About
Guardian Watch, or Graun Watch, is here to read the Guardian so you don’t have to.
There are already Tabloid Watchers everywhere, especially in the middle-class liberal ‘twitterverse’, who critique and expose the evils of ‘right-wing’ newspapers such as The Mail and The News Of The World. We thought it was about time somebody turned their eagle eyes onto that bastion of liberal niceness, The Guardian.
In particular, this watch will focus on how The Guardian deals with issues such as gender and sexuality, including homosexuality, ‘alternative’ sexualities such as BDSM, sex work, masculinities, young parents and the -gasp!- childless.
We will also be looking at how The Graun deals with social class, disabilties and ethnicities. It is such a middle class newspaper, but because it is traditionally towards the ‘left’ of the political spectrum there is an assumption on the part of Guardian readers that it has a ‘social conscience’ and seeks to support the interests of the vulnerable and disadvantaged in society. Graun Watch is going to challenge that assumption and put it to the test.
Graun Watch is run by Quiet Riot Girl www.quietgirlriot.wordpress.com
But I need your help! If you have any stories you think are worth examining from The Guardian, or any articles you have written about the newspaper and its coverage, or any links, videos, gossip about anything to do with it, The Observer and Cif, please send them in!
Let the watch commence!
@Graunwatch
I add one to the list.
I don’t know if you’re aware – he’s not in your blogroll – but David Thompson ( http://davidthompson.typepad.com/ ) is a very entertaining blogger who regularly covers the Graun’s excesses.
I didnt know about David Thompson, thanks Patrick. I will add him to the blogroll.
I saw some American feminists critiquing Suzanne Moores article on twitter which cheered me a bit. I don’t think her view is quite so well accepted as she may hope.
Tee hee! Using the word Graun, instead of Guardian! Hilarious. At least it would be if it weren’t unoriginal, untopical (the observation that the Guardian has poor spelling is at least 40 years old!) and unfunny.
At least in those three respects it fits in nicely with the rest of the blog’s contents.
Im not trying to be funny John. This enterprise is deadly serious. But I don’t think this blog is either unoriginal (where else is someone critiquing the discourses in the graun) or untopical…
I do find some people’s religious devotion to the Guardian to be most disturbing. It’s a newspaper for goodness sake..! Not the bible, or a textbook in pure mathematics. Journalists struggling for something new to say trundle out opinionated garbage under much editorial control/guidance. They are not the world’s finest thinkers.
Readers seem to believe of themselves that they are the chosen few who can think for themselves – comparing themselves favourably with tabloid or Daily Mail (that new object of hate for so many) readers. Yet do they ever question the premise of any of what they read in the Guardian? And if not, why not?
Have you ever thought of running an article on the Guardian’s embarrassing obsession with all things Apple? They give Apple and its many products an inordinate amount of positive coverage, with many of the articles proving to be little more than tenuously rehashed press releases. It seems almost everyday there is an Apple-related feature on the front page on their website. Yet revival companies and products barely see the light of day.
Given the Guardian seems to pride, and indeed sell, itself on its perceived ‘objectivity’ and its strong liberal credentials, particularly its supposed pro-environmental and pro-international development/socialist stances (Apple is rumoured to use Chinese sweatshops to make its products), the promotion of mindless consumerism and of super corporations such as Apple seems at total odds with these defining principals.
interesting idea Steviegill- I am not very tecky so I might not be the best person for the job. If you want to write one I’d definitely consider running it! Even a short piece showing the amount of Apple plugs they do might be interesting…
Writing an analysis piece is not something I have much experience with, but it might prove an interesting and productive exercise (I haven’t written an essay since uni and that was a while ago!).
To strengthen the arguments beyond the anecdotal, it would probably require some decent data gathering from the Guardian website. It doesn’t really need to be too techy as its more about the actual coverage than the content, though I guess some knowledge of rival products and companies is necessary and that will require research.
I’ll have a go, but don’t be surprised if it doesn’t materialise!
Yes and this spills into the BBC coverage of Tech issues, surprise surprise.
The Times, to their credit, ran a piece by someone about the very weird cultist behaviour of Apple customers/supporters.
So if the Graun have joined the cult I’d be glad to see them called on it :)
This is serious. It scares me to be honest, The Guardian is the mouthpiece of liberal fascism, and I mean ‘fascism’ in the truest political and social sense, not just something a bit horrible. Disagree with this lot and the ‘fascist’ insult is tossed out almost immediately at YOU, which is a bit of a cheek, to say the least. There is to be no debate, they know best. Chilling.
I got banned from the guardian ..period
I used buy the Guardian..I brought my first copy in 1974
However ..I decided post on the Guardians website …I was ridiculed because of my bad Grammar by other posters//and then I got banned Period
I now view the Guardian as a lefty version of teh Daily mail
if it folds I couldn’t care less
one very annoyed old lefty
Hey QRG,
Have you noticed that the Guardian has started to erase comments completely without a trace? There’s not even a note saying it was moderated – I’ve had several comments completely deleted in the last week.
Hi Jake
Yes it’s happened to me a few times, and especially this week too.
If you reply to a comment that has been removed it gets removed automatically I think.
But I have had comments removed with no trace that criticise the Guardian or refer to the moderation policy itself, as well. It’s really bad practice I think!
yes and some of their deletions – the ones still flagged up – on the Diane Abbott issue were of entirely inoffensive comments, that just happened to be running against the usual Guardian grain…
I didn’t follow that one. But I can imagine Abbottgate sent the cif moderators into a frenzy!
With such things going on, I think this blog will start getting a lot more attention and become even more relevent…
BTW, this only just occured to me but with the revelation that graun/grauen is German for terror, maybe the “How upsetting” on the top left should be changed to How terrifying (or horrifying)…?
Hi AOBAG – yes when I heard that Graun means ‘terror’ I did think it was such an apt name I should use it in Graunwatch!
I take my hat off to you Quiet Riot Girl. I wouldn’t use the guardian to wipe up puke, let alone read it. I do know people who do read it, religiously and I shake my head. Then again I don’t read any papers or have anything to do with the MSM.
Haha very evocative.
and thanks.
One more for the road http://www.avoiceformen.com/feminism/victim-feminism-speaks/
I’m done with The Guardian too. Keep getting banned for leaving inconvenient truth comments all ze time.
Shame really, been reading the paper version since late 80s.
I feel like I’m selling my soul every time I post something. At one point it got very personal, like they had some intern posted just to watch for my ip address and delete me without a trace. It was fun for a while, but now they can go and whistle. Sounds like I’m in good company here. Long Live the UK Column!
The Cif mods have just had a fairly large purge and are deleting anything that goes against the ‘normal view’ of the vociferous poster. They also seem to be on the lookout for returners by looking at new accounts. They have also purged some good posters, not that I counted myself as one of them.
I thought you would like to consider the implications of “Why don’t men just STOP TREATING WOMEN AS COMMODITIES.” being chosen as the ‘G Pick’, Guardian endorsed comment in the thread on sexuality by Jill Filipovic. A following comment sums up my views (by LoverOfRain):
“Guardian pick? Seriously? No argument, no evidence of critical thinking, no engagement with the issue at hand, use of hectoring block capitals.
There are some who might accuse the Guardian mods of being unreasonably biased towards certain views”.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/26/virginia-johnson-legacy-sex#start-of-comments