empathy. Are they FAIR to UKIp, to trump, to non-greens ?
4. A Tool : The Guardian is small, but provides a gateway. Once flawed articles appear they quickly passed on quoted in the BBC and given as a source for Wikipedia pages etc.
...There's more I'm sure tho and old style Guardian does sometime creep in when counter viewpoints are allowed an airing.
Old Guardian : Truth seeker of the real world
New Guardian : more Dangerous Cult of the Lewniverse.
...............Yes roll on the North London Spring of enlightenment.
Too long ? well ..Melanie Philips in video speaks of the corruption of the Guardian from inside.
Straight to the bit about the Guardian at minute 11:00 "They cannot tolerate : There can be no deviation from the line"
"They [the Left] simply use abuse, gratuitous abuse, and the purpose of the abuse is to shut down the argument. It is to bully the person that they are disagreeing with, and more important than that is to tell other people, "This person, don't go there, don't even listen to what she's saying, she's really dangerous, she's really horrible, she is really of no account at all, so you can't actually have a discussion on the Left"
BTW The Guardian's practice on equal opportunity : "Guardian's editor daughter aka Bella Mackie aka Isabella Mackie aka Isabella Rusbridger just happened to get work experience and then a job at the Guardian.
She could have been the best candidate."
While The Gaurdian remains the house paper of the BBC and a must have on the coffee tables of the chatter classes of North London , it will always have a place , like it of not .
Its finical issues may be one reason why its basically handing its environmental converge over to Cook and Bob 'fast fingers' Ward , because although they produce awful quality 'someone else ' is paying for it .
The perfect expression of anti-capitalism is to end up with no money.
Some people I know have some songs out about other people we know Green Brainwashing people in Asia/Kuala Lumpur - Audio "Where's My Flying Electric Car Dude ?
- Audio : Hippie people, want to save world... But are so high, they live in orbit- Audio : I want to be a greenie
..Album and songs
Most excellent ! Send the cameras on to record the comrades at the WSJ Ed Board Room and the offices of Spiked .