The descent of Owen Jones this year has been watched through the fingers of journalists and Labour politicians and aides alike. It seems that almost every day Owen is falling out with people who should be his allies, getting involved in nasty Twitter spats with Labour moderates, making uncharacteristically foolish mistakes, starting embarrassing fights and acting like a pro-Corbyn Andrew Adonis. As he seeks to overcompensate for his betrayal of Corbyn before the election, Owen has alienated his Guardian colleagues, probably the majority of Labour MPs, and today he has put a bomb under what was left of his reputation among journalists with the type of ill-thought out moan that has sadly become all too common:

The main thing I’ve learned from working in the British media is that much of it is a cult. Afflicted by a suffocating groupthink, intolerant of critics, hounds internal dissenters, full of people who made it because of connections and/or personal background rather than merit. https://t.co/K9rnYNvCS1

— Owen Jones🌹 (@OwenJones84) April 20, 2018

Cue some harsh but fair takedowns:

Like @janemerrick23, @haynesdeborah and others I went to comprehensive school in Yorkshire and university in Newcastle. Had no friends or family in journalism and worked hard to get this job. But … https://t.co/iGzd5GlPau

— Kate McCann (@KateEMcCann) April 20, 2018

You may have “worked in media”, but you have never put a deliberate gap between your own opinions and what you write. You are a very effective pamphleteer, not a journalist and that’s why you’re an exception.

— David Aaronovitch (@DAaronovitch) April 20, 2018

Owen I’m sorry but you regularly appear on Sky News and other channels – if we, or others, were “intolerant of critics”, then why would we ask you on? Our guest producers work very hard to get diverse guests on air, with a range of views, to create balanced debate.

— Alistair Bunkall (@AliBunkallSKY) April 20, 2018

No, that’s what he learned from working at the Guardian. Endless tedious contradictory columns.. and bitter sniping at working hacks. The man couldn’t break a window let alone a story. And the realisation that the Corbyn team will never, ever forgive him seems to be eating him up pic.twitter.com/tzDFHIZgpJ

— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) April 20, 2018

This last point seems to be the trigger for Owen’s behaviour. Corbynistas who Guido speaks to freely admit that Jezza’s inner circle will never let him back in after what he did to them last year. He does not seem to be taking that well, to put it mildly. The sad demise of someone who was once the rising star of the left…