A couple of words on Toby Young (I know there have been too many already). Don’t let people think this is about a few dodgy tweets. This is about years of journalism in major publications too.
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The tweets are awful - ‘sordid’ was the word used I believe - but they’re not out of the blue, or from adolescent or drunken tweeting.
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It’s a pattern, and frankly if anyone involved in his appointment didn’t know about it then they were either blinded by being too close to him or incompetent.
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What’s more, the tweets and the articles are *directly* related to the position he’s been appointed to, which concerns freedom of speech. His appointment could be seen *precisely* to justify this kind of speech.
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Precisely to say ‘this kind of thing is OK, and should be encouraged and supported’. Isn’t that the point here?
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So it’s perfectly legitimate to bring up the old tweets as evidence against him. They’re on topic. But they’re not needed, because they simply follow the pattern of years of journalism.
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...and no, this isn’t an unacceptable piece of ‘Twitter-mob’ action. Young has the big guns of the media behind him - and the big guns of politics. Those who don’t have columns in the major papers need another way. That’s Twitter.
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Replying to @PaulbernalUK
Smear campaigns used to be reserved for those who spoke out and were important enough to be reported. The 'Twitter mob' label is just a way of mass-smearing the informed public, because we found a way to be heard too, imho. No wonder they're demonising it so vociferously.
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Replying to @C7RKY @PaulbernalUK
…and Hugo Rifkind shedding crocodile tears over how unforgiving and howwid we are. Journalists don’t like having their privilege removed.
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...nor those that own them:
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