Arglwydd Golau
Established Member
- Joined
- 14 Apr 2011
- Messages
- 1,422
That sounds a bit like special pleading to me. As far as I've understood this bit of the conversation, you suggested that critics of Corbyn have (unfairly) been given airtime recently in a way that critics of Blair (such as Corbyn) weren't given 10-15 years ago. Then someone posted counter examples to show Blair-critics were in fact often given airtime (albeit maybe not as often as Labour 'moderates' have been over the last two years). And your response appears to be to provide excuses for ignoring those counter-examples - that seems to me not far off looking for excuses to ignore evidence!
Might I suggest that one reason Corbyn critics have received a lot of airtime is that there are so many of them - arguably the majority of Labour MPs. One or two MPs disagreeing with their leader = minor(ish) news depending on the circumstances. 100 MPs disagreeing with their leader = very significant news.
Personally, I don't doubt that much of the media is biased against Labour, and will find excuses to report inaccurately, and not to give people in Labour a fair hearing. But that doesn't mean that every time someone is interviewed who disagrees with Corbyn, it must be because of media bias. Even an impartial media is going to have to give airtime to all different opinions at some point! And it does slightly worry me that many Corbyn supporters (I'm talking generally here, not particularly aimed at you) do seem to interpret it that way every time a story unfavourable to Corbyn appears.
Ok, quick reply as I'm off out. Corbyn was elected leader fair and square by the rules that the Labour Party has - twice. It has been said many times that the Labour MP's do not reflect the will of members of the Party. My view is that they should have given more backing to the Leader and not been firing off tweets, quotes and generally hiring themselves out to anyone who will print a story. Shows great disrespect to the membership of the party. (It seems it's fashionable nowadays to want to reverse a result that one doesn't like!)
I don't think that the examples that jcollins gave were treating like with like. (you may disagree).
The media gave Mandelson plenty of airtime when he said he was working hard every day to undermine Corbyn, is that really fair? Did Corbyn or any of the other rebels say something similar about Blair? Again, showing total lack of respect for the membership.