Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/06/18/the-british-press-used-to-be-a.html
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That’s what happens when a major newspaper is bought by Murdoch.
And the editor behind the publication of these stories- Andrew Neil. Yes, the same Andrew Neil that still hosts mainstream BBC politics shows, including the one where he shredded an alt-right idiot:
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I first learned about that from Tom Robinson in his updated versions of Glad to be Gay, where he calls those bigots out:
(call out begins at about 4:00)
As long as we’re looking at anti-queer newspaper bias, it’s important to note that the Old Gray Lady, the NYT, was not so good either. So much so that they were targeted by ACT UP + Gran Fury in 1989 for their bullshit reporting on the pandemic.
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Same country where this guy:
was driven to suicide, because, oh noes, teh gay!
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Post-Brexit Britain is going to be a very bad place for LGBTQ folks.
I recently saw the play “Ink”, about Murdoch’s takeover of The Sun in 1969-70. It portrays the gleefully vulgar populism put in place simply to boost circulation and profits, which laid the groundwork for both Murdoch’s full embrace of “free” market fundamentalist politicians (endorsing Thatcher was a major shift for the paper) and for his news outlets increasingly appealing to the target audience’s bigotry and xenophobia.
That said, it sounds like the respectable broadsheets weren’t much better when it came to these issues.
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Rupert Murdoch comes close to the evil mastermind in many a spy movie. But he’s actually real.
I don’t know if he likes cats, though.
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Did it include a bit on the newspaper that was destroyed to turn it into that rag:
One Bond film basically had an expy of Murdoch as the big bad, and it took very little exaggeration to get it there:
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They definitely mention the Herald in passing in the play.
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If anything, the Elliot Carver character is slightly less evil than Murdoch.
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Andrew Neil still spouts nonsense about how global warming isn’t real - he proudly boasts how little he knows about science and technology, but refuses to engage with people who know the subject.
One slight saving grace is that he fell out with Murdoch in a spectacular manner, so is slightly less repellent than his former boss.
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Really? Garry Bushell has always been a despicable excuse for a human being.
In a sign of how little has changed except the acceptability (and hence choice) of targets:
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For something that claims to be LGBT, it is very light on the T. This is not because of a lack of awareness. The S*n, Star and other red tops would go through public records and dead name trans women if it was a slow news day. This was supposedly in the public interest. I couldn’t find any record of it in the archives though.
I also looked to see what the response to the introduction of a trans woman as a major character in Coronation Street was. I couldn’t find anything, but Noddy Fishwick’s kiss (Byker Grove, aimed at teenagers) was talked about, as was Beth Jordache (Brookside).
I don’t think it is a coincidence that public transphobia has increased since Hayley Cropper left the show.
Trans people are arguably already in a bad place, thanks to the modern day Molotov-Ribbentrop pact between transphobic feminists and far-right christian groups. Harrassing people in toilets happens despite being the law saying that using the toilet that you identify with is OK (both the Gender Recognition Act 2004 and the Equality Act 2010). The tabloids are complicit in all this.
Always remember that he helped make an oi compilation with an obvious neo-nazi on it’s cover, then claimed it was too late to change it beyond some airbrushing. Ironically that same neo-nazi was also secretly going to gay clubs which I imagine would have got Bushell to change the cover immediately, had he known.
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Glass of water for Mr Humphries!
…hell, I need one now.
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