“Evening Standard runs Boris’ campaign”
The Evening Standard has, I think, reached a new low. Observe the headline of their lead article today:
Suicide bomb backer runs Ken’s campaign
Really? Let’s compare that accusation, printed in big, black letters across every newboard in London, with what’s actually in the article:
“It includes a campaign of vilification aimed at his Conservative rival, Boris Johnson. It is being waged by Muslims 4 Ken, led by 39-year-old lecturer Anas Altikriti and Palestinian-born Azzam Tamimi, a supporter of Hamas, the militant group dedicated to the creation of an Islamic state of Palestine.”
So - Tamimi runs a group backing Ken. He does not run, “Ken’s campaign,” with the official sanction and funding this implies. There’s a difference.
A man who endorses suicide bombings is undoubtedly vile. Ken might do well to disown him, just as Boris did the BNP’s second preference endorsement. But to conflate being supported by a group and that group running the campaign is absurd. Did they claim the BNP ran Boris’ campaign when they endorsed him? Of course not. And yet this is the way they spin it with Livingstone…
It’s to be expected from the Evening Standard, of coursser. They’ll smear any leftist who ever has a chance of winning as much as possible. I’ll still complain about them, though…
Posted in: Fear and Loathing, Impotence, London Mayor, Wood-pulp
Beat me to it, Douglas.
Perhaps that’s for the best. I’m very cynical about the Daily Mail group {not overly so, I would argue} but this shocked even me. I had been worried about this ruining the campaign but now my main concern is whether there is any deeper into the depths of depraved distortion of reality the Evening Standard can plunge.
The Evening Standard has a huge influence on London. Granted, the only people who read it are those who for whom the effect of their morning browse of the Daily Mail has worn off by late afternoon, but sales are almost irrelevant. The vast numbers of ES billboards around London, however, are seen by almost every Londoner who leaves the house on a weekday. Friday headlines are usually left out all weekend by absent-minded shopkeepers, so they’re triple value. Through these, the Standard can almost subliminally propagandise. It’’s a dangerous, yet perfectly legitimate, practice.
I want to see Livingstone lose the election, hovever worried I am at the prospect of a Johnson mayoralty. If Johnson does win, he will have to learn to govern without the almost patronising hand-holding from the Standard. If Livingstone wins, it may well sound the death knell of the Standard: shrinking readership and no influence, the very definition of a lost cause.
If only we could lose all three and get a decent Mayor!