Thread by @Big_Headers

“Into the valley of death rode the 600.”

600 of Britain’s finest cavalrymen, and the press went ballistic, at the stupidity of a poorly expressed order.

1/24

However it was just a poor communication. The intent was correct. The Turks were stealing British cannon at the end of a valley.

“Get the guns!”

2/24

Yet the cavalry charged down the other valley in the other direction to get the Russian guns, manned, primed, and shortly blowing them to bits.

3/24

We are already losing more than 600 *a day* to #COVID_19.

Following guidance given by Johnson… “Take it on the chin.” “Let it spread through the population.”

That had no rhyme. No reason. No justification. Just Johnson talking bollocks.

4/24

However, the press have loved this. It has made their jobs easy. Instead of having a Govt, they had a PR agency, that delivered straplines, for them to make headlines.

They forgot they were journalists. And they were sucked in.

Became professionally worthless.

5/24

However, with the blatantly obvious fiasco and lies and lack of even the basis of a plan around the essential testing, it looks like journalists have awoken from a long stupor.

6/24

On the 2nd March 2020 all the UK papers were correctly aligned in condemning Johnson and his Govt.

7/24

theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/a…

The fact that their advertising clickbait revenue had plummeted, because advertisers would not pay for ads sitting by Coronavirus articles, might also have made them start to get interested in the truth.

8/24

Who knows? For the record. Journalism is not about being an accessory to an advertising spiv. It’s about reporting the truth.

Murdoch, the Barclay Brothers, the Rothermeres only care about the clickbait. Fine. They are press barons with infinite greed and no conscience.

9/24

But you are journalists. Write the truth. And write it better. And you’ll find a readership doubling down their loyalty. The Guardian is a paper that is doing well. For that very reason. People hunger for the truth.

10/24

Go ahead – continue to press peoples’ buttons with lies. Continue to gaslight them with bollocks. Continue to upset them or make them laugh with your truly crap reporting and malign stories against foreigners, religious communities, or whoever, OR move to this new track.

11/24

Now that it seems you have finally the eye on the ball with Corona virus, perhaps also time to consider the similar glib straplines and platitudes that were used to promote Brexit?

12/24

Brexit will kill the U.K.

Corona, causing the lack of labour for picking the fields, will demonstrate exactly just one impact of Brexit on farming.

13/24

Our food quality trashed. Farms bankrupted. The bureaucracy which we will need to go through to do any trade with Europe will rocket. Car industry gone for good. Aerospace also. Our services ravaged. Our bureaucracy will cost 10x as much.

14/24

This is on the way. A double whammy, to hit like a tsunami the end of December. Get your teeth in. Start reporting on Brexit as well. Time to stop repeating the Government Brexit pap as if you are Jones cultists about to drink the Kool Aid?

15/24

https://twitter.com/Big_Headers/status/121854859670392832014

Yup, now that you have tasted blood, angered by a Govt whose incompetence is leading to huge & increasing numbers of avoidable deaths of UK citizens?

16/24

Perhaps it *is* time to reconsider the Brexit narratives? Brexit delivered by the wholesale glib straplines, platitudes and lies, and with as much thought or consistency as the Govt’s Corona virus strategy. A strategy that will have us die by the thousand.

17/24

Yes – please, reconsider the straplines that sold us Brexit. But also continue to hold this Govt to account over Corona Virus. We need effective people implementing proper plans. We need good information.

18/24

These politicians thought they could do no wrong… “We are British. Exceptionally British. We won’t allow a virus to interfere with our liberties….etc.” Cheltenham – horseracing – yeah, go ahead! Stereophonics – music – yeah – we only live once!

19/24

The UK Govt allowed Cheltenham and Stereophonics to go ahead, in spite of THE WORLD telling them that this was the wrong thing to do.

20/24

With no press to hold them to account, Govt ministers have developed the God complex. Fawning acolyte reporters diligently repeating every word, questioning nothing.

21/24

You the press, by failing to hold them to account, have made them think themselves the greatest. You have kept them in a bubble of isolated delusions of self-confidence.

22/24

Well, that time is over. Your friends and relatives are dying. Our friends and relatives are dying. Time for a re-set? Time to move back to being professionals, rather than click bait generating shock jocks and political lickspittles? Please?

23/24

If you have followed a line which is about selling copy, rather than reporting the truth. Please consider your responsibilities. If you don't hold the Govt to account, you bear full responsibilities for the Government's failings.

And for the deaths of your loved ones.

24/24

2nd April!

Should not have sent a 🧵 out late!