Paul Cantrell
This article about the actions of a Black man lets •five• other people — all of them his political opponents, and all of them white — describe his actions in their own terms before giving him a chance to describe them in his. The Black man gets a voice 10 paragraphs in.
That’s bullshit.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/30/democrat-jamaal-bowman-fire-alarm-house
Paul Cantrell
Compare this article from The Hill, whose reporting I would not typically compare favorably to The Guardian:
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4232000-bowman-fire-alarm-before-government-funding-vote/
The Hill manages to say right up front that Bowman says it was an accident involving a closed door.
The Guardian first lets us hear that it was a riot, a delay tactic, a felony, an attempt to shut down the government — all false — before we get his actual story. WTF.
Paul Cantrell
Here is the email I send to the readers’ editor at The Guardian:
Chris Halstead
@inthehands looks like they may have fixed it, based on the version I just read.
Paul Cantrell
Amazing. I can corroborate @c20d’s report: hey’ve completely restructured the article. It’s miles better now.
https://hachyderm.io/@c20d/111159999515877554
The best thing would have been not to make the mistake in the first place, but fixing it promptly is next best.
Pressure from readers works.
Debbie Goldsmith 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈
@inthehands I had to drop my Guardian subscription for their terrible coverage of trans people. The US Guardian is much better but I don't know a way to support the US Guardian but not the UK Guardian.
Paul Cantrell
@dgoldsmith
That’s what I’m hearing from others too. Apparently the two branches are a bit at war with each other over this!
Paul Cantrell
Proposed journalistic guideline: for every news article, there should be no point anywhere past the first 20 characters ••of the headline•• that would leave a reader with a mistaken impression if they just stopped reading there.
e.g.
“President is cannibal alien, claims Gaetz” fails the test, because the first 22 characters are “President is cannibal.”
This rule flags the original version of the article in the OP too.
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