In the old Soviet Union, there were two officially sanctioned newspapers: Pravda, which meant “the Truth”, and Izvestia, which meant “the News”. Given that both titles obediently followed the line handed down by the Soviet Communist Party, it was no surprise that the saying went “In the Truth there is no news, and in the News there is no truth”.
That lack of credibility when a political line is followed a little too closely has not yet, it seems, dawned on the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog. They are not alone: the subject which the Fawkes massive chose as their hill to die on earlier today has also been a staple for the odious Quentin Letts (let’s not).
That subject is Prime Minister’s Questions, and every time Theresa May has a particularly bad one - not exactly a rare event - people like Quent cover up the Tory humiliation by telling readers it was “boring” and all “mud-slinging”. As did the Fawkes mob today, telling readers “Another typically turgid exchange between May and Corbyn at PMQs”.
Yeah, it was dead boring, nothing to see here, move along there. Except that there is plenty to see: new Fawkes gofer Hugh Bennett posted a heavily edited video clip with the comment “but it did at least give May the chance to set out a range of alternative arrangements to the backstop. Plenty for the EU to be thinking about”.
So what was edited? Ah well. Almost every other clip out there is longer, by around 24 seconds. Why does that matter? Because Ms May was flanneling, Jeremy Corbyn effectively called her out on it, and the resulting derision from Labour benches - together with stony silence from the Tories - shows it to be another Prime Ministerial mess.
Even Corbyn’s question has been cropped. This is what he said: “Following the vote in the House last night against No Deal, the Prime Minister is again going to try to renegotiate the backstop on the basis of finding alternative arrangements”. The Fawkes blog edited that out - why? But it is at the end that the most blatant editing takes place.
After Theresa May ended her desperate waffle, Jezza simply rose to his feet and mused “None of that was very clear to me - I don’t know about anyone else”, to roars of laughter from the Red Side of the Commons, followed by repeated “Hear, hears”.
The EU does not have “plenty to think about” from a bad faith actor who stands at the Despatch Box for more than a minute and bullshits. And with the BBC having already put out the 24 second longer clip (see HERE for example), there is no point in the Fawkes rabble engaging in Soviet-style propagandising by editing it down to save face.
There is a good reason that Zelo Street regularly calls out The Great Guido for being a borderline Fake News outfit. And that is because the Fawkes blog really is a borderline Fake News outfit. Another fine mess, once again.
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