Dear Lobby Journalists.
Congratulations on taking a stand against the manipulative practices of Number 10 Downing Street. You’re quite right - what they’re doing is appalling, and disgracefully misleading to the public. (Short thread)
Congratulations on taking a stand against the manipulative practices of Number 10 Downing Street. You’re quite right - what they’re doing is appalling, and disgracefully misleading to the public. (Short thread)
You should be applauded - it’s really important to take a stand, to stop them from manipulating the media, managing the message and undermining the key function that journalism plays in holding the powerful to account.
However. One might ask a couple of questions. Firstly, why have you chosen *now* to take a stand, when you could have taken a stand a long, long time ago. Why didn’t you take the stand when they boycotted Channel 4 News? Or when they excluded the Mirror from their battle bus?
Or when they used you to spread false stories about activists punching Tories outside the hospital? Or when they manipulated the BBC into letting Boris Johnson get Marr’s soft cushions rather than Neil’s grilling?
Why now, when its too late for there to be any impact? Why now, when you’ve let them get away with all of this to secure the General Election victory? Why not then, when it could have made a difference?
And why did you treat *any* of us who alerted you to this in the past with contempt and disdain, gaslighting us, accusing us of being conspiracy theorists, and generally abusing us?
So pardon me if I don’t jump up in praise of your taking a stand for press freedom when it’s far, far, far too late. The goose is cooked. The horse has bolted. However you want to put it. You’ve failed us, and only *now* you take a stand.
Please do keep going, though. It’s great to find a spine, even if it’s too late to make a difference. /end rant.
