I joined a Facebook group called ‘If Rod Liddle becomes editor of Independent, I will not buy it again.’ and now it seems it has had the desired impact:
‘Negotiations to install Rod Liddle as the editor of the Independent after its purchase by Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev are understood to have ended yesterday…after MediaGuardian.co.uk broke the story about Liddle being lined up to edit the paper in January, there were protests from staff, politicians and readers. “He then went through this extraordinary campaign of hostility,” a source said.Yesterday’s meeting appears to indicate that Lebedev had a change of heart about appointing the Sunday Times columnist to the paper. “The liberal howl-around was so intense that he can’t afford to alienate the Independent staff by appointing Liddle so he will appoint someone else,” the source said.’ Full story Guardian 19 feb 2010.
‘Hostility’? ‘Howl-around’? Well, live by the sword, die by the sword, Liddle. And I’m baffled that there are those who would accuse the ‘liberal mob’ for being bigoted against Liddle: the only thing we were ‘bigoted’ against was bigotry itself, and the Independent needs an editor similarly committed. Liddle is not suitable and there are so many top-selling hate rags he could work for instead.
It looks like we can now declare victory – and that’s why I’m posting this, because it’s an interesting media story to see such a campaign achieve victory – what else can be achieved in this way, I wonder? – but if you’d like to read more on who Rod Liddle is…
…all of the below is cut and paste from the Facebook group:
Liddle has lately been using his blog at ‘The Spectator’ to indulge in the use of yawn-inducing, attention-seeking derogatory terms to insult ethnic minorities including decrying “Muslim Savages” here
http://www.spectator.co.uk/rodliddle/5552353/muslim-savages-update.thtml
…and falsely accusing black men of being behind the “overwhelming majority” of crimes in London while mocking the entire Black British community for contributing nothing but “rap music” and “goat curry”:
http://www.spectator.co.uk/rodliddle/5601833/benefits-of-a-multicultural-britain.thtml
http://charlottegore.com/2009/12/05/rod-liddle-has-shit-for-brains.html
Liddle knows full well that this commentary neither serves to open discussion on human rights in Somalia, or crime in London, but only bolsters rancid prejudices against blacks and Asians in Britain.
But he finds the open-minded and tolerant people who happen to make up the readership of the newspaper he hopes to edit so contemptible, he believes that age-old racist insults directed at minorities are an acceptable means to the end of attacking them.
And there’s much more where that came from. While the ‘Independent’ has made a name for itself with its reporting on global warming and the environment, Liddle ignorantly ridicules the evidence for Anthropogenic Global Warming Theory with the same-old debunked falsehoods deniers always rely on:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/rod_liddle/article1909925.ece
Rod Liddle’s views on women are as backward as those on race. Liddle writes about half of humanity like this:
“The vast majority of women with very small children are, by their own admissions, useless at their jobs.” 2005
“I accept that there are such a thing as lesbians — perhaps eight or nine of them, living quietly in Hebden Bridge.” 2008
“Radical feminism … has left us with a country full of single mothers on benefit, the Child Support Agency, millions of divorcees and rich lawyers.” 2008
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/article-23751584-rod-liddle-maybe-i-was-wrong-to-say-i-wouldnt-sleep-with-harriet-harman.do
And began a discussion on Harriet Harmon’s proposed equality legislation like this:
“So — Harriet Harman, then. Would you? I mean after a few beers obviously, not while you were sober.”
http://www.spectator.co.uk/essays/5244693/harriet-harman-is-either-thick-or-criminally-disingenuous.thtml
(To which Tanya Gold replies, ‘Rod Liddle, then. Would you? I mean after a few beers obviously…’)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/08/harriet-harman-rod-liddle-spectator
Liddle delights in describing punitive violence against women:
“Divorce laws mean that one no longer needs to kill one’s wife to have an affair.” 2007
“At the University of Manchester, Professor Mona Baker “unappointed” two Israeli academics from the journal for which she worked. She hopes that, none the less, she can still be friends with them. I hope they punch her on the nose.” 2002
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2002/jul/17/internationaleducationnews.highereducation
Britain has almost no left-leaning media of any size in a media landscape that prominently features ‘The Sun’, ‘The Daily Telegraph’, ‘The Daily Mail’, ‘The Times’, ‘The Daily Express’ and ‘The Daily Star’. The ‘Independent’, along with ‘The Guardian’ and occasionally ‘The Mirror’ is already in a minority.
Right-leaning readers are spoiled for choice already. Please join this group to ensure that progressive voices and quality reporting in Britain don’t get further squeezed and marginalised and that there is at least some balance in our national conversation.
Independent readers deserve some respect – the appointment of Rod Liddle is a clear act of contempt. If we wanted to read aggressive, bigoted, sarcastic ignorance, we would buy the ‘Daily Express’.
We don’t – and we shouldn’t buy the ‘Independent’ with Liddle in charge either.
